Such a weird day today!

Important Fundraising News!

Okay before I start talking about my insignificant life in a interstellar capacity. I would like to bring to your attention important details about my fundraising effort.

Basically, I went and got my hair tested for bleach blonde, and it appears that my hair is too dark and strong for the pigment to really dilute in the peroxide. I was truly gutted, until the girl suggested that I dye my hair bright red instead for Father Christmas/Santa instead of White for Snow. What an excellent idea! The salon insisted that I take a peroxide test which to put it succinctly involved me having a patch of peroxide on the crook of my arm for the next 24 hours. This effectively postpones the dyeing till Tuesday, as the salon was shut today when I went, and I don’t get a student discount during the weekend. Also, they were only free 3pm on Tuesday of all times. This means I have to cycle from university after my Development Perspectives lecture, bleach my hair, dye it, drain it, and wash it with nice shampoo, trim it and cycle back before 5pm, where the video session of Governance, Democracy and Development begins!

Thank you for the support you have given me so far. I know a lot of you are waiting for me to actually get the dye done before you donate to make sure I am true to my word so I won’t disappoint. Now, onto the main content! I’ll start off by filling you in on the past two days before moving onto today. Please keep reading till the end because a lot of interesting events happened over the timeframe of 2 hours to me today!

Today's picture

Taken just after I came back from Scouts

 Yes, I know I look like a Chinaman coolie in the early 20s working for the French.

Yesterday and the Day Before

Nothing much happened yesterday. I went and collected my Development Perspectives coursework and was pleased with my result, but felt ever so slightly miffed because I was 2 marks away from a distinction and have a crummy merit instead. Will have to work really hard if I want to get the marks I want for a better chance at getting a good job after my Masters. Found out that most people also got 60% and above for Development Perspectives and no one failed so well done everyone!

 

Here’s a pointless chart showing the statistics for those who aren’t in UEA (gosh why aren’t you? It’s an awesome uni!) and who are interested in my equally pointless ramblings about life in general. 

Wednesday was a slightly more productive. I got up at about 2pm (very productive I think you’ll find), and had a nice bath and some coffee, before donning my new trenchcoat (with a shirt underneath. I’m not a stripper) and heading to the Forum (the city centre) to meet my mentee. I arrived a bit early and decided to get a chai latte. Then, my attention was drawn to that lovely grand piano which was absolutely calling out to me to be played! I got permission and sat down at the piano, promptly to be told off by the manager of Café Marzanno because she didn’t know that I had asked permission to play but simply graced the leather piano seat with my bum. Everything went well after that, I managed to get a few tunes going until I spotted my mentee seated at a table patiently waiting for me.

I ended the piece with a swift improvisation and joined him at the table where we discussed his education prospects with UEA and in life. I won’t go into it here because it’s a private matter but UEA have been very kind and offered to let me bring him into lectures just to get a feel of what it is like in a university environment. Problem is, my CRB still hasn’t come back (it’s the 8^th CRB that I’ve applied for since coming to England) and I need to wait for that to come through before I can bring him into uni. I think UEA are afraid that I might commit sexual acts with an underage in a LECTURE THEATER FILLED WITH PEOPLE. Ahh… the bureaucratic machinations that the United Kingdom adopts. I shall never understand why I need a new Criminal Check for each new job sent by POST. Shouldn’t they have a system where (god forbid) if I do commit a crime, my details are updated on the database? Surely it would be more effective in deterring criminals from working with kids but most importantly it would certainly speed things up for the rest of us who aren’t actually guilty of any crime! I think I’ll actually give the Criminal Records Bureau a ring some time and suggest this to them if the idea hasn’t already been. 

After meeting with my mentee, it was a brisk walk to the exterior of The Forum where I met Laura Miles who had previously very kindly offered me a lift to the youth church group, Ignite. It was a pleasant hour and twenty minutes’ drive picking kids up and Aaron Baker from UEA and driving to The Space (That’s the building where the church is run). The rest of the evening was spent discussing the message on Sunday, which incidentally is about LISTENING CLOSELY to what people have to say and talking half as much as listening (because I have 1 mouth and 2 ears, therefore I must listen twice as much as I speak), and playing games which involved getting into sleeping bags and crawling from one end of the church to the other. The kids were very interested in Wing Tsun and I demonstrated to them its merits (sorry Ste, I know only a Master should do this but they were curious!).  Then it was back home and sleep!

(Friday, 19^th November 2010)

Today was a bit of a downer for me. I awoke quite early in the morning and decided to do my readings on the Washington Consensus and Post-Washington Consensus in order to prepare for the essay question I will start tomorrow. After a nice few cups of good proper coffee and a bath (the habit of having a shower/bath every day has been ingrained into me even though I now live in a colder climate), I set to work. After a few hours into the job, I sent off a few emails pertaining to internships and tried to set up a meeting with my dear lecturer Dr Edward Anderson with regard to advice and what firms to apply for. 

Midway throughout the day, I decided to text my supervisor at the security agency I work(ed) for. I was duly informed that the club that I work(ed) in (M3rcy) did not want me to come back because I “struggled during an ejection”. I hope it has nothing to do with the fact that I complained about one of their bouncers kicking a guy flat out in the face with his boot while he was on the ground defeated, and made it clear to him that I did not agree with that. Without being arrogant or precocious I’m sure that all of you who truly know me will know that I am very capable of handling myself in a fight because of my last 3 years of Wing Tsun and previous two years of Chinese Kickboxing. I texted my supervisor back asking him whether he would consider me for shifts at other venues but got no reply. I think this is the end of the line for me for Regency Security. I hope they find someone else who is more capable than me… and also more tight-lipped. Time and time again, I keep having to remind myself that I don’t actually need to work because I get a huge financial support from my dear Mum with regard to any expenses. I want to work for the extra cash and to build up my confidence dealing with new people. If getting work from this company means that I have to act like a thug and kick peoples' faces in then I think I'll do without them. No thanks! Not my loss!

At first, I felt I was being treated unfairly and to be honest, depressed because this probably meant that I was doing an absolutely terrible job in nightclubs in Norwich compared to when I was working security in Manchester. However, I soon discovered that when a door is shut, it makes way for another door to open. This came in the form of another security agency which I applied for 3 weeks ago and was told that there were no vacancies at the moment but to try and apply anyway, and Norfolk Constabulary calling me to say that they would be sending me an application form to be a Special Constable! I admit that I am a skeptic when it comes to things of faith and prayer. I have never once felt in my life that I needed God for anything, other than good health and my family and friends’ safety. This was the quite the contrary today. I actually sat down and prayed to God and asked them for help in the next decisions I was to make. 30 minutes after that, the phone rang and I received the two pieces of good news from the police and the other security firm. Believe what you will, but maybe God did answer my prayers this time with regard to this version of events. I hope my next set of prayers will be answered with regard one of my closest friends’ family member’s health.

I am actually half considering taking the Special Constable job even though it’s voluntary. This might mean that I have to give up my security badge and do stewarding with the security agency instead but the benefits of that might outweigh the costs. Will do some cost-benefit analysis later to see what the best decision is for my good. 

In a nutshell, I'm done with this:

And am looking forward to this:

Or this:

Yes... I know it's the Met but I couldn't find a good Norfolk Constabulary pic.

 

Anyway, as you might have guessed, I was suitably relieved after the two phone calls and got round to doing more work and cooking myself some pasta and cheese. Got round to reading Dr Anderson’s publication entitled: The Challenges of Economic and Social rights, and found it very interesting especially the bit about econometric analysis, while being an essential tool for the evaluation of a country’s policies and macroeconomic framework, can also be very misleading in the form of poor data quality, overestimation… generally effects that came about from the imperfectness of information. 

After that somewhat enlightening afternoon, the time came for me to go to Scouts. But before, I was supposed to attend a potluck that the International Development Society was organizing at 7pm. Unfortunately, when I got on my bicycle and trundled out of the apartment, I was duly dismayed and very much annoyed at the fact that my front tire had been punctured. I hastened to St Stephen’s street and got the 35 bus to university, and jogged the rest of the way up the Avenues to the Scout Troop near Colman Road shops. 

The Avenues at night. Creepy huh?

Scouts was very entertaining today. I learnt how to light a paraffin burner (it’s a complicated process of kindling the wick with methylated spirit before pumping the paraffin up through a pressurized hole, and then adjusting the wick so that the fire burnt blue) and well as a petrol lamp (this was slightly less dubious as petrol does burn very easily). After that, the kids wanted to have a dodgeball game, so we gave them a sponge ball (what is it with health and safety in this weird country? In Malaysia we used BASKETBALLS to play dodgeball) and let them get on with it. A couple more other games were played and then it was time to go home. I managed to hitch a ride with the Scout troop leader who was very generous in going out of his way to make sure I returned home. It was then when I found out that this coming winter is going to be a very bitter and bad one; possibly even worse than last year’s. Hooray for camping in Snowdon when in reality I’ll probably be in Manchester doing something with ReachOut!, hanging out with the Scouts in Norwich or attending some event in Proclaimers. Still, there are better things to worry about than Christmas just at the moment. I have 3 essays due in for the 16^th to the 18^th of December and I am starting my first one on Saturday. I think I’ll do it on the Washington Consensus and whether the World Bank coupled with the International Monetary Fund have actually done anything to change the original prescriptions of the Washington Consensus and truly adopted the Post-Washington Consensus. My general consensus (a bit of an overdose of the C word there) is that they haven’t, and obviously I’ll have to explain that. I’m thinking lots of Stiglitz and the bailing out of banks rather than poor people as recently observed during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the current talks between the Irish Central Bank and England bailing it out. Old mistakes being made over and over again by the uninformed minds of today… sigh… all these things remind me of why I chose to do International Development in the first place. To make a difference! By the way, Katelyn and Raj, I AM holding you true to that request for dinner tomorrow! Even if I have to kick down your doors and drag you out physically!!

Stay safe,

Clement.