h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Two important things happened in my life last Friday. I ended my claim for unemployment benefit on the grounds that having just signed up as a full-time student, I am no longer sufficiently available for work to qualify for the benefit. And on the same day, I completed the first week of formally contracted paid employment I've done since 1988.

How so? Well, first I should explain that, although I worked full-time for 'Melody Maker' from 1988 to 1999, its publishers never saw fit to give me a proper contract. They preferred to pay me and most of their other writers on a freelance basis, so as not to have to give us any of the statutory rights of employees .

Happily, the University of Bradford has different ideas. The end of my welfare claim gave me the freedom to accept small doses of paid employment without getting mired in a lot of legal complications, so I signed up with a register of casual workers that the University maintains so that it can call in students to help run the place when things get busy. I almost immediately got the offer of a week of mornings helping to register my fellow students, by taking their pictures, digitally transferring their images on to student ID cards, then printing out said cards. I did that every morning from Monday to Friday last week, and it was pretty entertaining, if sometimes a shade stressful during the busiest spells.

I think I did a pretty good job - I definitely sent a lot of students away with much better photos on their new cards than they'd had on their old ones. (Though I did feel as if I was betraying P.U.D.D.I.N.G. by asking people to smile. ) And, of course, during one of the afternoons I returned as a customer and got my own ID card done.

I've earned myself a nice little cash bonus to help me through the first month of the academic year - and I've already been offered another short spell of part-time paid work at the University, acting as a data inputter for a few days towards the end of October. So, in a sense, saying that I didn't want work proved to be the most effective way of finding it...

"Though I did feel as if I was betraying P.U.D.D.I.N.G. by asking people to smile"
::SPLUTTER:: Why, that's enough to get you drummed out of the organisation

"And, of course, during one of the afternoons I returned as a customer and got my own ID card done"
I do hope you weren't smiling. You weren't, were you?

Well done Ormy, hope things continue to go well.

Drummed out? He's the bloody president!
Well done Ormondroyd!

I know - he jolly well ought to know better

Madman!

Well, the technology allowed me to show people what their cards would look like on screen before I printed them. And most of them seemed to want a on there, so that was what I went for. Shame on me!

But I really wish I'd had the chance to tell one young student about P.U.D.D.I.N.G.. There she sat as I prepared to take her photo, staring down the camera, looking very . 'Smile please', I said, as pleasantly as I could. No response . I tried again, more tentatively: 'Smile please?'

Still not a word or a movement in response, so I snapped her face and printed the card. I handed it to her, and she snarled: 'Oh well, I guess I'm stuck with that for two years. Thank you' - and stomped off before I could offer to try again.

You haven't just enrolled at Bradford University, have you, Madman?

Ormy - this sounds great - well done.

How is student life treating you?

Student life is treating me pretty well, thanks, Light! Since I wrote that Journal Entry, I've got a regular one-day-a-week job working in the University's art gallery, which involves very little beyond sitting at a desk, making sure no-one nicks the exhibits, counting the visitors and doing the paperwork if anyone wants to buy something. (The exhibits aren't massively valuable, so it's not too scary a responsibility.) I have been officially promised that my student loan will arrive in the coming week, which will relieve the main practical worry I've had about becoming a full-time student. I've got a few more hours' paid work doing some data inputting for the Uni this week and next too, so I should be able to afford my textbooks and a few treats too.


The most interesting thing about the actual study side of things has been that, for the first time, I'm doing a module that is *not* run by the University's School of Lifelong Education and Development - its special mature students' section. My Modern Social & Cultural Trends module is classed as a Social Sciences module, and is thus part of the mainstream of the University. This means that I've had to adjust to being in a much bigger class than I've been used to: the Modern Social & Cultural Trends class has about 40 students, whereas the biggest one I've been in before had around 12 students. The age range of this class is also obviously much younger than I've been used to; there are a few of us older folks, but about 75 per cent of the class is under 25. The mature students' classes tend to have the feeling of group discussions among equals, and this is much more a case of listening to the lecturer and taking notes. To me, it feels very much like going back to school - except that these days I'm one of the keen students in the front rows who really want to learn, and other people are hiding at the back and talking to their friends like I used to do at school!

Ormy this all sounds fantastic - I am really pleased for you

Hopefully by doing a mix of modules with some very differnt people you should get to meet some interesting folks. When I did my degree (and we wont try and work out how long ago that was as its somewhat depressing!) there were only 12 of us on the course. Only 10 made it to the end so I guess it was a combination of the two styles you are encountering - lots of listening but in a small group so you could not hide and chat at the back! We had a couple of mature students in the group which I found really great as they brough a very different perspective to those of us who had never been out there in the 'real world'!

Keep having fun and I am looking forward to hearing what treats you get yourself ...

Well done Ormy!

Best of for the continuation of your good



GB

It's gotten better already. The first instalment of my student loan arrived today. I've just been for a with the Uni's Fellow in Music to celebrate!

You have definitley got this student thing cracked - money in - out for !

Was there enough for as well?

great stuff, enjoy!

GB