Back to School (at 66 and a half)


Wow!  Back in college after seven weeks away - and at 66 and a half today too.

I’m happy to say that all is now familiar here now and I have some idea of what’s ahead for the next three months or so.  This is in contrast to the first semester where, for the first two months I floated about the place, enjoying every minute though not realising that I should be relying on more than just my memory for assignments that seemed to sneak up on me.
If it wasn’t for the fact that I make up half of the cohort on the course - and that our course director, Carl Corcoran, is such a fine and supportive gentleman - I might well have baled out in mid-November.  I just felt that I wasn’t cut out to be an academic.  After a very dark weekend, I rearranged my thinking and decided that I could only do my best and that regardless of whether or not I end up with a certificate at the end of the year, there was a lot to be gained.

Last week, when I told my director about my apprehension about starting the second semester, he informed me that I needn’t worry and that I had passed everything.  A big surprise and a relief indeed.


Masters in Songwriting - the Movie  (click to open)


Last week, when I told my director about my apprehension about starting the second semester, he informed me that I needn’t worry and that I had passed everything.  A big surprise and a relief indeed.

The break was good and I busked in some of the coldest weather I’ve played in - including during a snow shower in December.  Almost twenty years after I began, I still love popping up and playing for a couple of hours in random places and enough people were happy to see me and showed their appreciation with a coin - or sometimes a note - that I was able to take a break and grab a cheap flight to Italy for some better weather in January.  It was my first time in Sicily (definitely won’t be the last) and I realised there how lucky I was when I noticed some very good buskers there that were hardly making enough for a sandwich.



I will post more on the Italy trip later but just wanted to post something today to mark the beginning of chapter two on this blog.

One thing that will be different for me this semester is that I will not have the company of my dog, Clara.  She is staying with neighbours in Roosky and won’t have to endure long days ‘minding the car’.  I think she’ll be much happier with the arrangement.  She stayed with the same neighbours while I was gallivanting in Italy, was spoiled rotten and happy to go back yesterday.  While I will miss her, I know it’s better for her and I also won’t have the pull to return to the car every couple of hours.

After a meeting today with Carl, it seems we have a very full on and exciting few months ahead - after which I will be doing the third and final semester externally and in the company of my dog.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How's it Going?

Image
My year in college began on the 4th of September and my busking in Limerick got off to a very slow start, mainly for two reasons.  Firstly, finding suitable places for me to play - quiet streets with a reasonable footfall and a good acoustic, and with parking not too far away - takes a bit of research.  I don’t mind walking but nowadays Clara’s hip problem is much worse and anything more than a few hundred yards is out of the question.  Secondly, while September in Ireland is often among the best months of the year weather-wise, somebody must have forgotten to remind it this year and we’ve had a phenomenal amount of rain. I’m hoping that October through to next July will be better. Today was one of the sunniest days since I arrived and around noon, I went to a small shopping centre where, since finding it - only about a kilometre out from my Limerick accommodation - I’ve been welcomed by the shop-keepers and their customers, with smiles, positive comments as well as a fair a
Read more

The Waiting Place

Image
I recently heard a John Prine song, ‘ Just Waitin ’, which I'd strongly recommend giving a listen to, and it's about twenty years ago I came across Dr. Seuss'  wonderful little book, ‘ Oh, the Places You Will Go ’, in which he writes of ‘the waiting place’,    Despite my best efforts not to be, this is where I find myself right now. Waiting for that phone call. Waiting to make a lot of phone calls and send a lot of emails, press releases etc. etc.   Waiting like many for news of my college grant application, waiting to get a date from a guy who’ll check out my new to me car for it’s NCT - that’s our roadworthiness test which needs to be done annually one a car gets to the age mine is. Today too, it was waiting for the rain to stop and not much chance of going busking which, apart from buying some of the groceries, keeps me patient and sane (though some may disagree with the latter). The main hold up though is wait time for the files for my EP, F
Read more

Convenience Stores

Image
From my point of view There’s a small shopping centre just up the road from where I’m staying while in college.   I’d been in Limerick for a couple of weeks when I first came across it and, as I was on the way back from busking somewhere else, I just pulled in to have a look at it to see if it looked like it would be a potential busking site. I called into the butcher shop - butchers usually know everything about everything and I asked if anybody busked there.   They said they’d never seen anybody - just in the city centre.   I asked if they’d mind if I tried playing outside their shop some evening after college and they said they’d be delighted if I did, ‘It’d bring a bit of life to the place’ A few days later, I went there again, with my guitar and, of course my friendly dog.   It was just before six in the evening and on a Wednesday so probably not the busiest day of the week. At first, I felt a little self conscious about singing where apparently no man had su
Read more