Of My Moleskine Notebook

I find myself awake at the most God-forsaken hours of the night; tossing and turning; for nearly every day I’ve been here. I do not know whether it’s simply jetlag gone wrong (and elongated beyond normal means) or the psyche getting out of whack. I can’t say.

Now, what can I say about my first week here? Just after dumping my bags at the hotel (which thanks to Lastminute.com we got to stay at the Selfridge Hotel; hence why I had the chance to take pictures of the store window displays) and after I refreshed myself a bit we headed off to Leicester Square for dinner and a movie.

After pacing around the place in the rain thinking of what to watch, we finally decided to watch The History Boys, a movie my sister has suggested we catch; a week before I left.
I have to say, its been a while since I’ve watched a film that I enjoyed tremendously. The movie, originally a hit play, is about eight working class boys who did well in their A Level Examinations and are planning to further their studies in History at Oxford and Cambridge. Their headmaster, one who cares for League Tables (why does this seem so familiar somehow?), hires an extra teacher to “train” them to do well at their entry examination; much to the disgust of their General Studies teacher who doesn’t believe in educating for such means.

Their General Studies teacher, Hector, (think: eccentric man with whiskers and bowtie), played by Richard Griffiths teaches them exactly that; music, french, poetry and asking them to act out scenes from random movies; which makes one laugh at every scene they do so; due to the fact that they can wittily transform from loud teenage boys into .. Gracie Fields?

My favourite scene in one of his classes must be when the students have to act out a scene in french, as to practise and utilise le subjonctif (a way of conjugating a verb to imply a possible outcome; a “may be”; which being a student of French myself must say; is a pain in the derriere). The scene in which they find themselves is in that of a brothel and one of them being the client and the others, the prostitutes. As one of the boys, lies on the table, about to be straddled by a fellow chubby classmate; the headmaster walks in, adding to the comedy.

The new teacher, Irwin, however thinks that their way of writing conventional essays are “abysmally dull”. He believes that in order to catch the examiner’s eye, one has to be pretentiously different and take to the other end of the stick. I can’t remember the line exactly, and can’t be arsed to get the book (yes I bought the play script book; I’m near fanatic I know); but it was something like there is a front door and a back door but it’s better to go through the side.

And so there is a somewhat clash between the two schools of thought; though the movie doesn’t revolve around just that I must say. Saying what else would be a spoiler; so I hope my gushing blurb would just leave you all to hunt down the DVD at Summit as I highly doubt this movie will find it’s way on the screens back in Malaysia due to its profanity and homosexual undercurrents. It was a very touching movie, and after reading the original script for the play; absolutely timeless. It could’ve been staged in the sixties, or now (despite the fact that Oxbridge entry exams are now different) and yet still make sense.

Then come Saturday (technically my first day here) my sister and I took the train up to Nottingham and that’s where I’ve been and shall be staying for the next month. I feel like banging my head on the keyboard when I read my posts at this time last year, being in London yet not making full use of being there. I thought Nottingham was going to be another London-like city, (yay, am going to watch a play, visit a gallery) but I was badly mistaken. It’s dead here compared to down south.

You see, my sister lives in the outskirts of Nottingham, in other words a very nice suburban neighbourhood community and not in the city. Nearest commercial parts of town are nearly half a mile away, being a mini Sainsbury’s and a teashop. The other apart is the county library and co-op. Everyone pretty much knows each other, enough to cut each other’s queue and swear at one another only to have the whole co-op laughing. Though the lady who did so was a senior citizen; so I guess it doesn’t count.
So what do I do here? Watch DVDs and tv shows, read magazines and newspapers, drink soyamilk, eat soyameat (sister and brother inlaw are pescetarians, therefore I can say I’ve not had meat for a week), eat chocolate digestives; and get fat. My mother shipped me off here; hoping that I could join a short course at a community college as to have a productive holiday. Sadly, after a week of searching, I can’t seem to be able to join as I need GCSEs to do so.

So what did I do exactly for the first week? Mope around the house. Though do not worry, earlier on this week (being the second), I purchased some Math and History books as to further my scholarly interests. George (or officially now, Iskandar) has also offered to teach me economics, which my mother is very happy to hear. The Sister signed up for a membership at the Library for me to use, and which I shall start to frequent starting tomorrow (as it is closed on Wednesdays alongside the weekend).

I hope this post isn’t too haphazard (I am aware it is very long) and I hope you all are well.