Bronek said we were going to see a film called Land and Freedom at FACT, which is like a cinema, plus. That is to say that it's not just a cinema, but is host to all kinds of cool artistic things and the building itself looks great. I would of took some pictures, but I didn't have my camera on me. Bronek said that after watching the film, we'd be writing a film review on it. He said that he wanted everyone to find three movie reviews on the same movie on the Internet and copy and paste them into Word. How exciting.
I was feeling pretty depressed on Tuesday morning. I just sat there in the class, waiting to go to this film, looking dead to everyone else. On the way down to FACT, I walked ahead of the class on my own, but Sean caught up with me and he walked down with me. I didn't really want him to, but I could hardly tell him to go away.
I sat down in the cinema at the top on my own, but Sean sat next to me. Again, I didn't want him to, but I couldn't say go away.
There was a short talk on what we were about to see by some guy at the front and then the film began. I won't explain what it was about. I can't be arsed. Do a search for Land and Freedom on Google.
Throughout the film, I decided to take notes and although it was dark, managed to write fairly legibly, even though I couldn't see what I was writing. I was quite happy sitting there watching the film. It took away my depression for the duration of it.
What I was definitely not happy about is the fact that Sean, next to me, done nothing but fidget throughout the entire film. He had this fucking annoying habit of fidgeting, then putting his head back onto the back of the seat forcefully and because all of the seats are connected, every time he did it I felt it too. There were times when I contemplated asking him to move somewhere else, but I didn't.
After the film, I decided that I wasn't really in the mood to have a three hour boring lesson with Tony and wanted to go home. I found Bronek and he asked me what I thought of the film. I said it was good and whatever, but I wasn't feeling that good so I was going home. And I did.
Yesterday I wrote the film review. Bronek hadn't said that I had to do it, since that's what his entire lesson will no doubtedly be next Tuesday, but I wanted to get it out of the way. It's not exactly comprehensive, since he did state he wanted it quite brief, but if you want to read it, you can. That's actually the extended 700 words long version. Bronek asked for a version closer to 200. Since he asked for that, I edited my 700 version to create both a 400 and 200 version of it so I'd have what he wanted.
Today, I just about went to college.
Because I had woken up at 3pm yesterday, I found it really hard to get to sleep last night and while I did manage to drift off at around 2am, I woke up an hour later. I decided to get up till 4:30am to see if doing that would help me fall back asleep, but no. I then proceeded to toss and turn all the way through till 7am. Since I was still awake enough to actually be thinking straight, I thought about going to college regardless of the fact that I'd only had one hour of sleep and I ended up doing so. I felt quite drained of energy, but I wanted to go so I could get the information on the job Brian had offered me last week.
So, off to the station to get the train into town. Whether it was because I was tired or simply bad luck, I managed to slip and fell on my back down the stairs. Thank fuck I didn't tumble down all of them, but rather two or three. The platform was really busy this morning so I had the pleasure of everyone turning around to look at what was going on. I didn't cut or graze anything, thankfully.
Like I said, the platform was really busy. It was because there had been a track defect further down the line and the trains were running late. When the train finally did come, there were more people than there was space. By that, I don't just mean there wasn't room to sit, I mean there was hardly any room to just stand. It was that packed. The train hadn't even gotten to any stations yet and already the train was very, very full.
Somehow the train doors managed to close and a few minutes later arrived in the next station, Fazakerely. Fazakerely was nearly as busy as Kirkby was and instead of just being patient and waiting another 15 minutes or so for another train, everyone tried to get on. They managed to, somehow, but things were getting silly now, the amount of people squashed into each other.
It was like that all the way to town. Not the nicest of journies.
By the time I got to college, I was in no mood to do any work. As I said, the only reason why I had gone to college in the first place was to talk to Brian about the job he had offered me.
I didn't say nothing about it at first, though to him, once in my lesson, deciding to let him come to me instead when he had time. In the meantime, we watched an hour of short films which for the most part were quite interesting, but because I was feeling so tired, wasn't really in the mood to take anything in. I sat there patiently though, watching as much as I could.
After we'd watched them all, we had a break, in which time I asked Brian about the job.
"Well, most of the stuff has already been sent off mate", he said. In other words, there was no work for me. I probably would of been disappointed if only for the fact that I was too tired to really care and that I had a feeling this would happen anyway. He said he'd show me the work he'd done on them later.
For the next hour, we watched some cool short movies made for BMW called The Ride. They were pretty damn good. Starring Clive Owen, James Brown, Gary Oldman, Ray Liota and a few others - just to promote BMW. Very nice.
By the time we'd watched them, it was 11:20am and Brian said to just get on with any work we needed to finish till 12. I didn't really feel like doing any work though and just sat there, facing away from my computer. I didn't really have anything to do anyway, other than these stupid Christmas cards that I made the day after he told me what it was about. I don't need three weeks to get it done, which is what is happening.
I asked Brian if he was going to show me the stuff he'd done for Topps instead and he went to get it. I was surprised. The stuff that he'd designed was quite bland. The design wasn't very classy at all. I didn't say anything though, simply because I was too tired to open my mouth for most of the morning. He told me what he had wanted me to design and I said that I had done some rough sketches, which I had brought for him to see. He had a look and said his usual line of "these are excellent, mate". I used to think that meant something, but he says it so often to me that I don't really believe he means it. I think he just says it to sound supportive.
He asked me if I'd make my sketches into some designs and I said was it worth it, since he'd already sent the work off to Topps. He said that it was, because Topps might not accept his work so there'd still be a chance that my designs could be. I'm not exactly hopeful of that, but I said that I'd do as he asked. He said that he'd burn the files onto CD for me at lunch and give me them later in Daniel's lesson, but I told him that I was thinking of going home because I was so tired. He said he'd burn it in ten minutes for me instead.
I then asked him if he'd mind reading through my film review. He said they were fine, but the one thing that was missing was a bibliography. I hadn't included one because I had hardly used any reference, which in itself is of course a bad thing.
At lunch, he burnt the files I needed onto CD in the staff room while I waited. While he was doing that, Bronek came into the staffroom and I handed him the film reviews. I think Bronek is too easily pleased. He expects less of me than I'm capable of because he expects less of the class. He knows that I'm capable of more, he just doesn't seem to understand that he needs to ask more of me. This was proven by the fact that he said that I'd written too much, too much only being 700 words. In addition to that though, I had also written a 400 and 200 version of the same review so he couldn't complain.
He said I should keep hold of them till Tuesday and he'd read them then. I gave him my FMP folder of Ignite Design work for him to take a look at, but he said he'd look at that some other time too, choosing to take it off me and leave it under his desk.
After Brian had burnt the CD, he showed me out of the staff room and we talked outside for a few minutes about why I was feeling so tired. He acted like he cared, which he always has done and that's why I respect him, because he's not just there to teach and go home, he's interested in doing more than that and actually getting to know the people he's teaching. I don't get that with any of the other tutors. Bronek is always a "I haven't got time right now, but I will later" kind of person. Daniel seems incapable of putting feeling into his comments. Tony is a nice guy, I guess, but again, he's just there to earn his money and go at the end of the day.
After I left Brian, I sat outside the college, waiting for Jamie since it was 12:15pm and he gets out at 12:30pm. I thought I might as well wait for him before I went home.
Mike came out first though and I said hi to him and Jamie followed shortly. Once Mike had picked up his girlfriend, all four of us walked into town, where Mike and his girlfriend said goodbye to me and me and Jamie walked on to the station, where we met his other friend Mike. They both said goodbye to me and I went for my train.
Once home, I climbed into bed and I've been asleep for about four hours or so, but I still feel pretty crap. I'm hoping that I haven't slept long enough to not be tired tonight. Tomorrow, the class is going to see another film which we have to write another review about. Should be easy enough.
