Hi folks, come on in.

Hiya to everyone who's been arsed to check this out- I can't promise you scintillating content or life-changing prose, but what you can be certain of here is a blow-by-blow account of the life of a student Drama teacher as he fights his way through the system toward a professional qualification. The highs, the lows, the laughter and tears, everything I can be bothered to tell you about and just enough truth to not get me in any significant trouble. I've sort of wanted to get a blog together for ages now, but never thought that a)life would be interesting enough or b) that I'd keep it updated- ask most people who know me and they'll tell you I'm something of an impulsive character with dubious follow-through skills (read: a lazy bitch). Inspiration finally came from my good friend Harri80, who's kept her blog fruitful and tended to for ages now. Thank her on my behalf by paying her a visit at http://harri80.blogspot.com/.
Okay, the obligatory intro- I'm 26, I'm a Drama graduate and I'm from a town called Tredegar in South Wales. I've spent the past eight years in Aberystwyth, a gorgeous town on the coast that I probably would've ended up living in forever had I not kicked myself up the ass enough to start this PGCE- I'll spin some yarns from my time there in another chapter (there are plenty, trust me) but for now I'll skip to the part where I move to my home town, away from my girlfriend and best friends to work in my placement schools to kickstart the rest of my life. If you give a stuff, my interests are extreme music (some of my favourite bands at the moment are
Mastodon, Melt Banana, and the rapper Sage Francis), horror films from around the globe (and I mean real horror, fools, no remakes and no teeny-bopper bullshit like I Know What You Did Last Summer), stagecraft and acting (I've been in god-knows how many plays in my life, professional and amateur, and have managed to worm my way onto TV a few times) and general socialising. If anything's been my downfall in the past few years it's that I've had a little bit too much fun and spent too long smelling the roses- hopefully you'll get to know me better as this blog unfolds and you can draw your own conclusions.
So. As I write it's 18:05 on Sunday, Feb 16th, and tomorrow is my first day at Tonypandy Community College. Anyone who's ever started at a new place of work can relate to how I feel- I'm very, very nervous, about everything from what I'll be teaching to how it goes down with the pupils, to how the staff relate to me, to how I get to and from the place (I don't drive, y'see, so I'll be begging lifts back and forth daily from a fellow who also lives in Tredegar). In case you hadn't spotted it by now, this qualification means an awful lot to me. I'll keep you posted as to how things unfold.
If you stuck with me this far, you have my thanks as well as my respect. Here's your reward- a brand spanking new pic of me, taken not twenty minutes ago:

Cheers again for staying with me, and I'll talk at you again soon.
Mark.