Happy Easter

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Putting the clocks forward always completely ballses up that day for me, it's always later than you think and you end up doing something stupid- I missed the beginning of 24 and I don't even know why we do it. If we just sort of left the time alone, would anything really bad happen? No. It bloody wouldn't. So let's stop all this weird, arcane fucking-with-the-clock malarkey and leave the time as it is, all year round. Next time we have to do it I'm not going to bother, which means I'll spend half the year being an hour early for everything. That can't be bad, can it?

VITRIOL

It's the last day of term, which is fortunate as I don't have enough bus fare for another day. At 0630 this morning I was counting out two-pees to make the fare for a ONE-WAY bus journey to school. I've no idea how I'm getting home. No-one should have to count two-pees at that time of the morning, it's a fookin' disgrace. I really plan on enjoying the Easter break, I'm spending it in Aber unwinding, and Christ, am I wound up. A few lessons I've taken have been slated because of a lack of discipline, so I guess I need to sharpen up my shouting skills, I don't know. I'll update later and let you know how I got home.
Marko

Hello.

My name is Ichi. Odd, you might think, my knowing Mark's blogger account info and being able to manipulate a keyboard and use the interweb, but that's the sort of cat I am. I am also an evil cat. I am a cat that knows how to get what I want, and how to dispose of those that irk me. Take Marko, for instance. My place in this house once went uncontested- Gavo's love was mine and mine alone. I was played with by night and by day I had the run of the house. Now, no more. Since this Marko intruded upon my domain I find myself relegated, usurped, deposed from my lofty perch at Gav's right hand by this Marko, this hairy, noisy demon, this interloper, this infidel. But, as I say, I am a cat with powers. I secrete particles and I grow hairs which the heathen Marko is allergic to. Once already have I hospitalised this demon, and next time I shall make sure he doesn't return. Know this, friends of the demon, that soon I shall vanquish him and Gav will be mine once more. I bid you farewell.

Fighting fit

Shit, man! I had to take two days off sick this week- my allergy to Gav's fucking cat went insane and I needed hospital treatment. Am now on a course of steroids. I'm being fucking tested, I tells ya. Anyway, feelng fine now, back to school tomorrow. Took another session of the Arius group yesterday, then spent an absolutely gorgeous day with the absolutely gorgeous Harri in Cardiff while the rest of Wales was in the Millenium stadium. We just managed to miss the worst of the insane crowds and just sort of hung around the shops, and I'd like to take this moment to re-affirm my non-bandwagon jumper status by saying- I still don't like rugby, even if we're good at it now. A big "hello" to Rob J and Sianni, nice to see you both. A huge update on the former to come soon.
Word.

One word...

Haircut.

Aaaand relax.

Now that was a lovely weekend. You all saw Laura in my last update, well we decided to spend the weekend together in a really nice hotel to de-stress a little bit. There's only a week and a half to go until Easter, but the little things are all starting to add up so some Rn'R was called for, and hugely appreciated. Had dinner in a very trendy (read: overpriced and full of wankers) restaurant, spent ages in the jacuzzi, generally a lovely relaxing time had by all. Of course it's only going to take three minutes of school tomorrow to competely destroy all that relaxation, but Easter is getting very close now so onward we go. I found a position vacant for a Drama teacher in Penglais school in mighty Aberystwyth this week- it sounds perfect, and I've already got my flat and friends in town, so fingers crossed for that, it'd be ideal. I'm sending off the form this week. In other news, I thought some pics might be nice- first of all, this is Gav, the reprobate who's been good enough to put me up for the term. Now, we've got a lot of previous, have me and Gavo. We shared a flat together first some six years ago when we were both in the middle of our respective degrees. We're very similar in a lot of ways, and I think that was the main problem last time- within months we'd both come within inches of failing our courses (Gav never did manage to pull it back), we'd spent pretty much all our money on mystical herbs and chemicals and we came close to pulling ourselves apart. There is some incredible video footage in existence, however, of us in some really shocking conditions, falling over, causing damage to ourselves and basically rewriting the rules of hedonism. It's some years later now, and we're both a bit better equipped to deal with things- Gav manages a local bookies and I'm almost a teacher, so the days of scaring the fuck out of coursemates friends while on vodka-skunk-and-valium binges are long gone. On weeknights, anyway :)
Hmm, what else.... well, you night remember me mentioning Harri80 on here- well, she's another incredible friend of mine from that era, who was fortunately able to see past the piss and pathos and stick around while I got my shit together. A massive plus to living here is that I see a lot more of her than I normally would since she moved to Cardiff about eight months ago. She (and her boyfriend Huw, who's a close friend as well) are a fantastic treat whenever they come around, and make things a lot more bearable. More on Harri as time goes by (keep checking her blog, and mention I sent you), but having her close at hand is just lovely. We're planning a trip to Castle fucking Bingo soon, which'll be a daft laugh, no doubt.
Christ, not sure how much I've typed and can't be arsed to spellcheck, so there's your fucking update you ungrateful fucks. To the two of you who sometimes read this- hope you had a good weekend, and I'll be back dead soon.
Marko
x

Bless!

Last night I was asked to front an hour's Drama workshop for the Arius group in Williamstown. Around fifteen of them, all between eight and thirteen. It was the most fun I've had in ages, despite the young age of the group making it a little nerve-wracking- I had no idea what to expect, whether they'd cry or shit themselves or whatever, turns out they were as good as gold, and some were quite talented to boot. I'm there again next week, can't wait. In other news: travel, planning, fourteen-hour days and poverty continues to chip away at my granite facade. My allergy to Gav's cat (called Ichi, fact-fans, after the ultra-violent titular character in the Takeshi Miike's 2001 Japanese shocker Ichi the Killer) continues to leave me breathless and bulbous. On paper, things should be pretty heartbreaking, but I still feel like things are going okay. I've taken some really nice classes as well as some utter shits, and that's just the way it is. Seeing Laura (my honey) later for the first time in three weeks as she's coming over on her way home from her open day in Cardiff. It's all happening, the future is finally arriving. 'Bout fucking time, and all.
Peace
Marko
(PS Watch Nathan Barley, 22:00, Fridays on C4. It's well Jackson.)

Was there ever a sweeter word...

... than "Friday"? Answers under this post, please.

It's like that (and that's the way it is).

What up? Yeah, I know updates are getting sporadic and yeah, I know this shit's like crack cocaine for alla y'all but shit Homes, I been bustin my ass so bad all the day that I just don'ts got tha time to be rappin' atcha like 24/7 an' shit. To translate- I know things have been patchy but that's not down to me being a slack bitch, it's my workload and my living situation.
To clarify: Last Friday (as you know if you've been keeping up) I moved in with my old buddy Gav, as he's closer to the school I'm working at and it's just a shitload more convenient (plus it's fucking miles away from my Mother, bless 'er). The convenience doesn't extend to my PC habits, however, as his computer's all busted up so I'm having to limit updates to a) times I'm free during school and b) times I don't have much pressing work to do. As you can imagine, this hardly ever happens, so suck it all up while you can, my children, for there isn't much to go 'round.
So, school- it's going really well (I think), I'm getting myself known and recognised around the school now, I'm remembering pupil's names (which is a battle in itself) and most of my lessons have gone swimmingly. The one or two that haven't have been torture, mind, but that seems to be the nature of the beast- when it goes well it's great (sort of like Michelle Pfieffer in Dangerous Minds) but when it goes badly it's just the worst job in the whole world (sort of like Captain Sisko in American History X). Once or twice I've felt the rage boiling up, and my voice is getting pretty quickly wrecked, but I'm getting a real sense of progress, which is exactly what I'm looking for.
In other news- I'm allergic to Gav's fucking cat, so I'm on Ventolin and Clarityn every night for supper. I'm actually missing my girlfriend (which is odd in itself, as I normally crave time away from her like a smackhead craves his horse). I hate six o' clock mornings. That's all we have time for, folks, so I'll holleratcha later and for Christ's sake keep it gangsta.
Marko
(P to tha S: I'm taking lots of photos at the mo, and there'll be a phat update this weekend, honest.)

Some days....

.. really do make you want to fuck it all off, this one being an example. Okay, some background to this shitter of a mood I'm in. Originally, I was going to be sent to a school in a town called Brynmawr, which is about four miles from where I'm living, and an utter breeze to get to. Score. At the last minute (and for reasons I'll go into another time) I got moved to this other school in this other place, Tonypandy which is (quick AA check ahoy) 25 miles away and an utter pain in the arse to transport myself to, not being a driver (I KNOW. MY OWN FAULT. FUCK OFF). See, school I'm handling okay, enjoying it in fact, but when I can't score a lift home (like today) it's a three hour train journey into Cardiff then another train into a town near mine, then a bus home. I arrived home like twenty minutes ago, three hours after the end of school. I'm freezing cold, angry, frustrated and on the verge of a shit-fit.
But, I'm finding this blog thing theraputic- rage.... subsiding... aaah.
I'm off to plan tomorrow's lessons, but first a little something I found this morning while on my way to meet my ride- someone had built a little snow-dude that looks exactly like a Japanese friend of mine, Kogepan:

My policy of always keeping my camera on me is working out nicely.
Laters
Marko

Tantalising prospect ahoy!

MarkFact #403 in a series of #20056- Despite having acted in many, many plays and a few TV shows, Mark has never gotten the chance to direct.
That seems about to change- in the next few weeks it looks as though I might actually get the chance to audition and co-direct a play in school! Fantastic news, and something I've long wanted to do. The play we're looking at producing is called Find Me, the story of a young girl with multiple personality disorder and the effect she has on her loved ones. It's quite a heavy piece, but there seem to be some talented kids at the school and I reckon it's got a chance of being really good. I've got some ideas of how to use sound to compound the feeling of (medical terminology coming up) losing one's shit, and if I'm allowed to run with it I think I'll have a lot of fun and- hey- learn lots too.
That, of course, is if I can pull off the rest of the school experience. Tomorrow I teach my first lesson proper at the school, and even though I've done it plenty of times before I've still got that lovely adrenalised feeling, that shaky uncertainty that comes with doing something new that you might just fuck right up. Cross your fingers for me dudes, I'll be back tomorrow.
(This post was brought to you by "Good Mourning" from Alkaline Trio).

"The way out is through".

Well, the school's every bit as rough as I thought it'd be, but I've done rough before and the staff all seem like lovely people, so that's alright. The drama teacher I'm working alongside is really something- full of energy, really enthusiastic and clearly knows her shit backwards. There's lots that I can learn (read: steal) from her, so that's another big plus. But... there are minuses, the biggest one being that no way can I carry on living in Tredegar. After a twenty minute walk (in the SNOW, thankyouverymuch) to get to my ride this morning (from a very affable and thoroughly pleasant Maths teacher) I was left without a lift home- cue a three hour, two-change train journey which got me home at 18:50 when school finishes at 1500. Fuck that noise- I'll have to stay behind some nights at school (I'll be directing a play, which I'm over the moon about), which means that a three-hour journey home just isn't an option. So... On Friday I'm moving (again) to Llanharan to stay with my buddy from the olden days of hardcore, the one and only Gavo Hughes. He's from the next town over to where the Drama teacher lives, and she's told me a lift in would be no trouble at all, so it makes perfect sense. Back into the jaws of madness, with six years hindsight and the will to do what's right. Like Trent said, "Nothing can stop me now". There's shitloads more I want to rant about (like, for instance, the smacked-up wanktub who nearly made me miss my connection earlier through trying to argue his way out of a fare), but I'm the tiredest I've ever, ever been so I'm wrapping it up there. Over the weekend I'll post a big long chapter with more history and some more photos, so make sure you stop by.
S'long!

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.