Chillis are hot, i found this out as a young 'en when i asked my mum what this red powder is, she said lick your finger, stick it in the jar, then lick it again. Typically reluctant to do anything by halves, i used a teaspoon instead. i still have the burns :(
However, Chillis developed those hot little seeds to stop animals eating them, if you go by evolution, and i do. Cows would eat chillis, then run around in pain, and learn not to do it again. Chillis could then grow without fear of cows. However humans seem to like the burning pain conjured by chillis, and so we eat them purposefully because of the trait they developed to stop getting eaten, meaning that technique has not been totally succesful. However because humans like chillis, we farm them, we plant little chilli seeds and sell the chillis all over the world to other lovers of pain. Therefore there are now lots more chilli plants than there ever would have been if we didnt like them.
The big question this poses, is did chillis failure inadvertently act as more of a success as success would have done? or were humans part of the chillis plan for world domination? i mean, cows dont like chillis, but then cows dont have the capability of farming chillis. Neither do any other herbivores on the planet. Only humans have the capabilities of farming chillis, and only we enjoy the taste of chillis.
Sunday 30 November 2008
Tuesday 25 November 2008
Mercilessly dull
So, back in June, when i started planning to go to Australia i decided to do a blog, and here, on November 26th (just) is said blog. The more pedantic readers may raise the issue that it should not take the best part of 6 months to start a blog. In short, yes it should, provided you are lazy, and i am very lazy.
Because of this, this first post is just going to cover all of the preparation i've gone through in the last 6 months, working, saving money, filling out forms and paying out aforementioned money. If you look in the dictionary for any of these words; 'boredom' 'monotony' and 'suicide', you may well find it has links to those things iv spent the last 6 months doing. So I am afraid this first blog is unlikely to have you on the edge of your seat sweating pure adrenaline. However i will be keeping it up when i'm in actual Australia, so with any luck, it will get a little more exciting.
The reason i started with the whole gap year idea was as a result of an email my dad recieved, advertising the job of a student voice representative. The post involved driving up and down the country to different schools trying to get the little ratbags therein to form student councils that liaise directly with the school itself so they could improve their performance. I applied for the job, and was never contacted again by the employers. However in the weeks i had be waiting for the reply, i'd become so unknowingly enthralled by the idea of a gap year i just couldn't stomach the idea of going to university. I necessarily had to take a year out, and so i started looking around at what was available.
That was when i found lattitude(http://www.lattitude.or.uk/), a company running gap year programs. I saw the position in Australia and what really attracted me to it was the simple fact, i could get no further from home, any further and i'd start getting closer again. This is the single biggest influence, though of course the weather and style of life did little to put me off. The charm is simply that there was no chance of getting a parental bail-out when im there, i can't go out, get drunk and get a lift home at 3 in the morning, and thats a real charm.
So, with that agreed upon, all i needed then was many times more cash than i have ever owned in my entire life. I already had a job as a receptionist at a travelodge hotel and my boss of the time promised me all the shifts i could handle, the only slight problem with this was that he lies. Don't be decieved by the fact this guy was a mere hotel manager, he had a PHD, he could also speak Chinese fluently, he had been offered many times, high ranking jobs in the medical proffession which he had turned down for hotel work because he liked it and he was most definately NOT having a relationship with the assistant manager. All of this was utter fantasy, and the concept that he could get me paid on time, let alone extra shifts was laughable. I started taking on any covering shifts i could get, working at a total of 7 travelodges in my area. I managed to get a permenant placement covering for a guy on long term sick at mansfield travelodge, which, coincidentially is where i am now.
I have managed to save up enough cash to pay for me to go to, stay in then leave Australia, with some left over for spending money. There isn't as much as i would have liked, though thats pretty much universal, as i was considering continuing travelling after the gap year, as i have 2 months between the end of the placement and the beginning of my time at Keele university, where i have a politics and philosophy course waiting with open arms. though i am considerably less keen to see it.
That has been a brief overview of the most dull (and therefore most important) events in the past 6 months. I intend to add a new post every week from now on, provided the week is interesting enough, if you've read this far, congratulations.
Because of this, this first post is just going to cover all of the preparation i've gone through in the last 6 months, working, saving money, filling out forms and paying out aforementioned money. If you look in the dictionary for any of these words; 'boredom' 'monotony' and 'suicide', you may well find it has links to those things iv spent the last 6 months doing. So I am afraid this first blog is unlikely to have you on the edge of your seat sweating pure adrenaline. However i will be keeping it up when i'm in actual Australia, so with any luck, it will get a little more exciting.
The reason i started with the whole gap year idea was as a result of an email my dad recieved, advertising the job of a student voice representative. The post involved driving up and down the country to different schools trying to get the little ratbags therein to form student councils that liaise directly with the school itself so they could improve their performance. I applied for the job, and was never contacted again by the employers. However in the weeks i had be waiting for the reply, i'd become so unknowingly enthralled by the idea of a gap year i just couldn't stomach the idea of going to university. I necessarily had to take a year out, and so i started looking around at what was available.
That was when i found lattitude(http://www.lattitude.or.uk/), a company running gap year programs. I saw the position in Australia and what really attracted me to it was the simple fact, i could get no further from home, any further and i'd start getting closer again. This is the single biggest influence, though of course the weather and style of life did little to put me off. The charm is simply that there was no chance of getting a parental bail-out when im there, i can't go out, get drunk and get a lift home at 3 in the morning, and thats a real charm.
So, with that agreed upon, all i needed then was many times more cash than i have ever owned in my entire life. I already had a job as a receptionist at a travelodge hotel and my boss of the time promised me all the shifts i could handle, the only slight problem with this was that he lies. Don't be decieved by the fact this guy was a mere hotel manager, he had a PHD, he could also speak Chinese fluently, he had been offered many times, high ranking jobs in the medical proffession which he had turned down for hotel work because he liked it and he was most definately NOT having a relationship with the assistant manager. All of this was utter fantasy, and the concept that he could get me paid on time, let alone extra shifts was laughable. I started taking on any covering shifts i could get, working at a total of 7 travelodges in my area. I managed to get a permenant placement covering for a guy on long term sick at mansfield travelodge, which, coincidentially is where i am now.
I have managed to save up enough cash to pay for me to go to, stay in then leave Australia, with some left over for spending money. There isn't as much as i would have liked, though thats pretty much universal, as i was considering continuing travelling after the gap year, as i have 2 months between the end of the placement and the beginning of my time at Keele university, where i have a politics and philosophy course waiting with open arms. though i am considerably less keen to see it.
That has been a brief overview of the most dull (and therefore most important) events in the past 6 months. I intend to add a new post every week from now on, provided the week is interesting enough, if you've read this far, congratulations.
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