Autumn Has Arrived

Well Autumn has arrived and the unemployed academic is still unemployed.

In fact there is even less of a chance of a job now than there was three months ago. The websites have become even less helpful and the hope of a job in a university have lessened given the time of the year.

Oh Well. Though the downside of the changing of the seasons is that the days become shorter, the weather becomes chiller, and there are fewer opportunities to go outside and spend some time walking the dog, window shopping or generally frolicking in the sunshine (though I must admit that I didn’t do too much frolicking even when the sun WAS out!).

In other words boredom has started to set in. Life on the dole is fine. Life without a job is fine. Life stuck in the house is okay. But all of these things together can lead to boredom. Some weeks seem to fly by at the moment. Meeting friends, lunches out, taking care of a Jack Russell, cooking, cinema, birthdays and of course jobseeking, all take up quite a long time. But sometimes one finds oneself sat, on a Tuesday morning, in front of the telly, with no money, no one to meet, nowhere to go and totally nothing to do. No doubt my working friends would suggest that I’m complaining about a situation they would love to find themselves in, but one finds that after a few such mornings this situation can become more than a little depressing. So, I’ve decided I will have to do something about it before I slip into the darkness that is the winter and depression.

So where to begin……

Well, by blogging is one way. Though I set up this blog a month ago I have been rather less than diligent, and should it continue than this page will become yet another dead page on my favourites list that I have signed up to. So, I shall aim to update three-four times a week and aim to get a readership.

I have also continue to cook quite a lot, though became a little jaded of the constant sweating of onions and continuous washing of pots and pans. Plus, cooking is not a cheap hobby, nor easy on the waistline, but I shall continue and have decided to move into creole cooking (though I aim not to confuse my blogging with my cooking as the whole online Julie and Julia thing has pretty much been done to death, though the odd story may be posted of my general cookery advances and failures).

I have considered getting my Latin books out again and brushing up on my amos, amass and amats, but I’m not quite that bored yet.

I shall also try to get back into my reading again. I was doing pretty well until I started Wolf Hall. I understand that it won the booker and all, and I like historical fiction a lot, but I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe that is more a reflection of my jaded reading ability than the quality of the book. Very likely indeed.

Also, I’m going to try and get an article published, lest I slip into the academic wilderness and perhaps even forget what my PhD was about. This is easier said than done. Motivating oneself to write an uncalled for article is one thing. Actually getting it into a journal is another thing entirely. But I shall try. Or at least start to think about it!

So these are the plans, and with luck I shall not find myself lounging in my pyjamas and 11am on a Tuesday morning with nothing to do and no reason to get up.

That way lies madness!

Regards,

UA (The Unemployed Academic)