walking under ladders

gaviniancampbell — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:01:00 +0000

This is an interview done by a 14 year old fan who snuck into John Lennons Hotel room in Toronto.

‘Total communication equals peace’- Yoko Ono

Saving!

gaviniancampbell — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:08:00 +0000

Saving money..

Pretty boring, but it seems to be the main topic of discussion among travellers(travellers? Sounds so arrogant..long stay tourists? Sounds so..crap. Backpackers? Sounds so….cliche). Anyway. Saving money is a big problem, when your going away for a length of time and you know you wont have any money coming, its all going out and theres nothing that can be done about it.

Trying to work out a budget for a country is a huge shot in the dark, because everyone has different habits and preferences. So really you have no way of knowing for sure until you arrive, if you under budget your in for trouble and if you over budget, things get easy and you will spend more than you need to because the money was there. Providing you get back in one peace, you then have to think about having money to tide you over, because lets face it, how many employers will have you back after you ditch the job and hit the road. And in the climate today, you really have to take into consideration that it may take a longer time to find suitable employment.

For me, personally, I am saving money, not only for the 14-16 weeks in India, but for the time after I return and start looking for another job AND for a prolonged trip once I finish studying in 2010. I hardly spend anything these days, train fares, cigarettes and dinner is pretty much it. I’ve cut out everything else.

Looking back two years ago, I would easily spend £50 on a night out, mostly on alcohol. £20 on a quiet night at the pub. I cut that out when I started saving to go away last year and have hardly drank since. In fact, I don’t drink at all anymore – I’ve seen the light ha. There’s no way I would fall back into that habit nowadays. It also served as a good wake up call as I see that alcohol doesnt equal socialising, it just gets you into a negative routine with the same people. Other stuff that I’ve had to cut out was spending money on things, there is just no need to buy clothes or whatever every other week, but I’ve never given a toss about what other people think, so that doesn’t bother me too much

It is worth it though. I’ve saved alot, just about to break £5k and I only started saving in December after I paid off my £1k overdraft from last summer(silly mistake with a credit card XD). It is looking like I will make my £7k target for May and some more. Working out a budget is a pain though. So I’m not going to. £1700 for 4 months is what I am going to leave home with(and insure myself with) – that is alot to some people in India, so I’m sure I can make it last. That leaves £5.3k to come home to. So say it takes a month to find a job, I’ll have 10 or so months before I will leave the UK – plenty of time to raise £10k more and reach my £15k target.

£15,000? Please let me bore you for a second.
5 months – Europe to Korea overland(no planes)… – £5k
12months – Teaching English in Korea/China with a good lifestyle. + £7-8k
5 months – SE Asia, perhaps dive instructing to tide me over.. – £3k
6 months – Overland to India, providing this summer goes well.. – £3k
2 months – Fly to the Middle East.. – £2k
5 months – Africa! North to South.. – £4k
5 months – Fly to South America.. – £4k
5 months – USA, hike the Pacific Crest Trail! – £1.5k

Thats just POTENTIALLY, what you could do. Who knows how it would pan out, but its good to know, that you could support yourself for 45 months if you were sensible – then its just a simple case of writing a #1 bestseller XD

Unoooversity

gaviniancampbell — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:27:00 +0000

I dont know how the number of graduates today compares with say twenty years ago, but it is a fair assumption to make that gaining a University degree is more common and my belief is, that the further education system has consequently been devalued significantly.
I’ve said before that I think, certainly in Scotland, that the system is flawed, people have to choose a direction far too early, because really there is no other viable option, unless of course you want to bum around for a year. I picked what I would study when I was 16. How does a sixteen year old know what he or she wants to do with their lives?
Of course, that isnt an excuse. There is always the option of changing courses, but unfortunately in Scotland, that means loosing government funding(University tuition fees are paid by the Government in Scotland, but you loose funding if you repeat a year or change course).

Personally speaking, I’ve wavered in and out of liking my course and despising it. Some aspects have been tolerable, but for the last year at least, my mindset has been to just get it over and done with. There’s no way I ever want to be a chartered surveryor! Principally, because it is an extremely dull profession and the rewards are not worth it in the long run.
I also have a gripe with the University and the course structure. Vast sums were spent on improving the campus, yet very little seems to have been spent on improving the quality of education. I did not realise until I started studying, that there would be no scope for picking which modules I wanted to study. Consequently, I’ve felt that some have been very vague and weak, simply ‘filler’ modules.
Its perplexing.

Anyway. I’ve decided to do something about it. I’ve got one year left, I need 120 credits to get a Bachelors degree with Honors, I just want it over and done with. I realise that theres no way in hell, I’ll pull off a 1:1 if I’m forced to write a dissertation on something to do with property – 15000 words will require alot of focus, so its got to be interesting. I also want to continue working full time(I cant believe I wrote that…’work brings freedom’ – Okay!) next September as well, so juggling that, alongside going into Uni during the week will be hard.

I started looking around at other Universities and other courses, but its a royal pain changing courses when your nearing the end of your studies, you either have to drop back a year or two or start all over again. Then of course, if I’m wanting to work, it still doesnt solve the problem of having the time to study, an option would be a part time course, but that means adding another year to the length of the program. As I said its a pain.

But thankfully! The Open University is the key. It looks like it will work for me. I can pick whatever modules I want to study, I get given all the course materials at the start of term, I study them myself, get phone contact and email contact with lecturers and get assesed every 2 months or so and depending on the module it will either be a formal exam or coursework. I was a bit skeptical, but it seems that each module is formally taught at Uni’s around the UK and the institutions and lecturers collaborate and rebuild the courses so they can be taught at distance and any coursework/exam that is submitted is marked by that university. Ironically, the QAA gives the OU a better reputation than my current one XD

Anyway, I’m figuring out what exactly I’ll do honors in. I’m leaning towards English Lit. but there are a number of courses in Development or International Politics, which look interesting. I’ve got a while to decide. I’m just happy I dont have to go back to my current course, I’ll have the same level of qualification by May 2010 by doing this and I’ll have a pile of cash from working during that time as well.
I’m laughing!

81 days until India and beyond

gaviniancampbell — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:05:00 +0000

I’ve been staving off the desire to think about India too much, but its got to the stage when I really need to sort out the important things, so I’m not rushing.
Renewing my passport for example(because my last one got run through the wash), sorting out the visas, getting insured and finding out what vaccines I will need to top up as well as getting some prescription meds. 81 days, plenty of time really.

I think I learned something from last year, that wishing away the time before a trip is pointless, it wont make it come around any sooner. Consequently, I feel alot different to how I was this time last year, preparing for SE Asia & PNG. I planned alot last year, read as much as I could about places before hand and spent alot of time trying to work out a route. But this year, all I have is a vauge idea that I’ll be going up into the Himalayas for 4 months.

Not much else to say really. I just have an image in my head of the Ladakh region in India, the Annapurnas and Mt Everest in Nepal – the thought of being there myself is enough at the moment.

gaviniancampbell — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:44:00 +0000

Life is what happens when your busy making other plans
John Lennon

Just now I like..

gaviniancampbell — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:27:00 +0000

I’m an idiot

gaviniancampbell — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:52:00 +0000

I just found out where sri lanka is, not where I thought it was.

Grace/Wastelands

gaviniancampbell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:39:00 +0000

I might have posted this before?

But the Peter Doherty album/the first solo album is coming out next month.
The track listing is as follows…
‘Arcadie’
‘Last Of The English Roses’
’1939 Returning’
‘A Little Death Around The Eyes’
‘Salome’
‘I Am The Rain’
‘Sweet By And By’
‘Palace Of Bone’
‘Sheepskin Tearaway’
‘Broken Love Song’
‘New Love Grows On Trees’
‘Lady, Don’t Fall Backwards’

Most of the tracks have already been ‘released’ through www.frenchdogblues.com (Petes site) and from recordings made at live events, available on www.albionarks.com
I’ve heard most of them in one form or another but I’m going to refrain from listening all the songs before it is out.

I have to say, that now since ‘Shotters Nation’(the second Babyshambles Album)has been around for a while now, in all honesty, much as it pains me to say it – it hasnt stood up against ‘Down in Albion’(the first Babyshambles Album) or either of the Libertines albums. It has a few gems in there, but ultimately, it doesn’t have the feel of Pete Dohertys work. I prefer to listen to the songs on ‘Shotters Nation’ recorded at live event rather than on the released album.

Why?

Its too clean cut. Too professional. A far cry from the, boys with guitars, sound that we know and love. Listen to ‘Down in Albion’ and ‘Shotters Nation’ and hear the difference yourself, they hardly compare musically – of course lyrically, they are one and one, that is the albums saving grace.

I have a hunch. The Libertines albums and ‘Down in Albion’ were produced by Mick Jones, the legendary guitarist and lead vocalist of The Clash – ‘Shotters Nation’ was produced by Stephen Street. Street is known for producing commercially viable music, he is know for capturing a POLISHED SOUND! wtf? No one in their right mind would ever say they like Babyshambles or the Libertines because of their ‘polished sound’. I would love to hear what ‘Shotters Nation’ would have sounded like if Mick Jones had a crack at it…

So yeah. My hunch is that, Mick Jones would have produced a better Shotters Nation than Stephen Street. Pretty straight forward.

So, I’m excited about the new album, but anxious at the same time, because I know Peter Doherty has the potential to release a great solo album, the songs have been played for years live – but I’m worried that in the end, I’ll be listening to the live recordings instead.

‘Soko is Dead’

gaviniancampbell — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:54:00 +0000

Still alive. But Soko has quit! According to her site ‘soko is dead’, ‘location: hell’.
Guttererererer.
Personal choice I guess, shame though. Always thought she was THE European front of the weird folk/twee/anti-folk movement(whatever you want to call it, genres arent real, but you know what I mean).

Time minus 105 days..

gaviniancampbell — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:15:00 +0000

It is(or was, its past midnight now), 105 days till I fly to New Delhi.
Coincidently, the same number of days my ticket says I will be away for, though that will soon change as I will be giving myself another two or three weeks extra – its just a case of phoning Emirates, which I should do sooner rather than later I think.

I had a flick through my journal I kept last summer, from my 4 months in SE Asia and Papua New Guinea(was it four or three and a half?). Got me all nostalgic. Recalled alot of things I forgot, a couple of times it was strangely vivid. I have not been too hung up post-travels this time. It is inevitable that you get hung up when you get home, once the novelty of being in farmiliar surroundings wears off. It is the most difficult part of travel, anyone who has taken a trip will tell you. It is like a reverse-culture shock, you know? It is all about change, you’ve changed and your life at home has changed while you’ve been gone. I think that once I’m home from India, it will be more difficult to avoid the post travel blues – seeing as its ‘India’ and I will have a tidy sum in the bank and could stay for a couple of years…

I’m worried about certain aspects of travel in India. Well, not in the sense of ‘will I get Delhi belly?’ or ‘will I be able to arrange booking train tickets?’ – that sort of thing doesnt concern me. The backpacker scene is different from other places, alot of people go and with their newfound freedom follow their first hedonistic impulse. It isnt surprising, spirituality and self understanding seem to be the reasons alot of people go their in the first place. The availability of drugs is high, you can buy Ketamine, Morphine, Valium and Xanex over the counter, LSD, Opium, Heroin, MDMA and of course Charas is widely available, especially to backpackers. I’m not saying everyone goes there to take drugs, but alot of people do and it seems like a big part of the scene over there. I’m not soo interested in that side of things, I have no problem with other people doing it, but I would prefer to avoid coming home with an opiate addiction XD. It is just a case of overcoming that hedonistic impulse, enjoying the freedom and ultimately finding something.

I cannot wait to see Ladakh XD