Flying South : the interview

TUESDAY:
I was glad to finish work at lunchtime and caught my train to Lancaster no problem. After a 40 min wait in the waiting or should I say chilling room (despite deliberately positioning myself under the heater) I managed to get my frozen limbs onto my next train to Crewe. The luggage areas were almost as full as the london trains (see my january posts) and I was carrying my ridiculously big folder, complete with a chunk of wood as well as my backpack containing a change of clothes, minimal toiletries, breakfast, John Grisham's not so great latest novel, 2 sketchbooks, an Art therpay magazine, a folder of work samples and a chunk of wood... however, I managed to squeeze my folder on its end into the space, all the time wondering if it would suddenly fall out killing a small child guillotine style. The execution did not take place, so after an hour I got off to do it all again on the next train from crewe to derby. I was sposed to have an hours wait but thankfully managed to get an earlier train and soon I was on my way into the depressing greyness. It really is a miserable train ride. One and a half hours of nothingness to look at, but broken down empty buildings and fences and embankment. I was pleased to arrive in the semi-light of around 4.30pm accompanied of course by drizzley rain. My hotel was less than a mile according to the website although less than a mile still feels like a long journey when you're carting lumps of wood around. The area was basically an industrial estate with car dealerships, businesses, factories and the odd football stadium. The Travelodge sign was a welcome sight and after a little cross-country and fence hopping I managed to make it to the reception, looking slightly worse for wear no doubt. My room was quite posh, certainly another level to the Highbury centre of my london trip, and with en-suite and flat screen tv, I wondered if there'd been a mistake. I didn't risk questioning it, guessing they'd be billing my credit card anyway and decided to enjoy the comforts of home away from home. I'd spied a Subway (food place not underground) just opposite and so ran across for some food which I ate in my luxurious room, before having a long shower, copious cups of hot water and more tv. I had wondered whether I should try to write out my experience of working with people and memorize it, as I was sure this would be the area they'd be interested most in and where I'd need to do the most convincing, but in the end I decided just to be spontaneous and see what happened.

WEDNESDAY:
It seems I did not learn my lesson from the Highbury centre. I forgot my earplugs and although the door banging and traffic weren't enough to wake me, the weird heating/aircon machine was loud enough and persistent enough to interrupt what would inevitably have been a rough night's sleep - sounded like there was a bee stuck inside the blinkin thing. So, not wanting to pay £7.50 for breakfast, I had my smoothie, yoghurt and granola which had refrigerated quite reasonably on the windowsill. Although I was early (as usual) I decided to set off nonetheless on my walk back to the railway station to catch the bus to the uni. The train station in derby is one of these annoyingly security conscious ones, where you need a ticket to get out or in, or as I discovered, just walk over the bridge. There are two entrances/exits one on either side of the tracks with a bridge across, joining the two. My hotel was on one side, whereas the buses were on the other, meaning I had to go into and out of the station without actually catching a train - something which is obviously illegal in the world of train station security. Anyway, I managed to fool the machine on the way in with my ticket for my journey home, but when I tried to get out of the other side the green light appeared, but the barrier stayed shut. Thankfully it was fairly busy and the lady next to me had also not been allowed through and the ticket man in a state of fluster (partly because I was jamming the whole station with my enormous art work) just let me through without asking why I was confusing the system. I left the building just in time to see my bus drive off, which I wasn't too worried about as plastered across the side of it was a sign saying 'every 10 minutes', which was how long I waited. The bus ride was about 25 mins getting me to the main campus at around 9am. I decided to wait in the lounge kind of communal area just to waste some time as I only needed to be at the interview at 10am. 40 minutes later, I got the free bus round the uni sites, which delivered me at Britannia Mill with around 5 mins to spare. A few others were sitting at reception, accompanied by black folders (only one as big as mine) so I took a seat and waited to begin. We began exactly at 10am which was a bit of a surprise and taken to the customary ring to chairs where we had to introduce ourselves and say how far we'd travelled, so that interview times could be allocated. I won the prize of biggest journey, and so got the first time slot, which I was happy about, even though my train back wasn't until 6.40pm. The course leader, who I met before gave us an overview of the course and then when no real questions were asked, showed us a pile of art materials and said we had 20 mins to make an image of 'your journey to get here'. I had wondered what we'd be asked to draw, and was thinking about the day course I attended in newcastle, where we had to draw ourselves as animals, and because of that I decided to draw a bird in a tree, except instead of the right wing I drew my art folder, standing on a branch that kind of looked like a road, leading to a bird house, with door and chimney. I was kind of mixing my symbolism, thinking about being the bird but handicapped by the folder, relating to my travels and not being able to move normally. Now in a position where there was a journy/road before me with what could be a home/future etc. The time passed quickly and we were called back to the holy circle, without any mention of the image, didn't show it to anyone or talk about it or anything. Then our leader asked us to make a group image, and that was literally all he said, as he sat back to watch how we handled it. The exercise was reminiscent of the london one with the girlies girlifying everything (again I was the only lad) but there were less people here and the whole thing was more sedate. It was very weird how everyone was being polite and yet trying to make a good impression without taking over but at the same time achieving what we'd been told to do. On several occasions I took the lead, purely because no one was deciding and it was so painful to go through the constant discussion of the possibilities. Eventually we were told to stop and take our places, and then given the chance to speak about how it felt etc. I was quite surprised how relaxed I felt to talk and on the whole how much I enjoyed the experience. This whole thing took about one and a half hours which brought us to lunch time when I joined two of the others and had lunch in the canteen. I enjoyed chatting with them (thought it was funny that they both had butterfly tattoos on their right wrists) and was surprised when after I'd voiced my concerns about not having enough experience, they both said that I wouldn't have been given an interview if I didn't qualify - something which hadn't occurred to me. The interview itself was with the same bloke as previously mentioned and a lady who I think taught more on the art side, but I wasn't too sure. Although I wasn't physically very nervous, I think I did blabber on way too much and didn't feel like I was very clear or that I gave the best answers I could have. I felt like I was a bit too honest and whereas they didn't mention my lack of experience at all, I certainly did. So, I'm not sure I did myself any favours really. I was also a bit disappointed that they only spent about 4 minutes with my portfolio, after all the stress and pain it had caused, and didn't look at my sketchbooks at all. I was out in exactly half an hour, ready to make my way back, feeling a lot lighter inside and a bit unsure whether it had gone ok, or terribly! After lots of sitting about reading, cups of tea and sandwiches, more shivering in seriously freezing waiting rooms and slightly delayed trains, I got back home at 10pm.

So, there we have it, the story so far. I'm supposed to hear by the end of next week but I'll keep you posted.