They say everyone should re-invent themselves from time to time. Well for me, that time has come. After 25 years of technical writing, I’ve decided to trade my computer mouse for a tile cutter and seek a new career in the stone work/ceramics trade. Quite a change, but one that has aroused a disturbingly great amount of wistful support from my tech writing colleagues.
An inveterate house-flipper, I’ve renovated kitchens and bathrooms before. But to do this thing professionally I figured I needed “the Knowledge”. But where to get it? Apparently there is a huge waiting list to take a tiling tradesperson’s course here in Quebec. Plus, the course itself is seven months long. Really? I mean, laying tile can be an art, but seven whole months?
So, thanks to a brilliant suggestion by my friend Julia, I looked farther afield and hit upon the perfect place to learn the trade – Edinburgh, Scotland. A focused search on the Internet led me to a Scottish Qualifications Authority training institute that promised “a rewarding and varied career with the potential to have a lucrative business.” That’s all I needed to hear. Moreover, I’d get all the secrets of the Scottish stonework and ceramics trade in just five weeks. Sign me up!
So tomorrow I board a KLM flight to Edinburgh, via Amsterdam, and make my way to the 2-star Rosevale Guest House, which will be my home for the next month or so. I arranged an extraordinarily low-priced accommodation, thanks to the fact it is low season in Edinburgh and a mini ice-age has driven out all the tourists. Another check on the Internet informs me that they are currently experiencing 3 degrees Celsius under heavy rain. So, apparently it’s getting warmer.
Over the next five weeks I will be blogging from the Peffermill Industrial Estate, wherever that is. And, if possible, I will supplement my blogs with photos.
I hope you will be entertained by my travels and bear witness to my new beginning as a Scots-trained stone and tile chap.
This is the last member of my family to study in Edinburgh, my grandfather, Lachlan Campbell.
9 comments:
Good Luck. We will miss you.
Love you Michael, Donna, Lisa and Cameron.
Hey little brother!
Remember, when you are setting your tile, do it with a smile...when you put in the grout make sure not to pout. Study hard and you will succeed, and all those future customers...they will plead, that you tile their homes with the skill of scottish gnomes....
Good luck bro.
Big brother.
Very cool Mark! I love new beginnings.
Looking forward to reading all about it.
Angie G
Ach this news has flabbered my gast. Guid luck tae ye!
Mark -
I've also composed a list of Gallic sayings to help you get through the next few weeks.
Halò, Ciamar a tha thu/sibh? (thank you)
Tha mi toilichte ur coinneachadh (pleased to meet you)
Beannachd leat/leibh (good bye)
Slàinte! (cheers)
Chan eil mi 'tuigsinn (I don't understand)
An urrainn dhut bruidhinn nàs maille? (could you speak more slowly)
Càite bheil an taigh beag? (where is the toilet)
Fònadh chun a' phoileis! (call the police)
Tha mo bhàta-foluaimein loma-làn easganna (my hovercraft is full of eels).
So, Gur math a thèid leat/leibh! And see you when you get back!
Excellent punmenship, my good ceramic ably yours, Steve.
I am very concerned about the meat you leave on your window sill
Love
Julia and Kevin
What an adventure, Mark! Keep up the fun blogging... and I expect to hear about your final blowout dinner at someplace really posh over there! By the way, we need a new kitchen... I was thinking about a tile floor with in-floor heating (hint, hint)
GG
Really enjoyed your blog - read two days worth. Very entertaining - parts of it remind me of Dickens especially the old homes underground and your descriptions were wonderful. Keep it up - hope you keep enjoying your tiling classes.
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