Sick Day!

[Milo]

I go to the cinema very often on my own. I just have a greater appetite for films than my friends so I can either miss out on seeing stuff I'd like to or go on my own.  If you go to the early showings right after work you always see lots of people doing exactly the same thing.

Plus it's a lot better than just going straight home. Unless you're watching some gash like Smokin' Aces or whatever.

Actually, maybe the going home thing is why it might be considered 'saaad'. I imagine if I had a girlfriend or something then I might be more willing to go home rather than hanging around in cinemas bringing whole queues of people down.

[buttgammon]

Fuck BG, sorry to hear that! School can be such a fucked up and inescapable place for some people, but it sounds like things will soon change once you can start making your own choices. Get yourself a reason to get out of bed and you'll get out of bed and all that, however trite that may sound.

Thanks, Beagle.

I actually think things are looking up. If I pass my exams I will probably go to colege and I think I'll actually want to go there. It seems that because I'll be doing it out of wanting to do it rather than having to it'll be much better.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

There's certain films I'd much rather have been on my own to see. I don't see going on your own to the cinema a depressing activity at all, providing you aren't stuck in front of a group of 12 year old girls throwing popcorn at you.

[chand]

If the film's decent you don't talk to your companions during it anyway, so I don't see the problem. I go to plenty of gigs alone for the same reason. I've always found cinemas a slightly odd place to go on a date, I did it a couple of times and it was really awkward sitting silently next to someone for two hours when it would be better getting to know them.

[danielsan]

I imagine if I had a girlfriend or something then I might be more willing to go home rather than hanging around in cinemas bringing whole queues of people down.

Nah, I've got a girlfriend and still go to the cinema after work rather than going home. I'm off to see The Lives of Others on my own in about 20 minutes!!

[Space ghost]

I've technically taken almost the entire school year off sick, although I had a valid reason because I was traumatised by the place and no alternative was offered apart from them sending me bits of work home occasionally. I did go about twice, but I felt like I wanted to die afterwards. I went once in early December when I just went to a single maths lesson and sat alone on the edge of a table, and a few weeks later I went to two lessons, both of which I spent playing poker, swearing, making a nuisance of myself to girls and falling over on my chair while laughing (I am usually very quiet, but I went just to be disruptive).

And to be more on-topic I hardly ever went, anyway. My sleep pattern is so fucked up that I last got up before about 10 on a regular basis when I was about 11, and I'm now 16. I would usually only attend afternoon lessons as a result and sometimes I just wouldn't bother going in at all. In spite of this, I haven't played truant in my entire life. It was just a case of me saying to my mum "I'm not going to school" and her either doting on me and saying "You aren't well. Is there anything I can get you?" or telling me she would go to prison if I didn't to go but she wasn't going to make me.

I did always have a big problem with non-attendance. I'm generally not very punctual, but it's been far worse with school. I briefly started reception but I refused to go and I would just get upset and distressed so my mum didn't take me. The school just put it down to the fact that my dad died about a year before and sent social workers and a counsellor round, but I still wouldn't go to school. The counsellor moved away and I refused to see another one, so that ended as well. The council decided they would pay for a private tutor to come to the house weekly to teach me, so I started to be taught properly but I wasn't in school and didn't return until I went up to junior school. The other children were cruel to me and I felt very isolated, so I didn't want to go and ended up only attending sporadically. Social workers would sometimes force me to go, but that made it worse. I was once dragged there kicking and screaming, and I took it out on the headmaster. I kicked him in the balls, and it's fortunate he was very kind and understanding and didn't expel me. I made a bit of progress towards the end of my first year of junior school, attending regularly and making some friends, but it got worse again in peaks and troughs in the next two years. My attendance became patchy again and social workers coming to the house to take me to school became a regular occurrance. One of them, a nice Scouse bloke called Craig drove me to school sometimes and he encouraged me to go more, but I still had very bad days. Once, my mum and my aunt had to grab me by the arms and literally drag me in. I didn't eat my sandwiches when I was in school as a protest against me having to go there and my mum got the staff to make sure I ate every little bite. Some other kids from my class saw them check I'd eaten it all and told everyone, humiliating me.

It was, however, much better in my last year of junior school. I had a settled and close-knit group of absolutely fantastic friends, and I was enjoying myself. I went to school virtually every day of the year with no problems. I remember the summer I left primary school as being possibly the happiest time of my life, hot and sunny every day, playing badminton in the park, staying over at friend's houses for the night, watching wrestling and playing computer games. Most of these friends went to different secondary schools and I've hardly had a true friend since.

From start to finish, secondary school has been shit. I attended frequently in the first year until my sleep pattern got disturbed and I couldn't get up before about 11. My school merged with another local school the following year and I had to spend the whole academic year on a temporary site. It was like a prison, and I tried to miss most of it just to avoid the cold, lonely place. My grandfather died that summer, but I thought things were looking up with school turning to a shiny new site. It started off better, but I had less friends than ever before and everybody seemed against me. I stopped attending after a couple of weeks and only went occassionally afterwards. The year after was better. I made a few friends again (not that I ever saw any of them out of school) and discovered Dostoevsky, this place (well, rediscovered I suppose as I'd lurked here before) and girls. Then I got visciously beaten up twice on the last two days of term and it went downhill again. My exams start next week now, and my time 'in' school is coming to an end.

Sorry to get all like this.

buck  your  ideas  up  young  man.

[clareQuilty]

I'd love to say life gets easier after school but it doesn't. Nope, just gets worse and worse.
If you can't wake up to go into work you don't get paid. Then you just end up living with your folks if they'll still have you, stewing in your own filth. No girls are going to want to be around you because you can't buy them dinner at Chillis and take them dancing.
If people are giving you hassle at school you've got to act so crazy nobody will fuck with you, a simple shiv can be made by attaching a razor blade to a toothbrush.
Go for the biggest guy you can find, doesn't matter if you win or lose, you'll get respect and that's what counts.

Alternatively ask your parents if you can borrow some money and start dealing drugs. People will be less likely to hassle you if you can hook them up, it also teaches business skills and you'll get to be your own boss.

[Captain Zep]

Back to sickness...

I don't really genuinely skive, I have to be relatively sick, however I have recently been blessed with several mild stomach bugs. (Don't buy lunchtime sandwiches in Ashford.)

Having passed a couple of pints of self-produced mulligatawny soup through my harris, with the intestinal sensation that there's more where that came from, I feel suitably qualified to ring in sick.

But here's the question, has internet pornography ruined the sick day? There was a time when one would cosy up on the sofa and watch one's favourite film, The Italian Job maybe, or Usual Suspects or even a long haul session on the documentary channels. As an accompaniment, some dry toast, or a dust-off of the deep fat fryer if feeling a bit better.  But the lure of 'bating fuel often proves too much. Strangely, I don't feel I have achieved much afterwards and hate lying to my wife after a hasty PC cleanup (electronic & physical).

But rah! and phwoar eh?!
'Horn' endorphins are the best!

I'm torn.

[Joy Nktonga]

Relax your grip a bit next time.