By Laurens Grainger

What am I even doing at this school?

“So, how’s work going then?”

I’ve always hated when you re-unite with old friends at Christmas and this is one of the first questions that pops out.

“Well, I’ve gone back to uni.  But it’s not really a uni.  I mean, I don’t even get a qualification.  And no, I’m not even guaranteed a job afterwards.  But honestly, ummm, it’s really good”

Considering the fact that I’m in the world of communications, I’ve been making a real meal out of communicating what the hell I do at the SCA.

Good job, Laurens.

On boxing day, I caught up with one of my best mates from Cardiff for the first time in a long time.  Although we grew up alongside each other, we’ve always been completely different.

While I’m a social cretin, he’s a social butterfly.

While I look like the homeless equivalent of Noddy, he’s got a six pack and a chiseled jaw.

While I left school in 2008 for a plain jane university degree, he left school in 2008 (with barely a GCSE in-hand) to travel the world as a catwalk model, obviously.

Milan, Tokyo, London, Paris. He was living the dream.  Then he met the girl of his dreams and settled down…….in the Czech Republic.  A bit out of the way for me.

Anyway, I called him up on Skype for the first time in about a year, and surprise surprise within about a minute, I awkwardly asked him “How’s work going then?”  

He replied with “Good mate. I’m now an English teacher and I work in two factories.  One of which is a Wilkinson Sword factory.  They offered me a pack of razors for christmas.”

We laughed.  A lot.

He then asked me “So how’s your work going then?”  

[awkward pause]

Before answering, I made a conscious effort to try answer it differently than I had to my other mates.

“As you know, what I like more than anything else is being weird and making stuff.  I’ve found out that I can actually do that as a day job.

The only thing is that you need to make stuff which convinces people to buy a product.

And so for the next year I’ve gone to this school which is one of the best places in the world to do exactly that.

What I do all day is act weird and make stuff, which is perfect.  Last week, I was writing erotic poems to bowls of Crunchy Nut Clusters and that was a legitimate piece of work.”

“Yeh, fair play mate.  You’re weird.  Sounds good.”

Tidy.