| Description | Interview with James Veitch, recorded on 9 July 2003 by Jennifer Carter.
Transcription:
JC Hello James, delighted you could come along and thank you for giving your time.
JV I am happy to be here.
JC I gather you have come from outside of Scotland, so what drew you to Aberdeen?
JV Well it was .. I am from London and it was after I was at the same school for 10 years. I went to St. Paul's, and they had the junior school then they have Colet Court as well, so I was ..
JC This is the St. Paul's, the very academic school?
JV Yes it is, you have heard of it then, so yes, I went there for 10 years and I also went to school in Kew and I think once you have done that and you have been with the same group of friends for ten years there is really a .. I had a feeling, in hindsight I don't know how much I felt it then, but it was just I just wanted to move out and Scotland was the best thing. Before I got my A level results I had this crazy idea of going up to Scotland to find myself, you know, I would hitch up, go with my guitar and a tent and sort of …
JC This was because of Scottish ancestry was it?
JV No, but well I think in London you know the idea of hopping off to Scotland is quite a romantic idea I think, but anyway I wanted to come to Scotland and it was Aberdeen or Edinburgh.
JC Most English people head for Edinburgh, so what was the thing about Aberdeen?
JV I have a couple of friends .. Well I did initially apply to Edinburgh, but I didn't unfortunately get in, but it was one of the two, but it is unfortunate that I have an 8 hour journey ever time, if I don't fly, every time I come back here. No it was just the idea of you know, you overdose on London, anonymity, etc. moving away and making a new group of friends. I have an entirely separate group of friends up here as I do down there.
JC Interesting. Is there anyone else from your year at St. Paul's here?
JV There is no one. I got sent a letter recently from the old Pauline Club saying that the numbers, asking me down for an old Pauline event in Edinburgh, and I said . you know saying how many people were there, and there were about about 10 or so in Edinburgh and one in Aberdeen.
JC Maybe you have started a tradition!
JV Yes, exactly! It made me feel quite alone which was a bit sad, but then I am going to Edinburgh next year any way, so I will be amongst Paulines there. But it is funny actually because a lot of my friends they are, it is sort of the Oxbridge crowd and they went to university there wasn't the shift, there just wasn't the change, because they went with friends. A lot of them applied to the same colleges. They already had brothers, they already knew people up there. They had been for interviews and stuff, so it wasn't that much of a shift. They had parents who had went there, just a small move, whereas me, hitching up and going to Scotland, it was just mad! I have always been like that. I have always wanted to do .. Just jump in, you know. I went to America in my second year. I went to the University of Washington under an exchange programme and my friend said to me, I saw him in London, and he said, " Just to understand, you don't know anyone there?" and I said "No", and he said "Just checking". He found that very daunting and I found that sort of exciting.
JC How old were you when you came up?
JV I was nineteen. I took a gap year.
JC Ah, yes. So you had already knocked about for a year.
JV Yes, I had done a bit of work, I did a bit of temping, I went to America for a little bit, went to Greece with some friends and then I came up.
JC So you were travel experienced at least!
JV Yes, a little bit. I had went to Europe and America.
JC Had you visited Aberdeen before you enrolled?
JV No I hadn't.
JC You took us on trust.
JV Yes, I did and the prospectus had some nice pictures and that was it. The Union reps, or whatever, met me and brought me up to my room, from the airport, which was nice of them, but it was still very frightening and intimidating.
JC Although you had a year out and all that travelling?
JV Yeah even though, that was with friends and stuff.
JC So this was a new experience.
JV Sure.
JC Now did you choose English from the beginning? That was your set aim right through. Was it your best subject at school?
JV Yes, it was just the one that .. It was fortunate that I chose English, because when I think back, I think that English was the one thing that I actually enjoyed. I actively enjoyed it, but I didn't know … I wasn't terribly good. It took me until my gap year and sort of my first year at Aberdeen to realise exactly what I wanted to do and English was exactly what I wanted to do and I wanted to take it as far as I could go, or as far as I could take it, so yes, when I chose it I am not sure if I entirely knew too much, you know about what I was doing.
JC English courses are taught in virtually every first year, so how has the particular one here fitted in with your, with what you wanted?
JV What I wanted? I am not sure. I think I made myself do a bunch of Scottish courses because I just managed to get through Aberdeen because I took my second year off, so I managed to get through Aberdeen without having studied much Scottish literature or done any particular Scottish courses. So I managed to get some Burns in this time which was just excellent. But, obviously mad, because you can't quote it in class. I mean how can I quote it?
JC Can't get your tongue round it!
JV Exactly, and I sound like I am being offensive if I try to. So that is tricky. I think, I don't know. It is funny well if I had gone somewhere else, would I have done … But I have just had some superb teachers here.
JC Can you tell me the names of outstanding ones?
JV An outstanding teacher was Professor Peter Davidson. He was ….
JC He has fairly recently arrived as the Regius Chalmers Chair.
JV He was just excellent. We did an Auden course with him and it was just superb, because it was a smaller group, we sat in his office, and it is quite a nice office, because he is a Regius Chalmers Professor, we sat on the floor on cushions and stuff and he would ask us how we were and it was torrents of rain outside and we would do Auden which is just wonderful poetry and his passion for it came through and because we were just sitting on the floor and we just felt… we read the poetry just round the room and things like that. It wasn't, you know, some courses become a bit too abstract, you know the pleasure of the text isn't really there. You could tell, you know. That was a brilliant one. Another one was Professor David Hewitt, his Romanticism course was excellent and I have just done another great Modernism course and things like that.
JC Good. So you enjoyed that?
JV Yes it has been really enjoyable.
JC You are at the literature end of English, not of the linguistic or socio- - this and that end?
JV No, I am much, much more an amateur. No the science of it doesn't, no I am more of the subjective interpretation of everything, rather than the ….
JC High reactor ?
JV Yes, rather than you know in empathising everything.
JC Did you do any of the creative writing courses?
JV I did, I did. I did with Alan Spence, it was just brilliant. It was great fun. It was brilliant you know to have the opportunity to do creative writing, with a published author. We had all been reading his stuff and he would make us write little 5 minute things during the class, which we had to read out. Well we didn't have to, but you know..
JC You were encouraged.
JV Yes, we were encouraged to read them out, so that was always pretty brilliant fun. I got 19 for that so I am quite happy with that, because he thought I was quite a good writer.
JC And were you?
JV Well I hope so. I have been writing a lot recently.
JC Have you ever had anything published?
JV I shall do in the Creative Writing Society. In fact the historians in years to come may look up, hopefully, my piece called "Me and You" which is a short story which is in the, or will be, if they get it organised, the Creative Writing Soc. Magazine.
JC Good. Well done you.
JV Thank you.
JC And what else on the sort of literary scene? Have you found enough things happening round Aberdeen to support your interests in literature and English? You went to the WORD festival no doubt?
JV Well, unfortunately basically the WORD festival was on at exactly the same moment as my last ever essay paper at the university was due! It was a nightmare. It was due in on the Friday and I had been up all night and I had been on enough caffeine to kill a horse. I was just crazy and I was doing this Shelley paper. You know if you spend so long doing a paper you don't quite understand. You can't quite objectively judge whether it is any good, and I was going mad, so I missed the favourite person I wanted to see, which was Ali Smith.
JC Yes, she was a student in Johnston Hall.
JV Oh, so you knew her?
JC Yes.
JV So she is wonderful, but I missed her unfortunately. So I got it in at 5 minutes to 5 which I thought it was a sloppy end to my academic career and I was terrified it was going to get a 9. If it got a 9 all my hopes for a 2:1 were dashed. You know.
JC There is a short piece by Ali in today's "Times".
JV Oh really. Excellent. I shall get that. That is brilliant.
JC Fascinating. Good. Apart from English what else did you study? Of course in first year you would have done at least two other subjects. You had to do something else in second year as well.
JV Well I did - well 2nd year I was away. I did some art in America. Yes. I was in Seattle. I did French. I choose French, which was kind of a surprise as I had to study something else.
JC You were not prepared?
JV No I wasn't, but I was always good at French but it was a crazy, I was telling someone earlier on today about it. I t was a crazy crash course in French. You started off ..
JC Oh this was beginner's French?
JV This was Introduction French, but when I say introduction, it started off extremely basic, you were conjugating I, by the end of 12 weeks you were on to the subjunctive and you were doing …. I was far too relaxed and I was you know , I know all this, and I used the future tense and they told me not to because you are not supposed to know that. I was off ill for a week and I came back after a week and they were all pals. And I said, "What are you doing"? And they were all calling each other by their first names, and I kept saying "What is happening in this class?!". It was actually in here, in New Kings, and it was good fun. I have always been better at speaking than I was at writing. I passed just by the skin of my teeth. But it was good fun and I got to do Film Studies in first year as well which was brilliant because we used to hop off from Hillhead and wander off through Seaton and go and watch "Taxi Driver" or "Durassic Park" or something like that. It was brilliant.
JC Good. And the choices outside English, were you making them yourself or were you guided at all by your adviser of studies? As it is one of the first things that happens when you arrive is you are allocated an adviser. I don't know who yours was?
JV Mine was Robert Miller, but .. in first year I think they know… well I always, when I came I knew that I was going to do a four year degree English Honours. No messing around with that, but a lot of people didn't and he, Robert helped me when I was applying to do Seattle, because I had to get a thing to say, and of course I had to have good enough marks that they knew that I was going to get into honours, because the second year marks didn't count. So they didn't want me to go off there and do nothing for a year. But a lot of people I know have changed courses. Put it this way, out of a group of 20, it will only be 10 of us who are graduating this year. My friend Brendan met me afterwards, and said that he should have been graduating too, but he changed courses. And he took a year out in fact, but all my friends have changed courses.
JC The ones who have changed here do not lose any time at all.
JV Well no , but I think Tina, my friend Tina spent a year doing Law but finally she wanted to do Psychology, so essentially she is graduating a year on. So it is funny but no - I just picked the courses I wanted to do. You have to pick the courses 6 or 12 week courses, and I just found the 6 weeks were just .. because I wanted to study as many different things as possible and I found I couldn't do justice much….
JC How many did you chalk up?
JV I don't know, 14 in the past few years. Oh, in the past year. For first and second didn't really count. French I was doing all these funny ones, like Introduction to Grammar, Introduction to Fiction and Poetry and these were all actually things that I had covered in A level and I was told when I came that I could skip a year and go straight into 2nd year because I had done A level English. And first year was…
JC But you decided against that.
JV Yes. Because I wouldn't have been able to go to America you see, because I would have only spent two years in Aberdeen and they wouldn't have allowed that. So I chose not to. Which was definitely the right decision. Small town university, which I really enjoyed.
JC What was the American experience like. I know it is not strictly Aberdeen but was it a plus?
JV It was absolutely wonderful. It was spectacular. It was just so different. I had some brilliant teachers there. They teach in ….everybody is a lot more, I don't know how to put it, but it is a classic American idea of everybody putting up their hands, you know all the time, you know participating more and even in English Honours you have people sitting round a table, having stunned silences and things like that. Exactly. I found .. you know Americans are renowned for being slightly outspoken so they are all you know .. I love that sort of thing. There is so much more money in America. I mean these people, these college kids have.. because their parents obviously have to be rich to send them to college, so they have college funds, they have TV, they have cars and everything and you know drive and the campus it was .. Microsoft was a big thing over there in Seattle, so there was a whole building named Mary Gates, named after Bill Gate's mother I think. But it was just brilliant. And I had a girlfriend over there and it was difficult to leave, and our class is entirely different.
JC Okay, back to the beginning at Aberdeen then, if we may, you arrived as a complete stranger, you got your academic life sorted out. You stayed in a Hall?
JV I did. I stayed in Wavell, in Hillhead.
JC How was that?
JV It was just a brilliant experience. I think that my social group had possibly better experiences than other people in Halls.
JC Why was that?
JV Well, we have remained friends. The same group of people from Halls, we have always remained friends since. I came there and I was terrified and I walked out of my room and I was just going to the bathroom or something and on the wall was this sheet of paper and it just said , "Singer/Songwriter looking for band, looking for keyboard, guitarist" So I met him, and it was Brendan and we have been friends ever since.
JC Just like that!
JV You know playing guitar and things like that. We were just getting hideously drunk all the time. I mean first year wasn't too much. English, all the arts things in the afternoon, I mean they were at 2 - 3 in the afternoon. I had friends who were getting up at 9 if they were doing sciences. It was madness.
JC But you could stay in bed.
JV Yes, we could stay in bed.
JC So you stayed up all night?
JV Absolutely. It was crazy. First year was just crazy.
JC But fun?
JV Yes, I couldn't have hoped for better.
JC Second year got a bit more sort of sober did they? Where did you live then?
JV I was living in halls in America.
JC Of course! So then when you came back?
JV When I came back I had friends called Ian and Adam and they sorted me out with accommodation while I had been away. So I came back and moved into this flat that I hadn't seen before but it was very nice and we were on Park Street. So just a hop down King Street to university.
JC And last year?
JV This year I was living in Bedford Road, just round the corner, with some friends. In a house actually, but student accommodation.
JC So you have been okay for accommodation.
JV Yup. Yes it has been alright. It has been okay.
JC Now how about the ways in which, apart from English and your places of residence, what have been your networks for getting touch with people for forming circles of friends? Societies?
JV Apart from .. I have been an active member of Centre Stage for the past year. It is brilliant, but it is entirely separate from my other good friends. ButCentre Stage and the Drama Society, well I started that when I auditioned for "Breakfast Club". I heard at the beginning of the year and I got into that and I was one of the main parts. I was the geek, I was Brian! And that got performed in the Union. It was really sweet. We did it in The Factory. It was just great, just turned it into a theatre. And that was great fun. You know the camaraderie when you do something like that. Then I produced and acted in "Hurly Burly" by David Rabe. And we did that up at Hilton Campus and that was really tricky as it was a really huge play to do. And then I was recently in "Dr. Faustus", which we did at the Lemon Tree.
JC Very different.
JV Yes. I played a clown in that.
JC So you have had quite a lot of experience.
JV Yes. I am amazed that I have managed. There was a time when I was doing "Hurly Burly", when I was producing it and it was just… There was dissertations to think about and I was trying to do all that as well and I was getting ill and I had a part time job as well.
JC Oh what was that?
JV Well I worked for the University. I phoned up alumini …
JC You are one of the cold-callers!
JV Yes I am. One of those! And I just get rapport with them and I just ask them if they would like to make a donation to the University.
JC Have you done that right through?
JV I have done that since third year. I had to give up after a while as the shifts were, it is sort of three hour shifts, because there is only a small period you can call people in.
JC What sort of reception have you received from the people you have called?
JV I am quite good at my job! I am quite good at, was quite good at my job. A lot of them are quite angry about King's College Library.
JC They are still worrying about that, are they? Interesting.
JV I could see their point, but I am not allowed to say that, as I was an ambassador for the University and stuff, but I did actually go and have a look at it. I went to the old library and had a look. As they were waxing lyrically about it .. and I went and had a look and it just does look beautiful and it does seem a bit of a shame that it is now a café.
JC Yes, indeed. But I gather it is going to turn into our MBA Centre next autumn. Something like that.
JV Really, do the donators get wined and dined or something?
JC No, for teaching Business Studies!
JV Oh sorry. I see.
JC But that is in the future. One doesn't know for sure.
JV It just strikes me as funny that a university that wears 1498 or whatever it is on it cuff…
JC 1495.
JV 1495 I apologise!
JC Not at all. I once forgot in the middle of a television broadcast!
JV Really!
JC Yes I forgot when the University was founded. We all collapsed. Luckily it wasn't live!
JV But for a University to wear this on its cuff it just seems strange that it does.. I think it has made some strange decisions over the years.
JC Have you been much involved as it were, in University politics?
JV Not really. Well I mean, there is nothing you can do but be a bit cynical about it. There is not a lot that can be done. The powers that be that will always …
JC You were never tempted to stand for student office or anything like that?
JV Far too much done. Far too lazy to accomplish something like that. No I was never particularly interested in politics.
JC Let's broaden out from that point then to ask you what your impressions of - quote- what students are? I mean for example one thing that is often said about students is that they are very apathetic, politically, and I mean both in the internal sense, within the University and nationally. You know British students as compared with, for example, European students, they are very un-political or apolitical. Is that true in your experience or not? You lived recently after all through the Iraq War business.
JV Well I am probably sticking my neck out here, but I was always quite right wing about the Iraq War and my friends weren't. They went to a …. Friends of mine went to marches and there was a thing in Castle Street. There was a … but you know I think when you expect students to … I was a bit sad as I was walking past King's College and I saw "students against a War" or something , but there was only 4 or 5 people milling there, but I think those students when they want to be, when it comes to .. I think.. I kind of think about Berkley and that sort of thing, that crazy left- wing, which would kind of exciting being in a campus that was …
JC More engaged?
JV Yes more engaged with, perhaps with what is going on. But and then again when you know, you have got however many people marched in London. At lot of those have got to be students, but they have a particular student movement. When it was happening, it was in the Ref., Central Ref, there were a lot of people handing out flyers. I mean it was always debated amongst our social group but when you say politics, you mean a students …
JC No, I mean did people talk about politics?
JV Yes, absolutely.
JC Even if they didn't bother to go out and vote and so on?
JV No it has always been debated. And you know one of us will make an absurdly left or right-wing comment , but it is always on out minds.
JC Interesting. Although you weren't studying politics or anything like that at University.
JV But it was on the news everyday. It is funny it has been a crazy time to live in the past and it is still not over by any means.
JC And what about the other student stereotypes. We are told that they are politically apathetic, which you have suggested is not wholly true. What about the drunkenness, the drugs, the promiscuity bit. What would you reflect on those issues? A certain amount of drunkenness I would gather?
JV Yes, there is a lot of drunkenness, there is a lot of drug taking and there is quite a lot of promiscuity as well! So …
JC So the stereotypes are right!
JV But I wouldn't say there was anything wrong with any of those things. I mean ….
JC Do most people stop after 2nd year? Getting smashed every night ..
JV Getting smashed every night, I think so. Also, I think, your body says no, no. no.
JC I am getting too old for this sort of thing!
JV Exactly. I am only 22, what's going, bloody hell! But yeah. You know, your course means a lot to more to you and you can't do it. There was this thing called Disco 2. It was on a Thursday at The Palace, formerly the Palace now Liquid. I had a Friday 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock and I just couldn't do it! What is the point if you are going there to work at a tutorial and you are just sitting there and you can't say anything because you are too tired, and you are just thinking you want to be in bed, so I am not doing that for a 10 o'clock. Maybe do it for a 12 o'clock, not a 10 o'clock. But the stereotypes are all true. It depends what social group are in. I think you tend to be birds of a feather, with people who do the same things as you do, you know.
JC Did you find that you had many friends who did very different things? I mean, for example, were you friendly with any medics? Or engineers, or ..
JV God knows, funny you should mention that, but no.
JC None at all?
JV No. It just occurred to me, no. We were all mostly ..
JC You were all Arts and Social Sciences.
JV Yes, they were all quite artsy. Yeah that's quite funny, it is maybe because we are all slackers! I am not ..
JC No I think it is the size of the University. When the University was much smaller, you know, people mixed across faculty boundaries more easily, but I think that is less common now. Particularly with the medics, you know, up at Foresterhill, they are not here.
JV No, not here. That is odd. I have friends who did Sociology and Psychology. Yeah.
JC But not even a soft science, not even a Biology!
JV Not even a biology. No. I must get out and get some biology friends!
JC That is a gap in your life!
JV Fill the gap.
JC I am thinking again about general university experience. Did you find the levels of support in the various kinds of facilities, like library, computing, student health, counselling, all this sort of stuff. Were they all okay from your point of view?
JV Yes, computing facilities were okay …
JC Were you computer literate when you came?
JV Yes I was, I have always been, especially since going to Seattle, but you know, Edward Wright is not particularly attractive, and the Queen Mother is even worse, you know Hall health was good , but it is such a shame because there are so many students and you find the Campus is often marred with certain buildings, it is obvious which ones they are.
JC Hideous!
JV And it is such a shame, you know, but again I can tell you have got to build these buildings, and you don't have much money, so they have got to be … but when you see them upgrading the Registry with the upgrade they are giving, you just think why, where is the money going! I mean I didn't go to the library nearly as much as I should have done. I went, got my books, and left. I preferred to work at home.
JC You didn't like the atmosphere. You preferred to go back to your own room.
JV Yeah, I have a laptop and I can sit on my bed and have everything spread around me in a big sort of arc. No I found it all …but for me the University has been about the courses, just getting the courses and the teachers. The people on the courses, you know just learning. For me it was never the degree, the end result was never … it has been a bit of an anti-climax. The degree result was never what I was in it for. I was in it for the actual process of English, actually focussing the mind. It actually changes the way you think. I am always learning from the criticism and the authors I read and that sort of thing. So it was never a means to an end, it was the process. It was continuous.
JC So it worked well for you?
JV Yes. Well I hope so.
JC Is there anything that we haven't discussed that you would have liked to, or you would like to read into the record, bearing in mind the purpose of this interview.
JV Well I am not sure, I just .. I wish there is some way I can convey what it is like living in Aberdeen. It is .. at the moment where I am living it is just down on King Street, and it is like living ….because of the size of the University and because it is .. it is like living on a holiday camp. It reminds me of when I used to go to the South of France when I was 16 with my parents, you know meeting a few French girls, but without the French girls! But everything … because you just pop across the road to friends and have a cup of tea here and have a cup of tea there. Watch an episode of "Spaced".
JC Everything is within walking distance. Which is fairly unusual for a modern university.
JV And there is casuality about it about meeting people on Campus and just popping out on to the lawn and just lying there. And it is nice because .. you have Oxbidge and the different quads and stuff, but that is the only quad, not the one in King's College, because you can't sit on that as it is gated around to prevent any such thing ever happening. But the lawn is just where …is something really lovely about being able to saunter around with people. So obviously the thing is to say that that is importantbecause that is how I remember my university days. That sort of thing ..
JC The Old Aberdeen experience we are talking about. That is interesting.
JV Getting a sandwich from … I only found out the other day there was a … in the Ref. they have the downstairs part but at the top they have upstairs part where people are allowed to smoke. I don't smoke, but it just the best place as the juke box is always on absurdly loud and it is always playing something like Oasis! There is pool and people are drinking and it is just like walking into a club. Another world and everybody is there and everybody meets and not too many people know about it! That's the place.
JC So I get the impression by and large it has been a very good experience for you ?
JV Yes, and one that I will never forget. And it is hasn't sunk in that I am leaving It is only sinking in. You only miss it when it is gone. That is a true saying . But I am actually sort of missing it already. The nostalgia.
JC Before we wander too much there is one question I haven't asked you, which I should have done, and that is money! How have you managed ….
JV Well poorly at the moment I am afraid.
JC Yes, you said you were skint!... Okay we are now beginning side two of this tape and we were just beginning to discuss the question of your finance. Both to James personal finance and to the question of finance more widely if you wish.
JV The tragic state of my personal finances. I mean I didn't have a clue about money when I came to university. They told us not to get a credit cards, I went and got a credit card. You know. I think it depends, I think students on the whole wouldn't be as, I am being brutally honest here and I really shouldn't say this, but the Government will hear about it, but I think the students would have enough money were they more careful with it. I think if I was certainly more careful I would have had enough. You leave in debt, but again then again I think you would have been in debt either way. I am ignoring the fact that you are in debt, because I haven't had to start paying my debt back to Student Loan Company, but it is my opinion that I think there …
JC About how much are you carrying as debt as you leave university? I gather that the average is about £10,000. But I don't know where you stand either side of that.
JV I will be about £12,000. £12 -£13, something like that.
JC And what sources of income have you had as a student.
JV I have had a parental income.
JC You have had a parental income, which would have helped.
JV But I didn't have the income assessed loan. I had the smaller loan which is £275 for the year and they give it to you. I mean it shouldn't be in three lumps. I don't understand why it is in three … It should be split up into smaller amounts because it is just like .. and the moment you get your loan you go out for dinner and the pub .. We recently did the Ale Challenge, on the day we got the loan, in the Prince of Wales. We drank all seven ales. All eight ales in fact, there were eight! That was ace! I can't remember the last 3! So that is what it goes on. It has been difficult. I had a part-time job and stuff. You just get used to being poor.
JC Has it been a problem for you and your friends? I mean is this a topic among students "How poor we all are". Or is it something you don't talk about?
JV Well I mean you are only poor if you consider the debt that you have and I don't wander round everyday thinking I am £12,000 in debt, because it just doesn't occur to you. I mean you will have to pay it back but it is not that …. So you are not poor on a strange ethereal level you are not poor you are getting money from them, but of course you are getting more and more in debt. I don't think I have ever seen a day when my bank card is not overdrawn. But in some ways you feel like you have money. You do have money and a lot of things are cheap. You do know where to go to get cheap food. A lot of things are cheaper for students. But obviously you are poor and if you took a step back you would say "Oh my god, how much money!"
Do you see what I mean?
JC It is like living in a slightly false economy.
JV Exactly. It is like a the dot commas, you think you are going up but you are not. There is nothing there. Of course if will all crash when the Student Loan Company gives me a wee bell!
JC They won't do that until you are earning a decent wage.
JV That is the thing, that is why I don't think it is really that bad. It wont' do until the money … and it will only be what I can afford to pay back. I think it should be grants but I think it is….. I think people put too much money …. Worse than me because I send letters back to my mother and tell I am a very poor student and she send me £20 and that sort of thing.
JC That tides you over?
JV Exactly. Well it does and you have more food to buy.
JC She has come up for your graduation, has she?
JV No she hasn't, I am afraid.
JC What a pity. Did you have any supporters?
JV I did. I had a couple of friends in there who cheered when I graduated.
JC Jolly good.
JV But she couldn't make and my father was in the Ukraine, and he couldn't make it either, which is a shame. But it is just a ceremony. As I say it is a bit of an anti-climax. My friend called me today he has just graduated today in Psychology and he said there was a bit of an anti-climax as well. I could hear it in his voice.
JC That is a shame, because it should be a fun ceremony.
JV It was. It was fun but then you know I will be out of here, I will leave by the first exit!
JC Well, is there anything we haven't covered, when I remembered about money, is there anything I missed that you would have wished to talk about?
JV I don't think so. It depends what we would want to move onto.
JC I think we have covered all there is about the University, that people would want to know about. How you spent your time, how you lived, how you got by financially. How much you did or didn't enjoy the courses. How you made friends. These are all the details which nobody writes down anywhere.
JV Exactly. I think the best thing about Aberdeen has been the social life. All the nights out and the craziness.
JC Well that is a nice note to end on. Crazy Aberdeen. I like it!
JV Crazy Aberdeen.
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