Seachain an duine a bhíonn ina thost

I've been reading Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. I needed something nice and gentle to re-engage my brain which I had done such a good job of switching off. I thought to myself 'Ah, Bill Bryson. The very fellow. He writes in a nice easy-reading, witty style'.

But as I plough my way through the weighty tome I'm feeling quite overwhelmed by the mighty task dear old Bill undertook. How on earth has he managed to take the history of multiple scientific disciplines over several hundred years and turned it into an extremely readable narrative? I'm sometimes stumped by structuring 3000 word essays; I can't even begin to imagine the immense task of sitting down and figuring out how to tell the story of the world in a logical and interesting order.

The huge amount of research he's done is quite mind-boggling too (although Dad points out that he did have a research team). Imagine just sitting down and trying to make sense of countless scientific papers: it's like mastering a zillion different disciplines. Well, not mastering, perhaps, but getting enough of a grasp to be able to draw conclusions without sounding like an idiot.

In other news, I've been researching postgraduate study options. I don't know whether to go for the precise course I want in Britain or one that isn't quite right but is in France, which would allow me to learn two things at once. Hmmmm. MAs in France take two years, and I only want to spend one more year studying. At least for now.

Even within Britain I'm confronted with difficult decisions. Do I want to do an MA in Radio Production? Or do I want an MA in Radio? Radio Production is more practical and in Bournemouth, while Radio is more theoretical and in London. I wouldn't really like to live in London, but maybe I could enjoy it for a few years and get a good (temporary) job with the BBC before coming back to lovely Ireland.

Or do I perhaps want to do a sort of joint honours MA in Radio and Print Journalism? I'm not so much into the journalism side of radio, although I really like print journalism, and it could be quite fun combining the two disciplines. Most courses combine radio and TV, and I really don't have any interest at all in TV.

Oh, decisions decisions. Good thing I have a year to decide.