The Passion

The Passion. Should be interesting…

Long Time No See Again!

How fast is time passing these days!!! It’s crazy.

It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and I had a great day. My sister bought me a hot air balloon ride but I’ve got to wait until April because of the weather. I’m so excited though!

2.5 weeks into my Christmas holidays and despite working pretty hard I’m nowhere near as organised as I’d hoped to be. I’ve decided to have just one aim for the remaining 1.5 weeks and that’s to write a 2000 word history essay. That must get done and anything else that gets completed, I’m going to class as a bonus.

Have not been dancing for a loooong time. Starting to get a bit worried/upset about it now because I really don’t want to lose it.

Hope you all had a great Christmas. I had a wonderful time. I only started feeling Christmassy on the 16th when I went carol singing in the freezing cold with 30 or 40 others but then it just kept coming. The Christmas services on the 23rd, 24th and 25th that I went to were all good, simple but I hope effective, and it was great to see so many new faces - especially on Christmas Eve when the church was packed with people from all ages and backgrounds. Family-wise we did well two. We went to one set of grandparents for afternoon tea on Christmas Eve and the other set came over for a superb lasagne lunch on Boxing Day. I liked all of my presents: the best was front-row tickets to see Strictly Come Dancing Live on Tour next year and the smallest was a ring.

I’ve been invited out tonight but I’m not sure that I actually want to go. I’m not sure what to do so will ask the family’s advice over dinner.

Long Time No See

Woah, has it been that long since I’ve been on here! Uni has sort of taken over my life in this last month but in a good way because I’m really enjoying it so far. The workload is noticably increased and I tend to get a little on edge a couple of times a week about my abilities to get through it all and unfortunately my family are just waiting in the firing line of my anger (wanted a slightly less powerful word there but couldn’t think of one). I try to control my mouth as much as possible and spend as much time at uni as I can on the days that I need to be in to make the most of the quiet library.

This week has been a bit more relaxed because one of my seminars was cancelled. I’ve thus had a bit of catch up time although not enough - on top of my usual workload I’m supposed to be writing an essay at the moment. The topic is the relationship between gender and nation in the First World War. I thought it was impossible at first, especially since I didn’t understand the question, but I did my first bit of reading for it today and actually found it quite engaging.

Dancing’s not been so good lately. My module on Victorians is on the same night as my dance class so I can’t make it there any more and Adele seems a little reluctant to go to another class on a Wednesday. Also, I’m just so tired of an evening, the last thing I want to do is dance! However, I’m going to a social dance tomorrow night, so that should be good.

I’m going away for the weekend soon with the CU from uni and I’m really looking forward to it. It’ll be nice to get away and break up this long autumn term. I’ve got a fair few (self-imposed) study deadlines before that though, so I need to keep focused.

My sister has been running an evening course in Beginner’s IT for OAPs these last three weeks and after a disastorous first lesson, I’ve been going along to help out. I’m really enjoying it and I think it’s confirming my intentions of going into teaching. However, it is so difficult to explain those things that we take for granted in IT. One lady in the group inserted some text into a prepared word document, as was instructed in the task sheet, and, when she’d completed it, she asked me how to get rid of the flashing cursor. I asked her why she wanted to get rid of it and she replied because she’d finished that task and didn’t need it anymore. I explained that it would keep flashing there until she moved it to the appropriate place for the next task and she couldn’t understand why it should do that. I couldn’t think what else to say! Next week we’re moving on to spreadsheets and I can see that that will be a complete nightmare for them.

Uni Update - Regulations and Finance

It’s now looking likely that uni regulations will not stop me from studying full-time if I want to. The financial support will though.

Because I would be studying full-time, all of the usual grants that I get would disappear off the face of the earth and, instead, I would be considered like all of the other poor sausages in the education factory and be subjected to loans and financial hardship. The tuition fees would amount to about £1600 this year and a repayable loan would cover this but after two years of grants, it hardly seems worth increasing my rate of study to have this figure hovering over my head. In effect, the one extra module taking me from a 75% rate of study to a 100% rate would be costing me £1600 but if I were to stick at my 3 module/75% system, all expenses would be covered by the grant.

There is a £1000 grant up for grabs for full-timers but this takes your parents financial circumstances into account. Due to this, I would be entitled to very little of this money. The advantage of going part-time is that they only consider your finances (and you’re partner’s if you have one, which I don’t).

I’m guessing the only real option is to remain part-time. I’ll keep you updated.

University Frustrations

It’s taken me two and a half months to decide how many and which modules I want to do this year. The plan is to do a full-time year to get things moving a bit so that I can get the whole degree done in four years.

So I drove all the way to uni for a twenty minute meeting to discuss my plans and get things updated. However, I got nothing sorted. It seems that it is not in the regulations for a part-time student to do any full-time study during their degree, despite having these exact words in front of me in an email I was sent in 2005 when I first started uni. Apparently, the rules have changed and no one was kind enough to let us know.

The lady I spoke to understood why I wanted to go full-time this year and said that she’d take up my case and do everything in her power to let me have my way. I really hope so. She said she probably won’t get back to me until after the Bank Holiday though, so I’m going to be on edge the whole time thinking about it!

Back to Nature

I was rather bored after breakfast this morning, waiting for the parents to get themselves ready for our morning walk. I was watching mum putting the washing out when I spotted the apple tree up the garden and remembered Alan Titchmarsh’s column in the Radio Times this week, which said this was the time to start harvesting. So I got a bag and put some shoes on and went to pick apples in the sunshine. It is a great experience and it’s amazing how many apples you get on one small tree. I picked the largest and healthiest fruit, which amounted to one quarter of the tree, and these alone will keep the family going for a week! I’ll have to juice them to get through them. I’ll see if anymore are ready in the next couple of days.

Then I decided to eat one (I often have apples as part of my breakfast), so I washed one and cut away the only small bad bit. It was a wonderful feeling as I first bit into the fruit and heard a satisfyingly loud crunch in response. To think this apple was grown in my own garden! I ate a little more but have to admit I wasn’t sure that I liked the taste much. So I gave dad a bit to try. He just said that it was incredibly tasty; probably a more powerful taste than I was used to. He also agreed that it was a little bitter or sour. As a result, I cut the rest of the apple into slices and sprinkled them with sugar before eating them. What a treat! I think I shall prepare some apples for tea by putting them in the fridge this afternoon, and then slicing them and sprinkling sugar on them just before serving.

There is a real buzz about eating something from the garden. You suddenly realise how wonderful nature is and how food is more than a packaged item in a supermarket. If only we had some more home-grown food!

The Railway Children

I finished reading this excellent book a couple of days ago and loved it. I would highly recommend it to anyone. Full report can be found in my Reading Diary (link on the right hand side).

Wisdom Tooth Report

Wisdom Tooth killed for 4 days but I haven’t had any pain since. It hasn’t actually come through yet but there is now a massive lump under the gum where it’ll come through eventually.

Wisdom Tooth

A great pain arrived in my mouth on Wednesday and I became worried that the super-sensitivity might be due to all the sugary drinks etc. that I’ve been having lately. However, yesterday it became obvious that the pain did not indicate the need for a filling but announced the arrival of a newbe in my mouth. He is not making a smooth entry either. He’s killing me! I’m living off paracetemol and becoming quickly irritable and moody. I’m convinced my other two wisdom teeth did not cause this much pain but hopefully it’ll only last a few days. Wish me luck.  

Reflections on Deathly Hallows

After publishing my review in my Reading Diary, I wondered if I had been a bit harsh and thus began investigating other reviews of the book. I picked Amazon and I’m amazed to see how some people have pulled the book to pieces! Many people were far more disappointed than I was! 

The perusal also raised some other weaknesses of the plot, which I’d not thought of before. However, I have learnt something from this. If I go searching for negativity it will affect my own thoughts, which will themselves deteriorate. Then my opinion will have altered so much as to no longer represent my true feelings as they were when I first finished the book. This is unfair. Therefore, I have decided to accept my own thoughts, be them positive or negative, and, as my mum would say, ‘not go looking for trouble’.