En Francais, sil vous plait??

The strange machinations of the mind immediately upon submission of the TMA.  What do other students do on that particular night, I wonder?

I would hazard a guess that some people read, re-read and read over again their submission, till they are in a blind panic state!

For me, however, finishing a TMA almost always triggers the 'what next' vibe.  So I find myself perusing the course descriptions for whatever I am fancying next.  Well, as you know, I had decided that 'next' is likely to be the mandatory Level 1 from the prescribed list.  So off I go down the list to see what the options are.  There appear to be an abundance of Business Studies courses (yawn), a couple of maths ones (nope - been there with S151, learned my lesson and won't repeat the experience).  Unfortunately the only IT one is a 60-pointer which, as well as giving me 30 more points than I would need, would also be out of my budget, there's a hefty financial jump between the world of 30 and the world of 60-pointers.

But languages...hmm ..there are lots of language courses.  So my current front-runner is 'L192 - Bon Depart - Beginners' French'.  I did a GCSE at night school about 16 years ago and loved it and came out with decent results, so I think it might be just the course for me.  And as a foreign language, I think it might not let my mind slip entirely back into Level 1 thinking, so that after Graduation Phase 1, I can still think hard enough to get back to those final two Level 3 courses aka The Honours Part (courses yet to be decided as the syllabus is changing so I'm hoping there may be new things out there that take my eye by the time I need to make that decision).

Au revoir mon cheries!!  

Welcome To The New Normal

..or the first attempts at 'New Normal' at least.

The life/work/study week used to work something like this:

• Mon - cram an hour of study in after work and before heading to folk club.
• Tue - cram an hour of study in after Weight Watchers meeting which was after work.
• Wed - night off from study, off to share crafts and lots of nattering with my best friend
• Thur - a decent 2-3 of hours study on the night time after catching up on lost housework in the day
• Fri - a bit like Thursday but maybe not so intense
• Sat - alternating between resisting study and having a day/night off, and mad panic where half the day gets spent at the books
• Sun - a bit like Saturday but only on a night time.

In between this of course there is the cramming in of extras in the bath, and, prior to my last job where I was getting a lift to work, cramming in extras on the bus journey.

The 'New Normal' seems to look a bit like this:

• Mon - read for 2-3 hours on the commute to and from work, collapse on the sofa till folk club time
• Tue - read 2-3 hours on the commute, collapse on the sofa till about bedtime
• Wed - read 2-3 hours on the commute, collapse on the sofa till craft time 
• Thur - a couple of hours during the day, then a mad panic to catch up on lost housework from all the sofa-collapsing earlier in the week
• Fri - just like Thursday but, having caught up a bit, an hour or two in daytime and 2 or 3 on the night
• Sat - much like the 'old' Saturday but with more tiredness
• Sun - same as the old Sunday I guess

(I'm only guessing, of course, that this is the New Normal.  In Reality nothing is ever Normal for long enough to become officially Normality - we only need one missing link in the chain and chaos ensues)

There may actually be more physical time spent studying in the New Normal. I certainly seem to have to pay more attention to structuring the time.  But doing less on an evening just feels wrong so far - It just doesn't feel Normal yet!

Life, the Universe and Everything

If only I knew the answer.

42.

No, not quite!!  Currently wishing that I could reverse the order of the numbers of the hours in the day though and make it 42 instead of 24!!.  (did I tell you about the new job?).

The job comes with a hefty extra commute, and with it a new puzzle.  How to fit in life?

The first couple of weeks of the job have been manic, and we haven't quite found 'the new normal' as I have dubbed it.  I've tried to attempt normality today by doing some study on the bus and train.  The reading part has gone OK, but obviously evaluating websites etc is something I am going to need to do at home, when it's quieter.  So a bit of jiggery-pokery required to Thursdays,Fridays and Saturdays, methinks so that I can get that kind of study in.

Hoping I can assimilate all of this before the TMA is due on the 18th though!

But if you ever find an app that makes for more hours in the day, please let me know!!