One to go...

Well thankfully having stuck to the plan of attack that worked for me last assignment, TMA02 is all completed and submitted, and I have survived to tell the tale.  The washing basket is under control, we seem to be working well as a team in that area with no sock left behind..

Which leaves just the final TMA in this course, and of course the exam (watch this space on the exam and whether I can actually attend...).

And then again just one to go ...one more module between me and BSc Open (Hons).  Having perused the available courses (there are now an additional 3 to choose from), I'm still quite settled at present at the idea of TM351 - Data Management & Analysis, database work being the one major gap in my technical know-how.  Mind you, a few months down the line when I have been training in the 'real world', that gap may not be so wide, and another option may creep in.

If I'm honest, I also like the thought that TM351 has an End of Module Assessment rather than an exam at the end of it all - so when it's done, it's done.

And then when it's done, what then?  Well for that I have to admit I don't know - a lot will depend on how the software developer training goes, whether I am then let out in the world as a trained IT Ninja Monkey.  I guess if I have truly earned my banana, then I will be learning every day at work, from what I gather the life of a software developer is a constantly changing one, that needs a lifelong commitment to learning.

My OU journey has certainly been at least partially responsible for the new challenges I'm about to embark on, and for that I will be eternally both grateful to the OU and proud of myself for having the guts to stick with it.  Bring it on....and I'll let you know more in the next couple of weeks!!

Frazzles and 'pressing pause' and 'pressing fast forward'

...no not the good old bacon-flavoured potato snack:

(hmmm....bacon)

Sorry, where was I?

Oh yes in the midst of everything, and feeling a tad frazzled by it all.

I have a few more 'knowns' to fill out the information, I now have confirmed dates and locations for training.  So why all the frazzling?

Well one of the most intensive periods of the training happens to be right around the date of my OU exam for this course, with a complete ban on 'time off' during classroom periods.  So I am faced once again with the possibility of having to 'press pause' on my studies - known as 'Assessment Banking' - this is a way to save your progress so far in the module and then complete the rest in the next presentation of the course.  I'm not quite prepared to ask that question before the training begins, so it's a kind of 'find out the details and the how to do it' beforehand, with great hopes that I don't actually have to use the facility.

I've come so far and am SO close to the end of the OU journey that it's massively frustrating if I can't sit the exam, but on the other hand the Software Developer opportunity is the chance that I've been journeying towards, so I know it would be the right move.

My weight-loss journey also needs adjustments to fit in with the new plans, not a major thing in the grand scheme of things but another thing to have to 'organise'.

And finally...It all begins at the end of next week - so of course I would like to just be able to press 'fast-forward' on life and get there quickly, so I can iron out the remaining unknowns and just be on that Brand New Journey.

Speaking of which - therein (finally) may lie the potential contents of 'Page 2' - I think the OU/Washing Basket journey and the Software journey, inextricably linked though they may be, could warrant separate spaces in my blog?

Confident in a Crisis?

Not really study related, or particularly washing-basket, but just having one of those 'Is it just me?' days and thought I would share.



Being in the middle of a difficult tech chat, I was sure and certain at first of my stance, but as the call wore on so my confidence started to slip.  I got the manager to check my thinking and was vindicated, but still it left me shaken,  I thought I had left that old demon of self-doubt behind?

Wild Blue Yonder?

And to be honest too, blogpeeps, a lack of confidence in my blog of late, and in whether it actually takes my Washing Basket out beyond the doors and into the Wild Blue Yonder?  My initial thoughts with regards to audience were fellow OU students and distance learners as well as the frustrated home-makers such as myself who lusted for a life beyond the Basket, but maybe they're all busy actually studying and have no time to procrastinate while reading my inane ramblings?

(I've got such a big set of changes coming up, and SOOOOO much to learn (a 59-page document detailing the 'overview' of the Software Developer training arrived in my inbox today - gulp!!).  Not to mention OU assignments to plan and complete, tutorials to attend etc - you get the idea, right?).  It just made me wonder where my confidence levels will be, or need to be, to succeed in this massive undertaking.  Can I display the person that I need to be on the outside?

I think I just need to put a few more 'knowns' into the bag - the 'overview' has arrived before the confirmation of when and where the course, and subsequent placements etc, will be.  And of course because I'm somewhat 'blazing the trail' as a lower-grade applicant, I'm maybe not in the same position even at the end as my compatriots on the course.  So many questions to which I have no solid answers yet.

So for the moment I just have to keep doing what I'm doing, trying to make steady progress on the TMA.  Tick - it's actually going pretty well to plan, even if sometimes reading the material does feel like wading through treacle!!  (note to self - nobody likes treacle in the Washing Basket...)