Busy, busy

Sorry about the lack of postings over the past week.  I've been a tad busy.

I came up to Edinburgh on Saturday to stay with mum for a few days and to catch up with some friends from the Open University, one of whom I've previously only known online.  J and her husband A came up to stay with our mutual friend O, and on Sunday we all got together with another joint friend, F.  It can be odd meeting up with people 'in real life' when you've only ever met in the virtual world before, but as with all the other folk I've met up with from the OU, there was nothing awkward at all about meeting J, and we all had a fab time together.  So much so that we got together again the following day.

I'll write more about what we got up to when I'm back home, but I'd like to include a few photos and I stupidly forgot to bring the cable for my camera up to Edinburgh with me, so I can't transfer pics from the camera to the 'puter.

After a couple of days of jaunting off with friends I settled down yesterday to some study.  I've finished my OU studies now - Hurrah! - but I still have some work to do for my postgraduate certificate, the most pressing of which has been the end of module piece for the last module.  I've been gathering my thoughts for the piece over the last couple of weeks, and I really meant to have completed it by now, but somehow I got tied up with relaxing after finishing my undergraduate studies.  Anyway, I settled to work yesterday and managed to write the piece I needed to write.  All I need to do with it now is print it off and take it into the university for Monday.

Another thing that's been hanging over me is my application for the MA.  It's a natural progression from the PGCert, and should I do well enough on this course then I'll get excemption from the first year of the MA.  So far this is looking hopeful, but it depends a bit on what I get for the piece of work I did yesterday.  However, hopefully I'll get what I need and will be able to move on, but I still need to put in the official application, even if it does seem like something of a formality given that I was last week asked which modules I'd like to do in the MA so they can provide wheelchair accessible classrooms.

Most of the application form for the MA is fairly straight forward, but as on all other academic application forms I've come across, there's that awkward 'Personal Statement' bit.  I hate them.  I hate having to sell myself on paper.  To be honest, I didn't know what on earth I could write that was different from what I wrote on my PGC application last year, and when I mentioned this to someone in the department they said, 'Just put the same.  After all, it worked last time.' :oD  I liked that.  I decided that I'd read through what I'd written last year and probably cut and paste various bits of it, adding any new info that seemed appropriate.  The major flaw in the plan was that the computer seems to have scrambled and eaten the copy I'd kept of last year's personal statement :o(  I spent today coming up with ideas for the new personal statement and then writing it, although it took a lot longer than anticipated as I got terribly distracted by Wimbledon.  After the excitement of the Murray/Kamke match (which wasn't the only match I watched), I eventually got my head together and wrote what I needed to for the MA application.

The other thing that I really need to write is something for my PGC portfolio.  I have the first meeting with my supervisor next Thursday and I have to email her what I've written by next Wednesday evening, the trouble being that I haven't actually written anything yet.  Yes, I've still got time, but I'd prefer not to have made myself be doing it under pressure.  Although I'm going home tomorrow, I'm planning on at least doing some thinking in the morning about what I might write so that I can have it drifting around my head while I drive back to Newcastle in the afternoon/evening.

And when I haven't been writing, panicking about not writing, being distracted from writing by watching tennis on the telly, or meeting up with friends, I've been cross-stitching.  I bought a new one a few weeks ago, and for the first time in years I'm planning on keeping this one for myself once it's done.   I've only just started it, but here's what it's going to look like when it's done:

I love it, although there's a heck of a lot of work involved in it so I imagine it's going to take me a very long time.

So then, back home tomorrow, then a hospital appointment first thing on Friday, followed by a get together with a friend who I haven't seen nearly enough of over recent times, lots of PGC study over the weekend, and onwards into next week.