Results

An ominous brown envelope arrives in the mail box with Highbury College clearly stamped across the top. “Oh my god my results are here” I say as I gulp. I turn it over in shaky hands and begin to tear open the top, wondering if it is nerves or excitement making my heart pound in my chest. An A4 sheet of paper slides easily from the package to reveal writing across its face. I take a deep breath while my brain takes in the information before me and I begin to analyse the table revealing: English for Education and Teaching, B, Biology, A, Total credits 11. “YES!” I yell making the girls leap a little. I give them a huge squeeze and start leaping around the kitchen as they watch with confused faces. “It’s ok girls mum hasn’t gone mad I’m just extremely happy” I reassure them

Roll on September!!

End of College

Wednesday 4th June

The English for teaching and education lesson was like any other, beginning with education topics discussions, followed by a comprehension assessment and the last of the oral presentations. At the end of the lesson the tutor thanked us for a great year and even went as far to say we were the best class she had ever had. (Awe shucks I bet you say that to all your classes I thought as I smiled an embarrassed yet proud smile), we proceeded to thank the tutor and that was it!

Everyone took twice as long to pack away their things as we analysed the reality that this really was the last Wednesday we would be coming into college. Most just waved a goodbye as they walked out of the door knowing they had the addresses of the people they wanted to stay in contact with and possibly concealing any sadness that may be welling up inside them, or that they would see each other again in another last lesson later in the week.

I sat for a moment taking it all in too and wasn’t sure whether to be saddened by this event or elated it was over. I have after all just completed my first year of college and was one year closer to becoming a Primary Teacher! I bid farewell to one of my closest friends in this class, making sure she had my details and I had hers and wished her well for University, as she will not be returning next year. I quickly put on my dark glasses and strolled off to catch the bus for my last Wednesday bus antics…sigh!

Friday 6th June

The last lesson of Biology was much like any other too. Again we thanked the tutor and she thanked us and once more mixed emotions filled me. There was more sadness this time as we are a small class of only 5 and had become like a family. We wouldn’t see Oli again as he was heading of to a Welsh University (of course we took this piss out of him having a vast choice of woolly girlfriends, which he took well and even chuckled at the “Baaa-bara” comment – not one of my better jokes I must admit).

We wished Lee well in his adventures too and good luck with his task of masturbating while standing on his head (it’s a long strange story that I won’t go into, as I’m not entirely sure how the conversation got there anyway. Let’s just say the boy has strange ideas about the world anyway. For instance, during our last tea break In the student canteen we noticed a sign saying “free cut and blow dry” We all laughed as the boys said they would definitely go for a free hair cut if it came with a blow…job. As we left the canteen chuckling Lee then continued to say with a huge smile across his face “Wow! Imagine how much money you could make with a free haircut and blow jobs!” Of course we were in hysterics after that and quickly pointing out you can’t make any money if it’s free! He tried to side step his mistake, but it was too late.

At the end of the lesson everyone exchanged facebook details (I guess it does have its uses) and that was it…again! I ambled, with my head low, along my usual path towards the bus stop, reminiscing over a great year at college and before I knew it a huge smile had appeared across my face. “Yeah it really was a great year” I thought “And I can’t wait to come back in September!” At the bus stop the smile was so huge people were leaning away from me and deliberately trying to not make eye contact, as if I were some kind of mental patient who had strayed from the asylum. I found this highly amusing and played on it a little more by talking and chuckling to myself.

As I entered the house, having picked up the girls from the childminders, I flicked the kettle on for a much needed cup of tea and began to wonder about which courses to take next year and then it occurred to me – I have a nail biting 5 weeks to wait for my results! God I hope I’ve passed!

Facebook

"Have you been poked yet?" I certainly haven't for a while!!

I’ve been registered with facebook for six months now and don’t believe I have ever encountered such a poor waste of time in my life! So why am I spending so much time on the damn thing!?

I suppose facebook is good for catching up with former classmates and friends, and grouping all your acquaintances in one area, but isn’t that what an address book is for? I’m actually beginning to wonder if people have forgotten how to use a pen and paper as emails quickly eradicate letters too. Don’t get me wrong I love technology (except when it breaks!), but I’m also a traditional girl and like nothing more than checking the mailbox to find letters from friends and family. I think there is something a little more personal in a hand written letter and besides…I enjoy the challenge of deciphering bad handwriting.

I now have over 150 acquaintances which’s nice as I didn’t realise just how many people I know or know me (I wonder how many acquaintances it takes before you become infamous?) But with lots of friends in your contacts come lots of invites for strange and pointless games, and gifts of hugs, kisses, pets and flowers!

I’ll admit I own a “Lil green patch” and am supposedly saving acres of rainforest. Although how this works is a mystery to me and I wander off in a fantasy of 300 year old trees in the Brazilian rainforest tapping into the internet inviting their friends in the Malaysian Jungle to join them in brain battle or Mob wars. The later being another pointless game I have been lured into like a moth to a flame. For some reason I find myself checking my character ‘Strawberry Bond’s progress, counting my virtual millions, driving around in my virtual armoured range rover and purchase an array of weapons in preparation of another assault on the jewellery shop.

Recently I have been finding myself aimlessly clicking the mouse 30 times a day as I watch a virtual slot machine spin to hopefully win me virtual money which I can later spend in the virtual shop on virtually pointless crap! But yet each day I continue to enter this game and willingly click the button…is that an addiction or a compulsive disorder? Thankfully it’s not real money I suppose!

Most recently though I have found a game called ‘draw and guess’. It’s basically Pictionary on the internet, but I guess they couldn’t get the rights to use the name. You get a word and have to draw it for everyone to guess to win points. Then everyone else gets a turn to draw and you just have to guess as quickly as possible to gain more points before the time runs out. It’s another addiction I’m afraid, and has become worse still now that I have won two games!

And on that note…I’m wasting valuable ‘time wasting’ time writing this when I could be guessing squiggles, virtual drug dealing and bank robberies or sitting in virtual Las Vegas at the slot machines!!

TTFN

Katiehopper

In true Blue Peter style “Here’s one I made earlier”….5:30 in the morning earlier!

I’m a bad mother and very nearly forgot to make Katie a costume for “The ugly bug ball” they were having at school one day. There was no excuse, I had seen the invite in Katie’s bag two weeks ago. But it wasn’t until Katie kindly reminded me the night before, that I sighed “oh bollocks!” and then spent the whole night tossing and turning in bed fretting about having not made anything, and how she would feel being the only child at school with no costume. So in the end I had to get up do something about it.

I tip-toed like a baby elephant down the creaky stairs,* gathered up some materials and set to work on a master piece. I actually surprised myself with the result – It’s amazing what you can do with a bit of brown paper, a newspaper, a paper plate**, some green clothes and some green paint!

When Katie woke later in the morning she was delighted and couldn’t get into the costume fast enough. Sarah on the other hand was terrified of the grasshopper shaped Katie in the kitchen...and so…the mask stayed off until we reached school.

As all the children gathered in their costumes at the school entrance I smiled with relief as Katie’s was by far one of the better ones there and I’m not just being biased! After waving her off and dropping Becky to Pre-School I went home and crawled back to bed…yawn!

* I sometimes wonder why I bother trying to creep around this old house when I make just as much noise when walking normally!

**Lucky for us it wasn’t raining that day or there would have been a green paper machete Katie turning up to school instead!

Melt Down

SORRY!

But I can't respond to any emails today. Something has crashed on my computer and the mouse is missing.

It was a day like any other day; I had dropped the girls off at school, come home, made a cup of tea, and sat down in front of the computer to check the emails and latest news events. Five minutes into a web search and POP! There was an eerie silence where the whirling of the computer’s fan had once been and I was starring mid sip into a black screen.

I slowly set down my tea thinking “That’s odd?” but brushed it off as an odd occurrence and reached down to switch on the computer again.

Later in the day I continued working on my assignment and had just finished checking the spelling and grammar of page 3 of 5 when POP! That awful silence fell over the room again, and it wasn’t until what felt like minutes that I finally shook myself out of astonishment and disbelief and groaned a painful “NOOOOO!” Before hurriedly leaning down and switching on the computer yet again!

“Please no, please don’t do this to me!” I whispered to the thing as if it were living, and may just laugh off this mean joke and start up again giving me my coursework right where I had been interrupted. But alas it was not to be and not even auto recovery could bring back my hours work! In frustrating I stormed out of the lounge and into the kitchen to make another cup of tea and sulk.

Eventually I stopped sulking and started again, only for the computer to go POP! Once more! This time I had saved 2 minutes before it had crashed so the pain of re-writing everything wasn’t so harsh. But this battle went on for some time, until I eventually finished my work 5 hours longer than expected and gently tapped the computer with my foot in a “Hah I did it anyway you piece of S**t!”

I opened Outlook express and composed a new message in preparation of emailing my assignment to my tutor and guess what…POP! That was it...the final straw! My calm nature was turning into an incredible hulk persona and I was only moments away from turning into the green raging giant! The computer obviously sensed my temper and choose not to start at all this time. That way saving itself from a beating next time it crashed on me.

It wasn’t until two weeks later when Dan arrived back home and dissected the computer that he discovered the cause of the sudden crashes…DUST! Of all the stupid things to be it was dust…it could have been a melted wire or something more meaningful but no, dust in the fan was overheating the system and causing it to crash. I should be thankful I suppose that it wasn’t something more serious, but I suppose I was still angry and ready to throw the damn thing on the tip!

So eventually I was back online and saved all my coursework to a USB stick just in case. Surprisingly it’s still alive! Unsurprisingly I have been reluctant to spend any length of time on it in the last month for fear of it picking on me again. And I have only just braved a post today which has gone without a hitch...yay!

So apologies folks, but fingers crossed the computer will stay alive and I will be able to update you on the last two months (in no particular order) as soon as possible.