Getting That Degree

It has taken me a while to write this post because I have been too busy enjoying my freedom!

After five years I have finally handed in my final piece and will be graduating later this year which I am thrilled about!

It has been a long old slog to get here but it has been so worth it. I will now be the proud owner of a degree in English Literature, something that I always wanted to achieve. What is even better about it all is that I did it all for fun and have no plans to use it in anything, I just wanted it for me!

Open University have been so great and I would highly recommend looking at using them if you want to get a degree part time. I have come out of it with no debt and with some government help I have actually only paid around £1000 for my degree over the course of five years which is such a good deal.

Yes it does take a long time and yes you do have to put the work in but if you want to keep working and study too it is ideal and has a workload that is manageable. It should have actually taken me six years, but I managed to get two done in one year so if you time it right you could get it done sooner too.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with all my spare time!

C x

Passing the Exam

It is with much relief and delight that I can say I passed my 5th year!

It is such good timing as I am going on holiday on Monday and I don't have to worry about it I can just relax and enjoy myself, rather than worrying about the possibility that I didnt do well.

It will be such a relief to go home tonight and throw away all those horrible notes and quotes and try to forget all that I struggled to remember.

And this just proves that even if you forget the main character in Jane Eyre (which FYI is Jane Eyre) you can still pass! (NB: I was under a lot of stress. This is my excuse and I'm sticking with it!)

Now I just need to starting prepping for my FINAL course, and thankfully there will be no exam and just lots of story and poetry writing :)

Happy Face!

C xxx

My thoughts are temporarily unavailable

Thoughtful Thursday is taking a break today as I am due to go into my exam in 2 hours and lets face it my only thought at this time is 'Ahhhhhh!'

Hopefully it will be fine and I will be able to retain everything I have memorised. One of those photographic memories would come in handy though! After today I will also be able to stop going on about the same thing, I sound a bit like a broken record at the moment.

Anyway wish me luck!

C xxx

Thoughtful Thursday

Reading ~ Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Loving ~ Cuddles with the cat whilst I read 

Wearing ~ Comfy leggings and fluffy socks

Anticipating ~ My course being finished, my exams over, and the 4 month break before the next one starts! 

Eating ~ Sundried tomato and feta pasta

Drinking~ Relentless energy drink

Wishing for ~ More money so I can buy the £200 worth of clothes I currently have in my shopping basket on Dorothy Perkins website

Craving ~ Dolly mixture

Listening to ~ From Eden by Hozier

Wondering~ If now is the best time to start redesigning my blog

Watching ~ Nothing. Although I really just want to catch up on The Vampire Diaries

Learning~ that I really should have started revising weeks ago....

Cooking ~ Homemade lemon cake

Searching ~ for the Sims 4 release date

Planning ~ If I can get away with going to the pub this weekend

Choosing~ the best way to procrastinate

Trying ~ very hard not to procrastinate

xxx

Resolving to....

My theme for resolution this year is little is more. Every year I set myself these big unachievable goals to complete for the year and every year I fail.

So instead I have doing 6month resolutions – this will give me time to achieve something that might be more manageable and then in June I can look at what I have done, why I haven’t done something, and what I still need to do. Doing it this way I hope to accomplish some of them!

So let’s get started...it’s the big three first:

1.  Lose weight ~ this goes on my list every year and every year I last a couple of months and then get bored. I know that I need to lose around 2 stone (plus those 4 pounds I put on over Christmas), so with that in mind for my 6 month resolution I am going to try and hit the target of 1 stone 4lbs (8.1kg). I think this is very manageable as the first stone always goes tends to go quickly. I might review this at 3 months if it’s going really well but let’s not be too hasty.

2. Save Money ~ another one that makes the list often but I’m a nightmare for keeping up with. So this year I’m going to stop being unrealistic . I’m going to notice that £100 a month going out of my account and I’m going to spend it when I run out of money so instead I’m going to put £30 a month in, which will give me £180 over the 6 months. It doesn’t sound a lot but I think it’s better to start small and then review at the 6 month mark.

3. Exercise ~ I hate it. I really do not like it at all. I get all sweaty and red faced and out of breath. But this really isn’t an excuse. A couple of years ago I actually managed to stick to this resolution. I was going to the gym 3 times a week and it wasn’t killing me but then I badly sprained my ankle and had to stop and now I can’t get back into it again. 2014 will be the year though! Listen to my optimism! Once a week. That is the goal I am setting myself. Or better yet – 1 hour. I have to complete 1 hours exercise a week minimum. There is no reason I shouldn’t be able to do this. And I have to do it properly so I get all sweaty and red faced and out of breath.

4. Driving ~ I can’t drive which is fine because for the last 5 years I have lived in cities and had no need for it. However I am approaching my 30’s (admittedly this is still 4 years away) but I feel like it might be a bit embarrassing to admit that I can’t drive when I’m 30 so my 6 month goal is to learn the theory behind it and look at booking a theory test. I started to learn to drive 5 years ago but stopped when I moved to Cardiff so I know my way around a car  a little  bit so I’m hoping I won’t need many lessons but first I need to get the theory done so I  am motivated to do the lessons.

Those are the main four however there are a couple of little ones below:

5. Focus on my course more

6. Do at least one blog post a week on here

7. Look at learning how to use photshop

8. Learn the words to Auld Lang Syne in preparation for 2015

9. Get out and see more of London – something I am likely to achieve for I have this new column with Miss Mint – details to follow soon.

10. Be organised, focused and happy

xxx

4 down....2 to go.....

So it is with great joy that I say that I have passed my 4^th course towards my degree in English Literature.

After the amount that I worried about my exam it is such a relief to have passed and with the feedback given I now know what I need to change and improve on for my exam next year.

I found it harder to get grades above a C throughout the course, I have a lot of other things on with work and I think my essays suffered because of this, but I managed to pass the course with a C grade which is what I was expecting and it’s still ok although I will have to bring up my grades for the next couple of courses to get the best final degree mark.

I am really happy that I have passed and I also want to thank my best friend and my boyfriend for being my proof readers and support network through the whole thing and encouraging me to keep going! 

xxx

Open University

So I have decided after much deliberation that I am going to do "Nineteenth Century Literature" as my penultimate course towards my Open University degree.

I was looking at 20th century but I decided in the end that although it means I will have to do another exam that I preferred the books that I will have to study:

• Germinal, 
• Northanger Abbey
• Jane Eyre
• Far from the Madding Crowd
• Madame Bovary
• The Portrait of a Lady, Oxford University Press
• Middlemarch
• Dombey and Son
• The Woman in White
• The Awakening

I can't believe that I am finally getting to see the light at the end of the tunnel with all of this and in 2 'short' years I will have a degree.

I start the new course in October and although it has been nice to have a break I am looking forward to reading all of the above, it should be interesting.

I really would recommend the OU to anyone!

xxx

Over and done with...

I've finished my exams and with it I have finished my 4th year and 'Reading and Studying Literature' and I can't say that I'm not relieved. Revising for that exam was horrible, learning quote after quote, frantically reading my notes and wondering what on earth the questions could be.

The morning of the exam before I had even opened my eyes I ran through the quotes in my head before I had even opened my eyes and found that I could remember them all which put my mind slightly at rest. The exam wasn't too awful and I answered all the questions (I hope) precisely and I even managed to drop in all the quotes as well.

I have to wait until August to find out if I passed the course which hopefully I will have done as I passed all my essays.

I've also been looking at which course to do next, either 19th Century Literature or 20th Century Literature. They both start in October so I will still get a few months off which will be nice as it means I get to read my own books for a little bit. 19th Century has an exam at the end but it looks like it might be the better course with novels that will hold my interest and it will have an element of History to it which is appealing.

I am looking forward to going into my 5th year, I am so close to finishing and getting my degree. Still it wont be until 2015 so a little way to go yet!

xxx

Exam Exam Exam

As mentioned in my previous post I am a part time student at the Open University and currently in my 4th year. This year I have picked 'Reading and Studying Literature' which all sounded well and good 9 months ago but then I realised that I would have to do an exam and I freaked out.

But I told myself it would be fine, 'it's miles away' I said. Apart from now it's only 3 days away, I don't think I know enough quotes (YOU CAN'T TAKE YOUR BOOKS IN!!) and what if I don't know how to answer the question.

This is the first exam I've done in 7 years and I swear I didn't used to get this worked up about them. I'm normally quite calm and don't get stressed about these things but all I can think about is 'what if my pen runs out?!'

Of course none of this is helped by sitting on here writing a blog when I should be violently trying to cram quotes into my brain until they stick.

Why on earth am I doing this again?!

xxx

Fresh as a daisy

There is always something nice about starting a shiny new blog.

In this case though it is something of a challenge to leave behind my other blog on tumblr which I have been updating with my heart and soul for the last 3 years. I am having a few problems with the features on tumblr – you can’t comment on your posts and you can’t easily access old posts which means that you have to click like mad to get to old posts. I am hoping that I will love this one just as much as my old one!

But I’m not one to start something on a downer so welcome to my blog! I started blogging about 3 years ago and gradually it over took my diary writing and now I write all manner of things on my blog. I find it soothing to know that there is a record of my life somewhere out there, and I hope that the things I post about are helpful and provide some fun into a dull day.

For the most part my blog will be filled with recipes, London and my life in general as I skip along into my late twenties.  A little bit of background information is always required: My name is Cara, I am 25 and live with my boyfriend of 3 years and our cat of 9 months in the East of London. I moved to London 2 years ago and I wish I did more on a daily basis. I am in Business Development but wish I was in PR or Events. I am also a Open University student studying English Literature part time – I am currently in my 4^th year, with 2 more years to go before I receive my degree. It has been going on for so long I feel that I will never reach the end!

I am a social network-aholic. I like cheese in unhealthy amounts. I hardly ever wear make-up. I wish I had never given up horse-riding. I giggle a lot.  I can’t stand to be alone for longer than a few hours. I always dreamed of travelling but responsibilities won out. I can never find anything to wear. My life is a bit like candyfloss, full of happiness, sugar and air. How profound.

This is my life....