Wrapping it all up

After a brief two month hiatus for which I can only apologise for I am back for the New Year.

I found that towards the end of last year I really wasn't in the mood for blogging and I was suffering from writers block. I didn't just want to blog for the sake of blogging, so decided to give myself a little bit of a rest.

What better way to start the New Year than by wrapping 2015 up, and what a year I had!

At the start of the year I was good to my resolutions and managed to lose 17lbs in six months, although I may have just put it all back on with the amount of cheese that I have been consuming over the last two weeks. As always I make resolutions and fail to keep most of them so this year I'm not making any at all! 



After a few months of uncertainty I was made permanent in a job which I absolutely adore. Most recently I have just become a Manager as well which is something that I had hoped to achieve before I became thirty and a goal which I am thrilled to have reached. To be able to not mind going into work on a Monday morning, to have a brilliant working and personal relationship with my boss and to have friends who support me and are a joy to see five days a week is something that people dream of.



With the summer came Glastonbury and the engagement! Exactly five years after we had met Leigh proposed to me at the top of Glastonbury and of course I screamed 'Yes!' Swift wedding planning began and we fixed a date for October 2016.



I also completed my final Open Uni course in the summer which meant that finally after five years of study I walked across the stage at the Barbican Centre and picked up my 2.1 English Literature degree and I felt so proud of myself.
 


Things have been going so well that I almost fear that they won't continue into 2016! But with going to LA for my best friend's wedding in March (and finally getting to go to Disney!) to my own wedding in October with a honeymoon in Bali I think that 2016 is going to be a cracker as well.



I wish you all a very pleasant year and I hope it brings you everything you desire. Here's to 2016!

C x

B.A. Hons

I've graduated!!! Can you believe it?! I certainly can't! All that work and I finally get to put some letters after my name, which I will be doing on EVERYTHING.

It was such a good day yesterday, I felt so proud of myself which is such a lovely feeling. I also felt that my friends and family were proud of me too.

The ceremony was held at the Barbican Centre and I turned up quite early to get registered and robed. We unfortunately were not allowed hats, which was rubbish but I did get the full robes which were ridiculously heavy!

I really would say to anyone who is looking to do Open University, do it! Yes it takes a long time and yes it requires hard work and some dedication but the feeling of satisfaction that I got yesterday was worth all of that.

I was so nervous though. I don't think I have ever felt that nervous! My pulse was pounding and all I heard was my name being called before I walked across the stage. I didn't hear my family cheering, I didn't hear any clapping, I just needed to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other! Everyone said it would all be over so quickly but it seemed like time stopped almost.

We went for lunch at Finch's, near the Barbican Centre with my family, Leigh's family and one of my best friends. I had the Duck breast which was very tasty but a little on the small side. The interiors were very instagramable and they had reserved my table with scrabble letters which was a nice touch.

It was such a brilliant day, and I got to keep my scroll too! I love that I can now say officially that I have a 2.1 English Literature degree and I have accomplished what I always hoped I would. Maybe now I will go on to do a Masters!

C x

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

Happy in the Sun

I have just been in such a good mood recently!

I am going to put this all down to the fact that I have finished Uni for the year and now I can start to enjoy summer without feeling like I should be revising or reading another nineteenth century novel.

I think my exam went ok....I probably could have done a bit better and I didn't come out of there feeling that confident, given that I forgot one of the critics I needed to remember, but trying to learn 17 of them is quite tricky, especially when you only leave 4 days to cram as much in as possible.  I figure that even if I have to retake I've still only got one more year left before it is all over and I have a degree! So looking forward to that!

There is just something about having a window open in the summer with the blue sky outside and a cool breeze floating through (with the sound of the Wallace and Gromit theme tune being played on the trumpet), this is about as close as I am going to get to summer with work every day but it is enough for now!

I am loving being able to plan my holiday which is in almost a month, read books that don't make me think too hard, catch up on all my tv shows, eat burgers, sip down some ginger cider and get a tan.



I've got a few blog posts that I want to cover and now Uni is over I can also spend more time writing, so I want to try and make several features. I have just introduced my Thoughtful Thursday and for a while now I have been trying to post a recipe on a Sunday, but I think I should be posting about 3 times a week so that's the aim!

Work is good, Friends are good, Home is good, Love is good, Life is bloody good!

I hope that you are just as happy :)

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

Keeping up

I feel like I haven't blogged in ages! I have been so darned busy with work and University that I just haven't had the time!

Work has just been mad. I am enjoying it so much but the time just fly by and I am trying to keep on top of all the work. I have never been in a job before where I get in to work, look up and realise that it's lunch time and the morning has flown by. It's really refreshing to be somewhere that I'm not bored 80% of the time and that keeps challenging me. There are so many different events taking place as well as the weekly tours around the school that I have to do for people. This weekend I worked Saturday as we had an Open Day and I spent the whole day rushing around making sure it all went smoothly. We've also had a Fashion Show and we are having a Garden Party next week. It's just all so much fun :)

University has also been non stop. I've just handed in my final essay of the course and now I have just 3 weeks to try and revise like mad for my 3hour exam and I am terrified! I have a massive stack of books to get through and this isn't even half of them:

Looks like I'm going to be doing lots of reading over the coming weeks but I have taken half term off so I'm going to have a few extra days to study! I've also just signed up to my final course in my degree - Advanced Creative Writing and I am really excited that I am finally nearly there and that I am finishing on something fun.

Although I've been super busy I have still found time to make my garden grow, it's amazing that I have managed to keep something alive as I am normally completely rubbish with keeping plants alive.

I have also started my 'I must lose a stone' diet again so I've been making some very yum and colourful dinners. It is hard to stick to all of this when there is a buffet lunch available every day for me but I'm going to try and be good especially with Summer approaching (although I say that optimistically).

Things are ticking along nicely with a holiday being booked soon and another Summer in London approaching.

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