Season's Greetings

How strange it seems, I have spent an hour on a sunbed with a good book soaking up the warm sun here in Coin, Spain.
How depressing to think that we are flying home to a cold house and unpacking. Still, we've had a lovely time, seen some lovely places, visited friends, rested, relaxed, eaten lots of yummy things and dreamt the eternal dream of owning a finca out here en el campo. One day...

Merry Christmas Bloggers!

May it be a peaceful and happy day.

The hard work pays off!

Been rather busy, so here's a summary of what I've been up to this month:

14th December: passed both my science courses with Pass 2s. That I now have a Batchelor of Science degree!! After 6 years of hard work! Yippee! Not as excited as I thought I would be and have to remind myself that it is a big achievement. Perhaps it will sink in soon.

15th December: flew to Spain in the early hours. Hello sunshine, goodbye rain!

17th December: spent a few hours at Tivoli World in Benalmadena where I was persuaded to at least be brave enough to go on the log flume. I survived...a little drenched and heart apounding, vowing never to experience such a steep drop again! Kids loved it. My favourite was the traditional bumpercars, but unlike in safety conscious England you could drive in any direction and bump as many times as you liked! Temperatures reached 24 degrees today, bliss.

18th December: eat as much Chinese as you like at the Wok, Fuengirola. Yum!

19th December: lazy day. Hoping to sit on a sun lounger with a good book and ponder what to study next year, having decided I can't stop at a BSc, my mind is too active and it needs educational input to be healthy.

Party

Hub's Xmas party was fab. 3 course meal was yummy, had a good boogie and only drank enough to loosen up and not feel ill the next morning!

Ah yes, forgot to say, I went and bought another black dress! This one was perfect, decent straps, waist and just below the knee. Felt wonderful in it, unlike the other dresses!

Like the hair? New Year brings new colour, out with the bleach, in with something closer to my natural colour. The tinsel? Well, why not, no one said what we were to do with it when it was put on the table!

No exam results yet . I have probably refreshed my student home page in excess of 50 times over the past 5 days. Good job I'm back to work tomorrow, it's driving me potty! I had two days off last week as Sam was under the weather with a virus that caused the lymph node in his neck to swell up to a little bigger than cherry tomato size. He thought it was a tumour, you should have seen the relief on his face when the doctor explained what it was!

Weather....not impressed with these high winds and rain....we fly to Malaga on Friday and I'm hoping for minimal turbulence! Sam and Katie are hoping for no terrorism. Scarey what they pick up on, Katie in particular. I try to prevent her from seeing the news as she has a vivid imagination, but still she hears what goes on.

Claim to fame?

I am going to be on Radio Kent tomorrow morning at about 7.30am. It won't be wonderful though, just a load of old waffle that came off the top of my head. The Head asked for a teacher, myself (in my capacity as a parent not an HLTA) and some other parents to speak to Radio Kent about our school's Outstanding OFSTED report.
I had to state my name (shame, I would have preferred to remain anonymous knowing that I wouldn't really know what to say once prestented with the microphone!), and talk about my daughter and how she is 'thriving' (wish I'd thought to use that word!) at our school and what the school getting an outstanding OFSTED report meant to me as a parent.
Can't wait to hear what I came up with because I can't think for the life of me what I said (other than who I am and who my daughter is, LOL!). I'll probably cringe!

More shopping!

Never content!
Went back to the shops today and returned dress 1 (didn't like the neckline) and dress 2 (again, didn't like the neckline, made me look like a chunk!).
Came home with one more dress to think about. I like this one as much as I like dress 3, although I do think I look less slim in this new dress than in dress 3, possibly because if the white band around the middle?
Anyway, here's dress 4! See what you think...bow in various positions, and dress without the bow! And Kat, I tried to smile but I do hate getting party clothes (stressful!), I'd much rather stick with my jeans!

I'm torn between dress 4 with no bow at all, and dress 3. Hub likes both too. Not sure about the shoes now! I like them from the back and side view but they look too small on my wide feet when you look at them from in front!
If it's dress 4 I shall have to take back the red necklace too because it doesn't sit well with the halter neck.Me.... picky? You're probably right! My perfectionism doesn't just show up in my assignments! ;o)
Cast you final votes please folks 'cos I shall have to take one of them back this week!

Tomorrow I'm going to list on ebay some past party clothes that now drown me/fall down!

I had forgotten how much I must have lost in inches since last Xmas but pulling out the clothes that I wore the last 2 Xmases has reminded me just how much slimmer I must be! I have a beautiful black silky strapless dress:

it's a size 16, but I couldn't wear it now...I have room for probably 6 pairs of thick socks around the bustline and I can take the dress off by pulling it all the way down without undoing the zip! How immensely satisfying!






And look at this photo I found...it's me fossil hunting on Charmouth beach 3 years ago. Just look at that butt and those thunder thighs!! What a horrendous sight! I must have been about 12 stone 9 then...and to think I went up to 13 stone 9 by last Xmas! I wonder if I'll make it to 10 stone 9 next year? That's the lightest I've been post-babies, back in 1994.

That's enough therapy, both blogging therapy and shopping therapy! I have some Italian course testing to do!

Been shopping

Dress 3. Nice colour underneath but the bow does no favours at the waist from side view!

Dress 2 : so-so, bow does no favours at the waist from side view!

Dress 3. Sparkly bits on the top half.

New shoes, only mine are black as in the photos:

All sans-make-up and on a very bad hair day!

Which is most flattering? Cost doesn't come into it as they all cost about the same!

Another countdown.

Can't wait to escape the cold!

Eventful day.

Been busy today.
Did a bit of lesson planning, started reading the Open University course Beginners Italian, L195. I'm a course tester for this course. First impressions are that it will be a good course for complete beginners. Today I've looked at the alphabet, numbers and a conversation about ordering drinks in a bar (very important that!). Next week we have a go at using Lyceum (had no luck with getting that up and running yet). We even get to do a bit of Blogging and use a forum on VLE (I think it stands for Virtual Learning Experience? Or maybe Environment?!), but it's not much like Blogger. I prefer Blogger. Lots to learn about VLE, I'm sure I'll soon get used to it.

Managed to hold an MSN Live webcam conversation with my mum who is over in Venezuela (hi mum!). The sound was terrible (we likened it to a busy pinball machine) but it was great to see each other and be able to type as we watched each other. Sam and Katie were so excited to be able to see their nan that they couldn't take turns in the hotseat and ended up arguing and pushing and shoving in the background! Sorry mum! Don't forget you can keep up to date with us on Flckr too (see link on left).

Have just downloaded Skype and we will give that a try tomorrow.

Spanish accents?

Anyone know how you type Spanish accents into a blog?

New courses!

http://ousavped.blogspot.com/2006/10/science-faculty-committee.html
Volcanoes etc, and Archaeology for me!

US Trip Planner has begun!

Here it is, in its infancy, my U.S. travel planner!

Exams are over. Onto new things.

Well, exams are finally over, I think I did enough to pass both and will hopefully have my BSc by Xmas after 6 years of studying.

I am currently enjoying the freedom to follow whatever path I fancy. That has been a trip down the A229 to Springfield library for a pile of new books. I've got some on geological hazards, background reading for SXG390 which I am thinking of taking next year. I've also got some glossy book on the U.S.
Now that the bulk of my studies are over I am going to start planning my dream holiday - touring the U.S. most likely in a hired RV (that's motorhome to us Brits) possibly as soon as 2008. There's alot I want to see, probably alot the kids and hub will want to see, I wanna make sure I make the most of any time we spend there I am going to be doing alot of note taking on wanna-see places, handy websites and books, distances etc. All this to be done on a new website or blog, starting this half term holiday. Can't wait! Watch this space for more details.

Yikes!!

I've covered all the learning outcomes from all the S320 books but one. Haven't memorised them of course, but all that remains is the recapping of index cards and past exam paper practice.

Still have the horrible vision block of SD329 to cover and alot of rereading of the other blocks, but that will have to be crammed after the S320 exam. At least there'll be a weekend to do that in because the SD329 exam is on the 16th.

Onward......

We went to a party last night and for the 4th time this week I have had comments on my weight loss. Two comments at work, one from my mum and one from a friend last night who said he could see it in my face and bum!
It's spurred me on to lose a bit more. I only want to lose another 10 pounds or so, that'd get me to 11 stone, pretty good for my height (5ft 7) I think. I can vaguely remember being 10 and a half stone when Sam was one years old, but I was only 24 then. At 37 I don't think I can expect to be that weight again!

But first I have to get these exams out of the way. I need to eat when I revise for hours! It's my fuel!

S320 revision is ticking along nicely, I just have 2 more books to look at, then I can recap all my index cards. SD329 is going nowhere, 3 blocks out of 7 done and I'm struggling to remember just these three. I might call it quits and just hope for a bare pass. Thanks to those who voted as to what I should do. You voted that I stick it out and I shall.

Hub is taking the kids out for an hour so I must revise.....but I have the beginnings of a cold and my head feels like a ball of fuzz and my eyes are burning. But I'll try.

Good luck with revision to all my OU buddies. It'll soon be over. Keep at it!

Chuffed. Horrified.

Yes, it is possible to be both at the same time.

Chuffed because two people at work have commented today on my weight loss (my size 14 trousers are getting a bit loose now, hurrah!). One noticed it in my face which is nice because my face shape has changed for the worse since I was in my early twenties. Those chipmunk cheeks and the double chin are shrinking!

Horrifed because S320 exam day is two weeks tomorrow! SD329 exam day was 2 weeks yesterday. My potential revision days are being gobbled up by unexpected arrangements like trip to paediatrics for son, shopping trip for special night out this weekend, and my mum's birthday. Not that I resent any of these, I just wish the world could stop for the next two weeks so that I can revise in peace!

I've just spent almost 2 hours revising the HIV virus and feel quite happy that I've mastered the most important bits like the immune response, how HIV replicates and evades control by the immune system. This course is so interesting that I am toying with the idea of SXN390 so that I can go off and research more stuff to do with infectious diseases (also has the benefit of no exam).

On the other hand yesterday I attempted to revise vision and perception and feel like I know nothing.

I can feel my stomach getting in knots. I am really tired, go to bed really late thinking I will fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, but can't sleep soundly, I'm eating and eating and eating (and forgetting to drink my water) and it's affecting my work. I'm not on the ball when approaching exams are in my mind and I don't give my best. I'm teaching tomorrow morning and have to be on the ball.
The sensible thing to do would be to toddle off to bed right now, perhaps with a Baileys as a night-cap? I'll try it. It might just work. G'night all.