What's making you happy today?

[DanaC]

Sundae, I think you'd love it. I bet part of you really misses the intellectual endeavour of learning. I know I did. The time factor worried me when I first started down this path. Three years for a degree, a year for a masters and then another 3 years for a PHD. God, even the first 3 year stint seemed like a huge chunk of time. Now I am heading into the final year of my degree and the time has just flown past.

The trick is not to keep thinking in terms of how much time is left on the course. If you're doing it for the journey rather than the destination, it doesn't matter if it's a long ride.

Out of interest, which courses are attracting your attention at the moment? Also, have you checked out the possibility of doing a part-time degree at a local university? Not sure what help's available funding-wise but it may be worth checking it out. Of course the advantage of OU is that you can truly wrap it around your time. And, of course, you don't have the problem of being the grown-up in a class of 18 year olds lol.

Keep us posted if you make a decision hon

[Sundae]

You know that my problem with full time education would be my compatriots. I went back to education after two years when I was 18 and was studying with 16 year olds, I hated it. Like poison. It put me off ever studying again.

So this is a compromise. Harder because I have to work around two jobs. Easier because I don't have to deal with students there to just get a piece of paper and not because they love what they are studying.

I'd take a BA (Hons) Literature. You start with Arts Past and Present, which is basic course but counts towards your degree. From there you choose different options. There's even Creative Writing, if I am brave enough.

FYI

The arts past and present is a broadly focused course that introduces you to university-level study in the Arts across a range of subject areas, including history, art history, philosophy, classical studies, history of science, religious studies, music and English. The course is presented in four themed books that guide you through some of the basic concerns of Arts subjects. By studying these, you’ll acquire essential skills and perspectives for continuing with your studies. Book 1, Reputations, focuses on artistic and historical reputation through case studies of famous and infamous figures like Cleopatra, Stalin and Christopher Marlowe. Book 2, Tradition and Dissent, considers how traditional ideas and dissent from those ideas shaped the way that people have understood the world around them. It covers topics such as Plato’s theory of courage, poetry about animals, and Shostakovich’s string quartets. Book 3, Cultural Encounters, investigates the exchange between different cultures at different times, and the way such exchanges affect our world. It includes case studies of the Benin Bronzes, modern short stories, and Seamus Heaney’s adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone. The final book, Place and Leisure, looks at the human environment over a range of periods and contexts to explore questions about the meaning of life and leisure, and the placement of the Arts within this picture. It ranges from classical ideas of leisure to the history and representation of the modern seaside.

So as you see, I'd benefit just from taking it, even without any qualification.

[DanaC]

That sounds like a fascinating intro. I am particularly intrigued by book 2!

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by zippyt

My step daughter and hubby just bought a House !!!!!!!

The street looks kinda crooked though.

[zippyt]

Oh water runs Down hill there ,
I told my son i law if the Neibors piss him off this winter he could just put a sprinkler in the street ( they live 2nd house from the TOP of the hill )

[Griff]

Lil'Pete's call from camp last night was pure happy exhaustion (she's lost one bout in two days so I guess she's comfortable). The previous night she sounded a little homesick. We also got a call from a nice/goofy boy we know from East Stroudsburg who's there. I guess we're the go-to parents this week.

[DanaC]

Remind me how old Lil'Pete is?

What's makin me happy today: the post. Now, normally the arrival of the postman heralds no great joy. Usually my morning fayre consists of bills, final demands, threats of court action, council papers and invites to events I have no desire to go to (but invariably will).

Not today! Having ditched the obligatory junk mail (insurance offers and finance deals) I opened a letter from my university. It congratulated me on my performance this year and on winning the KPMG prize......and enclosed was a cheque for £100! Yey! I can pay my electric bill and they won't have to cut me off lol.

Just in case that wasn't exciting enough, the next was a small package. I knew as I was opening it that it was my much anticipated set of two Doctor Who audiobooks as read by Paul McGann. Happy, happy. Joy, joy. God bless Ebay

[Sundae]

Thoroughly deserved Dana, well done you!

[Griff]

She just turned 14. This is her second away camp experience. I worry a little because she's wired a bit like her Mom who just isn't good at being away from family. Lil's room was pretty noisey when she called so I think she's got a crew.

[Griff]

I guarantee a smile.

http://cellar.org/showthread.php?p=470741#post470741

[Sundae]

Bad news/ good news kinda thing
(put it here as it has a happy ending)

Went to a flatmate finding even in Leicester Square
It was rubbish
Not the sort of people there I was looking for
However - got a free bottle of beer out of it - good
My only alcohol today - good

Realised it wasn't right for me and went to the cinema instead (The Happening, good fun)
Bunch of witches sat at the front who had obviously wandered in by mistake thinking it was some sort of cafe, and proceeded to talk and have to be shushed 2/3 of the way through - bad
They left noisily and giggly at that point - good
The camp chap in the straw hat who I thought was making fun of me as he poured my diet pepsi spoke to me again on the way out
When I mentioned the girls he gave me a free pass to see another film - VERY good

Talked to HM when I got home - VERY good
He is made up about my plans to get back into education
We agreed I will be out by Xmas so I can save up - no row about it, just a calm discussion. I found after I'd calmed down on Monday I actually wanted to move, so we simply started from that basis

He's going to keep Hely when I move out, so she doesn't have to go back to cat rescue - fucking brilliant
(not least because he will start seeing her as his cat now and this will help things)
Diz will stay with me of course, but I have 3-5 months to find us a place - I just couldn't take two warring cats with me

All in all, a jolly good day

[Clodfobble]

Sounds like the best possible outcome with the living situation, Sundae. I think saving up for your own place will have a lot of positive benefits.

[Sundae]

Well, it won't be my own place, I'll just be sharing with someone else. And even that will be tougher financially as I'll be paying market rate instead of half HM's (relatively low) mortgage.

Still - I can specify a quiet house, and have time to shop around and find someone I can live with more peacefully.

A studio flat in this part of town (i.e. one room with a bathroom attached) goes for about 2/3 my monthly salary.

[jinx]

I got carded buying beer tonight, which should make me happy, as the old dude pointed out. But I'm in there every week or so and we always have a friendly exchange... I'm really more concerned with his mental acuity at this point...

[Cicero]

I get to meet an author tomorrow, of a book I have always enjoyed and bought for some friends.

It's the little thing folks!