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on being halfway through my degree

August 7, 2010 By Sharon

I did tweet about this earlier, but for anyone who missed it – I got a letter from the Open Uni this morning with my course result… pass! I got 73% overall which I’m fairly happy with. I actually thought I might fail the final exam since I had Mr Sniffy Nose sat on one side of me and on the other side a lady who kept praying to Jesus to help her (is Jesus quite knowledgeable about health and social care then? Who knew?) I don’t think I got as much out of the course as I could’ve done; I started off all keen and ready to hit the books, but then I had all that crap with my dad at Christmas time and after that work kept giving me people to train which was great in a way, but it did mean I wasn’t able to study during the quiet moments and that got me behind a little so I found myself skipping a few bits of coursework here and there.

Not sure if I’m going to do another course straight off. I doubt work would finance it and I’ve kind of had enough of studying for a bit because I’ve got so much other stuff to be getting on with. Though I do quite like the idea of studying Oceanography for some reason – but not sure it will help me much at work. Not unless the NHS have started treating patients underwater.

Filed Under: open uni, work Tagged With: open uni, work

on moving house and other annoyances

February 7, 2010 By Sharon

Whilst I’m here posting recipes I may as well bring you up to speed with what’s been happening lately. Won’t take long, I promise.

As some of you who follow my Twitter feed may have read, I’ve managed to get myself a mortgage. I’m officially a grown up now. I’d always thought that shared ownership would be my only option because I wasn’t previously able to get a mortgage on my feeble NHS salary, but I guess now that the market is slowly picking up there’s better deals available. Besides, shared ownership schemes don’t seem to be that money saving when you consider you’re paying both rent and a mortgage; add in something like £100 a month for service charges and it all starts to mount up. Also, our local housing association is fucking useless when it comes to dealing with even the simplest enquiries so I wouldn’t entirely trust them with my hard earned cash. Anyhow, I spoke to a few mortgage advisers and I’ve managed to find myself a fairly good deal – so long as I can find a place for less than £110 grand, which is easier said than done. There is the option is to move slightly further afield where the prices are much cheaper (because the area is skankier) but then that adds more time and money onto my commute and ideally I wanted to stay close to D and also to mum just in case she gets poorly or needs to make a quick escape from dad (he’s still behaving like a total prick) – with both my brother and my sister also planning to move away shortly I think mum’s feeling a bit down, so could do with having at least one of us still living nearby. I have viewed a couple of places locally though; one was lovely but massively overpriced for the work that needed doing and the other was well within my price range but the building was quite run down, there was something iffy about the lease and I don’t think the communal areas had been cleaned or decorated since the 1960s. But I’ll keep on looking, something’s bound to turn up.
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Filed Under: house hunting, lurve, open uni, work Tagged With: house hunting, lurve, open uni, work

on things I learned at Christmas

December 28, 2009 By Sharon

1. Mum is scarily obsessed with having grandchildren.

2. Fruit trifle does not count towards your 5 a day.

3. I shall miss David Tennant as Dr Who.

4. I rock at Mario snowboarding.

5. I’ve left it far too late to make a decent job of my next Open Uni essay.

Filed Under: film & telly, life, open uni Tagged With: film & telly, life, open uni