Hello, Goodbye

It's New Year's Eve. In some parts of the world it's already New Year's Day. And where am I? Relaxing at home with the family? Off out at a house party or getting cold and wet at a city centre New Year celebration? Nope. I'm working. And found out that I would be working less than a week before Christmas. This pretty much sums up 2012. It's been like that.

Last year, as the last whisps of 2011 melted away and 2012 arrived, I remember feeling quite melancholy. It was a feeling that clung to me for weeks. And not without good reason. When I look back now, as I'm about to close the door on 2012 forever, I can see it's been a year dogged with ongoing issues, few resolutions and lots of goals left unachieved.

The first half of the year, Granny was very poorly. We were all very concerned for her and to that I added the weight of concern for my Dad and cousins. Steve and I made two very long trips to Canterbury to visit as her health deteriorated and finally my last surviving grandparent passed away.

The second half of the year has been plagued with work issues, as my previous employer's contract came to an end and a new (incompetent) contractor came in to take over. There has been much anxiety in the build up to the transfer, which has manifested in people generally being unkind to each other. I've had to say goodbye to some great colleagues (and one very good friend who is bringing in the New Year in Australia). The final culmination of this has been mass redundancies and some really inappropriate and unfair actions by the new employer. This has been the single most stressful thing I have been through with any employer and I hope I never have to repeat anything similar in the future.

Our house is still on the market. It still hasn't sold. It's still causing a disproportionate amount of stress with dickish estate agents and a kitchen roof that continues to leak. We've missed out on a number of opportunities, the worst of which was a house with a turret. Even with the front of the house sinking, it was a bargain and it would have been a beautiful home. I fear I might always regret that as 'the one that got away'.

* * *

However, 2012 has a few things worth remembering it for. I have waited for most of my life to see The Phantom of the Opera and I was not disappointed when Mum and I went to see it in May. It was spectacular and if I had been able to afford to see it again, I would have. I also saw Starlight Express this year. I've wanted to see it since I was about twelve so it's been a long wait.

May was a great month this year; as well as Phantom of the Opera at the Palace Theatre, Mum and I had a trip down to the Big Smoke so I could sing at the Royal Albert Hall with Sing Live and the Night of 1000 Voices. I love the choir. I love singing. And combining that with the trip and having Mum there was a real treat.

Mum, Steve and I holidayed in Cyprus in May as well. We lounged around the hotel pool and the hotel bar and the hotel restaurant and our room and didn't leave the hotel all week. It was almost perfect. But I really must stop eating milky and creamy things: My stomach can't take it!

In August Ann and I went into Manchester for one of those makeover days where they take photos. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it and came away with a bunch of photos that I'm really pleased with. They actually make me look quite normal, and not strange or hideous. Although they do show I have a dent in my forehead. Investigations into the cause of the dent are ongoing. (I suspect Dad might've dropped me on my head as a child.)

One final highlight of the year has been Pinterest. Ah, what joy. And what agony. Pinterest inspired me to make some of my Christmas presents this year. Claire got a handmade bracelet that I was quite pleased with. My Dad received an iPad case made out of a recycled suit jacket. I gave my Mum a scrapbook of our wedding photos - it wasn't quite finished but I think she was really pleased to finally have a wedding album. Ann got a Memory Jar. And my in-laws... I made them a patchwork quilt, which I finished at 2.30am on Christmas Day. It turned out really well and I have a queue of people asking for me to make them one. So Pinterest has been a success in that it has lead me to achievements myself.

* * *

Looking forward to 2013, I'll be graduating from the Open University, achieving my Literature degree. I'll also be going to see Wicked when it tours (another one of my favourite musicals ticked off the list) and I'm hoping to get to see a few more theatre productions this year too. I would love to see Avenue Q, although I'd be surprised if that opportunity rolls around this year. I'm really looking forward to the Les Miserables movie, and Sing Live's first concert of 2013 on the 3rd of Feb at the Bridgewater Hall.

I'm renewing my 2012 New Year's Resolution to read 12 books (I only managed 6, with 2 still on the go) but I think I might have to aim for 13 books as it's 2013.2013 will also see the first draft of the novel that I've started at least three times, and I'm determined to keep a diary. Writing has to be a focus of the year, if for no other reason than it's necessary for my degree, so I'm relaunching my writing blog tomorrow. I'm not setting a goal of blogging every day, but I want to make sure there is regular content, and if I'm writing everyday that should be easy... Should... Be... Easy. Famous last words.

I really want to spend a bit more time with friends this year; I feel like I've hardly seen Ann or Claire and I'd really like to meet up with some old friends that I haven't seen for a while. I'm already dreaming up a visit to Ally and Rich in Londonium, and maybe lunch or dinner out with Jo Jo from First Choice. And who knows what else I might manage to do.

So I'm making 2013 a year of friendship and achievement! 13 might be unlucky for some, but it's never steered me wrong. Hello 2013. Goodbye 2012.

NaBloPoMo Day 7 - Open University

Day 7 already and still going strong. I am very proud of myself. :-)

Today I'd like to dedicate my blog to some wonderful and helpful people that I encountered. You see, last night I received one of the regular email newsletters from the Open University. I have been studying with them since 2002 (yep... Almost a decade) and working towards a degree in Literature. I have only one course left to do.

The email that I received last night had a section about next year's course fees, which increase from £700 for a 60 point course, to £2,500. Why the price hike? It's all due to changes to the way that universities are funded. When the changes come in next September, the Open University stands to lose £90m in funding from the government. In place of the funding, they have had to increase their fees. However, unlike the current fee and loans system, from next September, part-time students will be eligible for a student loan to cover the course fees.

Of course, even the lower fee is quite an item, so money being tight I chose to postpone my final course until next year... Until I got that email I mentioned. Panic! You see, I started a degree in 1997, which I had to abandon for personal reasons so I was unsure whether I would be eligible for a loan to cover the fees for next year. At the same time, registration for my final course for this year's intake had closed, so I was facing a fee I believed I couldn't possibly pay next year on the one hand, and a course I couldn't get on to for this year on the other. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.

The good news is that it was all stress for nothing. Raj at Student Finance for England assures me that I am eligible for the loan for next year. So hooray! However is also spoke with Lynn and Elaine at the OU, both of whom were very helpful indeed. As it happens, had I needed to, they would have placed me on the intake for this year. All three folks offered me reassurance and excellent customer service, for which I am very grateful.

So after all that, am I against the tuition fee changes? No. I believe in a free education system but that's not possible at the momeny. However, the changes will make higher education much more accessible to those from lower income backgrounds and it is fairer because those who graduate and end up earning more will pay back more while those who earn less will pay less. At the end of the day, whether you come from privilege or from a council estate is irrelevant; where you end up is what will matter. It's not a perfect system but it's an improvement.

Exams exams exams

It's exam results time again and, while some teenagers will inevitably celebrate results that reach or go beyond their expectations, others will be wondering 'what next'. I received my Open University result a couple of weeks ago, achieveing a very satisfactory grade 2 pass with 77%. This keeps me on track for an upper second class honours degree or... if I can get a distinction in my final year, I might even manage a first class.

When I was a 'proper' student, back in the late nineties, I was miserable. I'm not fond of students in general so I hated being one myself. I didn't enjoy the lifestyle or the atmosphere and, at the time, didn't really 'get' the whole study thing. The great thing about the OU is that I can study whatever I want. I've chosen a named degree that has certain requirements, rather than the Open degree, which can be made up of almost any subjects you want. However, even on a named degree there is still loads of fleixibility, which has allowed me to tailor my study to my own interests. I can also study when I want - I do most of my work at the weekend rather than during the week, while other people have more time in the week while kids are at school etc. Plus I can continue to work full time throughout my degree. I have a greater sense of personal achievement from study with the OU than I ever found at college or uni because I've done it on my own.

And so, to those teenagers wondering what next after getting their results, I say this: Don't forget the OU. Take time, think about what you enjoy, get a job or go travelling, discover yourself and when you're done and you understand more about the world and your place in it, if it's the path you want to walk, the OU will be there waiting for you. 'Bad' exam results are not the end of the world. It's much more important to enjoy and experience life than it is sit in a classroom (or lecture hall) for the next three years.

The Open University celebrates it's 40th anniversary this year. What follows is a poem written by Matt Harvey, to commemorate the occasion. I don't know about anyone else, but this sums up my feelings perfectly.

OU, we owe you
everybody wants to know you
even those who used to doubt you
can’t speak well enough about you
they say: your founders were fearless
your students are tireless
your tutors are peerless
your media wireless

you’re the College of the Air
your reception’s everywhere

a twinkle in J C Stobart’s eye
that Michael Young could not let lie
that Jennie Lee tenaciously
made manifest reality
they’d an inkling lower income
doesn’t lead to slower thinking
so now some of us are inching
by degrees towards degrees

the never-quite-made-it or told-they-were stupid
the started-but-faded or sidetracked-by-cupid
the just-need-encouragement, gluttons-for-nourishment
the people whose talent was far too well-hidden
the told-that-we-couldn’t-or-shouldn’t-so-didn’t
the course-interrupted, the quite-frankly-corrupted
deep knowledge questers, bereft empty-nesters,
bright-eyed early-risers, complete self-surprisers

…who now all have fuller foreheads
a more complex frontal cortex

for nourishing our neurons
OU, we owe you

in time that’s borrowed, bought and stolen
schedules staggered, bent and swollen
time that’s snatched & time that’s smuggled
every minute of it juggled
we give up bingo, daytime telly
computer games and social drinking
to read Bronte Proust and Shelley
stay at home and do binge-thinking
every sacrifice worth making
now we’re swapping sleep for waking
waking up to our potential
to explore worlds once forbidden us
– it’s why on the residential
things can get a bit libidinous –

for being so inspiring
that you get our neurons firing
and spontaneously re-wiring
OU, we owe you

the wide-eyed wonder-graduate
the famished hunger-graduate…
jotting reading and absorbing
finding empty hours and tables
sending subtle signs to strangers
‘don’t disturb me I am dangerous
I have got a little learning…’

…and it’s not just about earning
though yes, we’re more employable
but when we go out on the pull
we talk a better class of bull
and if we’re not successful
we are much more philosophical

for nourishing our neurons
buffing up our self-assurance
and for being so inspiring
that you get our neurons firing
and spontaneously re-wiring
OU, we owe you

and OU here’s hoping
you always stay Open
for your enterprise is noble
and expanded frontal lobal
may your outreach programme snowball
from Chernobyl down to Yeovil
from Shanghai to Sampford Peverell
may your future now be global
and may some of your post-graduates
win prizes that are Nobel
if a university could get an honorary degree
you wouldn’t get one
– you’d get several

OU, BSc, BA Hons, Phd
we raise a half-full glass to you
from every social class to you
say ‘may the gods look after you’
and
OU, we owe you

Over the Hill

I'm not getting older... at least not for another couple of weeks! Instead, I sat my Open University exam this morning. After three hours of none stop writing that is akin to torture, it's all over - at least for another year. I think I managed to pull a reasonable result out of the exam. I felt confident of the material that I covered and managed to write cohesive arguments in the alloted time. 70% in the exam would get me a grade 2 pass, which would be acceptable. I would be a bit disappointed in myself with a lower result in either the exam or the overall grade. A grade two pass would keep me on track for an upper second-class honours degree... if by some miracle I can get a distinction in my remaining two course, I might even fluke a first class honours! But that's still a long way off... 2011 at least!

Bank Holidays Are Made for Moby

Ever have one of those perfect moments where you think 'yeah, that's what it's all about'?

It's bank holiday Monday, the sun is shining and it's almost uncomfortably warm (for once). There are kids walking down the street with footballs and riding bikes, families heading out for the afternoon and hardly any cars about. I've just finished a long, hard slog on my last Open University assignment for this year (only two weeks late... oops!) and Moby is playing on iTunes. But not just any Moby, the original and best album: Play; the one from which every track has been used either in a movie, a TV series or an advertisement. Yes, this album is just that good. The music from The Beach came from this album and so did that awesome track that plays at the end of the Bourne movies.
So apart from the bloke over the road that is rather noisely jet-washing the patio furniture and their kids' outdoor toys, it was one of those perfect moments. But we'll forgive him for his ceaseless whirring and spraying noises for now because we're in a really good mood.