E-Day plus 4

It always seemed that time went fast in exams before this one, but there is absolutely no doubt now that there exists some species of time warp in exam halls.  Two and a half hours just blazed by in a blink.  It is recommended that you spend the first hour working on the source materials and your plan, the next hour on writing, and the half hour remaining on checking.  Quelle blague, quelle ambition!  And the minimum word count is 650.  Minimum.
All things considered, it went fine.  Although I didn't actually count the words (being short of time!), I'm confident there was sufficient quantity, if not quality.  The question was not one you could categorise into one particular topic: language learning and cultural exchange.  Hey ho.
The speaking test went very well.  I was in the first group, had to present the article which I was most comfortable with, and there was one of my tutorial pals in the test group: all very much the way I wanted it.
The downers were few: in the written exam I wasn't cold, but the guy next to me munched his way through a huge bag of Maltesers, and the girl in front of him had problems with her cd player.  Distracting, but not terribly grave.  My desk had a dodgy leg, but I had my tissues (see check list!) so that was fine.
Today, I am grateful for so much that Blogger would probably implode under the strain if I wrote it all down.  On Thursday La Sereine, Ditzy and Summer Child are coming over for some of Claire's lovely cupcakes, and we are Wearing it Pink for breast cancer awareness.  After all, there is more to life than exams, as I can now allow myself to appreciate!  Thank you all for all your support.  I'll keep you posted about the results, which should appear around the second week in December.

E-Day minus 2

Thanks everyone for your encouraging comments on the Checklist post.  It is now E-Day minus 2, so tomorrow I travel to Glasgow to stay with my lovely sister-in-law whose house is near the wee local train that will take me, Thursday morning, to within 2 mins walk of the exam centre.
Can it really be near the end of the French studies?  How can three years have gone by so fast?  There is such a feeling of "is this it?" about it all that I'm finding it hard to do the last minute preparation for the spoken exam... bizarre.  It is like that feeling you get when, pregnant, you are waiting for your due date: you know it is going to be tough, but you just want to get started, to get it over with.  This is Limbo.  So I have tidied my desk, gone to the CoOp for bread to feed my lot while I'm away, made cups of coffee and tea (not entirely unheard of, me drinking tea you know!) and dithered, sigh.
Last night was our last little chat group with the two wonderful friends I have had the pleasure to work with in our tutorial.  Nine months we've been working together on Monday nights.  I shall miss that.  I don't use real names here, but you know who you are, my dear friends L'Enseignante and Madame Agneau from Chez Yvette.
Good luck to all doing OU exams just now.  Thanks again for all your positive thoughts and good wishes, which mean so much to me.  I'll post again after Thursday, then it is "watch this space" in the second week in December, when the results are usually out.
Blessings on all of you.

Check List

Ok, with one week to go to the dreaded exams, the very last exams, here is my checklist of things I have to remember to take with me.
1   CD player (for audio bit)
2   Batteries
3   Spare batteries
4   Headphones
5   Spare headphones
6   Dictionary (Collins Robert bilingue, allowed!)
7   Pencil case: loads of pens, highlighters, tippex mouse and spare, but no pencils
8   Water
9   Fleece, possibly hat, scarf, woolly socks... last year it was COLD
10 Identification
11 Glasses
12 Migraleve
13 Prep materials for the oral
14 Gaviscon
15 Money for trains, lunch, coffee
16 Tissues (useful for stabilising dodgy desk legs)
So the question is: Have I forgotten anything?

Mmmm, cupcakes.....

Oh, you just have to see the photo on Claire's new blog to want these!  I can totally vouch for them tasting amazing, they come in this groovy wee box and it is just a wholly satisfactory experience.  I'm going to order some to eat while I'm sipping champagne in three weeks time when the exams are over, hooray!
Happy Cupcakes to all our readers!

Oh my giddy aunt

Words cannot express the tsunami of ecstacy which has engulfed me this morning.  My dissertation results are in.  I am breathlessly grateful for a mark absolument non-pareil, inoui, exceptionnel.  It is rather bad form to post one's actual mark, but let me tell you my dears, it is way more than I could have realistically hoped for.
So today I am grateful for my old French teacher (now 85ish) who gave me such a grounding in French all those years ago, for my generous OU tutor who is undoubtedly heading for sainthood, and for my family, friends and all of you for the unflagging support.

I can see clearly now

First of all, for you aubergine fans, this is the winning entry Hamish put in to the Flower Show.  It really was that small.

This is post number 60 for me, after nearly a year and a half of inflicting my musings and moanings on you all.  I have registered for my last OU course, a short one which is due to take ten weeks.  The dissertation is submitted, and I await the results.  The exam LOOMS: just over four weeks to go.

I have had to think about the future.  Do I (1) carry on studying, to convert my French Diploma (assuming all goes well) into a BA Hons?  (2) Would that be in Language-French, or Humanities with French?  (3) Could I face another three years of sitting in my laundry-cum-office doing TMAs?  The answers turn out to be No.  Alex's towering height and lengthening hair remind me that in three years, he will be gone.  University will take this young man I have nurtured so long, and he will become the independent, assured and gracious man of faith he promises to be.  Innes, too, is growing up fast, a young man of prodigious talent, with a deeply caring heart.  I have to face the fact that they will both soon fly the nest, leaving only Wee Murdo here.  I don't want to spend these three years stressing about essays. 

Sometimes the way ahead seems vague, out of focus.  It is at such times you have to take your glasses off and clean them - a moment's pause to clear your vision can let you see that the way ahead isn't so very uncertain after all.

Masterchef?

No, not Masterchef, not at all.  Or at least, not tonight!  I managed to burn the lovely deli pies and my quiche, in the Aga.  Of course as there is no smell from burning food in the kitchen, the smell going up the chimney, and as we have been having a Very Busy Day, I was a bit distracted...
Alex cheered me up.  He observed that the chefs on Masterchef don't have to do anything else, just cook.  They don't have to answer insane questions from a 6 year old, find socks and iron a shirt for anyone, supervise homework, answer the phone, arrange lifts for people, study, make packed lunches, organised expeditions or do anything other than cook.  He said, in fact, that I would win MasterMum. 
I really love my boys, sigh.

Hamish has taken Innes and Murdo up to Glasgow, as Max was in hospital overnight with a wee stroke.  He's ok though, no damage done and he's getting home this evening.  Bit of a shock however, just four months after Millie's passing.  Mind you, Hamish's Dr Nephew was with Max at the time, which was wonderful, so Max got pretty prompt attention really.  So worrying when your dear ones start to get older.

Today I am grateful for Dr Nephew, for Max being quite amazing himself, and for my wonderful boys, who make all the difference.
Simples!