The thing

On Friday I had to collect the thing. I mentioned it in my previous post because I was somewhat nervous about the whole event....particularly falling over during the event.

I didn't.

All went according to plan.

I got the thing....and here it is.....

And I got to wear a nice gown and a funny hat. Please note - mortar boards are not conducive to good hair - and they leave you with the worst hat hair you've ever seen....but they are worth it for the sense of occasion they create.

At last...I am done.

Just filling my days....

.....since Friday. Oh it is heaven...heaven I tell you. I spent the weekend partying with the kids, they are delighted not to be competing with the laptop for my attention any more. They planned the celebratory party, however their planning only got as far as balloons, cherry jelly and chocolate cake. Fortunately Tom came to the rescue with booze. They made me a poster with 'play not s-ay' on it. S-ay - essay. Cute. So we've been playing. It's been fun, I'm a bit bored with the play dough though.

Today I had the day to myself, Hannah was at school, Aislin at kindergarten. I pottered in the veggie patch, pruned and tied my tomatoes and weeded the beds. Guilt free. At no point did I think 'I really better get back to that assignment'. Not once. The only nagging feeling I had was about getting another cup of tea into me before I picked the girls up.

At one stage I glanced out of the kitchen window and saw this.....a kookaburra!!

Then it was time to pick up the girls and just as I was heading there I got a phone call from the school telling me Hannah was in the first aid room, she'd had an accident and been hit the eye with 'sports equipment'. Fabulous. So I dash to kindy, pick up Aislin then head to the school where I find her sad and sorry for herself and a little bit tearful. The doctor has checked it out and she has a graze on the surface of the eye, on the white not the cornea though, her eye is very swollen and she'll probably have a shiner tomorrow. It's all pretty sore...this says it all.....

Apparently the perpetrator, just prior to doing this, was telling them all how he had won a gold medal in the Olympics for throwing. He's seven. I'm suspecting that's not entirely true.

Obviously there is a extreme lack of 'you'll have someone's eye out with that' in his house.

Done...

.....and now would someone please open the bar.....mine's a G&T.....large.

Because someone in the room just finished a degree.

One

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God....can it really be true? Or am I going to wake up and find it's only the 10th August and I haven't even started this semester's work yet?

I have two messages.

One for God or whatever higher power is in charge of Uni assignments. Please let me pass everything. I know I've passed everything to date, but....you know...keep a special eye on it now.... would you mind? Amen.

One for me. Don't. Fuck. It. Up.

The end.

Two

Another one bites the dust.....

Oh, hello freedom...is that you I see a week away?

A little of this and that...

...so not much blogging from me recently, a couple of fillers to keep my hand in but no real news - sorry. The essay/assignment writing is sapping my energy and I'm feeling the stress, but it will all be over soon.

So today I'll do a little catch up.

Uni update, 14 days and 4 assignments to go. No more to say on that topic - it's making me cry.

I joined a new gym that has opened nearby. The gym used to be my exercise of choice, I was a 4 times a week girl for a long time. Having babies, then moving away from a convenient gym put an end to that. However a brand new gym recently opened 8 minutes from home. So in I went and signed up. I've been twice this week and it felt good to get some exercise. I've previously mentioned my expanding butt since finishing work, hopefully this will address the problem. It's a bit different to what I'm used to, it's women only for a start (no bad thing) and there's a circuit and a requirement to alternate weights with cardio using these springy little board things. I have no sense of rythm and even less coordination so the gym staff get their entertainment from my manic flailings. They should be paying me to go there for the endless fun I provide.

Paradoxically the stress of Uni is causing me to eat more than usual. I won't say how many double choc chip cookies I've already eaten today (five) and it's only 1pm.

My house is a mess. A huge, messy, untidy, in-serious-need-of-a-good-clean kind of mess. This depresses me like you wouldn't believe but I really just cannot dedicate the time to it just now. So it will have to wait. It also depresses and frustrates me that 'no-one' else who lives here is offering to clean it or even attempting to be a little bit tidier to reduce the mess. In fact the other day my children were quietly playing in their room (I should have been suspicious of that) and I later discovered that they'd played 'snow' tearing the contents of a whole box of tissues into teeny, tiny, wee pieces and throwing it all over the room. It's only partially cleaned up even now.

On a brighter note I am having a couple of hours off tonight to go to a friend's exhibition opening. My sister-in-law is coming with me (she is coincidentally finishing her degree right now as well - we both need a break) so we're taking a couple of hours to drink a glass (or three) of wine, eat some finger food, mix with some other human beings that don't need cleaning up after and look at some beautiful Persian Art (lots of textiles, rugs etc but other stuff too) while listening to Persian music. Quite looking forward to it. I may forget to come home.

I'm sure there are other things to tell, such as why the entire contents of my bathroom cupboard are on the desk in the office or how Sophie is posessed by the spirit of an angry leopard or simiar and has turned into Sophie the bitch cat from hell. But that will have to wait for another day.

Some encouragement please....

Ok, I'm counting down (yes, it's about Uni again - shut up it's nearly over). I am really struggling here people, 6 assignments - 4 weeks, then it's done. Despite knowing this I have no motivation. I am currently writing one of the essays and every sentence is like drawing blood. I punctuate the 'work' (ha!) with standing at the back door watching the wildlife, eating, drinking coffee, staring into the fridge for something else to eat (why is there no chocolate in this effing house?) and emailing my sisters. Thank God they're emailing back or I'd be making prank calls to strangers just to have some kind of communication with the outside world. Tom and the girls have escaped gone out for the afternoon to get away from the bitch at the laptop attend a party then visit family.

I’m making very slow progress on this essay, it's not long, only 2500 words. But I hate this one. It’s so boring, it's about evaluation – who cares? But I now have 648 words so I'm nearly a third of the way there - give or take. I'm writing a lot of crap mind you (what's new I hear you cry) but whatever.... as long as I pass (please let me pass).

Sigh, I cannot wait for this to end. After this I have 5 more to do. There are three easy ones and I’m going to try and finish two of them this week, that will leave the 3 others, one easy two hard. I said to Tom today that I’ve realised sitting on the sofa saying ‘I just want this to end’ will not in fact make it end. I actually have to do some work. Pffft to that.

I need a cheer squad.

Yep, that helps.

The countdown

Only 5 weeks until Uni is finished forever.

And you know what that means don't you?

Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep..

...as Fran Lebowitz said....apparently. I know this to be true because sleep is something I have trouble with. Well, I don't have trouble with sleeping when I can do it. In fact when I can do it I just LOVE it. It's the times that I can't do it that creates the problem. And right now is one of those times.

Like so many little babies, I'm not a good sleeper. Except you kind of expect that from a little baby. Sleep for me has always been a fragile commodity, I'm a light sleeper and when something wakes me up I find it really hard to get back to sleep. It's not unusual for me to be prowling the house in the wee small hours, drinking 'soothing' hot drinks (no I don't mean I put a martini in the microwave) and thinking longingly of what it must be like for those who enjoy deep undisturbed sleep. Back in bed I stare across at my slumbering husband and want to stick pins in his soundly asleep face. Of course I don't do that. Because that would be wrong.

I do get things done though. I wrote a meditation brochure one night last week at about 3am and a few of these blog posts have been written through an exhausted blur in the middle of the night (which will explain a lot I suppose).

So after having a few sleep disturbed nights already this week, last night I went to bed early and fell asleep immediately. Then Aislin woke up at 11pm and wanted me to come in beside her 'for a minute'. So I did and she soon went back to sleep. I stumbled back to bed and lay there wide awake for two hours. She woke again at 3am. This time Tom went through, but she whined and complained so loudly I was soon wide awake and sure enough began to watch the minutes, then hours tick past - ok, it's a digital clock it doesn't tick but you get the picture don't you?

And today I tried to write an essay. I am half insane through lack of sleep and I seriously have to finish two assignments by Friday.

Will it happen? Will it hell.

I'm better now

Ok, please excuse yesterday's little outburst and mad blog fiddling and template changing - put it down to temporary insanity. I'm feeling much better today and managed to complete several little Uni activities, one of which prompted an instant response from my tutor saying 'Caitlin you are doing GREAT!'. That was what I needed, a pat on the head and a little bit of attention. I'm high maintenance that way.

I also felt better after seeing this headline 'Queen star celebrates doctorate'. At least I haven't taken 36 years.

I really don't know what came over me because I realised today that with all the stuff that is going on in my life just now, and everything I'm trying to achieve, the one thing that I (usually) find managable is Uni. I am well within my comfort zone when pondering philosophical questions (define 'whiteness') or writing an essay. Compared to everything else I'm doing that stuff is easy - well less challenging. It makes me think... hard... and in a good way.

The only thing I can put it down to is the fact that I haven't had any chocolate this week. Or wine. This is bad. No wonder I'm experiencing melt down. Hopefully that will be remedied tonight (Tom, bring wine).

One of the courses I'm doing this semester is about e-learning and I today I learned how to do this...

Isn't that cool? And easy too. Who knew all this Uni study would actually teach me something?

Bees, bin men and a craving for wine

Ladies and gentlemen, please observe the sidebar to your right and notice a little picture-y thing that moves. This is a Flickr badge. This means I have a new Flickr account. As yet there are only about 6 photos on it but it exists and is there for your perusal, more photos will be added, I just don't know when yet.


Today's blog is brought to you by the number zero (how many assignments I'm working on) and the letter 'P' for procrastination (what I'm doing instead of assignments). Yes, once again I have uni work to do and once again I am finding dozens of 'important' tasks to perform before starting the work
So far this morning I have.....

• Dropped off the children at school and daycare
• Had a looooong and quite unnecessary chat with our daycare provider
• Drove home very slowly (so as to admire the scenery you understand)
• Put petrol in the car (which I HATE doing and usually avoid until the very last minute - not today however)
• Ate a late and time consuming breakfast
• Waved to the rubbish bin men as they emptied our bin - nice chaps
• Took a photo of a bee - couldn't get her to smile or even co-operate - so it's more of a bees bum really

• Stood at the back door with a cup of tea surveying our estate and planning some changes to the garden
• Decided what vegetables we'll put in now that spring is almost upon us
• Sent 8 emails (mostly to my sisters - well we have different threads going!) except the complaining ones to my husband - who was unsympathetic
• and now this blogging....

I just cannot get motivated, I have 3 months to go and I have completely lost interest. I had visions of being so keen to get it all finished that I would be forging ahead completing assignments weeks ahead of their due dates and tying it all up in double quick time. That's not happening. Why isn't that happening? It's making me whine.

Whine....sounds a bit like 'wine' doesn't it? Now there's an idea.

Take your eye off the ball for a minute and...

...you have to run to catch up.

The party was a huge success, a good time was had by all and there was no blood on the ice. There were probably a few bruised bottoms the next day but all in all it went well. Hannah announced that it was the best birthday party ever. Major points for Mummy.

Saturday we took the girls to their usual Fairy Ballet and dance classes then we had a family lunch at Tom's brother's house which was lovely.

On Sunday I almost died and yes, I am being melodramatic. It just felt like I was dying. I woke at around 1am with stomach cramps and the next 24 hours are a blur of pain, exhaustion and a lot of time spent in the 'smallest room'. It was quite unpleasant and I won't bore (or disgust) you with the details. I didn't eat for 48 hours and I am still being very, very careful. It seems to have been 'something I ate' since no-one else has succumbed and there was some food that only I ate instead of the roast lamb that everyone else was having...because as you know I don't eat meat because it's bad for me.....yes, I'm noticing the irony too.

Anyway, I am 90% recovered and getting on with life. Which means I'm getting into some of the Uni work that has been nagging away in the back of my mind since the semester started. I decided, now that it's week 3, that it might be an idea to start the work that I'm supposed to be doing for the 5 courses I'm taking this semester. So I had to a look to see what needed to be done. When the panic attack subsided I checked again and yes, I'd missed some stuff and got a tiny, wee bit behind.....oops.

So here I sit, muttering mutinously about Uni courses while blogging about it instead of getting on with it. Typical.

The countdown begins..

...a little prematurely perhaps, but I have only 4 assignments left to complete this semester then I will be halfway through my final year.

This makes me happy. Because for a long time it felt as though it would never end.

But it will. In November.

Of course next semester will bring a great big pile of fresh new assignments but that's ok. Come on November, my favourite month for so many reasons and now this one.

The challenge

One woman

8 Hours

One 3,000 word assignment.

......Stay tuned.......

UPDATE: She did it. Bloody genius.

The gentle art of avoidance

So this morning I got up (I tried to stay in bed, I really did but my cruel husband sent the children in to put a stop to that). I did all the morning stuff and waved husband and daughter number 1 off to work and school respectively then began my process of procrastination because I have a Uni assignment to write. First I sent my sister an e-card. It's her birthday - Happy Birthday M!!!!!!! I found entertainment for daughter number 2 and loaded the dishwasher, made the beds, generally smoothed and tidied the house then sat down at the computer. Then I read the emails that had come through overnight - God Bless time zones. I sent another couple of emails, this time totally unnecessary. Then I started to browse the internet for nothing in particular. By this time I had decided that in the interest of true procrastination I would put off the Uni assignment further by writing my blog. Now the interesting thing about that is that I usually procrastinate about blogging, as explained a few blogs back - here in fact. So it just goes to show that blogging is not top of my procrastination list.

Yep, I'm a world class procrastinator, but I'll worry about that tomorrow.

Oops, has it been that long...?

It has been a while hasn't it? I have no excuse except that I've been busy, I don't actually like being busy and this particular episode of busy-ness produced good and bad. Two good things - I passed an assessment that I was anxious about - got 91% too, yay me. The second thing - I got a new coaching client.

Bad results of the busy-ness? I'm tired. I'm a bit cranky. I didn't blog.


More bad news (depending on your perspective) I'm not going to blog much today. So just to keep things fascinating I'm going to show you something. M, beloved sister, reminded me of this so here it is....



I want this car.







That's all...just sayin'


This will get better, I promise. Hang in there.