"study week"?

Yesterday, I survived my first dash through the dartford tunnel. Having that much traffic crammed down from 18 lanes to 4 is not a good idea. but I made it anyway, safely to the south mimms services and my home for the next 5 days, the premiere travel inn. It's actually quite nice there, and Ive now found out that there are 3 other people from my course staying there too.
I've been looking forward to this study week for quite a while now, I really feel like i'm doing something to improve...something, it gives me something to do for the next 2 years anyway, which hopefully will lead me on to better things. I now have a brand new student card, with a really bad photo of me on it and access to the campus for the next 2 years. I love the RVC campus at Potters bar, it quiet and in the middle of nowhere so very few distractions. I am sitting in the same place I was 4 years ago when I was writing my dissertation. Now i'm writing a blog, watching a thunderstorm roll in, debating about going for a swim.
Today has been very much about introductions, who everyone is, what the course is about etc, the usual start to any course. Then this afternoon we had the traditional "teambuilding session". our task: build your ideal domestic animal, and we were presented with a blue peter style box full of egg boxes, newspaper, straws and yoghurt pots. I cannot remember that last time I had that much fun building something, and it looked like an animal at the end of it!! we had everything a vet nurse could want in an animal; no vocal cords, no claws, the biggest veins in the world which anyone could hit, and an anal cap to stop all those "accidents" where the faeces end up all over the operating table because the vet just had to really squeeze everything that hard. In all 6 amazing creatures were created this afternoon by the group, photos of which will follow.
After that was coffee and biscuits, a bit of discussion about critical thinking, then home. whio knows, tomorrow I might even do some studying....

I shouldn't be here!!

Currently, I'm sitting in my room, working on a report for my diploma, entitled "why I enrolled on the diploma". I did think about just sending in a copy of the application form again, they asked the same question on that, but I can guess what I might get back, and my days as a student would come to a very sudden halt. I also have to include what is going to stop me completing the diploma, and how I will overcome this. Now, potentially I can see a lot of things that could stop me taking the diploma, a few of which are none too pleasent. Being flattened by a bus could be a potential obstacle, getting eaten at work, getting fired, a "marshalling" incident gone wrong, power cuts, the list is endless. I have 1500 words, so I better pick my reasons carefully. I also now have to make up contingency plans for everything that could possibly go wrong, including the above reasons for why I might not finish the course. 1500 words is not enough.
Something else that could stop me is Formula One. This weekend its the British Grand Prix. By all rights, I should be there, not here. For the past 5 years I have made the pilgrimage to the home of British motor racing to see this race. Last year I got soaked, and I loved every minute of it. Lewis Hamilton won is spectactular fashion in the wet. this year, he's second to last on the grid because the brick of a car he is driving is just not good enough. I agree with Eddie Jordan, it needs to be torched (preferably whist parked next to a red car, kills two birds with one stone).
But sadly we did not go this year. Instead, I have to get all my team gear on and watch it in front of the tv. Its just not the same!! The sound's not the same, the atmosphere, its all not here, its there!!
Meanwhile, whilst watching the race the pile of college work will not be getting any smaller, but at least its not going anywhere....just like me.

being a student....again..

As of monday, I will officially be a student again. I will be starting my Graduate Diploma in Professional and Clinical Veterinary Nursing. I know, it all sounds very posh doesn't it. I can assure you though, it will not be. Despite how much I am looking foward to starting it, in about 6 months there will be a lot of swearing, cursing, regret that I ever started the damn thing as I disappear under an ever growing pile of work, whilst trying to fit it in around my track time and an irritating daily occurance also known as work. That is, unless I can become the disiplined student that I was at university.
I was not what is percieved to be a typical university student; not much work, drinking, large social life, and bringing home a huge pile of washing every week. I always did my own washing for a start. I think it helped that the bar on campus was no bigger than the average living room, and contained a pool table, so very little drinking was done. The college was in the middle of nowhere too, so very little in the way of opportunities to develop a social life. So, I spent the majority of my time in the library, usually till gone midnight, researching for my assignments. It all paid off, after 4 years of hard study, I graduated with a 2:1 in Veterinary Nursing. I wanted a first, and my grades were sitting on the borders between a first and 2:1, but they graded me down.
Now, studying at home, there are more distractions, and more excuses to find distractions. I NEED to disipline myself, maybe work on a reward system. "when you've finished that assignment, you can spend 30 minutes on the x Box, and eat a large bar of chocolate."
I will also need to do a lot of studying at work too. Unfortunately, the idea of "finish this assignment, and you can have the rest of the day off," might not sit too well with other people!! I should be able to fit in eating the large bar of chocolate though.
Plus, I can always take notes down to the track with me and work down there, inbetween races anyway. This will also allow time to develop a whole new collection of excuses. Sorry, could not submit essay due to;
1. It blew into the middle of a racetrack and got shredded by 20 fast moving cars.
2. Fire extinguisher went off and covered it in foam
3. holes punched into it by flying gravel
4. Angry driver tore it up
Thats much more interesting than saying "sorry, but the dog ate it". More plausible for me too, I have no dog.
So, I have a timetable, new set of pens, notepaper and a new memory stick to put all of the work on. I think I'm ready for the student life again...