They are gone. Enough about they already!
Yet again for the bulk of my time in the
pool I was the only one breaking the waters.
And, as opposed to yesterday I (I) was the fastest in the pool
today. I obviously have to get used to
the timetable which I can now, in my fashionably retired way, follow.
I need to ensure that I am swimming when
those who are fully retired are swimming and not in the odd periods in the day
when toilers in the chains of employment are able to slip their restraints and
dive into the water and rip my self respect from my flailing limbs.
I also seem to coincide with vast numbers
of students from the school next door to the leisure centre who take up the
majority of the outside seating for the duration of their school breaks. This is now the major disadvantage of the
leisure centre: it is virtually impossible to go there without having clear
visual and moving reminders of school.
The new playground runs the length of the
leisure centre main building and whatever time I go there it appears to be one
class or another’s turn to wander about in school uniform and able by their
mere presence to strike at the very heart of a truly retired person!
Today has been a really fine day and I am
hoping for many more during the autumn and winter months. All I ask is that the weather is fine enough
for me to sit outside on the Third Floor so that I can work in the open rather
than in the rather cramped quarters of the Tea Room!
My new course material has now been “in
transit” for a week and I am expecting it at any time, while at the same time
dreading that the Spanish Post Office has lost it again. I will leave the requisite ten days and then
contact the OU at once; better to have two sets of material than to have none
at the start of the course.
I have dipped into the forum for my new
course and have sampled the barely controlled hysteria which seems to be the default
setting for those souls brave enough to tempt the Muses and attempt Creative
Writing! One of the keys for success in
the OU is the composition of the group of students that you are landed with in
your tutor group. If you are lucky then
you will find people on your wavelength and others who are able to push you
forward.
The last two courses have been with
students who are in Europe and most of them are not British. I am not sure what difference this is going
to make with Creative Writing. Some of
the non-British students have incredible fluency in English, but I am not sure
that they will be considering Creative Writing as the next stage in their
studies.
It will be very interesting to see who else
is taking this course. We, in Europe,
are linked with the North of England in the tutor group as a whole and so I
expect that the majority of people taking the course will be from there rather
than in Europe. As this is a second
level course there will be a higher level of entry so that may limit the
numbers of people taking the course around me.
We shall, as we say, see.
My essay still has not come back and its
delay (she does have another two days before the limit of the OU is broken!) is
irritating, I find it difficult to get deeply into my revision with the
outstanding piece of work unresolved.
Still, everything should be sorted by the end of the week.
On Thursday I am touching base with an
ex-colleague for an evening chat – and I should also be doing my revision for
the start of the Opera season which also starts next month.
All to do!
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