The very weather seems to be conspiring
against me when it comes to the necessity of revision. The weather has been delightful and has
encouraged me out on to the Third Floor where the spirit of review is willing,
but the fleshly succumbing in a horizontal mode to our nearest star is an
innate weakness in me! However, I am
buckling up my intellectual sinews and attempting to make an effort to get down
to it in earnest.
It was a salutary reminder of reality that
a friend when told that the exam was on the 10th of October said,
“Oh, yes, in a fortnight!” Clinical,
accurate and frightening. I remain to
discover if this wake-up call inspires me to productive action!
I have been studying the past examination
paper that we have been given to calm our nerves. It does appear that I will not be able to
bluff my way through this one and they will require a fair amount of specific
information – I may even have to remember the exact dates of King Philip II of
my adopted country, as he and El Escorial are key elements in the discussion of
relics that I intend to have on the 10th of October in The British
Council! Or at least one of them – god
alone knows what the other two “discussions” are going to about.
Going on the last examination, I fully
expect there to be some sort of discriminatory questions (aka “trick”
questions) which will send despair and confusion into the minds of the hapless
writers attempting to give coherent responses.
Having learned my lesson from The Last Essay the answers that I write
will be the result of assiduous mining of the phrasing of the question itself –
and liberally sprinkled with OU key words!
The next course has virtually started with
much writing of haiku on the pre-start forum.
And no, I am not going to write out mine – though they were of surpassing
exquisiteness!
I have also been allocated a tutor, which
is another step towards the start of the course, though the web site only opens
officially tomorrow. The course is not
supposed to start until the 5th, though if the last one is anything
to go by we will be expected to work from the first day of the open forum and
not wait for the official opening. Which
is a pity, because I will be doing “other things” and will not be able to play
as full a part in the opening as I would like.
Although as this course is creative writing I could always channel my
paranoia about the examination into art!
I have just received “The Blunders of our
Governments” by Anthony King and Ivor Crewe, a disconcerting explanation of
just how wasteful and idiotic governments can be with our money. The authors try and be fair saying that as
governments go ours is not too bad; and as far as corruption is concerned the
sorry tale of MPs expenses was headline news because such stories are not everyday
in our country. In Spain, however . . .
The stories of waste are relayed with a
prose style which is easy to read and quite colloquial at times and injects a
note of humour into stories which would otherwise make you weep! At the moment I am reading about the abortive
introduction of ID cards. I have already
sighed my way through the fiasco of the Millennium Dome; the centralization of
records in the NHS; the horror of the PPP of the London Underground; Black
Wednesday and, my personal favourite The Poll Tax. This volume will sit proudly beside my “Great
Planning Disasters” book which also makes salutary reading. In the introductory chapters it was also nice
to get a nod to Profumo and Blue Streak which are scandals just at the limit of
my political memory!
Even though the weather is still reasonable
and sunny, my body has decided that it is well on towards the winter season and
I have developed a stinking cold! The
only good thing that I can say about it is that this morning I was able to stay
in bed for an extra hour or so feeling sorry for myself rather than getting up
and going to school at the crack of dawn.
Because I would have gone to school and felt rotten for the whole of the
day. Which I did at home, but it is much
more restful and numerous cups of tea made it all appear much more civilized.
Tomorrow more revision.
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