At least it's done!

There was no clock!  There has to be a clock!  It’s in the regulations!  But there was no clock.  And indeed nobody else.  I was supposed to be joined by one other candidate but I was alone.  Well, not alone there was an invigilator.

I spread myself over two desks.  On one my pen, answer book, bottle of water and tissues.   On the other the rest of my pens, my drugs, passport, phone, documentation and notes.

We didn’t wait for the non-appearing man and so started roughly on time.  After the administration of filling in attendance certificates and the front page of the answer book, I was given my single sheet question paper.

It is disconcerting to discover that the only sounds in the room are being created by the movement of pen on paper by you, and that when you stop writing there is silence!

There have been few, very few papers that I have taken where I could answer every question – but this was one of them.  Unlike the previous exam this was much more of a discussion using knowledge that, in theory you should have acquired during the course.  In the last exam one of the questions was creative writing and the other two were glorified comprehension.  Easy peasy.  In retrospect.

I did (honestly) write some sort of essay plan and tried to keep to the 40 minutes per question that is recommended so that the exam could be completed in two hours, rather than the three allowed.

I can’t pretend that I am satisfied with what I wrote, but it will have to stand, there is nothing more I can do about it.  My mind must now turn to the new course and get stuck in.  Whatever result I get I must admit that I have enjoyed this course much more than the previous one.  One of the signs of education is surely being taught something and then in the course of the next few months finding out that names, concepts and events crop up with astonishing regularity in the course of normal reading and listening!  That has happened with this course and there are many aspects of the various subjects that we encountered that are going to stay with me forever!

The next course, Creative Writing is going to be a stretch for me because I am being asked to write in a way which is completely foreign to me.  For example, one of the first exercises we have been asked to try is “Freewrite” which is twenty minutes of flowing writing letting your subconscious take you where it will.  I have tried this, but the tutor has said that I still “have my hands on the handlebars” – in other words I am trying to give more and structure to the writing instead of allowing the writing to emerge and go to places that you cannot control.

But my fingers are on the keys of the typewriter and, although I am a touch typist and I can type faster than I can write, there is a definite barrier in that my brain is organizing things!  Well, we will see where my writing goes.

Toni visited the doctor today and I think that I will go tomorrow. 

This bloody illness has now been with me for three weeks and I am not used to things like this: Something Must Be Done!