
Squeamish's resident mature student Sue's studies are going well. If only she could get her glasses prescription right...
Half term has been and gone, I blinked and missed it. In fact I didn’t blink much at all due to the matchsticks holding my eyelids open whilst I completed my History, English and Sociology Assignments! They were quite involved and I wanted to get on with them to give me a breather between the finish of one lot and the start of the next; so I was a bit put out to find that the nearer we got to the deadline, the more help we were given. The dilemma being if you leave it for long enough, you will receive enough hand outs to virtually write the thing for you, but you have no time in which to write it because by then the next assignment is being handed out.
Speaking of looking (and not blinking – there is a theme going on here), I had an eye test because things were not terribly well in focus. I thought it was the red wine, but it transpires I need a stronger prescription. I chose my new frames remembering to ask for Student Discount. The woman who snottily asked to see my Student Union card clearly thought I was deluded, but actually yes I am a student, thank you.
Anyway the long and the short of it (I am both by the way hence the varifocals) is that I could see bugger all with the new ones when I went to pick them up. Back to the drawing board - I chose more frames better suited to varifocals and they made me another pair, but they were no better because they were too uncomfortable for words. Choice number three would surely be the last problem and see me through 2020, but no, they were wrong too. Who needs to see, I only have another 8 months at college so it’s no problem! Choice number four has yet to materialise. Watch this space. Well I would if I had some specs . . .
Harvard referencing …what is that all about? Makes you read with a stutter with all that peppering of Author comma Initial full stop year (in brackets), every time you refer to someone in your text. Are authors of other works really so anal about being quoted (or mis-quoted) in someone else’s work without acknowledgement that you have to go to these lengths? The plague of plagiarism. Maybe when I am famous I might think differently but really, I ask you! It takes an absolute age. Surely I could acknowledge other peoples work without having to go to all that trouble? Apparently not. I realise they must be recognised, but I have a lot to learn obviously.
I had a bit of a moment in Maths recently, when I became very emotional. Our tutor was explaining the x, y and z of algebra and I was thinking ‘well I won’t understand this, I can’t do algebra’. But she explained it in such a way that I was keen to give the exercise a go, and I couldn’t believe that I only got one wrong and that the penny had dropped. Quite where it rolled away too isn’t too clear after today’s efforts but anyway I sent her a text so say I had been carrying a legacy around with me from school for the best part of 45 years thinking I couldn’t do maths when in fact I am not that bad at it. Not brilliant, let’s not get carried away, but a general commendable effort nonetheless I feel.
Roll on Christmas!
Squeamish Sue