TXR174 .... TMA results

my tutor has emailed me my results for my TMA.
I passed!!!!!
That is the good news but I didn't do as well as I know I could of done.
If only I hadn't been sick I would of gotten the 80% I was hoping for.
I knew that I wouldn't get the 80% I wanted because I was sick and I didn't do as well as I could of done and I was hoping for 60%.
Well I got OVER 60% and I am so HAPPY at that but I am a little disappointed at what I submitted and I realized my mistakes once it had been sent. Is it always that way? I do think I could do so much better with another chance at it.
I would love to do that course again as I enjoyed doing it so much and now I have done the TMA's I know that I can get a lot higher marks next time.
The marks that I have gotten from this course has been a lot higher than the marks I have goeen for other courses but I think that has been down to really enjoying this course so it has given me something to work towards. Unlike T171 I just want to pass the ECA because I have not enjoyed the course at all and all I want to do is get the ECA out of the way and pass the course. I will be upset if I fail that course as I have out up with it for the last nine months.
With TXR174 I have worked hard on it and enjoyed it and I could of worked harder and I am sad for it to finish as I have really enjoyed it.

Made the first of three

Yesterday I made the first of three Christmas cakes that I am going to be making.
I know that it is almost 14 weeks till Christmas but they need to mature and I also feed them with brandy.
I don't like them at all but everyone else seems to love them for some reason.
I might end up making more than three Christmas cakes as I am sure people are going to be asking me to make them a cake. I will make the cakes for people if they pay for the ingredients and the icing and marzipan and all that.
I enjoy making them even though at times they can be a pain to do but I enjoy making them as it's therapeutic.
So I have one made and I shall be making the next one a week on Saturday as I am going away on Friday so I won't be able to make one this weekend.

No more this year

I have decided that I am not going to do any more courses this year and I am going to have a break for a couple of months.
I am NOT at my most motivated at the moment so I want to get my head together and get myself motivated for next January when the course I want to do starts.
I know that if I start a course now that I won't be fully into it and I won't give it my all so I am not going to do one.
I don't know what I will do with my spare time but I was thinking of reading a lot of books from the library and learn new things that way and I can get books out on the subjects that I plan to do next year so I will be better prepared when they start.
I was also thinking of taking a new hobby or something up over then next few months to keep me busy and to also give me a new interest and to stop me from getting bored whilst I am not studying.

Two and a half hours and only 10% through..........

so far I have spent two and a half hours on my ECA for T171 and I am only 10% through it.
There is so much to do and I didn't realize how much there is to do until I was working on it last night.
I am going to hopefully spend three hours on it today and the same tomorrow and Wednesday.
Thursday I will probably spend about two hours on it as I am off to Scotland on Friday morning.
I want to be about 70% through it before I go to Scotland as I will only have Three days to get it finished when I get back.
It has to be 60% done before I can go and if it's any less than that then I will NOT allow myself to go.
But as I want to go to Scotland so much I will make sure that I do the work and put in the effort.
It's so hard this ECA and I will be so glad when it is finished but I will be so worried about if I have passed or not. As I have said before I will be happy to just pass as I have NOT enjoyed this course one bit so 40% will make me happy.
I think the hardest thing is waiting three months for my results, that is pure torture.

Friday couldn't come sooner

Friday really couldn't come sooner.........

I am really looking forward to going to Scotland on Friday and I can't wait till Friday gets here.

I do have an awful lot to do in between now and Friday but I will be so glad when I am on my way up to Scotland on Friday.

Well Thursday afternoon is the time that I am looking forward to as Ii can stop work on the ECA and start to get my clothes and things together and pack.

I will admit again that I am NOT looking forward to my train journey and I will be so glad to get off that train in Glasgow because I will feel so sick by the time comes to get off that train.

I know that James is really looking forward to seeing me again and that Friday couldn't come sooner for him.

Four more days and I will be there. It's 12:10pm now and that's the sort of time I will be in Scotland again. It only took just 2 hours to get to Scotland last time from Preston and that was with ten minutes of stopping. I was so happy to get there because I was feeling sick and the last twenty minutes or so of the journey was hard as I felt sick.

I am just so excited about going and seeing James, I really can't wait.

Picked one course.

I have picked one of the course that I want to start next year:

http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C02A207

When I was finishing up with A103 http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C01A103_1_59 last year I was thinking of doing the above course as my next course choice so I have gone full circle and ended up back at it.
I would of done it as I did want to do a degree in the Humanities but I was told by a certain person that wouldn't get me anywhere in life. I then started a business degree and choose three courses to do. Only one of which I really wanted to do and I did them to please the person that told me that a degree in the humanities won't get me anywhere in life.
During studying these courses I realized that I should do what I want to do because I really didn't want to do a business degree and I was finding the maths too hard. So with the courses I was doing I found out that I could only do a BA if I was to include all the courses I was doing into it so I am doing a BA.
A BA is also good because I can do all the courses I like the look of and what I want to do so I am happy with the BA but when I have finished this degree I will do another degree in one area.

I now need to find another course to start next year as I want to do the 60 point course that I have picked above and I also want to do a 30 point course as well. So I will be looking for a course over the next few days to apply for.

eBay!!!!

I really like going on eBay and looking around for things. The only problem is I always want so much stuff and I always have so little money.
There are some real bargains on eBay and I just like looking for things that I want or need and getting them for a bargain.
I have bought a few things on eBay over the last few days and ended up saving a bit of money.
I am going to put the links of them in here but if you wanna see what I bought then you are going to have to copy and paste them in to your browser.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5323807501&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT with that Item I probably ended up saving about £15- 20.00 on those items as they are very expensive make up brands.


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5519160156&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT I also saved a couple of pounds with this item also.


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5519159827&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT - this item again I probably saved a couple of pounds.




So there really is a lot of bargains on eBay. The things I have just shown you may not interest you but there are a lot of new products on eBay at a very cheap price.

ECA......

I really should of started my ECA by now but I haven't even fully read the questions.

I need to have finished it by Thursday evening next week at the latest as the next day I am off to Scotland for a couple of days.

The ECA looks really hard and I am worried about falling it. I have put up with the course for the last nine months as I have not enjoyed it at all and I really don't want to fail it.

So I am planning on sitting down at the computer tomorrow and reading through the questions and then make a start on the ECA.

I am hoping to have the draft finished by Tuesday night and on Wednesday go over it and re do it and make it all nice and ready to go and hopefully on Thursday it will be reading and I can hopefully concentrate on packing for Friday.

So I really have to motivate myself now and get this ECA done. I have told myself that if it isn't finished by Thursday tea time at the latest I will not be going to Scotland on Friday so now I really must motivate myself into doing this ECA.

Mobile phones

I have been offered the latest Nokia video phone if I stay with Orange when my contract is up next month.
The offer is a brilliant offer but I don't know if I should take it.

I am really bad when it comes to my phone. I run up massive bills. I am lucky if my bill is under £150 a month and I really can't afford to carry on doing that because I never have any money for myself because it is all going on my phone bills.

I really want to keep my contract and get the latest Nokia video phone but if I do I really have to make my minutes and texts last and not go over them.

I know what I am like so I really do have to stick to the minutes and texts because I can no longer afford to keep on going over as I really never have any money to myself.

Why?

Why does hearing things about people that we least expect to hear shock us so much?
I found out something shocking about a person close to me that has really shocked me.
It's kind of shaken me up because it is the last thing that I expected to hear.

Sometimes we build up images of people in our minds and see them in certain ways and see them as the people we see them as.

I found something out about a really close person in my life and even though it happened years ago it really is effecting me and I really don't know how to get over it. I know that may sound silly, the fact I need to get over it, but I am so shocked about what I have been told.
My feelings about what I have been told are all over the place so I don't really know what I feel about it but I know that I am in a deep shock about it and I just can't seem to get it off my mind.

Making Birthday cake

I started to make my step dad's birthday cake for his 60th.
The cakes I make take two months in total.
They are rich fruit cakes and I feed them with brandy.
People say that they are the best cakes they have ever tried and beg me to make them for them.
These cakes are not cheap to make. They probably cost £30 in total to make including icing. So they are not cheap cakes.
The funny thing is I don't like them at all and prefer sponge cake.
Anyway my mum asked me to make one for my step fathers 60th Birthday. She's getting a big sponge cake for the party but she wanted something for the family so she asked me to do her the cake.
I was actually meant to make it the weekend before last but I forgot to make it so it didn't get done. Then I was gonna do it the weekend just gone but I didn't end up doing it.
I started to soak the fruit yesterday so I could do it today. So now I have to mix all the other ingredients together and put in the oven.
It takes forever to cook and I have to keep an eye over it as that cooker plays up and cooks things faster than it should so I will be having to cookers temperature lower than it should be as it cooks the cake faster than it should be cooked and ends up ruinin the cake.
The cake is needed in 46 days so that is long enough. That's just over six weeks so I have managed to do it in time.
So I shall be mixing all the ingredients together soon and then I shall be putting it in the oven.

T171 - TMA04 ...the funny thing is............

I finally finished my TMA for T171 last week and got it in on Tuesday.
I got my results back on Saturday morning.
I had spent the longest on that TMA out of all the TMAs that I have done for T171 and you wanna know something?
Hard work doesn't mean anything these days as I failed it.
I wasn't too bothod about getting only 40% as this course is truly rubbish and all I want to do is pass the course.
But I failed. I can still pass the course as Ii have enough points from previous TMAs for it to not matter.
So I am still on track but I have to make sure that I pass the ECA. I have to pass that no matter what because you have to pass that in order to pass the course.
So it really goes to show that I could of spent less time on the TMA than I did because I was gonna fail anyway.
I am not willing to fail the course though as it has been a tough 8 months on the course as it has bored me to death and I am NOT into it one bit so it has been a challenge for me to carry on doing it and also I am not willing to waste 8 months of my time and 30 points.
Also now I have to limit my OU courses and do less points per year I can not afford to lose the 30 points and I have done the work so I have to make sure that I pass.

W200 Understanding Law

I applied for a finicial reward for W200 as I can NOT afford the £1,550 fee.
I had to send them a letter to prove how much benefit I get per week and you wanna know how much they offered to take off the £1,550 fee?
They offered to take off £225 ...... Yes you are reading that right. They offered me a crappy £225 off the fee.
Where on gods earth do they expect me to get the balance from? People on benefits don't have a stash of spare cash hanging around.
If I did have that much in the bank there is more important things that I need before I can even condsider that.
I wanted to do that course more than anything and I have been looking forward to doing it for over a year.
I think what they have offered me is pathetic and I will be emailing them to tell them so. Where would someone on benefits find the balance from?
God these people are so stupid...They know how much you get per week and they expect you to have over a grand lying around somewhere. Do these people live on the same planet as you and I?
This all puts my degree behind as I was playing on taking about 100 -110 points this year but I can't because they are only allowing me £500 per year towards my courses when before they never had this rule. I really think that this is unfair. I was trying to do my degree in four years but now there is no chance of that because they are not paying for my courses any more when I need them paying for as there is no way what so ever that I can pay for these courses myself.

TMA04 - T171

I am sat here now posting on my Blog......There is nothing wrong with that.
I really should be finishing off my TMA for T171.
I got a weeks extension on it because I was ill and the weeks extension ended yesterday at midnight.
It got to about 10pm last night and I was sat here answering the questions but I was very tired so I started to miss read the questions and started babbling on about a load of rubbish so I had to leave the computer as I was too tired to concentrate on it.
I emailed my tutor last night asking if it was OK if I could submit it this evening, I have had no reply so I hope to god that it is OK otherwise I will fail my course which I don't want to do.

Anyway I really should not be writing my blog and instead I should be finishing my TMA. I just can not get myself motivated and I am looking at the questions and nothing is coming to me.
The difference between this TMA and the TMA that I did for TXR174 is the fact that I don't mind just passing my TMA on this course because I know I am NOT putting in the hard work that I should be because I really lost interest in this course a while back and so did a few other people that I know that are doing the course.
I have never got as low a mark as 40% on it and I hope I don't as anyone can get at least 40% but I am at the point of not caring too much if I get 40% just as long as I pass.
I am going to go and do a few things around the house before I start to do some work on the TMA as it'll help clear my mind so that when I come back to the computer I will be able to hopefully concentrate on the TMA as I really need to finish it and have it in by 7 ish as I don't want to annoy my tutor.

Finally finished and sent TMA05 for TXR174

I finally finished my TMA for TXR174 and I was ever so glad to have finished it and printed it.
I do wish that I could have it back because I have realized all the mistakes that I have made on it.
Things from how it is set out to the grammar and to the report itself. I know I could do a lot better than what I have done and I am now dreading the mark that I am going to get.
I have really realized the error of my ways with that TMA and if I just had an extra hour or two I could make that TMA 10 times better than what it is.
I am almost ashamed of the effort that I have submitted and wish that I could do more work on it as there is some stuff that needs taking out, changing and adding.
I am so worried about it and I was tired when I thought I had finished it and printed it off but I now realize it was a stupid mistake to finish it off when I was so tired as I know that I have gone down the wrong route with my answers and what I discuss in it.
My tutor is going to be wondering what the hell I am going on about in it because it looks as though someone wrote it but didn't go to Summer School. It looks as though I didn't take any notice at Summer School but I did and I really enjoyed the Water Quality Activity and I know what I should of wrote.
I was having a big problem with writers block as well because everytime I sat down the words didn't want to come out and then I got to the point I was looking at the questions and they were leaving me dazed and confused. I was also ill and in bed and when I got out of bed to do some of it I wasn't feeling well at all.
I know that there is nothing that I can do now as my tutor has it and is marking it but I am really dreading these results as I know they are not going to be good and that I could of done a better job on my TMA.

My TMA was 21 pages long in the end plus an extra page that I added on top to make it look a little more presentable but it was so thick that I couldn't fit it in one of those A4 plastic sheet things. My dad did suggest to me to put it in a few but as it wasn't set out to be like that it wouldn't of looked write.
Now as I am typing this I am thinking that maybe I should of used 22 individual covers so it was all in those plasitc thingys so it is water prooth and looks ok but maybe that would of been stupid.
I wish that I had one of those plasic A4 covers at home that you slide your work into side ways as it would of looked nice in one of them.
But there is no point in wishing I had done this and that because I didn't and I am only wishing these things because now that the TMA has gone I now know what to write on it and I can't because my tutor has it.