Red Blooded Woman

This day seems to be lasting for ages, I don't know why. I feel tired and not 100% well so that's probably why.
The day started off OK I guess, I got up and ate chocolate biscuits dunked in a cup of tea and watched TV. What a way to start a Sunday.
Anyway today I decided I needed to work on my two courses that have to be finished by the 31st October. By finished I mean all the course work done and the ECA answered and submitted. A ECA is a End of Course Assessment which is used instead of exams for all level one courses and all 10 point course and some level 2 and 3 level courses although not many courses above level 1 use ECAs instead of exams.
I don't know if I prefer exams or ECAs but for the past year I've done four courses that require a ECA rather than an exam. Some ECAs are harder than others and require more work but in general they all need time. How much time depends on the course/subject/level/points.
The two courses I am doing now are 10 point courses which is the lowest amount of points you can do and they are both level one which again is the lowest level at uni level. One of the courses is on Planets and the other is on Mammals so two very different courses and two courses I've never studied before.

You basically get 10 weeks to do these 10 point courses but they always have two submission dates. I got these courses in May and the first submission date was end of July and I really wanted to submit them then but I didn't even start them until after then so I decided to go for the October 31st submission date and planned on having them finished months ago but that never happened.

I started the Planets one and spent maybe 2-3 hours on it one day and got a little bored with it so didn't do anymore that day and since then I've been meaning to do an hour a day but it never happened.
The Mammals course I probably looked at 4-6 weeks later and loved it but after 5 hours on it I haven't picked it up again and both courses equal around 100 hours of work.

Right the ECAs for these courses are a set of around 20-24 questions. Most of them (well for the Planet one anyway as I've not looked at the Mammal one yet) ask you to either pick two true statements or two false statements out of a list of around 6 statements which seems easy and in a way it's easier than being asked a question I guess although I am not used to these types of ECAs. It's the first time I've this type of ECA.

Anyway today I decided to work on the Planets ECA. I've basically run out of time to sit and do the course work so I've decided to just work on the ECAs for both courses and possibly look over the course books/DVDs etc when I have time after the course finishes.
It's not a quick process because I basically have to go through the coursework books and find information and see which statements are true or false.

With the Planets course there is a big course work book, a teach yourself planets book and a CD Rom. Basically the course is based on the teach yourself planets book so I've been using the teach yourself planets book to help me find which can be the possible true and false statements in each question. The good thing is the questions/subjects are in the same order the book is in which is helpful. Well so far that is the case, I've worked on about 6 of the questions so far so I still have around 18 more to do. It isn't easy because all the statements relate to something in the book so you have to read closely otherwise you can end up picking a wrong statement because all the things in the statements are mentions or talked about but unless you read all the information you could end up thinking things are true or false that aren't.
I hope to have all the questions done for the end of Wednesday on the planets one.

I haven't looked at the Mammals questions yet but I am presuming the Life of Mammals book I have is the place to find the answers because the course is based on that book. It's a really thick book but it's got lots of pictures in so I'm hoping it won't take too long to find the answers. I'm also thinking that all the answers won't be in the book because we have about 8 DVDs containing the Life of Mammals TV Series so I might have to watch all that to help me find the answers. I don't mind if I do have to watch it because I did watch DVD one and it was amazing, I enjoyed it so much so if I have to watch it to help with the ECA then I won't complain and if I don't have to watch it I think I will do in the evenings anyway.

I will probably work on the Mammals ECA from Thursday until the following Thursday.

I won't submit my answers then because I will still have almost two weeks to submit and because I can submit online I can submit them up until 12pm (lunch time) on the day they are due, 31st October. But from experience I won't be leaving it until last minute and will probably submit them on the 30th once I have checked over them.

To pass I need 40% on each ECA, if you get below that it's a fail and you can't resit. On 30 points upwards you can resit but on 10 point courses they don't let you so that is why it's very important I check to make sure I've got them right.
I do want to do another 10 point course, well 4 so I can get the Science Qualification I'm after, and I am thinking of starting one in November but as of yet I don't know which one but I've got a couple of weeks to decide on that one.

I still don't have my passport. I had to do a third set of pictures because they got sent back again. I am getting sick of that because of the time and cost. I leave for Amsterdam a week on Friday and I don't even know if I have a passport or not because stupid Royal Mail have gone on strike.
I am sure the day the mail starts again I will find out if they have been accepted or not, if they haven't I will have a letter saying so. I won't have time to send anymore pictures then so I don't know what I am going to do. They cashed the cheque for the passport five weeks ago so they have had the money. I just hope the pictures are fine this time otherwise I might not be able to go to Amsterdam and I booked it in April. I didn't leave my passport until last minute either, I sent off for it 7 weeks before I was due to go but all these problems are slowing it up and now Royal Mail going on strike is the worst time for me.

I haven't even saved any money for Amsterdam yet and I don't have any. I wanted around £400 and maybe another £100 because there are some things I need to buy but I don't know how much money I am going to have. I basically get paid when my dad gets paid so until we get paid I don't have anything and different people pay at different times. This week we plan on getting a lot of accounts work done especially for those who are most likely to pay straight away. A lot of people pay via cheques so of course Monday next week is the last day we can pay them in so this week I will be working harder and longer than I normally do to get as much work done as possible so we can get as many accounts finished as possible. I basically want to do as much work as will earn me around £800-1000 so I can have my money for Amsterdam, buy my essentials, have around £200 for my birthday weekend and then have enough left to buy some Meat Loaf tickets for his concert on the 4th November because I don't want to miss out on that.
I can earn that £800-1000 in the next 5 days but basically it all comes down to how fast we get paid. I've done £170 of that already and I'm half way through one that will earn me £265, there is one that will earn me £60 in about 4 hours. So if we get paid for them next week I will earn £495 and that will do for Amsterdam and most of the things I need to buy. I can have the £265 and £60 job done by Wednesday morning at the latest as long as I don't get ill. We have one I have done already that will earn me £150 but there is some work needing doing on that and we are waiting for some information on it but I am sure it will be done middle of the week and we will get paid via a cheque, then there is £200 job for me which I can finish for weekend so the money is there but it just all depends on how fast we get paid.

This week I have worked hard on and off as I've felt ill on and off and it's not been anything too bad but it's made me not be able to do as much as I'd like. I've not run for about two weeks now and I don't think I will be doing the half marathon and I am really disappointed about it because I did want to do it and I feel like I am not going to Amsterdam for a good reason now but I think I will do the 5K as long as I get out running about 8-12 times before I go to Amsterdam. If I don't manage that much then I won't be fit enough to do it, I basically have 40 minutes to do it in so unless I can do it in around 35 minutes before I go away then I won't be running it but then again if I don't have my passport I won't be going anywhere.

I am getting really sick with the lack of room in my bedroom. Before there was a lot of room but ever since I got that bed it just takes up way too much room and I can't walk round my room and I keep tripping over things and banging my knees and shins and it's just getting to me. My room is a tip and I can barely get round it to clean it and the other day I almost hurt myself as I was rushing round my room to get out and I fell forwards and almost went through my bedroom window. It's just annoying and I don't know what to do about it because I can't really move anything in there so who knows what is going to happen.

I think I know what I want off my dad for my birthday. I was going to buy them myself but every time I seem to have some money I spend it on something else and with Christmas coming up I wouldn't spend that much on one item. But basically I want a pair of UGG boots. They are amazing and I've wanted some for ages and they are perfect for winter but can also be worn in summer so I could wear them all year round I want. I don't want the full length ones, I am going for the original ones and I am torn about what colour I want so who knows which one I will get. I haven't told my dad yet because I need to explain why he should buy me a pair of £135 boots. I will show them to him and tell him why they cost that much and even if I have to put a little money towards them I am determined to get some for my birthday. I need footwear anyway as I have such a problem getting footwear to fit me because not only do I have wide feet but they change size a lot. I used to be a size 5 but they are now 6-6 1/2 but I have been this size before and then went back down to a 5. I basically don't have many things in a 6 and some of the things I have in 6 are too small but 7s are too big. I have running trainers in 6 1/2 and they are perfect and a now pair of flat slouch boots in a 6 which I love but they just fit. I got another pair of boots in 6 but they squash my toes after an hour or so and I have to change them but when I tried the 7s on they were way too big so it's such a pain for me. I have some high shoes that are lovely and they are 6s but they are too big so my toes don't go to where they should but I can't get to 5s on. It's a pain. So if they 6 UGGS don't fit I will have the 7s because they are thickly lined so my feet won't slide around in them.

Anyway I am just about to play online poker on Facebook and probably wash up and maybe go to bed. It's not 9pm yet but poker lasts around an hour and I won't be going to sleep straight away, I put a DVD on every night.

Paradise by the dashboard light

1st October already, this year seems to be going really fast.

Well the last week I didn't get much work done because since Wednesday I've not felt too well. I had a banging headache and temperature on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Friday evening my dad came home with a cold and it was then I knew why I'd been feeling ill for days. I'd been so tired and I had no clue I was coming down with something. So since Friday night I've been taking Day Nurse Capsules in the hope that I don't come down with a heavy cold. I've felt rough since Friday night and Saturday I felt totally out of it and was almost falling asleep at 5pm but some how even though I was so sleepy at that point I managed to stay up until 3am.
Sunday I was totally tired when I got up and I spent the say not doing much other than watching a film (Hot Fuzz), watching TV and reading magazines. I didn't really feel up to doing too much. Sunday night I went to bed around 2am and put a DVD on and watched that for half an hour before falling asleep. It was a restless night for me, I kept waking up on and off and didn't want to get up when I did but I thought I better get up. Today I didn't do too much even though I have two massive jobs to do before the end of the week. My dad and I went out for a late lunch so that made today a more interesting day.

Well are you wondering why my dad is at home? He quit his job!! Last Friday because the accountancy business is building up and I can't cope with the work and my dad didn't have enough time to do as much as needed so he had to quit his job. He was going to go part time but his boss is a total nightmare and treats him like something he's stood in so it was time he left and with a push from me he decided to completely quit and concentrate on his accountancy business.
So he will be around a lot more and that night drive me crazy because I am so used to being here all day on my own and going by my own schedule and having the music on as loud as I like but of course if my dad is around it makes it harder for me to have music loud, go off and laze around when I want and more stuff. But today he was out and about a lot so I didn't see him until he came home and take me for a late lunch so if it's like that then of course I don't mind it as much as if he was here 24 hours a day.
I know I have to work really hard this week because there is two really big jobs that we want to do so we can basically get a big load of money in. I need a lot of money so I can have my spending money for Amsterdam (I want around £400 spending money), new suitcases, new glasses, a keyboard for my laptop, some clothes, 2 Meat Loaf concert tickets and a plane ticket to Amsterdam - oh and around £200 for my birthday weekend. So that's a lot of money to make and if we do the two jobs I probably have almost enough for that and what I earn next week will more than tip me over the amount I need, probably also will make sure I have my spending money for Amsterdam.

I need to get into a better all around routine in the next few weeks as I have two short courses to do before I go to Amsterdam. I should be almost finished on them but I started them and never did much on them so in the evenings I shall be working on them, there is so much to get through but with some luck I will have it all done and posted the day before I go to Amsterdam.

On the subject of Amsterdam I got another letter back about my passport application. I am getting sick of this, there is something wrong with the second set of the pictures I sent. They say they can't see my eyes in them even though I can clearly see them in both sets they have sent back. So on Saturday I had the third set done and sent them off yesterday and I hope they are happy with them ones because I am due to go to Amsterdam 2 weeks on Friday and I need my passport and won't be pleased if there is anything wrong now. It's cost me around £100 in total for the passport because it's £66 and then recorded delivery to send it, the pictures are £4, then I had to get another birth certificate which was £7 and that had to be sent recorded delivery. Then I had to send a second set of pictures (£4) via recorded delivery and then a third set of pictures (£4) via recorded delivery so it's costing a lot of money and taking a lot of time. It's such a good job that I sent it off with 7 weeks to spare and they aren't doing the interviews yet because that would of slowed it down even more.
With some luck the third set of pictures are OK and I will have my passport by the end of the week.

I got a Zen Stone MP3 player and it looks nice but I'm not too impressed with it to be honest so I might get rid of it and buy something else.

Anyway that's enough from me for now, time for a drink and something to eat!!