I Survived! - My First Year As An OU Student

I made it! I finished my first year/full module of university!

At 36 years old and a serial quitter in the past, I never thought I'd be saying this and I still keep having little Yay me! moments. It hasn't been easy, but so, so worthwhile.

I've surprised myself in so many ways over the last eight months. I appear to have a talent for Art History...which, if you remember my post way back when I started, was the part of this compulsory broad based arts course (AA100) I was dreading (reminder HERE) I somehow managed to score 95% on an assignment on Benin Art, which also surprised me...clearly I'm not as useless as I'd have myself believe.

So, that degree isn't looking so much like a dream I'm never going to achieve and I finally believe my chances haven't passed me by now. It's been a massive confidence boost and I'd recommend anyone, of any age, who have considered Open University but lack confidence in themselves, to give it a go. I'm going to blog about my experiences, hints and tips for combining OU with work, childcare and life as a single parent etc but for now, here's the 5 top things I've loved about my first year as an adult uni student and studying AA100- The Arts past And Present*

1. The best thing about this course has to be the fantastic people I've met. One concern I had about OU was feeling isolated. Thanks to social media and facebook though, I've been part of an amazing, ecletic and supportive group of people and made lifelong friends.

2. I hated the idea of this course. I wanted to study literature, but this broad based arts course was compulsory and I felt forced into studying Art History, History, Philosophy, Music, Religion and Classical studies. What a surprise though...I loved it all (well most of it...I admit to a serious wobble around the time we studied tradition in Christianity). I feel truly enriched with the knowledge I've accumulated in such a short space of time, in areas I had no previous interest and have a new found love of Art History and the Classical world.

3. Flexibility. Juggling work and childcare hasn't been easy, but the flexibility of OU allows you to study in your own time...sometimes (mostly) at ungodly hours. The materials supplied by the OU are fantastic too and for the main part interesting and accessible.

4. Seamus Heaney...loved, loved, LOVED studying his version of Antigone, The Burial at Thebes. And LOVED studying his poetry...even if the one we did was about cows. Closely followed by being introduced to Ancient Greek drama and the classical world.

5. Self-confidence boost. Apart from one (yes, Christianity assignment, I'm looking at you) I've grown more confident and determined that I can do this. For someone without a GCSE to their name and who hasn't studied for two decades, it's been a real journey and I'm so glad now I didn't give up when it got tough.

So now I await my final result...expected around mid July. One thing I will warn you about...OU is addictive. I'm already onto my second course instead of taking a summer break. I want to keep the momentum going and finish this degree before my 40th Birthday in 2017.  It's not looking so absolutely impossible now.

*AA100 is a broad based arts course and a compulsory module for the majority of Arts and Humanities degrees with the OU.

Top Ten Tuesdays: Books At the top Of My Spring TBR List

Top Ten Tuesdays is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish 

Top Ten Books On My Spring TBR Pile: 

Back To Blackbrick by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald 

The Memory Cage by Ruth Eastham 

 

I've talked quite a lot about my Grandmother and Alzheimer's here in the past. It's a subject very close to our whole families hearts. My eight year old daughter has been very involved in her care and I want to highlight books with the theme of children coping with caring for a loved one with the disease, and these two books fit the bill. 

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Shades of Earth by Beth Revis 

Boundless by Cynthia Hand 

Requiem by Lauren Oliver  

Final instalments from three of my favourite series over the last couple of years.  

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The Girl You Left behind by JoJo Moyes

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins 

Unsticky by Sarra Manning  

 

I'm off to Tenerife for a week at the beginning of May. This is my planned beach reading. 

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By Any Other Name by Laura Jarratt  

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom 

 

These two are review books, I'm taking part in a blog tour for By Any Other Name and The Kitchen House is outstanding from the Amazon Vine program. 

Mini Book Review: The Palace Of Curiosities by Rosie Garland

A luminous and bewitching debut novel that is perfect for fans of Angela Carter. Set in Victorian London, it follows the fortunes of Eve, the Lion-Faced Girl and Abel, the Flayed Man. A magical realism delight. Before Eve is born, her mother goes to the circus. She buys a penny twist of coloured sugar and settles down to watch the heart-stopping main attraction: a lion, billed as a monster from the savage heart of Africa, forged in the heat of a merciless sun. Mama swears she hears the lion sigh, just before it leaps...and when Eve is born, the story goes, she didn't cry - she meowed and licked her paws. When Abel is pulled from the stinking Thames, the mudlarks are sure he is long dead. As they search his pockets to divvy up the treasure, his eyes crack open and he coughs up a stream of black water. But how has he survived a week in that thick stew of human waste? Cast out by Victorian society, Eve and Abel find succour from an unlikely source. They will become The Lion Faced Girl and The Flayed Man, star performers in Professor Josiah Arroner's Palace of Curiosities. And there begins a journey that will entwine their fates forever. (from Goodreads.com) 

I was tempted by this book thinking it sounded similar to The Night Circus- which I adored. It isn't really anything like it though. Although I did quite enjoy it, I found it a little disturbing at times and the story a bit vague and unrounded for my taste.

Told in alternating chapters by Eve and Abel,the pace was steady and kept me interested. I liked Abel's chapters more, and overall found his story much more intriguing. As a character, he's fascinating I'd certainly love to know more about him.

This book is pretty disturbing at times, particularly scenes of self mutilation. I think I'm pretty strong stomached and even I winced once or twice. This probably isn't for the faint-hearted!

Rosie Garland certainly has a beautiful way with words. Her prose is rich and evocative. However, I found the book on the whole a little unsatisfactory. Vague and underdeveloped characters left me a bit frustrated. 

Published by HarperCollins Uk 28th March (copy recieved from the Amazon Vine program)

Happy World Book Day

Lucy is taking her favourite book to school today. It's The Twits by Roald Dahl. If you have a reluctant reader, then I can't recommend this one enough. Lots of laughs and eww grossness... I promise it'll be a hit. Here's Lu completely engrossed as I stand at the door shouting 'we have to go now!'

So how are your little people celebrating? If you had to take you're favourite book to share, what would it be?

A Humble Hyphen Creates A Hell Of A Hole (A Warning About NEVER Inadvertently Letting Your Domain Registration Expire)

So, last night I got an email offering to buy my expired domain, www.Cosy-Books.Com and my first reaction was, pah...it's spam. Ignore. 

But then I started to feel uneasy. I checked my site...still there. I checked my domain hosting. EXPIRED! 

Whaaaat? 

I knew I'd set up my account to auto-renew every year. So what had gone wrong? Well, a few months ago my debit card had been eaten by a cash machine, causing no end of problems back then until I got a replacement. (Seriously...how did we ever live without Debit Cards?)  What I'd never considered was that a few months later, when my domain registration expired, my old cancelled card would just DECLINE. It really just didn't occur to me at all. Silly, I know. 

I never received any emails warning me about the uncollected payment, or the expiration of my domain. After hours of searching about last night on the web I discovered I'd also missed a 19 day grace period to reactivate my registration. Apparently, my domain was now in REDEMPTION meaning basically if I want it back, it'll cost me the best part of £100. If I don't pay, it would disappear in a few days.

My only option has been to buy a brand new domain, very, very similar to the old one. Infact the only difference is this...  

No Hyphen 

I'm now www.cosybooks.com instead of www.cosy-books.com  

And you wouldn't believe the trouble loosing that hyphen has created. I've had to fix every link on the site by removing it. Manually. Link by Link. I have to be re-indexed by Google. External links to me won't work, unless they use the blogspot address. The list goes on...as does the mission to fix this mess. 

So can I ask, please, if you are kind enough to link to me would you take a few seconds to check it still works and relink if not (that is if you'd still like to link to me?) I don't think subscription are affected, but if yours is and you'd still like to receive my content please do resubsribe...Thank You! 

And finally, to avoid all the stress and hassle and tears I've had over the last 24 hours, check your payment method is upto date:  if you've lost a card, or had one that's expired, changed bank account...whatever, you need to update or you may find yourself in the same mess I am right now!