Bugger

I just got an email from my department telling me the coursework score for one of my modules, for which I have yet to sit the exam. It was not good news, a 40 was not the score I wanted to see. I only just passed that part. I wish they'd just not told me, as now all I'm doing is panicking about that exam. I think it's only worth 1/3 of the mark of the whole modules, but it still means I've got to do very very well on the exam to keep up a good score.
Why send me a score I can do nothing more about, ! can't redo the coursework, I have no more coursework to do so I can't really learn from what I got wrong, which is impossible anyway. A simple score lets me know nothing about where I failed. Looking back on it I'm guessing I didn't really answer the question, but it's a question I'm not sure how they wanted answering and evryone else I spoke to said the same.
Oh well, I just spoke to my Mum about and as she said, what's done is done and nothing I can do will change that. Now bak to the revision.

A post dedicated to Englishness

First of all Test Match special has returned to Radio 4, as Test cricket is currently going on , England vs. West Indies. England seem to be doing ok, which given the current problems with English cricket is very encouraging. Cricket is such an English game, I can't think of any other sports which take 5 days to play a game, and have breaks for afternoon tea!
It now feels like I can get in to revision properly now, it's interesting enough to keep me listening, but not so interesting I end up not taking in anything I'm writing.

Last night I watched a programme on BBC 4 about making Jerusalem the English national anthem. As they played the song several times you ended the programme feeling very proud of being English, and ready to go out in the street and declare I'm English and we're great...... just me, oh ok. Seriously though it is a magnificent song with all the characteristics of a great national anthem, it can instill pride in a way that God Save the Quuen doesn't manage.

Lastly in this trio of Englishness is the programme QI. QI is a very odd quiz programme on BBC, the scoring system is incoprehensible, and the whole quiz is based around Quite Interesting facts, with a different letter of the alphabet acting as the theme for each series. The panel members have to try and answer very unusual general knowledge questions without getting it wrong by saying the commonly thought wrong answer, and loose lots of points. Getting a positive score on this programme is very rare!
The programme is hosted by Stepehn Fry, The Independent once declared that he was a stupid persons idea of a clever person, however I will happily worship him as a god on Earth! There is also a QI website which is a fascinating place to waste a good hour or two. It's filled with people who know random and highly useless facts, but somehow knowing that these people exsist is wonderfully reassuring!

I've been to 6% of places

create your own visited countries map

In an act of extreme distraction I found a website that lets you pick where in the world you've been to and gives you a lovely map!
I'm a little disappointed it's only 6%, but never mind, also my only unusual country (Qatar in case you're wondering) is too small to actually show up well!

Edited to add-Thanks to ebygomm who very kindly told me how to sort out the map so it actually diplayed properly.

More bouldering

Another climbing video. Filmed by me over a couple of locations around Easter time. Life has been a little busy lately so Lex and I have only just got round to arguing about editing it!

How was the weekend?

Well all the packing was done, nearly everything made it to Borrowdale with a few key exceptions. Having spent thursday afternoon collecting 250 pints of real ale from local brewery's guess what got left in the kit store..... the taps to get the beer out of the barrels! (along with fuel for mine and Lex's stove, our barbeque and our cooking pans! doh!)
However a brewery in lakes came to our rescue and not a single pint was left by monday afternoon. The weather was ok, I had a good day bouldering at St Bees on Saturday, then on Saturday night the wind blew, and blew, and blew! Mine and Lex's new tent remained standing to our eternal relief. The beer tent however took off at 3am, with the poles bent in to awesome shapes. The mess tent lasted until 5am, 2 poles shattered, and the tent took off with a person clinging on heading for the minibuses, Luckily it missed!
The bar was rebuilt, using both minibuses, and drinking resumed on sunday night, fear not, we're students nothing was going to stop us drinking that beer! Sunday was a bit of a washout, I went for a short walk in the morning, for 2 1/2 miles, with 800m vertical height gain, and then height loss! Much shopping was then doen in Keswick just to fill the day. Monday was a much nicer day, and was spent doing the noble art of quandering, find one old mine on your map, and go explore, and you have a quander! Return on Monday even got me home by midnight, despite an interesting stop in Preston for food! I genuinely wondered if we would ever be allowed to leave!

Trying to get motivated

I'm going away for this weekend. I'm off camping with the climbing club to Borrowdale in the Lake District. This year we're self catering, normally all club weekend are catered and that's great, you can come in from a day out and food is cooked for you (yes I do help sometimes, but I usually spend all day Friday driving people round, and drive a minibus up there Friday night, and one home sunday evening so I feel justified in taking it easy!).
The camping weekend however is different, for a start the caterers have to cook for 40 people on underpowered camping stoves, and it's just a hell of a lot more difficult than cooking in a regular kitchen. so as a result cooking for yourself can be easier and nicer!
Anyway I have a mountain of stuff in my room that I'm meant to be packing and I just can't get started, the food is all sorted, I have my priorities after all! However my personal kit is another matter, I've really not even started. I'm trying to pack light this year as I always always take too much stuff, and it's not working, I have more stuff than ever!
anyway the sooner I pack the sooner I can go to sleep.....mmmmm sleep!

Feeling proud

Just a quick post as I'm meant to be working... still!
I'm feeling so proud at the moment, one of the girls I coached as part of my job at the climbing wall, has just won one of the rounds at the junior regional climbing competition, and is through to the national finals where if she goes I have a feeling she'll do very well! The reason I'm proud is that no one else had bothered coaching these kids, they were content just to let them mess about and have a laugh. I could see some of them had talent and wanted them to do more so I started trying to make them think about technique and how to climb better. The other staff didn't believe in sending children that young to competitions so had never bothered. How many children missed out because of this?
Anyway while it's her brilliant achievement I'm still happy for me because her Dad has said he'll miss not having me there teaching her daughter, and he's grateful for how much I did for her, and the others. Here's hoping she goes to the national finals and does herself justice.