Next week is my first assessment at college - a group presentation on the most boring subject in the world! There are 3 people in my group and we've put the finishing touches to it today so it's all ready for next Thursday morning. In true Heidi style I wrote a joke into the introduction but the problem now is, we've run through the presentation a few times and the more I tell the 'joke' the less funny it seems so I don't know whether to leave it in now or take it out. I guess we'll know next week how funny it's judged to be if I leave it in and end up standing there looking silly when no one laughs!
I have a few busy weekends planned as all the assignments for the other modules are due in shortly after this one so I guess I won't be doing any partying for a while (until the college christmas masquerade ball on the 4th December anyway.........party on!!!).

Also this week I had a letter from the bone marrow donor register. I may be a match to someone in Germany so I have to go for a blood test on Monday for further matching. I can't say I'd be thrilled at the thought of an op under general anesthetic followed by a 3 day stay in hospital but would never pull out after being matched to someone as that's just playing around with someone's life. I'd have to get on with it. I may have to ask if they can do the procedure under a local anesthetic and let me go home the same day........lol. On the other hand, I suppose I'd have 3 days to get my college work done as I'm sure hospital is a boring place to be!

3 stages complete

I passed my fitness test today (but not as easily as I'd hoped!). The main part of the test was a shuttle run (better known as the bleep test). Police force entry requirements only need level 5.4 or above and when I practiced it on Saturday I managed level 7 before giving up. (By the way, I'm not applying for the Police force, just the specials for a work placement as part of my course). I thought that when I did the actual test running with other candidates may spur me on to keep going but I dropped out at 6.1. It's a pass, which was the main thing, but I thought I'd manage to match what I did on Saturday at least. Oh well, hopefully if I continue with the increased treadmill regime, I'll be able to get fitter over the next few months. Apparantly I'll need it come January as we have a week long intensive training with a lot of self defence stuff which is said to be energy sapping. For tonight though, I'm having a few beers to relax as I'm a tad tired from being on a non stop regime and haven't had a beer for ages :-)
It's reading week at college so I don't have to go in tomorrow but we have group presentation to prepare for 20th November so my group are meeting up and spending the day in the library to get the bulk of it done. It's got to be the most boring topic in the world to prep and deliver a presentation on - quantitative and qualitative research and how to communicate the results - so I think we're in for a long long day zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz how dull! The sooner it's done, the better!

Where is the time going?

I haven't had much time to blog lately as I've been so busy. Trying to fit a week's worth of work into 3 days is a challenge to say the least but one I'm enjoying. I'm sure I'll soon find a system that works without having me running round like a lunatic everyday. I need to anyway as I can't even find time to do any reading for my course, which I need to get on with as I have a presentation due on the 20th November on a subject I know very little about! lol
On top of all the work and uni stuff, I'm also trying to improve my fitness levels for a fitness test I'll have coming up early November. As part of my course I have to do a work placement. A lot of my fellow students want to do drug rehabilitation work or working with recently released prisoners but I really don't fancy any of those so I've applied for the Police specials. Some of the other options if I don't get in the specials are the appropriate adult scheme (where I'd be called to attend a police station if a juvenile was arrested and they had no appropriate adult), drug intervention and community warden! I can't say I fancy any of those to be honest so I have to pass this assessment centre!

uni enrolment

I enrolled on my course today and met the other people who I'll be doing it with for the next 2 years. They seem like a fun group and the tutors all seem really nice too. I've decided to do the course full time as it only meant attending for an extra 1/2 day but it means I can do it in 2 years instead of 3. We were given the timetable of lectures and classes and it was that that made my mind up to go full time, as the Friday sessions cover 'criminal justice' and 'images of crime'. They seem to be the more interesting modules so I thought why not? Going full time will have its drawbacks though, it means I'll have to do 5 days of job related work in 3 (as I really can't see me doing any work on the free 1/2 of the day I'll get on Friday's). I always manage to skive for a lot of the last 2 weeks in a month anyway so I'm sure it'll just mean planning my time carefully to make sure everything gets done.
On the downside, after I enrolled I was given a bill for £2000! haha. I'll try my best to get our useless government to pay as much of that as I can.

A busy and eventful week

Well after all that stressing over the assignment I had to do to get on the criminology course, I got a phone call during the week to say there was good news and bad news. The assignment was good and I would have been offered a place at Selby college however they don't have enough people wanting to enroll to run the course there! Bugger! I've been offered a place at Grimsby uni to do it and am waiting to find out the details to see whether it's feasible - as it's a 130 mile round trip. If I can do one full day a week instead of the few half days we were down to do at Selby then I'll enroll.
I finished my relationship with Chris this week too, which I'm relieved about. He's a nice guy but not for me. I'm not the kind of person who can sit in quiet corners all my life which is all he seemed to want to do. At least now I know what I don't want! I'd rather be single and happy than be with someone for the sake of it.
During my last visit of the day yesterday one of my candidates knocked a full cup of coffee over my laptop and mobile phone (my work equipment I might add, not my own!). The laptop seems to be ok, which is a shame as I would have quite liked a new one but my mobile phone seems to have developed a mind of its own. It now constantly switches itself on and off and the only way I can switch it on or off is to take the battery out. No doubt I'll be getting a lecture on Monday about how I need to look after my equipment when I have to order a new phone when we only got these a few months ago anyway........oops!
And finally, why do people ask for an opinion of something then when they get an honest one, get annoyed about what you said?? This is something I find totally baffling and I don't understand people who ask a question but don't want the answer! I was asked about my opinions on the new bonus structure we have at work by one of our senior managers and I gave a long, honest and frank opinion. I didn't just say it was rubbish, I explained why it will invoke certain behaviours in some people that will be detrimental to the business and how only the peak perfoming colleagues will be worse off in this scheme, therefore it's encouraging and rewarding the wrong type of behaviour. It seems my opinion annoyed him but then the answer there is simple - if you don't want an honest answer, don't ask me the question and ask someone else who will just tell you what you want to hear! haha

brain overload!

Well my assignment is supposed to be in tomorrow (which I foolishly agreed to when I could have handed it in anytime before Weds next week..........WHY did I do that? lol). I don't know why I said 'supposed' to be in because it will be but I've read so much information for it my little brain can't work out in what order to put it down on paper and everytime I begin to write a new paragraph it sounds like gobbledegook or I think it doesn't flow too well! I think had it have been an assignment as part of the course I probably wouldn't have been tying myself up in knots over it but as I suspect it's going to be used to see whether I can actually do the course, it makes me second guess everything I write, wondering if I'm on the right lines, as I really want to do this course. I've cancelled all my visits for tomorrow so at least I can just concentrate on getting this done and have time (hopefully) to make sure I'm happy with it. I'm taking a 30 min break from it at the mo and intend to do about another hour before I go to bed but as it's 00:30 right now, I should put it down soon otherwise I won't get up early enough tomorrow to get it finished.
Oh well, maybe I should stop stressing about it and just get the damn thing written?! lol

Back to college

After spending far too long wanting to study something but not really knowing what, it looks like I've found the course for me! My local college is offering a foundation degree in Criminology, which is a subject that fascinates me so I called down yesterday to pick up an application form. I've been given a taster assignment to do and have a few weeks to do it in so all being well, as long as I don't mess it up, I should be starting the course at the end of September :-) The only thing I thought could cause a problem to me applying for it was the times of the classes. They're being run on Tues afternoons and Weds evenings. The Weds slot was no problem as that's after work but the Tues one is from 1pm. I spoke to Jo, my Manager, about it yesterday and she told me she's absolutely fine with me doing it as she know's I'll plan my work round it. It's also been recommended that I join the Specials with the North Yorks Police as I'll need first hand experience for the course so I've booked a place on their open evening at the back end of September to have a look at it and decide whether it's something I want to do.
Chris came over last night for a chilled evening of watching DVD's and drinking lots of wine. I couldn't be tempted away from the beer too long so he ended up having nearly 2 bottles of it to himself......lol. We had a really nice evening of eating takeaway food and drinking too much. He also gave me some tips for my assignment (which I made sure I got before he had downed too much) - but for some reason, I couldn't tempt him to write it for me.........haha. I'll see him next on Sunday, my birthday, as we're over in Hull for a BBQ Janice is having. She'll finally get to vet him and report back to Andie :-D