Precious Time

I had the same formidable French teacher for four years in a row at school.  In need of some post exam results therapy, and also to fulfill a promise, I phoned him this afternoon.  Such a joy.  We haven't spoken since I left school over 20 years ago, although we were in touch by post before now.  His sage et sympa comment was that the examiner was "spiteful" for not giving us the opportunity to excel. 

How much, just HOW much do I owe to this dear old man?  My love of France, my accent (which he said I had maintained, voire improved!), the introduction to French culture, literature, music, books, the lot.  He really went above and beyond the curriculum with my A level class in particular.  I'm so glad to have been able to tell him how much he meant and still means to me.

So often in life we don't do things when we think about them, we procrastinate out of habit, busy-ness or even just laziness.  Things slip our minds and then, what happens?  Time and opportunity have disappeared.  The words of thanks or kindness go unsaid, the potential recipient no longer able to hear them: too late, too late.  Regrets and "if only"s prey on us, and there is no escaping them.

Especially at this time of year, I would urge everyone to take a moment to phone an elderly friend or relative, or perhaps just some friend you haven't spoken to for a while.  A few caring words demonstrating the caring thought can make such a difference, and not just to the recipient, to the giver also.  CB and I both benefitted from our conversation this afternoon.  Who's to say which was the giver and which the receiver of comfort and kindness?  Thank you, CB.

Today, tomorrow, throughout this season of giving, and in the new year, be a blessing, and find yourself blessed.

Results

The French level 3 results were published today.  I'm not whoop whooping.  The champagne remains on ice.  This is perhaps a bit silly, because I did pass.  However, it was a grade 2, which is fine as I am a non-native French speaker, but the old pride is dented.  I got terrible marks for two elements of the (awful) written paper, good marks for three elements, and great marks for the last one - style and register.  That means I write French like Eliza Doolittle at Ascot speaks English.  Still, the spoken marks were better: Two elements at grade 1, two at grade 2.  They don't average out the marks for the continuous assessment and the exam.  If they did I would have just scraped a distinction. 
So there we are, a grade 2 pass, but a pass nonetheless, and it is OVER.
Thanks everyone for all your support, kind words and encouragement.  Now I'm going to concentrate on Christmas, then in the new year the real work starts!  There is much to be done researching and setting up my home business - but I'm looking forward to it. 
A merry Christmas and a happy new year 2010 to you all.

Visitors - we got both kinds

Both kinds of visitors, yes.  Our welcome visitor is Blossom, all the way from Brittany.  Blossom is here for a week's holiday, but her week with us is nearly over now. 
The unwelcome visitors are the mice which have taken up residence.  Who could blame them for coming indoors?  It is baltic outside...  Actually, if they stayed in the bits of the house I don't go to (under the floor for instance) that would be fine.  It is when they scuttle across my kitchen floor in front of me that I object.  So, there has been much blocking up of holes and setting of traps, and I hope to have no further close encounters of the verminous kind in the near future.  Ugh, shudder.

Perspectives

Arggghhh.....all this waiting is driving me crazy!!  How long is this going to take????!!!! Yes, another ten days maximum apparently,  before the exam results are released, note that, released.  I bet they are just sitting on them, smiling smugly and enjoying the thought of agonised students desperate to know how they did!  There are words to describe such people...
All I am doing is getting ready for Christmas.  That is it.  It isn't exactly boring, but it doesn't require the same mental effort as a level 3 OU course (naturally that is a good thing, but still, I'm going stale here.)
On the up side, Blossom is arriving on Wednesday to stay for a week, hooray :)  Alex is just about to finish his exams, and Wee Murdo seems, finally, to be getting with the program without having to be harangued into action.  Poor old Innes now has braces on both upper and lower teeth, but is managing in general.
On the down side, Hamish is just about crushed under the weight of responsibility at work, and one of his close colleagues is going to be off for 6-8 months in 2010 for maternity leave, making it worse.  Pray for him.
I am mindful of dear friends and family fighting battles with cancer and other illnesses, and remembering loved ones who have passed away, which can make Christmas rather a trial.  My thoughts and prayers are with you and your families (esp. you, Maggie May). 
Put into perspective, waiting a few more days for an exam result isn't so very bad.  Today, may you find perspective in your life, and be able to be kinder than is necessary to all whom you meet: everyone is fighting their own personal battles, and a kind word in season can make a big difference to everyone.
Today I am grateful for so many kind and wonderful people - they are everywhere I go, and all it takes is a smile and a kind word to find them.  Blessings to you today.

E-Day plus 4

It always seemed that time went fast in exams before this one, but there is absolutely no doubt now that there exists some species of time warp in exam halls.  Two and a half hours just blazed by in a blink.  It is recommended that you spend the first hour working on the source materials and your plan, the next hour on writing, and the half hour remaining on checking.  Quelle blague, quelle ambition!  And the minimum word count is 650.  Minimum.
All things considered, it went fine.  Although I didn't actually count the words (being short of time!), I'm confident there was sufficient quantity, if not quality.  The question was not one you could categorise into one particular topic: language learning and cultural exchange.  Hey ho.
The speaking test went very well.  I was in the first group, had to present the article which I was most comfortable with, and there was one of my tutorial pals in the test group: all very much the way I wanted it.
The downers were few: in the written exam I wasn't cold, but the guy next to me munched his way through a huge bag of Maltesers, and the girl in front of him had problems with her cd player.  Distracting, but not terribly grave.  My desk had a dodgy leg, but I had my tissues (see check list!) so that was fine.
Today, I am grateful for so much that Blogger would probably implode under the strain if I wrote it all down.  On Thursday La Sereine, Ditzy and Summer Child are coming over for some of Claire's lovely cupcakes, and we are Wearing it Pink for breast cancer awareness.  After all, there is more to life than exams, as I can now allow myself to appreciate!  Thank you all for all your support.  I'll keep you posted about the results, which should appear around the second week in December.

E-Day minus 2

Thanks everyone for your encouraging comments on the Checklist post.  It is now E-Day minus 2, so tomorrow I travel to Glasgow to stay with my lovely sister-in-law whose house is near the wee local train that will take me, Thursday morning, to within 2 mins walk of the exam centre.
Can it really be near the end of the French studies?  How can three years have gone by so fast?  There is such a feeling of "is this it?" about it all that I'm finding it hard to do the last minute preparation for the spoken exam... bizarre.  It is like that feeling you get when, pregnant, you are waiting for your due date: you know it is going to be tough, but you just want to get started, to get it over with.  This is Limbo.  So I have tidied my desk, gone to the CoOp for bread to feed my lot while I'm away, made cups of coffee and tea (not entirely unheard of, me drinking tea you know!) and dithered, sigh.
Last night was our last little chat group with the two wonderful friends I have had the pleasure to work with in our tutorial.  Nine months we've been working together on Monday nights.  I shall miss that.  I don't use real names here, but you know who you are, my dear friends L'Enseignante and Madame Agneau from Chez Yvette.
Good luck to all doing OU exams just now.  Thanks again for all your positive thoughts and good wishes, which mean so much to me.  I'll post again after Thursday, then it is "watch this space" in the second week in December, when the results are usually out.
Blessings on all of you.

Check List

Ok, with one week to go to the dreaded exams, the very last exams, here is my checklist of things I have to remember to take with me.
1   CD player (for audio bit)
2   Batteries
3   Spare batteries
4   Headphones
5   Spare headphones
6   Dictionary (Collins Robert bilingue, allowed!)
7   Pencil case: loads of pens, highlighters, tippex mouse and spare, but no pencils
8   Water
9   Fleece, possibly hat, scarf, woolly socks... last year it was COLD
10 Identification
11 Glasses
12 Migraleve
13 Prep materials for the oral
14 Gaviscon
15 Money for trains, lunch, coffee
16 Tissues (useful for stabilising dodgy desk legs)
So the question is: Have I forgotten anything?