The fat lady sings ....

I have not posted for ages, so a quick update as to events over the last month or so.

The exam nerves well and truly kicked in about ten days before the event and I spent the last vital week half asleep, with revision conspicuous by its absence. As a result, I changed the topics I was looking at and chose the ones that weren't so difficult to remember. It was a great help that the papers were just five straight questions with no restrictions on which you chose, and I am really glad I wasn't sitting Church History as the topics were horrid!

The matter was further complicated by the fact that Maryvale rang on the Wednesday to ask if I could alter my arrangements, as the room I use was needed for a priest who was lecturing the same weekend. So I spent some time sorting that. Next time I will make sure we find another solution: it really isn't practical for me to decamp to the hotel down the road as the ground floor accommodation is across the car park and down a steep slope for which my scooter is underpowered. I needed a push from members of the public to get to eat in the main building that night and, even in the morning when I had recharged the machine and it was at the height of its power, I only just got up there - by pushing the handlebars like you'd push a bike and throwing my body forward - not something I would want to risk in cold, wet weather!

Both stations were absolutely teeming on the Saturday morning and again when I came back on Monday. It's a good thing I wasn't needing to revise on the way back: lots of kids and lots of noise! I am now reading fiction that has nothing whatsoever to do with theology (unless you count the fact that it will free up some bookshelf space for the textbooks!).

The change in arrangements also meant that I had to do the exams on Sunday (what was that bit in the Penny Catechism about not doing servile work??) and because I was in transit between dwellings I missed Mass, too! Hopefully, the fact that I had changed my plans as an act of kindness to a sick priest will make it OK. By the time I actually got to do the exams, I was past caring if I passed or not and just wanted to get them over with for good or ill. Don't ask me how I did: there is no way of telling. Four answer books await the scrutiny of the examiners and the Exam Board meets on Wednesday. If the posties are on strike I will be hopping mad!

I am also hopping mad with whoever decreed that disabled loos should be way higher than ordinary ones: the grabrails are a help, but the extra height makes it very difficult for me. I know other people don't want to be low down, but you can get gadgets to raise the seat. If the seat is too high you're stuck with it (and I have a pulled muscle in my shoulder as a result). Hopefully that will right itself in a day or two - it usually does. So for the moment I don't dare be too active: my plans to sort things neglected out are on hold and the place is strewn with 'dead' coffee mugs: evidence of my preoccupations over the last little while!