Rounding off

We’re heading off shortly for the last of the festive season family get-togethers and that’ll be it all over for another year! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the last couple of weeks, but I’m looking forward now to getting my teeth well and truly stuck in to 2013.

We’re heading up north next week instead of going back to work work straight away; this is such a quiet time in the construction industry, so it’s a good time for Alex to take a proper break and I’m hoping to use the time constructively to make a start on – and hopefully finish! – one of my University course assignments. Gemma’s coming with us too and she also has some Uni work to be getting on with, so it’ll be great to have a comrade-in-arms to help hold off that pesky Demon of Procrastination!

Although I started the course back in October, it still feels like something new and something that I’ve not really properly settled in to. The jury’s still out on just how much I’m going to get from the Diploma over the next couple of years; I’m really hoping that this coming term’s a better one for me than the last and that I start to feel a lot more settled at Strathclyde. I’ve had some special moments there – not least on the first day when I was absolutely delighted to realise that one of the tutors was one of my favourite teachers from my old school! I hadn’t seen him for over 30 years - and it turns out that he’s just as lovely now as he was then – and there are some really great folk in the class who are becoming firm friends. But some things – especially some of the organisational aspects of things – just haven’t lived up to my expectations so far.  It might just be that my expectations were too high – time will tell – but I’m looking forward to getting back in a few weeks and making the very most of it - no matter what ‘it’ turns out to be in the second semester!

In the meantime, duty calls! One last night of doing the extended family thing with more good food, more chit-chat and a few more beers to round off the festivities – and that’s what’s making me feel good today.