Tipyn o bopeth

I can't believe it's been nearly 6 months since i've updated this journal. I can't believe we're already in May, and 2009 is nearly halfway through. Is the rest of life going to fly by at this insane pace? If it is...stop the ride - i want to get off! Lol!

I've been insanely busy these last few months, working on two courses at the same time, working (both paid and voluntary) and trying to develop a social life (and so far, i think i'm managing okay!)

★My LSA course is due to finish at the end of May, and i have a whole mountain of courswork left to go. My assessment and observation by the class teacher has yet to happen due to several postponements, and while at first i didn't mind, now with the end of the course approaching and a lot of coursework relying on said assessment, i'm starting to feel the clock ticking and the pressure building. I'm both excited and terrified at the end of this course. Excited, because it hasn't been the most mentally stimulating course, and i'm glad to see the back of boredom and courswork, and terrified because after the course is over i a.) have to look for an LSA job in a new school because the current one doesn't have any jobs going, and b.) learn to drive, which was a target i set myself once this course is over. When i said i would learn to drive in May all the way back in January, i had no idea May would swing around so fast - i'm not ready!

★My OU course on the otherhand is going incredibly well. It's called "Environmental Control and Public Health' which focuses on environmental policies and legislations, and way to improve environmental and living conditions in both the developed and developing countries (full details can be found here). While i'm not really enjoying the course, as i prefer learning about the physical world like glaciers, oceans and volcanoes, one thing that i've learnt during my studies with the OU is that the courses i don't like are the ones i do better with. The two assigments i've done with this course so far have recieved 96% and 100% respectively and while i'm estatic with the grades (i've never had grades that high since I was like 12), it leaves me wondering if the assessors actually read what i submitted - i'm telling you, they were both piles of bull$&!@.

★I managed to destroy my computer again last month, but luckily the technical minded brother was around to reformat the whole thing. I lost some stuff, but it was no-where near as emotionally devastating as losing the 500GB of photos, videos, coursework/school work and references, as when my younger brother accidently kicked and destroyed my external hard drive back in November.

★I've gotten back in touch with three old school friends, one whom i've met up with once, one whom i've met up with twice, and another i'm hoping to meet up with soon.

★And finally! I've been to London, done a Duck Tour and saw Dirty Dancing and We Will Rock You. While i preferred WWRY, i am still somewhat boggled how someone came up with such an 'out-there' story to link all the Queen songs together! That was a seriously bizarre story! But the singing was great :o)

Here's to it not being another 6 months before an update! ♥

Seeing as how it's been a few months since i last posted, i figured it was time to post an update on life :o)

Every year i make the resolution to be more active in lj, and to make more of an effort to respond to my friend's list...and this year was no exception - and i was going to! Until my computer broke. Over Christmas we were planning on reformatting the hard-drives on my computer as it hasn't been working properly for a long time now, so there i was, backing up everything on the new external hard-drive that i'd brought, when one of my drives chooses that moment to fail. Luckily i'd backed up the majority of stuff, but it turns out the computer motherboard died...so no computer. My poor brother took my computer with him back to Aberystwyth when he went back to uni, so hopefully i'll get it back February half term...Easter at the latest. Of it would happen just as my new course begins, which co-incidently relies heavily on the use of a computer. Luckily i have a nice family who don't mind me hogging theirs for the time being!

In other news...Torchwood has eaten my brain again. Seriously...there's another 11 episodes to go. There is no physical way i can possibly maintain the level of excitement that i have for Torchwood for another 11 weeks...i may possibly explode. But....Jack/Ianto!! How do i love thee...i love that it's canon (for now...i keep waiting to be disappointed...and i really hope i won't be), i love that it's hot...and i love that the kiss in my icon will be on tv tomorrow night. *dies* I will seriously explode. What with Stargate Atlantis becoming the love story for John and Rodney, and Jack and Ianto living the love story (With aliens as a bonus on both shows) live couldn't get any better!

I'm back working with two new kids last week...and already watching them progress and recognise new words fills me with so much glee - i can't believe i was planning on giving up the voluntary stuff....it's soooo fulfilling! When they get words right that they previously didn't know...it's confidence building for both me and them. It's so much fun!

And i think Joan is beginning to warm up to me now. In the past she used to undermine me with the children at lunchtime, and make sarky comments but lately she's been much nicer and is actually talking to me, and she's started bringing me pudding from the kitchen after all the kids are gone. I hated school dinners when i was at that school, but i loved the pudding...and now i'm getting them again!

And today i received mail from the Open University announcing that i've won the 'Julian Hodge Award' , for getting a distinction in my T172 Technology course. I've been invited to an awards ceremony on my birthday, where i will get a certificate and a cheque for £225 and they want me to write a profile that they can send to the local newspapers and use in the OU magazines. Don't think i'll be doing that bit...i hate getting any sort of public attention, so i'm not sure whether to go the awards ceremony. But! That money covers half the cost for this new course i'm doing! Working hard literally pays!

Are you guys all okay? *Pokes friends list*

*Goes back to staring at The Icon Of Love*

I think i've just done something monumentally stupid.

So i was taking Becky to school just now, and on the way home, just around the corner from my house (i live about 8 minutes walk away from the school), there was a little boy crying his eyes out, with two old ladies, and a father with his son on the way up to the school trying to calm him down.

Now, I know this little boy. (Okay, he's nine - not so little). I read with him every monday, i talk to him in the canteen, i see him back and for every day to the school with his mum, and he's one of Becky's best friends. But the people trying to calm him down didn't know who i was.

Turns out, Tom had forgotten his drink, and his dinner money, and he wasn't feeling very well. His mum had dropped him off at the school gates like normal, and when he realised he'd forgotten his stuff, he'd left the school grounds, and tried to find his mum...BY WALKING DOWN THE MAIN ROAD.

So these trusting strangers, leave Tom to my care...since i know him, and he's calmed down a bit. So i walk him back to his home - to see if his mum has arrived there (which she hadn't). We spent 10 minutes waiting in the hallway outside the flat to see if she'd turn up (which she didn't), so i started to take him back to the school. Luckily, we met his mum en route, so i left him in her capable care.

But i put myself in such a compromisable position. I didn't have my phone on me to contact the school to let them know that i had him and for 20 minutes, technically, Tom was missing. He'd disappeared off the school grounds, and he wasn't in family care.

I know i'm not a stranger to the kids at the school, and that i wouldn't do anything to harm any of them...but it terrifies me that someone could report for doing what i did today. There are four people out there who can say that they saw me take Tom...and it scares me that they took me at my word that i knew him - they didn't actually check with Tom...none of them offered to walk with me to make sure i didn't do anything. And it's frightening.

What if his mum decides to report me for kidnapping? The police could come round my house and check my computer, and discover mountains of slash on computer...and decide that i'm a dodgy character? I know it sounds ridiculous...but i'm really worried that this could happen.

Was doing what i did the wrong thing to do?