If you’ve read a few posts in a row you may remember back at ‘Shoulder to the Grindstone’ I was teasing you into wondering when exactly I wrote up that second essay, the cliff hanger being that although it was due in Wednesday 12th I still hadn’t written it up by the Thursday, and wouldn’t get to because of the ball.
So, Friday then. Well, I woke up a Viki’s (she kindly put me up in her living room with a very well made bed made from a mattress, a blanket and some cushions), and after watching the TV for a while to work out the actual implications of hung parliament, I headed home. Essay time. And some how, on about 5hours sleep, I managed to work through the afternoon and into the evening, carefully constructing an argument and drafting my introduction.
It was up early Saturday morning and off to Sheffield to teach my GCSE Saturday students (see ‘Renaissance Man’ post). That went well, but I couldn’t dawdle because I had to get back for a shift on the bar at work. On the way home I got a call from my boss, suggesting that because it was going to be a late shift with an early start the next day cleaning up ready for the carvery I may as well stay over in the hotel. Ok, that sounds like a long, tiring, shift with not much essay time. I got to work for 5.30pm Saturday and got home at 4pm Sunday. When I got in I pretty much passed out into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Fortunately I was up early Monday and managed to spend a full day on this second essay, working from 9am through til gone 10, ending the day with a full draft of each of the two essays. Just I was turning my computer off, happy that it was all almost over, I checked my email to find out that as a student ambassador I’d been assigned the job of ‘usher/assistant’ at an awards evening the following night. Good job these essays were almost done then!
Tuesday I had class, but because of the events described in the last five or six posts I hadn’t done the prep, so it was into Uni early to get that done before the class at 1pm. I managed it, it was a good class. Then I watched as Viki handed her essays in (a day early!?!) and we went to have a celebratory tea and cake at Interval. Then I headed over to the award evening and it turned out to be the easiest job ever! And I got paid. For the first hour I had to mingle with the parents, just providing a positive student presence, and then for the next to I had to stand behind the photographer and warn people not to trip on the wires. Great stuff. And as an additional highlight- my old friend Mecatronics Tom (who I haven’t seen for ages) was working the lights! It was a really good night, but it meant I wasn’t home until 11pm and essays were due the next day, so I stayed up proof reading. God, I miss sleep.
