September bumpstart!

On the first day of September, my true love sent to me - well, perhaps not my true love, although 'Mother Nature's Goodies' does happen to be one of my favourite suppliers - Two Bottles of Liquid Castile, one bottle of Rosewater and the start of a new regime! I've been reading ebooks by Alison May (The Vintage Housekeeper, whose lovely blog can be found at brocantehome.net) and picking up ideas for making my life a little more 'pretty', while ensuring that Kevin doesn't feel like he is living in an antique shop (or a 'tart's boudoir', as he might well put it).

I have also spent this summer pottering around - reading my set books, anxiously waiting for exam results, submitting three poems to a magazine competition. As far as the latter goes, I was unsuccessful, as it turns out - which is a shame as they were offering a £500 prize for work by a poet who had never been published before.

As I have said before, I have chosen EA300 - Childrens' Literature for  my penultimate module and this has meant a summer spent reading childrens' books - what could be better? I started with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and then moved on to Philip Pullman's wonderful Northern Lights. I had read both of them before, but thought it as well to do so again. I then moved on to Little Women and Good Wives, followed by Treasure Island before reading something that I had never read before - Swallows and Amazons. I loved this book - wondered why I had never read it before.

I then went back to following the order in which the books will be read once the module starts and read the 100 Best Poems for Children and I re-read Tom's Midnight Garden before looking at the two picture books, Voices in the Park and The Tale of Peter Rabbit. 

The next few books dealt with some difficult themes - Coram Boy, with its heartbreaking story of abandoned babies and an unscrupulous child collector, all woven together with the true story of Captain Coram and his Foundling Hospital. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry which deals with racism and inequality in 1930s USA, Then The Other Side of Truth - the story of a Nigerian girl and her brother who, following their mother's murder, are sent by their activist journalist father to their uncle in the UK, what happens when they cannot find him and are caught up in the asylum system. Finally, there is Melvin Burgess' controversial Junk, which I still need to read. I also have the option of reading Mortal Engines as an alternative to Coram Boy.

The final book was Buffalo Soldier - this year's Carnegie Medal winner, usually selected as an option for the EMA. I found this to be an engaging read - the author (Tanya Landman) covered many of the questions that would come to mind when reading about a young girl posing as a boy - such as how she dealt with needing to use the latrine and how she coped with her periods.

At the time of writing, I am still waiting for my module materials to arrive - we get the text for Barrie's play, Peter Pan, as well as two critical readers. The despatch date was supposed to be 4th September but it can be up to ten days from this.

As a side note, one of my fellow A230 students graduated at Exeter Cathedral on Friday - Congratulations, Steph Lott - and seeing her in her gown brought home to me how close I now am to gaining my degree. Hopefully, that will be me in September 2017!

Hellooo Summer!

And I have my results! What's more, they came through on my birthday.

A215 Creative Writing                            - Distinction
A230 Reading and Studying Literature - Pass2 (in other words, a 2.1)

To a great extent, I'm still coming down from the anxiety over the A230 exam - you know the sort of thing I mean...mentally re-writing each answer and knowing the bits that you cocked up.

The worst part for someone as picky as me is the fact that I will never see the marked exam paper to understand exactly where I went wrong. Even though I have a pretty good idea.

And I suppose that is the point.

As I move up to Level 3, beginning with Children's Literature in October, I know that I need to get Practical Criticism under my belt. I need to read the Critical Essays in the module books and decide what my stance is on them, especially with regard to the set books.

Now, the set books are a GIFT for me - I love all of them!

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Northern Lights
Little Women and Good Wives
Treasure Island
Swallows and Amazons
Peter Pan (the play)
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
The Other Side of Truth
Junk
Mortal Engines
Coram Boy
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Voices in the Park
100 Best Poems for Children
Tom's Midnight Garden

and finally, the Carnegie Medal Winner 2015 - Buffalo Soldier

So, my summer reading is pure delight, which is just as well because my bit of Devon is wet and windy at the moment.

What you find when you are clearing out.........

Since our move, I have been going through drawers and boxes that have not been touched in years and have found some "lost treasures" - my grandfather's Braille pocket watch, my great-grandfather's Naval Service Record (handwritten on vellum) and my other great-grandfather's certificate granting him the Freedom of the City of London. These are all precious family treasures, but the item that means the most to me is written by my father on three sheets of lined paper taken from, I think, a shorthand pad.

I have transcribed it here:

Standing Orders

re: Pamela Brodie Duffield

Born 9-7-56

Issued by Pam Management Committee

1. Pamela must not be kissed by well-meaning friends or relations.
2. Pamela must be treated as a human being and not be fussed or cuddled except by Parents.
3. Pamela must not call her grandparents Nannie or Dan Dan - because it sounds bloody awful!
4. Pamela must be introduced to things by their proper names i.e. NOT puff puff, bow wow, gee gee etc. Any offender will be torn off a bloody great strip.
5. Pamela must not be spoilt or left to mercy of doting grandparents.
6. Pamela must be treated for smallpox etc etc as and when applicable.
7. No unauthorised person shall have care of Pamela without consent of either parent, i.e. this includes:-
   bathing, pushing out [I imagine this means in the pram] carrying, nursing etc (even if it does upset Aunt Beat etc!!)
8. Pamela will be expected to know her ABC by the age of 3½. (Failure to comply with this order will entail a severe reprimand) [in point of fact, I could read and write fluently by the time I was 4 years old]
9. Subject to official confirmation, Pamela may be insured through her father's company (the Sun Life) for a sum as yet unknown, which shall be used if necessary to cover part or wholly her education at a place other than that laid down by the Local Education Authority. Should this not be necessary, the monies should be allowed to accumulate and be presented to her on her coming of age.
10. Pamela shall not be unduly forced to religion but encouraged if she shows the desire.
11. Pamela shall be dressed in a modern manner and put wise to clothing matters as and when necessary.
12. Pamela shall be fed only by her parents and not between meals. Feeding by others shall be vetoed (i.e. no sly bits from fond relations and friends in kitchen). Pamela shall not be allowed to eat in the street and must sit at the table for all snacks etc.
13. Pamela shall be instructed in the art of silent (mouth closed) eating - no slurp slop crunch slopp slopp eating  i.e. no noises on or off!!!!
14. Bed times shall be severely maintained, no TV, horror comics or space films.
15. Any musical interests should be encouraged and followed up.
    Further Standing Orders will be issued from time to time by the Committee
    
    Signed: P H Duffield (Parent)     Secretary
                 G W M Duffield (Parent) President
    

    These orders shall be made public knowledge in due course.
    Any infringement of the Orders will be dealt with severely by the President and Secretary; punishment to be decided by them jointly.
    

    Signed       G W M Duffield         President

                                          P H Duffield              Secretary
    
                       Sole Members of the Pam Management Committee
    This was written by my beloved dad, a young first-time and very proud father who, with my mother, was living with his in-laws and a variety of aunts and uncles in a large house in Kingston. We lived there until I was a little over four years old and despite all of the well-meaning Standing Orders, I was a much loved, kissed and petted little girl.
     I was not forced to religion, although I did go to church with my grandparents and was a member of the church choir, along with my younger brother. My parents left any decisions regarding faith very much to me and although Dad died before I became Pagan, Mum knew and understood the path that I was taking.
     I was taught by my Dad's sister, my darling Aunt Judy, to read and write (much to the annoyance of my first Infant School teachers who, I think, found me precocious).
    I was encouraged to love and play music, I never did eat in the street and I certainly never called my grandparents anything other than Grandpa or Grandma, followed by their surnames when talking about them to other people.
    
    So these Standing Orders very much reflect the child-rearing ideas of their time, but are they really so outdated? My brother and sister-in-law are raising their daughter as they and I were raised and she is, with no bias on my part, a delight to be around. She has her moments, as do all children, but she knows where her boundaries lie and how far she can push before she has gone too far.
    
    Whether the Pam Management Committee's Standing Orders were all implemented or not, I had a very happy and stable childhood. I miss my Dad and Mum every day and just wish Dad had lived to meet my husband and to know that we have as happy a marriage as he and Mum had together.

I've got those ol' TMA blues...

The TMAs (Tutor Marked Assignments) are beginning to come thick and fast now - the consequence of studying two modules at the same time! Not that I had much choice once I deferred, but that's another story.

 I have just submitted one for A215 Creative Writing and have a 1500 word essay on Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson to submit by mid-day on Thursday 26th.

So what, you may ask, am I doing here on my blog?

Fair question.

I am the Queen of Procrastination - I have to log on to the Open University website daily, to go over the Prose Skills Tutorials, but from there, it is a short hop to Facebook and the Open University groups, of which I am an enthusiastic member...and then I am lost. Posts about cats, things that my non-OU buddies are up to, more posts about cute Red Pandas, things that my OU buddies are up to... and then I look at the clock and OMG, an hour has passed and I haven't done a stroke of work towards the TMA.

So I am here, trying to convince myself to switch off the Internet.

Just for a couple of hours.

Surely I can do without my emails, Facebook OU Groups and the more legitimate uses of the Internet for research purposes?

It is now gone 17.15hrs and I won't get any more done on this TMA now, so I am setting down in writing exactly what will happen tomorrow.

I will get up, shower, have breakfast, switch on my laptop and DISABLE THE INTERNET CONNECTION for three hours, during which, I will work on my TMA04.

I will have an hour's lunchbreak and read my Kindle.

Then I will do another three hours on this damned TMA and break the back of it.
I want it gone before the deadline, so that I can get going on the next two TMAs - a piece of Life Writing and an essay on James Joyce and either the New York Poets or Metropolis. The Life Writing is to be submitted 13th April followed by another on 30th, but I should also be working on the EMA (Externally Marked Assignment), which is due on 28th May.

The essay (TMA05) has to be in on 2nd April, followed by TMA06 on 14th May and then, while I'm trying to get the EMA done, I have to be revising for the A230 exam on 4th June.

So you can see why the Internet has to be switched off. I have the entire summer after 4th June to 'play' (unless I screw up the exam and have to resit *sob*).

In October, I will start the first of my Level 3 modules - Children's Literature and frankly, it will be a relief to be studying just one module.

This will be my last blog entry for a while - unless I need to come on and wail about exams and EMAs. See you after June 4th