Jan
23
The Bubble Burst
Filed Under Daily
During 5 months and two weeks I kept on worrying about my fund in Australia, then during the last one month and half it was my law exams. Now everything is gone, the long and insidious nightmare went away. I felt very relaxed and very good the first two days. Now I am feeling a bit empty, it is like if I have no goal, nothing to do and to worry about the next 2 weeks.
I need to motivate myself and try to answer to more job applications. This formation will end in June and I shall find out where I will be after that. Time is flying so quickly now.
Jane, the blond platinum girl is back. She has been away for a while and I miss swimming with her, very good swimmer!
Jan
22
Feeling Good!
Filed Under Daily
Excellent swim, very fast speed! Everybody was staying out of my way as well which is nice. I took over the private lanes as soon as the squad was gone! Everyone else remained in their lanes. Slow pokes!
I had lunch with Amy and we went out shopping. As usual she bought tons of stuffs. She doesn’t buy expensive clothes but she does buy a lot of clothes. She asked Rafiq and myself for a poker game tonight.
Still no news from Chebet, she has been struggling a lot for many things in life, hopefully the exams went okay for her. I sent a SMS asking if she wanted to have a drink to celebrate the end of the exams…Maybe there is nothing to celebrate on her side :(. Maybe I should have asked first if things went well before asking for a celebration.
Jan
21
Amy’s back. I was so tired I went to bed around 10 pm but I only really slept after midnight. I was disturbed several times by noises from people going to the kitchen. I think Amy had a loud chat on Skype also. Nothing really matters to me yesterday. I was zen! No swim and no class today, I stayed in bed until 9 am. I am feeling so good now!
I had some flashback about several things I could have improved at the exam but then I tried to forget about them since it is out of my hands now and unless I fail I will never have to read or think about these things later in my life. Like many things I learned in school, I will never have to use them again. That is simply how life and professional formations are. They are two completely different things with really little practical links.
I am checking several laptops on Dell. It seems that their Studio 17 series is unbeatable price wise. I am very tempted to get one. My laptop still works even if it is unstable and I am a bit reluctant to spend money when my situation is not fixed yet. The real question is whether it will have any negative impact to my life if I buy it now. It sure represents one full month of rent though!
Dave, the hiking buddy, sent me another email for possibly some hikes in the future. I also met Paul, another German acquaintance from the hikes, who expressed the desire to join us. It seems that we might have another parallel network outside of the hiking group.
Jan
20
That’s it, both of my exams are OVER! I am going to relax and sleep normally again. I was simply lucky. I had all the questions I guessed right. I do not expect a fantastic grade, all I want is better than the average.
Thinking back in time, I remember how worried I was when I knew the exam were right after the holidays. It is better to have them quickly because to say the truth, I would not have done more or better even with more time. It is a lie we all say to ourselves when we delay things for tomorrow. It won’t be better, at best it will only have the same result.
I need a powernap right now!
Jan
19
One Down One More To Go!
Filed Under Daily
I was simply lucky! I had a good guess and I got three questions right in the exam. I did not even spend time thinking about these questions. I just spent two hours and 15 minutes writing down my answers and adapting them to the specific cases. I was very happy, I finished 40 min before anyone and I was so tired I did not even want to stay and correct what I wrote. I just left the examination room and went home to have lunch.
Let see if I will be as lucky tomorrow with Intellectual Property. Chebet was a bit angry when she sent me a SMS asking me what my secret was because, when I left, she only started question 2 and had hardly enough time to finish question 3. I told her that I’ve only spent all my time answering past year exams. She was very surprised to know that I am capable of learning by heart word for word these answers. It seems that it would not be something she or other people would do. It seems that many people did not have enough time to finish their 3 questions. If there is any curving in the grading I am hoping it will bring mine higher.
Jan
19
My Last 15 min!
Filed Under Daily
Before I head for the exam. I had to skip swimming today since I slept very late, around 3:30 am. I would not have ksipped it if I had a day to recover but Intellectual Law is tomorrow and I still need to stay up late to read few things about it. I will treat myself with a nice dinner Tomorrow to celebrate the end of the exam!
Jan
18
I have finished learning all 6 pages containing 3 exam answers. That was painful. Now,I will repeat every 10 min each part and take 10 min break until 2 am in order to smooth down all the little holes in my brain. It is not too bad I am feeling more confident now after digesting all this material. I will feel much better after the first exam.
I really do not care much about the grade as long as I pass. I would like to get a higher grade than most students though. We shall see if my strategy will pay off.
Jan
17
Suffering!
Filed Under Daily
I am learning so many pages by heart that my brain is over saturated now! I stopped and I picked 3 subjects that I think will be in the exam. I answer completely to these questions and learn by heart my answers. That is my last minute strategy. I hope I am lucky :)!
I really thought back in May 2004 that the defense of my PhD thesis was the last exam in my life. Look at how life is treating my certainties and plans! I hate life!
Jan
16
Swim Squad!
Filed Under Daily
Since I started swimming intensively, my hidden goal has always been to get closer to the speed of the Squad. I thought it was very hard to reach their training speed, especially if they do it on a 400m workout basic. I could reach this speed by racing them for only 50m lap few months ago. Today I did it with them and I did not loose much more than one arm stroke. That means we are now equivalent. It was really fun swimming today. The students are back and it was fun racing again with a few of them. They are still much faster on a competition level since I do not do any short racing training.
Swimming has kept me nicely busy the last 3 years. It is my third passion after hiking and photography. It was only intended to be temporary because I started swimming due to running injuries. I never thought I could reach this level!
I bought the plane ticket to Paris.
Jan
15
Back to Paris
Filed Under Daily
I am planning on flying back to Paris next week: I will leave Manchester on Friday 23 (late) and I will come back on Monday 26 (early). The plane ticket seems cheap 112 GBP for a return ticket. It is as cheap as the train but much shorter. The train would take about 5 hours and 30 min! The plane only takes 3 hours. I just wanted to see my dog, Lolita, one last time just in case I am staying in the UK. I also wanted to take some pictures of her with my Nikon D200. It might be a bad timing since it is very cold in Europe now but I don’t think I have time to plan anything else after the semester starts. Even though things have been hard to handle during this transition period, the outcome is not too bad so far. There were good surprises that were unexpected on the way.
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