Next Steps...

I believe I have mentioned that I was thinking about starting an Open University Degree, mainly to prove I can do it as I wimped out 23 years ago...

I have opted for an Arts/Humanities BA (Hon) in English Literature and History. 2 Subjects I actually enjoy and would love to learn far more about! Thankfully the Government have decided that part time students can now also apply for a tuition fees loan which you only start paying back after 4 years provided you are earning at least £25k...no sign of me earning that amount again any time soon. I have registered with the OU and also with the Student Loan people, but I can't apply for the £2500 I need for my first year until May and my studies won't start until until 5 October, but I have got a list of book that will help that I can start on now! I will also need a computer that will play DVD's as much of the course is contained on them. Unfortunately my poor old laptops CD/DVD player has died and the keyboard has a mind of it's own! The OU also advise that tablets or I pads are no use so it is now time to start saving up for a new Laptop. Anyone know of any cheap ones around!!

The other news today has been the death of Baroness Thatcher. The reaction to the news has upset me. I'm not going to pretend I agreed with many of her policies but she was a leader who wasn't worried about upsetting a group of people if the country as a whole would benefit. I'm not going to pretend I understand all the politics surrounding the Miners Dispute, but on a personal level my Uncle, who I adored, has stones thrown at his house and was spat on by friends he had gone to school with because he was a 'scab'. He went into work everyday, crossing lines of men wound up to be abusive morons by their Trade Union leader. He kept the electronic systems working so the mine didn't flood and they had a job to eventually return to. Not long after the dispute ended he was diagnosed with Diabetes (He'd had a car boot full of 'pop' for as long as I could remember) But the next we heard he's gone into hospital for some tests and he never came out. So far as I was concerned Arthur Scargill had murdered him. It's a good thing I never bumped into him as I wanted to make him suffer in the way he'd made my Uncle suffer.

Margaret Thatcher was the first politician I have any memory off...her name was in the entrance hall of my first school in Norfolk as she had opened it when she was Education Secretary...so when she became leader of the Conservatives her name meant something to me! I also have hazy memories of the Falklands Conflict, we had a big map/plan on a wall in school and updated it daily. But I do remember hearing her calm voice on evening updates, to me it sounded like the voice of someone who knew what she was doing and would see it though. I guess it was her Churchill Time. (I wonder if this will come up in the History part of my studying!)

I know there are many people who won't agree with me, but R.I.P Mrs T...you stopped them forcing me to drink warm gloopy milk every morning break at school! But looking back, she made it OK to be female and have ambitions. She was a strong woman who was holding her own in a male dominated world, and getting many of them to do what she wanted.