The insomnia monster has me. I'm tired but my brain just won't turn off! Time to resort to hot milk. Which, incidentally, never works because by the time you've overheated the milk in the microwave and had to clean it all up you're more awake than you were before you even started.

I couldn't even last 48 hours - I've registered on the next OU course already.  I haven't even finished my 'got-through-my-3rd-year-and-MST209' celebratory bottle of wine yet and I've gone and signed up to a short science course to do until the my next maths one starts in January.  Some people are addicted to alcohol but me...?  I'm addicted to the Open University.  Until January (which will be pure maths or statistics, I can't decide) I'm going to do a short course about forensic science.  How cool is that?! 

So, anyway, you might be wondering how the exam went on Friday.  Then again you might not.  I didn't have another 'polo-rolling-down-the-desk' incident this year.  Instead I had the 'fruit-pastilles-on-the-floor' incident.  Followed by a 'how do I fill out the front pages?' conflab with one of the ancient invigilators.

Me:   "Do I write down ALL the numbers of the questions I've answered here?"
Him:  "Yes"
Me:   "Are you sure?"
Him:   "Yes"
Me:   "It's just that there are only enough boxes here to write ten down.  But there are, like, 30 to answer in the exam"
Him:  "Oh.  Er.  Erm"

A super helpful man.  He was the same chap I had an argument with last year over the location of my paperclip.  We didn't have the same ding-dong this year though.  Oh no.  This year he got a bit huffy because I'd attached my question paper (which you have to write answers in)  to the rest of the answerbooks with a split pin instead of a paperclip.  "Why have you done that?  You have to attach the question paper with a paperclip" says he.  "Er because we had to write answers in it so techincally it's an answerbook also....".  "Oh".  And he walked away.  I totally won this year's argument.  Oh yeah!  Rock on!  OU Invigilator 1, Addicted Studier 1.  Best of three old man, best of three.

So this weekend was strange with no assignments to do, no books to read and no revision to cram into my brain.  It was very odd.  I will confess I spent the majority of it wearing PJs and getting up to date with Grey's Anatomy.  Oh and watching episodes of 'Medium' whilst drinking copious amounts of tea.  It was excessively lazy, maginally enjoyable but, more than anything else, dull.  So monumentally dull that I am almost glad to be going back to work tomorrow.  Almost.  Because I spent the week shoving differential equations, vector calculus and the suchlike into my short-term memory - getting up for 9am everyday and studying until the evening - I don't much feel like I had any time off.  I am ready for some holiday now!  Somewhere hot and sunny.  With sandy beaches.  If only!

Good luck to anyone taking the OU MST209 exam this morning! I've woken up a bundle of nerves. A week of solid revision finally at an end. Today is scary, a whole year's work boiling down to just three hours of frantic writing. I keep saying to myself it doesn't matter because I almost quit halfway through the year so haven't lost anything by trying. But the truth is that now I've finally gotten to the end of this year's course I don't want all that blood, sweat and tears to amount to nothing. So, here goes.