Well, it's been a while. So what's been going on - there was Christmas, and then there was New Year - which I spent up here in St Andrews. Was very nice - no snow alas (and of course less than a week after I left home, it snowed there) - but it did get a bit icy, and Clare and I went sliding around all over the place on the way to shop in Safeway. Yep, they shut the much nearer Tesco for refurbishment just when it got icy. So that was fun. Of course, the other purpose of coming up here before Revision Week technically started, was to start working early, since I don't work at home.

I had to start early, because my exams fall early in the schedule (or 'diet' as they call it), and I needed to get a week's worth done for each class. At the time of writing - Monday lunchtime - I'm one down, one to go. That one to go is tomorrow - my Classics exam. I'm kind of panicking about that one, when I actually think about it - because I'm sure I don't know my texts anywhere near enough, I haven't even finished reading the Livy.

The Great War exam went ok, I think... well, ok enough I hope! I'm a little more scared than normal about these exams because they're my first Honours exams, and they count, and they're a bit tougher. So I walked into the exam room - for three hours (to write three essays), and saw that I could definitely do one of the nine options! I figured I'd do that, and then decide on the rest, as there were another four that I had to choose between for the others. The rest weren't really options for me - something to do with understanding the Naval Race being crucial to the understanding of the war flummoxed me entirely.

Anyway - half way through trying to argue causes for the war ending where it did, I suddenly twigged that I could do one of the four I'd immediately crossed out. It said, 'What impact did the course of socialism have on the Great War?', and I kind of squealed and ran away at first before nearly banging my head on the desk and going back to write stuff that involved Russia! My last question was on the Peace Settlement, and I finished it all comfortably - though I'm sure the essays got progressively worse. I wasn't the only one to find bits of it tricksy so I felt a bit better.

Anyway - after tomorrow's exam I can relax for two and a half weeks. Dave and I have vodka jelly plans... and then we're off to Venice and Rome with Helen, another friend of ours, for 9 days. That, of course, comes after the Winter meet on Saturday...

Swiv

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