First Impressions

This week I actually set foot in the College of Law for the first time. It does seem strange to me that I can sign up to do a course at an institution that I've never visited but it does sum me up rather well.

I am (and always will be) a little impetuous.

I think that's because I have a tendency to find the first acceptible thing and stick with it. So, when during the OU course the possibility of studying with the highly respected College of Law arose (and boy does it arise-because the OU and CofL work so closely together, the OU plug the College whenever they get a chance), I snatched at the opportunity to come back to Surrey and bugger the alternatives.

There were alternatives?

It does make me ask the question though as to why I didn't marry...


Anyhow, in the run up to the first term the College are keen to throw open the doors and run a few courses for their future students. This week it was the turn of the careers department to hold classes dealing with interviews/interview technique and the various types of tests that firms can use to weed out the chaff from the quality wheat.

I went for two reasons

1. A chance to get a feel of the place and meet some students
2. To look scornfully on the whole procedure since I have been to dozens of interviews in the last 20 years and know it all. This does raise the obvious question that 'if you're so good, how did you end up with such cack, dead-end jobs?'

....but we'll slip quietly past that one, eh...

i) The place I liked-it has a slightly scruffy feel at the present (especially the grounds) as if the majority of staff who do the 'real' work are still on their holidays. This is great-if it had been all shiny and highly polished/finished, I would probably have run away screaming and demanding a refund (and yes, the bank have finally honoured my cheque).

The students...hmm. Depressingly young-all the women are irresistibly cute, all the men are slim, buff and with chiseled features;

This could be a long year.

The group (22 of us) appeared to be an even mix of LPC and GDL students (students with a first degree outside of law wishing to take a crash course in the 7 main subjects). The usual chat, 'where are you from?', 'what was your degree in?', 'where did you study?'-after that, not a lot.

I desperately didn't want to come across as a middle-aged pervert (but I think that I failed miserably).

As I expected no one was even close in age (in fact some of them felt that they were a bit old because they had taken a gap year-I didn't want to say that I had taken 20 gap years...) So, as I say;

this could be a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery long year...

ii) The College supplied a pristine handout pack to us that contained the main topics that the speakers would cover. After each topic there were questions asked openly by them to the group.

One of the main drawbacks in my life is that I am pitifully shy. People who know me would disagree with this but that's the key. With new people I am quiet (prefering others to talk) and blush badly when speaking in public. The strange thing is that in a work situation I can go up to a total stranger (or group) and speak quite easily (and well) but not if I'm not getting paid for it.

Weird, huh?

I have been warned that an enormous amount of the CofL course is workshop based with group participation being the key to success. This sends a very broad shiver down me. Speaking in public I place on a par with going to the dentist (and I loathe the dentist), so being frank this part terrifies me.

If you have similar fears to me, the trick is to force yourself to speak early-this breaks some of the inhibitions and allows you to relax a little.

The problem then occurs about 'getting your bit in'-invariably someone steals your idea and you have to wrack your brains finding a new one. Well, true to my theory I did force myself to speak and as expected I did blush a deep Salmon pink (Is the expression named after the fish or me?-tricky one that) but I did mention a previously unmentioned point so I can claim a small moral victory. Whether I can take this tiny taste of success into the main course we shall have to see.

The presentation itself was good (but not ground breaking) and solid enough to give everyone a combination of hope/fear.
Success at interview could be summarised as;

• Preparation,
• Relaxation
• Positive body language
  

oh and try not to fail to reach the interview or pass out when you are there.

But all in all-a good day and well worth it.

Sunday Mornings

It seems that I've decided that Sundays are going to be MY days. At the moment I'm desperately trying to get back up to speed by hitting the books from about 7 AM onwards but it is very tedious and I feel like I'm swimming up a water fall (Salmon do that) of sewage (they do not do that...).
So, come Sunday, I feel like I need a break and to do all those other things in life that ought to be done.

Like writing blog pages or emailing friends or even just cleaning the flat and getting the supplies in.

Problem is, I'm bored. Its only 9:30 and the day stretches ahead like a long expansive stretchy thing but I want to do something. I am, even at my most reckless of times not remotely adventurous-so apart from pacing the route to the College (just to see how long it takes), I guess that I'll be doing the same old stuff.

The money for the course has to be in by Monday and fortunately I sent the cheque 4 days ago. I know that the College received it because I got a letter from my bank yesterday refusing to honour it!!! Apparently I did not fill it in correctly-either I forgot to sign it or the bank didn't think that the signature on the cheque was close enough to mine. So rather than call me they cancelled it altogether. Let's just say that I almost dropped a kidney when I read that letter-I then had to write another cheque sharpish and get it in the post. With luck and a following wind it should be received by Monday morning and I can avoid late fees.

**sigh** And I so wanted to make a good impression to the College...

Insurance-amazingly for a man of 42 I have never tried to arrange insurance for anything. So, determined to be a good tenant (and because the housing agreement specified that I should) I decided to get some household contents cover. I had a look around the internet and found that the on-line policies all seemed to be for home and contents but then my eyes fell onto an ad by Endsleigh for student possessions cover.

This seemed ideal to me (and cheaper too). My memory of Endsleigh when I studied at Exeter in the 80's was a positive one and the person that I talked to on the phone was very helpful. Having agreed the policy and paid my cover I was then told by my operator that she had made a mistake and that I could not be covered by this policy because I was over 23.

Apparently her manager needed to approve her actions (the operator was fairly new) and spotted this 'error'. I asked to speak to the manager-we had what the papers might call 'a frank and open discussion' wherein I explained very gently about a thing called age discrimination, EU directives and UK legislation. Under pressure I was allowed to take the policy.

I then checked the website-no mention at all of an age limit (as of 10th August 2006). When I received the policy and advertising bumpf-no mention of age limit. How very odd. Law students who read this should all be reaching for their textbooks.

• An unwritten unfair term? This gets better!
• Are Endsleigh on dodgy ground?
  
• Are bears catholics? (hang on that's not right...).

Anyhow-I have my policy and I wrote to Endsleigh to gently chide them either on;

1. Their discriminatory policy, OR
   
2. The level of training of their managers.

The whole episode made me reflect on two things

• No matter how much I fight it, I am becoming my father
  
• Law degrees are bloody brilliant things...

Moving to the Mountain

It's been long time since my first post and although a lot has happened to me, most (if not all) is not worth putting down as a permanent record.

After living in Exeter for 24 years I have finally moved to Guildford. Since I couldn't move my LPC to Exeter I've had to move to it (thus the title...) I knew what I wanted (accomodation-wise) and have been lucky to find something that ticks just about all the boxes.


I've received confirmation of the starting date from the College (4th Sept) and a basic breakdown of the first day or so. The biggest surprise (so far) is that my course is not as class-intensive as I expected.

I've been assigned to an afternoon group and so will have to use the mornings for background reading and other preparation. I'm determined to try to extract as much as I can from this year-it will almost certainly be my very last full time academic adventure (though the idea of a Masters degree tickles me a bit...)
BUT (and its a big but)-some of my old bad habits are starting to resurface. At the moment my time is my own. The College have asked me to prepare for the year by refreshing my legal knowledge and using their on-line revision program. This I will gladly do but my days are galloping away. Even though I have little to do around the flat, my time is quickly eaten up by 'stuff' (translation-wasteful trivia).
As I say-very old, very bad habits.
I'm very much of the 'well, I've got a few days to go, I'll leave it to then' brigade. This will not do but can I change? Only time will tell....

At this stage I have no idea of the age compliment of my tutor group-I would hope that I would be placed with more mature students but we may be swept together to promote integration. Likewise I don't know if I'll be with any other Open University (OU) students. If I'm not this could be interesting. Part of me is dying for some form of gentle confrontation with a 'proper' university graduate who is dismissing my degree as second rate (this would be wonderful fun since the OU's course is effectively written and run by the College of Law with both the continuous assessment papers and exams randomly checked by College markers) but then...

The OU
...I do wonder how the world at large perceives the OU these days. When I attended university in the 80's (and after) it always had a 'joke' image. Men with fluffy beards and leather elbow patches appearing in B&W tv programs at 4 in the morning. Not a 'real' university at all. Quite how I ended up enrolling with them is a mystery to me. Certainly I had no preconceptions of quality or excellence.

With hindsight I think my attitude at the time was very much of the, 'I'll buy a degree from these people-as long as I pay the course fees, they'll keep giving me passes' variety. And of course this changed when I graduated!

Or did it?

Certain views have changed;

• The standard of teaching materials is excellent. Easy subjects (and tougher ones) are explained in a straight forward, often colloquialised style.
  
• The standard of tutors and the time that they put in is superb (at least in my experience).
• The institution and it's administrative role are unrivalled (particularly regarding my graduation which was brilliant)

...but there are still nagging doubts about the academic integrity of the course itself.

The hardest thing with the OU is commitment. You could probably do a degree (just) in two years (studying two 60 point courses a year and transfering credit from previous study) but it would be messy.

Otherwise, you would be looking at a course a year from between 4-6 years. The main OU term starts in February and runs to the middle of October (exams) with no breaks-and that can be a killer. It's effectively about 30-36 weeks with no let-up followed by the rest of the year to unwind.

And that means studying throughout the summer-now I'm not one for 'proper' holidays (since every day is a holiday for me), so that was no great hardship (but I imagine, tougher on someone with a young family)-but having to sit down and plan and write essays while the sun is shining and your electric fan is doing overtime-now that can be tricky. Hot weather generally makes people lethargic (as if I need an excuse) and I'm sure that this mid-year stage has more than it's fair share of people dropping out.

Talking of dropping out-When I joined my first OU law group, I was one of 24. There were also 3 other groups in the near vicinity. By the end of the course my group was drawn from the South West generally (Cornwall to Bristol) and only 4 remained from the initial 24 (and one of them had moved to France).

Commitment, dedication, the ability to use your time efficiently and a lot of sacrifice. These are what an OU student needs (brains are an optional extra). I honestly don't know if having academic ability is needed at all.

That may sound very mean after having qualified with them but that's me I guess...


Ouch, yesterday I wrote the biggest cheque in my life so far-for £8,535. This is the balance remaining for the one year LPC. Since it looks like a 38 week year with 5 days at 2.5 hours that makes it about £18/hour.

Hmm, looks like I might need to do some work to justify this one.

Work, now that's a tricky one.

I have started to refresh my memory for that legal stuff but at the moment it's all washing over me and none of it is sinking in. The College swears by its ELITE internet program as a way to strengthen and consolidate a student's legal knowledge. I will have to give this a bash soon but at the moment I am happy to do it the old fashioned way (which has never let me down so far...) but it is a case of grinding away at present. Things are still there but dusty, very, very dusty.