Ups and Downs.....

First of all, before I start writing about myself, I need to point you in the direction of another blog, http://warriorelihoax.wordpress.com/2012/08/12/cara-goodman/. Please, please read this (and the other entries on the blog about this person), read them, share them, and be aware...especially those of you who may be impacted by her (she especially likes to insinuate herself into the lives of those who are genuinely suffering with terminal illnesses, as well as to abuse them anonymously).... She has resurfaced in the last couple of days, and scarily it seems that she has a child now...personally, I fear for the child's safety. The damage she has done to people, including someone I care about, is enormous...maybe, hopefully, she won't affect you personally - but the marvelous world of the internet means that by sharing it, maybe someone who would/is being affected will see it and she will be stopped....thank you

In my world, the last few days have been good, interspersed with moments of "bang my head against the wall in sheer frustration".... So shall we do the good bits first?? Ok then.....

Sunday, ahh a lazy day - see I told you I had some good times... :) . Seriously though, it was nice to just relax. Some of us (not me, haha) didn't even get out of their pajamas....lol.... Watching the closing ceremony of the Olympics was fun, C and I were dancing and singing along - we remembered so many of the songs and the girls were just loving our contributions (can you sense the sarcasm there..lol)... It was good, for a couple of hours I just plain enjoyed myself, I forgot all the worries and stress and just had a good time...woohoo....

Today has also been a good day...a nice lie in, then chilling out with the kids, before I fell asleep on the sofa (apparently my 'restless leg' kicked in (ha, pun not intended), and poor C who was sitting next to me, ended up having to move as my foot alternately stroked and kicked her....oops...). I very much enjoyed being able to sleep, without worrying about A. I was so exhausted from everything that I just couldn't keep my eyes open and in the end I had a good few hours rest..lovely...When I woke up I took A and one of my god-daughters up to the library which was nice. A behaved himself and it was good to get out of the house. Since then we have been chilling (again), and it's been very relaxing, which is something I've not managed to do very much recently....

So there you go, good times over the last few days...but, it's not been all good... A has had several 'episodes', and yesterday afternoon I had to ask his Dad to come and get him a few hours early, because I had just had enough....I couldn't take anymore, and I'm so grateful that I was able to get that respite, I don't know how I would have coped otherwise. Even with C here (and doing an amazing job of backing me up), A is still hyper and OTT....the hard part is that C's eldest has similar tendencies and whilst the two of them can play nicely together, and can 'distract' each other (in a good way), at other times they simply bounce off each other, encouraging each other and making the situation worse. To an extent, that is what happened yesterday...and both of them needed to be separated, for their own good as well as our sanity.....

Today has been better, A was distracted by being asked to clean out his dad's car, and so apart from one episode of sulking when he wasn't allowed to the park (and a very unwise FB status update which resulted in C telling him off for me), he has been ok.

But....just as A goes quiet, as it were, so the Uni step up to crap on my joy.....As you know I've had to stop work on my dissertation, and had requested to suspend my MA in order to be able to continue with a clean slate (as it were) from October. Today I received an email from Gina (the amazing lady who does the admin for the MA, amongst other things) advising that I am allowed to suspend and to re-start in September BUT I am to be charged £830 to do so.... Needless to say I am shocked and really really upset. Firstly, and most importantly, there is no way I can afford that. So if it stands, I won't be able to complete my MA. Secondly, I don't understand why they are charging me. As I understand it, the MA is done full and part time (one and two years), and the overall cost is the same, but (obviously) those who do it over one year have to pay it in larger chunks (which my parents kindly paid for me)...So, I don't see why I have to pay more - if I'd chosen to do the course over two years, then I wouldn't have paid any more than I have already... It feels as though the Uni are taking advantage of what is already a horrible time, and are gouging me for money which others (who are doing it over two years, which is in effect what I would now be doing) do not have to pay.  Sorry that this is so rambling and confused but I'm trying to get straight in my head, just what is going on here and I'm also rather upset about it. It's bad enough that things have conspired to make it impossible to complete the MA as planned, but to have the Uni then dump on me simply for wanting to continue, and not give up, just makes me so angry. I'm going to email Gina and ask her to direct me to someone who can help, because this isn't her fault and so I don't want to bombard her with questions and complaints.

I'm not going to give up, but this has been a kick in the teeth...I'd no idea that the Uni would look at this and think it reasonable to charge me, I just thought that because I'd paid, I'd be able to continue - stupid me, of course money is everything these days.... Anger is really kicking in now, so I need to stop - else I'll be awake half the night writing screeds in my head, all of which I'll forget when it comes to actually emailing someone...lol...

I shall instead look forward to tomorrow's trip to Southsea castle with J and the kids... It should be fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone....It will be good to intro C to J, as both of them have been fantastically supportive (as have so many people).

Right, I'm off now... thanks for reading (and don't forget to please read and share the link at the top of this entry)

:)