Knock, knock! Anyone out there!? You'll all be glad to know that I'm still here and I've not lost the ability to blog - who groaned at the back of the room there? After over 2 weeks of radio silence I return briefly this evening to make you smile (hopefully) and to make myself feel good about writing again. I'm not going to lie, these last few weeks have been pretty heavy going. I've done almost nothing but revise, a big part of which has been typing notes. I'm now well into the tens of thousands in terms of words typed for notes and not a word has been spilt since on anything jocular or with any of the usual innuendo or irony that I love to see dripping from my writing like too much chocolate sauce on your ice-cream. I've missed this thing more than ever over these last few weeks because of the (more often than not) dense amount of work that I've got to do for my exams. In short, it's nice to be back!
At this point on this fine Friday night I'm 2/7 exams down which feels nice. It's good to get a couple under your belt because the best thing that you can give yourself during an exam diet (the irony of which will be discussed below) is a little bit of momentum and I can feel that building now. My first exam was a bit of a stinker and I can't gauge quite how I did. Looking back on it I feel that I made some errors both in my style and my application of knowledge but, as I keep telling myself, there's nothing that can be done about it now. Today's exam was almost chalk to Wednesday's cheese and it was good to get a nice confident performance behind me going forward.
Something that I've really struggled with since I started revising for exams in getting my head in the right place. I think that was part of the problem on Wednesday that I just wasn't mentally prepared for what was ahead. Don't get my wrong, I had worked hard to get to the point of being able to sit the exam but something just wasn't right on the day and I put it down to poor mental preparation. I think people get the impression that exams are all about knowing the stuff that will be in them and I would be a liar if I told you otherwise. I would however say that about 20% of exam preparation has to go down to being able to: a) tell yourself that you can do it; b) not letting the day itself get to you; and c) controlling what goes in and out of your head. The last thing was a line from 'Eat, Pray, Love' (nice feel good film) which really hit a chord with me when I was away on holiday - it pays to think about your thoughts sometimes.
As mentioned above, I've noticed the irony of the period of exams being known as a 'diet'. Those who have had the pleasure of seeing me in the flesh (with clothes on of course, you're making me blush) will know that I'm not exactly on the rotund side. In fact up until about a month ago you would have been well served having me as a xylophone in your band - my ribs that it, don't just hit me with beaters. However the exams have hit hard (pun!) and times have been tough. I mean, I've had to eat so much chocolate and so many ginger nut biscuits that I'm not sure how I've survived. Everyone that is currently studying for exams will know that when you are sitting at a desk, there is nothing easier than going through a whole pack of something without noticing. My vice at the moment is either the aforementioned ginger biscuits or nuts/sunflower seeds. The latter are healthy in their own way but are also fatty as anything - it's nice to have a little bit extra around the waist I guess.
Remember those posts when I was talking about how I had started to exercise and how (somewhat vainly) I felt I was starting to look pretty good. Well forget that for the moment and picture me as more of fit person with a soft cuddly coating - I better stop this nonsense otherwise I'll have all you girls at the door tonight. It's a funny kind of hibernation period mixed in with stress and that occasional requirement to leave the nest and go and sit in a hall full of worked up law students looking as full of fear as the person sat next to them. In many ways I like it because it gives me a strong purpose for at least 2 months out of the year - something to really get my teeth into, like I've not been doing enough of that anyway.
Right I'll let you get back to your lives but it was nice to have grabbed your attention this evening. I always worry when I have a prolonged break from blogging that I'll lose the passion that I so fervently advertise during more fruitful times of blogging. I'm glad that I've not lost that enjoyment and I'm glad that you managed to get down to this paragraph.
Thanks for reading tonight and be sure to keep an eye on the Facebook page for any scraps I leave out over the next few weeks. Oh ye, if you know someone (anyone! *cough*) who is not a 'liker' of the page then get them over there: I'm one short of 30 just now and without that one I can't see my insights - love me a good statistic so I do. Thanks!
Martin
