Final push to the end

I have discovered a new English proverb: "There is nothing so attractive as housework when the alternative is revision."

On Saturday I was so stiff and bored of revision by the end of the day that I went for a big walk around town and took lots of photos of plants and interesting houses that other people live in. I expect you will see some of them in future posts - the photos on this post were taken last week when it was much sunnier. I took a few pictures of our version of Queen Victoria, and one of these now appears at the top of the last post, so you can imagine her decked out glamorously. I think the Canadian statue was created from a younger model.

I peaked too soon with the Clinical Pharmacology. Eight days is too much time to revise for one exam, so I did no exam work yesterday. The trouble is that most of the things I need to do when I am not revising are either too big for one day (sort out ALL the dead plants around the house and prune and weed every plant in the garden) or are unpleasant (clean the toilet and the inside of the car). So I attempted some of the unpleasant things, because as my new proverb says, the alternative is worse.

The university Ethics Committee has responded to my research proposal about interviewing blind and partially sighted people about what food they buy, cook and eat. They quite rightly want to know that the four organisations I have approached to provide volunteers are happy to work with me, so I need to get them to write me a letter saying so. I spent some time yesterday morning composing and sending this request to each organisation - I do hope that they agree, because otherwise my fourth year project will be well stuffed.

I have rather lost touch with the real world of other people who work during the week and then don't work at weekends. When I speak to someone I have to work out what day it is so I can tell whether they have been at work or somewhere else. Lola II confused me by having a day off last Monday, and today there is a Bank Holiday for other people which has confused me again, because I am back at work in anticipation of the last exam tomorrow.

Clinical Pharmacology is actually quite interesting, but there are an awful lot of drugs to remember. For once I will not be stuffing everything into my head, because it really looks as though I can swot up on respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dyspepsia and gastric motility and be able to answer three questions out of any six they throw at us - it would have worked for every past paper since 2005. But we'll see when 4.30 p.m. rolls around tomorrow.

It will all be over by 6 p.m., but unfortunately this exam is at the main campus so I won't be home until about 7.30. It will be a fine evening, I know that already.