I'm in, I'm in! (to the MA at Winchester)

Huge relief all around, so much that I promptly got a migraine. I'm very pleased to have a place, especially as I don't have a literature degree (or even a BA) only a silly old science degree. I suspect some of the English stuff will be a steep learning curve, but I have bought a couple of books (one written by a tutor on the course) so I can do some valuable reading over the summer. I've more or less finished my ECA but am still looking through the commentary which is where I will lose the most marks, I suspect.

So now I can relax a bit and make concrete plans to rent somewhere in Winchester with the boys (nos. 1 and 3) while no. 2 heads off to university. It will be nice not to have so many other people to consider every day, there's been seven or more here for the last month and it gets tiring thinking who eats what, needs what, is going into/coming back from somewhere and worse, the horrible, horrible paperwork that goes with one child at university, let alone two, and me, and the two boys at college on residential bursaries and grants and EMA and ALG...forms, forms. Not my strong point. Thank goodness for form friendly husband.

I've taken a couple of days off to do something non literary, and I've really enjoyed it, but the habit is hard to break so here I am writing away. I try and write 500 words minimum a day, even if it's just morning pages or rambles or freewrites or poetry or blog. That's the single biggest change in my writing, the exercising of my word-finding muscles. I must admit, I am a bit nervous about the workload, I have to keep reminding myself I won't have this house and the whole family to look after and the boys will mostly be at 'school'. That's a new experience for me, the kids going out all day and being in the house on my own! I hope I don't enjoy it too much, or it will be a bit of a shock the next year.

Anyway, to celebrate Winchester I have taken some time off to start a patchwork quilt, another form of creativity. It's nice to be back making something and it's for our 'new' bedroom, when we get the best room in the house and tart it up for ourselves. About time, really!