Open The Box!

The ribbons have been cut, the cardboard peeled and, lo, the contents have been unveiled. Yes, with my first assignment completed on Wednesday night last week I had to keep my promise and open that much-worried-about box the very next day. I really needn't have been scared about its heaviness & size - it seems the box covers the whole year and not just the first part of the course. Hence 18 (!!!) CDs, 2 DVDs and 5 'block' books. One useful addition to the set is a fully-illustrated calendar for the year which shows that each of the blocks are broken down into weekly sections covering a topic in the book. This I found quite reassuring as it will help me to focus on what I need to study on at any given time. Mind you, I did have one shock when I read the upcoming TMAs! Blimey, by TMA6 the word count is 2000 words! And on something I'll have to think up from scratch! Scary!

So, after giving myself a well-earned break on Friday night, I made a start the next day on Block 1, Week 1 - 'Seeing'. Essentially, this is 'How to view paintings properly'. The audio CD was very useful in giving tips on how to approach this activity for a kick-off but the book...well, aren't we supposed to be taking notes? I found that it seemed more like a skill to be learned by practice as opposed to something that's discovered via reading the material & taking notes on the important bits. I was hoping that this week I could pop down to the National Gallery and try these newly acquired skills 'live' but alas, we are flat broke at the moment and I've had to base myself in our Harrow offices to save a bit of money on transport. Damn timing!

Talking of money, the same also goes for our long-planned visit to Rome which was to have taken place during Alison's half-term break. When others talked on OUSA 103 about a whole block devoted to the Colusseum, I got rather excited as we had already bought the tickets late last year without knowing this would come up. It would have been fantastic to use some real 'live experience' of an actual object discussed in the course. It certainly would have brought the block to life and would have made studying there it a truly interactive experience. But the block's timing (it ends in April) is too soon for us to afford even a quick visit. Our Xmas break to see my family in N. Ireland went way over budget and now we are literally scraping the kitty jar to get a pint of milk, for example. Canceling the trip was quite difficult to take on Friday after we went through the calendar.

But, onwards & upwards! My first tutorial will be tomorrow night at Harrow College. I'm really lucky in that the venue's a 5 or 10 minute walk from my home so I have absolutely no excuse for not attending it! I'm hoping it will be a useful place to share opinions, confirm theories (or suspicions), make friends and perhaps have a bit of a laugh! We'll see.

PS Still no word on my TMA1.....I'm dying to know how I did!