It has been a busy week this week, with various appointments for my son and husband. I was hoping after the EMA assignment I would be able to relax and chill out,  but it was not to be! the life of the carer is a busy one! With having to book and arrange appointments son and so on.

Quite a few appointments for this week, one of which was cancelled at the hospital just at the last minute.
Unfortunately,  we had already taken the bus when they rang us to cancel the appointment at the hospital, right at the last minute,  typical of the NHS no available replacement ophthalmologist!

Needless to say I was furious! They said sorry and that they will phone with new appointment hopefully this same day.
So it was that we found ourselves at the sea-side on a sunny but rather windy day. "Well mustn't grumble !" as they say.

I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to do a bit of shopping first. It had been a while since we had been there, and then I went to look for WH Smiths for some good quality writing paper and pens, but I soon found that they had closed down vanished ! What's going on!
The same with Wilkos too. It seems they have been replaced by other shops, neither of which sold what I actually needed.

However, we found a lovely little cheese shop that sold artisan products and I bought some special large sandwiches with local cheeses in and pickles the bread was excellent it tasted home made, I think it could be corn bread as it was a lovely yellow colour. I also bought a take- away coffee and a small fruit loaf. It all smelt and tasted delicious!

 Slowly we made our way down to the sea front, to look at the sea, the weather was sunny but was bracing to say the least!

Many holiday makers were dressed in their tiny shorts and flimsy little summer dresses, they shivered in the gusty wind as they walked along the promenade eating ice creams with their children.  

I felt so sorry for them coming here for the school holidays expecting sunshine! I had on my jeans and a warm knitted blue & white striped jumper dress, long thick navy cadigan coat with white woolen scarf and I still felt cold!

Took a brief walk along the promenade but decided against buying an ice cream as it was already cold enough!

 Surprisingly the beach was packed,  despite the cold weather. We just sat on a bench, relaxed and ate the remainder of our sandwiches, enjoying the little bit of sun shine, when it did eventually appear from behind the clouds.

We just had the time to visit the lovely large supermarket before our bus was due. Finished the shopping, we hurried to catch the bus which was nice and warm inside, after it had been standing for a long while in the sunshine. A few residents from our village that we knew said "hello"  they had been shopping too, but had definitely not been down to the beach!

 I was glad to be going home in the end. The hospital rang while we were on the bus to give us a new appointment, lets hope the weather will be better next month!

🌞🌊⛱

It has been like a rollercoaster ride lately with the EMA all written up and sent off. I feel free! 

I now seem to have become a carer for my husband as well as my son. Accompanying my husband to hospital appointments, he now has cataracts in both eyes and he is still awaiting a double hernia operation.

Making sure my son still has his regular exercise, around the block where we live. I have to make sure he doesn't get a stroke or develop blood clots. I suppose I am glad of the exercise myself, after months and weeks of sitting studying.

 I still have bursititis on my knee-  but it isn't getting worse but my ankle is swollen on that same side. Hopefully a few more good walks might help me to get back into  good condition again.

Going to hospital ophthomology dept with him tomorrow about cataracts. The good news is it is 5 minutes from the hospital to the beach so we could  have a little stroll on the beach!
Hope the weather will stay fine! 🌞

Well, I managed to finish the synthese last night. I was also able to write the conclusion. 

Today I will be typing it all up and arranging it better, checking the spellings, checking for errors and just seeing if it all makes sense grammatically, and  if it flows well enough.   I will do this by reading it out loud. Next step make a reference list.

It is a beautiful day outside today. If I finish early I might take myself off for a walk.

☀️   🙂  🚶‍♀️🌳🌲🏡

It took me a lot longer than I thought it would to write out the anti-these in french science  for AI. It is a fascinating subject with lots of material to write about from both from module, TV and on line.

Just finishing off the anti-these before I embark on the synthese tomorrow. Fortunately someone can help me,  by looking after my son tomorrow while I am busy working away on the synthese. Another 800 words for that one I think!

👩‍💻 😖 😟💨🤔😊

After spending most of the day indoors on Saturday working on my ema assignment, I was keen to get outdoors for a walk on Sunday.

My son, for whom I am also his carer, needed a walk. I was pleased he agreed to accompany me, he had not been out much lately, due to the cold weather and all the rain, so It would be good for his circulation for him to move about a bit and have a little stroll.

The sun was shining as we set off but it was still quite cold, much colder than last year at this time, I seem to remember. Last year we had all been recovering from Covid19.
What a difference a year makes!

First of all we walked through the park, which was fairly empty apart from the play area, which had a few kids in playing on the swings.  We sat down briefly on the bench, on the far edge of the park, as he was already feeling a bit tired by now.

Next we took the footpath past the cemetery which we call cemetery lane, this runs along side of the field. From there we go through Fox glove close and onto the footpath leading into the village.

 At this point we stopped again, so we  buy an ice cream at the corner shop, then sat on the bench on the market place. It was nice to sit and watch all the comings and goings of people, as it was starting to get busy by this time, people were moving around on the market place,  like us some people also sat down to have an ice cream. There are a few tourists and some people on cycles.

We decided to linger a while longer, by taking the longest route back home,  along tree lane (not it's real name) but called that  because of the lovely large ancient trees, that line this such pretty lane. It is always so peaceful here, we found our favourite bench to sit on, this was between two trees set back a little, which is a real sun trap (when the sun shines!).

 Luckily on sunday( yesterday)  the sun was shining,  so we sat together in the sunshine listening to the breeze rustling through the foliage, bees buzzing, the birdsong in the trees and the smell of the scent of flowers on the air.

It was a moment of pure bliss, we could have happily stayed in this place for hours and hours, it was so lovely and peaceful. I hope maybe we will come back again tomorrow if the weather stays fine!

🌞 🌲👨‍🦯🚶‍♀️🌳🌺🌼🕊

J'ai toujours aimé la cuisine française! 🥐🥖
🍄🍅🧅🍆🥒 🍷🥞

J'ai décidé que j'aimerais étudier la langue française lorsque mon mari m'a dit de commander notre repas en français dans un restaurant, pendant nos vacances.🏖 ⛲🌄

Je ne connaissais qu'un peu de français à cette époque, pourtant j'ai commandé nos deux repas, desserts ainsi que les vins qui vont avec ! Après cela, j'ai été accro à la langue française.
🇨🇵 🗼
Pourquoi ne pas prendre un diplôme français? a-t-il dit.

Et voila je suis ici !

Le Cimetière

Aujourd'hui j'ai été me promener avec mon fils dans les environs. Nous avons visité le parc, Le cimetière, Les jolies ruelles bordées d'arbres et dans le petite ville avec ses petites  boutiques pittoresques. 

Nous avons remarqué que dans certains jardins, les gens n'ont pas coupé leur herbe car il est le mois  " il n'y a pas de coupe (l'herbe) en Mai,"  les gens y laissent l'herbe plus longtemps pour permettre aux insectes de prospérer et d'aider l'environnement.

Quelle merveilleuse

 idée !!

The little country chapel of St Marys

I was so pleased to recieve the results for my TMA 04.oral exam. Very happy with that !

I had been dreading this exam and really pushed myself hard with it. I never thought I could even do it because  I had no confidence.  Then just before, I had a moment of inspiration from listening to some of the audios and I found my 'french voice!'

Thank goodness for the audios that the Open University provides!

   🎙📼📚👩‍💻

Quand j'ai commencé ce cours, je ne savais pas que toute ma famille serait impliquée dans l'apprentissage !

Mon fils aîné et moi nous envoyons des SMS tous les jours en français. Mon fils cadet répète ce que je dis dans un français presque parfait ( bien qu'il ait probablement oublié le sens ! )   Mon mari et moi nous avons de courtes conversations ensemble en français. C'est comme si on disait " Éduquez une femme et vous Éduquez une famille !"

This Science unit has been fascinating for me.There is so much in there to learn and explore, that it has kept me up at night, as I set about doing my own research on the internet.   👩‍💻
Space exploration, Artificial Inteligence, computers, smartphone, genetic research, climate change, biotechnology,  genetically modified organism, foods.🍅🌽
There was so much to read up about. I think the family think I have gone bonkers! With Dictionaries, 📚📙📘📖 encyclopedias library books and scientific books spread all over the table.  They look at each other in disbelief and shake their heads!
"I thought you were studying french" they say. I shrug my shoulders and say "so did I!" lol!
Tomorrow I will have a lot of french translating to do!

📱💻🐑🐖🌾⚘🦟👨‍🦲🔬📚

This morning I woke up with the birdsong. The weather was lovely outside and I wondered if it was too good to be true.Has the winter really gone yet? so I went to look outside and yes, it felt a little bit warmer! However I felt cautious and put my warm navy coat and red beret and scarf on just in case.

             ✝️
I looked at the calendar and it saw that today was good friday. I just had time to get my shoes on and join in the Walk of Witness a walk  following the Cross of Christ through the village and singing "The old rugged cross" well I do love singing!

I had not been to a public gathering since before the pandemic so a bit nervous!  Saw some ladies I know and we had a quick chat before setting out on the walk. The walk itself was mostly silent with hymns at the begining and at the end of walk, but silent during the walk, as a mark of respect for "Our Lord". 

 The vicar as usual went on ahead to hold up the traffic as all the congregation crossed over the main road together.  A lot of the walkers waved to people they knew along the high street. We came to a halt outside the Methodist
Church. Each year the Easter friday service is held in different churches or villages, we are very multi -faith here !

I think people of all faiths everywhere should visit each others churches from time to time, and join together with other faiths, instead of having all this fighting in the world! 

 It was nice to have a cup of tea and cake afterwards and a chat to some of the lonely old age pensioners of the communiry, some who have suffered,  struggled and survived the Covid pandemic, as well as the on- going cost of living crisis. It was a great social occasion as well as a time of deep reflection.

Time now to get back to earth and  home, to get down to some serious TMA studying!

✝️☮🕯📖🕊✅

This morning I am interviewing myself in french for the Oral TMA04 using my recording app. It felt like an episode from the TV "Mastermind!"

I asked myself to state my chosen subject which I then answered in french.

Why have I chosen this subject? I gave the reason.
What are the advantages and disadvantages?

I answered the question fully.

So on it went ....

At the end I said out loud to myself "you have correctly answered 20 questions, with no passes but plenty of hesitations and a few mis- pronounciations.
You are now allowed a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit!"

I think this is a good technique to use to practise orals by a set of 20 questions because these should cover every angle!
This was only the semifinal 
Tomorrow I will begin it again and try to do it all over again and I will try to do it correctly next time!!!