This month has been a quiet one, as I have done all the administrative preparations I need for the course, and am now just awaiting with bated breath the start date (April 30th) when I will get the golden key to the ilearn environment, the path to University of Wales BA Business glory! I have also received my RDI International Management Academy membership card giving me access to various different services and heard from RDI that my HND diploma is ready for collection – can`t wait to get my hands on that!

In the meantime, I went through the reading list supplied with the course handbook, and selected a few textbooks for the first few modules with the help of Amazon`s “Look Inside” and the reviews from other buyers. Living overseas, Amazon really does seem to be the best place for me to pick up the books I need, and the delivery – to Japan anyway – is very efficient.

So my stack of textbooks arrived a few weeks ago….and I really did mean to read through them, honestly I did! In my positive, optimistic (slash control freak) kind of way, I really meant to get a headstart on my reading and research for the first couple of modules, Managing Myself and Others and Strategic Planning.

The problem is – as expected – I didn`t reckon on a fast-developing fetus to kind of mess up my powers of concentration, rendering me from reasonably lucid (relatively speaking), to a gibbering wreck unable to focus even on my Daily Express that Mum had kindly brought over from the UK. I`m not just exhausted, I am actually capable of falling asleep standing on the spot just like Rowan Atkinson`s character in Rat Race. And that`s before I even get started on morning sickness and analogies with The Exorcist….

However, at nearly 3 months, the worst seems to be coming to an end, and I am starting to turn a corner. Dear Mr University of Wales Professor, if you are reading this, please bear in mind my mental and physical state of late, and I would also just like to point out that, given that I planned my morning sickness to miraculously coincide with Mum`s visit from the UK, I think I should be given extra credit at least for Strategic Planning, if not also for Managing Myself and Others?! (although points lost I suppose for getting pregnant about two days after applying for the course in the first place!)

Next month, I will be reporting live from the UK! SO excited to be coming home for a while, and while the opportunity exists – if anyone is reading this from Bertie Basset`s, I strongly advise you to bump up your production plans for Liquorice Allsorts between now and July…!

>>Back to blogs