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The I Feel Happy Topic!

Just about to submit my Master's dissertation! Been a long time coming and has been my entire life for the past few months, so glad it's finally over.

Going to celebrate this weekend in london and get very very drunk
Congratulations @Dhev123; that's amazing! If all goes well, this should be me in a year's time!

If you don't mind me asking, what have you been studying?
 
Well, results days are flooding in. It’s great to see everyone in the ‘i feel happy topic’ than it’s counterpart.

My big tests are up soon, it’s that year for me. If you have any advice on how to not end up on this thread’s evil twin, then it shall be appreciated from me!
 
Well, results days are flooding in. It’s great to see everyone in the ‘i feel happy topic’ than it’s counterpart.

My big tests are up soon, it’s that year for me. If you have any advice on how to not end up on this thread’s evil twin, then it shall be appreciated from me!
Best of luck; I remember GCSEs (I'm going to guess it's GCSEs based on your profile saying you're 15?) feeling huge for me at your age.

One piece of advice I would give you is not for how to approach studying, but instead in regard to results. That piece of advice would be; regardless of what you get at the end, there are always options. So while the exams are undeniably important and I would always encourage you to try your best, it really isn't the end of the world if you don't quite get the results you're hoping for. There isn't one correct linear path to take through life, and there are always alternative options regardless of what your outcome ultimately is. Even if you fail everything, you can always resit, and instead of failure, it should be taken as a learning opportunity. Believe me, you learn as much from failure as you do from success, possibly more. Not to mention that not everyone is academic, and there are so many brilliant, valuable qualities that these exams don't measure. If you are not naturally academic and struggle with school, there are still plenty of wonderful, fulfilling post-16 options out there even if you don't get spectacular GCSE grades.

I appreciate, however, that this is all very easy for me to say with my GCSEs now 5 years behind me... so let me show you that I learned this with age and experience. If you don't mind me digressing a little, let me tell you an anecdote from my own GCSEs.

Throughout Years 10 & 11, Computer Science was one of my star subjects. I was getting 9s in all of the mocks, my predicted grade was always a 9, and I'd set my sights on an eventual career in the Computing industry. But what did I ultimately get on results day? A 6. At the time, I was absolutely floored, and truly devastated. I was so crushed that I got 3 grades below my predicted grade, and even though I'd attained a spattering of 7's, 8's and 9's elsewhere, this 6 really weighed down on my mind. I thought it would jeopardise my future prospects. But with 5 years of hindsight and additional age and experience, let me tell you that that worrying was all for nothing. Despite my disappointment and alarmist thinking at the time, I was still above the grade threshold to study Computer Science A Level, and I later went on to get an A* in this. After that, I went on to study a Computer Science degree, and I came out with a first class honour's degree this summer. 5 years later, does anyone care that I only got a 6 in my Computer Science GCSE? Not in the slightest. GCSEs are simply a means to take you forward to whatever you do next, so once you're onto that next step, they hold little to no relevance in the long term (aside from maybe Maths and English to some extent). Nobody cares that I got a 6 in my Computer Science GCSE in the exact same way that nobody cares that I got a C in my Maths A Level. Now I have a Computer Science degree, no employer or postgraduate course cares about my 6 in Computer Science GCSE, or even my C in Maths A Level despite the fact that my upcoming MSc has an element of mathematics to it.

Without rambling too much, my point is that while GCSE grades might seem like a life or death matter at the moment, they really aren't that important in the long run, and regardless of what you get, it does not define your long-term future and there are always alternative paths. So if you end up not quite getting what you hoped for, don't stress. I promise you that it will all work out in the end.
 
OK, off to sunny Preston this morning to pick up My Bloody Volvo...party time, only four months.
Bus into town, then a big shiny double decker to Preston, and I get the front right top seat...I GOT TO DRIVE!
Hadn't had a go in years, last one was a tram I think.
Lovely time, all those views of suburban gardens.
Now then, the drive home, with a brand new torque converter, new clutch and complete transmission overhaul...straight to the bloody MOT garage as it ran out two months ago!
Can anyone lend me a quid.
 
Well today I got to tick off a major bucket list of mine and that being that I finally got to travel on the famous line from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh. Honestly one of the most beautiful railway journeys I've done and rivals that of the famous Fort William to Mallaig route which has certainly been consumed by tourism gimmicks.

Nonetheless, with beautiful sunshine and a wee dram of whiskey, really had it lucky here. Also on a funnier note the previous evening on the train up to Inverness, I was sitting by this elderly yet well to do looking man who was trying to argue about his ticket and how he was not supposed to ride the train we were on to the conductor and was a true male Karen.

Anyway, after one rant he want on, I with pure snark roasted him saying "read the small print then" to which he left to another part of the train after embarrassing himself but the real shock was after was I found out that the mam was none other than a former SNP, now independent, councillor from Inverness who abusing his power and honestly I could tell was corrupt and the power had gone to his head trying to get around his tickets and I can happily boast I roasted a politician in their face and got away with it! :cool: 😜
 
Our Pathfinder (D&D but better) group had to pause for the summer due to everyone being busy or on holiday. Just finished our first game in three months.
I'd forgotten how fun it is.
 
I love a good Bernard Matthews Turkey Drummer me. They're much smaller than they used to be when I was a kid. Many happy memories of chomping away at them at school when I was kid, before Jamie Oliver decided that we would all be better off spending taxpayers money on feeding school kids flamboyant rabbit food instead.

Anyway, I've started buying them again recently, as I forgot they existed. They're no longer these huge things packed tightly into a pack of 8. No, in the era of awareness around plastic pollution, they're now much smaller, and rattling a around large orange coloured bag, mostly full of empty space and nothing else, that looks like it was designed by a 5 year. Probably why I forgot they existed, I didn't recognise them.

Anyway, a bag turned up with the shopping earlier and I went to whack it straight in the Air fryer for my tea. Low and behold, there wasn't 7 in the bag but 8! What a win. It's almost like the early 90's all over again, only Oasis tickets are now far more expensive. And the country is all but bankrupt. And everything else is pretty much worse, but let me has this moment.
 
Going out the door to walk the dog at 5:45am...
Police van in the middle of the road, two further police vehicles down the road on the kerb, blue lights flashing.
They all look to me as I come out the door...
"Innocent" I shout, they all chuckle at me and one says "Too late, sorry, job done."
A bus has to wait for the van to move, the bus crawls forward, the driver sticks his head out of his window, and says..."It was him, I saw him do it...twice."
Much mirth from all those in uniform.
The very nice police lady turns to me and asks if I want him nicking for wasting police time.
Dave the naughty bus driver, fellow local dog walker, fellow idiot.

A better Monday morning, might go to work after all.
 
So I had a fun time last Sunday. Did a day trip from London to Amsterdam with Mike. Flight out was fine - got to experience Terminal 5 at Heathrow for the first time, and I was very impressed with it. Was a great trip, involving a few silly things, and we were flying back from Rotterdam to London City Airport (two new airports, a new aircraft type, and technically a new airline for me). We got through security and passport control with no issues...and then had a problem. The flight got cancelled due to technical issues. We then had to get passed back through to the Netherlands and sort things out from there following advice from BA on what to do next. We knew we'd need to spend the night in the Netherlands, as there was no way we would've got to Schiphol Airport in time for a flight back to the UK. Despite my anxiety at being stuck in a different country unexpectedly, I managed to cope with it pretty well. We'd packed a change of clothes each and our work stuff in case we did get stuck, which helped. While Mike was trying to sort a few other things out, I managed to find a hotel in Rotterdam (it's one where we'd stayed before, and it was reasonably-priced for a last-minute booking, but we can claim it back from BA), and I ended up booking the Uber to get us into Rotterdam to help spread the cost (again, this is something we can claim back).

In spite of the slight chaos and being in a slightly unfamiliar city, I'm actually quite proud of myself for how I managed to handle the situation without having any kind of meltdown! I just knew that there wasn't anything we could do about it, and accepted that fairly early on.

On another note, I'm somewhat surprised to have been invited for my COVID and flu jabs today! Guess it's down to me being in group 6 for the COVID jab rollout, and I'm not complaining - if it helps protect me and contributes to helping to protect others, I'm gonna do it.
 
So I had a fun time last Sunday. Did a day trip from London to Amsterdam with Mike. Flight out was fine - got to experience Terminal 5 at Heathrow for the first time, and I was very impressed with it. Was a great trip, involving a few silly things, and we were flying back from Rotterdam to London City Airport (two new airports, a new aircraft type, and technically a new airline for me). We got through security and passport control with no issues...and then had a problem. The flight got cancelled due to technical issues. We then had to get passed back through to the Netherlands and sort things out from there following advice from BA on what to do next. We knew we'd need to spend the night in the Netherlands, as there was no way we would've got to Schiphol Airport in time for a flight back to the UK. Despite my anxiety at being stuck in a different country unexpectedly, I managed to cope with it pretty well. We'd packed a change of clothes each and our work stuff in case we did get stuck, which helped. While Mike was trying to sort a few other things out, I managed to find a hotel in Rotterdam (it's one where we'd stayed before, and it was reasonably-priced for a last-minute booking, but we can claim it back from BA), and I ended up booking the Uber to get us into Rotterdam to help spread the cost (again, this is something we can claim back).

In spite of the slight chaos and being in a slightly unfamiliar city, I'm actually quite proud of myself for how I managed to handle the situation without having any kind of meltdown! I just knew that there wasn't anything we could do about it, and accepted that fairly early on.

On another note, I'm somewhat surprised to have been invited for my COVID and flu jabs today! Guess it's down to me being in group 6 for the COVID jab rollout, and I'm not complaining - if it helps protect me and contributes to helping to protect others, I'm gonna do it.
When you say 'silly things', was this one of them by any chance?

 
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