The boys and the kids

Darcy and Joe

I dropped the boys off at Heathrow this morning at 7. We had three excellent days. They took me out for a meal at a nice restaurant on Saturday and Rachel made Sunday lunch for us. She does a killer leg of lamb and it was delicious. Charlie showed D&J his camp in the woods and demonstrated starting a fire with a flint. Darcy captured it and much else on his digital video camera (new toy). On Monday we went to Buckingham Palace. Talk about bling. Everything glittered and shone. The state dining room was quite magnificent. I got tearful because it reminded me of the wonderful dinners I used to go to in Washington. I wouldn't like to live that way but it is great fun to get dressed up and go to a grand dinner every so often. We came back from London at 7pm and went straight to the fish and chip shop for a down-to-earth supper. The boys are off to Africa tomorrow and will doubtless have lots of movies of them snuggling up to gorillas.

Change of Plan

It wasn't just Nancy shooting me down; I had a couple of serious talks with other people who know what I was about to attempt. Also, and more importantly, I was becoming very stressed and anxious about trying to apply to Oxford in less than a month. Ergo, I have decided to change from the one year full time history course to the two year part time course. This will give me a full year to get some history 'under my belt' and to see if I really want to be a serious student for the next umpty dump years. I still start on the 29th but at Rewley House instead of Ruskin. I feel much calmer and I'm looking forward to a visit with Darcy and Joe who are coming to Oxford tomorrow.

Reality

Nancy came for coffee this morning and burst my bubble. I have been fantasizing about applying to Oxford and being accepted. She calmly asked me which Universities I would be putting on my application. Of course, I said, "Oxford". She looked at me like I had lost my mind and said that I had to name four different places and that my chances of being accepted at Oxford are nil to 1%. I know she's right but I didn't like hearing it. I'm going to go ahead anyway. I start my course at Ruskin this week. I have also been accepted to do a foundation course at OUDCE but I will stick with Ruskin because they got to me first and theirs is a one year, full time course. The other one is two years part time. Now I have to start preparing my UCAS application and practising for the HAT (history aptitude test). I shall soldier on and hope for the best.