Now it's Andrea's turn - shameless nicking of her resumé :o))

I was born and brought up in Sussex, near Brighton. The aged P's liked moving house so we did a lot of it and somehow the habit has stuck. I'm currently on address number 51, not including the converted ambulance that I called home when I was at University (cost cutting exercise). I've finally ended up somewhere I can stay put and put down roots. Someday I might even unpack the last box :o)

I currently reside in an anything but sleepy little town in rural Devon. I can affirm that every scurrilous rumour you ever heard about the inhabitants of rural Devon is probably true - apart from the one about sheep. Devon folk regard sheep with a deep distrust because they have a habit of dropping dead for no apparent reason. Close relationships are out of the question.

I am d/Deaf and have great difficulty in communicating with my fellow humans - hence my interest in the internet where I operate on a fairly level playing field. I also have polyarthralgia which means that I have pain and swelling in many joints. I am effectively grounded most days; consequently I don't get out much though I still seem to go a lot further than my neighbours, thanks to my computer and my monthly donation to my ISP. (Readers of reactionary papers please note: I have not always been disabled, I am not mentally incapable because I am disabled, I worked in a respectable occupation and paid all my contributions up to the hilt before I started 'scrounging off the state')

In a former life I was talked into doing a secretarial course. I think this was my mother's way of weaning me off my 'tomboy phase'. It didn't work. I've done all kinds of stupid, brave, selfish, exhilarating, dangerous, interesting, daring, dead end, worthy, and rewarding stuff since I left Worthing Tech and at no time have I ever used the skills I unwillingly learned there - until the day I sat down at a computer and discovered that 'they' had mucked about with the keyboard. I was still touch typing at a tidy rate though, so that made up for it. Thanx Mum.

Until my health prevented it I spent most of my life in the great outdoors. I was lucky enough to find work that kept me in the not always fresh air digging or moving dirt around - I loved it and couldn't believe that people actually pay you to do this stuff! In my spare time I fostered various waifs and strays and did a lot of work with animals, especially wildlife rescue and dogs (fresh air again).

Poor Mum, her visions of a perfectly coiffured and manicured secretarial daughter got blown all to pieces when she came to visit and found an injured pigeon 'resting' on the window sill while I tried to find my bootlaces under a layer of mud at the end of a days work. You can always spot a digger, they are the ones covered in mud - fresh or dried.

The technological revolution got started long before I turned on to it. After an unsuccessful attempt at being a self supporting mature student in the early 90's (no allowances made for students who cannot hear lectures and seminars, but attendance of same is compulsory) I became a complete recluse and spent a few blissful years in a cottage on Dartmoor with open fires and an outside bathroom (really not as bad as it sounds) no telly, no car, no buses, and wildlife firmly ensconced in the house and environs whether I wanted them or not (it says a lot about me that I left the back door open for a whole summer so that the hedgehog who insisted on living in a Lidl bag under the kitchen counter could get in and out - it says a lot about rural Devon that I could do this and not get burgled or bludgeoned by a mad axe murderer).

The adjacent allotment was the size of a modern housing estate (is it me or are they cramming more houses into tinier spaces these days?), all around was nothing but the sounds of birds and tortured twostrokes by day and a giant sky full of owls hooting at night. It was idyllic and I miss it like hell.

When my mobility got to be near non existent and I was persuaded to move back to what passes for civilisation in these parts -'you need to be near the shops, dear'- I signed up for T171 with the vague intention of 'learning how to use a computer'. It seemed a useful thing to do with my newly available spare time, and as it was a 'correspondence course' it meant that my deafness would not interfere. I got 77%, which reflects the skill of the course team rather than my abilities, and I've been hooked ever since. I'm not in the least bit techie though, I may drive it but I hate having to tinker under the hood ;o)

Now I can't imagine life without the internet. I can look up anything, any time, anywhere in the world. I have friends hundreds of miles apart, whom I have never met but who I can 'talk' to every day. And, of course, I have First Class. If I could just figure out how to make the computer dig over an allotment, life would be perfect ;o)

I'm not sure what happened to all that 'spare time'. Over the last 6 years I've one by one given up on voluntary work, house work (no regrets there!), gardening, dog walking and study. It's true what they say: disability is a full time occupation - and I'm heading into overtime in a big way. My conditions are progressive and it looks less and less likely that I'll ever get that degree. However, I'm a sucker for punishment so I'm attempting another course. No doubt some catastrophe will intervene to ensure that I don't finish the dam thing ( a stint at being homeless put paid to my last course), so I'm studying for interest now rather than a degree.

2007

After being at the mercy of the local Housing department for 18 months I finally found a place to hang my hat - permanently. I have finished with my wanderings. It's time to sort out the garden, deal with a new health crisis and hold various hands in the family as they deal with their own crises. But I'm thinking of doing M150 next, maybe the September presentation when I should be finished with surgery and hedgelaying. Java can't be that bad can it?

Thank you for reading this far. TMA avoidance perchance? Résumée's do help to pass the time don't they ;o) I wish you the best of luck with your studies, whether you're heading for a qualification, just keeping your mind occupied, or hanging on to FC access.

The O U stuff:

2001 - T171 You, Your computer and the Net

I first heard about this course in a pub, which just goes to show how popular it was. When I heard that I could hire a computer cheaply from the O U it seemed an excellent opportunity to get to grips with this new technology which promised to transform our lives. And because I am of an academic bent I liked the idea of learning about the history of computing and the Internet at the same time.

It became my personal Wall of Death. Bear in mind that I'd literally just come down off the mountain where the highest example of modern technology was the Massey Ferguson. T171 was the steepest learning curve I have ever encountered. I felt an enormous sympathy for those 'natives' of colonial times confronted with the marvels of Western civilisation for the first time.

Taught entirely online, all eTMA's were in the form of web pages. I never could get html to work for me, so I cheated and used the software. I got a good pass though, despite the poor performance of the hire computer, which crashed with monotonous regularity, and the inability of my phone line to sustain a connection.

2002 - DD100 An Introduction to the Social Sciences: Understanding Social Change

Having completed T171 so successfully, I was emboldened to attempt T209 . Confronted with binary and hexadecimal I quickly changed my mind! This stuff is not for the mathematically illiterate, not on a correspondence course anyway. So, rather than withdraw and waste a year, I swiftly changed to DD100.

Having completed two and a half years of a degree in Social Anthropology I figured that a level 1 sociology course would be an easy ride. How wrong could I be! This course became Loss of Will to Live.

Not all social sciences are the same. I sincerely disliked the course, its presentation and its content. The parts that dealt with anthropology gave the impression that the course team didn't understand the content themselves, perhaps it was just the way they wrote it. I got stroppy halfway through, dug out my old books and wrote my version of events thereafter.

I just missed a distinction at the end of the course, perhaps I should have given them what they wanted.

2003 - Time out

I started two level 2 courses in this year. But my health was deteriorating to such an extent that I withdrew early on and put them off till the following year. This was the year that I realised that I was never going to get better and it took me some time to come to terms with the idea.

2004 - SK220 Human Biology and Health

- AS208 The Rise of Scientific Europe 1500 - 1800

SK220 was a course I wanted to do because it promised to help me understand my own health problems. AS208 just looked interesting.

I might have won through if I hadn't embarked on a relationship with a chap who couldn't understand why I spent all this time with books in front of the computer when I could have been sitting in front of the telly with him. As far as I was concerned there was no contest, but the arguments were interfering with my studies.

This was the year that my landlord declared that he was going to give me notice in a years time. I'd been dependent on benefits for some time at this point and Devon had been going upmarket whilst my attention was elsewhere. Consequently, finding alternative accomodation became a difficult and time consuming past-time. Tenants on benefits are just not as profitable as those in work, and they have a bad reputation.

The boyfriend became an ex-boyfriend turned stalker, which was infinitely worse than the arguments. As icing on the cake my tutors were difficult to contact: they didn't like email, didn't answer email except to tell me to phone them, and didn't know what First Class was. The stress was seriously affecting my health by then. I folded in June and gave up both courses.

2004 - A171 Start Writing for the Internet

This is a nice little 10 pointer. I'd never tried a 10 point course before and it was a good way of easing back into the O U. I failed it because I was rehomed by the authorities half way through. Moving house with severe mobility problems is no joke. Everything takes 5 times as long to do, and you have to organise other people to do most of it for you. And it all happened over the Christmas and New Year weekends which meant that I had to wait for people to sober up, and deal with further delays in getting utilities and other essentials set up. As the ECA loomed I got ready for a marathon effort and my modem gave up the ghost. So I did too.

2005 - S182 Studying Mammals

This course included the Life on Earth series on DVD, which was the main attraction ;o) It turned out to be very interesting and I actually managed to finish it. You have no idea how good it felt to finish a course after all that time. It is excellently presented, the tutors are available on a First Class course conference, they answer queries quickly and coherently, and I can't recommend it too highly.

So, flushed with success, I'm signing up for another 10 pointer followed by a 60 point level 2 course - DA204 Understanding Media. It's a new course and I'm one of the guinea pigs :o)

2005 - T185 Practical Thinking

This one never got off the ground :o) Shame really, because it was interesting but if you get sick during a short course you just don't have the time to catch up. They're pretty intensive. I'm going to give it another go next year.

2006 - D204 Understanding Media

In it's first year, so a bit rough round the edges. Some of the material easier to get to grips with than the rest. Funny thing, I tried to find information on some 'perspectives' in the course texts. Couldn't find a thing, the rest of academia is on a different planet. Which means that if you don't understand the course text - there's no point in seeking enlightenment elsewhere.