It really is about time too...

Today my dad went in to collect a parcel that the Post Office said had been sent to the Office's PO Box. Turns out (Thank you Lord!) that it was my coursework, that had completely the wrong number on it, but the lady at the post office said, "Well, the guy who's box this is is a lawyer, and I didn't think it was him doing a Theological degree, so I thought I'd check since it was your last name and if not send it back." Cypriots tend to do this sort of thing a lot, they're terribly inefficient at times, but at least they know everyone and tend to get some things right. Anyway, here's what the contents of the three parcels looks like:


So today, at any rate, I can start my course. Hopefully. Friday I finished off a few little niggling bits of my last course that had been hanging around, so maybe it's all to the good that it's taken this long. Anyway, I thought today before I start, I'd show you the layout of my desk. Important things: Apple iBook (vital), Apple Bluetooth keyboard (Absolutely wonderful, do you get the impression I like Apple stuff yet? ;)) My Dad's old hifi which plugs into a CD player and also into my notebook (and when we're back from Singapore, hopefully it'll plug into a new iPod Nano...) and books. Gobs of theological books, Bibles, Books of Common Prayer... only thing that's missing is a copy of CW which I really must get at some stage. Anyway, here it is, my workspace:




I think that's everything for now, time to actually get started...

Any maybe...

Well yesterday I rang OTC but forgot to blog about it. They said on the 17th they put the complete modules aside for posting and they should've been posted. Postage from Gloucestershire seems to take an extraordinarily longer amount of time than sending from anywhere else in the UK--nearly 2 weeks ago now, when things normally take 4 days.

Hopefully they'll be here before we travel. :)

Hmmm...

Not much to report, but really feel that I ought to get into the flow of this daily blogging thing, at least til we leave for Singapore.

Did discover in Singapore that possibly the best place for me to go for Internet access will be McDonald's, as they generally have free wifi. Good news in my book--I'm more'n happy to buy an orange juice or something like that while I browse the web... definitely taking my lovely Maccabees (my iBook) with me. :)

Finally. My grandma is staying with us and took us out to eat this evening, and I got a chance to check the PO Box. The book 'Teach Yourself the Old Testament' by Gordon McConville has arrived. In the next two days I can, at least start this course. :)

Other news, one of the forums I currently do the technical admin for (Wayfarer's Arena, primarily a Anne McCaffrey's Pern Roleplaying site) is trying to split the vbulletin forum into two seperate boards, a phpBB and a vBulletin, and it's been taking forever to copy all the data across from one database to the other. Why there couldn't be an easy automated way to do this is beyond me.

Really starting...

I'm really starting to get into this daily blogging stuff a bit. Quite a novel sensation really.

Update re course, last night we went to the Post Office, hoping against hope that the book that should have been posted 2 weeks ago had arrived. It hadn't. I'll prolly go tomorrow morning to have a look and see if it's arrived.

In other news, I've got a wedding to play for on Thursday, which is my first official job as the newly instated Parish Organist... and I won't know the music til tomorrow. Rather short notice, really. Really hope they don't want Parry's Jerusalem, which we seem to get an inordinate number of times a year both for weddings and Funerals. Aparently expatriates tend to want to hear it as it makes them feel home sick. It makes me feel sick alright, but definitely not home-sick.... Not only are the words lousy, but the music is worse. And a right pain to accompany too, what's more.

Am drather glad that I don't have to have an 'induction ceremony' for the job of Parish Organist like vicars do. You know, installing them in the chair, or in this case would that be the organist's bench?

At least a partial...

At least a partial 'thank you Lord' today, the printer has arrived, and is now nicely set up, printing in Economode for me, so I can print out the first few bits of my OTC course work. In fact, I 'ave Unit 1: 'Getting Started' sitting on the arm of my chair as we speak. Definitely well worth it, I hit print, 20 seconds later, I'm holding a sheaf of 10 pages. LOVE LOVE LOVE the speed of this printer. Does anyone get the impression that I'm rather impatient as of yet? Dad, who's fairly up in the printing side of things, is rather impressed... supposedly the new printer does PostScript, so we're going to have to plug it into one of the iBooks to see if we can persuade it to print PostScript--evidently Windows is so inferior as it only does PCL for this printer. Ah, well, if the Windows machine can share it well enough for me to print wirelessly, I'm pretty happy. :)

Did ring the OTC hotline this morning. The book which wasn't mentioned anywhere until I recieved the word document versions of the course modules has been sent, and they're kindly sending it with their compliments rather than cashing the cheque that we sent for it. Very nice of them, but I still have no blessed Student ID number. By the end of the week, aparently, although my current experiences suggest that that means within the end of the next six months, as I was told within 1-2 weeks... uhm... about a month ago. Would really like to get online to this WebCT business... am a little mystified that they cannot set up all of the students who are currently ID-less with testing accounts which can be merged into our new ones when we get 'em. Some how feel that I'm probably more technically aware than them (I mean, using Word files for sending around and out is sooooooo dated. And insecure. And unstable. And unfriendly with the rest of the known non-Windows universe.... ah well) but I suspect they must have someone vaguely technically competent around. Sincerely hope so. I am a tech-guru in my spare time (occasionally even earning a wee bit of money while doing so) so find these things very frustrating.

Cypriots are...

Cypriots are among the most inefficient people I've ever met. I guess it's the mediterranean attitude. Thursday we went into the computer shop to order a high-speed decent laserjet printer--our current one is dying by inches, was out of toner, and since I was paying half, the remaining half was about the cost of a new cartridge. The company that we were buying from said their stockist 'absolutely guaranteed it' by 'Friday evening at the latest'. Cynic that I am, I thought that Saturday afternoon it would be in. Desperately wanted to print out the stuff for OTC, so Saturday would be okay.

WRONG. Monday. Maybe. Perhaps. There's a chance. Honestly, I get to the point where I wonder why on earth the company manages to survive. In the UK (I'm originally a B'ummie) if such a thing happened every single darn time something was ordered, the company would be out of business in short order. But no, the Cypriots just shrug. Part of me wants to scream at them that they can keep their stuff, I'm not going to pay, particularly when the fact that we're buying locally adds a significant premium to buying in the UK (Even if you add shipping via UPS, buying some bits would still be cheaper in the UK) but part of me just says 'gotta get used to it'. Ah, well, life goes on. Even if I do want to go to Nicosia and punch the head of the company that imports HP printers to the island.

Getting a little tired of this...

Some back history for the start of my blog. At the beginning of this year, I was looking into further education past by NCSC level 2 certificate (AS level equivalents). The Open Theological College, from the University of Gloucestershire appeared ideal. Internet/email based curriculum, etc, etc. So I sent off for an application form, thinking all would be well and this would be fairly easy. I'm told that they're revamping it, and they'll send it in August.

I shrug, pretty much complete my NCSC level 2, and then wait. By the second week of August, I email to ask if they've sent it off yet, they say yes, but request my information so they can send off a second on. Ironically, they both arrive within a day of each other, or possibly on the same day, one dated 1st August, the other dated the 22nd of Auguust, in the beginning of September. Can't blame them for the inefficiencies of the Cyprus and British postal services, so I try very hard not to.

I complete the form, send off passport photos, and wait. We ordered all the books that the bookshop they recommended said I needed. And wait some more. Finally I get in contact with them about my Student ID number--it is moderately important so that I can logon, pay them money for this, etc, etc. Not impressed that it still hasn't arrived. In fact, I've been emailed by three of my tutors now, all of whom say that I've not been sent one yet. The've promised by phone that I will have it 'soon' or 'within 1-2 weeks' and now I just want to start it.

However, two weeks ago, they did send me the beginnings of most of the modules, and to my complete and utter unimpressedness, they had two books that they hadn't listed anywhere else. One of which is still in print, and arrived today, so (thank you Lord!) I can start the beginnings of this today. The other is out of print and has to be special-ordered from them. Not impressed with this either. Please Lord, just let me get this started....