Where to start? I got out of the habit of blogging pretty quickly. The amount of time I was spending at the PC doing coursework meant I couldn't be arsed writing a blog, and the only thing I was doing was the course and I didn't feel the need for a running commentary on that.
So, after the crime scene ex, the 3 weeks after that were a nightmare, totally disrupted by an unprecedented amount of snow. We got there in the end. Some good friends made throughout the rest of the course and I miss them. The rest of the year went like this:
Jan 2011. Exam - passed with distinction, transferred to MSc course. Delighted.
Jan - May. Semester 2, forensic chemistry, and one tough programme.
5th May. SNP win a landslide in the Scottish Parliament elections, winning a majority of seats in a PR system. First majority for any party from an electoral system specifically designed by Labour to ensure that:
1. A Labour-Lib Dem coalition would always have the best chance of forming the government.
2. The SNP could never win a majority, thereby preventing a referendum on independence in a parliament dominated by unionist parties.
Whoops! The independence referendum I've waited for since I was 12 is now guaranteed to happen. I wept I was so happy.
May. Exam - passed with merit after making a few schoolboy errors in exam technique which I kicked myself about. Semester 2 practicals passed with distinction.
June - August. MSc placement - just awful. Equipment failures, little support, a few silly errors on my part and no results. In short, nothing worked.
August. Thesis write up. Some health issues, weeks of insomnia and the effects of sleep deprivation led to the submission of a woefully inadequate thesis, atypical of my usual standard of work.
September. Failed to pass my thesis (unsurprisingly). Re-write allowed but the MSc with merit I was on course for now impossible. Completely gutted. Appeal. Re-write put on hold until health issues sorted, plus there's the small matter of our wedding the following month.
29th October - get married. Felt like the luckiest guy alive, and a brilliant day from start to finish.
30th October - get told my mum probably has lung cancer. A few days later, cancer confirmed, stage 3B. Terrible news, but felt like it was inevitable. What can one expect when one has smoked for 50 years?
The next couple of months are a blurr with the only good news I want to mention being that my appeal was successful and that I can rewrite and resubmit my dissertation as a first submission. MSc with merit now the least I'm capable of gaining once again.
19th December. Mum suffers three seizures in one hour, blue-lighted to hospital. Scans show cancer in bones and brain. Stage 4. Mum won't see 2013. Hard to find words about that.
Christmas f*#%ing sucked. How can I celebrate New Year knowing 2012 will be the year I lose my mum?
Best / worst year of my life
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