Hobonichi Techo

I'm a bit of a stationery addict, well I say a bit of an addict - I have secret stashes of stationery hidden around the house and smuggle it in so my husband doesn't see it!  I don't know what possessed him but he sent me a link to a popular Japanese planner, the Hobonichi Techo that is now available in English.  Well I couldn't resist and ordered one.

After an impatient 5 weeks, it finally arrived this week (the less said about parcelforce's worldwide clearance fee the better).  It's small, but feels lovely and I like the tartan cover I chose (well what else would a Scottish lassie opt for).  Here's some photos...

The box

The cover

The planner itself

The planner in its cover and a plastic cover to protect them

Daily pages on grid paper

The planner starts in December 2013 and runs through 2014, so I can't actually use it yet, but I'm looking forward to it!

London souvenirs

Been a bit quiet on the blog front this week, so thought I'd post some pictures of some souvenirs from our London trip. Of course, this included fridge magnets, even if I've had to make some room for them on our already overloaded fridge (see earlier post!)

You'll notice they are both from historical sites.  I am interested in history, the Tudor period in particular. So while we were at Hampton Court I also bought this Ann Boleyn figure which now hangs in my car...

Diabetes update

Well the diet continues - in 11 and 1/2 weeks I've lost 37 lbs and reduced my BMI by 6.  Best of all, this week I got my latest HBA1c results back (had to get it taken again after 3 months because it had gone up so much!). HBA1c down from 9.7 to 6.1 and I think it would have been even lower had it not been for the London trip. Cholesterol and blood pressure also down. So, everything is going in the right direction. I'm going to continue with it for the next wee while.

Charley

Charley our chocolate Labrador continues to grow, he's now 7 months old...

Cold

Well, I've not got much maths done.  Full of good intentions, but I didn't bank on my darling husband passing on a cold.  I've been under the duvet for a couple of days and am now feeling a lot better. Tutorials still not on the OU website, but my M208 tutor emailed to say the first tutorial will be this Saturday!  I'll need to go because the first assignment is due in by 17th and it has to be posted at least 3 days before...

Open University

Well it's been a busy week since getting back from London.  Had a lot of work to get on with in the office. Also went to see Dunsinane, a kind of follow up to Macbeth, thoroughly enjoyed it apart from the queen's accent which occasionally sounded Caribbean...

From now until June, however, I'm going to have to focus again on my open university studies.  I'm part way through a BSc in Mathematics and Statistics, love the statistics not so good on the maths.  Last year I completed two level 2 statistics courses, but this year I have to do a 60 point level 2 maths course (M208) and have chosen to do a 30 point level 3 statistics course (M346).  I struggled with the last maths course I did (MS221) so I'm in for a tough time.

The first unit is on real functions and graphs, and I'm struggling already with only vague memories of sign tables, odd/even functions and differentiation. I'm having to look up lots of extra help to get me through the unit.  1 week = 1 unit, so I have to just press ahead and hope it gets better and the first part of the 1st assignment (TMA) is on this unit!