Reasons to be Cheerful: Smiling Despite the Rain #R2BC

The lovely Jo is hosting again this week and she has such lovely reasons to be cheerful herself! As for me it could have been hard to still be smiling after a series of illnesses and injuries to all three of us but that's the joy of this blog hop it focusses on the positives. 

1) Beautiful mornings

Yes its been a monsoon mostly since October started but we have had some stunning frosty mornings. Looking out of my kitchen window to views like this starts my day with a smile:

2) Mended phone

I finally gave in (as my iPhone screen was so badly cracked it barely worked) and got my phone fixed this week. I had felt so awful not being able to text, take photos or answer the phone.. So I coughed up to get the screen replaced and its such a relief to have it back. It is on its last legs as the battery randomly discharges but at least the majority of the time I have a working mobile!

3) Student finance

After 3 months my finance is finally approved!! OK so its not reached my bank account yet but I know that the children and I won't be starving as I study! Just have to remember that I have to pay half of it back eventually..

4) On the run

You may have seen yesterday that I managed a run after a week off. Despite the rain it felt really good. Just hope I don't have to wait a week until the next one..

Have you got reasons to be cheerful to share?

10 ways student life in 2014 is different than in the 1990s!

Having bitten the bullet and gone back to university 20 years after I left I am finding some huge differences:

1) Tuition Fees

I was an undergraduate back in the days when all UK students had their tuition fees paid by the government. No worries about paying back money when we finished it was all just done for us.

Now I have to borrow £9,000 off the government (still waiting to hear whether I have got it!) and pay it back once I earn a decent wage. It makes going to university a harder decision to make when you have that hanging over you..

2) Living Costs

I wasn't eligible for any grants for living costs but my parents gave me a decent monthly allowance. I worked every vacation to boost up the funds and made use of the bank's overdraft facility to the max. Student loans were just being introduced but I only borrowed £1,500 over the 4 years at university.

This time I have qualified for a small bursary but it is less than 2/3 of what I was earning. I have had to apply for maintenance loans and child care costs help to bridge the gap. Scarily none of these have been approved yet 2 weeks into my course..

3) Technology

When I enrolled at Swansea in 1991 I took with me a non Windows 286 PC to type up my essays on. We had lessons in how to use the new fangled Windows and used a Mainframe computer to write code to analyse data. There was no Internet.. communication was via pigeon holes in the department.

Much of our course material is on the university's Blackboard computer system. We are expected to have laptops to bring to training sessions. Communication is via e-mail and we use smart phones to capture evidence of our training.