2009 and me

Basically, I do like evidence based practice which is a very scientific approach to solve the problems. . At the same time I am rather superstitious on numbers, days and some words. It happened after I experienced the same thing repeatedly. For example, I am likely to deal with death body at around 1PM at work in many occasions. Number one alone was not very good to me. But numbers such as 11, 29, 38, 47 were my lucky ones,. For instance, I was granted a settlement in Britain on the 11th of a month. Number 29 and 38 were good ones in my life as well.

When year 2009 was approached, I expected too much that it would be my golden year. In reality, the reverse is true.

During the first quarter of the year, I was so tired and very difficult to cope with enormous work loads due to an unexpected shortage of man power at work. I had to work at least extra 2 hours everyday for nothing. In the second quarter, it was getting worse. There was something went wrong in communication between human resource department and the deanery. It was learnt that my name disappeared from the list. The deanery had already employed someone for my place. It was a pain. I had to sort out that issue. I was nearly jobless. In the third quarter of this unlucky year, my family issue made me a misery. I encountered unnecessary expenses.

It can be said that the worst quarter is the last quarter. My BMW’s rear tyre blown out while driving at 70 mph (which is legal limit) on a notorious high way. I had my car serviced 2 months earlier. Car was swinging at first. After that, it spun off the road. Fortunately, nobody hurt. But the whole right side of car body was damaged. Now it has been written off and the insurance company sent me a cheque. Anyway, I am still alive.

This is my experience in 2009.

Awards Ceremony and Education in Britain

Ceremony starting

A few weeks ago, my sister attended the graduation ceremony of the university of East London held at the Barbican Centre for her BSC (Honour) in IT. In fact , it was a sort of celebration of the achievement of university students after 3 years of extensive reading, doing research works in given time frame, writing academic essays with thousands of words and attending seminars. I was proud of her. But that school event was little or nothing exciting to me as she is the 4th person among our relatives who took the UK degree. Yes, of course, I brought my camera and took some random photos.


queueing for a hand shake with chancellor. The degree certificate had been sent off by post in advance.

The following is some information about attending the university I was told.

Enrolment:

For International student : To join the UEL, student must achieve IELTS score 6.0 for undergraduate degree and 6.5 for post graduate. In some cases, they may accept score 5.5 or 5.0 for some subjects, such as history or geography. The university gives more chance to international students than home students in entry as it can earn oversea fees, which is around £7500 to £10000 per annum for foreign students while home rate is about £2000-3000.

For Home student: Entering university as home student could be challenging. The students aged under 25 must follow their UCAS (University college administration service) system. They have to apply 4 to 5 universities after finishing A level. Some Uni reject and some give offer to them, depending on the situation.

Those aged over 25 do not need A level and do not need to apply in UCAS. They can apply directly to universities but they have to take aptitude test in English, mathematics and language interview.

Modules:

As a student, 6 modules have to be taken in every single year. BSc (honour) degree is a 3 years course. So it needs to clear 18 modules to achieve the degree, including the dissertation paper which must be done in the final year. The dissertation is essential to complete the degree, which includes research proposal for 3000 words and dissertation itself for 12000 words in the final year.

Semesters:

There are 2 semesters in a year. 3 modules have to be completed in one semester. Every module has at least 2 course works, some have 3, including exam. One semester lasts 4 months, during which the student has to submit 6 to 9 course works with or without exam. That means not much leisure time, contrary to uni life in Yangon.

Marking system:

First year’s marks doesn’t count for final grading while the scores of 12 modules of The 2nd year and final year are important.

• The average marks over 75 is first class honour,
• over 65 is upper second class honour,
• over 55 is lower second class honour,
• over 45 is third class honour grade and
• 40 is just pass mark with no honour but an ordinary degree.

Achieving the first class honour means that he or she can do the Ph.D. directly, without having MSC or MA and it is also easy to secure a job, but it is rare. The commonest one is second class honour among the UK students, according to the research.

Any question about study in the UK, welcome!

A bad habbit

When I was in Burma, I overheard my mother advised a young woman, who was nurse, how to save money from food. I was only 12. But it was still a clear memory. My mother said "if you saved some money each time when you go shopping, you could have an emergency money when you need it for something in the future"

To be honest, I never appreciate that statement. But when I got to the UK, I a bit changed. Every time when I went to Tesco each week, I had to purchase at least £50 for my 7-10 days food quota. What I got back was a receipt and 5p off voucher (5P off for each litre of petrol).

Which came to my mind was that if I had to pay Tesco, I did need to pay myself something. That idea was a bit crazy and logically it was not right. In fact, foods I bought from Tesco was for myself. But anyway, whenever I went to Tesco, I put £10 or 20 notes beneath my mattress in last few years, trying to convince myself I earned from shopping.

The following pictures were the end result. I decided not to do like that any more in the future. It is not worth doing so. Mathematically, the figures of my money won't change. At the same time, we must not keep money at home for the security purpose. Banks are around.




Between mattress and base of the bed.


Interestingly, most were £20 notes


Counted before banking