Update - my degree, my hair, my house and my kitchen

I always seem to start my blog posts with such things as “so much for keeping on top of blogging” and “so much has happened.”  Well a lot has happened and no – I haven’t kept on top of my blogging.  I have however sorted out my degree with the Open University and will be finishing my degree in June 2015.  It will be a open degree in Maths, Computing, Business and Design.  I am taking a break from the studies whilst I help my Dad market his new book – go here to have a look. My next course starts in Feb and is about sustainable design, followed by one in investigating entrepreneurial opportunities and finishing with 2 courses in teaching statistics and analysing data.  

I passed my PTTLS teaching course and I am hoping that I can start working as a Maths tutor as soon as my house is sorted.  We have had a family living with us since July whilst they are trying to find somewhere to live in York so space is at a premium in our house as the moment with 8 people living in a 4 bedroom house!!  This should all be resolved by Christmas when I am hoping that our kitchen extension will also have been completed.  It reminds me of the book A Squash and a Squeeze and I am looking forward to having the space and ability so that I can properly re-arrange and re-zone the house as part of my Permaculture Diploma.  A lot of this re-zoning hinges on the kitchen being re-designed so fingers crossed that gets done as soon as possible.

Talking about my Applied Diploma in Permaculture Design the not-washing-my-hair thing did not work as planned.  My hair never “righted” itself like others did so I resorted to using bicarbonate of soda but it still wasn’t enough for my hair.  So I tried using egg and vinegar and still not great so I have compromised and started using Faith in Nature shampoo again but only once a week or so with bicarbonate of soda in between.  I am going to keep trying experimenting with different alternatives as not happy using shampoo even if it is ecologically sound stuff.

The zopa loans lending scheme is still working out well for us and am I really pleased with it.  I would highly recommend this service or others like it to anyone wanting to cut the bank out of the financial equation.  You can borrow money or lend it via these types of schemes and the extra interest goes to the lender and the borrower pays less than they would to a bank.