14 Dec 2021….Marked Red/ Pink/Purple…and all possible colours of warning right from the beginning of Michaelmas term!

But…did the warnings ring any bells during the term? No!

Not because of carelessness but I was so lost between modules HP404, HP436 and HP407 (and don’t even ask about HP401) I could only manage readings for the seminars and prepare for my presentation which I had very smartly picked for the week 10… a mistake.

I realised when all deadlines were closing on me by week 9 and I had to plan my travel to India too – and that’s a story for next blog I guess, travelling back home amidst the global Omicron threat!!

Anyways, getting back to the submissions due on 14 Dec. Both HP404 and HP436!! It was a nightmare…. 4000 words for HP404 and two submissions (policy brief and problem sheet = 2000 words EACH!!) I was working on two totally different topics, racing to submit them by 10 Dec since I was travelling on 11 Dec and I did not want to take a chance of waiting to submit them from any institutional quarantine since India had tightened the rules for people travelling from the UK by then.

What if I had no internet in the institutional quarantine just in case I test positive on landing? What if I have no access to Moodle from India? What if I lose my mind and submit wrong files (you know how a student’s anxious brain works). At least mine does when there is a deadline!

So the night before I took the flight back home, amidst the chaos of uploading COVID results which got delayed, flight check-in, uploading my passenger locator form and packing, I managed to upload both my summative assessments. Luckily, I did not have to undergo institutional quarantine in India and was able to fine tune my submissions. How fine they were to assessors is another matter. I can’t fret over that right now!

So I managed to submit both my summatives to my satisfaction by 14 Dec 2021! HP407 I submitted while I was recovering from COVID – yes I contracted it while returning from home. But I managed to submit it on time… 26 Jan 2021!

All’s well that ends well…ready for the deadlines of Lent term. Marked in fluorescent green, yellow and orange!! Maybe the colours were wrong the last term…

This blog was written in mid January 2022.