MasterBlogs

Well it's D Day -1, well nearly. Thought I would have more time to prepare myself for the inevitable, but old father time certainly has had years of practice to sneak up on you. Work so busy at end of Q1 of a rather busy but eventful year here at Weidmuller. Success all round so far after one of the worst years for the UK manufacturing industry. Preparing myself for the hectic schedules by spending time with family and friends and especially my kids who may miss out a bit shortly as I knuckle under to do some work!!

My aim is to post a few lines each day as a permanent record of my learning experience so late in life - effectively 21 years since i did some real study (excluding the non assigned MBA module I did two years ago, but Marketing is my passion so should (sorry will) be fun, exillerating! and a pleasure to learn new things.

On the up may get a pay rise if the dissertation works out to the benefit of all!

Here's to another day.

Stuart

And there was me thinking no one read it!

What a great weekend - great people, great fun, great opportunity. I'll look forward to seeing many of you later this year.

Soooo, catch-up time. Now, where was I. Oh yes.....

Chelsea went out of Europe to a last minute shocker but salvaged the season with a fighting comeback in the FA cup Final. No work that day!

First assignment now marked and very pleased with outcome, particularly a smiley face from Rachel. On the down side she implied I wittered on in my introduction. Moi? Witter on? Some mistake, surely!

Second assignment largely done - had to rush it as off to Florence tomorrow and little chance to do any more before hand-in date. And no assignment work this weekend for obvious reasons. Had opposite problem form first where I struggled to get the word count up but had some good material. This time I'm already over 3,000 but not sure I have anything like the same degree of critical debate. Quantity not quality, methinks. Will try to devote some time to it next weekend.

And now, an early night (for once)!

Arrivederci.

What a week! 1 birthday, 2 champions league semi-finals, 3 study nights missed. And yet, and yet.....good progress. No research, a little re-reading, loads spent hitting the keyboard (sometimes literally!). Result? 2,500 words! Not bad for end of 3rd week. Next week will be spent concluding, completing references and checking that it all hangs together.

Almost there.....

It's the end of week two and time to check the stats.

Oh dear, study time down - barely made 10 hours this week. I blame Champions League football, bank holiday weekends and work. Anything but me! Next week probably much the same as my birthday on Tuesday then away on business Wednesday and Thursday. Might sneak in a few hours but am bracing myself for a low count. Will aim for a real push on Friday and Saturday.

Research mostly done but had to give up on certain leads as am not paying $30 just to view some same-old, same-old article on CSR. Yes, Emerald limitations unchanged. However its amazing how much you can find (for free) via Google.

Reading also going well and the words flowing freely on the laptop - saved to hard drive and two memory sticks just to be ultra-safe.

And that all-important word count: 1,780. Woop woop! Half way there and then some.

Logging off.

Sooo, one week down four to go till we submit first assignment. A good time to take stock. Glass of wine in one hand, lap top fired up, so here goes.

I thought an optimistic target would be 50% of research complete, 30% of the reading and 10% of the writing. In fact its more like 30/30/30. First the research - started well than ran into the vaguaries of Emerald. I know it only has 75% of the articles but why does it only have 50% of the ones I want! Reading going well and writing better than expected - word count up to 688. All in all, not too bad.

As to study time, seem to have settled into a routine ok. Mon-Fri I tend to do an hour's research after work (6-7ish) then go home, cook etc, than an hour of reading/writing from 8-9ish. About 10-12 hours in total. Nothing this weekend but, hey, it is the weekend. Had kids and constructed a 10' trampoline so not all frittered away. No kids next weekend but Chelsea in champions league semi mid-week so some catching up required.

Well, that's enough from me. MOTD on shortly and glass needs refilling. Later....