One of the problems with student life, particularly as you hit the mid way point of a two year course is that you have just too much to do. This week that has meant little time for posting to my blog, compounded by the problems blogger seems to have experienced this week. I wouldn’t mind but there was me thinking that it was my lap top / internet connection or something (note to self, get yourself onto a new blog host service soon). This posting therefore will hopefully help anyone remotely interested in what I have been up to, catch up with what has been happening.

Tuesday saw my group of fellow strategic leadership MSc students reconvene at our seat of learning. First thing of note was that there were very few other students there. This made parking simple and meant that moving around campus was great. Apparently all under graduate courses finished for the year a few weeks ago and so there were just post graduate students and staff around. We got down to the craziness which seems to be unique to this course of marking each others work. I was pleased to see that with only one exception we had all improved in quality of essay writing and subsequently in over all marks. Sufficient to say, I was very pleased with my own mark which put me into merit territory. I just need to be less deferential to the authors I use in my work, trouble is that is difficult when you have chosen them because you agree with them!

So just when I thought I would be getting a summer break from studying, they suggest that rather than one 10,000 word assignment by Christmas, we do two 5,000 word pieces, the first of which will be due by 8th September! Bang goes the novel reading I was planning for the summer. The theme we are addressing here is learning and development, and with the course being about leadership, essentially I will need to be looking at leadership development. Luckily this is a subject after my heart and something I am doing a lot of at work.

On Thursday the group had a day out in the metropolis of London (hot and humid in the height of summer, but what can you do?) for visits to Lloyds of London and the Tate Modern. What a contrast, the male dominated insurance capital of the world, to the weird and wacky home of modern art. What views both buildings have of their surroundings, plus we enjoyed a lunch in the Gerkin! Photos will follow!

So on to the weekend and the world cup. Today sees England in their first match, lets hope the hype and expectation of the nation has been worth it and we beat Paraguay today!

Last but by no means least, I have become a contributer at All Blog Stars, a new community blog. It is just a couple of days old so in its infancy but please take a look.