Cheers Everyone...

[hansp77]

It's a celebration for me tonight,
I finally finished my degree this afternoon (BA in Development Studies and History and Philosophy of Science)- just handed in my final paper. I have been up for about 30 hours right now, yes, just a little delirious, and have been doing all-nighters for the last three weeks.
I started the degree 5 years ago as a mature age student, and it has been a very long 5 years .

I am going to have around 9 months off, to do some work (yeah, not really 'off' but compared to full time study, it will at least be a change), hopefully get out debt, AND SPEND SOME SERIOUS TIME ON MY BOAT.
Its just about time to slip her again, and I still have a lot of jobs to finish off from last year, that I was meant to have got done on the water.

March, 2008 I will go back to Uni to continue with some further post-grad study.

anyway,
its happy times for me,
thanks for a great forum, entertainment, inspiration and even friendship (not to mention a gold-mine of procrastination )
this is what I am enjoying tonight, on my own (my girlfriend is sea-kayaking around a nth QLD tropical island with a bunch of friends- I would have been there, but I had exams that overlapped by 3 days and they wouldn't wait )

Cheers everyone, if you are so inclined, and the sun is past noon, then raise your glasses for someone who thought it would never end.

Hans.

[Bergalia]

Bloody hell Hans - you expect us to 'toast' you with hair oil ?

But congratulations old son. Well done (adds Aussie touch) my bludy oath Hans - well done indeed mate. You deserve that break. Strewth...a bloody BA...I suppose that means you'll be leaving for the USA.
Ah well, stay in touch. And again. Congratulations.

[hansp77]

yeah, a BA... WOOOHOOO!
my ticket to new world of opportunity and privilege..

Thnx Bergalia,
what's that song?

I've got a golden ticket... I've got a golden ticket... I've got a golden tikk---ett....


ah hang on, I seemed to have spilled a bit too much of that hair oil down my throat... getting a little confused...
believe me, this hair oil has been a newly aquired (and learned) taste. My usual preference has long and easily been for some neat whisky (or Whiskey), or beer (kill a coopers) or wine, or....
So, this is a new thing for me, and I have learned to quite like it. Very different, a lot more warming, blah blah blah...

where was I?
oh yes
I've got a golden ticket... I got a golden ticket...



(at least charlie got some chocolate for his- all I'm likely to get is my rather large HECS debt)

[Poida]

Congrats Hansy

Your friends went without you and wouldn't wait! There's a message for you here Hansp.

We'll take your girlfriend but you can't come, obviously you didn't do a degree in human relations.

Enjoy your break and some boating.

Poida

[MikeJohns]

Well done, It's always a battle as a mature student and its all good personal development.

What next?

Perhaps we can help you with a Phd thesis on "Development history and pholosophy of appled marine science" I'm sure we could cobble something together as a team effort that'd completely confuse the reviewers.

cheers

[hansp77]

Thanks Poida,
they were more 'her friends' rather than mine (mine woudn't do that to me, would they ), and the problem was primarly caused (as it is every semester) by the university choosing to only release the exam timetable around a month before the end of semester. That means your break could be anyhwere from over two months, to just under one, and you have no idea untill the last minute... makes it a little hard to book flights, make plans etc. I only had one official exam this time, so it was fingers crossed, but, as murphy dictates, it fell three days after they all left for the months-pre-booked holiday.
Oh well.
And cheers, I will enjoy my break and boating.

Thanks Mike,
yeah, the mature age thing was tricky, I barely made it through high school (living out of home) and had to fight tooth and nail to get into this uni (as they don't have mature age entry you have to pay up-front fees at first then rely on getting H1 marks to get allowed entrence into the degree). The the first couple of years were especially strange, where you are surrounded by kids, literally children, straight out of highschool. The strange thing is, that as a mature ager, rather than meeting with a bunch of people younger than me, we all tended to gravitate together, or connect more with the tutors and lecturers, so quite often you actually ended up getting to know a bunch of people who are older than yourself. I have made a couple of great friends and intellectual inspirations in this last year, in the form of a couple of students and lecturers, so that has been great.
What next?
Well, as I joked about, my 'golden ticket' aint exactly worth too much as it is, so I will be going back to do more study next year (I need a break- I have been overloading on subjects this last year and am really worn out), ending up with either a Ma or (more probably) a PhD (depends if I can get a scholarship).
I didn'te really go into this for a 'job', but more to just follow and learn in some areas that I was passionate and interested about. So as long as this continues, I am pretty happy. Interestinly, it was actually my commitments to study that caused me to get a boat. The rational was, well I am going to be tied down here for the next 5-10 years studying, so I might as well make the most of it and buy a big-old wooden ball and chain (sailboat) to make it even harder to leave .
We'll see what happens. Academia and writing are definately areas that I am heading for, but through development studies, I will be aiming to do some work/research throughout SE Asia (cause I love it there)...
maybe a thesis on the some sort of sustainable wooden boat building projects in SE Asia we'll start with the building of my own.

Anyway, Cheers, guys.

[timgoz]

Good job Hans!

Tim

[charmc]

Great work, Hans, Congratulations!!

I have a degree in a similar field. As a callow youth I remember looking askance at the few "mature age" students among us, wondering how they would make out. Armed with the tools of maturity and a hard work ethic, most of them did quite well, of course.

It's a bit early in the day here to join in your celebratory drink (I toasted your success with coffee, but you're probably OD'd on that! ), but I'll remember you later. Watch out for that rum; around here they serve it to the tourists disguised with copious amounts of tropical fruit juices and tiny paper umbrellas. The tourists taste only the sweet juice and drink 'em like water. Very entertaining when they try to get up and walk away!

Seriously, your achievement is worthy; congratulations and best wishes. And you've got more celebrating to do when your girlfriend returns!

[hansp77]

Thanks a lot Tim and Charlie,

Charlie, yeah, way too much coffee, or more to the point, energy drinks- 'V'.
there is only so much coffee that I can drink before I just turn into a nauseous nervous wreck. Energy drinks and sugar tend to be a better (of a bad) solution for my essay writing.
Nasty stuff having to do that to your body, I wish I could get a bit better at doing my work in good time rather than furious marathons at the end... but, as yet, I can only manage that now and again.

so at the moment I am sipping some neat rum, wouldn't dream of mixing it, hopefully it will lull me off to sleep soon, but my body clock is way way out. I dozed off in front of the heater for about half an hour a few hours ago, but now I am back bright and awake.
Thank you laate night black and white movies.

p.s. I think tomorrow I am going to treat myself by going to the marine shop. There must be something I need.

Hans.

[Vega]

Hans, congratulations . You can bet I know what is to be full of work. I have taken my degree in Architecture working 8 hours a day, and I don’t mean studing

Don’t let the excess of work affect the perspective of what should be a good life. Time for the family and time for having fun is as essential as time for working (once I had almost lost track of that). Have fun, it seems that you have deserved it.

well done Hanso I can't even spell B A
Stu

[westlawn5554X]

Pass the drink sir...

[longliner45]

congrats man ,,,,have a drink for me ,,,,,it is always fantastic to see a goal made ,longliner

[hansp77]

Vega, Jack, Well..I mean Westlawn, and Longliner,
cheers, thank you.

with my totally stuffed up body clock, and not being able to sleep last night, if you can believe it, I slept today until just before sundown.
It almost feels right, get up at twilight, that is untill you it starts getting darker instead of lighter... a very odd feeling.

any way, its DVD's, and kicking back tonight. Just had a buddy around.

Thanks everyone.

Hans.

[VKRUE]

Way to go Hans...

You do realize though that now you are much too intelectual to associate with some of us ... us ... ah.... what ever we are

It's bed time here and I must go to work in the morning but, I'll drink a St. Pauli Girl (Special Dark) for you tomorrow... maybe two or three, it's a celebration right.

Again, congrats !!!!!!