Kelli

Yes, quite concerned about that too! The apprenticeships look more realistic I think.

You've been very helpful, thank you!

Or at least until going very part time so can enjoy life a bit before I'm too decrepit.

Depends why you do it I suppose, whether for the learning or with a job role in mind. Am wondering if it is worth doing for job purposes now (suspect a level 4 apprenticeship as a Data Analyst would be better) or enjoyment later. Reckon I've got about 8 years until I can retire.

Ok, thanks. Looking at the cost per unit you end up paying about 4/5ths of a degree in a physical university. Was the support good enough to justify this? Is there any actual teaching or is it recorded lectures? Wondering if I might be better off doing a level 4 apprenticeship instead.

Should have just googled it but remembering trying that before and getting very confused by the answer! It looks much clearer now.

Does anyone know how fees work for the OU? Do you pay 9.5k per year like undergrads at physical uni regardless of how part time you are or how many modules you are doing or is it pro-rata? I always like the idea of doing a course but worried about the cost.

You might have to squint a bit but there is a barn own resting on a branch of a tree near a stream. It has its face turned towards the camera.

Very cool! Here is a bad photo of a barn owl I regularly see sweeping about when I run in the gloaming

I take a good photo 😄

A round, two layer carrot cake with mascarpone and passion fruit frosting, decorated with a ring of pecans.

The carrot cake turned out well, moist but not soggy. I used the BBC good food recipe in the end because I forgot to buy bananas for the Mary Berry one. Also put slightly too much passion fruit juice in the frosting so it was a bit soft #cake #baking

yikes!

Oh no, it was a different one I used before - came out like bread pudding so I clearly got something VERY wrong. Fleeing to Mary Berry for safety :-D

More flour than the recipe? Going with Mary Berry for proportions as usually very reliable-Nigella one was ginger instead of the cinnamon he prefers. Will forgo the squeezing and add another tablespoon of flour if it looks wet. Planning passionfruit mascarpone frosting to hide the multitude of sins.

Reminds me of a James Martin recipe on his "ready meals" show intended to give easy meals to replace store bought microwave dinners. The recipe began: "first soak the leaf gelatin" Was too busy laughing to hear what came next.

Planning to make carrot cake for eldest's birthday - I have had poor results in the past so a bit scared of it. Do I do anything to the grated carrot before adding it to the mixture like squeeze out the liquid? One time I just grated and added it and the cake ended up awfully soggy #cake #baking

Greg Davies: Great task, well done. Didn‘t eat a thing.

Persephone: Thank you.

Alex Horne: Ah. Well. Let’s take another look at that pomegranate.

I tripped over a log on my run the other evening because I was so busy staring at it.

It never gets boring does it? And every time I try to take a photo with my phone of what is so captivating and I never seem to be able to catch it through the lens.

Same. And I hope, if it doesn't finish him off, it resolves in the same way my father's shingles did and blossoms into neuralgia.

Yes indeed, makes me very happy to see it!

I have fish food... I think tomorrow I will try to scoop some of it into the top pond where there aren't any fish but am a bit concerned they just wash down to the bottom pond. On second thoughts maybe I'll try to move the whole plant it is anchored to. Then we might get froglets 🐸

A picture of a clump of frogspawn in my garden pond.

Spawn!

Do you think we were expecting anything else?

I should have put a fiver on Labour taking *exactly* the wrong message from this result.

I think he just delivered the script he wrote the day before.

Urrrrggggghhhhhh. And Chris Mason breathless on what a huge success this was for Reform - have you seen the pictures of Goodwin's face when he was told about all this success? Hahaha.

David Bull this morning - it wasn't fair or right that the Greens translated their election materials into languages that made them more accessible to voters. It's an OUTRAGE.

I haven't listened to the radio much today but this morning Nick Robinson was letting David Bull spout absolute rubbish and racist dog whistles without much challenge - and my favourite - letting him bang on about constituency ties without once asking how many surgeries Farage has held in his.

I bet anything you like they will take away exactly the wrong message though - I can see a "we just were not right wing enough to drag those Reform voters back to us" deliberate misreading of the situation. OTOH the Tories lost their deposit so there is that.

Tired. So tired. Physically, mentally, emotionally tired. The teen has broken me this week and I just can't see the point trying to help him any more.

Hard agree. The smaller the better.