Ahem ... it's been a little while between blog posts, hasn't it? I can't believe it's October already! The time has been flying, but what have I been up to?

Well, at the end of July I went straight from work into full-time study. Surprise, surprise (not) I struggled to get back into the swing of it. Full-time distance study requires motivation and discipline, and I was lacking both.

One of the big differences between this time studying (to complete the Masters) and the last time (for the Grad Dip) is the reason behind why I'm doing it. Last time I *needed* the qualification in order to work as a librarian, at a professional level. This time around, it's an 'extra' qualification that I'm taking on for personal professional development. It's also partly to make it easier to work overseas (which is a big 'maybe' anyway). So the motivation is different, and it allowed doubts to creep in as to why I'm doing this at all.

What else was holding me back from throwing myself into my studies? Well, there are just so many other things I'd like to be doing too! There's lots of work to be done around the house - culling our possessions in readiness for moving interstate; repairing and renovating so that we can rent the house out next year. I'd like to spend more time with friends. And then there's all the interests that I'd like to devote more time to - improving my fitness; cooking from scratch; craft and sewing (those crafts that I already do, and those that I'd like to learn); playing music (or learning to play again, in my case!); building computer graphics skills; reading for pleasure ...

I was prepared to suck it up and be miserably tied to the computer for 4-5 months, but in the end I decided to reduce my study load to 2 subjects (out of 4) and live a little at the same time. This means that I can fit in all (or at least many of) those other activities over the next couple of months rather than cramming them all in at the end of the year. Oh, and the decision was also made easier by the introduction of a new course structure next year, which has lots of interesting new subjects that I think will make it more appealing to study part-time (1 subject per semester) whilst working.

In case that all sounds fairly simple, it took me 5 weeks to make that decision! And amongst all the to-ing and fro-ing, I didn't get a great deal of study done! So I have been head-down bum-up in assignments since then, and blogging has taken a back seat. Here's hoping that my study-life balance gets healthier from here on in :)

By the way, although I've not been writing full-blown blog entries lately, I have continued to "micro-blog" on everybody's favourite micro-blogging service - Twitter! Whether you're signed up with Twitter or not, you can check out my Twitter stream at -
http://twitter.com/sallysetsforth