I was not going to add to my blog this week but after a pretty arduous week of incomprehensible lectures and a solid debut performance on the rugby paddock today, I have decided to give myself a night off. One of my housemates who has studied at Cambridge commented that there they speak of 5th week blues while at Oxford they speak of 4th week blues. Given the accelerated nature of the MBA program I have been suffering from 2nd week blues. When you consider that after two weeks I have already completed 1/4 of my lectures you may begin to appreciate the intensity at which I am being taught. Many of my classmates who have been exposed to economics, accounting, statistics or finance during their undergraduate degrees have said that what we have covered in two weeks they spent a whole semester learning. Of course, having never been exposed to finance, accounting, economics and statistics before have no benchmark to work with. Hence, the source of my growing frustration. Which leads me of course to the solution, after all MBA's are mean't to be problem solvers. I will be applying the Club Loser* 'Less is more, more or less' philosophy. This means letting go of the urge to read and summarise everything and being more targeted in my approach to learning, only referring to texts when I reach a mental road block (this week I would say the whole bloody road is closed for resurfacing). I think the key for the MBA is to stay on top of the work so I have developed the following list of priorities.
1. Completion of the remaining 11 items of assement due in the next 6 weeks - yes, I said 11.
2. Reviewing lecture handouts and notes
3. Answer question sheets
4. Read the prescribed texts only as an aid to problem areas
Hopefully, this will release some of the growing pressure that has been building and will mean that I won't be living on 6 hours sleep a night for the next six weeks.
So apart from becoming quite frustrated and then chucking my hands up in the air and saying 'sod this' what else is news. Well rugby union has been a regular theme of week two. I watched the Oxford University Blues (the name given to the First XV) play a second division club called Pertemps Bees on Monday night. The Blues got away to a good start in the first half but the Bees buzzed back in the second half and bridged the gap before the Blues closed them out late in the second half. From a spectator's perspective a great game of rugby with high scores and a close finish. Perhaps the coach might take a different view though. Tim Walsh, a Churchie old boy, was on the injured bench for Pertemps so I enjoyed having a chat with him before the game.
As the Oxford University Greyhounds (Second XV) play on Wednesday afternoon's I trained with the Blues on Wednesday night and then with both teams on Thursday night. I was picked to play in an internal game today between the Greyhounds and the Oxford University Under 21's team (they don't get a cool name). I started at number 8 and played a pretty strong game considering I have no match fitness (or general fitness to be perfectly honest). Despite not being able to remember any of the calls (they have 10 times more lineout variations than I have ever encountered before) I played quite well in loose smashing it up four times in succession off the kick off, pinching some ball, cleaning out hard and making some good cover tackles. I was rewarded early in the second half with receiving the ball from a tap penalty inorder to crash into their forward pack. This 'loosened' the shoulder that I have been unable to sleep on since I ended my season with the Woollahra Colleagues in August. I immediately stuck my other hand up in the air and walked off. I am pretty sure this is just a minor setback requiring some physio. Plus from a tactical perspective I got to play an impressive first half before my failing fitness would have resulted in a secon half of missed tackles and knock ons. See, I am a quite shrewd old bugger! I think I have earned the respect of my team mates (who still look quite stunned when they realise I am 30) and more importantly the coach. The final score was 44-15. Plus, the good news is that my torn hamstring survived the game!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With improved fitness, I hope to put some pressure for a flanker position in the Blues as they have a talented and well entrenched No. 8 with South African rep honours. They are playing two short, quick flankers like Waugh and Smith, whereas I will be hoping the coach sees the potential benefits of sacrificing some speed around the park for height in the lineout and another ball running forward.
To stick with the Wallaby analogy, I would like to play a Matt Cockbain role. Given my age and speed I reckon I could do this very effectively for 50-60 minutes each game before they let the short nippy flanker on just as the players begin to fatigue.
Apart from study and rugby my other news this week is that my girlfriend and I have booked 4 days skiing in Chamonix just prior to Christmas. I hope to catch up with Geoff Morris and Phil Davis who will both be residents of Chamonix over the winter. These four days of skiing (in my case snowboarding) will be a highlight of our two week holiday during which we will spend time in Oxford, Chamonix, Annecy, Paris and London. I am really looking forward to the arrival of my gorgeous girl. Spending time with her is the best reward I could imagine after 10 long weeks of study during the dark, wet and chilly english winter.
Anyway, that is it from me. I am icing my shoulder and will read some lecture notes before heading out to meet a mate from my course for a couple of quite pints at the Bear. After a hellish week of study and a good game of rugby I reckon I deserve that much.
*Club Loser: most of you would know of Club Loser, but for those that do not, they are approx 10 very close school mates of mine who at the age of 30 are still proving that life is to be enjoyed no matter what the cost. Lads, I hope the trip down to Sydney for the ICC Supertest was a cracker.
Cheers,
Dougie.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Saturday, October 15, 2005
The Beginning - Nought Week and Week 1
It it is Saturday evening 15 October 2005 and I have been in Oxford almost three weeks. The first week was spent in a state of confusion trying to establish my sleeping, eating and student administration arrangements along with various communication needs, principally email. Since I last wrote I have achieved quite alot and I am justifiably proud of my efforts. For a start I am very close to having an operational British bank account. It may not seem like much but it is a miracle of biblical proportions for a full time international student in the UK.
Secondly, some of you will be pleased to hear that I have finally bought myself a set of wheels and for the style conscious out there, you will be please to learn it is a Peugot. It is not a car but a very old and rusty bicycle which was sold to me for £30 by a 6'5 miner from Townsville called Jim. He is in Oxford with his English girlfriend who he dated for only two weeks before she continued her travels down the coast of Queensland. He told me all this over a cup of tea in his (her) flat when I went to buy the bike.
Last week is called 'Nought' week and it sees an influx of returning students, graduation ceremonies, etc. For Freshers (new undergraduates and postgraduates) such as me, it means heaps of induction activities convened by both my College and in my case, the Said Business School. Of course the most important thing that I needed to arrange during nought week was the purchase of two tickets to the Australia v England Rugby Test at Twickenham on 12 November. Special thanks to the staff of the PGA for providing my kit for that event in the form of a Wallaby jersey and beanie.
The photos at the very bottom of this latest episode are from the Graduate Dinner last Friday 6 October 2005. It was an enjoyable start to College life. Sadly, I will be so busy with my MBA studies that I will not get to socialise too much with my fellow students from College. I have become good mates with a Greek bloke called George (What a surprise, another Greek bloke called George?). He is studying astrophysics but is very laid back and would rather watch football, so I invited him along to join some MBA friends to watch the England V Austria World Cup Qualifier last Saturday afternoon. Incidentally, the group watching that game also comprised a Canadian, a Dutchman, a Russian and a Kenyan. How is that for a diverse mix? I have made so many new friends in the MBA course that it is hard to remember their names, but so far most of them come from North America as they tend to be more laid back.
The entire class of 227 is broken into three streams for the purpose of lectures. This week (Week 1) I attended all 6 lectures and to be honest it has been a bit of a blur. 6 three hour lectures per week polus a host of other seminars means that I will need to be on my game from the word go. I am already at my desk till midnight everynight as already I have two pieces of assessment due this Monday and Tuesday. Much of the assessment is done in project groups and I am fortunate to have what appears to be quite a bright and well balanced bunch of individuals in my assigned group. Rolf is an engineer turned management consultant from Namibia, Hester is a PR consultant from UK, Nikhil is an entrepreneur from US of Indian extraction and Aman is an Indian who has worked in energy production in the US for Enron and then UBS. I was completely exhausted at the end of my first week and knowing that I had Matriculation today I declined to socialise last night with my fellow MBA students for end of Week 1 drinks.
The photos with me dressed in a funny gown, 'sub fusc', are from Matriculation. This is a formal ceremony by which the new students are admitted to membership of the University. The alternative explanation for Matriculation, told to me by a fellow Aussie lawyer at St Peter's is that its comes from the Latin 'to vommit after excessive consumption of cheese'. Hence, one might say, "I ate so much vintage Peccorino at lunch I just matriculated all over the Master's shoes." I did not have too long to contemplate this definition as the ceremony was over in 10 minutes after a build up of four hourse and I needed to race off on my bike to the Oxford University Rugby Club for my first training session.
Turning up to a new rugby club is always a bit nerve wracking as you always assume everyone will be bigger, faster and better than you and you are paranoid you will cough up your first high ball. As you can see I am naturally a confident fellow, borderline cocky perhaps? While most of the players are younger than me, the forward pack was certainly smaller than I had expected. So provided I can stay fit and find some of the mongrel that I used to possess quite a deal of, I should hopefully be able to make a useful contribution to the squad. The international team that the Blues (First XV) play in Oxford this year is Tonga, so it would be quite nice to have a run against my old home land, perhaps exchanging my jersey and shorts for a traditional Tongan grass skirt.
That brings me to the present and I will have to sign off for a couple more weeks. Sadly, I already have a great deal to do and less and less time to do it in. I hope this finds you well.
All the best,
Doug.
Secondly, some of you will be pleased to hear that I have finally bought myself a set of wheels and for the style conscious out there, you will be please to learn it is a Peugot. It is not a car but a very old and rusty bicycle which was sold to me for £30 by a 6'5 miner from Townsville called Jim. He is in Oxford with his English girlfriend who he dated for only two weeks before she continued her travels down the coast of Queensland. He told me all this over a cup of tea in his (her) flat when I went to buy the bike.
Last week is called 'Nought' week and it sees an influx of returning students, graduation ceremonies, etc. For Freshers (new undergraduates and postgraduates) such as me, it means heaps of induction activities convened by both my College and in my case, the Said Business School. Of course the most important thing that I needed to arrange during nought week was the purchase of two tickets to the Australia v England Rugby Test at Twickenham on 12 November. Special thanks to the staff of the PGA for providing my kit for that event in the form of a Wallaby jersey and beanie.
The photos at the very bottom of this latest episode are from the Graduate Dinner last Friday 6 October 2005. It was an enjoyable start to College life. Sadly, I will be so busy with my MBA studies that I will not get to socialise too much with my fellow students from College. I have become good mates with a Greek bloke called George (What a surprise, another Greek bloke called George?). He is studying astrophysics but is very laid back and would rather watch football, so I invited him along to join some MBA friends to watch the England V Austria World Cup Qualifier last Saturday afternoon. Incidentally, the group watching that game also comprised a Canadian, a Dutchman, a Russian and a Kenyan. How is that for a diverse mix? I have made so many new friends in the MBA course that it is hard to remember their names, but so far most of them come from North America as they tend to be more laid back.
The entire class of 227 is broken into three streams for the purpose of lectures. This week (Week 1) I attended all 6 lectures and to be honest it has been a bit of a blur. 6 three hour lectures per week polus a host of other seminars means that I will need to be on my game from the word go. I am already at my desk till midnight everynight as already I have two pieces of assessment due this Monday and Tuesday. Much of the assessment is done in project groups and I am fortunate to have what appears to be quite a bright and well balanced bunch of individuals in my assigned group. Rolf is an engineer turned management consultant from Namibia, Hester is a PR consultant from UK, Nikhil is an entrepreneur from US of Indian extraction and Aman is an Indian who has worked in energy production in the US for Enron and then UBS. I was completely exhausted at the end of my first week and knowing that I had Matriculation today I declined to socialise last night with my fellow MBA students for end of Week 1 drinks.
The photos with me dressed in a funny gown, 'sub fusc', are from Matriculation. This is a formal ceremony by which the new students are admitted to membership of the University. The alternative explanation for Matriculation, told to me by a fellow Aussie lawyer at St Peter's is that its comes from the Latin 'to vommit after excessive consumption of cheese'. Hence, one might say, "I ate so much vintage Peccorino at lunch I just matriculated all over the Master's shoes." I did not have too long to contemplate this definition as the ceremony was over in 10 minutes after a build up of four hourse and I needed to race off on my bike to the Oxford University Rugby Club for my first training session.
Turning up to a new rugby club is always a bit nerve wracking as you always assume everyone will be bigger, faster and better than you and you are paranoid you will cough up your first high ball. As you can see I am naturally a confident fellow, borderline cocky perhaps? While most of the players are younger than me, the forward pack was certainly smaller than I had expected. So provided I can stay fit and find some of the mongrel that I used to possess quite a deal of, I should hopefully be able to make a useful contribution to the squad. The international team that the Blues (First XV) play in Oxford this year is Tonga, so it would be quite nice to have a run against my old home land, perhaps exchanging my jersey and shorts for a traditional Tongan grass skirt.
That brings me to the present and I will have to sign off for a couple more weeks. Sadly, I already have a great deal to do and less and less time to do it in. I hope this finds you well.
All the best,
Doug.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
