Exam Results

Bad news. The Grey Squirrel Gods have frowned on me.

Four exams.
One pass, one near-miss, two clear fails.
One out of four is the result. I'm still not a fully qualified accountant, I still have a future of taking the damn exams (retakes ahoy), and I'm gutted.
I feel hollow and flat.

Four passes would have been a passport out of my sh*t job, but with so little return for 3 months hard work, I just don't know what I'm going to do.
Vicster -- with her emotional state working its magic -- was tearful when I opened the envelope*, and I feel terrible for letting us, as a family unit, down.

With three retakes in November an unlikely proposition considering the September arrival of our new-born, the earliest I'm going to complete this final stage of exams is next May, with results in June 2004.

So on top of all the work I'm going to have to redo -- when I would rather be enjoying the company of my new baby and lifestyle -- my career and earnings are effectively put back 12 months.

I am so looking forward to taking all those calls from family and friends later today and this evening. They'll be phoning in the expectation of hearing some good news, and I'm going to have to gloomily repeat the above thoughts to them over and over again.

"Bad luck" and "Don't worry, atleast you got one of them" don't cut the mustard in making me feel any better.

F*ck I feel low.



* I knew it was bad news ahead of opening the results: If you've passed them all the envelope you receive is a big fat one, packed with additional information about what to do next. If you've failed one or more, you just get the single-sheet results in a thin, standard-letter envelope. And that's what the postman pushed through our letter-box...