A fading poppy

Adam has had four exams this week and a bit of a break now until his next one on Monday. He said they were much harder than in previous years, particularly Chemistry which felt like an Oxford entrance exam - everyone was commenting on how the standard had increased from previous papers. The whole A level system is in a state of flux right now, with AS exams being discontinued from next year (although some AS subjects like maths are being phased out over a two year period). It makes things rather uncertain as universities currently offer places on the AS results conditional on actual A2 results the next year - without AS results I am not sure how universities will make their offers going forward, perhaps more will have their own internal entrance exams like Oxford and Cambridge do. Predicted grades don't work as some schools give false predictions which will causes all sorts of problems for the universities.

There is a house nearby which has these huge orange poppies growing on the pavement outside their gate - they seem to be fading but are still beautiful.

Gavin is home tonight after his whirlwind trip to San Francisco and Los Angeles, he said he has had very little sleep due to late night conference calls with Sydney and London, all different time zones from where he was. He departs for Australia again on Saturday.