"Grab the horn of the Ox, Think outside of the box, and devise a solution instead"

(quote courtasy of "Guilds" by A. Braden and J. Davy - Fringe show wooooooo!)

Time to do just as that quote says. New Plan: work full time and do MSc part-time.

Ok, back track slightly and explain: there are a lot of 'ifs' involved in this so I'm not counting my chickens by any means. A position has come up at the Scottish Parliament as an assistant to an MSP, and I've applied on the basis that I have a year's experiance doing much the same thing part-time for a differant MSP in the same party, so have good references and experiance - this should at least put me in the position of being a reasonably strong candidate anyway. It's a good place to start working because I know quite a number of people there and I like the environment, plus it keeps me in the way of research practise. I have still to hear back about the MSc, but if I do get the offer then I think it would be best to do it part-time for several reasons: I would be earning enough to support myself, pay council tax and tuition fees. My grades haven't been good enough to qualify me for funding. It would also mean that I have access, through the Parliamentary information centre, to a vast source of information on environmental issues in Scotland and up-to-date debates. So, that's the idea, but there are a huge number of 'ifs' involved, and I'm reticent to pin any hopes at all on this, but it's a plan anyway.