Getting closer ...

... as I am now only a week (okay, a week and about two hours) from being guaranteed the result of my last course and, of course, degree.

I know that the OU publish the result online early, as the date they give is when the letter confirming the result should have arrived by. Or so it used to be before they promised to publish the result online. In fact, the letter often arrives a day or so early. Second class post, mixed in with Christmas! So would it be posted maybe on Tuesday? Monday? Wednesday? And when would the result be online - when the letter is posted or due to arrive?

It brings to mind the paradox of the unexpected hanging, where a Judge sentenced a convict to be hanged on a day in the next 7 which would be unknown until the hangman arrived that morning and if it was expected, the convict would be released. The defendant's lawyer claimed that his client was as good as free, as on the 7th morning, it would not be unexpected if his client had not been hanged for the hangman to arrive. So, if the 7th day was not possible, the 6th was not either, by deduction. And so, not the 5th day ... and so on. So it was unexpected when on the 4th day, the hangman arrived and the convict was hanged.

So the day I don't expect to receive my results will be the day that they arrive. However each day, I expect it to be that day. The countdown begins in earnest!