16th May

It was exam retake day today, fortunately with a more successful outcome. Despite having gone through all the revision questions and feeling that I had prepared adequately, it was a little bit closer than I would have liked. A couple of unexpected wordings and concepts threw me a little bit. But if you get over three quarters of the available marks, you probably deserve to pass. There were about 12 others retaking exams from various modules, which at least demonstrated to me that I'm not the only one who has found this process difficult. But I'm on the final stretch now. One last final big three hour exam in mid-July and hopefully that will be that.

I watched the first episode of "OJ: Made In America" on BBC4 on Sunday and I thought it was terrific, so much so that I'm currently watching the second episode on Iplayer already. I'm familiar with the story of the OJ trial, but I was less aware of the background to it. This documentary series is terrific in placing OJ into a historical and social context, in particular looking at his relationship with the black community in LA in the 1970s and 80s and how he became one of the first major sports stars to command huge fees for endorsements. I think I'm late to the party on this particular series but it is very good indeed.

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