Friday 16 October has been on my mind for a while. Today was the date of accountancy exam results. Passing meant I could stay in the job for a few more months. Failure meant I would be going back to Scouseland. The other trainees had been nervous all day. We’ve spent countless hours on consolidated accounts and tax computations – no one wanted a retake.

I passed. If you don’t believe me, you can search for my name on the ICAEW website.

I celebrated by performing a petty cash count with my flatmate on his box of change. I initially offered him £10 for the box, which he rejected.

The total came to £86.68 – including 454 hand-counted pennies. I’ve included some bottles of beer in the photo to dispel rumours that accountants were unexciting.

For me, relief trumps happiness. It’s a hard road to become a chartered accountant. The next step for me is to ensure the controls around cashing the money at the bank are working correctly.

I ate in London’s Chinatown twice in two days, having resisted for over a year. The food was quite average, but chicken’s feet does taste the same wherever you go. So I was still happy.

I’ve had two weekends without needing to study. It’s been great to spend the time reading, playing computer games and cooking proper meals. I spend time in some very esteemed company – five junior doctors shooting zombies at the arcade. This is why no-one makes shows about auditors.

I’m already looking towards the next milestone. I’m relearning the website building skills that I never actually had. Once again, I feel like I have to squeeze every productive second out of the day.

 
I’ve displayed a photo of the Sequoia tree at the Natural History Museum because it is 1500+ yeas old. Our lives are horribly slight in comparison. All that we aim for will not last and probably won’t deserve a place in the Natural History Museum.

However, please forget the trees because each day is important. With every second that passes we loose the chance to practice our audit skills by counting the tree rings.

Could I be any more non-committal about how the exams went today?

I realise I’ve been insufferable over the past couple of weeks. I make no apologies.

The exams went OK. There were no major disasters:

• I woke up on time, ate a good breakfast and made my connections
• I found a Starbucks nearby and performed my pre-exam ritual of staring into space
• There were no weird accounting questions on the depreciation policy of Mexican Geese
• My pre-made lunch didn’t poison me
• I didn’t have to use my backup calculator or any of my two backup rulers. Disturbingly, I wasn’t the only one who had more than one calculator

I can now read my audit practices book in peace without the pressure of exams.

Except I can’t because the taxation exam is 3 hours away!

Posted by Wordmobi