My small person has to sit her exams next summer. I sympathise a little but the sentence I hear more than any other on the subject is "But you don't understand how much harder it is than when you where in school." Given that I failed my maths exam at school and then flunked out on it the next four times I took it (making a grand total of five and totally proves I can add up), I've decided to share her pain.
She's struggling with maths too, so today I went out and bought one of those course syllabus text books to help out. And I don't understand any of it. Not even a little bit.
Then I thought: what if I taught myself GCSE maths from this very book and sat the exam at the same time - obviously not in the same room, she would die of embarrassment. I've already been warned in no uncertain terms over any inclination I might have about putting a band together. Anyway, I'm going to do it. How hard can it be if thousands of 16 year old kids can pass it with flying colours?
Very hard is the answer but there's only one way to find out for sure.
On the positive side, as a friend of mine in his forties who quit his job to go to university to learn how to be cameraman once said: "If I knew how little work everybody did, I would have just changed my work hours around, done two courses and still finished it in a year."
I've been toying around with a thing from the past today. Last weekend (or maybe it was the weekend before), I re-homed around 100 books. There are more books here already lined up which has left a nice hole in my psyche and the list of Things I Am In Charge Of.
Maybe there's room for a little something I once loved (but failed miserably to tend to properly) to come back in - and when I say 'a little something', I mean... small:
There's something about taking a Bonsai and looking after it properly that I find most attractive. The fact that I have never actually looked after one beyond round five months is another matter - and as much as a bad workman will blame his tools, what did I expect from a tree that cost £10 from the local DIY store? For the record, this one here is from a reputable dealer and is in good health to begin with. I think I'll find that might help a lot.
Finally - for I have things to do and was just killing time while my brain absorbed coffee here - if you're in the market for a new read and have chewed up/spat out everything I pointed at last week, you could do worse than hunt this down:
Personally speaking, I am not allowing myself to make this purchase until I have conquered a couple more shelves on the bookcase.
Which brings us to an interesting point if anybody was following my posts on minimalism:
Strictly speaking, I don't need any of these things but the math book is transient and useful, the tree is beautiful and the book looks like it will rock like a mother. Those things are very much allowed and need no justification at all.
If I am true to form, I will abandon the first, kill the second, devour the third and balance will be restored within a month.