Friday, July 9, 2010

Do you really learn something new every day?

Well do you?  I don't know if I do normally or not.  I mean - I should! I am writing a PhD which is supposed to be about learning something new everyday. But this week it struck me that I had encountered a particularly steep learning curve.  Here's a sample:

Sunday:  I learned that I am unlikely to win a mother-of-the-year award if I cry when told my 19 year old son is moving back home after his all-to-short experience of living out.  I also learned that paternal instincts can be stronger than maternal instincts from time-to-time.  And I rediscovered that apologising and being forgiven feels good.  I learned more on Sunday than I did in the whole of grade 5.

Monday:  I learned that putting the toaster dial on two means that the sensitive, new-age, over-achieving smoke alarm will not be activated.  The downside is that you can't call the end-product 'toast'.

Tuesday: I learned that having the capacity to repay a car loan doesn't mean that you will be granted one, and that, when you are middle-aged, having some young, fresh-faced poppet who has never experienced the pit-falls in life powerfully decline your loan application is somehow twice as humiliating.

Wednesday: I learned that even in the protected and politically correct halls of academia, the word 'equity' doesn't hold a great deal of weight.  I  learned that helping yourself is the only real and logical option.  I also learned how much I want to finish my PhD and that I actually do want to be an academic despite learning the first lesson.

Thursday:  I learned that you can freeze raw pumpkin.  Who would have thought?

Friday:  I learned that when I finally get my car back from my son (who being a fresh-faced poppet finds himself being offered car loans left, right and centre) I will have to drive it with a broken quarter-glass, two busted up locks, a floppy door handle, a sheen of impossible-to-wash-off fingerprinting dust and a partridge in a pear tree.   I am thinking about getting a scraggy looking tattoo (something spelled incorrectly would be perfect), dying my hair black, taking up smoking and cursing at strangers so that I blend in with my bogan-mobile.

Excellent work.  Can't wait for next week's lessons.