Saturday 9 July 2011

Z and the need for Excitement

The day has started unexpectedly well.  Going through some old papers, I found a pamphlet, which turned out to be a project that Ro did at Middle School about Lowestoft china.  It's spot on and very informative.  I vaguely remember him doing it (fifteen years ago) and he puts both me and the Sage down in the acknowledgements, but he certainly wrote it himself, there's a piece of information in there that I only picked up myself a few years ago, and the book he got it from is in the bibliography.   Although it was seen by the teacher, as there are ticks at intervals, there is no mark at the end.  I trust he got a good one.  There are several photos, taken straight from our most recent sale, but it's nearly all writing.  Very like me, that is, I remember feeling quite indignant as a child when I spent ages doing a piece of writing and someone else did a couple of pictures and a drawing with captions and got as high a mark as I did.  I always did prefer words to pictures, and besides it showed that I'd actually done the work.  No real surprise that I loathed 'projects'.  I would have been useless with examination coursework, I really couldn't be bothered, I'd have left it all until the last moment, if done it at all.  Nerve-wracking as they were, I preferred proper exams.  A lot of forward reading, memorising and thinking, a couple of intensive hours and you were done.

I was having a meeting the other day with the Head, and we were interrupted several times by messages coming in, all of which needed fairly prompt action by him.  "Always something extra," or something like that, I said, but he replied that he loves it.  "This job is never the same for two days, there is always something I need to react to and deal with."  He looked at me.  "You're the same, you wouldn't want a predictable job, would you?"

It's true.  I have a short attention span and need constant stimulation.

6 comments:

Dave said...

I find writing my blogpost every day much like exams: a lot of forward reading and thinking, a couple of intensive hours and that day's post is done.

Z said...

Hours? Thinking? Oh, okay.

Unknown said...

You sound very much like me, Z. I'd probably drop off to sleep if I had to do the same old thing, over and over.

Gledwood said...

I know what you mean about preferring words to pictures; at least you know where you are with words.

If someone asked me to parody Leonardo, Piccasso or even someone easy like Jackson Bollocks, I'd be pretty stumped. OK: probably not with Jackson Bollocks. But I could churn out a third-rate impersonation of Shakespeare, Dickens or Jane Austen. I'm not for one second claiming anyone would be taken in, but it would be prose (or poetry) it would be in the same form with the same characteristics. With oil paint I'd be totally lost!!

How do we know said...

i LOVE reading your posts.. so i read them 3-4 at a time, bcs one just does not seem... enough! :-)

Z said...

I don't mind a quiet life for a while, mind you. But not for too long.
I would like to be able to paint though, Gledwood. Haven't any talent in that direction. I'm easy to parody in writing, mind you, which Dave demonstrated a year or so back. I parody myself, in fact, using a lot of 'actually' and 'darling' which I don't normally use in writing.
Thank you, darling (!). You had a bonus today then, as I wrote two posts.