There are
several things we men aren’t good at and women aren’t supposed to be able to
read maps, though it turns out my twelve-year-old granddaughter is brilliant at
doing so: so, so much for the science, or whatever it is. (I seemed to manage
to legitimately use the word ‘so’ three times in sequence just then – is that
allowed?*)
I only know
that when it comes to helping me find things, my beloved wife has been known to
be conservative in her use of adjectives. I particularly remember one occasion
when I was in our kitchen and called upstairs to her to ask where something
was. She shouted down, in her resigned, how-can-he-possibly-not-know-this voice,
“It’s in the drawer!”
Yes… I admit
it, I’m a pedant. I temporarily abandoned my search and counted the number of
drawers in the kitchen. Now admittedly a few of them were those tiny drawers
that only small dead batteries live in and couldn’t have possibly contained
whatever it was I was looking for, but I did get to about nineteen in my tally.
I then, as it turned out, looked in around six or seven drawers-that-were-drawers-but-not-THE-drawer
before finally finding what I was looking for in THE-drawer-that-isn’t-one-of-the-other-drawers-you-idiot.
It was clear, when I light-heartedly as a pedant can, remonstrated about this
with my wife later on, she still couldn’t understand how I failed to understand
which out of so many drawers was THE drawer.
I will confess,
as I did a few blogs ago, to a habit of looking twice somewhere when I’m
looking for something, as though by magic it will suddenly appear where it isn’t.
I’ve wondered whether this is because psychologically it’s more comforting searching
somewhere familiar rather than exploring new ground, even though this is far
more likely to prove fruitful. Oddly, once in a blue moon this technique does
work, possibly based on another layer of psychological complexity based on the
fact that I didn’t expect to find what I was looking for in said locality and
didn’t look properly the first time. How much easier life would be, for me at
least, if I knew where things were in the first place!
Now where
did I last have my mobile? …
*Answers on
a postcard please, or at least in the comments section!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just published, Spell Binding Stories UKS2. The third
in a series of books using stories, poems and sketches to support the teaching
of spelling at primary level. Supported by lesson ideas for each requirement of
the primary National Curriculum in England. The pieces could also support
second language learners attempting to master the idiosyncrasies of the English
language! In this edition for example, Hercules Paintpot and his collaborators
attempt to unravel a spelling mystery, we visit a school on a planet where
words are not just worth their weight in gold - they are actually made
of gold. We also experience the excitement and tension of the final in the
series of the 'Set in for a Spell' quiz!
Paperback ISBN: 9798297102361
Kindle ASIN: B0FMNZ8BKT
(0 is a number)
1 comment:
Sounds amazing!
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