Girly Swot?

I had a moment of panic this afternoon. Yes, another one.

I am looking at a job application. Yes, another one.

In order to apply for a job in teaching now, you have to be able to produce ALL of your exam certificates along with proof of ID. I thought I knew where my certificates were. In fact, I could see which certificate was on the top of the pack in my mind's eye. But they weren't where I thought they were.

Then I remembered they were in the attic, in the filing box that I had closed in a hurry and left, because last time I looked in it, it was to locate my Decree Absolute, and a bloody big spider crawled across my hand and into the box just as I located the aforementioned document. I was out of there like a flash.

So imagine my surprise (and relief) to find both my certificates, and the bloody big spider, squished flat in the very same plastic wallet that the certificates were in.

Still, I got out of the attic quickly, just in case the spider reinflated and came back to life.

Yes, that IS a Grade A in Mathematics. The GCSEs were good, the A'levels were an absolute shocker and are consigned to history, University - back to being a girlie swot, and so it has stayed ever since :-)

Camera Club competition tonight. Was in the top 10 (about 70 entries I think), with a COMMENDED with the portrait of James sleeping. I was pleased with that for a first attempt. The self portrait made it through to the selection immediately prior to the final ten, but was discarded because the judge didn't like my hand in the shot. The shot of James with goggles got ditched on the grounds of child cruelty for making him wear goggles in the bath, but also because you couldn't see his eyes in the shot. I threw a ringer in there - cross eyed Corin - many liked it, the judge didn't - he thought the lighting was peculiar (whereas me and at least one other blipper liked it). However, I was pleased that James made the cut. Gained some helpful pointers for competition. Mostly that I had ditched a number of prospective shots because I had been overly critical of the 'finishing' but having seen the judging process, I'll know better next time. Also, the personal preferences of the judge strongly influence choice in an open competition like tonight - if they are a sucker for certain types of images, they will choose them! Looking forward to the next competition and hopefully a focus/category to help me be less indecisive.