28th January, 2011

You might have been wondering where the impetus for the new me in 2011 has come from. In part it was because I felt the stars were aligned as we approach the Year of the Rabbit. But there is also bit of a story here. In search of some sort of an explanation for Bob’s latest dire school report – though I should tell you that despite the knife incident and insisting to his prospective housemaster that the student riots were justified he has been offered a place at Rugby - I have been trawling through my own old reports to see what I was like at 13 years old. Alas in no sense did it make for encouraging reading. In my final term at Clifton Hall School in Edinburgh my headmaster, and I thought he quite liked me, wrote the following valedictory scrawl:

“We must acknowledge that David is essentially idle.”

What a damn cheek eh?! Well I’m showing him up this year anyway – except he’s dead. I’m sure you have noticed how busy and proactive I have been. I have even signed up for a internal Learning and Performance course on Business Writing. See email exchange below:
_____________________________________________
From: Smith, Catherine (HR/UK) On Behalf Of Learning and Performance
Sent: 27 January 2011 16:46
To: Sandison, David (EQ/UK)
Subject: RE: Business Writing
Hi David
I have reserved you a place on this course, could you please ask your line manager to confirm that they approve your attendance.
Many thanks
Catherine
_____________________________________________

From: Sandison, David (EQ/UK)
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 04:47 PM
To: Learning and Performance; Ingram, Bruce (EQ/UK)
Subject: RE: Business Writing

Bruce pls can u approve. Wanna lern how to writ proper.
_____________________________________________


Another little confession of shame at the end of this cleansing month with one eye on the worrying news concerning “Madiba” and the other on students rioting all over the world.....it struck me that the only time I took part in any form of political activism at Leicester University was when the Trendy Lefties proposed that the Student Union Bar, named after Daniel Lambert, who in his time was the heaviest recorded human and died in 1809 at the age of 39 weighing 52 stone, should be rechristened the Mandela Bar. I fought this tooth and nail...unsuccessfully I am now glad to say.

My spell on the wagon draws to a close, although I fear this weekend is going to be a tester. Truth be told I’m a little worried at how easy it has been.....there must be something wrong with me.