pic of the day - one down...

What a morning we've had! My elder son was having a lie-in because this is an exam week, and his paper was scheduled for this afternoon... or so he thought.

Good thing I checked the schedule!

There's nothing quite like dragging a 17-year old out of bed to go and take an exam... especially when you then discover that he doesn't have pens or pencils, or an eraser, or a ruler... or anything, really. An hour before the exam starts is no time to be discovering these things!

Trying to get him to hurry while also trying not to make him nervous was a balancing act.

It was too late to take the train so I drove him to school. Traffic was dire, and it took all my energy not to give off any signs of mounting stress. Chatting about inconsequential things, opting not to switch off a cringe-worthy interview on the radio, because it had him in stitches...

The relief was so huge when I dropped him off, that my driving skills went all to pot and I nearly had two accidents within 100m of the school.

I prayed all the way home.

Then this text message came through. Okay, so his use of apostrophes sucks, but what the heck!

This afternoon, I will nail him to a chair and make sure he has everything he needs for the rest of his exams. I will also bludgeon him (in the nicest possible way) into having everything ready the night before each paper.

I hate exams, but they're the currency we're forced to work with. We might as well optimise his chances as far as possible, because, with the amount of revising he's doing, the nett result of his AS year looks set to be a level 80 Undead Warlock (actually that's an exaggeration - he has a way to go before level 80). I'm not sure what career opportunities there are for undead warlocks... and I don't recall seeing this criterion listed among the hoops applicants have to jump through to get accepted to any of the universities he's interested in.

Ho hum.