A Chip off the Old Block

In fairness to Ant (see last post) I should put it on the record why I nearly failed to get my degree (a very mediocre second - fortunately they weren't divided into 2:1 and 2:2 at my university back in my days).

Anyway, the reason I nearly failed to get mine was that I had miscopied the examination timetable and was on the point of leaving my digs with Mrs T (Miss Perdita, as she was then) for a trip into town, when the college porter phoned to ask where I was. I was desperate to rush to the exam immediately, but he insisted in giving me a pep talk: however hopeless I might feel, it was always better to turn up, there might be a quesiton I could attempt and so on...

So I managed to get him off the phone and then into sub-fusc and gown, onto the bike, and to the Examination Schools at breakneck speed. Fortunately it was a translation paper (for which they always gave too much time, in my experience) rather than a literature paper; so I strolled in nonchalantly as though I'd planned to come in 15 minutes late for this one.

Which probably tells you all you need to know about my academic career.