Sunday 7 August 2016

Not just a pretty face


We are now the proud custodians of this full-sized plaster bust, because Green-Eyes is having a clear out and was thinking about binning it. She made it herself - when she was eight years old! It took me a long time to believe it when I saw it sitting on her mother's table, all those years ago.

I am not sure I told you about the outcome of all those hours spent fretting away with her when running through her exam papers to check for grammar etc. She got a 1st! Out of 180 student nurses in her year, she was one of only two to get a first.

She will be - at the end of the Summer - a qualified children's nurse. Here she is in a mini tractor barrow with two cute kids. This was last year's garden party at Mary Berry's old house. Bless her!


13 comments:

  1. Well done to Green Eyes .... by the look of that photograph, she has found her vocation. Does she still do any art ?

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    1. No. not really. She did make a couple of handbags for H.I. the last one woven in the Philipines.

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  2. Well done her! I've been seeing students through a similar course for years now and I know it takes a bit of the steel to get through.
    Lovely sculpture too :~)

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    1. It is even more impressive because she is dyslexic. She is given more time to submit papers, but this does not work in her favour, because the software which scans for plagiarism also compares work from fellow students who have already submitted papers - it looks out for repeated words!

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    2. Yes, dyslexics have to work twice as hard. It's a great shame on our societies that we haven;t worked through that one yet.
      Turnitin is not such a bad program but I think it is a more a panopticon than anything. Most markers can spot plagiarism a mile off without software.

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    3. Trouble is that the software tells you not to bother submitting it if you are over 10% what it considers plagiaristic material. This means that you are constantly searching for a slightly worse way of saying the same thing in order not to be blocked before a human being gets involved.

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  3. Green eyes' sculpture is amazing; not least for someone so young. Thing is - just because someone has talent doesn't mean they wish/have any desire to use it in the long run. Reminds me of my son who came home from school, can't remember his exact age (young, very, under ten), flung an A3 onto the table and declared it "a piece of shit". Naturally, one does hope for such self awareness in bloggers of advanced years (no names mentioned - I have had my fair share of "fuck offs" from her) but that was something else. I thought his painting quite good. And now, Tom (and you will appreciate this), the ultimate put down for this art critic: "You would say that, Mama, wouldn't you. After all you are my mother." Pause for thought.

    Fast forward a week or so. This time it was a piece of writing I didn't find as good as he did. And said so. Oh the tears. The artistic temperament. Thus he realized and learned that, mother or not, I don't bullshit anyone - particularly not the Angel.

    U

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    1. Yes, I did have to go through a few nervous breakdowns/meltdowns with G.E., and had to wait for her to remember that she did, after all, ask me to critique and correct it. All the way through, she thought that her submissions were crap, only to receive the highest marks after they were marked. It took a lot of hard work from her, and some of the naturally talented ones did less well because they didn't think they needed to work as hard.

      Let's try and forget your little squabbles with other bloggers - I try to take people as I find them.

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  4. I hope every button you have has burst with pride. What a hard, hard job she has trained to. I wish her a wonderful career.

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    1. Thank you, Joanne. Yes, there will be extreme highs and extreme lows.

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  5. Please pass along my very enthusiastic congratulations to Green Eyes. I want to praise her artistic talent, her educational accomplishments and perhaps most of all, her decision to enter into nursing.

    I would type more praise, but admit that my eyes are getting a bit teary. My Grandmother was nurse and this post has not only admire Green Eyes, but also think of dear Granny.

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    1. only lead me to admire...

      Sorry for that typo.

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  6. Well done on both your parts.

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