I love this “thing” – is it a statue? I suppose so, of a kind. Anyway, this man walking through the wall of our University library delivers me the right symbolism for my posting. For this year, I am now on the home straight in terms of my studies. I have got so many marks “in the bank” that I know already that I’ve passed my first year and my exams will simply add icing to the cake of this year’s academic achievement.

So, it’s a really nice feeling to go into them knowing that even if I do badly in one, it won’t matter to my overall result. Not that I’m intending to slack – it’s a matter of personal pride that I do as well as I possibly can in all of the remaining exams. I am sitting at my desk and beside me is a big pile of past papers that I’m about to start ploughing through later today.

All-in-all, I have loved every moment of the University experience – I am absorbed in the knowledge I’m gaining and more than a little thrilled.

This dunderhead was sitting in front of a programme on the telly the other day called “Chemistry – a Volatile History” and the presenter was talking about two things that are exactly the same in terms of chemical formula but act totally differently from one another. I said (just before he did) “oh – they must be isomers”. I almost brimmed over with pride at knowing that. Not just because I knew it but also because I chose to watch a chemistry programme – I’d never have done that a year ago.

I can say now that I “know stuff” about science. What’s more – a lot of the stuff I know about science wasn’t known by ANYBODY when I was at school so even if I’d taken Biology and Chemistry then I wouldn’t have learned the stuff I’ve been learning this year. Scientists then would have regarded some of this stuff as the kind of breakthrough you get when you walk through a wall……

Isn’t that amazing? I have been given such a wonderful gift – the opportunity to learn things that were unknown thirty years ago. I am so thrilled I spend my days grinning from the soul.