OK – I’m going to make a confession. I’m prevaricating. In fact I’m doing anything I can to avoid the horrible moment when I have to put finger to keypad to start writing an essay that’s got to be in next week on the medicinal properties of turmeric and garlic. I know I should have started it a week ago but to be honest, I’ve been sick for the last ten days or so and feeling as rough as a badger’s arse but as the hours and days tick by, I know I have to knuckle down soon or face the consequences.
This ‘ere university lark is a bit challenging and more than ever the stakes are high because I’m in my final year so how I perform this year really matters to the degree I get. The essay in question is worth 5% of the total mark of my degree but I know to my cost that dropping points on these essays can come back and bite you on the bum later so it’s really worthwhile getting on with it and doing as well as possible. Still, just another few minutes of this and then I’ll start……well, perhaps I’ll serve up dinner then start……well, maybe I’ll be better off starting it afresh tomorrow morning. You see what I mean? It’s just so easy to keep putting it off and putting it off.
Anyway, here is a photo of some nasty aphids that have no right to be surviving – it’s mid-winter for goodness sake. Yet here they are on my chilli plant making a mess and stopping the fruits from forming. What’s odd is that it looks like there are several different species on here unless they are simply different life stages of the same thing. You’d have thought that a biologist may know a bit about this by now but there are so many little insects and critters that exist in this world and the examples we generally see are the ones that interest our lecturers so they’re usually tropical!
It occurs to me that many lecturers get into their field not because of a deep love of Amazonian beetles, but because of a deep love of being in Peru or Venezuela or wherever. Let’s face it, if you make yourself into a leading expert in Amazonian beetles then people will quite often pay for you to spend time there to study them further. Funny that. I’ve not yet come across a lecturer who is deeply interested in the beetles of Dartmoor for example. I wonder why that is? Could it be because it’s cold, wet and windy on Dartmoor and hmmm it’s lush, hot and sunny in Peru? Surely not?
OK – that means my cynicism has not totally left me and I thought I’d banished it forever. There have been strong signs that I’ve simply had my cynic chip removed – I now ‘fess up happily that “Love Actually” has replaced “The Blues Brothers” as my favourite film of all time. I read pure, unadulterated mush when I’ve time – recently I spend most of my time reading scientific papers. I spend my time on the sofa telling Lola and JD about how they’re my babies and how much I love them. All-in-all I’ve become a completely soppy old bird. Despite all this, it’s good to see I can still spot a scam when I see one……
