17/10/01

My father get's up early, I don't. He's going bald, and thanks to DNA so am I. That's one-all. I need to tip the balance to stop me from becoming my own father, going bald and joining the family business where I get to enjoy very early mornings. Ah yes, I'm going to University...(he didn't)

University is the crossroads of our lives (or so we are led to believe) My father had always treated my education with the same contempt I gave to his industry: building. Ever since I came home  with the dubious task of having to watch Beauty & The Beast for GCSE media Studies he has been trying in various ways to get me to join the "real world" i.e. work. Like he had at sixteen. I was adamant that I would not end up like him. I don't like getting up early. In fact I had only discovered that there was a six o'clock in the morning in 1991 after a bad nightmare about Hulk Hogan.

Every Friday my father comes home and asks me "What did you learn this week son?" to which I will replay with whatever information I will learn. E.g. the history of Wales, where the hell Armenia was, and why my maths teacher preferred to measure things with some guys theory instead of a tape measure. Once My A'levels came along I had only three subjects to take. Soon my answers to his weekly question would become shorter, less varied and sillier. However the second week of University would top the lot...

I woke up on Friday, or as my new timetable called it "day off" and Dad had long since gone to work. I ad spent all week in the first of my proper lectures not listening and instead looking at other people's hairlines to benchmark my own. The only thing I could remember from there lectures at this point was the current rate for one minute of Sky Digital. But all that information was irrelevant for today, because it was my day off.

I left the house for some food. The wind kept blowing my fringe into the air. I could actually feel it retreating over the horizon, this for some strange reason signifies to me that I will end up like working as a builder by looking like one (my father) However I still have university, I'll learn new things and go on to smaller better paid hours. If not at least I'll have learnt where the dole office is by 2004... I hope.

Back at home I played in the Dutch league on my Nintendo, losing to some obscure Dutch team called Cambuur. I then turned on the TV to see some news report about Uni Students. I looked at their hairlines, two of them were visibly losing it. I'd even go as far to say that their "illness" was at a more advanced stage than mine. Now I felt re-assured.

Dad returned home soon after, he came into my bedroom and asked "what did you learn this week son?" I replied "I'm not as bald as I'd thought, Sky Digital cost £4 and hour to run and always play 4-4-2 against Dutch opposition as 3-5-2 lacks defensive depth."

My father replied "Crossroad of life? more like an arseing roundabout."

Have a Foam Filled Day!

© Paul Hunt 2001