My first review

One of my penpals has complimented me that she finds the blogs "very entertaining" and "at times painfully frank". The second remark was also tendered as something positive!

Well, it is much better than "frankly painful", I suppose.

Other verdicts passed on me which I have cherished over the years (perhaps inappropriately?) include:

"You can be too forthright for your own good." Yes, guilty as charged, but unrepentant!

"You're too conciliatory!" My argumentative previous ex, The Evil One, often complained that I wouldn't give her a good scrap (an unfair charge, I think: I don't always sidestep conflict, I just choose my moment prudently. In general, though, not a bad thing to say about someone, surely?).

"You are so laidback as to be almost horizontal." This was intended as a criticism (in a performance review by the adjutant of the army reserve unit I trained with while at University), but I took it as quite the reverse. Most people respond to stress by getting in a flap; I tend to respond by getting very calm and focused. Army types, alas, tend not to be very observant or appreciative of this valuable attribute.

"You were so relaxed, we assumed you didn't really want the job." And perhaps they were right. This might have been the assessment from just about any one of the dozens (hundreds?) of job interviews I have 'failed' in my life. This one, in fact, came from one of my very first, for a teaching job at a grammar school in north London. There was a self-important functionary from the local Education Authority on the interview panel who had appointed himself to the 'bad cop' role and was asking all kinds of needling - or just pointless - questions. I allowed myself to get mildly irritated by the obscurity of his enquiry "If I came into your classroom, what would I see?", so I replied flippantly: "Oh, I don't know - the usual. Desks, chairs, books, chalk, pupils, me. No riot, hopefully. Some learning, probably. What exactly do you want to know?"

Yes, yes, I am my own worst enemy sometimes.... but better the devil you know....