That old Deadwood Stage.

So lovely to have Terry Wogan back on radio 2. My mornings can get back to normal. I have been surfing the radio stations for the last two weeks to try and find anything that appeals at 8 am and there's nothing else really.

In the news this morning was the fact that students can now get their A Level and GCSE results either online or by text message. Surely this means that parents will have a job getting the information out of their children. It was bad enough getting A level results the normal way, but if the results are bad, they'll simply be buried I suspect.

It took me back to when Daughter was doing her A Levels. She got her own back on me wanting her to succeed by going out every single night of the two years that she was supposed to be studying. She had to drop one of her subjects (Psychology) because she was doing so badly at it. She managed to fail General Studies, and then ended up with two (just) passes. This, however, was enough to secure her a place at University. With hindsight (that trusty old friend) I should have said "Know what? Just forget it. You obviously don't enjoy studying, so why bother." That would have been the sensible thing. But because her brother was at Uni, and I felt that they should both have the same opportunities, I encouraged her to go ahead and take up the offered place. Given that time again, I wouldn't bother - because they were, and are, different people. As it was, Daughter struggled with Uni for 18 months and then walked out on her degree. She got a job, fell in love, moved in with the boyfriend and got pregnant.(That's the shorthand version.) So at 22 she was a mother and I was (surprise, surprise) a grandmother.

This morning's discussion over breakfast was also about schools and students, because my new German lady is actually a teacher. The two Germans were telling me about "Hauptschule", which is apparently the german equivalent of a "sink" school for the lowest level of students. Our discussion was about the fact that these students know that they have no hope of succeeding in life, getting good jobs etc, so
they opt out and end up either fathering or producing babies. They seem to see this as a way out of their no-hope existences. Of course we have similar parallels; teenage mothers (and fathers) are a problem here too. But it made me think, of course, about my daughter. Did she feel a failure? Was it my fault? Probably.

On a lighter note, the fact that someone called Debbie Reynolds is government spokesperson in the current foot and mouth crisis did not escape Terry Wogan this morning. He remarked that surely Doris Day would have been a better choice since, as she was a very convincing cowgirl in "Calamity Jane", she would have had more affinity with our bovine friends! It's that light touch that I love. And it reminded me that Daughter adored that film. She knew every word of the script, and every song, by heart. If only she could have done an exam on the subject...