No expectations

Miss Havisham, Estella and Pip in the film adaptation

GCSE English. Tuesday afternoon. The lesson draws to a close and the geeky, swotty students file out of the classroom one by one. At the front of the classroom stands our teacher, brimming with pomposity and grinning like the Cheshire Cat. The 'lazy' are left behind to sit a retest on our course text: Great Expectations.

The Dickensian tale is one of an orphan Pip, whose life is turned upside down by a chance encounter with an escaped convict, support of a mysterious benefactor and a twisted and stunningly beautiful woman. Whether Pip actually achieves his great expectations is not the crux of the story for me. A far more telling plotline is how the harder he strives, the more his world seems to be turned upside down.

Anyway, while I was practicing my putting in the garage I happened to spy my old course text in a clear storage container. I'm a sentimental old fool and keep most things that made a significant mark on me: including the cricket ball that gave me the gap in my two front teeth.

I failed the retest, primarily because I hadn't read the novel. My teacher's steadfast determination to ensure we had all absorbed this text meant continuous retests till you passed. I read the book.

Good job too as it sparked my interest in English, which I went on to study at A level. Though I confess I am no longer an exemplar of the Eats Shoots and Leaves grammatical mantra, I learnt a fair amount from Pip's adventures and my study of literature.

So when Sunday comes I shall not be tempted into putting pressure on myself to perform. Instead I shall have no expectations and thoroughly enjoy knocking that little white ball about. Medal? What medal?