Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

MARY-JANE DUNCAN: Patience? I’m waiting on the bairn’s exam results

Post Thumbnail

In amongst all the actual news,  ITV2 announced they are considering a reboot of Big Brother next year, no doubt off the back of the dreadful Love Island success.

Have I ever watched Love Island?  Once.  It was appalling.  Car crash television and yet I know of several grown up, educated, intelligent people who were all sucked into the cringeworthy spectacle.

Will I watch? No…

Admittedly, I have enough inane nonsense in my life without adding to it during my screen time and when you’re blessed with an ability to attract people who smell of drama and headaches without even trying, you don’t go seeking out more.

So, will I be tuning into Big Brother again?  I was an avid, original, fan way back when ‘Nasty Nick’ and his cronies didn’t have so much as paper and a pen to pass notes to each other.

Will seeing Davina evict some fame hungry sad soul every Friday night fill me with joy?  No, however it probably will bring back my ludicrous penchant for some inside voice narration.

So, I over-think

Considering how much I love to talk, it’s a well-known fact – you’d probably be amazed to know – I also have a tendency to over-think what’s going on around me at any one time.

It used to be narrated in my head in a Big Brother or Come Dine with Me Style.  It then moved onto social media status quips ‘what’s on your mind’?

I’ll tell you what’s on my mind – I’m sitting in my pyjamas, desperately trying not to rush into middle kids bedroom and demand she opens her text from the SQA announcing her exam results.  How is she even still sleeping?

But my Big Brother-esque internal narration was possibly the worst as I sauntered round muttering things like ‘day 6,793 of MJ trying to be a parent and she’s still trying to figure it all out’.

When really it should be 16,898 days in the world of MJ and she still has no clue what’s going on.

Mary-Jane’s three bairns.

However, I blatantly refuse to regress to early ‘00s MJ who talks about herself in the third person.  We have enough to worry about regards her mental stability without her starting that again.

I am, surprisingly, showing a modicum of restraint regards these exam results.  Patience never having been a strong point of mine.

It’s her first time waiting on results,  anticipating the ‘ping’ on her phone.  It’s certainly not her first round of lying sleeping with me starting at her willing to waken up – I may have some previous for that.

Distraction techniques

We haven’t had the luxury of time off together as a family this summer, it’s nearly time for them to go back to school and the list of all the fun, crazy, spontaneous things we’ve done so far these holidays?  Work.  We’ve worked.

We’ve also been trying to distract her from the long wait and looming date by keeping her busy.

A trip to the V&A, some ice lattes and donuts.  Many long, beach dog walks, an outstanding Sails, Tales & Whales tour with the effervescent DD Tours.  A hurl to the Pittenweem Arts Festival, more ice cream and too many card games to mention.

Mary-Jane’s family in the City of Discovery – what better place to be?

I’m consoling myself by recalling we don’t technically go on ‘holiday’ with the kids, we just clean up after them somewhere new.

What we actually, desperately need, is a break from the family to remind us we love them and do, in fact, want to continue living here.

I’ve never really understood parents who go away for the weekend and protest over how much they’ve missed their kids.  My kids take a solid 10 days to notice we’re missing and we need the same before we’ve missed anyone.

However, for now, day tripping and late night card games it is.

OMG! Her results are coming in!

This morning, I’m forcing restraint by indulging in an online career quiz.  So far, the results announce my best fits to be either a driving instructor OR a teacher.

My lack of patience and attention to detail should eliminate me from these choices immediately.

Unfortunately completing the skillset questionnaire citing my competencies as being fluent in Disney lyrics and identifying the brand of chocolate by smell alone, hasn’t had the head-hunters calling.

Oh, OH, it’s pinged!  She’s passed!  And naturally, gone straight back to sleep!

Conversation