Everyday's A School Day

A new weekly feature on the blog (which I'm pretty darn excited about) will be the random (and they will be that!) facts & trivia I've learned over the course of the last 7 days. Mimi may also contribute to this post, although seeing as she'll probably be the one telling me a lot of these facts I'm doubtful she'll have time to learn anything new herself!

 My sources will be varied of course but I intend to avoid good old Google (as fabulous as it is) and just let the universe teach me what it will, which in turn I'll write down in my notebook (so as to ensure I have a chance at remembering them in full. Sieve-like brain!) & then relay these pearls of wisdom to your fabulous selves. It's a kinda Pay It Forward initiative, whereas instead of gifting you a nice card or a mix tape of your favourite songs, I'm giving you actual information & trivia that could be incredibly useful to you throughout your life! Thank me later my friend when you are one day able to hold a conversation on the pros and cons of deforestation in the Amazon or inform a friend that before becoming successful Walt Disney was so poor he had to eat dog food. I'm thrilled that I'll potentially be helping to win pub quizzes all over Scotland. 

Being taught & then learning & remembering facts are two different things. I often find myself privy to factoids where at the time I think , 'I must remember that!' but later, either only have a vague recollection of the facts told or just recall being taught something really interesting & worth noting but have no clue what it was. This has to stop....my general knowledge sucks at the best of times, although my trivia is a tad better. I do actually really enjoy learning new things....it's just making that info stay in my brain a bit longer that is the task in hand.  

I'll be posting everything I've learned from each week & will list my sources too. Will be interesting after a while to note who my biggest know-it-alls are and I'll also aim to post when they told me & in what context....will make for an interesting read  later down the line. Memories & all that jazz. 

So here goes with week one.....

1. In 1966 George Harrison co-wrote & recorded with The Beatles, 'Taxman'-a track written as a reaction to heavy taxation that the band members were falling victim to. For every pound earned, they were paying a whopping 19 shillings & sixpence in tax which was the equivalent of 97p!!! 

17th January- Dad told me this just as mum & I were about to go do my tax return online. Think he was trying to make me feel better about the whole situation. 

2. When ordering your favourite coffee from your local friendly barista, if you're perturbed (as I often am) by the notable lack of coffee in a cappuccino as opposed to the gallons of foam on top, ensure you ask them for a WET cappuccino!  Wet caps are about 1 part espresso, 1 part steamed milk, 1 part foam. A dry is 1 part espresso, 2 parts foam. The latter is what you'll be served if you don't specify I guess. 

21st January- In town having a coffee catchup with my lovely fellow freelancer friend Shelley,  who was made aware of this distinction between 'wet & dry caps'  by the barista at Starbucks on Buchanan St when she asked how she could go about having less foam. She then came back to the table & kindly relayed the info to me! I think I'll be asking for a wet cappuccino from now on. 

3. In 2009 fashion designer Raquel Guimaraes approached Brazilian maximum security prison, Arisvaldo de Campos Pires when she struggled to find knitters locally to help with her latest collection. Although originally extremely reluctant, the authorities finally allowed her to train up 18 prisoners, including bank robbers & murderers. An incentive for the inmates, aside from learning a skill & being proactive during their incarceration, was having one day taken off their sentence for every three days of knitting performed & accumulating a wage which was set aside for them to collect on their release. 

21st January-On the way in to Glasgow I stumbled across BBC Radio 4's item on the ever-increasing popularity if knitting & the history of the art. Very interesting indeed! Who knew knitting was so fetch! 

4. In the Victorian era, the word 'leg' was considered a swear word! Even table & chair legs were covered with skirts to protect their modesty. 

22nd January- a p7 class I was working with kindly informed my colleague Eilidh and I of this fun fact that they'd learned from their current topic. We guessed correctly that they would have probably have used the word 'limb' as a substitute! Got us to thinking & having one of our many random car-chats about words that have changed or have several meanings.

5. Penguins have knees!

22nd January- My 3rd year Jazz and Contemporary students are a fun bunch to be around and each week they come bounding into class excitedly nattering and eager to tell me a story or ten! One of the students shared this fact with me as we finished off our stretch at the end of a great session. Random but still, it's a goody and one I did not know! 

I wonder what pearls of wisdom next week will bring.....

Over and out,

Weesse x