Metaphor?

Today was the culmination of a mammoth effort, my finals!! I usually thrive on exam pressure but today and over the past few days it has really got to me. I guess the realisation that it was all or nothing, do or die fail and don't graduate not to mention the years of fees, years of effort and years of sacrifice that working a full time job and doing a degree entails.

The day dawned, it was cold but the sun was rising and on mornings like this morning I feel like I am racing the sun across the sky as she rises across the morning sky. I left early intent on a few hours cramming in the car before the inevitable, I sat an read but I may as well have been reading Swahili for all I was actually retaining. I abandoned the car and walked the mile or so across the city in the warming sun, due to the exam venue our usual pre-exam ritual of scrambled egg roll and coffee was abandoned, not that I have had any appetite of late.

I sat for a while on one of the campus greens, this sculpture stands unnoticed by many to one side and as the sun peeked through the campus buildings in presented what I think is a lovely shot, time for a Blip I thought, at least one less worry for the day!!! I answered a few texts from well wishers when one of my beautiful friends phoned me to wish me good luck, I explained I was not feeling good about this morning and told her of my Blip, I could hear her smile over the phone... that's a metaphor she exclaimed I think she was implying I need the nappy to go with the pin given my rather graphic description of my feelings towards the exam!!! She made me laugh at the idea and this settled me if only for a while. The safety pin is seven-metres high, and is placed with a plaque naming it as Mhtpothta/Maternity. The green is the site of the old Rotten Row Maternity hospital and the gate is the old entrance. The pin is made of stainless steel and was made by George Wylie, a former customs officer who became an artist later in life, and is well known in Scotland for his humorous and questioning work. You will see his question marks in last weeks Bilps shot for my friend, its a lovely symmetry and maybe a sign of random fortune!!! The scaling-up of an everyday object echoes the work of American pop sculptor Claes Oldenburg.

I met my study buddy and we had last minute chat about our impending fate, about how we would struggle to contextualise and hypothesise in a fashion that would appeal to the Prof. The exam hall was stuffy; I did my usual of kicking off my trainers, the young undergrad, who looked about 12, sitting next to me looked at me like I was nuts but I knew it was going to be hot in that room.

The paper was horrid, or was that horrific, I had a few other adjectives in mind too but much too radical to inflict on the good people who stop by to see today's offering, suffice to say I am not particularly confident about a result but I cannot worry about that now, here is hoping I have done enough to scrape through

Anyway enough of my trials and tribulations, here is the Metaphor and I hope you enjoy