TELL HIM HE'S DREAMING

I was successful at school, continually being in the top few all through primary, intermediate and secondary. It was easy and I was able to indulge in my favourite pastime - daydreaming.

I spent seven years at university and left without a degree. I enrolled in several different disciplines from law to education and attended many courses as diverse as constitutional law to philosophy but couldn't quite find the enthusiasm to stick to any. There are many courses at stage one, stage two and stage three levels where I didn't bother to turn up for the exams and received an odd letter denoting the credit ('Z' I think).

I'm not stupid and know (if I bothered) that I could get MENSA acceptance but can't see the point.

I drifted through university life and work afterwards and found myself in a career in sales and marketing. This was easy and I did pretty well out of it, getting promotions I didn't seek and rewards that, to me, seemed out of whack with the effort I put in. The strange thing about this is that I detest sales and marketing. It's all a con (in all senses of the word). Being driven by sales forecasts and extolling the virtues of mediocre product was never a turn-on so eventually I gave it up.

In yet another period of inactivity (and daydreaming) I have been re-reading John Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey series. This is marvellous stuff which I can happily read again and again. I also watched again the DVD I have with Leo McKern playing Rumpole. The director and actors got it just right with Rumpole the ageing barrister having fun at the British legal institution's expense. Rumpole doesn't really like law but enjoys 'tilting' at it and defending the rights of the underdog.

While reading the series I've become a bit nostalgic and wondered what might have been if I'd continued the law studies and become a barrister like some of my classmates did. Would I have disappeared in the system and become a grey and dusty lawyer frequenting the Wellington Club or the Northern Club or would I have been a champion of the underdog like Rumpole? I prefer the latter.