Called to account........

Well, they're done.

The accounts that is.

And I'm done in.

TWO WHOLE DAYS of dealing with numbers has made me go a little bit mad*.  I know that there are people for whom numbers are beautiful things.  They see lovely, intricate, exciting patterns, and can read the language of numbers as easily as I can read a book.

Sometimes I envy those people.  

I wish that just once that I could contemplate doing any sort of arithmetical or mathematical calculation with joy rather than despair.  That my heart would sing (as opposed to sink) at the prospect of reconciling a bank statement, or working out a percentage discount, or balancing our household budget.

And don't even get me started on how much easier things are now that we have calculators and spreadsheets.  

They're so not.

However, I don't think people who are good at maths have much in the way of a sense of humour.  Or, thinking back to the the sadistic b*%!&@d who was my first maths teacher at secondary school, much in the way of humanity.  Perhaps the reason I'm so bad at maths is that I spent much of my time in his classes inventing ever more fiendishly painful ways of devising his protracted death.

But I digress.

The lack of humour thing is true though.  Here is an example.

This is an answer given by a student in an actual maths exam.
Surely, if there is any justice in this world, they deserve more than zero marks.  OK, so perhaps the drawing more resembles a shrew than an elephant, but the student has clearly demonstrated an innovative and creative approach to this problem.  Also, before struck by the elephant brainwave, there is evidence of some working and as we were constantly told at school....

"Always show your working.... even if you eventually get the wrong answer you'll get marks for your working...."

Of course whether the working in question is evidence of the correct process, your guess is as good as mine, but it looks convincingly mathematical to me.

So why has the maths teacher found it necessary to circle the elephant AND ADD A QUESTION MARK?  Not to mention underlining 'elephant'.

Clearly NO SENSE OF HUMOUR WHATSOEVER.

I rest my case.

* I told you.........