Learning nothing

Well, today was officially Learn Nothing Day (see link on side panel of this blog). The aim is to go through a day of ordinary life sincerely endeavouring to learn nothing. It shows how much we DO find out just by living.

We thought we'd found the perfect solution: an afternoon at an outlet shopping centre. Hardly the stuff of intellectual enlightenment. Except, except, except... We drove through the Tyne Tunnel and saw a sign relating to travaux publics, so I learned that a French company are part of the construction while dd learned some new vocabulary. We all learned how the construction was progressing and we wondered whether we'd have a northbound and a southbound tunnel or matching 2-directional routes.

When we got there, we had a sandwich and dd learned that a key ingredient in pesto is basil, and she remembered we have this growing at home. I remembered I need to look up how to prune our container of mint which is looking tall and spindly.

While we were caught in traffic on our way home, dd was puzzled why UK vehicle licence plates are white at the front and yellow at the rear. Do you know, I'd never ever thought about that? A quick internet search suggests that the yellow at the rear is to prevent the driver in the following car being dazzled by the reflection of their lights on a white plate. The white at the front is possibly to afford clearer recognition of the registration number (and therefore the speed camera's friend?).

When we got home I learned about a lot of interesting home ed day-trips that are on the horizon. And I learned that my credit card had definitely been hacked. Thankfully, the bank caught it in time. I now know the purpose of those verification panels that seem such an irritation when you're trying to make an online purchase.

That's a lot of learning on a day when we tried to avoid it altogether and it's not that late yet.