Math Problems

I have never been able to do math.  It has always been a closed book.  My dear mother used to say: “Ian is just like me.  He is hopeless with figures”.  That oft-repeated statement to family, friends and even casual acquaintances became a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Indeed, it became a point of pride.  At least one of my qualities was worth talking about.

My father was an industrial chemist by training and could work out complex math problems in his head or on the back of an envelope.  My brother became an electrical engineer and, ultimately, designed oil rigs.  Anyone who can keep an oil rig floating around in the North Sea must have some grasp of mathematics.

Unfortunately, my "figures" were always mixed up.  I could never count my bus money correctly or get my pounds, shillings and pence in order.  Twenty shillings in a pound, 12 pence in a shilling; what a weird system.  (Much later in life, I was paid in guineas--21 shillings.  It just got worse).