[Anonymouse]

I tend to write by hand as little as possible. This is because my handwriting is atrocious. I was warned before the 'O' Levels (doesn't that date me!) that my work would be trashed if the examiners couldn't read it.

We'll leave aside my getting 3 As, 3 Bs and a CSE 1, shall we?

<plaintive> It's not as if I didn't try to improve. I did. I tried several different pens and styles over those 5 years. All to no avail. </plaintive>

A frequent comment at parents' evenings was 'First-class work - if only the handwriting wasn't terrible!'. A French teacher once compared it to the footprints of a spider which had fallen into an inkwell and staggered over the page after having had too much of whatever spiders drink on a night out. Though this was, I grant you, a fair assessment, I laughed hysterically!