Mustard and Scholarships

Yesterday I opened a new jar of Dijon mustard. This is more exciting than it may sound, as real mustard (in contrast to that bright yellow stuff they sell in plastic squeeze bottles which never seems to mould of go off) is spicy and biting when first opened. Slowly, over time, it mellows slightly in the jar. Even in my house where much mustard is consumed, I notice the difference between the piquancy of the old jar and the new. The first vinaigrette maid with the new jar impacts my taste buds and leaves no question as to its supremacy over the lettuce leaves! If any vinaigrette is left over it demands to be mopped up with a piece of bread and savoured.

This week I applied for a scholarship for next year. I might have to pay for 3 or 4 months after my current scholarship runs out and so I finally found something I could apply for as a Canadian living overseas. I had to line up three referees to write letters for me. This is always a difficult thing to do as it has to be people who are somewhat familiar with my work and know me now, but they are not all supposed to be from the same institution. Well, in the end I had to go with the Head of Drama and my two supervisors. They were very willing to do this for me, but at this level they appreciate it if you give them the material which they should include in such a letter. Not exactly write the letter for them, but give them the notes to write from. It is such an awkward (doesn’t it look strange to see wkw in the middle of a word?) experience to talk about why you are wonderful and should be given money. Apart from that, I actually found that most of the material I needed for the application already existed. It seems the older you are and the more things you have written and/or applied for, the easier it is to cut and paste from everything! So I have now amassed enough information about my own life that I can structure an application without too much effort. It is simply time consuming. And I doubt I will get the award, as they usually tend to give such things to people who are trying to cure cancer or save whales. However, it is important to at least try and at the very least I have “a distinguished academic record.”