Spelling

One scary aspect of this move is that Aussies follow British spelling conventions. Many of you who read this may not know this about me, but spelling is VERY hard for me. It devastated my grades in elementary school and I have traumatic memories of NEVER getting words right. I remember a time in 5th grade (Mrs Rose's class) where we were studying ei vs ie and had "their" on our spelling test. I actually managed to spell it correctly that first test, but many other people didn't. So Mrs Rose announced that it would appear on every spelling test until the entire class got it correct. I spelled it incorrectly many, many more times than anyone else in the class.... To make matters worse, spelling quizzes were graded by passing them on to our peers, so each time, someone in the class knew it was me that was the one to keep it on our test... Mortifying!

With the help of spell check (I still study carefully where I went wrong as the computer offers the correct solution), I have learned to spell well, but it takes intense concentration and I can't always be sure that I am correct. Having all of these "misspelled" words around me is eroding my confidence in my eye! In the same way that I have a far more flexible attitude about time (I carry multiple hours, days and seasons around in my head simultaneously) I have to have a flexible stance towards spelling. And that is NOT GOOD.