I bought a pack of these flyts last weekend in the Pound shop. I’d never in normal life have use for a large quantity of such archaic nonsense but sadly I am no longer in normal life. I am in a world where, despite being at a University who trumpet their status as one of the most environmentally friendly Universities in the world, everything has to be on paper and nothing is electronically managed. It’s sheer madness.

There have been a number of occasions in the past when I’ve spoken of this stupid system but as time goes on I get more and more cross with it. I am forced to throw away my own frugality principles in favour of wasteful stupid things simply because the Uni demands that EVERYTHING is done on paper and everything has to be cross referenced up, down, in, out and roundabout. Honestly – I’d rather not buy packs of flyts made in China (probably) and carted half-way around the world in a vessel powered by fossil fuel. Pah.

Not only that but they send us away on placement then deny us access to the work we’ve done so far. We are in a fixed place of work – mine is 40 miles from campus – and I had an email telling me I could collect one of my massive piles of paper, an assignment from before Christmas, which has now been marked, from the Uni reception. Great stuff. The desk is only open Mon-Fri in office hours and therefore is not possible to access from my “job” 40 miles away. I will have to wait for 3 weeks before I can see how I’ve done. All I can tell for now is that I passed the assignment but not how well I did or what I need to do to improve for the next one. When I do get access to it, I’ll have to lug the telephone directory size block of paper home again and hold onto it for all time because it is considered a “public document” and therefore should be available for scrutiny if anyone wants to.

None of this is of any use to anyone and I think I may set it all ablaze one day but for now I have to tow the line.