"Important lessons have been learned."

Whenever there is a disaster, caused either partly or wholly by incompetence &/or mistakes made within a company/government department/school/whatever, the inevitable response is that the "relevant issues have been addressed", "important lessons have been learned", "individuals involved have been identified & dealt with accordingly", & "procedures have been implemented to ensure a more 'joined-up' approach in the future". There are a variety of other combinations of words used in such circumstances, but essentially they are all variations of the above.

These 'lessons' are not always learned, a fact which is of course flagged up when a similar disaster occurs as a result of the non-learning of the afore-mentioned lessons. It really does beggar belief sometimes.

Lesson-learning is something that should apply to any given situation. From being very small we learn a series of lessons - some through experience, & some through being taught by parents & teachers.

But there are lessons I never seem to learn & here are some of them:

Unlearned lesson #1.

I persist in buying hair products that say they will give my hair 'volume'. They never do.

Unlearned lesson #2.

So-called 'ready meals' are a waste of money - they never taste as good as they claim, & by the time you've added all kinds of other ingredients & seasoning in order to make it edible, you could have made something from scratch. And it would have tasted a hell of a lot better.

Unlearned lesson #3.

Getting ready to go out always takes me a really long time - it always has done. I have always needed a good hour to get ready, and that's without allowing myself any time to get to where I'm going when I am ready. So why do I continue to give myself 15 minutes, thus making myself anything up to an hour & a half late every time?

Unlearned lesson #4.

I look absolutely terrible in drainpipe trousers. I looked awful in them when I was still young enough to wear them - I look even worse in them now. So what exactly was I doing trying on that pair in Asda the other day? Did I think that a miracle had befallen me overnight & suddenly I had a figure like Kate Moss? Did I think that my eyes had been deceiving me for the last 20 years & actually I had always looked fantastic in tight trousers? I looked as atrocious in them as I always have done - clearly no lesson learned there, then.

Unlearned lesson #5.

Squeezing spots will ALWAYS make them worse.

Unlearned lesson #6.

However much that lipstick may suit me - I will never ever wear it more than once. I may as well save my money.

Unlearned lesson #7.

Getting lost in my car & just driving around 'looking for something I recognise' is NEVER going to end up in anything but tears.