Things I used to think I knew that I now know are wrong

Me and Hubbie are big fans of pub quizzes. In the days before we were Mummy and Daddy we used to be quiz regulars and even had specialist areas of knowledge. Hubbie is the oracle on politics and sport, our friend Adrian is the go to guy for history and geography and I pick up the slack with some trivia and popular culture including movies. On the rare occasions that he is in the UK my friend Tim would wipe the floor with the resident quiz champs as he pretty much knows everything.

It's a wise person, however, who knows their limitations and in our early days of courting me and Hubbie almost fell out over the correct answer to a question about Blur and months (if not years) later a similar kerfuffle over Whitney Houston. What it made me realise is that while Hubbie is super clever he  is not the one to answer questions about popular music. Equally, I am incapable of proffering any answers about sport, reality tv or soaps.

It's good to know what you don't know.Or to be more precise finding out when you think you know something that you don't really. For example:

- When I was nine my sister was born and we went to meet her at the maternity hospital where she was sleeping in the cot next to my Mum's bed. I asked when she'd open her eyes - mistaking a human baby for a puppy or a kitten - and was told that when she was awake she'd open her eyes. My parents still think this is funny.

- I grew up in London so when we went to visit my uncle and aunt 'up north' they took us all out to Blackpool to see the illuminations. I thought they were nice, but nothing special. It was years later that I found out that the world famous 'Northern Lights' are not found along the promenade above the donkeys, but in the sky and are called Aurora Borealis.

- The in-laws have been on the QE2 and are partial to holidaying on cruise ships. It was after we'd been related for a few years that I admitted my childhood belief that the swimming pool on a cruise ship was merely a hole cut into the bottom of the boat. My concern was that if you dived too deep you could end up in the ocean and get left behind by the ship. It made more sense to me to use the water that was all around than to pump water into the ship to use for the purposes of swimming. I still think they're missing a planet friendly trick here if I'm honest.

The original Neo 

Being young kind of allows for misunderstanding which is why I think my son calling all cats (and some other animals that look nothing like cats) Neo is very cute. Our cat is called Neo so it made sense to him that rather than being his name that is what he is. He has recently started to say 'cat' so clearly he's picked up on this and is far smarter than his mother was.

Being a grown up hasn't stopped me from thinking things that turn out to be wrong though. Until quite recently I had believed I didn't really know anyone in Croydon. I even spent yesterday feeling sorry for myself as Hubbie was at work and the boy was at nursery and rather than enjoy a bit of quiet time I did some chores and missed them both terribly.

Then today I took the boy to the park on the tram and then to the shops and we were stopped by three people we know from three different activities. It took me a while to work out that I knew one of them from a playgroup that we go to, but I think I covered pretty well.

I guess my point is - it's ok to get things wrong sometimes.