Paddy, our green cheeked Conure, has learned a foreign language. Once upon a time, when we asked the question
‘Little birdies go….?’
He would give a wolf-whistle. These days, when we ask that question, he barks.
‘Woof. Woof.’
Parrots learn by rote. If they hear something often enough, they begin to imitate the sound, (We have a lot of dogs in this neighbourhood, some of which bark incessantly, day and night)
Conures are known to recognise sounds appropriate to certain actions and events. For example, when Paddy sees and hears us gathering up car keys and mobile phones etc, he will say,
‘Back soon!’ He recognises that we are leaving to go somewhere and Pete has always made a habit of saying this to him when we are leaving the house.
When we return from work or an outing, Paddy will greet us with
‘There’s the birdies. Hello.’
(Yes, he does use the plural (birdies). For some strange reason Paddy tends to pluralise many of his words)
Those are just a couple of examples of how our little bird has learned to respond to both verbal and visual prompts.
This morning I found myself thinking about how I respond to certain prompts. For example, those of you who read my Blogs regularly will know I was all excited about taking a course in Copywriting. I signed up and paid for the course and I was anxiously awaiting access to the materials so that I could start work.
Unfortunately, the company in question has been having some serious technical issues with their server. When the material didn’t arrive after what I considered a decent amount of time, I emailed to ask what was going on. I received an apologetic response and an added bonus file. The problem should be fixed by that night I was told, and the materials would be available online the next day. But it didn’t happen.
Yesterday I requested a full refund and the money was returned to my Credit Card within a couple of hours. I received another very apologetic email telling me that they were as frustrated with the whole affair as I was and wishing me well.
So the fact is no real harm has been done. I have my money back. I’ve even gained some bonus materials for free.
But I feel so deflated. Here I was all revved up with no place to go, as the saying goes.
Still once upon a time I would have fallen in a big heap. I would have been saying things like ‘Why do I even bother? Things never work out for me.’ But this time, disappointed though I may be, I can see that this was just ‘one of those things’. If I really want to go ahead and learn Copywriting, then I have a good start in the bonus materials I received and I can take it from there. This is just a minor hiccup, not the end of the world
See, I’ve learned a foreign language too. It’s the language of Optimism.
©Lyn Murphy 2011
