B.I.D 43#

Today has been a rather dull day. I spent much of it reading Atonement to use in English Lit. Review coming soon. I also found a new activity to replace watching paint dry: watching my mum and dad attempt to strip wallpaper off the walls.
I saw a bit of the football today in which England won 2-1 against Japan yet failed to score a goal. Japan scored two own goals. England were pretty rubbish but then they did have only a reserve team playing in the first half. Anyway, they still haven't lost under Fabio. Fingers crossed for the World Cup!
Onto 50 things to do before I die. The full list is on a separate page but I shall be telling you about the things I’ve already done over the next few weeks. Thing number 43# is “Dress up in fancy dress”, which I have now done several times.

That’s me from Friday dressed as a domino.

That is me dressed as a sailor back near the start of 6th Form. The most embarrassing of costumes but I can always say I’ve done it.
Incidentally that day was when I tried thing 22#, be on TV. I was filmed for the local news but sadly it never got on properly:

But there you go, one day that goal, along with most of the others will hopefully be completed. One day in the near future I plan to try and do four or five of the list in one go, so that could be quite interesting. Unless anything particularly interesting happens I shall be doing a few reviews of various things tomorrow.

Eurovision Song Contest 2010

I thought that after twelve hours sleep I ought to venture into the world.

My first activity was moving my TV and Wii across the room and onto a shelf so I can watch/play stuff whilst in bed. I shall be purchasing a cheap DVD player fairly soon which will be nice. Whilst doing this I found a poem I wrote some time ago and thought I may as well put it online. Read “Why I love you” here.

My blog has now been going for over two years. One of my first entries was Eurovision 2008, which appeared when my blog was on my website. Times have changed!

So Eurovision 2010. It was all a bit…good this year. There were very few songs that were awful. Spain was probably the funniest due to the weird dancers AND during the first attempt someone ran onto the stage though it was hard to tell he wasn’t part of the act. Here is Spain’s song for you:

This was my fave bit of that performance:

I also noted that some of the singers were very hot, which was nice. Germany won by a fair while but I quite liked their song. We, the UK, however came last. Nobody likes us. But it’s still a fun watch especially with Graham Norton’s awesome and entertaining commentary.

The Penultimate Day at School

This blog will be practically my only online presence in the short-term. But more on that later.

Today was my penultimate day at school ever. And contained my last three lessons ever.

Geology. We watched the beginning of The Day After Tomorrow. It seems to be a decent enough film but the science behind it is awful. Just…no!

During my free’s I went into town where I discovered I had £200 more than I thought and that the party shop in Ringwood is rubbish.

Geology. We did some exam practice. Then it was over. Our amazing little geology group separated for the last time. We will never have that experience again. To commemorate this moment here is a picture of the geology group together:

At the end Mr M told me that he was pleased with the way I have improved this year and how much more work I have been putting in. Which was nice.

History. We planned a couple of essays and counted down more of the ten important things we need to know. We are continuing these lessons during study leave so they’re not really over.Not quite.

I have been quiet all day and have barely said a word to anyone. I hadn’t eaten anything. Something weird happened to me, emotions took over and the sociable part of my brain died. Words can’t really describe this so here is a picture which does a better job:

That’s why I am not really appearing on FB or Twitter over the next few days. It took over 30 phone calls from Gemma before I spoke to her and her tales of who was worrying about me cheered me up a little. I ate some food. I may still be quiet for a while but I shall try and be better tomorrow.

Tomorrow is my last day at school EVER. That is scary. The entirety of Year 13 will be in fancy dress and I am then going to a “pool party” courtesy of Lloyd. Expect lots of photos…

Introducing B.I.D.

Eng Lit. Our last lesson with Mr L ever. Not a lot happened. Not a lot ever did in these lessons but the knowledge I have gained from them is pretty valuable.

Another fun afternoon at work experience today. The kids quite adamantly decided I was cool, I made some of them laugh and all in all it was a successful afternoon. :)

OK, so onto the mysterious title of this entry. At the top of this page (or here if you're reading this on FB) is a list of 50 things I want to do before I die. I have achieved some of them already and plan to achieve some of them during the summer, but this is my new project. 50 things that I will hopefully achieve before I leave this place. Over the next few weeks expect entries starting with B.I.D. and a number- these will be me discussing the goals I have already achieved.

Apologies for the short posts the last couple of days. This will be rectified tomorrow, promise…

Lots of Tudor stuff and a Shuffle

Let’s run through today fairly quick then!

History. Mr R acted like a Top of the Pops presenter and counted down from 10, “10 Important Things we need to know”.

Eng Lit. We discussed some poems in general and supposedly did a practice essay. Not that any of us did it. I have another poem to talk to you about today and that is The Twa Corbies, another work by that fabulous Mr. Anon. It is from the voice of two crows (corbies) as they rip apart the body of a knight killed in battle. They say how he will be soon forgotten by the people who loved him. Sad little poem really. Link on the poetry page (it’s written in dialect too!).

Geology. We did some revision again. Exciting stuff.

One of the themes that ran through today was Shakespeare. He just kept turning up in conversation. In Eng we realised another poet had written a poem VERY similar to one he wrote afterwards and we wondered if old Will nicked all his ideas. Maybe.

Whilst on Twitter this evening I found Mary Queen of Scots and I couldn’t help but wonder if I could use her tweets in my exam to support my argument. Something tells me not.

A special feature today, it’s iPod Shuffle time. Five songs, and I will talk about them. Could be very embarrassing…

1) Just Jack- Starz In Their Eyes. Though Jack sounds like a chav this is a decent little song. Catchy rhythm and has clever lyrics that show us the problems of the modern celebrity culture. Good start.

2) Guilty-Marina and the Diamonds. Marina has become my new fave artist this year and her album The Family Jewels is really good, not a bad song on it. This however is one of the worse songs but it’s still fucking amazing. Hopefully I will get to see her perform in the near future. The album is out today in the US by the way.

3) Fuck You- Lily Allen. This song didn’t chart very well here as none of the radio station’s were allowed to play it. In mainland Europe though they seem to care less about such things and it was a big hit. Despite the chorus using such strong language it is still a cheery little song. Worth a listen if you like other Lily Allen songs.

4) United States of Eurasia- Muse. This is a rock symphony and really sounds like a Queen song. It is off their latest and arguably greatest album, The Resistance. Words can’t do it justice. Just amazing.

5) You Want History- The Kaiser Chiefs. One of the many bad songs of their third album. Two brilliant albums and they then went and made this load of mostly crap, but I put that down to having Mark Ronson as a producer. It’s not a mix that works. This one gets skipped.

Well that was fun. See you tomorrow!

Short but sweet

A Wispa bar prepared me for the day ahead. And a pretty decent day it was too…

Geology. We ploughed through another exam paper, having arguments along the way. If we could do exams in a team, me, Mike and Torr would be laughing!

Mike and I ventured into our fave hangout of DCM-land. We made the name up but it is not important. We sat under a shady tree and generally took the piss out of whoever walked or cycled past. Mike said it a bit too loudly for one cyclist however and he looked round!  That could have gone horrible wrong.

Then it was time for our last ever English lesson with Mr C. We asked him a load of questions, he asked us a load of questions and then gave us all an inspirational speech individually and shook all our hands. After two year’s of crazy but generally effective teaching it’s all over. And this is just the beginning of the end. I have four day’s left of school. In my entire life. That is ridiculously frightening.

I appear to run short of things to talk about already. Brilliant. I think I shall leave it there, in a short little post. Quite cute actually.

Allotment 8# and the Big Weekend

First activity today was a visit to the allotment.

The shoots at the back there are garlic and those bamboo sticks are for pea plants to grow up.

The plants at the back are rhubarb, closest to the camera is butternut squash.

And this square contains potatoes. As you can see, everything is growing rather well and hopefully we will actually be able to eat some of our produce!

I spent the next few hours doing some revision/essay-writing and whilst I was doing that I was able to watch/listen to loads of artists perform live at Radio One’s Big Weekend. I saw Marina and the Diamonds, Biffy Clyro, Pixie Lott, Jason Derulo AND Paramore.Not bad considering I was just sat at home. Here are shots of Marina, Hayley from Paramore and Pixie Lott:

Wow, lots of pictures today. This evening I ventured into the great outdoors and went for a little walk. It’s been a scorching weekend, reaching 26 degrees Celsius here today. Also there are dandelion seeds floating all through the sky very much like in the advert.

Seeing as though I am starting study-leave this week my life will be pretty much entirely devoted to studying. So that means it will be quite difficult to find things to blog about so I shall be experimenting with a few different things:

1) Speedlinking. I will do a post sharing some of my fave blogs and other stuff.

2) My secrets. I shall share literally every secret I have. If there is anything you particularly want to know, ask here.

3) Things to do before I die. I need sensible suggestions for this one and I shall do my best to achieve them.

OK, those are the things I have at the moment. This will heavily rely on the little community that read my blog so please comment here and if you have any requests ask away!

Building a boardwalk and I go down the pub

OK, so today I went to Young Rangers at a place called Leigh Common in Wimborne. (It’s a club thing for teenagers to do some volunteering at if you' don’t know what I’m going on about). Our task today was to build a boardwalk. This involved lots of digging thumping in posts and hammering nails in. Amazingly in the few hours we were there we somehow managed to finish it! I had a good laugh with pretty much everyone there was well which was nice. I have going to Young Rangers since I was 13 and I went to “Nature Squad” from about 8.I’m 18 now and as I’m going to Uni I shall be leaving, which will be very weird indeed. Just a few sessions left…

This afternoon I achieved a couple of hours of revision though nowhere near as effective as work done earlier in the week. But I did somehow get two hours done so it’s all good.

Doctor Who tonight saw the return of the Silurians. Once again it was an amazing episode, this series has been really good. It was a shame there wasn’t much of Amy Pond in this episode but hopefully the second part of this story will make up for that fact.

Rather randomly I ended up going to the pub with Gemma and Marcus this evening. We had a nice chat and a bit of a laugh and I was slightly tipsy by the end of it! Which is always good.

And before I go I ought to say hello to my fairly recent follower “posercorpse”. Nice to have you on board!

Revision and Mascots

Today I spent most of the day sat at my desk revising. I didn’t even bother venturing into school. So here is a video of me talking about my work space:

Alright, so I got bored. And that’s not all I got up to when I was bored, check out this blu-tac-man:

So as I talked about in the video, I am excited by Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Bangor and I can’t wait to listen to it this weekend. I have been watching the webcams this week and have enjoyed them, especially Scouting For Girls performing live in the garden of the Big Bangor Cottage!

And here is one thing I feel I should discuss:

The London 2012 Olympics Mascots. I don’t think they’re that well liked but I think they are awesome. An original idea which works really well. I actually want them. Nice one London, perhaps these Olympics might turn out OK after all…

Echinoid Testicles and Bullethead

Let’s open with what Mike wrote in his mock geology exam. What do you think the word under the red is meant to say?

It certainly looks like it says testicles. Once again Mike’s terrible spelling has made him someone to laugh at.

As Mrs W was busy doing interviews Mike and I decided to waste some time and played on a game called Bullethead. An hour and twenty levels later and we had completed it, much to our friend Nikki’s despair (she said we should have been working!).

Then I took Nikki’s sensible advice and actually did some work. I made a rather beautiful mind-map for geology and then practiced labelling trilobites.

Geology. We did a long question and thanks to my significant amount of revision lately I got nearly full marks on it. Go me!

That was actually it as Mr R was also doing interviews today. I popped into the allotment on the way home to discover that we have both peas and potatoes sprouting. Very exciting!

This afternoon I sat at my desk for three hours doing revision. I have done a lot so far this week! But that can only be a good thing. Having spent most of my day revising I sadly have little to share with you here again today. There are a few good things coming up though so be prepared for some fun times!

I’m Younger Than I Look…

Tutor time was the first activity of the day and it was a little odd as it consisted of three tutor groups all piling in together and watching random music videos on YouTube.

Eng Lit. We were given random lines from poems and were tasked with cutting and sticking them onto a piece of paper and then writing some notes with them. I love cutting and sticking so I was really disappointed when I discovered that my fingers were too big for the school scissors. It’s not that I have chubby hands, just that they are big. And you know what they say about people with big hands…

That was it in terms of lessons today and after some more revision it was time to do some more work experience at primary school. Today I had a brilliant time, mainly because two of the kids said I will be a “great teacher” which was lovely of them. And one of the kids was surprised to learn I was only 18 as she thought I was 35. Am I really ageing that quickly?!

I achieved another four hours of revision this evening which is a very pleasing achievement. There are now bits of paper all round my room and post-it notes stuck on strategic locations around the house so that even when I’m having a piss I can learn that the K-T extinction happened 65 million years ago.

Mrs W said via e-mail that we should ask Mike about ammonoid testicles due to something he wrote in his mock exam. More on this story tomorrow!

And whilst I have the chance time to update you on some stuff. Remember I talked about having a beard? Well if you looked at the photos from Marcus’ 18th you might notice it’s not there. I shaved it off. Basically I didn’t have a single person say it looked good and several said it didn’t so off it went.

It’s been a while since I mentioned Farmville here as well. My farm has gradually been growing and I am collecting llamas at the moment. Hopefully I will get enough to give them their own pen. And look at all the crops I am a master of:

An Immense Amount of Revision…

The promise to myself of writing a practice history essay went out the window this morning as I barely made it into Sixth Form on time. Sorry me.

History. We planned a couple more essays and have in fact now nearly finished the entire set of questions, which is very exciting. Actually I take that back, there is nothing to be excited about.

Eng Lit. We looked at some articles about rhyme and about the poem Porphyria’s Lover. We then looked at a Tennyson poem but I didn’t like it so I’m not going to bother even sharing it with you.

Geology. We did a massive mock exam which probably wasn’t as bad as it should have been as we looked at the exam paper before hand. We successfully guessed which paper it would be!

This evening I did a staggering 4 HOURS revision. I swear that’s more than the entirety of the revision I did last year. I’m rather pleased with myself.

It seems odd that I never talk about the TV show Holby City on this blog but I shall tonight as today’s episode was amazing. The hospital drama is not considered cool but I watch it every week and enjoy it. Tonight saw flooding and ended with power cuts during a major operation, two nurses stuck in a lift and two children missing along with the known paedophile who was a patient. Ooh, the drama.

Treasure, some hope and pointless internet exchanges

Let me begin by sharing with you the little treasure I received in the post today:

It’s a Super Smash Bros Brawl Notepad! And it cost nothing thanks to the lovely people at Nintendo!

Geology. We were given a fat off exam paper to practice with and I did so at a decent level. As ever there were some major distractions like the archaeopteryx song and the rats being horny.

During lunch I was summoned to see Mrs R about my history coursework. I had to do a bibliography and she informed me my coursework is worth a “C”! That’s given me a bit of a confidence boost in terms of exams as for once I actually got what I need! There is still some hope!

Eng Lit. We were given an exam paper to prepare an answer for. The English paper’s use the most difficult extracts they can possibly find. It’s weird though as I have a strange confidence about it despite the fact it’s going to be really tough.

The last few day’s have been pretty tough for me. Today I have gone into the mood of being as alone as I possibly can be, avoided talking to people in reality and online where possible. I have taken refuge this evening in Bejewelled Blitz and Formspring. Formspring is a site where people ask you questions and I got a wide range this evening. I seem to somehow have made a friend on there but also have some weird person saying how much they want to do sexual things to me. Due to the anonymity of it, it could just be some prick in my year “having a laugh”. 

For some reason I have a sense that fantastic things lie just around the corner but I just wish the corner was a shorter walk away. Things will be OK, but I just would like them to be OK sooner. That was a sweet little analogy just then, wasn’t it? How nice.

Now to somehow tie all this content up into a title. I wonder how I did…

Question and Answer

Yesterday I asked, on various sites, for some questions and in this more unusual blog I shall answer them as best I can.

Why? Why not?

What colour is Flanders' car? Orange? Oh, turns out it’s a pink Hyundai. My bad!

Comment on New Shoe Ceremony: starting to care about brands are we? Not really, I just read it out in case it meant anything to anyone but I care more about the product than the brand.

What then is the speed of darkness? Surely darkness doesn’t travel. So 0mph.

What is Albert Einstein's (of E=MC^2 fame) middle name? I’m not convinced he had a middle name. Perhaps it is just Albert "E=MC2” Einstein.

What is the proper name of the character "The Professor" on Gilligan's Island? (Hint: It was revealed in the first episode.) I have no idea what you are talking about. But maybe John?

Is the Continuum Hypothesis true or false? The what? False.

At the 1973 English Sheep Dog trials, how many dogs were found guilty? It’s not that sort of trial! None!

What’s the craziest thing you’ve done in public? Had a photo taken with a giant sandwich.

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Madagascar.

Favourite album? Marina and the Diamonds.

Are you having a good day x? Pretty good actually.

Do you think you’re attractive? Well to some people I am.

What country are you from :)? England.

What’s your favourite show? Doctor Who.

Best question you’ve gotten? “Do you think you’re attractive?”

What’s most important to you? That's such a hard one. I suppose happiness and the love of a good woman.

What’s your favourite kind of music? Pop.

What is one silly fact about you? I cannot roll my tongue.

Your definition of fun? Having a good time with mates.

Biggest turning-point of your life so far? Becoming single again. The word “turning-point” always reminds me of history nowadays!

Favourite candy? Cadbury Wispa.

If you could do anything illegal and not get in trouble for it, what would you do??? Steal lots of money.

Hi! How are you ?!? :] I’m good thank you!

What is one life experience you never want to miss out on? Music festival. I have to go to one at some point.

What do you do for a living? I’m a student. So not much.

Come to my page and discuss your secrets. Do not be afraid. Um just by saying that you scared me. But I will visit your page.

On a scale of 1-10, rate your happiness now. lol. About 8 I think.

List 5 things that make you smile. 1) Being told that someone loves me. 2) Eating chocolate. 3) Lots of alcohol. 4) Nice food. 5) Funny jokes.

What is your dream job? A TV presenter.

What is your favourite movie ever? The Muppet’s Christmas Carol.

That’s it! I never expected so many. That was actually great fun so I may well do it again some time. Thanks for all your questions and I shall see you all again soon!

I buy some stationary

Let’s get straight into things today and go into geology. Our task, in small groups, was to make a poster about the T-Rex and it’s adaptations. We did this fairly well and I had a go at drawing a T-Rex. My drawing skills are famously awful amongst my geology group and pretty much the entire world so I was fairly pleased with this effort:

During our free’s me and Mike ventured into town to buy some stuff. First on the list was a new pair of shoes as once again my old pair was barely holding together. It’s incredibly difficult to find shoes in a small town that aren’t women’s/cheap and rubbishy/really overpriced/brown and horrible/too small. Eventually though I did buy a pair and there the 3rd Bi-Monthly New Shoe Ceremony will be online tomorrow.

Secondly was some stationary supplies such as pencils, pad, ruler, protractor and rubbers, all of which are things I feel I constantly need but never have. Until now. I also bought a new fountain pen which is awesome. I like writing in fountain pen, especially in black ink, there’s something about the way the pen rolls across the page which is almost magical. I am getting far too over-excited about stationary here, how silly.

Geology. We revised corals and realised they are not actually as complicated as we thought they were. Thank goodness for that.

History. We looked at our weak point of the topic which is economic gain but with any luck we should now be able to answer questions on it if necessary. That’s should.

Tomorrow is going to be quite a sad day as it is the day Year 12 go on study leave and therefore the last day spent with some of the people that should be in our year but had to stay back a year for various reasons so I won’t see much of Paul or Marcus anymore. Having said that it’s Marcus’ 18th on Saturday so I’ll see him so I will be spending as much time with Paul tomorrow as possible. He’s bringing in cake…

New Beginnings

The beginning of a new day and I really wasn’t keen to get up after not getting to sleep ‘til gone half 2 last night. I just couldn’t sleep.

Eng Lit. Another few poems today but I’m just going to talk about the one here. It’s by a Miss Georgia Garrett and is called Manwatching. It sees a rather jealous lover watch a man flirt with another girl and it’s a very bitter and sarcastic poem. Lots of emotion there though…

History. I am now attending Mrs O’s lesson here instead of Mrs R’s. We did some good revision and Mrs O once again discussed some politics with us.

At work experience this afternoon I had my first rubbish session. A whole afternoon running around after small children who were struggling to do what they were supposed to be doing. But I guess you have to take the rough with the smooth…

The Year 11’s had their last day today. They are literally the chaviest year group our school has ever seen and I am mentally scarred after the length (or lack of length!) of some of their skirts. It made me think about my last day in two weeks time and how weird it is gonna be. I am leaving the school I’ve been going to for 7 years and never coming back. I am getting quite excited about going to University but it is going to be really scary. I posted a message on the UCAS forum and maybe I will get to know some people. I hope so anyway.

TV highlight of the night was Junior Apprentice which is the same as the normal Apprentice but with 16/17 year olds. They were tasked of selling cheese and I thought if it was me I would have eaten the cheese and happily got fired. There are some really annoying little kids on it though but it was really good!

Forever England

In a very unusual occurrence, and more by luck than plan, this blog seems to mostly follow along a similar theme. So without further ado, let’s dive into it!

History. We did some more essay plans and talked about the way the Netherlands’s shaped England’s foreign policy during Tudor times. A fair bit actually as their location means there was always a threat of invasion launched from there.

Eng Lit. We looked at a couple of patriotic poems. (I hope you are beginning to notice the theme).

The Soldier by Rupert Brooke is the classic poem with the famous first sentences in literacy history:

IF I should die, think only this of me:
    That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England.

It’s a lovely poem but has the sinister undertone of the threat of death due to the First World War. This is from the first wave of war poetry though when the tone was more positive.

The second poem was Robert Browning’s Home Thoughts, From Abroad and it uses Spring imagery to describe how much better England is than the “gaudy melon-flower” Browning is in. Probably France…

As lovely as these two poems are, I am struggling to think of how I will use them in an exam where the theme is “love”. It’s just not going to happen…

Geology. We revised the evolution of amphibians and dinosaurs. This involved watching more David Attenborough and the more we watch of him the more we are convinced he is CGI.

Whilst at school we had the theory that our school is the new Tracy Island and the new Jubilee Garden opens up and allows Thunderbird One to launch from it. Thunderbird Two launches when the geography block tilts onto it’s side.

I had to go to the dentist for a check-up today. There is very little I like less than visiting the dentist. I just sit there on the chair and give the look to say “yes I will brush my teeth harder next time” whilst thinking “whatever”. AND I have to go and visit the hygienist on Friday morning.

Anyway, back onto the theme! This evening Gordon Brown officially resigned as Prime Minister and David Cameron has taken over, leading a coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. I didn’t want Cameron to take over but the fact that it is a coalition means there will be electoral reform and the chances of it going horribly wrong (or right as the Conservatives would see it) are reduced thanks to Long Legged Cleggy Weggy. (Watch Russell Howard if that means nothing to you!) But at least it’s all resolved and we have some order.

I am proud to be English. If anyone asks my nationality I refuse to say I am “from the UK” or “British” as I am English and I’m very pleased about that. I shall be especially patriotic when the World Cup starts as I think England have a pretty decent chance of winning it this year!

ENGERLANDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!

Thoughts on being in debt, facial hair and emotions

Pretty much the first thing that happened to me today was the receiving of a letter from the Student Finance company. It informed me that they are loaned me nearly £7,000 for the first year of Uni. My first thought was “Yay, money” which was soon followed up by “I’m gonna have a lot of debt”. That’s £7,000, plus food, washing, toiletries and other expenses a year, for four years. That’s over £30,000 worth of debt but I have to bear in mind accommodation will cost more after the first year once I can longer stay in halls. I am estimating that it will nearly £50,000. I am going to be spending most of my life paying that back.

Geology. We did some exam practice by labelling some diagrams and answering some questions. I need to do a lot of revision.

Eng Lit. We watched the end of Atonement. Very depressing. As I missed half of it I shall read the book now and it’ll be useful for the exam.

After 6th Form I had my final Geology coursework-exam and this one seemed to actually go fairly smoothly but then again I think that about all of them and still do badly.

Now coursework is done and dusted, I can start revising properly. I find revising quite relaxing actually, it gives me something to concentrate on. And I started making one of my revision PowerPoint's again but worked out how to put in an animation so it’s a really interactive one this time!

Right, I’ve finally got round to talking about some things I have meaning to talk about for a while. The first of these is the growth of my facial hair and the constant questioning over it. I am growing a bit of a beard and I think it looks OK but it still needs time to grow and then I will have to decide whether to keep it or not.

Secondly is how I’ve been feeling lately. It’ll be three weeks this week since I became single and the way I feel seems to vary greatly. Last week I was really happy and cheery but over the weekend it really got to me again and I was once again upset. I’m like an emotional yo-yo. I think coursework distracted me from how I was feeling so I will try and bog myself down with revision. Even when I’m happy though there is still that horrible feeling at the pit of my stomach that I don’t think will ever go away…

Allotment 7# and Mario Kart

Somehow my mum and dad managed to get me from bed to the allotment without me really noticing. I was really tired but that may have something to do with my brother’s snoring waking up the entire household last night.

The allotment then: our small piece of land to grow vegetables in. We planted carrots and peas today and here is a nicely labelled picture of our allotment at the moment:

I can’t wait ‘til we can actually eat some of the things we’ve grown, it will be awesome!

This afternoon I had a bit of a gaming session on my Nintendo Wii. I played Guitar Hero 5 for a bit and then moved onto Mario Kart Wii. I’ve had Mario Kart for ages but for some reason there was just one trophy I could never get. But today that changed, I got the trophy and this awesome screen appeared:

I then took by incredible racing skills online and whipped people’s asses from all over the globe. My rating is now a fairly good 6000 which is higher than most people. Very pleasing.

Today marks the anniversary of VE Day, the day when the allies finally defeated the Nazi’s to end the Second World War. So many people died for such an achievement and I think they should always be remembered. It’s sad to think though that all this time on and people are still dying in wars. Everyday there is a news clip like this:

“The MOD have announced a soldier has died in Afghanistan. [Insert Name] of [Insert regiment] died due to a road-side bomb explosion whilst on foot patrol in [insert place-name] in Helmand Province”.

It really is like that pretty much everyday. It’s the 21st Century yet little had changed in reality.

Moving on from that cheerful note, if you are a regular reader of this blog you may have noticed a few subtle changes here. I’m steadily making things as good as they possibly can be.

I’d like to try a little experiment and I want anyone reading this to comment on this post. Whether it’s your first or 100th read do it, introduce yourself to me and if there is enough I will feature them in a future entry. Thank You.

I Sleep and Watch some TV

It was a Saturday, I’ve finished my coursework, I’m single and it’s raining outside. Absolutely no reason to get up. I finally decided to drag myself out of bed about 12 by which time my back was aching quite a lot.

After delivering a present to my newly 11 year-old cousin (very much appreciated it seems), I decided to watch some TV. First up was something I recorded from the other night, History Cold Case.

It’s a programme where a group of forensic experts take a look at an ancient body. This week it was a black man found in medieval Ipswich. Black people were thought to be fairly unusual in England in those days but it seems likely he was fairly accepted. He died painfully of an abscess. This was a greatly enjoyable show for a history buff like me, looking forward to next week!

Second was a bit of comedy in the form of the last of the current series of Russell Howard’s Good News. 

If you’ve never seen it, it’s where comedian Russell Howard talks about the funny side of this week’s news. It’s extremely funny and this episode was no different.

Next up was Doctor Who Series 5 Episode 6: The Vampires of Venice. 

 

Fairly obviously, the Doctor went to Venice and came across vampires, which predictably turned out to be aliens. Some good CGI here and another enjoyable episode. Next week however looks to be excellent!

Unfortunately those links only work for people in the UK. Sorry everyone else.

A short while after this however I was rather ill and I’m not going to go into the details: let’s just say it was messy. I did recover fairly shortly fortunatly and am blaming my mother’s cooking as that seems the only logical explanation…

A Hung Parliament and No More Coursework

So I awoke this morning ready to discover what had happened to our country. There is a hung parliament, exactly as the exit poll predicted. So this means that we have to wait and see what deals the party leaders do. I think the chances of Gordon Brown remaining Prime Minister for long are quite low but it is all down to who Nick Clegg decides to work with. Probably will be getting my second vote soon though!

History. Mrs R sent me away fairly quickly to go and spruce up my interpretation and I did exactly that and hey presto, it was finished. Pretty much the most stressful thing of my life for the past eight months is over. AND to make things even better I no longer have this lesson! Very pleased with one’s self.

Eng Lit. We had a rather crazy lesson in which Mr C pulled out his full repertoire of impression in order to explain various literacy terminology to us. Quote of the day, from Mr C:

In Atonement in the bit in the library he says he can't wait to kiss her ****. And he doesn't beat around the bush...

We also watched another bit of Atonement but after not seeing the beginning it’s hard to really realise what’s going on.

History. We ran-through the poverty section of the period, about the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act. This exam might actually go OK.

This evening I actually went to badminton club night and I was useless for most of the night but by the end I was on top form. It’s a shame some of my partners were a bit rubbish. But there you go.

Crossing a box and Allotment 6#

So, Thursday and I woke up and the next thing I knew I was at school. Not really sure how I managed to get there!

Geology. We revised graptolites and I might actually be able to write an exam answer about them.

Geology. We did our PowerPoints about microfossils and mine went rather well with it’s amazing bubbles theme. Mine was about foraminifera and here is what they look like:

 

Me and Mike decided to do a little experiment to see how long a Pringles-can can stay intact when it is filled with water. So in the 6th Form kitchen in a cupboard there is a Pringles-can full of water waiting to disintegrate. I shall let you know what happens.

History. We planned yet more essays. What fun! But at least it will be worth it in the end.

I got home to find I had once again received something in the post:

It’s my certificate for the first aid course I did a few weeks ago.

This evening I went and voted. Putting a cross in a box doesn’t seem very exciting yet I can’t help but find it exciting. Partly because I am looking forward to seeing who will win and what will happen to the country and partly because it represents me becoming an adult and actually having responsibility. How scary!

My mother and I visited the allotment and progress is going well. The rhubarb is growing a bit but the thing that’s growing best is the garlic. How awesome does it look!

Tonight, on this very blog, I will be blogging live about the election result so why not check it out!

Don’t Give Away All Your Heart

I never know how to start a Wednesday blog entry. But I’ve started it now so there you go.

Eng Lit. Another English lesson, some more poems to look at! In fact the two poems we looked at were W.B. Yeats Never Give all the Heart and A.E. Housman’s When I was one-and-twenty and they are very similar poems. They both say that you shouldn’t put too much into love and with my recent experiences I can relate to that. Out of the two I prefer Yeats as it is more emotional than humorous as Housman’s is.

During my free I quickly scribbled out of a poem of my own called Feelings which you can read here.

History. Our coursework is so nearly over and Mrs R still managed to rip parts of mine apart. At least the end is nigh.

My time at junior school was really good and I felt like a proper teacher as I was whizzing around the classroom helping kids make bags. Great fun and very rewarding, as ever.

This evening I put together a little video of random things I’ve recorded lately, and here it is:

And another exciting chapter in my video-making career has begun with this little announcement, but you will have to wait til July to find out more.

This evening I spent quite a while talking to my friend Ashland which was nice.

Tomorrow is General Election day so for the first time I will be voting and we might have a new Prime Minister. I will let you know how the voting experience goes and will also blog live about the announcement of the winner!

Turning-Points, poems and fossils

I never normally wake up as tired as I did this morning. A day in London yesterday knackered me out completely. But 6th Form is important.

History. We looked at how to write a “turning-point” question. Also we got back our essays from the other day and I did badly. This is the subject I’m meant to be OK at!

Eng Lit. Another poetry session and I shall once again attempt to share my opinions of my faves. You can read all the poems via the poems and novels page of this blog.

Robert Browning loved portraying mental murderers in his poems and Porphyria’s Lover does just that. I like it, partly because I am a macabre sort of person but also because it paints an excellent picture of a mentally unstable person.

Marvell’s To his Coy Mistress is basically a long chat-up line and uses the simile of exploring the world to sex. Not really sure that works. Surely any girl of his time would have loved this and ended his vegetable love!

Geology. Rachel and I had to do an AS resit (because we both forgot it this morning, oops) and then we did about preservation of fossils, in other words how fossils are made. And here is a random picture of a fly stuck in amber:

By the way, when you type “Amber” into Google Images you end up with lots of pictures of women partially undressed. Be careful.

This evening I finished my English coursework (very pleased about that) and didn’t do much else for the rest of the evening. I’m also very pleased to have heard back from my friend Ashland who I was worried had vanished off the face of the Earth but she’s mostly Ok. Hi Ashland (she reads this!).

Me and Chris visit London

Bank holiday Monday and what else is there to do but go out for the day? And myself and Chris did so by going to London.

We arrived quite early and bought the extremely handy thing which is a tube day-pass and decided the best place to head would be Westminster to see the Houses of Parliament and just across the river the London Eye and everything.

It was here that I managed to have this frankly amazing picture taken:

We then visited St. Paul’s Cathedral. Whilst looking for the way up to the dome we found Nelson’s tomb- I would be so proud to be given such a place of rest. We eventually found our way up to the “Whispering Gallery” and you can indeed here whispering. The roof of the dome is absolutely spectacular. We then had the opportunity to climb the huge number of stairs up to the top of the cathedral and what a view lay in wait.

After an exhausting walk back down the stairs we headed to the London Dungeons. Unfortunately the Jubilee Line was closed so we had to walk quite a way there and then stand in a queue for quite a while. When we made it in, this photo was taken:

The dungeons were amazing, it’s basically a tour which gives you “living” history. I ended up sat on a chair whilst a man prepared his instruments of torture, we went on a weird boat ride, got very scared by the chairs moving in Sweeny Todd’s barber shop and went on a drop ride to simulate being hung. It was a fantastic experience with fantastic actors.

After a bite to eat we wandered down Oxford Street and the surrounding areas. Our favourite shop was the famous toy shop Hamley’s. Seven floors of certainly brought the kids out in us and Chris really wanted a Top Gear drifting car. We eventually came to what was pretty much the end of our day at Piccadilly Circus.

All in all a wonderful day and it was nice to be away from stressful Ringwood for a day. Chris was fantastic company and it was the best day in a long time!

What I will do if I become Prime Minister

A fairly early start for a Saturday today, due to the fact that Mrs R. wanted me to send her my history coursework ASAP. A lot of the time I spent on it today was taking out words so that I could fit a conclusion within the word limit. This happened and I sent it off, so all’s good.

That took most of the day actually I didn’t really do much for the rest of it. I have an idea though of what to fill this blog with though. As it is nearly time for an election I wondered what I would do if I ever became Prime Minister, and here is my “manifesto”!

1) Electoral Reform- Put in proportional representation, allow people to vote from the age of 16.

2) Defence/Military- Bring the army back from Afghanistan as soon as is possible. Reduce the number of nuclear weapons hugely.

3) Minor Crime- Install a new mini-ASBO system. People can be given a warning for minor crimes and then a fine if they commit a second minor crime, with the fine gradually increasing until a prison sentence is given after ten such crimes. Minor crimes consist of dropping litter (with severer fines for chewing gum), spitting, minor theft and the like.

4) Major Crime- Life sentences will mean life.

5) Smoking/Alcohol- Smoking will be banned from all public places in the UK. Taxes on both cigarettes and alcohol will heavily increase.

6) Transport- Tax on petrol will heavily increase and this tax will be put into improvements to public transport. More and cheaper buses, cheaper and faster trains etc.

7) Immigration- There will be much stricter policies on who can move here. Immigrants must have a job lined up or a specialist skill which will help them get a job.

8) Economy- We will change our currency to the Euro. It will make everything a lot simpler. MPs expenses will be greatly reduced and the “Robin Hood” tax will be introduced (taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor)

9) Education. University fees will be reduced and eventually phased out completely. SATs will be abolished and GCSEs and A-levels will take a more practical and oral approach, rather than being exam based.

10) Media/Technology- The BBC will be protected where possible. More money will be put into technology and the British Space Agency.

I think that’s a pretty good manifesto. Feel free to discuss your opinions.