Good lord, I really do apologise for this mismanagement of this fantastic resource. I knew that I was gonna' regret this. But the deep truth is that since the last post, there was Gozo and it has been NON STOP since that point. So I'm gonna', as soon as possible upload the notes I made in Gozo. So, what have I done since returning back to this fine country? Well many things, as I have already alluded to, but mostly it's College. Ah yes, I decided to go to Newman and there've been some shocking ups and downs, yet I think I'm getting used to it! We'll see. I'm sure the next few weeks are going to be all about college and the friendship circles formed/lost - notably Will who has just buggered off and left us all.
The time is a very peaceful and calm 22:49 and I am sat, in my seat, in the front room typing the weekly news, to future moi (and God knows who else) on the newly downloaded (yes that was downloaded-naughty torrented piece of software!) ‘Microsoft Word 2008.’ I have to report; on perhaps the briefest and worst review of software ever-although I am aware of sinfully dull YouTube reviews-that it is really good, and therefore mildly better than Pages from Apple. I assume this is due to the fact that Word is older and therefore more refined? Perhaps, or maybe I am wrong and Pages is better. I certainly like more the streamlined OS (if that’s the right terminology) from Pages and it’s ease of use. Who knows? Not I. Who cares? Yup, me neither.
Now I move over to Pages ’08. Ah yes, to be at home with Apple is far nicer. I’ll stop this weird shit now.
This week, the highlight has probably been the Wimbledon final (Rodger in record-breakingly long amounts of time won) and sadly, albeit a few weeks past now, the death of the King of Pop (or as the founder of Motown named him: “the greatest entertainer in the world”) Either way, he was undeniably a genius and features in my latest attempt to save money, Granny Paula’s CD/DVD! Soon, I’m sure, it will appear in fragmented YouTube links. Meh.
Finally, as they cart me away, I have one more thing to document. We (that’s the DofE group) put on a race night last night and it was rather profitable. I enjoyed it and the funds raised shall be announced in email after my lakes rendezvous avec mon oncle et tante.
With 1 hour and 5 minutes left of saturday, I made the post. Granted a week and a half after the last, but who cares?
I hope, on a simple side note that you like the new layout/template.
So what's coming up on this random factual dribble? Leavers, Lakes and L-ouse MD (had to make the new Sky 1 show start with 'L')
So, other than the return of Chris to England for Sedburgh and other endeavors with friends and a guilty conscience, the greatest news to report is Danny's: "Prom"... although Prom's are usually in America and for 18 year-old. And you're allowed a date. We drank, sang and leisurly spoke late into the night at the lovely Haigh Hall. I wore a suit from Slaters Mens Ware, Preston with a plum dickie-bow. So yeah, fun and memories for all.
What else? We went to assess the Silver's in their walking trip to the Lakes at the weekend past and I did a great and hard walk over 2 days including a new, more dangerous and rocky way up Blencathra. Overall the nearly 30KM and Blencathra were fun, little team morale builders. But there was a serious issue, Hayfever. I couldn't breathe, talk, sleep nor enjoy camp (or our apparently brilliant BBQ-Will can't cook!) When I awoke in the morning I had swollen eyes and a dreadfully dry throat. A severe reaction and rash on my arms too. The meds and cream did little and I wasn't impressed. What was the key issue for me? The worst fear? The fear that Gozo will carry similar pollen. I don't need to spell out to you what that'll mean!
Oh and I am utterly and completely obsessed with House MD, the programme, not the guy. Enough said, now nap-time.
I apologise for the lack of updates. Due mostly to the extortionate and harrowing hours i have spent slaving over textbooks and cheaply made, rushed keynotes full of dribbled down and filtered factoids about GCSE exams. But partial blame has to be the obviously increasing and unstoppable force of boredom in my life. Now that’s your introduction! [smile]
First on the itinerary is examinations. Ah yes the shake rendering and inducing bane of the childhood, what the past 12 years of education has been leading toward. The G to the C to the S to the Ezzzz. [shivers] Well, just as I should’ve been doing, my ass was firmly placed at my desk for hours and Facebook was ignored-sometimes-for revision. What have I learned… If anything? Well foremost, never ever plough into the exam with a ‘vague idea’ of what you are doing. i.e. answer the question only after reading and reading again! This being the infancy lesson learnt 30 minutes into the English paper 2 exam where i discovered, to dreadful panicking horror, that i had wasted 3 sides completely pointless and useless. I rushed and soldiered on, endearingly but I fear that long sought-after A has slipped between my fingers and run to hide behind mummy. I’ll have to coax it out in college (god that sounds perverse)
Apropos the rest, it was fine and textbook. Fittingly revised and generously answered, I have decent expectations. Except for that damn maths. I couldn’t do the first paper, it was a massacre of my A. But maybe this is ironic justice. If I was to get an A in maths and B in English, who on earth would believe that? Not I.
The prom, or leaver’s do, approaches and dateless (as is catholic code) with a plum dickie and a snazzy suit, I prepare for the big day (forgive the thoughts now inevitably protruding into your head..[pause].. now you know why i opted out of the salmon cravat). Haigh Hall is the venue and that’s all I can say. In fact, what right of comment do I have? I’m not nervous, looking forward to the nice meal, gulping the beverages provided and to say good-bye, formally, to Holy Cross. oOo I appear to be squeeming with delight.
Gozo too looms closer and as of yesterday afternoon, the final payment was cast and I am, in effect, on the way to Gozo. Shadowing this news is the results of Granny Joan’s medical results. She has cancer, once more, of the same area. We know it is stage 2 and that it hasn’t presently metabolised to key areas nor organs. The results are in on friday answering if she has cancer in her bones too. We cross our fingers and other anatomical details, hoping that it will be false and that her oral chemotherapy is a success and treatment is responsive and effective.
Finally, if this sounds nasally, I apologise. Hayfever is at its peak now and I am miserable. Not even the GP’s 10 MG of Ceritizine Hydrochloride appears to work. My first debit card arrived in the mail last week and with it I purchased, via iTunes, my iPod a present. Software update version 3.0 with ‘cut, copy and paste.’ Fascinating I know. To be honest, I really cannot wait for the September Snow Leopard OS 10 release for my MacBook. A shiny new operating system for $29, or as it most definitely shall be retailed in Stirling, £29. Please Note once more that this transcript (above) is not the finished piece and the recording varies in length and wording in some places.
I'd like, if I may, to pay brief attention to my exams of the past week. I first took mathematics and RE. Of course the RE was simple and relatively easy, but then again it was always to be that way. Whereas maths couldn't have been much worse. Sadly, there goes my A forever.
On a far brighter note, I think that I did rather well in my English Literature exam. I answered lengthy and well all questions and interpreted the poem at the end correctly. In other words, I think that it's definitely something of a career dans la futur.
Here is that poem, cannot talk more, maths to do!:
Winter Swans
The clouds had given their all - two days of rain and then a break in which we walked,
the waterlogged earth gulping for breath at our feet as we skirted the lake, silent and apart,
until the swans came and stopped us with a show of tipping in unison. As if rolling weights down their bodies to their heads
they halved themselves in the dark water, icebergs of white feather, paused before returning again like boats righting in rough weather.
'They mate for life' you said as they left, porcelain over the stilling water. I didn't reply but as we moved on through the afternoon light,
slow-stepping in the lake's shingle and sand, I noticed our hands, that had, somehow, swum the distance between us
and folded, one over the other, like a pair of wings settling after flight
Owen Sheers
In other news, I went to the dentist this week. God I hate those horrible, mask-wearing parasites of pain. She got some form of wooden stick with a rusting hook on the end and scraped some enamel from my tooth, placcy as it may've been. I won't go into the graphics, but GRRRR I really cannot take that squeamish thing.
Well, I'll go and take a wee nap now... oh the youth of today! Farewell and good night...
Well this week we have the final of Holy Cross life, orals, another go at an old favourite and of course PNE in the play-offs.
School has, at the time of publication, one more day left for myself and I cannot wait to leave. The lessons Mr Brown forces upon me are now 2. I am not fearful of the exams, I have never been better prepared for maths and RE is making sense.
Ms Hardy took me into the inclusion room and made me do my french oral this week-no pun intended-and I think it did go rather well. More importantly though, what were the UMS??? I must find out, maybe I'll schedule a Ms Taylor break-in.
I had another go at dragonfable this week. I didn't think it would be more than a sentimental, short stroll back down the memory but fortunately I'm a fan once more and, although less evangelical, I would assume to be quite addicted... yeah!
Radio 1 has its big weekend presently and I cannot wait for the highlights. I was far too lazy to attempt to get tickets, beside no time what with revision as the only constant in my life.
Fine, this was short, but I just cannot be bothered. EXAMS ARE MY LIFE EN CE MOMENT. We had the english chief-examiner, or as Mrs Rothwell called him: God, to discuss technique. Basically he contradicted the hot potato for A4 and said use 'suggests' & 'says' alongside Boylan's 'implies' & 'because'
