But the sun rolling high in the saphire sky, keeps great and small on the endless rounds!

The title is my tribute to choir, because I didn't go last week and only did fifteen minutes this week, so I feel I need to prove I'm learning the songs. That's the "Circle of Life".

Right, it's been a while since I've written anything. So let me see. Oh, I said I was worried about English Literature. Turns out there was no need, I was only one or two per cent off an A* :) Yes, fine, you may take that as your queue to call me a boff. I've given up responding to that since I got to Kendrick.

My birthday on Wednesday was amazing. So thanks to everyone for making it that good. I got some really lovely presents. Excuse me for quoting myself, but I was actually driven to say that "this is the most successful year for presents ever. I love everything I've been given." So yeah, that applies to you all. The theatre yesterday was a bit weird, but amazingly choreographed. And afterwards we got and hour and a half to look round the shops in Oxford, which were lovely. We found some really nice shops. It is inevitable that we went into Top Shop. Just for the sake of it. Becca spotted some HUGE heels, I'm not even joking, they were goddamn massive! Unfortunately the ones on display were both right foots and different sizes. Not to be discouraged, we got Becca to try them on - resulting in her looking about a half a foot taller than me - and Rache to take a photo. But then a shop assistant told us that pictures weren't allowed, so Sophie turned to Rache and said,
"Rache, we-"
Rache turns, saying "Okay" and snaps another picture, before saying,
"Oh, oops, sorry"

Brilliant.

Then we came home, had a barbeque (LOVE to the veggie bean burgers :D) and decided to go to Pangbourne to see if they were doing an evening session of the summer fete, which they weren't this year, so we just walked home along the river.


It's so sunny and everything's so lovely at the moment. I feel like I can just lie on the grass and relax as if I haven't a care in the world. I've done my work(ish) and I don't feel any particular urge to go occupy myself with something useful.

Summer

Summer is officially here! It was summer solstice yesterday, and it's midsummers day on the 24th. Therefore, this counts as the best part of summer. Not that it has anything to do with my birthday...TOMORROW! I'm so excited it's ridiculous. Last year, I got to the day before my birthday and didn't really care. But this year, I've been counting down for nearly two weeks. I'm so so so excited. Also, my party's on Saturday and even though I'm missing half of choir (yes, yes, I know, Kat is going to slit my throat) I'm really looking forward to it. An afternoon at the theatre with my friends followed by food and the tent (but I don't think Rachel's staying for the tent part, she has a music exam on Sunday, for which we all wish her all the best).

On the topic of choir, that reminds me why I missed it last week. It was my grade 5 theory exam starting at 10am, which meant I had to miss tennis (10-11) and then I had an audition for this thing we (my brothers and I) do at the Hexagon in summer, but no doubt you'll hear all about that during the two week course. By the time that was over, it was nearly half twelve, and we were about half an hour away from choir. That means we could've caught maybe fifteen minutes, but it wouldn't have been worth it.
Bo got me a copy of my flute solo. We're singing the Circle of Life, the broadway version, and Kat wants me to play it. At the Hexagon. I may die. Anyway, Bo also got me a CD which I am currently loading onto Barney's ipod. Let's not discus the location of mine.

I'm completely immersed in music right now! I love it! I've been playing piano almost on a constant since last Tuesday. Then I've got this concert with band next Tuesday evening. Then choir and band at the Hexagon on July 4th. Not to mention junior house music, which Becca and I are helping Sophie to organise. I feel like all my free minutes are taken up my music. I love it when this happens.

Love,
Me xx

Hello and welcome to my mind! No, don't worry, you can stop being petrified, I'm not going to subject you to the contents of my brain, that would be too cruel.

I am focusing solely on piano practice and theory at the moment. My theory exam's on Saturday and I've got my piano exam on Tuesday. Theory should be okay, because Cathy's just taught me the last few things I needed. Therefore, I have twenty more marks available to me.

Transposing the key signature down: go down the number of semitones that you're transposing the piece down by. e.g. transposing down a perfect fifth from e major: key signature goes down seven semitones, becoming a major. see. simple.

Transposing a piece down: count semitones, it's easier.

Melodic minors ascending: the relevant major scale with a flattened third note. (e.g. for b minor - d major - they both have f# and c#)

Melodic minors descending: the harmonic minor scale with no sharpened seventh.
See, I'm a genius. And as for the efforts on piano; the less said about the extra page of one of my pieces that we discovered on Tuesday, the better. Hey! I'm working well to a deadline. Since Tuesday evening, I've perfected the notes, have started getting the phrasing and dynamics mostly right, and am starting to speed the piece up. I'm a little genius. XD

Sophie is organising junior house music (she's vice house capitain) and so naturally I'm involved. Becca and I will be "helping" with the choir. As in, Sophie will turn up, but she will on no account EVER try to teach them a song - that would be a bad thing to do. XD love to Sophie here, who is not incompetent, she just knows her strengths and weaknesses. Anyway, this is turning out to be more enjoyable than I expected. I think we will WIN especially since we're motivated by a new cup. XD the sad way we live. 

Anyway, I've got to go learn that page.

Bye

xxxxxx

Still Alive

Hallo, meine kleine entchen (hello my little ducklings) und wie geht es ihr Heute? Es ist wirklich ein wunderschönes Tag! (and how are you today? It really is a beautiful day!)

Okay, okay, German lesson over now. Sorry.
And apologies for referring to you as ducklings, I just couldn't help myself and I'm not deleting it now.

So, I'm still here - not quite dead yet!

Les examens. They weren't too bad at all. I revised well for them and the only results I was honestly worried about were English Lit., History, Product Design, Physics. Turns out I had right to worry for History :S I actually failed, no joke, this isn't the typical Kendrick "I got a B, oh I failed so badly" this is an actual fail. If it was the actual exam, I think I'd get a U (you can't get a D or E for higher tier). But I can work on that. I was pleasantly surprised in Physics, not expecting such a high mark. As for the other two, I have yet to find out my results for those... :S
Note to Rachel in response to latest blog post: Don't worry about it, I'm sure you did fine. As far as I can tell, most of your results are almost the same as mine. Also, I wrote more crap than anyone. I said that draughts (hot air currents) were caused by radiation. Not convection (the movement of air).


Brighter Than Sunshine - Aqualung


love.


Let us move on from exams. Sophie's sleepover was EPIC. I do not usually use that word. In fact, I mostly dislike that word and cringe when people use it. Especially when they overuse it. But it was so I have an excuse. Becca and I got the train at Reading together and Sophie came and collected us from Newbury Station. Then her mum came and collected all three of us. We slept outside in the tent and went completely hyper on Heroes, fizzy flavoured water, and previously consumed Doritos and dip. I think Becca actually had a fit at some point, such were the levels of sugar in her body XD (to Becca, Sophie, Rachel: I am referring to her amazing eleven! XD).

I'm going to stop writing now because my blog will be under scrutiny and god forbid my post is too long and irrelevant :D

Night. Well, it is somewhere I'm sure.

Alicia
xxxxxx

Only three more exams!

English Lit on Friday, Biology and French tomorrow. I'm home really early. German exam finished at two and I didn't have anything after that so I was allowed to just leave! In a minute I'm going to type up my third draft of my French - Ellie marked the first draft for me and gave me some helpful advice - thanks! Then I'll go sit in the garden in the sunshine and learn it off by heart.

Chazza (note. Chazza and Charlotte are the same person) and I went to see Ms. Katerzi (or however you spell her damn name. I may end up resorting to calling her Mrs Turkey. it's easier) about the Modella, our CADCAM machine. Unfortunately, it is no longer our CADCAM machine, as it has gone to Modella heaven. We want to do some fund raising for the new one, which will cost around £4500. Mrs. Turkey basically said no cake sales and didn't even comment on own clothes day. She suggested that we have a P.D. enterprise day and responded well to our idea of the year 10 students making a product to sell around school. She told us to go and see Mr. Hiner (P.D. teacher. We stole him from Theale Green :P) and run things through with him, then he could see her, then we could see her, then we could all meet up. The school hierarchy is just ridiculous really.

Anyway, we went to see Mr. Hiner today - well, I spotted him in the corridor, legged it into Charlotte's form room and shouted "Mr. Hiner's in the corridor! - and he thought the product idea was good. We said jewelry and he said key rings. He thought ours was a good idea and we thought the same of his. The keyrings can be personalised. Also, he suggested we use the mini-Modella (which is thankfully still with us, just not big enough to cope with our GCSEs) and I said that'd be good because we'd be showing people what we needed the money for, which was something he hadn't even thought of. So, we're well on our way to being productive and to getting our essential machine. Because, really, without it, none of us can complete our coursework. We're basically stuffed.

French calls from its pit of doom.
Enjoying One Night Only and Panic! At the Disco right now. They're both really good.

Bye
xxxxxx

http://superconscious1.blogspot.com/

very interesting blog I just came across. I love it.

I'm more than half way through my exams now, so I think I can justify posting something. Possibly.

Revision. Is not bad! My sole piece of advice is to read your notes just before you go to bed the night before the exam. Things sink in well then, and I'm finding that I wake up with it all stored up. And if you do it when you're tired, you don't want to be anything else, so you can't get distracted very easily. I fell asleep reading my P.D. notes on Sunday night.

I'm not going to bore you with details of my exams though. That'd be pointless. You probably don't care. 

I thought of something while I was walking home from the station today. Actually, I thought of a lot of things, you think a lot faster than you can talk.

But the main thing i thought about, was how people walk. When people walk because they need to get from A to B, and for no other reason, they tend to focus most of their attention on the ground about a metre in front of them. I surprised myself by catching myself doing it. I realised that the whole "keep your chin up" thing really does work. If you look up, and around you and make the best of the situation - perhaps you didn't want to be walking - you'll see things you would've missed otherwise.

Then I got on to thinking about targets. Typical because of the exams. I figured that personal targets should be exactly that, personal. And targets that you're forced to make in school so that your parents can read them on your reports are not true targets. Because when you make a target and have in mind someone who's going to read it, you're making the target for them and to please them. Targets should be made by you. You shouldn't have to share them with anyone because often people put their targets down low, so as not to seem bigheaded or too intelligent. Yes, there often is a problem if you seem too intelligent. Intelligence shouldn't have to be hidden, but often that's the case. Anyway, when you set yourself a target, it shouldn't be diminishing, and it shouldn't be unrealistic. If it's diminishing, and you exceed it, you'll know you cheated. And if it's unrealistic and you don't reach it, you'll end up putting yourself down. You should make a target that you believe you can achieve. Not one that you believe you can exceed. Because targets are about reaching things, and if you exceed them it should be a pleasant surprise to yourself. Not something you expected. 

With enough of the deep talk now, I'm going to go read my book. 

Bye xx

Beaches through to Bars

Long car journeys. I can honestly say I do not see the point. Yesterday I spent a total of over six hours in the car. Why oh why? And to think I was careless enough to finish my book before the journey back. Oops.

We were down in Devon (Exemouth, to be precise) visiting a grandmother who's far too old to come up to Purley herself. So naturally, while my parents went back to the house to help her with some bank statements and what not, stuff that she just can't keep up with. Oh, and the T.V. Freeview is wasted on her. While they went back to the house, the boys and I were dropped on the beach. It's a nice beach and I have some fond childhood memories of it. So I sat and read, occasionally raising my head to the sky and telling the boys to stop throwing sand down at me. I was underneath a ledge and was not happy to have sand in my hair. And it went all over my clothes. Grr.

I can tell you though, that the sun from the last week has had two physical effects on me - as well as affecting my mood :D - firstly, my face is totally sunburnt! It does not look nice. Darn. Secondly, and I think this is probably a much nicer effect, my hair is getting it's blonde streaks back. I didn't particularly like them last summer, but when I lost them all because of my hair cut a few months ago, I decided I did, and couldn't wait for the sun to come back. I would never dye my hair, it's just the way I am.

Then we drove back and I was forced to resort to using up text messages, so that I didn't die of boredom. We stopped off at the Elephant in Pangbourne on the way home and spent most of our time there watching whichever Lord of the Rings happened to be on last night. Oh, and also taking the mick out of it. At one point there was a girl leaning over some old guy, crying, and I said "I bet he dies" and Toby responded with "They always ruin good movies with soppy scenes" (might I point out that we were hyper from candy floss) then he died and a few minutes later yet another scene like that came on. Queue Toby: "Alicia! Not only did they ruin it by putting in one soppy scene, but they put in two! Who writes these things?" Good times, good times.

I have got to recommend something to you. I discovered this last night, while complaining that there was no veggie food in the house. "Everything's got meat in it!" My parents and brothers were eating takeaway Chinese - well, just half a crispy duck. But still. I rummaged around and found a salsa dip. I decided I wanted it. Whilst looking for some for of low fat crisps, I came across some croustads with a use by date in '08. So I figured nobody would mind if I ate them. I also added Philadelphia Light. Nice stuff. Conclusion: if you're looking for something fast and it's late, mild salsa dip with spreadable cheese and out of date croustads. Try it.

Addition to Revision Theory

Lovely little bit I've decided to add. If I only revise when I really can be bothered, or am in a good mood, or feel positive and like I can actually achieve something then my brain will start to associate revision with positive feelings and I will be more motivated to revise. It's working so far. Basically, as soon as I'm bored out of my mind, not just can't be bothered, but cannot take any more, I stop. It's working.

Only thing is, now I've done so much revision that I "enjoy", I've come to the point where I have to start on the stuff I've been putting off. Like History. And French. And English. And P.D. but I tackled that one last night and this afternoon. Ah, damn!



On another subject entirely, I am now able to go boast that today I cycled up Whitchurch Hill, all the way to the top, without stopping, or getting off, or giving up, or eating. And, as a bonus, it took me only fifteen minutes - yes, you would be right, a fifteen minute steep uphill is not the most pleasant thing ever. In fact, at 8.15 in the morning, it is one nasty piece of work. BUT I DID IT!!!! XD I've never even contemplated attempting it before today.

Oh, and it only took me fourty-five minutes, as opposed to the hour I expected to travel from Purley to Goring. Brilliant. Oh, and, I had a huge iced bun when I got to tennis. That iced bun is probably the only reason I kept myself going up that hill. And, even better, the way home only took thirty-five minutes, because I didn't have Toby on his idiot-tiny-he-thinks-it's-amazingly-cool-stupid bike (that's a BMX), so that's ten minutes faster than usual. I am proud.


Oh, and the reason my posts haven't been too regular, is because I have been work, work, working. OH, by the way, anyone who's recieved texts from me telling tehm "I cannot talk, I have no credit, really really sorry xx", I HAVE TEXT MESSAGES!!!!!!!! So yeah, sorry for my previous unsociable state, but for those who feel like texting me just because they can (and thanks to those who already have, makes me feel special :D) you are now able to and I will reply!!!! XD I love my mother.

Dammit, I can't say much more, I'd better get on with that History. Blast.


xxxxxx

SUN!?!

CRIKEY! Has nobody thought to mention to me exactly how RED my face is?
Why do I always burn in England? It's not FAIR! I'm going off in a strop *Alicia sticks out bottom lip*.

Joking, joking. But I am ridiculously red. And the worst part? Well, if you consider having a red face bad, what do you think of having half a red face? That's right, the bottom half of my face is nowhere near as red as the top. And my forehead. In fact, there is a very distinctive line across my nose, where red starts. HOW HAS THIS HAPPENED?! Moral of the story: wear sun cream in England. I mean it.

Hey, you can read this, it's not about revision!!!

Ugh!!! FINALY! I'm done with chemistry. OK, OK, I promised no revision. That was it. Promise.

I am loving the sunshine!!!! Isn't it just gorgeous (*stay till my birthday, stay, stay, stay, PLEEEASE!*). Tennis yesterday afternoon and this morning. I don't want to sound big headed, but I'm playing well. I haven't played this well in... ever. On the other hand, the three girls who were there today all already knew eachother and were really (excuse me) bitchy! It was nasty. And lucky me, lucky me, because I got to be the subject of their bitchiness. Hey! All I did was stand up for Toby. Mark, if you're reading this, yes, I really DID have to.

Mummy's coming back from Singapore!!!! I'm so happy! I've missed her looooaaads, and talking was difficult because of the huuuge time difference (nine hours to Melbourne, seven to Singapore) but she's finally coming back tomorrow! XD

Toby's new phone came through today. Thank god. One more day of "I'm getting a new phone soon" and I might have strangled him.

Biology calls. Again. Last one. Then Physics :S.

Bye xxxxxx

New Theory

Aha! Just realised. Reference in the title to the theory I suck at.

New REVISION Theory.
The old one, was that if I ignored the exams, and ignored the revision for long enough, maybe it would go away. It's not working any more.
New theory, if I stop procrastinating, stop mucking about on spotify when I sould be revising, and rely more and more on BBC bitesize, then maybe I will actually pass some of my exams. And those chances are boosted even further if I actually test the theory. Oh, and if I ignore everything I've ever written in class. Because it's clearly all crap.

Wish me luck!