Returning to my Routines

It's true you know, that no matter what, we always end up going back to what we're used to. I've had no homework for months, and my work schedule's been all over the place; loads in the holidays, little for the first three weeks of term, then back to homework again. I'm back to practicing my instruments in the evenings, doing my homework, all that stuff. And I'm happy in it. We get the odd irregularity, which is essential in making our lives interesting, but otherwise, I'm back to normal.

Am slightly stressed about Douai on Saturday. I'm going to end up singing the Mozart without having heard what the accompaniment is like, but luckily the stuff we're playing in Mezzos can't go wrong - it's too simple. I do need to get hold of a black blouse though. That could be a tough one... I have Ali's offer, which I can always fall back on if needs be.

My mocks have gone OK. I'm happy with how I'm doing. School is average. I had a sleepover on Saturday which everyone could make (Ruth couldn't sleepover but was there 'til around 10 anyway). Mummy cooked spinach and ricotta cannelloni, and a mushroom risotto, and made a raspberry bomb for pudding. Everyone brought a contribution to the junk food we consumed and it was a good sleepover. Very enjoyable. Anyway, I'm off now.
Bye.
xxxxxx

Mozart....should be shot

I just spent two hours on my flute practice. Which left my flute in a disgusting mess, for one thing. The condensation was coming out of the end as well as the thumb key (the end is usual, the thumb key is just weird). For another, I now have suuuch stiff shoulders, my lips are sore, and my back hurts from standing up for too long. Dammit. My practice usually lasts half an hour to fourty-five minutes, today I spent fourty-five minutes on a two line passage that had completely eluded me. On the bright side I can now play it (although I havn't figured out a place to breathe yet, which is sort of essential.)

Speaking of breathing, something Kat said in choir today made me laugh thinking of past flute lessons. When I first started lessons with Cathy, I wasn't too amazing at breathing in much air when I took breaths, which led to me taking breaths every two bars and failing in general. Today, Kat was yelling at us to breathe before she brought us in because "YOU CAN'T SING IF YOU DON'T BREATHE!!" (I should point out she wasn't quite that angry, just exasperated, and this kind of yelling was the kind you're allowed to laugh at) and it just made me flash back to flute lessons when Cathy would shout (in the same, non-angry way) "YOU HAVE TO BREATHE! If you don't breathe, you will die, and I don't want that on my conscience!!" Or words to that effect. Ahh, the problems I have. Maybe I should take an advanced course in breathing, then everything would be sorted. Damn....
Anyway, back to wasting my life away on the internet :D
xxxxxx

Ave ave verum corpus blahhhhblaaahhaaah

i.e. the latin song I love ;) Well, it'd be OK if the alto part was not so incredibly low, we didn't have only two more weeks to learn it in and, oh, it was sliiightly more interesting instead of being on the same note for the first three lines (and IN LATIN!!!). But then again, those are the rewards of being an alto ;)

I had a fun day at the hospital shop today. Which is weird, because usually it's incredibly boring (because it's basically dead most Saturdays, clearly nobody had the courtesy to be ill or give birth today). But there was a sale today (yes, in a convenience store) and Dan got hold of the 99p Connect 4 which you can hardly say no to, on a Saturday afternoon. It was quite entertaining, and when it got to 4 games to 3 (with him winning, shockingly) he decided winner of the next game takes all (because it was getting late) so naturally, I won, and am the champion. :P this is the product of my Saturday afternoons.

All my written exams are over now, only the P.D. practical left, which I am sooo stressed about, but Chazza is trying to calm me over it. She speaks sense mostly. I'm so glad mocks are nearly over; maybe I'll get a full night's sleep now. Plus next week is Week B, so I have exams Monday, day off Tuesday (Lucy's coming over) and then dos day Wednesday and Thursday, and then Friday. Thank the lord for dos days!

Anyway, I'm going to go watch some episodes of Friends, because I'm that cool.
Bye xx

"Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood,"

The first line of Angela's Ashes, for which I will not even attempt to write a review. It's been sitting on the DVD shelf for years, with the dreaded "15" stamp on it that meant I couldn't watch it with my brothers around, which meant I could not watch it. But I'm glad I didn't find the chance until tonight. I wouldn't have been able to appreciate it at all had I watched it before. I watched it with my dad, and obviously I cried, and I am recommending it to anyone aged 14 and upwards, but I wouldn't watch it too early, or the film will lose it's effect.

Other events of note, that I guess I really should document, that is the whole point of me having both a blog and a diary (which I seldom use).

Well, there was the conversation we had at tea tonight, in which we discovered that Daddy has taken almost every drug imaginable, and while I'd love to recount the conversation in great depth, it'd give me more pleasure to just take out a couple of bits. Firstly, Barney.

Barney says in a way that makes it sound extremely daring "Daddy, have you ever used a filter"

Daddy laughs it off, replying "Of course I have!" then seriously adds, "They're called roaches, by the way."

At which point I burst into laughter because he's correcting his 12 year old son's drug limbo. 

Then, later.

One of the three of us asks, "Daddy, do you think Mummy's done drugs?"

"Most certainly not!"

And after the talk of drugs, while watching Angela's Ashes at a point relevant to the film, he turned to me and said "You know, I think Mummy had to do Scottish dancing. When we're on holiday we'll get Auntie Karen drunk and ask her about everything Mummy did, it'll be funny"

I have such a responsible father.

Anyway, goodnight xx

"Too much of anything is too much"

That's a lyric but I've no idea where from.

I seem to be in some kind of fruit juice/squash, cereal bar and exam fuelled hyper-drive which is going to see me crashing down seriously badly at some point. I'm hoping after the 17/18th. Then I can use it to get through my exams.
Weird. I'm either overworking myself or working insufficiently, and I have no way of controlling which I do. I could revise for four hours straight without a break, and then have a shower, get into my pyjamas and sit on my bed for another two hours. Or I find myself watching endless Friends episodes and generally staring at the ceiling wasting my time and do no work at all, while in the back of my mind something's going "you're cheating yourself you know" but it's a weird voice like witches in the pantomime use, so I tend to ignore it and dismiss it as the more ridiculous half of my brain - when really the more ridiculous half is the half telling me what I'm doing is fully deserved.

I keep coming out of exams just wanting my results. I never really found the build up too bad. Controlled Assessments have me tearing my hair out for French and sometimes even for German Writing, but exams usually I just revise, go in, work, shake out my hand, work and walk out just wanting to know if I really did do my best. The worst time for me is waiting to know. Irritating part of the process. I'm going to be awful in June, waiting over a month for my results...
Anyway, I'm going to watch an episode of Friends because tonight I've been in an over-work state, and then re-read my French Writing and go to bed. Or maybe skip the Friends episode all together. Whatever.

Goodnight xx

Rumm num num num num num *and further motor car related noises*

Exams exams exams.
I have a corner of my room dedicated to exams. Not because I think they deserve a corner, but because I need my exam stuff to not clutter my entire room so I'm constantly reminded of them. In my corner is a pack of biros, a 30cm ruler, a maths set, some new pencils, and a letter from Becca, which just makes me happy and makes revision seem more or less worthwhile.

Biology 1 and 2 and English Language tomorrow. So no big stress. Plus I get to go home at about 12 I think. I'm loving this idea of study leave, especially since Toby had four days more holiday than me this year. I'm getting hours off school to make up for it, I think. That's the mindset anyway.

I will go and do two hours of revision later. But first I'm watching some crap (not crap, I love it) on the internet and making a call or two.

Bye xx

Long Time, No Talk :)

Ooh, look, it's my blog, I'd almost forgotten this little place in my mind :)

So Happy New Year, Merry Christmas, Good Wishes and all that. Smile, it'll make things better.

I got an email from Larisa today, and realised I'd neglected her a little. For those of you that don't know (everyone I think), Larisa came over from Romania with some trip Toby's school was putting on, what was it, last summer? The summer before? Anyway, since then she's been emailing me, and I've been (inconsistently) returning those emails. Her English is amazing considering she's only 13 (I think) and such a little mouse. Which can sound belittling but what I mean is she was just so quiet and shy and lovely and slightly terrified when she stayed with us.

Uhm, Christmas was good. Christmas Eve :) Christmas Day :L Boxing Day(s - yes all three of them) :) We had the relatives over 24th (Grandma only) and 25th till 26th, 27th we visited Gwen (my paternal Grandma - if that's what you call it) and took Grandma with us. They got on really well, it was quite sweet. Cute, really. I've been having a good holiday. New Year was alright. New Year's Day we had a party and the Moffats (family from sailing - sometimes referred to as Kalithea)  came over, along with some other people. Us kids watched T.V. in the lounge, and at the end the Moffats (who were the last left) were offered some 3D glasses to watch "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs" on 3D Blu-ray, the player and sets of glasses were a Chrismas present/reward for Barney's hard work.

Have been revising hard for my mocks, which is at times a bit of a downer, but necessary and hopefully worth the hard work and sacrifice. I'm rewarding myself with the occasional Friends or Mentalist episode :) dotted with Desperate Housewives which I don't love, but it's entertaining. I hate revising P.D. - that was today's subject. Awful stuff, the only subject I'm seriously stressing about. Oh, and German Writing, but that's more because it doesn't count, so I'm not sure I'll bother preparing for it. It's like a practice controlled assessment, with no dictionary and about half as many words. Maths tomorrow - great joy!

Anyway, I'm going to bed, because my parents noticed I'm tired beyond belief today, so I'm planning on working on that before exams start.
Goodnight xx