Diary of an English student

I guess I'm feeling a little lovelorn at the moment.

Maybe its the book I just read, maybe its the films I just watched, maybe it's the weather. Or maybe it's just one of those things.

The book I just read - well, the book I just read was AMAZING. Not in a 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' way - it wasn't a dark story about the brightness of hope, or anything like that. It was a romance novel. Set in the 1950s. But it was SO good. And the main character was just like Rachel - absurdly tall, and lacking confidence with it, but actually, the one who won in the end. She got the guy.

The films I just watched - hmmm. I had a Truffaut marathon with Peppy and Tom, as 'revision' for our French lit. exam next Thursday (so soon! gah!). So we watched 'Jules et Jim', which is all about love and unhappy couples and has a really sad ending, and then we watched 'Le Dernier Metro' which is also about love and couples and has a quite happy ending. But there's a lot of loving going on, is the point I'm making.

The weather - yes. Well. The weather. I am in England, I guess. I shouldn't expect *too* much of the weather when we are not even into June yet. But really, raining ALL afternoon? Frankly, it just isn't on. I call it ridiculous. But its the sort of weather that makes you sit inside and stare out the window and wonder a little bit on all the things you are missing out on.

Maybe it *is* just one of those things. And though I may feel a little lovelorn, its only a very general feeling, because I haven't got anyone to attach it to. Except most of my friends, who I haven't seen or properly talked to for nearly a week and I miss

I'm afraid of losing them like I seem to have lost my friends from Perse Girls. Why am I so rubbish at holding on to people? Why am I so rubbish at communicating?

Why am I so whiney tonight?

So.

Henry VII.

Let me tell you, he was pretty good at finance.

But - and here's the crucial thing - he was NOT original in his methods.

Not in the slightest.

You want some serious financial and administrative reforms? Check out Edward IV, or even that much maligned monarch (alliteration is a wonderful thing), Richard III.

Henry VII was not an innovator.

So WHY WHY AND THRICE WHY do I have to be able to argue that he was? Why? Why hasn't the exam board realised that actually, Henry VII was LAME?!

Ok, so now I am beginning to exaggerate slightly. Henry VII was not entirely lame. He was pretty good at controlling the nobility, after all. But, you know, there's only so much of him you can take, and I did spend quite a lot of last year learning about him too.

But anyway.

Enough about Henry VII.

I read something today that made me very sad, and made me also realise two important truths:

1) you won't get a boyfriend if you can't wear heels
2) you can't wear heels if you haven't got someone to hold you up in them, ie a boyfriend.

This vicious circle seems to me to be unbelievably cruel, pointless, and totally relevant to real life. It is also probably the reason I can neither wear heels nor get a boyfriend.

I sometimes wonder if there is more to life than moping about being single, feeling chubby, and worrying about work/studying.

So basically, the 'Mid -Tudor Crisis' was a term dreamed up by some historian who thought that there needed to be an interesting sounding something or other in between the two glorious English monarchs, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

Unfortunately for me, lots of other historians took him seriously (it can only have been a him; a woman would never have labelled Mary I as a weak or 'sterile' ruler) and started debating just whether there was a crisis, and analysing lots of things in minute detail.

Even more unfortunately, this is what 40% of my History exam rests upon this summer. A ludicrous idea, all the evidence for which points the other way, but which must still be argued in a balanced fashion.

RAAAAAAARGH.

Thankfully, I finished my revision notes on this topic today. Sadly, this means I now have to turn to making revision notes on the other history exam I am sitting this summer, the one about the WHOLE BLOODY TUDOR PERIOD. All 118 years of it. Great.

In other news.. it struck me today as I was out in the garden helping my parents fill in a flowerbed on a break from the rebellions of the reign of Edward VI just how extraordinarily normal and without incident my life seems to be at the moment in comparison to my friends.

This made me feel a bit sad for them.

Actually, scrap that, it made me feel very sad for them. And also led me to question my ability (or rather, inability) to sympathise in an effective/helpful way.

I really am crap at the whole 'sympathy' thing.

That is, I feel sympathy, I appreciate difficult situations, but I just don't have a clue how to deal with them.

Is that a British, stiff upper lip thing?

Answers on a postc - oh never mind. You know the drill.

Where do I even begin?

We had our last Friday p1 free at Cafe Diem.

We played Classical Monopoly in Latin, and ate cakes and the like.

We ate a lot in English (Mr B was trying to make us cultured and had randomly brought a tin of stuffed vine leaves.. I am going to miss that man) and we played the post-it note game (where someone has a post it note stuck to their head with something written on it, and they have to guess what it is by asking questions). We reminded him of all the silly things he has said or done in the last 2 years. He asked us what we were all going on to do next.. said I should be a spy One day, Mr B, one day.

Then I had to clear all my junk from the locker.

Even as I type I am looking at my bulging pannier, still stuffed with (mostly classical) books. I'll unpack it later. Honest.

Then myself, Jo, Jen and Nic powered back to mine on our bicyclettes (as Jen would say) before making the last push to Sophie's.

There, we barbequed, sat in hammocks (I scared 3 people by leaping out of it suddenly.. good times and played on Sam's Wii. A jolly good time was had by all.

One thing that struck me was how .. well, how unconnected I seem to be to the group. Particularly in comparison with the other non-Sawstonians, ie Shahreena and Rach.

I found myself floating between where Jenny was and .. well... not much, really. Which made me a bit sad. I am definitely the spare part.

Then I cycled home at about 5:30ish and immediately my mum made me drive to Stapleford to pick up my little sister from her school trip. Except the coach was delayed, so we were hanging around for AGES. But when it finally did turn up, it was cute to see her again. I still can't believe how big she is and how unconsciously funky she seems to be. Sigh.

And then this evening I've just been stressing and the like. My first exam is in 13 days.

I'm not ready to take them, but I'm ready for them to just be over. It's not looking good folks.

As far as I'm aware, I didn't blog yesterday.. or maybe I did, and I have amnesia (that starts with A, after all)

But I did think up a really witty title for it - about aubergines and the A14. Because they were the two principle aspects of my day.

And also shouting YIPPEE LAST HISTORY LESSON TODAY just as my history teacher was walking past ...

But anyhoo. Today is a new day and all that.

I had my last french lesson EVER

I will miss old Riggers. I will especially miss Richard. Rigoni went round the class and said what we were all going to be and do and how amazing we were and the like. When she got to Joe, she went - 'Et Joe, Joe est..' and Richard just said 'a gentle lover' with a perfectly straight face.

We laughed so much that Ms Bolster came in from next door to ask us to be quiet because there were listening exams going on.

It was HYSTERICAL.

French was also good because Riggers brought in Madeleines (just for Richard) and sugared them in time to the absurdly dramatic music Richard was playing on his Ipod. And then she brought out a masterpiece of profiteroles covered in chocolate sauce and with a chocolate creamy centre... they were so good...

But it was quite sad. I mean, its the end of an era really. I've known Mme Rigoni for AGES. I did, after all, used to do gymnastics with 2 of her 3 sons.

Then I dashed off to go help interview English teachers. I was late. Naturally. But it was all cool, we asked some good questions and actually in between candidates we had some pretty amusing chats.

At lunch, Sam mentioned something about a giant cookie Sarah had brought in for the Class Civ class and the Latin class. Naturally I was moderately outraged, as I hadn't heard anything about it. So I dashed off to see if I could find her. I found instead Mrs Contrino, but she gave me a hefty chunk of what was left and said if I wanted to see Sarah, she might be around at the end of lunch. Which she was. But it's very weird to think I'm leaving her behind.. I don't think I'd be doing Classics next year if not for her.

Then I went into town with Nic, where it was ludicrously hot and I bought some more Fatface stuff. I think I may have a problem

And then we had a BBQ this evening. Yay!

Also, Daniella comes home from her school trip tomorrow. Its weird just how quiet the house has been without her.

It's my last week at Hills Road this week.

(Well, it's my last week of lessons. Clearly, I will be coming back to take exams and collect results and so forth. Open your minds people.)

This means a number of things.

1. Exams are approaching really rather speedily now

2. Leavers Hoodie! I got mine today and, despite it perhaps being a leetle on the large side and also inclined to leave fluff all over my clothes, I love it muchly

3. We are having last lessons with all of our teachers. Naturally, many of our teachers want to celebrate/mourn our leaving, so people are bringing in cakes/biscuits/chocolate and the like.

4. All my good work trying to reduce the old stomach flab will be put to the test this week

I didn't bother with lunch today because I had so much to eat in Tutor in p3 (our last ever tutor! ), and also because Miss Smith thought it would be a great idea if we had a replacement History lesson at lunchtime. Then I had a French lesson, where we ate more delectable goodies (on a French theme this time, naturally) and then ANOTHER history lesson. I was definitely ready to shoot myself by the end. But I restrained myself a) because I didn't have a gun and b) because tomorrow is my last History lesson EVER.

Yes folks, its been a long while in the coming, but HISTORY IS NEARLY AT AN END.

Thank the Lord.

I woke up this morning to 'Black and Gold' on Q103 on my radio alarm.. and I haven't been able to stop humming it ALL day. In fact, I am listening to it as I type.

Why, you may ask, did my alarm go off this morning when I had a day off?
The answer, dear reader, would be that I was getting up to see my little sister off on her first residential school trip, the famous Ye Olde Isle of Wight trip, completed in Yr 6.

It was also my brother's first day of work experience, so he's actually out of the house for a reasonable amount of time, instead of returning at the ludicrously early time of 3:35 on most days.

So, in an empty house, I sat down with Sam Sparro and my revision and just worked, pretty much solidly.

I wrote a blow-by-blow account of the events of 'Le Gone du Chaaba'.
I wrote a list of all the characters in that very same book.
I watched the end of 'Jules et Jim'

by this time, my stomach was complaining. After a swift lunch, I returned to my work. But this time, I was on a mission.. to do history.

So I revised the religious changes under Edward and Mary Tudor.

Which may not sound like a lot.. but given that one of them went radically protestant and the other returned to medieval Catholicism, there's actually quite a significant amount to learn. So that was quite a hefty task. But I did it, and was able to tick it off in the front of my diary as a job well done.

Of course, there is only so much one can do in a day. My mum was in an absurdly good mood on returning home, so in a frenzy of organisedness we cleaned out both fridges in readiness for the Tesco delivery, and we also gave in to our craving for fish and chips but in a healthy, home-made way. And then we all went for a walk in the Beechwoods, and I drove (yes, folks, *drove*) back through Fulbourn.

All in all, it's been rather spiffing.

Not two things you would expect to find together. Yet here they are.

Yesterday, Jenny slowed RIGHT down on the way home after (or rather, during, as we got bored and left early) Lucy's party, because something ran out into the road.

'A child?' I hear you ask, or a dog, or something?

Actually, it was a hedgehog.

It looked a little startled by the high beam lights.. but it scuttled back to where it had come from.

Much hilarity ensued.

Jenny commented on how her old instructor would have crucified her for doing something like that.

So it's a good job Mandy wasn't with us.

As for the productivity.. well, I did ALL my homework today. And still had time to watch Doctor Who.

Which means that tomorrow, I can revise all day. Woopee.

On Wednesday, I booked my driving test. The lady at the centre who answered said she would send me an invoice and a date for it in the post.

They arrived today.

It was on 16th July 2008.

My 18th birthday.

As I was opening the envelope, I had a feeling it was going to be.. but it was actually beyond belief to see that out of all of the dates they could have picked, they chose that one. I mean, why? Surely they have my birthdate on record, anyway. They should really check these things.

So I rang them (straight away, for once) and told them that was my birthday. They did not have a problem with me changing it. Which is a bloody good job really.

So yes. That was BSM. Twits.

As for the government.. well, I'm thinking of a specific area of government. Namely the one related to education, and indeed, the one pushing the Extended Project forward.

This project was a pilot scheme a few people at my college got involved in about this time last year. Basically, we did LOADS of research on a topic of our choice over the summer, then wrote a 5000 word essay on it and gave it in in November. And did a presentation on it as well.

Basically, someone 'evaluating' the Extended Project came into Hills Rd. today to talk to us about it. As I said to Eric, he would be beardy, suit-wearing and probably bespectacled, and he would have a red tie. Well, I got it half right - he was beardy and suited. But his tie was green, and rather shockingly tied at that. But hey ho, you can't win them all.

So he just talked to us about that for a bit. Wasn't that fun. Basically, we told him that it was good but it shouldn't go the same way as other government initiatives on education - ie down the pan. I think he may have listened to us. So that's good, at least.

And in other news - interesting things that have happened today
1. English, always good for a laugh
2. Extreme snap at lunch
3. bay parking in the village, having never been taught to do so (oh yes! get in!)
4. David Tennant on the Derren Brown program, time travelling and 'mind reading' and such the like (and also in a wetsuit - mmm)

And despite feeling a bit chubby, today has been a rather more positive kind of day than the last few. Not sure why though..

Today, it rained.

Quite a lot, as it happens. Almost all day, in fact. But not *proper* rain.. just spittings and smatterings (or spitterings and smattings, if you prefer..), enough to make the ground (and the bottoms of trousers) wet and the sky grey and the inside muggy and a bit whiffy.

It was also my dad's birthday, and the birthday of my friend Lucy, who is now 18. A thought which is not a little alarming, given just how long I have known her (for as long as I can remember, and then some).

But apart from the presents and the card giving and such like (and the hilarity over the pornographic playing cards she was given at lunch, which I sort of missed because I was on a mission to finish the Monopoly cards in Classics Society), not much happened apart from the rain.

And then the usual deal ensued, whereby I get home and immediately (or there abouts) get drawn into making tea etc and don't get to actually do anything I need to do, or indeed, even go upstairs, until the process is all sorted.

I watched 15 minutes of Jules et Jim before having to serve tea, my brother and father being their usual highly unhelpful selves.

Then I went back to Jules et Jim, along with some ironing so I didn't feel like I wasn't doing anything.

I didn't finish the film, though, because once I finished the ironing I felt like I was stealing the lounge away from my mum.

Which is ridiculous, because it's not like I am watching the film for fun.. I am watching it because in three weeks, I have to be able to write an essay on it. In French. But I still felt guilty.

So I went upstairs to revise Cicero.

Panic followed when I couldn't find my carefully printed-out sheets of the whole text which I had been annotating as I translated so that I can learn the bits I don't know better.

Sadly, there is no happy ending to this tale as I still haven't found the bastards.

I don't know whats been up the past few days. I just haven't felt like I've been doing any worthwhile work, that I'm going to fail my exams even. It feels like this term has been all wrong and that I haven't done nearly enough revision, nor am I going to get it done now.

Basically, I feel like I am going to fail the most important exams of my life.

And saying that does not fill me with joy.

Today was a day of banality and uninteresting things.

Which, to be fair, is what happens on quite a lot of Wednesdays, and even, to some extent, my whole life.

(Does that work? Can you have something to some extent in your whole life? Hmmm. The History exam board seem to think so, judging from the questions they ask us.)

Stuff happened. Like lessons periods 1 and 3, a free period 2 (I thought I would run by themes rather than go chronologically.. I have History on the brain tonight), then home for lunch and then a driving lesson. And this evening we went to the Wok n Grill, because it's my dad's birthday tomorrow.

So there were high points, sure. But the point I am making here is that life is nowhere near as interesting as books and stuff make it sound.

If my life were a musical, I would be able to sing, for a start - and I'd probably have met the man of my dreams by now. Same goes for a romantic novel, although you don't have to sing to be in one of those . Even in a comedy, I probably would have a boyfriend. Or *something*

And I wouldn't feel out of place amongst my own friends, and I wouldn't feel silly no matter what I was wearing, and I might actually do some revision and thus end up with a worthwhile career.

Merh.

I seem to have a problem about revision.

That is, that I don't seem to be able to bring myself to do any.

Well.

Perhaps I exaggerate slightly.

What I mean is, I don't seem to be able to bring myself to do what feels like a reasonable amount, even though I know for a fact that I have done more revision than quite a few other people.

For example, I have finished ALL my English language notes.

The problem is, I am not motivated to revise History, because .. well, first because it's boring, second because I know most of it anyway, and third, it's a mark that seems pretty much in the bag (which sounds arrogant, I know, but hey ho. deal with it).

Neither am I particularly motivated to revise French. This is mostly to do with the fact that the grammar for the most part seems bleeding obvious to me and really the only mistakes I make are when I go too fast.. and its also because I don't have easy access to the 2 films we need to know. And the set text is dull, dull, dull.

So I have been revising Latin instead. Which is all well and good, and I know most of it quite well now, but it's a never ending process really.. which means things aren't getting ticked off in the front of my diary.

And as you may know, I have a bit of a thing about ticking stuff off.
Ohh yes.

So I'm feeling a little stuck. Study leave begins not this Friday, but next Friday.. half term, then straight into exams. That's less than 3 weeks. And I'm not ready!!

Help!

Could be a title for a horror movie, or a murder-mystery novel, I suppose..

However, it is nothing like so interesting to other people. It just happens to be a significant date for me.

And maybe not even that significant, in the general scheme of things...

It was my last Monday in college today.

'Why' I (pretend to) hear you cry, 'why is today your last day when half term doesn't start for another 2 weeks?'

Well, we've got a day off next Monday. That's why. So this was it. Last English first thing on a Monday morning. Last Greek Club. Last French conversation class. Last French lesson p5.

A chapter in my life has begun to draw, inexorably, to its end. Soon a new chapter will begin. But not until October.

It's the beginning of the end, folks, and I'm not ready.

So this is me, on my last Monday at Hills Road 6th Form College, signing out.

So. Being the party animal that I am, I was at a party on Friday evening, dressed as Hermione Granger (it was amazing.. I might start wearing a robe full-time) and at a party on Saturday evening (formal dress - so my favourite red silk number came out again .

In this time, I noted the effect of alcohol, and why it is a bad, baaaad thing.

I am not a stereotypical teenager. Despite my recent spate of partying, I do not go out much, and I certainly do not drink much. I have never been so drunk I don't remember something that happened.. hell, I've never even been drunk enough to throw up! I may say some silly things, and get a little giggly, but that's the most thats ever happened to me alcohol-wise.

However, some of my friends/acquaintances *are* stereotypical teenagers in this respect. And a lot of them seem to think alcohol is the solution to life's problems.

So on Friday, I observed a non-drinking friend gradually becoming more and more irritated by the antics of a drunk person. And on Saturday, I observed that being a tipsy person does not necessarily make you a happy person.. at least, not for very long.

This was a personal experience. And I think it was in part brought on by the general feeling of exclusion. By one person in particular.

One William Sigsworth.

If you're reading this, Will, I hope you understand the level of my - anger isn't the right word. Call it disappointment.

Pointedly ignoring me for a whole evening because I stand for things you disagree with is not only rude, it is also childish and unnecessary.

So I'm Jewish. And half my best friends are gay. Why does this necessitate such extreme disapproval? Why? Why? and thrice why?

It seems we will never know.

People will tell me to drop it, he clearly isn't worth the effort. But it grates on me, and it also grates on me that people who I esteem and like seem to think there is so much good in him. They trivialise the way he behaves and that makes me think its alright to suffer abuse at his hands. Which it isn't.

So because of this, and the wine I had drunk at this party, I nearly had a little cry, which would have been horrendous as my makeup would have run in an alarming way.. and only this thought prevented me actually curling up in a corner and weeping a bit. I soldiered on, determined to cast him evil looks at every oppurtunity. And I did. But I shouldn't have had to, and that makes me sad.

So today's moral is, kids, alcohol is a bad thing. And there are more anti-semitic homophobes out there than some would have you believe.

My house is a lurgified house.

As I write, my little sister is coughing. Oh, she's stopped... give her a minute and she'll be off again.

My brother - (there she goes) - has a constant sniffle at the best of times, but at the moment he has a permanently runny nose, and is coughing and sneezing with the best of them.

Thus far, I have not been infected.

But it's probably only a matter of time.

I have not had a cough, cold, fever, or anything like that.

Unless you count my almost-feverish attempts to create a Harry Potter costume for Jen, and a Hermione Granger costume for myself.

I think I've nailed it.. neither are very professional or neat, but hey ho, we are wearing them to an 18th so people will be too drunk to notice rough edges and they'll probably get ruined in any case.

That said, I am pretty damn pleased with both of them

The only things I am very unpleased with today are:
1. The blotchy sunburn on my arms. I mean, why, why and thrice why? On the ONE DAY I actually wear suncream? RAAAAAH!
2. I haven't watched any of the tv programmes I was going to, because of all the other jazz I have had to do
3. I actually wanted to do a bit more revision/homework than I did..

But apart from that, all is groovilicious.

As a wise woman once said (Peppy!), life is like a parabolic curve - it goes up and down.

Today is quite an excellent example of this.

Everything was going well this morning. I only had a 15 minute history lesson, because I left early in order to go help interview French teachers. So far so good.

There then followed 2 lessons on the subjunctive, 2 on the passive and one on the conditional perfect and pluperfect. All in French. Requiring brainpower, participation, thinking and energy.

Which would not have been *so* bad, if I hadn't been painfully aware first that I was missing my p2 free with Jenny, and second that I was also missing the whole of break, and any oppurtunity I was likely to get to see my friends and talk to them (and also eat something).

Despite veiled hints (and less veiled ones) by Dave and sundry others, the only break we really got between the interviews and actually having a French lesson was when Mme Rigoni went to go find the rest of the class, who had unsurprisingly buggered off.

So when, after three and a half hours of French, I was finally released, I could not but help cry a little.

And on arriving at the bench in the quad where everyone seemed to have congregated, I was even further put out to discover not one acknowledgement of my presence, or question about my non-presence earlier.

So I ran away, to weep a little bit, prepared to go home and the like.. then walked back to the quad once more because I didn't want to go home without at least saying hello to some of them.

And then people talked to me, and hugged me, and I felt a bit guilty for doubting them earlier.

And then I went home, and not long after had my FIRST DRIVING LESSON IN A MONTH.

Which I fully expected to be a terrible experience - but actually, was rather fun. And I may even be able to parallel park now

And this evening, I went to see my brother's GCSE devised theatre performance, which was UBER weird, but quite fun due to the scheming between myself and certain people about the getting together of my brother with a certain person. But it's all top secret, naturally.

Hormones. Who'd have em?

Isn't there something so delightful about a picnic?

Not only is it wonderfully British (so good the French nicked the word for it), it also combines the two joys of eating and being outside in the sun and warmth.

And while tradition dictates that there be at least one wet picnic per year, the vast majority of them are enjoyable affairs.

Especially delicious are the picnics when people bring homemade food.

Like today.

Katie made a lemon drizzle cake (mmm), Victoria made a sponge cake in the shape of (get this) the TARDIS, Katie also brought brownies (delectably chocolatey) and myself and Jen went to Essentialz the free before lunch and bought Tuc biscuits, Philadelphia cheese, Pringles and Party Rings.

And then we ate constantly for almost the whole of lunch break, pausing only to pass our rubbish to the bin lady (while Maheen evilled her, lol).

It was probably incredibly fattening. But there are no lengths we will not go to celebrate Nic's birthday, as has already been proved..

All the little cryptic things I have been saying for about the last month finally came to a head yesterday in a rather spectacular manner.

Because the secret was redoing Nic's garden (in a 'Groundforce' type of way) while she was away at her mum's this weekend, ready for her 18th birthday party on Friday.

And oh my, were we good.

So I missed out on Saturday (as I rather slyly alluded to in my blog of that day), but Sunday afternoon I was picked up by Jen and Rachel and we went to Nic's house, meeting Jo and Eric there.

We built (after a little trial and error) a gazebo.

We went to Homebase and Argos, and bought plants and (get this) a garden bench! Oh yeah baby!

Meanwhile, Jen went to collect Katie and half the stuff she had forgotten, like plant pots and fairy lights.

Sam also joined us briefly.

We put up the fairy lights all along the fence (some small issues occurred when we realised half of them weren't on, and only quick thinking from Katie saved the day), Rachel planted the flower beds and myself, Eric and Jo fought with the bench, while Katie and Jen amused themselves dancing around and offering help to anyone who needed it (and taking photos).

At last the bench was done.. or so we thought. Three of us sat on it whilst Nic's dad made sure it was all secure (much to Jenny's consternation, but then, who wouldn't be concerned about a drill less than 2 inches away from their bum?) and then we carried it to the end of the garden and positioned it appropriately. Jo and Rachel left, and it was time to make the card.

I was relegated to sitting on the rug whilst Eric, Katie and Jen directed my every move paper-wise from the bench. At one point, Katie got off the bench and Eric moved along it - barely a moment later, a bird poo landed right where his head would have been. Major lol-age ensued.

Nic's dad supplied us with tea and biscuits whilst we added the finishing touches to the card and wrote the damn thing. After some hilarity with more bird poo (I swear they were watching us), we finished it. Eric went home, and Jen dropped me and Katie home too.

We all went back to Nic's house in the evening to surprise her when she arrived back from her mum's.

She was pleased

And today, I met her in town, bought her breakfast, and then we shopped and met Roma people for lunch in Clowns (uber cheap and pretty tasty, even if the staff are a little incompetent at times..). We spent the afternoon in the sun, lying on the grass and being chilled. It was lovely.

And this evening, I did some Latin revision (Shock! horror!) AND I have been making my costume for Nic's party.

No-one can say I have not had a busy long weekend.

I am not very good at late nights.

Actally, I lie. I am perfectly capable of handling late nights.. its the getting up early the following morning I have an issue with.

I nearly had a weepy episode this morning when my darling mama asked me how come I didn't get in til gone 2am.

But really, what can you do? If you are at a gathering with your friends, you want to spend as much time with them as possible. If this means that it gets past a point where you can reasonably request your parents pick you up, then you have to rely on said friends. And if all your friends have put their pyjamas on and declared they are going to watch a movie, then you can't interrupt the proceedings to demand like a spoilt child you be taken home before it gets too late.

You keep quiet and enjoy the film, and try not to panic about your parents locking you out.

All that it has meant is that I have been uber tired today.

So it's not like I lost out on much, is it?

The one thing I do regret, though, is missing a certain extravaganza planned for today, because of stupid work. Especially when said extravaganza was going to be so exciting, and also taking place on a day on which I could come.

Never mind. It seems to have turned into a weekend job anyway, so I'll still be involved.. it's just felt like I've been.. missing out.

And that makes me sad.

And a little weepy.

Although that could just be tiredness

In France, they have the expression 'faire le pont'

This literally means 'to make the bridge'

What it means in actuality, however, is that the damned frogs get yet ANOTHER day off work. As if they didn't take enough holidays already.

Because today is May day, and in 'civilised' countries, you get May Day off, all the Frenchies had a holiday.

And because today is a Thursday, it is a generally -accepted rule that the WHOLE OF FRANCE will take tomorrow off as well, in order to enjoy a FIVE DAY WEEKEND of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

This is how on fait le pont.

Personally, I think it is scandalous.

But not so scandalous that I would have serious moral issues about doing the very same thing were I to live in France...

Hey ho. I guess I am just morally reprehensible. Never mind.

I am looking forward to having Monday off though, to an almost untold degree.. and while I really should use the time wisely to revise, I am in fact going shopping and having a reunion meal with the Rome trip people, because I've got my priorities completely sorted

But seriously though, I wish teachers would stop setting homeworks. How are you supposed to revise if there is all this other stuff you have to do before you can get down to it? And it's all very well teachers saying 'oh but it's only a little bit', when all of your teachers give you a little bit, it soon becomes a mountain... especially if you put off doing it in order to get something worthwhile done!

Raaaaaaaah! In other words!

Ahem. Rant over.

The moral of the story for today is live in France, you get more holidays.