Tomorrow my alarm clock leaves on his four-month sabbatical to Switzerland. He's meant to be going to study spectroscopy, but I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up spending most of his time cycling or in the mountains.

 

His imminent departure has had some interesting effects. My brother has requested an email account. My sister will have to find someone else to tease about their eyebrows. I can no longer have a lift to the bus stop when I'm running especially late. My Mum has decided to buy in some chocolate spread - don't ask me how that follows, but apparently it does.

 

The last sabbatical was back in 1993. I was five, Rachel was two, Peter hadn't been thought about, and Mum wasn't in a job, so when Dad applied for six months in California, we all upped and went with him. It's weird how much I remember about those months, given how young I was at the time. I remember Kindergarten (cos they don't start school in America til a year later), all the trams in San Francisco, the iguana in the zoo, and the skunk that came into our garden while we were in the swimming pool - we'd done a house swap. I remember July 4th celebrations, camping in Yosemite (the tooth fairy managed to get all the way up there!), and my first day back at school in this country.

 

But we obviously can't do that now. The rest of us are all going to visit him at Easter, so I guess that's a good thing, even if the timing isn't fantastic, and he'll be back just before the start of A-Levels... I still don't want him to go!

There seems to be a new permissions system, I'm not quite sure what it does, but when I tried to go on Dickie's blog it came up with a complicated box for me to fill in. If you happen to be reading this, Dickie, I seem to remember an entry where you whined about people having private settings - and there's a word for that! Plus the comments go the other way, which makes more sense once you've worked out that that is what's happening...

 

Quite enough about MSN.

 

It was the funeral on Friday. You don't enjoy these occasions, but it went as well as you could expect and I think she would have liked it, which is the most important thing. It was appropriate, if that's the right word.

 

Then my birthday party yesterday! Every cloud has a silver lining, so they say, and the one good thing about having the ceilidh the day after the funeral was the Simon and Megan could both come! I won't go into a spiel to explain the Family because it could take a very long time, but suffice to say that it was absolutely unprecedented for Simon to be able to come to anything like that, and really really wonderful!

 

The whole thing went really well, at least from where I was dancing! The players were amazing, and despite my worries earlier in the week, about the right number of people came, including one or two who I hadn't been expecting and I was really touched that they turned up! Ellen's taken some photos, so hopefully I'll be able to put them up on here soon. (I'll have to use the laptop, once I've got an internet cable for it - about half an hour ago, this machine flashed up a message informing me that it had run out of C drive space). And you know what? Because nobody could drink alcohol, it just wasn't an issue, and I reckon that people had a better time for it, being able to dance and chat and stuff without that getting in the way - and I guess that anyone for whom that was a problem just didn't come, and it was their loss. So thank you to everyone who did for making it so special! :)

 

Quote of the evening (Penny Andrea): "Lucy, have you seen? Your Dad's slow-dancing with a woman - and it's not your mum!" Hehe! I think it was Lis!

Geez.

 

We're trying to sort out the food for Saturday. I say 'trying', 'cos this process has been going on for about a week already. At the weekend, I was bogged down with pretending to revise for C4, and I very unwisely let my parents use their discretion at the supermarket, on the basis I'd only asked them to get crisps and I wouldn't have thought that there was a huge amount of room for going wrong. They got crisps - mum's approach was to get duplicates of packets otherwise it would be too bitty. Dad's was to get a sample of everything different, no doubt with an eye for special offers, and we have ended up with a mixture of pretzels, Doritos, Pringles, and twists. Nice, but not what I would have bought.

 

Then there has been the whole pizza saga. Mum has an inherent distrust of takeaway food so she asked her friends for recommendations. Needless to say, her friends also have an inherent distrust of takeaway food, so after long discussions and combing the Phone Book, we decided this evening to embark on a new and exciting venture - to try a pizza from somewhere in the locality of Cotteridge!!! After going to one place, picking up a leaflet and Mum losing her nerve, we have had a single large pizza to share, and it's nice. Nothing special, but perfectly acceptable, as pizzas tend to go.

 

However, Mum wants to try one from elsewhere - it's true that one pizza between five people doesn't go that far as an evening meal, and she wants to make sure we couldn't be getting something better elsewhere - so I phoned up for another from the first place we'd gone to. I did it wrong, big surprise. I shouldn't have ordered a large vegetarian on buy one get one free, I should have ordered two smalls, but then that doesn't come to the delivery price, so why didn't I tell them we'd come and collect it...? And that's before you start on Peter's eating habits.

 

Why is nothing simple? Why does everything have to be such a big deal?  It was the same when I was deciding what to do for my birthday - I couldn't decide anything until it had been discussed at least fifteen times, and everything had been weighed up, and Mum and Dad were absolutely sure they were making the right decision - then and only then could anything go ahead.

 

I'd better go. Mum might have got the second pizza by now, and be wanting to discuss plastic cups.

Today has been crap.

 

I'm feeling ill and there's so much shit stuff going on right now. I was fine this morning, well not fine, but holding it together, when Mr Marston asked me what was wrong and everything went, bang. So Maths wasn't nearly as useful as I'd've liked it to be, what with the exam on Monday which I'm currently failing, and I've just been in an awful mood, with everything getting to me out of proportion.

 

Sorry.

Or 'Multiple Intelligences' - the different ways in which different people think. There's a wonderful article by Phillip Beadle in the paper, and I'd thought I'd include a paragraph from it here:

 

'Some schools have even gone so far as to have "smart" cards printed for students. These say, "Hi. I'm Mike, and I have high quotients of musical and logico-mathematical intelligence." On seeing this, a teacher would know to avoid Mike as one would a leprous dog, since he likes nothing better than singing songs about sums, and is a nutter"

 

Have I played any of you Tom Lehrer's 'New Math'?

 

 

(This cheered me up considerably as my blog for today had been going to consist of a whine about this awful woman at voluntary work. Now I can let go and just be content with being a geek..)

FLIRTING FAILURE
Ye gads! You're a flirting famine! Perhaps you lack confidence or maybe you're just a bit of out practice, but either way, it's important to remember that a night or two of harmless flirting does not a cheap slag maketh. Flirting is supposed to be fun and it's also a great way to quickly ascertain whether or not you share chemistry with somebody – if he flirts back, you could be in luck. If you're shy about taking your flirting skills out into the real world, have a practice run at home. The mirror, your Mum or your cat will not turn you down.

 

Great...! If only it wasn't true...

 

1 hour 50 mins..

S2 is officially over! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Unless, that is, I have to retake it, 'cept I've pretty much decided, that if I've really bombed out, I'll just use it in Single Maths and retake the Mechanics if necessary. Hell, I'll even retake M1 before I subject myself to Stats again.

 

Tis my birthday tomorrow!!! 18 full years of being me is quite a scary thought, as is everything that being 18 entails - the realisation that in *checks clock* four hours and twenty-nine minutes, I will be able to do all sorts of new and exciting things, such as get married without parental consent, buy copious amounts of alcohol, vote, um, book flight tickets??? Or can I do that anyway..? Oh, and watch hardcore porn, should the mood so take me. Great...! My brother claims that I'm not properly 18 until 5.00pm, but that sucks! Just 'cos he was born at 4 in the morning. Somebody asked me if I regret never having the thrill of using fake ID. Maybe.. but then I'd probably just regret the waste of an evening somewhere I didn't want to be, and I can still go to those places shuld I choose (albeit legally) so that's all good!

 

We're doing Danse Macabre in orchestra! *squeals* That sounds so sad, but trust me, Chris will back me up, that is a reason to jump around squeaking! And it's orchestra tomorrow! (OK, maybe I'm a lil too excited about that, but hey!)

 

I have amazing friends. I probably don't tell them enough either.. It sounds a cliche, but it's true, it's only when things are down that you can tell who your real friends are. And I know that the vast majority of mine are just that - real friends, who can be relied upon. You know who you are. Thank you xxx

 

I've realised (finally) that A Levels aren't the be all and end all. So long as I can get the grades for Durham, AAB, and I've already got one of the As, it doesn't matter what else I come out with. I know this sounds like common sense, but all through school, I've worked so hard to get the maximum grades possible. Why? Matter of pride, I guess. Plus, I genuinly like getting things right, and I like learning - it's not all for the sake of it. But with *end of school, ever* looming, I've started to realise that now may be the time to make the most of the other stuff in school - people who I might not easily see again, things that aren't so easy to do in a 9 til 5 job. So if/ when I don't get to Cambridge, maybe it'll be a good thing. I've known this in theory for ages - but now I really feel like I accept it fully.

 

I'm sure I'll think of something later that I should be adding to this, but that can come in another entry!

 

Update: I knew there'd be something.. sibeliusmusic.com has finally stopped shutting my computer down! And I can view scores, and comment on them, and even have a homepage and stuff which I couldn't before they changed it. So yay!

Wonders are many on earth, and the greatest of these

Is man, who rides the ocean and takes his way

Through the deeps, through wind-swept valleys of perilous seas

  That surge and sway.

 

   He is master of ageless Earth, to his own will bending

The immortal mother of gods by the sweat of his brow,

As year succeeds to year, with toil unending

  Of mule and plough.

 

   He is lord of all things living; birds of the air,

Beasts of the field, all creatures of sea and land

He taketh, cunning to capture and ensnare

  With sleight of hand;

 

   Hunting the savage beast from the upland rocks,

Taming the mountain monarch in his lair,

Teaching the wild horse and the roaming ox

  His yoke to bear.

 

   The use of language, the wind-swift motion of brain

He learnt; found out the laws of living together

In cities, building him shelter against the rain

  And wintry weather.

 

   There is nothing beyond his power. His subtlety

Meeteth all chance, all danger conquereth.

For every ill he hath found it's remedy,

  Save only death.

Someone at Sheffield really really hates me! It was the first place to send me a letter in October, guarenteeing me an offer, so they legally couldn't retract that. But I had my interview late November, and it went all right I thought. Then nothing.

 

I was gonna phone them on getting in from school, cos I was getting a bit worried about the lack of information on UCAS Track, but I went on just now in case. They'd posted all right - for a course which typically asks for ABB (evidence here: http://www.shef.ac.uk/p/prospectus/2006//coursedetail.php?courseid=459), they have asked me for three As including Further Maths!!! By the time I've got that, I'm half way to Cambridge!!!

 

So what's gone wrong? Sheffield's popular, yeah, but so're Durham and York, and it's not like Maths departments are bursting at the seams with eager applicants. Ditto the year in America/Canada. The guy said that I've clearly been well taught, so maybe he meant I've been scraped through by teachers to get the grades I have. And the whole French thing.. if that's what it is, I am sending so much hate mail to Mr Brown, he will rue the day he ever gave out his email address.

 

Of course it might be to 'challenge me' or something. Or that they wanted to be only held as first choice. Well if that's the case, Sheffield Maths Dept, you can forget it, cos I'm not holding that!

 

!!!!!

 

Update: I forgot when writing the above that I'd received an email just before Christmas, saying that the offers involving travel were likely to be a little bit higher, but if we failed those and still got ABC (the offer for the normal 4 year Maths course), we could stil come to Sheffield, just not with the year out. So it might still be worth it. But also, Mum thinks that when we went to the visit day, they said something about this being a new course. She reckons that they've been so swamped with applicants that they panicked, sent out the emails to cover their backs, then gave everyone as high an offer as possible to reduce the numbers, cos they can only take so many for the exchange program. Hmm. Still doesn't give me a huge incentive to go there, really, cos the Canadian bit was one of the main attractions..

I know I blogged earlier, but I found this beautiful page of jokes and just couldn't resist..

 

Q. What do you call a soprano who can sight read?

A. An alto!

 

Q. What's the difference between a soprano and a mosquito?

A. The mosquito stops sucking when you smack it on the forehead!

 

Q. What's the difference between a soprano and the PLO?

A. You can negotiate with the PLO!

 

Q. How do you put a twinkle in a soprano's eye?

A. Shine a flashlight in her ear!

 

Q. What is the difference between a soprano and a rotweiller?

A. Jewellery!

 

Q. How do you know if a soprano is at your door?

A. She doesn't know when to come in!

 

Q. How do you know if a soprano is at your door?

A. She's knocking cos she can't find her key!

 

Q. How many sopranos does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A. None, she'll stand at the piano drinking a Diet Coke while she has her accompanist do it!

 

Q. What's the difference between a soprano and a Porsche?

A. Most musicians have never been inside a Porsche!

 

Q. How many sopranos does it take to change a light bulb?

A. One, she just holds it in the socket and the world revolves about her!

 

A soprano asks her keyboard player, "I'd like to do 'My Funny Valentine' tonight... but can you think of a way to 'jazz' it up?" Keyboard player replies, "Sure, we can do the first chorus in G minor, then modulate to G#minor for the second chorus in 5/4 time, then modulate to A minor in 3/4 time for the bridge, then cut off the last 3 bars!" She claims, "that might be too complicated to do without a rehearsal!" Keyboard player responds, "Well, that's how you did it last night!"

 

Fantastic! And notice that I didn't find a single joke about altos - just proves how brilliant we are...!

Another link to a BBC magazine article - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4580718.stm - and this one's actually really scary.

 

Admittedly I don't go clubbing/pubbing, and the concerts I go to don't have any need of amplifiers as it's proper live music in places with a decent acoustic (OK, I'll stop rubbing it in about rock gigs!), but I do play and listen to a large amount of music, and this can clearly cause problems. The article says a third of classical musicians have hearing difficulties - now for anyone unfamiliar with the layout of a classical orchestra, the brass and percussion sections do not usually make up a full third of the players (unless it's Stravinsky or something), so that means that other, quieter instrumentalists must be affected too. And I know that I don't play in any huge ensembles, but the school Orchestra and Wind Band between 'em can make quite a noise when so inclined!

 

Mum always says that I have CDs on too loud as well. Now there's a part of me which thinks she would say that, as it seems to be a parent's perogative* to complain about the volume of their teenagers' music, but maybe she has a point - when I turned the music back on on the computer after reading the article, it did feel like it was straining my ears a bit, even though it's relatively quiet music goes. One of my little routines is to get into bed each night, then wind down with my personal CD player and a magazine to relax me. Maybe I have the volume too loud there as well. I know that I've got to be particularly careful with pieces which start off very quiet then get really loud later on, or just have a huge dynamic range overall - examples that spring to mind are 'Sheherazade' and 'Bolero'. It's too easy to turn the volume up to hear a pianissimo solo violin that becomes blasting great brass chords. And listening on the bus looks like it's out too.

 

My hearing isn't that bad - it's easy to read these articles and become a complete hypocondriac - but often I have to ask people to repeat what they say, and I don't like listening to music too quietly, probably because I've become used to the louder volume. Sometimes Mum says that I slur my speech as well, which is worrying. Maybe the trick is to turn the volume down now, as a prevention rather than a cure. Being deaf later in life definitely does not appeal.

 

---

*dictionary.com claims that this is actually spelt prerogative. What?! I'm sure I've never spelt it like that..! (And yes, I do roughly spell check my entries. It makes easier reading!)

Has anyone else noticed that whenever somebody's typed the word 'love' into a blog in the last few days, MSN have put a hyperlink on it??? See if it does it here, love. Or is this just a coincidence on the entries I've been reading?

when the conversation round the supper table descends to Knock Knock and dog poo jokes - and what's more they're hilarious!

I've got an offer from Cambridge!!!!! It's a fairly extortionate offer, it has to be said - 3 As including Further Maths, and STEP papers, which as we know can make or break only too easily. But to be fair, I knew it was gonna be like that, and I have an offer!!! So even if I decide that I want to go to Durham anyway, I've still got the choice.

 

Yay!

Happy New Year!!!

 

I always find New Year a bit of a strange custom - why not, for instance, celebrate 23rd November as it is the birthday of Henry Bear that I guessed to win him in Reception, or the 1st of June cos its (generally) sunny? Resolutions are never made properly either. It's easy to say 'I will not lose my temper this year', but for most people that's equivalent to saying 'I will single-handedly create world peace this year', cos frankly, it's unrealistic and pointless in making the resolution in the first place.

 

But it feels a bit weird not to make any resolutions, a bit obstinate, so here are mine:

 

*I will be a lil more rebellious this year. OK, starting uni that may not be too hard, and I don't want being rebellious to involve having huge slanging matches with my parents etc, cos quite honestly, what's the point? But maybe staying out a bit later when I go to parties, buying impractical/ revealing clothes as the mood takes me, and not worrying so much about the bank balance or what people will think. To kick start me, Ellen poured vodka into my cola last night - I couldn't taste it, though that might be to do with having a cold, and she claims it wasn't that much... again, not that I intend to get out-of-control drunk, but maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to not quite so anti-alcohol sometimes.

 

*I will not screw up my A-Levels. An antidote to the above. And short term, that means forcing myself to revise for the stats exam in... 15 days :-S

 

*I will stay heathy-ish. Or rather get healthy-ish. This means one visit maximum per week to the vending machine. It means stocking up on alternative snacks, such as carrot sticks and the like. It means not on any accounts going into Home Bargains on the way home from school. It means getting off the bus at the Grovsenor and walking the last mile home at least once a fortnight (lets be realistic). It means going to bed at a sensible time, so when I have a *wild night out* as above, it doesn't kill me. Actually I haven't done too bad recently, eating habits excepted. I have never ever had an Autumn term where I have been ill so little as this last one! Mum attributes it to quitting choir. I attribute it to having frees and no French - but whatever!

 

I think that's enough? You do realise that I won't keep any of them, but it feels virtuous to have made them at least!