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March 28 Stupid GirlI've cut my left index finger with a breadknife. I have a clarinet exam in six days time. Not good.
I'm currently leeching off next door's wireless internet connection. Our router box has failed (we assume, anyway, as it's taken out both computers). The nice man at PC World suggested poking it in the area of the Reset button, and failing that to contact the place we bought it from. Well the Reset button didn't do anything, and of course Dad doesn't know where it was bought from - not that there's a lot he could do about it anyway. So instead of wasting time on this blog, I'm off to find some information about Aeneas' trip to the Underworld before next door disconnect.
Sigh. March 24 DurhamThe camera lead has worked! Finally! Admittedly it stopped working again three minutes later, but it was connected for long enough for me to get my photos from Durham onto the machine. Any longer and the moment would have passed. So... if I put the photos up in the vague order in which I got 'em, here's what they all are:
1. My hand! My hand is not a unique feature to Durham. The reason, however, why I took the photo was for the lil blue stamp that was printed on it (says 'Trevelyan College' if you can't see clearly). You got one if you'd turned 18, 'cos it's official ID for use not only at the college bar, but in the town as well, meaning the students don't have to take precious ID when they go out, which is such a sensible idea. About half of the visiting students actually went out proper after the bar quiz. Needless to say, I didn't (I wanted sleep!!), but if I'd wanted to get drunk, I could have done so very cheaply in the college bar itself. I had half a pint of lemonade for 20p, and a pint of beer was about £1.50, which I'm told is good value!
Photos 2, 3, and 4 are of the bedroom I was staying in. It was a single (some are shared), and it may not look like it but it was actually quite big compared to what you expect from your average student room. Though they probably shrink once all your stuff's in.. They've had a rolling refurbishment programme recently. This was an 'old grotty room' as described by the student who took me up there, but in my opinion, it was anything but old and grotty. Certainly a lot nicer than the room I stayed in at Grey College in the summer.
Number 5 is the landing that my room came off. Each landing has six bedrooms, a bathroom/toilet and a storage area coming off it, which I can imagine must create a really close group of people who share around the landing - it's more personal than a long corridor with 50 odd rooms on either side.
You may have noticed that everywhere is a bit of a strange shape. This is because Trevelyan College is a massive series of hexagons - you get an idea from the front view of the college (6) and their banner for the Open Day (7)! And photo 8 shows the bar, newly cleaned and empty of students from the night before!
Photos 9 and 10 are outside views of the college and its surroundings (how *pretty*!!!). 11 is the view over the back lawn towards the tennis court - and you can definitely walk on the grass!
The rest of the photos are views of Durham itself. They don't really do it full justice, especially a couple where I've got the lighting a bit funny. Durham is beautiful, there's no other word for it. Very hilly, and there are some really old parts - the centre's still cobbled - but it doesn't feel staid, just really really nice! It's a very small city, but there are enough shops to supply at least basic clothes shopping needs, and Newcastle's only 10 minutes train ride away. It's also very green, so you feel like you're half in the countryside already. It's a shame that the view from the bridge in the centre of town didn't quite come out, 'cos it just says it all when you're there.
Landmarks are the cathedral and of course the castle, home to University College (who incidentally don't have a banner any more, 'cos some students from a certain hill college nicked it! Hehe!). Apparently the compensation for living in such a romantic location is that the accomodation is grot, and the facilities are rubbish. Besides, they don't have hexagons!
So it's amazing and wonderful! The one downside, of course, is the length of the journey up there. But the department's fantastic as well, really nice atmosphere - so much so that I'm seriously considering telling Cambridge where to stick their STEP papers, and just hold Durham as Firm choice. I won't make any rash decisions but it is tempting..!
Discovery of the visit: corridors at 120 degrees are seriously confusing!
People of the visit: I met Rachel Francis (doing English, no surprises there!), Rose whatever-her-surname-is doing Biology, and a girl doing Maths who I'd met in the summer.
Shop of the visit: I love you Subway, provider of (semi-) nutritious lunches for train journeys!
Accent of the visit: I want a northern accent, it's got a really nice lilt to it! March 18 Saturday.. Or Something..I think this entry is gonna be another slightly bitty one, but hey..
First thing I wanted to mention was that a couple of people have come up to me in the last two days at school, at have told me that they read this blog, and like it! Which is rather a nice thing to be told! If I'm gonna waste my time in writing pointless cr*p about my life, somebody might as well get something out of reading it, I guess. But where is the evidence? Where indeed, but in your own hands! So if you visit this site and I don't know you do, please say hi! It makes it more interesting for me if I have a vague notion of who I'm talking to!
Second point: software installation. I have got the camera out of its box, and taken a few experimental shots. You'll be glad to know that the zoom is very pretty, as are the six or so lighting options :) Actually, you can really tell the difference between 'auto' and 'cloudy/indoor', which is what I'd hoped for. It has already had an emergency excursion, as well, down to Cadbury World to get a shot for Rachel's IT coursework. The camera itself is working fine. What does not seem to be working is the USB lead connection and driver installation.
I'm really confused, because I thought that computers with XP didn't need you to separately install stuff for USB connections, and the software that theoretically installs the driver is refusing to recognise me as my computer's administrator. The fact that I very successfully installed some software about a week ago makes me suspect that it's the CD at fault, not my computer. I don't want to tell this to my mum - she'll have a tizzy at not understanding the 'computer gobbledegook' and then tell me that I shouldn't have bought a camera off the Internet, look where it's got me. Hmph. I don't mind about not having photos in file form for the minute - but unfortunately Rachel, or rather Mr Taylor, does. Any ideas?
Third and final bit of news, I'm really badly screwing up my Music coursework (final deadline two weeks ago); right now I'm on track for an E or thereabouts. It's too hard *cries with frustration*. Farewell any hope of getting an A. And you know what's so annoying? I care ten times more about Music than I do about Classics, and yet the marks I'm getting in both go the other way round. Why oh why didn't I write my report on Mozart??? In fact, why oh why did the office screw up my AS results in the summer, so I could have sent off for a feedback sheet on the AS? I'm sure that's part of my mental blockage now. *Grump*. March 17 BreathingI had a singing lesson with Miss after school today. It's only my third, despite the pink glittery idea at the end of L6 that we could have them once a week in frees, and maybe use it for my A Level. Well needless to say, that hasn't happened, mainly because to get the timetable she needed to fit in with all her college stuff, Miss hasn't had any frees. So then it was going to be after school on Week B Fridays, and somehow that hasn't happened either - I've had a sore throat (which admittedly happens quite a bit), or it's been a teacher training day, or they've cancelled Friday afternoon for some other reason.
It's a shame, 'cos I'd love to learn how to sing properly. I'm fine in a choir, I can hold a part and harmonise and stuff, but that isn't the same as proper solo singing, whatever Joe and Michael might think. It's the same as learning any other instrument - you have to think about tone quality, intervals, hitting the notes in the centre, as it were, and of course breath control.
Breath control is where I fall down every single time, in choir as well. I think I must just do it wrong, but I simply can't sustain a good breath (and therefore a good note) for nearly as long as I ought. Even when I consciously 'sing from my tummy', as Miss describes it, the sound just runs out before it should. There's a warm-up exercise we sometimes do in Chamber Choir. Taking the notes of the tune of, say, Three Blind Mice, everyone starts on the same note, just to 'ah', and you keep going on that note til your breath runs out. Then you change to the next note, and hold it in the same way, then the next, and so on. Because everyone naturally has slightly different lung capacities, it produces a must wonderful wash of sound, and shifting of chords as the notes of the tune change. I am often one of the first to change, which is just depressing - unless, of course, everyone else is cheating!
You know what's weird though? I don't have this problem to nearly such an extent on the clarinet. I may need to breathe slightly more often than Helena does in Wind Band and stuff, but I can keep a good note going for much longer, and when I do take a breath, it's generally a decent one.
So what's different? I might not have a huge lung capacity, but in which case, why is it so much more difficult singing than playing the clarinet? There's two possible explanations - either the clarinet requires less air than the voice, or I simply process the air differently. Hmmm. I think the latter is the more likely. Maybe it's because the nature of the clarinet means the air is more focused, or because there's a more tangible result - if you don't breathe correctly the reed won't vibrate properly, either producing a funny sound or simply squeaking! When you're singing, you are directly releasing the air, so there's less of a guide until you completely run out of breath. I'm sure it's something that you learn to control, with experience, but that's where lessons come in!
Who says that the voice isn't a proper instrument? Go on, I dare you... March 15 CatharsisWe watched the second half of a film in General Studies today - 'The Life of David Gale', I think it's called. We'd seen the first bit last lesson, so it was a clever ploy of Ms Trim's to ensure that everyone turned up.
It's about this guy who's a successful philosophy lecturer and academic. (Well I say successful, he's a famous Professor as well as being an alcoholic - but as one fellow academic remarks "It adds a new dimension to a department propped up on Prozac." If only that didn't ring so so true...) Anyway, this student accuses him, falsely, of raping her, his wife leaves him, and from thereon in his life falls apart. Also of key note is the fact that he is an anti-capital-punishment activist.
So it is ironic that at the start of the film, he has ended up on Death Row, accused/ convincted of rape and murder and with four days to live. Bitsey Bloom is the female journalist chosen to conduct his only and final interview. She must form her own judgement of the case, before deciding whether or not to take action.
I'm not gonna say any more about the story because it is a fantastic film, and everyone ought to see it. It is hilariously funny in places, really good acting, and the lead guy (Kevin Spacey?) is actually quite fit. But it's also a tragic film with an important message. I'm not ashamed to say that I was crying by the end of it.
The world's a depressing place, but you need to know about it. This is General Studies in the best use of the terrm.
I got home but I wasn't in the mood for writing a Gloria, funnily enough, so I did some Maths instead. And this sounds really silly, but the Maths kinda comforted me. Maybe it's because we can (potentially) have some control over what's happening - we can't change US politics, much as we'd like to try, but whatever happens, ln x will still differentiate to 1/x . If that makes sense.
Go see the film. I think everyone needs to. March 14 LensesTwo things happened with regard to lenses today.
Number one occured when I was sitting with Ellen outside the hell-hole otherwise known as the sixth form common room. I was eating my toasted sandwich and we were discussing retakes, minding our own business, when all of a sudden I got a ball smack in my face. A hard leather ball (remember that assembly and Mr Taylor? Actually who could fail to remember that assembly if they were there... :D). It had been kicked by Billy, who was trying to get it back onto the main part of the playground - he failed miserably, needless to say, instead causing me considerable pain in the nose area, and some muddy glasses.
I took them off and squinted my way through the afternoon, before returning home to find Mum and Peter *just* setting off for the opticians. Now Peter has to be taken to the opticians about once a week, to get his frames straightened - ten yr old lads, football and glasses don't mix. (Nor, it would seem, do eighteen yr old lads, football and glasses.) I went with them, and discovered that not only my frames were badly bent, once the mud had been cleared off the lenses the lady discovered some scratches as well. They're small enough to not cause too much of a problem so far, though they are irritating, and I'm not entitled to any new ones until next January. So it's £33 or scratched glasses all year.
Bloody footballs.
The second, more exciting type of lens, comes in the form of my new camera, which arrived today! I'd got fed up of trying to make decisions, so on Saturday I just ordered one and hoped for the best. I got a Vivitar (apparently popular in America) - http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/photography/digital-cameras/279712/details. Not the prettiest camera going, but I had seen one in the flesh, so to speak, and at £123.97 I figured it couldn't be bad, given the specifications. I'd been kinda tempted by one from Sony (http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/photography/digital-cameras/331597/details) but at £80 more expensive I really wasn't convinced that it would be worth it.
I will probably put some test pictures up when I've figured out how to use the thing (not to mention got it out the box) but *touch wood* it looks good so far! Wow, a digi camera! March 12 20 ThingsI am bored, tired, and have yet again ground to a halt on composition (now with 2:44, go me, not). So, as suggested by the omniscient people at MSN, who know our states of mind intimately, here are twenty things about me - did you know that...
1. My middle name is Jane.
2. I was three weeks early, though not technically premature.
3. I was born in the QE. There was a huge snow blizzard going on outside and the nurses couldn't go home as there was no-one to relieve them of their shifts.
4. I was jaundiced as a baby.
5. I am the only person in my family to have been born with black hair (as opposed to blond).
6. I am long sighted and my eyes go squiffy and wander about when I'm tired.
7. My right leg is effectively shorter than my left unless I force myself to stand up straight.
8. My childhood ambition was to be a writer.
9. I lived in America for six months.
10. I have 16 first cousins.
11. My favourite sweets are aniseed balls.
12. I was put on the alto part in choir when I was ten years old. I hated it at the time (*strop* "don't want to go with the silly seconds") but in retrospect it was one of the best things that anyone ever did for my musical education.
13. Whenever I get run down, my tonsils and my throat are really painful, even if the rest of me doesn't get ill.
14. I remember it being Liz McNally's 11th birthday at choir, and I wanted to be 11 so much 'cos it seemed so grown up!
15. I always hated Maths until I got into the sixth form.
16. On dressing-up day at nursery school I went in a Winnie the Pooh suit that Mum made for me, and I had a blue balloon.
17. I was once fed a meal of alternate ravioli pieces and strawberries (I was two and refusing to eat my first course - not surprising when you consider how disgusting ravioli is).
18. My parents sometimes call me 'hawk-eyes'.
19. My favourite toy as a child was Pink Teddy. Mum claims that I consented to him being given away... hmph.
20. Apart from Birmingham, the places where I feel most at home are all in East Anglia.
[21. Everyone thought I was going to be ambidextrous. They gave me some paints at nursery school, to try and find my preferred hand, but I grabbed two brushes and used them both at once!]
How many did you get?! March 10 What The...?In an attempt to do something useful this evening (I'm too tired to even think about composition), I've been listening to Rutter in hope for inspiration, and amending various bits on both my Classics and Music essays. Mindless enough, as it's mostly grammatical errors, though I do have to write a conclusion for the Music report still...
Anyhow, I was scanning through my files to see where things were at, and I came across the quote illustrated at the bottom of the page (silly MSN). My first reaction was 'ooo look at the lovely Sibelius 4 graphic quality', sadly not illustrated by the bitmap version. My second reaction was 'what the f**k, it's upside down!'. Not even rotated, completely upside down! I don't even know how to correct this in Word - not a huge problem, I can just import the quote again - but it begs the question of how it came to be upside down in the first place! It's so tempting to just hand it in and see if the examiner notices!
What?! March 08 Last TimeThese coming few months are going to be full of 'last times'. Today was the last time I did my voluntary work behind the coffee bar in Cotteridge Church. I'd handed in my notice, as it were, to Irene last week, and Linda (who's in charge of the rota) had left a card and chocolates, which was so sweet!
It was also Bill's 91st birthday, so Betty had got some chocolate eclairs from Greggs (a sausage roll for Bill as he's diabetic!), and we had a little celebration tea when it quietened down at the counter! Everyone was wishing me well, and I promised that I'd pop in to say hello sometime. Irene said that when I'd come at the start of L6, she'd only expected me to stay for six weeks - eighteen months later I was finally going!
I'll miss that voluntary work. For the past couple of years, it's been my 'touchdown to reality' during the week. Nobody there cares about essays or grades or who's going out with who - the elderly people just want someone to talk to about the weather, or their grandchildren, or their latest breast cancer op. There are dropouts, crazy people (for want of a better expression), and people who just want somewhere to sit down and have a cup of tea after shopping in Cotteridge.
Bill and Betty have been the sweetest people to work with - forget that Bill's now 91 and Betty's a mere 88. They've just been so welcoming, even if they do sometimes forget where they've put the keys for the stock cupboard, and I'm sure that Bill's told me about his grandchildren at least 75 times, but you know what? That's one of the reasons why I like going.
I went there 'cos it was relatively local, on the bus route, and I was sometimes taken there as a toddler. And I thought that it would quite an easy thing to do for a bit, and I wouldn't be roped into doing something sporty. But I've learnt so much. Not how to make a cup of tea or how to serve up bread pudding - just how to interact with elderly people a bit better. There's a lady who comes in regularly with her husband. She was asking me one week what I was planning to do with my life. I said I didn't know, and then she said that if she could have her time again, she'd learn a foreign language, 'cos she'd have liked to be an air hostess. It's all these little stories that make these old men and women young again, and I've come to appreciate that so much more since working there.
I'm gonna miss it, I really am. March 07 Bugsy MaloneI seem to have been blogging quite a bit recently. Probably because the amount of blogging I do is directly proportional to the amount of work I have, but it is quite worrying that I'm spending that much time on something so useless..
Anyway.
It was the all day Bugsy Malone rehearsal today, and put simply, it kicks ass! Well it will kick ass once the kids have got Act 2 sorted out, but I think that they were going to do that after school. Us mere musicians got released because Miss had to get to college, and tbh, we'd have only been a hindrance at that point. However I got my 8 bars in Fat Sam's Grand Slam *perfect* on the last run through, which let me tell you is no mean feat! A year 10 girl who's in Wind Band wandered up to have a look at my part earlier on - I offered her my instrument to have a go, but her reply was that she hadn't learnt any notes that high yet! I've given up trying to get a nice sound, 'cos quite frankly, I reckon I'm doing well to get the top notes out at all with squeaking horrendously. But in the main part, it sounds really good, and there's some really good singers in the lower school, not to mention dancers.
*ohmigod* I want a costume like the dancing girls'! They're white and silver glittery mini-dresses, with black decoration, and apparently they were all made specially, which makes sense - Stazie's fits perfectly and so does Susie's, despite the height difference. If only all clothes worked like that. But they are, like, the perfect dresses for being a slut! Seriously! Except they're probably not designed for people with hips, and I don't know when I'd actually wear one - hardly business dress. But still!
For anyone reading this blog who's not in the production, come see us!!! It's tomorrow (Wednesday) and Thursday nights, 7.30 pm. Student tickets are £3, adults for a fiver, and a family of four costs £12. But you'll have to be quick because when last asked, Mr Merrell apparently said that there were -50 seats left!
Wow! I'm so looking forward to it! March 06 SwitzerlandOK, so I was only there for *just* over 48 hours, so I'll try and keep this shortish (not least, tbh, because I need sleep so urgently!)
When we arrived late on Friday evening there were remnants of snowmen, but nothing too drastic snow-wise. So imagine our delight/horror when 24 hours later, a foot of snow had fallen. And this was no pathetic English excuse for snow - this was the real thing! By yesterday morning, we were wading through drifts up to our knees just to get out of the block of flats, if it gives you any idea of the scale! What was to be done but to go tobogganing on a sledge lent by a girl in Dad's group at the labs? It was sooo beautiful though - on the Saturday, we went for a walk in some woods just out of Zurich, and it was honestly the closest you'll ever get to a fairytale! According to another of Dad's colleagues, it was the heaviest snowfall that Zurich had seen in about 25 years!!! Lucky or what?!
You know those people you meet, whose specialism on MasterMind could be Swiss public transport? They never stop talking about how wonderful it is, and you're tempted to tell them to get a life - I mean buses! Well then you go to Switzerland yourself, and you are a convert! So excuse me a minute... It's simply awesome! The punctuality, the cleanliness, the integrated systems, the ease of use, the information, even the snow ploughs which religiously keep the roads and tram lines clear! It really does put Britain to shame. I know that our country's bigger, but still. Even the exceptionally heavy snowful was not going to deter those bus drivers!
Actually I say that - we were on one bus that tried to get up an exceptionally steep, exceptionally icy hill, and simply couldn't. Then this morning, having got up at 5'o'clock Swiss time (4 in England! :-S), we walked down to get the 5:48, our flight scheduled to leave Zurich at quarter past seven. But given the journey lengths involved, and the reliability of the trains/buses/trams, we should have been absolutely fine. What we didn't bargain for was that the usually punctiliious bus had been held up by the snow, despite ploughs having been out all night. Some frantic connections later, we were running through Zurich airport, full luggage in tow, waterproof trousers and walking boots still on. By some miracle (and a bit of desperate queue-jumping) we made the flight. Two minutes later and we'd've been sunk!
A few other observations about Switzerland...
-Everyone is bilingual, at least. Switzerland is two-thirds German speaking, and Zurich's in the middle of that region, but any official notices are in German, then French, then Italian. Add to that the fact that everyone, and I mean everyone, speaks English, and you feel really inadequate!
-Cheese fondue is nice :)
-On a less positive note, everywhere is filled which cigarette smoke, like a lot of continental Europe I guess. Freedom of choice and all that, but it really makes you appreciate the fact that it's about to be banned in public places over here. It's not that I dislike people who smoke - they're just stupid. What I dislike is people who smoke inconsiderately, not noticing or even caring that people around them are coughing and being forced to breathe in their carcinogens.
-Swiss Air has incredibly nice complementary orange juice... really..
-There are seagulls who live on Lake Zurich, despite the fact that 'Swiss seagull' is a bit of a contradiction.
 I'm sure I was there for more than two days..March 02 LentSo it's Lent. I know this because we had pancakes on Tuesday, and I seem to be surrounded by people who have given up chocolate. I hope Ellen doesn't mind me plugging her blog here, but her cartoon: http://spaces.msn.com/jacobsheep/blog/cns!5CAD823968225874!267.entry sums it up perfectly! I haven't given up chocolate myself. I don't see the point, mainly because I know that if I did, I just wouldn't stick to it - the sure way to make myself eat chocolate is to say that I'm giving it up! Ditto the equally unrealistic suggestion of giving up being late.
If anyone asks me, I've given up slouching. But my future back pain (or lack of, hopefully) depends on me doing that on a more permanent basis, and I couldn't honestly say that Lenten resolutions are, for me, anything more than a habit. How many people actually give things up because Jesus spent 40 days in the desert, rather than because they want better posture or want to lose weight?
Just a little thought for the day. |
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