dom.blog

I’ve become a little bit addicted to this lovely little flash game featured in the B3ta newsletter a week or two back. “How addicted?” I imagine you ask. Well, addicted enough that I was playing it until 3.30 early Saturday morning, which then caused me to oversleep and be late for meeting Emily and Robert for our Oxford Street trip.

I’m still playing with the camera phone…

Yes, our ‘let’s abuse the 10% Topshop discount Sixth Former students’ trip was a great success, in the end. There are lots of stories about Dominic not knowing any London landmarks (“Marble Arch? Ooh… look! It’s an arch!… probably made out of some sort of marble material I’d say…”) which I’d advise you to disregard if you hear. Not because they’re not true – they blatantly are – but because they come from Robert and he has hit me enough to make up for it. Hit me – with a bag.

Also – proving that we clearly are mature and grown-up students well deserving of our 10% discount, we decided to play condoms in Topshop. “Oh?” I imagine you ask, again, in a slightly bored tone. Well it’s simply the Boogies game played on Dick and Dom where you shout ‘condoms!’ in ever increasing tones until you’re too embarrassed – or hoarse – to continue. Emily won, incidentally, but that was because she has no fear in shouting “CONDOMS!” in the middle of Kensal Rise. In the dark.

(Look, before you complain, it’s better than shouting “UNPROTECTED SEX WITH MULTIPLE UNTESTED PARTNERS!”, isn’t it?)

Oh, and hah – if any Physics teachers are reading this, yes I did manage to do a bit of revision for today’s exam in the midst of all of this. “Oh, how did the exam go?” I imagine you barely attempting to stifle a yawn saying. It went OK thanks, hypothetical you Last year I’m sure I would have been much more concerned, because I know I didn’t do that well, but to be honest I’m slightly less motivated now that I don’t need Physics for next year. Having said that, I still want to do well, and I hope I scraped by as usual

No Dominic! You will not break your New Year’s resolution to keep blogging, and nor will you keep talking in the third person! *admonishes self*

Sweet Child O’ Mine

Well lots of things have been happening as always. Pingu very generously sold me his old phone, a Nokia 6600, which I now love as if it were my own child. My favourite novelty at the moment is using Bemused to control the music playing from my PC at night, and then turn it off without leaving bed. All very geekish and obesity-inducing. My only problem was that the speaker light stayed on, which I fixed with that most high-tech innovation… a splodge of blu-tack

On to Ohio, because on Wednesday we had a group of university students from Ohio visit our school. The teacher organising the whole thing was away on the day, leaving Dominic (sorry, third person, again, leaving me) in charge of getting everyone into a room for a Q&A session. On our side, I was pleased to confirm that most of them really didn’t enjoy high school (‘cliquish’) which fits with the traditional stereotypes from those delightful teen movies.

It also astonished me, as it does every time I am reminded of it, to learn that America doesn’t have a national – or even a state – standardised exam system. Sure, they have SATs, but the equivalent to GCSEs and A Levels are all determined within school. Which I find extremely odd, to say the least. No shared currency of examination? No knowledge that up and down the county people are doing the same exam at the same time? But then I guess our system must seem strange too, to a country naturally hostile to centralised power.

Meanwhile, they were all very friendly and critical of US foreign policy as you’d expect a bunch of savvy uni students to be. The small group who visited Paris for the weekend were quite eager to know why the French seemed to hate them, to which I responded that they aren’t really that fond of us either

Waseley. I’ve been there.

Blimey, this has the potential to be a long post – right, onward to Waseley Hills High School and Sixth Form Centre which a certain Josie McLaren briefly snuck me into on Friday to have a look around the famous study room. Despite it being, well, just like any other school (hurrah for British standardisation!) it was strangely cool to see it. Especially when I walked in to be unexpectedly greeted by Babble’s Nathan and Faye, who remembered me from the London visit all those months ago Later I witnessed the ever-popular Ms Nibbs violently threated with a dog. She took it very well, considering.

As the weekend dawned I went swimming with Andy and Nic before sleeping at the fabulous abode of the Kingz. Incidentally, Andy, if you end up going to medical school in London my mother will adopt you and give you my room. And then probably disown me for being inferior. Guys, the man has a USB missile launcher. Can you get much better than that? Ooh – I just thought of something – a bluetooth missile launcher! Anyone reading this should patent that immediately, you’ll make a fortune.

Saturday was spent as the house of the Mase, where I was mocked for not being a fan of salad, but then congratulated for getting into Cambridge because I’d no longer be 100% Londony. Aww… I think I’ll always be 100% Londony at heart, especially given my undying love for the Tube which carried me home at midnight last night without fussing about ‘last trains’. Oh, and Lucy’s French Revolution timeline deserves wider publicity because it is sensationnel

What’s left? Only a wave my sister Katie, who’s off on the school ski trip in Italy, along with Amber and Marion – M&A – or the ‘Mr Nashettes’ as I have decided to call them from now on. Hope you’re all having a great time

(Oh, and I almost forgot – I’ve been doing most of the above wearing my shiny new Uber Ninja badge. So there you go guys, subliminally spreading the message from Ohio to Brum )