Merry Christmas, faithful blog readers and casual observers alike! Although we annoyingly have one and half days of school left, I think I’m just going to pretend the holidays have started because I feel in a Christmassy mood today. Not only did we buy our traditional family Christmas tree (decorations come tomorrow) but I also posted my Christmas cards to those living far-far-away.
This evening I was at Holly’s birthday ‘gathering’ (we she eventually decided on calling it) which was lovely – especially because I hadn’t seen the Triple H Gang together for ages (Holly, Hanan and Holly, for those wondering 
) and also because we all ended up chilling out in Holly’s bedroom leading to numerous “oh wow.. we’re in Holly Walker’s bedroom, how strange!” comments as we discussed how we all hated one another at some point in our school lives.
It’s interesting – last night I ended up reading ‘How the Public School System Crushes Souls‘ after clicking on some of Traff’s del.icio.us links (ta Alex) which supports what no doubt is our uber-stereotypical view of American High Schools as fairly chilling places. (If you’re reading, Alex Newman, feel free to demolish this idea!) But then again, Mr X this evening found it astonishing that my A-Level classes are filled with people who actually are interested in the subject and want to talk about it. Y’know, cause chatting is better than doing work anyway 
Sure, we haven’t always been so friendly (see above) but by 17\18 you’d hope people would be. And ach – I’m going to miss everyone at the end of it.
Oh, and check the extravagant Christmas blog decorations
Hmm… let’s see – oh yus, Cambridge interviews
The answer to ‘so how did they go?!’ is that I enjoyed the day and, purely from my own perspective, I thought they went well. As in – the discussions were interesting and I didn’t have any mental breakdowns. I don’t honestly think that tells you anything at all about my chances of getting in since everyone agrees you can never tell. They just have to pick a limited number of who they liked the most so, um, they’ll do that. And judging on how lovely and intelligent and friendly every applicant I met up there was I don’t envy their task! 
Incidentally, Dr Calaresu seemed to understand me well she asked if I’d be blogging about the interviews! So, if you read this, hello 
*waves* (In the interests of completeness my other interviewers were Professor Abulafia and Dr Sivasundaram – the latter of whom asked me about the history of the Internet 
).
Some other important observations are that it’s frightfully easy to spill chocolate milkshake over yourself on a train, and that shoes hurt. No seriously – there’s a reason I wear trainers all the time, and it’s because walking all over the place in shoes make your feet ache.
(Oh dear – should this be filed under ‘School Life’? Methinks I need to rethink my categories…)
There are some things you can see coming. I knew, for instance, that I’d have to spend my free period hurriedly doing Maths that I’d abandoned the night before. What I never suspected is that my work would be interrupted by the sound of a tornado down the street.
Tornado damage, photo by Paul Da Silva
As was duly noted, the (excellent) Winter Concert this evening included performances of Colours of the Wind, Walking in the Air and, of course, Blowing in the Wind. However, congratulations to everybody who took part – especially, of course, Rishal and Robert along with [something]ettes (sorry, very sorry) Marion and Amber and Katie! Who got awwws from the audience for her brilliant portrayal of someone being bullied and excluded in the Drama section… no doubt helped by her first-hand experience at home
The State Within
even if we didn’t always know exactly what was going on, hehe. If you think a fast-paced political thriller with plenty of murder – and the intriguing use of Windows Media Player 11 as an espionage tool – would appeal to you, check out any repeats!
Last weekend was lovely, by the way, even if I saw the most bizarre Tenacious D movie about… oh, I won’t even bother explaining. Don’t see this in the cinema alone. Next weekend will be more nerve-wracking as I have to try and fit in some Christmas shopping as well as try and prepare for my Cambridge interview on Tuesday. Wish me luck?
The final word must go to Hanan, I think, who decided that after the horrific near-death experience we’d all been through, it was important to reflect on the important things in life. Y’know, not cheap materialistic things but real, deep, meaningful relationship stuff. It took about a minute of a tornado to get that out of her. Somehow methinks it won’t last…
A selection of items…
- A Simpsons advent calendar with chocolate. Welcome December
- A ticket from a recording of Radio 2’s new sitcom ‘Teenage Kicks’ in which Adrian Edmondson plays an ageing ex-punk living in his teenage kids’ student flat
- A balloon stolen from school, smuggled home under a coat and certainly the highlight of our lunchtime yesterday
- A bag from Cadbury Sixth Form College in Birmingham. I suspect anyone who goes there must be very cool
- A QPCS Music CD including performances from the Jazz Band, the Percussion, Brass and Wind Band and the Steel Band
- Hamlet – a rather excellent play
- Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience – frustrating poetry (sorry GG) which hits rare moments of success but all too frequently simply leads me to sigh ‘Blaaaaaake!’ in a frustrated manner
On Saturday the final stage of the grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary rolled out (yes OK, sometimes I think our family operates as a quasi-commercial entity) with a visit to Starlight Express – or more specifically, The 3rd Dimension or… something, which is some kind of revisionist version. Anyway, it was odd! I think everyone enjoyed it, though mostly through discussion of the bizarre plot and the really strong emotional connection to different ways of powering a train engine.
“What’s next…” we asked, “the heroic battle between different elements in the periodic table?”
(I think you have to have seen this musical to understand it, actually, so I’ll stop trying to explain. I’ve been advised to think of it as an 80s roller-skate disco, so I will.)
I then saw Casino Royale on Sunday. The problem here is that I’ve never actually seen a Bond film in the cinema before – the most I’ve come to it was seeing some of the classics on video years ago. So I wasn’t amazed and astounded this this one was better than the last few because, erm, I haven’t seen them. So I left the cinema agreeing with mum – a fun film for a fiver at Willesden on a rainy Sunday afternoon, but not a woaaah amazingly outstanding experience. It’s James Bond, I guess, what do you expect?
Though I’m glad we’ve sorted out that beautiful women will betray you, even if you wear a dinner jacket. Or if you’re a steam train, as in the case of Starlight Express, except of course ‘beautiful women’ then becomes, ur, ‘coach’ as demands that peculiar metaphor. I think I’ll stop attempting to connect these two bits of entertainment now and go to bed
Helen on It’s (waiting) time.: “Fabulous news, congratulations to you both! X” Jun 8, 21:51
