I’ve just finished my application (well, almost, have to hand in a £10 cheque tomorrow for Cambridge… 
) for university and I feel like a huge weight has just been lifted from my mind 
So yay!
For the record, I am applying to do History at Cambridge, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Nottingham and Reading. Now all I have to do is sit back and wait for news of any offers, rejections, requests for interview, etc. That’s fine. Either I get them or I don’t, but it’s out of my hands now so I can get on with what I actually came to Sixth Form to do – A Levels!
Oh, and applying online via UCAS is much nicer than the dead tree alternative. Just a pity Cambridge still insist on paper, but I’m sure they’ll change… eventually…
To those who doubt the awesome power of democracy to fully express the will of the people, let me tell you the story of my Maths lesson today.
Having forewarned us that we would be called upon to present various answers to proof questions to the rest of the class, our Maths teacher reached the last one – the ominous question 13. Sure, we had all read the answers at the back of the book, but still, for the purposes of telling an exciting story, it was the ominous question 13. Scanning along the rows of purposely non-chalant faces she picks her victim student… Robert and I crossing our fingers and quietly chanting “Fabio.. Fabio.. please…Fabio”.
She did not pick Fabio. Oh, the audible sigh of disappointment. “Aw, can’t we have a vote instead?” I joked. Well at least I thought I joked, but what I am increasingly realising is that my jokes often are interpreted as serious suggestions (that’s the reason why we’re now buying a mini-fridge for our Physics classroom).
“OK then, we’ll have a vote”
“Woaah?”
“Who do you all want?”
Feeling a duty to uphold the sacred principles of democracy, I pressed on for a secret ballot, dutifully accepted. It was probably not in keeping with the sacred principles of democracy that I would then be asked to hand out the paper slips myself, giving me time for a last minute pitch for my chosen candidate, but then, no democracy’s perfect.
Anyway, Fabio romped home with a thumping majority and ended up presenting the ominous question 13 admirably well. So three cheers for democracy, where the will of the people wins out over tyranny. Huzzah!
Today has been a rather marvellous day!
Firstly, the school finally decided to pay me for a week of work at their summer school – and the pay slip that was waiting for me when I got home informed me that there will be about £50 extra in repaid tax at some point, assuming I’m not silly enough to earn above the limit during the rest of the year 
no danger of that then!
My yet-another-new Oyster photocard with free bus travel also arrived, so now I can finally join my sister and her clan in their crazy bus-hopping journeys. Oh and talking of buses, I would like to (slightly belatedly) utterly rescind my criticism of the 47E bus to Cofton Hackett. Driver let me travel for free since I only had a fiver and they don’t give change 
thanks!
Look at meeee!
No no the bigger news is: I made B3ta!
Not just B3ta, the very first link of B3ta! 
I think that’s it, my life’s work accomplished now. Happy weekend!
Ricky Martin – God’s lost child?
But have you ever wondered whether God would approve? To find out, I decided to e-mail the ultimate authority on His Divine Will – right-wing Christian websites based in the States. Here’s the e-mail:
Hi. My name is Richard. I’m… a bit unsure about writing this e-mail to be honest, but I need help and I need Jesus and your site just speaks to me. I’ll try and explain but it’s late and my mind is confused about what’s going in my life.
Basically, well, it’s all about this girl. She’s into… superstitions. Put it like that. Black cats and voodoo dolls, that sort of thing. And I feel a premonition – really strongly in my heart – that this girl’s going to make me ‘fall’.
Oh but it’s great. She’s into new sensations – ‘new kicks in the candle light’ as my old mother would say. So I tried to put up with her habits. But it seems like she’s got a new addiction for every day and night! (If you know what I mean)
The things she does, with me, you know I feel embarrassed talking about them even though you’re just a stranger online. She’ll make you… take your clothes off and go dancing in the rain, yeah we did that once. It’s like this utterly crazy life, she’ll make me live it, but she completely takes away all my pain. But I think Jesus is telling me it’s like a bullet, you know, to my brain. Come on! Help me God!
I’ll tell you about the craziest thing she did. You won’t believe me, honestly, it’s so crazy. I woke up, one morning, in New York City. A funky, cheap hotel (you know the kind). She took my heart, that girl. (She also took my money… oh but that’s a different story altogether!) Anyway, when I saw her in the room, I realised she must have slipped me a sleeping pill or something. Of course, because she never drinks the water! She makes me order champagne instead (French, she insists.) Haha, I just thought, she’s a bit like that herself. Once you have a taste of her you’ll never feel the same eh?
She is going to make me go insane. Oh Jesus, what shall I do?
Yours faithfully,
Richard Martino
For the record, I just want to document my ongoing and repeated insistence that we’d all be much better off with an independent NHS structured on the BBC model, with a charter which keeps it separated from government on a day-to-day level. And then what happy headline greets me this morning?
Chancellor Gordon Brown is considering a scheme to create an independent board to take day-to-day control of the NHS, should he become prime minister. (BBC News)
Excellent! It’s obvious that Brown would do this to prove that he can come into leadership with ‘big new ideas’ which are neither Blairite nor anti-Blairite. This fulfils that criteria and gives something important to move forward to, rather than just more of the same. Having said all that, we do face the very real chance that Brown will never be PM, and that Cameron would pounce on the idea and, perhaps, turn it into something rather more Tory… (A cloak to privatise the NHS under not being the idea)
Helen on It’s (waiting) time.: “Fabulous news, congratulations to you both! X” Jun 8, 21:51
