That’s according to my break time survey today. I have been doing proper work otherwise, honest 
Oh and also: I got two photos in this week’s Queens Park News. Two.
I’d also like to steal Lucy’s idea (well technically I thought of it myself!) and use MSN’s ’31 ways to use your blog’ to make a post. Here we go!
1. Keep a daily journal of your life.
Today I had Physics and Maths before going home at lunchtime to eat hot hot pizza.
2. Post a quote du jour.
“After the game, the king and the pawns go in the same box” (Oh and if you will use strange foreign words I’m not going to understand hence I just stuck with ‘quote’ 
)
3. Document your daily successes.
Pointing out our Maths teacher’s graph of cosine was wrong.
4. List your goals.
Get Olly to quit smoking.
5. Describe a recent adventure.
Well, I started by going back in time and killing my great grandfather… then things started to go wrong.
Continue Reading
Punting in the Cambridge sun
So, who watched The Apprentice then? I have to admit I’ve given up on Desperate Housewives but this was as entertaining as ever. As expected they picked stronger women this time leaving the guys confused and failing to get along, and despite the somewhat questionable tactics from the girls, did not rise to the challenge. Still – we all know who needs to depart from each team in future. Syed and Jo, they must go!
Right, enough TV ranting, got work to do
For anyone studying a Shakespeare play, I always recommend you go and see a stage performance. So it was great to see Black and White Sextet tonight, a modern adaption of Othello (one review here) which made practical use of modern news reports and mobile phones to help tell the story using abridged dialogue.
The small theatre made the emotion of the play very strong indeed and the ending was very well executed – a no holds barred approach to Desdemona’s nasty death which was far more powerful than a cutaway some larger productions might have been tempted to use. Oh, and Othello chased Iago offstage right past where I was sitting brandishing a sword which made me duck!
My experience was even better than simply watching the play, however, because Richard Earthy (Iago) is a friend of the family so he joined us for a drink afterwards with Fliss Walton (Desdemona) and the young university student in charge of lighting. This was amazingly and very useful as we discussed the play and various interpretations of it. Fliss completely changed my view of the meek Desdemona who was rather feisty and strong in this adaption, which is supported by considerable evidence in the text itself. The same goes for Emelia, Iago’s wife, who was also much stronger than we had imagined when reading in class. Shakespearian women have got guts, it appears.
It was slightly surreal as well. We mingled with Cassio and Emelia. Desdemona bought a round of drinks. Iago got some crisps and talked about his ‘gay wedding’ onstage in one scene with Othello. (See! I was right!) So I feel much closer to these characters now 
and how cool is that?
Somehow, I managed to forget what was clearly the most important item of the day – my appearance in a podcast by GG. (It’s towards the end, about 4/5ths of the way through.) Apparently this blog is not only amusing, but insightful too! Cheers GG – who does podcasts so wonderfully naturally I’m surprised he’s not on radio yet.
Also as some of you have already noted, my links section is now magically randomised for you to avoid any potential conflicts. OK, well maybe it’s just me being lazy and not wanting to order them. Whichever explanation you prefer.
OK wow, yes, I think I want to go to Cambridge now
The shadowing scheme was excellent. Well, everyone agreed that the central organisation was rather weak in places so it really depended who you got assigned to stalk for the duration – I was lucky enough to get Krishna – a wonderful first year mathmo (ur, Maths student) who was a brilliant shadowee.
I stayed in his college, Gonville & Caius College, which I already feel fondly about compared to the others. (It’s surprisingly how quickly the college rivalries rub off on you!) I had the experience of sitting in the front row of a Cambridge Maths lecuture… of which I understood nothing, understandably. So I started noticing other things. Like the way one of the professors wrote out all the equations without any prompts whatsoever. And how the other stopped half way through to read Valentine’s limericks. And how someone pronounced graph as graff but otherwise had no Northern accent whatsoever. And the fact that the lecturer used the phrase ‘take it to the other side’ which my Maths teacher loathes. Ha!
I also got to go punting (Hooray! And I got to try it myself too! Pictures possibly to follow) and attend Krishna’s Maths supervision. A supervision is an almost direct tutoring with one or two students just going through the work, and usually without a little Sixth Former perched on a chair behind them. “Have you done any work on continuity yet?” he asked politely, while my shadowee laughed. I should have pointed out that until last term I didn’t know that differentiation existed.
All this aside – there’s no way I’ll get to Cambridge or anywhere else unless I actually do some school work. It feels like so long since I was at school I feel so out of it, but I’m sure on Monday everyone will delight in piling me with the work that I missed.
And I almost left out the story of how I got to Cambridge in the first place. I was going with Promise and booked coach tickets. Unfortunately she was slightly late due to bus delays so we missed it. Literally, I was running after it trying to catch up but to no avail. However – clear head in a crisis and all that – I thought to buy train tickets instead and we made it in time. Phew!
Talking of London transport, I got bored of paying adult Oyster fares so I finally got around to getting a 16-17 photocard for even cheaper Oyster. 
Linda Moffitt on Colombia: “Such a sweet memory of the four of you meeting up in Colombia!” Dec 2, 07:42
