It’s my second birthday on this blog, and I’ll only make it slightly longer than last time. I’m 16 today and am now significantly richer (financially, not spiritually 
) than I was 24 hours ago. Last night was the brilliant last episode of Doctor Who, and the withdrawal symptoms haven’t kicked in yet. We also had a group of lovely family and friends over (the ones you actually like for real, not just because your parents know them) and ate delicious chocolate brownies. Tonight = Pizza Express. It’s a tradition. And geekily, I’ve already applied for internet banking. Yeeeah!
So don’t you dare burst my happiness bubble!
You may live in one of the world’s famous cities, but you only really visit it when a friend comes from abroad. Then you get to be a tourist in your own city. Today I went on another London Walk in and around St Paul’s Cathedral which, you know, was cool. It’s a big Cathedral. With a dome. And a small sculpture done by an agnostic called “Mother and Child” because calling her a virgin was just too much. (Agnostics have always seemed rather dodgy to me – stop sitting on the fence already!)
Also today – I returned a corrupt DVD to Play.com and so far, fingers crossed, their returns service has been as exceptional as their delivery. You do have to phone up for authorisation to return something, but it was picked up straight away, and dealt with very quickly. And they refund the postage too. Hooray for Play!
Tonight I caught another BBC3 showing of the American remake of The Office which I first blogged about in January and, I’m delighted to say, isn’t nearly as bad as the teaser trailer would have you believe. It’s actually a very faithful adaptation, and reasonably entertaining in itself, although obviously it doesn’t reach the glorious heights that the original did. I’m not sure exactly what I’m expecting from this series really: if they retell the same jokes, it’s hardly very exciting, but if they change something, it feels weird.
An episode only runs to about 22 minutes without adverts as well, which means that the editing has to be tighter, detracting slightly from the feel of the show. The more un-PC humour is toned down, and it’s interesting to see “head office” replaced by “corporate”, “redundancies” by “downsizing” and so on. But hey, that’s Britain and America, divided by a common language as they say. (No, I’m sorry, I can’t remember exactly who said it. Shoot me.)
Tomorrow, or rather today since it’s after midnight, is DOCTOR WHO FINALE DAY! In case you’d forgotten. No spoilers. Bad Wolf!
Is a pub chain, apparently. Anyway, I’ve only got one GCSE left now – History on Tuesday – after this morning’s Science. To be honest, I can’t even remember that much about the exam, nothing really sticks out as being particularly irregular or even slightly humorous. They asked the questions on climate change (again!), life on Mars and how fast this car was travelling (um, probably an electric car) and I did my best to answer. Strangely, the hardest questions were the bits we hadn’t been taught 
– Third season of Doctor Who commissioned.
– Including another Christmas Special.
– Billie Piper to feature in all of Season 2.
– Captain Jack is back. In Season 2.
Go BBC!
Or as it is correctly pronounced, Maths, was today’s GCSE of choice. 2 hours long and calculator-allowed, we navigated the stormy waters of quadratics, climbed the towering heights of function graphs and almost fell into the quicksand of compound interest. It wasn’t until the last 5 minutes that I realised I had described a bank with a 104.5% annual rate, pretty generous for a savings account. Luckily, it was corrected in time. Tomorrow’s exam is Science (or “The Bits We Didn’t Fit Into Part 1!”) and then there’s another break until the final GCSE of the lot – History – on Tuesday. It’s my birthday in the meantime as well. Yay!
Talking of school, here’s an anatomy of a letter I found when I got back.
Ooooh – good? bad? Am I expelled, or have I been selected for the football team? Go on…!
Oh OK, it can’t be that bad then.
Bloody hell, how geeky. Still – must be worth something though? An iPod perhaps?
Righty ho, that’s great, but I could get more than that by phoning into CBBC…
Oh, you tease. Significant eh? Well, surely the prize will be quite large then, since it only has to be given to one person! All right!
A book token? Yeah, it’s, um, what I’ve always wanted….
I’m joking really, I’m sure it’ll look sexy in a CV, but still – nobody claims the taxpayer is bribing young people over here!
Helen on It’s (waiting) time.: “Fabulous news, congratulations to you both! X” Jun 8, 21:51
