Yes, that's right, the holidays are over. Personally I think there must be some sort of Time Thief running around, because I could have sworn my holidays were longer than this. Whoever you are, Time Thief, bring them back or I will hunt you down and stab you to death with a rusty spork. Seriously.
But, I have to admit, compared to what most people seem to be feeling in their Facebook status, I am actually rather looking forward to being back in good ol' Dun Holme. It's Lower Sixth year, therefore I have dumped, murdered and buried every subject that I hold in distaste, and am left with a schedule of only my favourites - and a lot more free sessions than I'm used to. This - if I work as well as I remember doing on essays - means I will hopefully be able to get a lot more work done during the day, and therefore have more time off in the evening to work on my writing.
Plus, because it's the Sixth Form, there are lots of perks - the school suit is a lot nicer than the uniform, though I must still malign it out of principle (don't get me started on that rant - it's quite scary), I get to sit in a comfy chair during house meetings (hee hee, I said comfy chair :3) and I get MY OWN ROOM! A proper room too, not just a cubicle on a corridor! Though I will miss the coridoor banter (and pray to God I'm not put in the Quad in Ald. West, because that means I'd get locked out every night moving from my prefectly duties in Dun Holme, and get no sleep whatsoever), I'm looking forward to a little bit more privacy. Plus, less things to distract me when I'm trying to work or write ... or do anything, really.
But enough about me. There's also some good news for you, my loyal readers!
My school life is a lot more exciting than my home one - I can tell you all about wonderful muddy adventures with the CCF, about funny drama exercises, about random incidents with friends and, really, anything else you want to know about boarding school - and probably a few things you don't.
Anyway, I'd probably better get back to packing ... I shall leave you with this! The epic song from the epic A Very Potter Musical, which, funnily enough, gave the title of this post its name.
If you watch nothing else on YouTube this year, watch this. Trust me.
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Camping, Cooking and Caterwauling
It's that time of year again. It's nearly the end of the school year (we break up on the 1st of July, next Friday), and the final stages of all our extra curricular activities are coming up. I'm awaiting the results of my London Acadamy of Music and Drama exam (an acting qualification), and I've finished my time for my Skill (LAMDA), Sport (swimming, if it counts) and Community Service (Combined Cadet Force).
Now, it's time for the final expedition. Three days of walking, carrying all our food, tents and supplies, covering over 16km a day on Exmoor - one of the most unpredictable microclimates in England.
I have no idea whether to be excited or terrified.
Don't get me wrong, D of E is good fun. Thanks to lots of long walks with my family, I've got strong legs, and I love long walks. I love looking around at the scenery, and my part in our group project is to sit down and write poetry at the intervals in our plan that allow us to take a break (we put them in specially, haha!). So, two of my great loves; walking and writing. There's always lots of singing in our group - from badly out of tune Bohemian Rhapsodies to high-pitched, tuneless versions of The Climb - and we can happily laugh along and munch our way through our impromptu lunch. Never mind that one of our four team-mates is a little bit of a slow walker, we've arranged our food and supplies so that she's carrying most of the light stuff, so hopefully she won't be too bogged down by the whole affair. We're even prepared for wet weather, which we suspect will be coming (light showers predicted for Thursday, which is our first day of walking, and nothing yet on the other two).
There's only one part of D of E I really dislike. Camping. It's not that the tent smells, it's not that the roll mats have to be lain on for ten minutes before they'll stop springing back up and hitting you in the face, it's not that the food takes ages to cook and you have to sit there in the cold with your toes freezing off. It's not even the fact that I'm such a compulsive sleep-wriggler that I'll doubtless wake up half-strangled by my sleeping bag. I can cope with these quite easily.
It's just all of them together, on top of group exhaustion, that worries me. Sleeping well is not an aspect of D of E that comes easily to most, and the fact that we're heading off on Wednesday evening and sleeping overnight means we'll hardly be bright-eyed and busy-tailed on Thursday morning. I'm just worried that we'll all be so grouchy and tired that we'll start snapping at each other, and that will make life very painful for everyone involved.
Still, hopefully that won't be an issue as we'll all be on our END OF GCSE high - my last exam is just before we set off - and our mood will be good enough to combat the weather.
Besides, there's nothing a well-placed biscuit can't resolve, right?
Wish me luck - I'll be back sometime late on Saturday, and hopefully I'll have the energy to do you a couple of posts about it on Sunday. That is, if I'm not in A and E with castle-sized feet and a headache like a gale-force headache.
- Spook (The Intrepid .... ish)
Now, it's time for the final expedition. Three days of walking, carrying all our food, tents and supplies, covering over 16km a day on Exmoor - one of the most unpredictable microclimates in England.
I have no idea whether to be excited or terrified.
Don't get me wrong, D of E is good fun. Thanks to lots of long walks with my family, I've got strong legs, and I love long walks. I love looking around at the scenery, and my part in our group project is to sit down and write poetry at the intervals in our plan that allow us to take a break (we put them in specially, haha!). So, two of my great loves; walking and writing. There's always lots of singing in our group - from badly out of tune Bohemian Rhapsodies to high-pitched, tuneless versions of The Climb - and we can happily laugh along and munch our way through our impromptu lunch. Never mind that one of our four team-mates is a little bit of a slow walker, we've arranged our food and supplies so that she's carrying most of the light stuff, so hopefully she won't be too bogged down by the whole affair. We're even prepared for wet weather, which we suspect will be coming (light showers predicted for Thursday, which is our first day of walking, and nothing yet on the other two).
There's only one part of D of E I really dislike. Camping. It's not that the tent smells, it's not that the roll mats have to be lain on for ten minutes before they'll stop springing back up and hitting you in the face, it's not that the food takes ages to cook and you have to sit there in the cold with your toes freezing off. It's not even the fact that I'm such a compulsive sleep-wriggler that I'll doubtless wake up half-strangled by my sleeping bag. I can cope with these quite easily.
It's just all of them together, on top of group exhaustion, that worries me. Sleeping well is not an aspect of D of E that comes easily to most, and the fact that we're heading off on Wednesday evening and sleeping overnight means we'll hardly be bright-eyed and busy-tailed on Thursday morning. I'm just worried that we'll all be so grouchy and tired that we'll start snapping at each other, and that will make life very painful for everyone involved.
Still, hopefully that won't be an issue as we'll all be on our END OF GCSE high - my last exam is just before we set off - and our mood will be good enough to combat the weather.
Besides, there's nothing a well-placed biscuit can't resolve, right?
Wish me luck - I'll be back sometime late on Saturday, and hopefully I'll have the energy to do you a couple of posts about it on Sunday. That is, if I'm not in A and E with castle-sized feet and a headache like a gale-force headache.
- Spook (The Intrepid .... ish)
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