Go go go Joseph!

Hmmm I don't know whether or not people knew, but I was involved with the school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I was in the choir, in case you wanted to know. We had performances on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week and it went down really well. Everyone involved enjoyed it and I think it was a great success. My mum and two of my brothers went to see it on Friday night and they loved it, which is good :-)

Also on Wednesday was an AS languages conference at the University of Essex. I went there for German, as did everyone from our school. It started off with a lecture type thing about a film called Crazy (it's German). It's very odd, but I quite like it. It involves many weird sexual acts... as people may be aware of. Apparently it's about what boys get up to on their own. An accurate summary, although I'm not sure quite how true-to-life it is (I don't know any boys who do that!), but apparently it's based on a true story.

Then we had language taster sessions. I had Chinese (Mandarin) and Italian, which I was slightly annoyed about as I'd already started learning both, but I enjoy Chinese nonetheless. Italian was a bit of a shambles. We couldn't find our way to the room that we were meant to be in, so we spent abouts 40 minutes just wandering around trying to find it. In the end we just gave up and had lunch. In the afternoon we had German workshops which involved role plays about films and TV.

Then there was Anna's party on Friday night. That was pretty fun, although it didn't start till relatively late, so no one fell asleep before about 4:30. Well, I don't think so... We watched Sliding Doors and The 40-year-old Virgin, which were both good. And that's about it. Oh, and we had pancakes for 'supper'. 'Twas cool...

That's all to report really... See you soon x

Luftverschmutzung in Deutschland

The title of this post is the title of an essay that I am writing at the moment. Riveting. Basically I couldn't think of a decent title, so I used one that I already had, even though it didn't make any sense.

So... half term. Haven't done enough work. It took me ages to write my French presentation which I was meant to write "over the weekend", but that's done now. I still have to complete my German essay, write my German presentation, do LOADS of art and finish my string quartet (which is about 20% done at the moment and will take quite a while). Damn. I aim to finish both Germans today and do lots of art. I also should do lots of maths, but I've finished my exercise book and can't ask Mrs. Read for a new one because it's half term. Goody.

So, what have I been doing then? Well... I can't really remember. On Sunday I went to the Imperial War Museum London with Raz and EVERYONE in her family. OK, not everyone. But a fair few. That was really good. I'm really looking forward to going to Auschwitz now (is that weird? I'm not like 'excited' or anything, but it will be really interesting and I think I'll be glad that I went), and I really want to learn Hebrew and Arabic (there were quite a few Israeli/Iraqi posters in Weapons of Mass Communication, the exhibition we saw, and the main reason for our visit). Some of the posters were quite funny, and some were just kinda interesting. I liked the fact that I knew the basic background of pretty much all of it from GCSE History (nothing detailed, mind) and also the fact that because most of the posters were in English, German or French (and there were quite a few Spanish ones too), I could understand most of the posters. Generally I liked the museum. And I really enjoyed spending time with Raz and her family, from the delicious lunch to the amusing bus journeys. So yeah, good day.

Then there was Wednesday, when I went swimming with Weeman (there were others who were supposed to go, but I won't mention them... hehe joking). It was pretty cool, we were amazed at the number of young kids (we were possibly the only people above the age of about 12 - OK, possible overstatement, but that's how it seemed), and at the proportion of the pool that they seemed to take up. About 10% of them seemed to want to be out of their depth, which meant that pretty much the entire deep end was Max and Weeman territory (we didn't mark it with our scent by the way, we're good little boys - we were bursting for the loo by the time we got out, despite the rubbish grammar on the signs at Riverside: "The less chemicals you put in..." and despite the fact that probably everyone else in the pool weed themselves silly). We spent most of the time just talking, but occasionally taking random trips to the bottom of the pool and then doing pretty poor dives, attempting the Soulja Boy Dance on the bottom and stuff like that. We're weird. Yeah then we decided to go to Jessops to look at cameras (I'm gonna get one soon), then we went to a few jewellers to get a present, then went to Subway cos Weeman hadn't had any lunch (I had some too cos I was really hungry), then to Wilkinson to get something for Weeman's house, and then we parted. That was another good day. And when I got home I found that my auntie and cousins (Lottie and Bertie) were there. I like Aj (what we call my auntie), cos she's doing Forensic and Investigative Studies or summat at Coventry University. She already has one degree, but now she's getting another. How greedy.

Thursday - Valentine's Day. I had a very good day today (sorry if anyone feels like I'm rubbing it in or anything, I'm just "tellin' it how it is"). It was the best real Valentine's Day that I've ever had. I say "real" because last year Raz was in Prague for half term so we had a 'fake' Valentine's Day afterwards, and that was very nice too. So back to 2008. Raz and I went to see Juno at the Odeon, which I liked. Not as much as Raz did, but still, I thought it was good. Then we went to Pizza Express and exchanged gifts and ate and then talked for ages. Then we went home. It doesn't sound like much, but I really really enjoyed it.

OK, lovey-dovey speech over now, although I don't think it was that bad! Yeah so I'm enjoying life at the moment. I think I'll watch Spooks in a minute, while doing some homework. Wow I have a lot to do. But I'm happy while doing it (see, S S-B? HAPPY! - ignore that if you're not S S-B). And I'm going to Cambridge tomorrow with Fran, which should be cool. I've never been to Cambridge before (the university I mean), and I'm really looking forward to it. I really want to go there. Yay! Anyway, work calls. Ciao.

P.S. Why does the spellcheck no longer work?

Standard!

It's been a while, and lots of stuff has happened since last time. I went to Buxton, and that was pretty good. I had a laugh with Josh, Mike and Kiren (and to a lesser extent Perry and Brad, just because they were on a different team and so we only saw them for the journeys there and back), and many private jokes were formed. Some of the people on our team weren't excellent, which was annoying, but it's all practice (teamwork, pace of the slowest person, etc.), and I felt quite sorry for some of the slower, weaker people on the team because I don't know how they'll cope when they go on expedition. I feel like they should get the same chance as everyone else, but to be honest they're not up to it, and it might be nicer just to say no.

It was very cold and wet up in Buxton, and there were many annoyances, but it doesn't sound as bad as the first practice that all the other KEGS people did. All in all, I enjoyed it.

Then we had to take the train back to Chelmsford and I got picked up by my mum and taken to Raz's house to get ready for FDL. It was pretty good, I laughed a lot and generally enjoyed myself, and got to talk to a lot of people and stuff like that. But there were, understandably, a lot of drunk people there, and some of it just got out of hand. I don't like drunkenness. But most of the people I spoke to were either relatively sober, or nice. Or both. I know that that makes me sound really snobbish, but I can't change the fact that I don't like alcohol. Sorry.

Then I had a rubbish day on Thursday. I felt hungover all day, but I hadn't drunk anything. So I'm guessing it's just cos I was so tired and couldn't really handle it. But it might have been something to do with the fact that I gave up tea and other high-caffeine substances for Lent. Although I don't think I have enough to get withdrawal symptoms. But I do drink a hell of a lot, so it has been quite hard.

Friday was good, I spent the entirety of Corps doing/teaching/discussing the Soulja Boy dance. I don't know why. But it was fun.

Friday night saw Raz's birthday party (cowboys and Indians theme, although there weren't any Indians... I don't think). I was waiting at the bus stop with Fran, and we were so engrossed in our conversation that we missed the bus that had been standing there for ages. Good one. But we got there eventually, thanks to Franyy's mum :-) and then I talked to Stuart, who I haven't seen in ages, which is sad cos he's really nice. And Gemma, who I haven't seen in longer, but I don't know her as well. But she's very nice too :-)

I was very tired for most of the party, and I intended to go to bed at about 8 and sleep in Raz's room or something away from everyone else, but I ended up staying up until midnight (the start of Raz's birthday). It was eventful. There was more drinking than I'd expected and things happened that no one had expected (although I didn't see much of them because I was just kinda resting in a quieter room). And I know it sounds stupid, but I was reminded of just how much I hate alcohol. OK, the party wasn't quite as bad as I made it sound.

Last night I didn't sleep in a real bed, and consequently hardly got any sleep (as I knew would be the case - the main reason that I wanted to sleep in Raz's room on my own). It was also quite cold last night. But i got over it. Then this morning we watched Zoolander, a film starring Ben Stiller as the title character. To be honest I expected it to be a lot better, considering it was a Ben Stiller film and I usually find him hilarious, but I laughed at this once or twice maximum, which I was kinda disappointed about. I sound so grumpy. Sorry.

Then I rushed to get out of Raz's house before my mum went mental, which worked, and mum took me home. I felt bad that she had to come and collect me, cos she was ill. She's now in bed.

Anyway, don't get the wrong impression from this post. I'm not as miserable as I seem to have let on. I just have bad days every now and then. I'm gonna get some sleep and do some work this half term. I'll let you know if anything interesting happens.

I'm a soul man...

I'm going to Buxton tomorrow, on a World Challenge training expedition, and I come back on Wednesday. I'm kinda looking forward to it, but kinda not. It should be good fun, but it'll probably be really cold and wet and tiring (I don't care if I'm a wimp). And there's the Meningitis Ball (a.k.a. FDL) on Wednesday night, which should mean that by Thursday morning I'll be dead. Fun. But it should be good, I think I'll enjoy it. The bad thing is that the price of the train tickets from Buxton to Chelmsford doubled in price in the last few days. It's not exactly bad, people don't mind paying it cos otherwise they'd have to get a bus and miss FDL, but it's still annoying that we could have paid half the price.

I need to write my French oral presentation soon. It's on the French Occupation and Resistance. And I need to sort out my German one too - the Reunification. These are all important events and topics so deserve capital letters.

And I should do some art too. Awwwwww... I'm in no mood to work.

I'm feeling a bit confused at the moment (and that doesn't mean confused about my sexuality, anyone who giggles at that... as I would), I'm kinda a bit sad and annoyed and betrayed and then also just kinda indifferent. I'm a strange child...