Poetry, discounts and cloudy parks

Yay. Oh how I love student discount days in Borders and Books Etc. 20% off! Yay! Bought some Dylan Thomas, which is good and happifying too. For your information, the student discount days started yesterday and run until tomorrow in nearly all Borders and Books Etc. stores in the UK, which is great.

Went to the park again today, despite the cloud and ate Pesach food there. Funfunfun. :) The ducks were intriguing if not slightly scary when biting each other. I wondered if ducks would find it amusing if humans were biting each other and fighting. Simon thinks not.

Concert last night went well, especially Haydn's Nelson Mass, which sounded so cool. I'm hoping it was recorded, 'cause I want to listen! (Yes, I know one can buy professional recordings, but I want to hear the one I played in!)

Trying to kill time in a double free in the afternoon before our final rehearsal before the concert tonight. Funfunfun. Hence resorting to blogging.

Weather has been changing between horrible thunder and lightning and beautiful sunshine (yay I love sunshine) just within this hour and ten minutes, which is rather odd in itself. Anyway, it's sunny now. The weather must know Naomi and Simon are seeing each other today. :)

Had a deathly boring chemistry lesson this morning, which was much fun. Yes, of course it was. *twiddles fingers*

Anyway, off to orchestra now. Yay! Time killed!

I like the park.

Especially when it's sunny. Yes, that's about it.

Update

Talking to Simon last night, I realised I hadn't blogged for a while. A week now, to be precise. I haven't found any more overly amusing articles in the newspaper (and am annoyed that I didn't get one yesterday *grumble* although I did catch a lift to school, which was the upside to it), but there is a good one about Douglas Adams in today's Indie. (For those who don't understand, I am referring to the newspaper, The Independent. ;))

What's happened in the last week? Hmm. I bought a really pretty pink floor length summer skirt, which made me happy as I've been searching for a long long skirt for a while now. I also went to half a study day on 'The Merchant's Tale' by Chaucer, where the first lecture I heard was half decent and the second one was the randomest thing in the world, and it seemed like she hadn't really prepared it.. or maybe she had, but only the night before. (And still managed to change her mind since preparing it.) I went babysitting last night and Eli actually woke up, and then fell asleep again by the time I returned upstairs with some warm milk. I've seen Simon twice and spoken to him and texted him lots. :D *waves to Simon* My book still hasn't come in at WHSmith (and before you have a go at me, the only reason I ordered it in there is because I was given vouchers and wanted the book and needed to spend the vouchers. I have been wanting the book since at least December) and I don't think much (if anything) of this week's free single on iTunes. They have appointed a new Pope, who is only slightly younger than the deceased Pope if I am correct and so I thought it a bit odd. Election gubbins is well underway everywhere, although I am still not aware of a local Lib Dem candidate leaflet in my house. Whether it was shunted out before I saw it (like nearly happened with the Tory one- oh, sorry Conservative: mustn't call them Tories any more- not that anyone explicitly says who they vote for in our house, oh no) or they just simply haven't got round to putting one through the letter box, I don't know. I have received my polling card, and I've also submitted my student finance forms for next year. I've replied to UCAS to say Manchester firm, Leeds insurance, although I still can't see any possibility of missing Manchester's grades and getting the ones for Leeds, but there you go. We finally finished reading the text of 'The Merchant's Tale' in English and are now having an extra triple lesson every week, and so I am not worrying as much, although I do still worry. I'm currently avoiding maths revision for an M1 mock tomorrow morning and any other revision for general revision-y purposes and summer exams. Awaiting a phonecall and also avoiding the chunks of extra English reading I have planned, but I may go and do very soon.

Well, that's an update, not sure if I've missed stuff out, I no doubt have. If you think of anything, feel free to comment or just respond to my random and rather normal activities.

Deborah Ross

She does write rather wonderfully. :)

Today: "Honesty is the best policy, by all accounts, but dishonesty is said to be considerably less damaging to the ozone layer." The rest of the same article is great too, that was just a rather wonderful quotation.

New look Indie

And it has Su Doku! Naomi is now happy and has even more things to amuse her on the tube, bus and in boring lessons... (no, mum and dad, of course I never do the crossword or the like in a lesson. I pay attention all the time, honest. :))

Shakespearean tragedies are...

"like muesli, they are boring, fruity and full of indigestible roughage." Fintan O'Toole, 'Shakespeare is Hard, but so is Life'.

Been re-reading O'Toole this weekend, thinking it probably worthwhile, considering one of my exams is on 'Othello'. Read that right at the beginning and laughed lots. :) I don't agree fully, but it is a great quotation. :)

I'm rather disappointed with how all the school computers don't show the 'Make Poverty History' white band in the corner of the screen. On any sites with it on. It's really bad. I first thought it may have been on IE, but then I came home and checked and it wasn't, which just indicates that we have really really rubbish computers at school if they don't recognise that or can't show it or... oh I don't know why it wouldn't show, but it wouldn't. It disappointed me rather.

Having just blogged, I realised I hadn't blogged for quite a while before then. Apologies for that, I guess I just never had the impetus to blog. Strange, that. I'm normally happy to babble away, even if it is only at a keyboard and my fingers are doing the babbling.

And now I've got carried away chatting to Malka, so it's actually 22:04 as opposed to 21:29, as the post will claim. How time flies. *whoosh*

The last two weeks have been the Easter break, over which I was supposed to do lots of work and start my revision. Thing is, one never fits in as much as one hopes. Plus, it is difficult to begin revision when one hasn't finished any syllabuses. Mrrrh. I've done lots of work, and finished all due in written at school, I believe. And we had an English note-pooling day, which was rather productive. Similarly to last year, we made lots more notes on 'Othello' than on 'The Merchant's Tale'. (Similar to last year in that last year we made many more notes on 'Hamlet' than 'A Streetcar Named Desire'. The similarity merely lies in making more notes on Shakespeare.) Discussed lots too that I can remember, but didn't write down at the time. (I have a strange incredibly poor short term memory to the extent that I can't remember something someone said 10 seconds ago that I wanted to write down, but I'll remember it when I get home. Nevertheless, I always make notes in lessons. I'm just scared I miss other stuff when writing the notes down. But I would look silly not taking any notes.) Re-reading all my English texts at the moment (have managed two and a half, which isn't too bad, I thought. Still going strong with one and a half more to read. Woo). Done several maths and chemistry past papers, realising how much I hate chemistry essay questions (yes, I know chemistry essay sounds rather oxymoronic. Or at least it does to me). Especially the ones that give you three pages to write an answer on, with extra marks for "quality of written communication" and yet all they ask you for are equations and calculations and the determination of various compounds. How does one make an essay out of that? Grargh.

The two weeks have whizzed by, similarly to time this evening. Much spent watching TV late into the night (Alice is in the final three!) and talking late into the night (5 hours isn't a long time to talk to someone pretty much non-stop...). I've also been to the cinema once, shopping a few times (I don't like to count that one) and done some work (did I mention that one before?).

There was Purim too, and we had the murder mystery (which was fun and we ate yummy shwarma). We found enough drivers and people to act. :)

The Pope also died today. Not that it affects me so much, being a religious Jew, but you know, he was a good man I'm sure. But old and ill and I think it was good that he was left to die at home and not taken to hospital again.

In the two weeks we've also had lots and lots of sun (particularly on Saturdays for some reason beyond my comprehension) and lots of rain (which I don't like so much. I like snow and I like sun, but not rain). Back to school on Monday. Funfunfun. :)

(Oh, and I'm finally finishing the post at 22:59. I am distracted pretty easily.)

Was I cruel?

Walking home from spending the afternoon playing with Eli (the 16-month-old I babysit), a kid (well, probably a 13 year-old, but he looked like a kid and I like referring to him as one. Quite cute looking, blonde, not unattractive, but cute in the young and baby-faced sense) approached me, clutching a whole load of small change and asked if I could go and get him some cigarettes, as the shop wouldn't serve him (by the way, he didn't already smell of smoke, indicating it was the first packet for an hour or two at least I reckon). Anyway, I said no. A few grounds, some to do with religion: a) they were only young (he had a couple of mates hanging around too, who clearly had chipped in with the few pounds clutched in the kid's hand); 2) one isn't supposed to use money on Shabbat (buy or sell things); d) one isn't supposed to carry on Shabbat. I only thought of that third one afterwards, but the first two struck me straight away. The third reason is still valid though. Anyway, I refused. And the kid just walked away, no shouts, explosions, questions, re-asking, mates asking instead or anything. I suppose there are some kids in the area who are reasonable apart from the fact that they smoke. They weren't like the scary ones who hang around on the rape bridge, anyway. (The "rape bridge" is the footbridge at the end of my road leading to the nearest tube station. Not overly safe for a woman to walk over on her own in the dark. Especially when the light isn't working or one can smell fumes. Or see and hear people.)

Shopping and working

We broke up for the Easter break last Friday, and so since I have been (putting off) doing work and shopping in the main. I've done lots of pure maths (both P3 and P6), as I find that maths is a thing that can very much start and stop and doesn't require a long long time to think and then write up, like English does. Although with maths I tend to think that, and then do just a couple of questions, and think, oh that can't have taken too long, and then look at my clock and realise it's about 20 minutes or half an hour (or even an hour with those horrible questions that take forever to go through all the right processes, although they happen to be really obvious and easy. I hate them, just because of the time they take to write out) after I'd started working, and that it was, in fact, much later than I had originally thought. And so maths doesn't take much less time than, say, writing an essay, but writing an essay isn't as conducive to doing in small(er) chunks. Or so (psychologically) it would appear to me. Not that I have many essays to do, and I think I have lots of maths. Although consolidating English notes would be a good move, perhaps whilst re-reading the text too. Maybe I'll dig out my big post-it notes for sticking in the texts when I discover something cool to think and write about. And of course having a pencil with me at all times, but that happens anyway.

Ah yes, the shopping. I went yesterday (briefly) to Harrow; bought a skirt (such a lovely lovely pretty denim skirt, just below knee length), a bag, a book, a CD, and um, a couple of other things. Went to Watford with Laura today and I bought some trousers (linen summer ones), shoes (summer ones again, but I badly need more shoes), a funky hairband for Purim, finger paints, glue sticks and silver card. There may have been other bits and pieces, but I forget. I will update if I remember or can be bothered to. :)

Can anyone help?

I'm running a murder mystery on Saturday night, a kind of belated Purim thing (well, it's motzei Shushan Purim, which will only really mean anything to about half of you I reckon) and I need 5 or 6 people to act as suspects: I think I currently have about 3 people, so I only need a couple more. We may charge you for food (I can promise it's good stuff), and I'll let you know exactly who you are acting as and what's happening. Except no-one will know who the murderer is until the end apart from me (and even I may not know, I haven't quite decided). 8.30 til 10.30 Saturday night, this weekend. Let me know ASAP.

I had my hair cut this afternoon: this time it feels shorter (in the same way that it did last time, when I complained lots, but I don't mind it so much this time) but it doesn't look overly shorter to my eyes, which is strange. It feels short though. And smells yummy. Mmmmmm.

I handed in my chemistry coursework yesterday afternoon (I actually stayed at school in the afternoon to finish it off and hand it in- it had to be handwritten under the supervision of a teacher, don't ask why as I have no idea as thought it ridiculous myself); it was like a weight lifted from my shoulders (although I still have the plan to do over Easter... :S) and now I merely have to worry about the fact that we have not finished a single syllabus yet and we break up tomorrow for Easter. Mrrarrgghh.

New delightful photo of me up on www.totallyjewish.com from Rabbi Black's induction (I was doing a reading in the photo) last Sunday.

Jewish driver in London?
We're looking for as many people as possible to help us deliver 300 michloach manot (food packages) for Purim to poor Jews across the capital (mainly north, north-west and north-east I believe). If you can spare an hour at some point between Monday and Friday next week, or any time to deliver as many or as few of these as you want, contact me and I'll let you know where to go and what to do. They can be picked up from the BA bayit from Monday night, along with maps highlighted as to where to go.

Alternatively, if you don't drive, but want to help package up the mishloach manot, this Sunday, from 11 am in the Kinloss Suite, Kinloss Synagogue. Every pair of hands warmly welcomed.

Rargh *general annoyance*

I dislike the way MS Windows XP thinks itself so clever that it tells me before I have logged in that I have "1 new email message"...when I DON'T. It thinks it is so clever, and yet it can't seem to update itself that I actually read that one email message many weeks ago, and have had numerous since. What's more, I don't particularly care about that email address, as no-one really sends anything to it. (Please note that I don't really check my funkychickens... address very often as I dislike hotmail. If you don't know the full address, this doesn't concern you.)

I also dislike having to write chemistry coursework under timed conditions. Especially when one is not given enough time.

I also dislike it when conductors are supposed to change from beating in four to beating in two don't change and you have to play fiddly bits which are impossible if not being conducted correctly and clearly. Sorry, that was annoying me. I know she's young, and not a professional conductor, yadder yadder, but still!! And then to have a go that it wasn't played correctly... Mrrhgghreohgsndogahbnbeoahhrrhhgghh.

*jumps gleefully*

I got As in my January modules! :D Yay. Which makes straight As at AS in the end, plus I only need a B or a C in my last module of further maths to get an A overall. *is happy**leaps* :D

Frees awaiting results...

Hanging around at school wasting several hours awaiting the collection of January module results at 1.30 in the school library. After: to Starbucks! (Yes, they are world-dominating, but they make good coffee and it's all fairtrade at least. Waste of money too, I know, but hey, I like coffee.)

New mouthpiece

So, I got my new clarinet mouthpiece on Saturday in the post (yes, I bought it through ebay. Yes, I know there are dodgy people on there, but this seller was all sweet and kept emailing me, even after I said I'd received the mouthpiece and gave me advice and stuff... which was nice. :) I also know that ebay can be unreliable, but so far my buys have always been reliably delivered, although this was the first relatively expensive thing (when I say that, nothing has come to over a fiver in the past). Also, I know one is supposed to try out different mouthpieces before buying them, and I did, including the model I bought, which was a Vandoren 5RV lyre (I don't know where to find a lyre symbol, but it is a symbol, not the word)) and the first time I play it it sounds as if there's air leaking out and the tone colour isn't all that great. Which was rahter a dampener on my spirits. So then I play my clarinet lots over the weekend and try out different reeds (and more reeds on Monday night too as I bought a new box of them) and finally find some good tones and colours and sounds, which made me happy, and I continued playing for the joy of playing as opposed to trying to save my clarinet playing as previously. And then there was orchestra today, and when playing my solo bit in 'December' (yes, I know it's March, but we're taking part in the Music for Youth festival tomorrow and for some reason we're playing that piece and I have a solo in the middle section) I kept squeaking. And squeaking just isn't a good sign. I'm going to have to play lots this evening to try and discover the reason for said squeaking and to remove the problem. *hopes to be able to* Hmph.

Ooops

Overslept this morning again. I woke up when my alarm went off, but somehow managed to fall asleep again, and then didn't wake up 'til 9.40ish. Tubes and trains were then treacherous trying to get to orchestra, and so I arrived in Euston around 11.15ish. The fact that I was waiting outside Hillel House (where I have orchestra each Sunday) for about 10/15 minutes until someone actually opened the door is minor. Well, not really. It was rather cold. :S

All rather strange (the oversleeping thing) considering I woke up yesterday really awake, if you know what I mean. Most mornings I just want to go back to sleep, which clearly happened this morning, although I recall no conscious decision to do so. I just think I thought at the time that I had 15-30 minutes to stay resting and not having to get up yet... and then I must have nodded off. *looks guilty* Ah well, I was punished by TfL and Silverlink Metro in return: darn engineering works. (Although it was rather comic sitting at Baker Street this morning waiting for a train: the announcements about engineering works on the tube this morning actually didn't stop. It went straight from engineering works to safety and back without a pause. Normally they wait a minute or two between announcements. I think there were problems on the Metropolitan, Jubilee, District, Circle, Northern, Central and Bakerloo lines as well as Silverlink services. It did make me laugh.)

I found the data for my chemistry coursework in my notes from class a few weeks ago. Doh. Ah well, it's just as well as I can't find any data regarding the order of thiosulphate and HCl in the required reaction in any books or websites... I'll just state the books as my sources, as well as knowledge from school lessons. That way there are no lies, and it isn't my fault that our chemistry teacher told us what our results are supposed to be for our investigation.

Mechanics test didn't happen today, which is always good I suppose. Gives me a little more time to not bother revising and realise that I don't know any maths. (Was tempted to use double negatives, but then got confused. :) They are confusing and shall not be used. :) Nor are they good practice if used.)

It's cold and snowing outside.

It's raining

It's pouring, the old man is snoring. Ooooh, sleep. Mmm. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

I love trainee teachers' enthusiasm. Extra notes, typed and ready to be highlighted. :D Except they do at the same time need to learn that when Chaucer is read with an accent that can be understood pretty much as modern English, with the exception of the odd strange word which needs translating, a translation of the three lines that have just been read does not have to be given, nor repeated three times. All the way through, so that whilst we read 130 lines for homework, we only reached about line 80 or 100 in the lesson. Going through what we had just read for homework. Gah. What a contrast to last week's lesson by the same teacher, which wasn't so bad, despite the fact that it was an introduction to the language, which I've experienced before when I read the complete tales. (Or complete up to where Chaucer wrote before he died, anyway.)

Still trying to find the order of thiosulphate and hydrogen ions for chemistry (when they react with each other), as it isn't in any of the 23 or so chemistry text books that I happen to own. (Don't ask why I own quite so many, I don't really understand why myself, but they sit on shelves around the house and I do have them. No-one in my family is a proper chemist or would really have reason to have these books either. Strange.)