I'm ill, which seems to be a continuing factor in my life at the moment as I have what I can only describe as the world's longest lasting cold. I'm now three weeks in and today I almost lost my voice. Brilliant. Luckily, today's sick day consisted of me listening to lots of radio and sleeping, and I apparently missed nothing other than a 'fight' in Spanish.
Unfortunately, the whole 'being ill' thing was not helped by attempting to camp for Cory's 18th on Saturday. I was alright and then all of a sudden I was just absolutely freezing and couldn't warm up. There's nothing more ridiculous than having to be picked up at 3:30am because you're shivering so much you're moving about in the tent. Oh dear... Sorry about all of that, Sophie!
Prior to the illness taking hold, however, it was a fantastic night of watching Sophie fall over and myself and Fern being told odd stories about toilets and gardens while in a queue (thanks for that, Sam, it wasn't disgusting at all...)
Luckily, I didn't feel too bad on Sunday. In fact, I even decided I was well enough to do some extra Spanish Civil War revision, which is clearly mental of me if you know me at all. Unfortunately, that enthusiasm didn't extend into today - although I did do a little this afternoon in between sleeping and sneezing. Bad times. I was also particularly irritated at having to stay at home today because I was supposed to be collecting something from someone, and I've had no way of contacting them to explain why I never turned up. There should be laws against life allowing you to be stressed when you're ill...
Prior to all of that - yet another photo of sky. I've found myself becoming somewhat addicted to taking photos of the sky at night or at sunset.
Today's song of the day was going to be Tom Basden's 'Courage', however embedding is apparently disabled for that video, so here's 'Honesty' instead and a link to Courage. Both are from series two of Mark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better. Enjoy!
You must experience the rain before you can experience the rainbow, and all that. Sunday was weird, I spent my afternoon at my grandma's house listening to stories and having a general moan with her and my cousins Amy and George. I'm in some sort of routine at the moment where every Sunday is being spent working at her house, but it seems to work in terms of getting things done.
Sunday evening, unfortunately, was pretty bleak. But, I'm pleased to report that I technically got through a whole week without being sad or pessimistic before Sunday evening's nervous breakdown over the prospect of having to catch a bus. The fact that I got through a whole week without anything bad happening is pretty damn incredible, because I don't recall the last time I got through a whole day without wanting to cry, let alone a whole week. So, overall I'm encouraged, but I clearly need to work on my phobia of college buses.
Today was an odd day too. I tweeted at 09:11am that I wanted to hit somebody, which probably gives you a reasonable idea of how the morning was going. I just cannot deal with people who willingly do absolutely nothing for weeks and months on end, and then moan at me about the fact that they're behind. Fair enough if your problems are genuine - i.e. your work disappears into your computer and nobody in the whole entire world can find it - but if they're caused purely by your own laziness, it's not acceptable to take it all out on me at 09:11am. Just get on with it and shut up, because I cannot stick you in a time machine and send you back to January so that you can not make a crappy decision.
I spent P3 (formerly English, but I've been signed off now) sitting on a bench with Chloe discussing similar issues. Thankfully, I didn't feel the need to hit her at any point during our conversation, and the morning improved considerably following our joint rant about certain things that wind us up.
P4 was spent 'camping out' in Judith's room with Hayley and Sophie because AS Spanish were in the lab. We also spent the hour ranting. But enough said about ranting now.
It threw it down after lunch - Jess and I sat in the Amnesty office while I cleared out some boxes and tidied my desk (hey, guess what, we can see it now!) and ran between the office and the LRC to recycle (being good citizens and all) the unwanted paper I gathered together. Jess quotes included: "I'm going to sing, you know" followed by singing as we walked across to the LRC "I don't cry me, I'm a hard egg" Nice one, Jess ;) Nuts and eggs, same difference...
So, is there a point to any of this or am I just rambling on? Both, but the point is that this morning was just rubbish and anger-filled, and this afternoon was lovely and funny. Rain, then the rainbow. I wonder if we could get "you are my rainbow, my only rainbow..." to catch on?
Song of the day is Josh Groban's Awake, purely because it's perfection in song form.
Nothing much to report today. I had a late start and so got into college for the beginning of workshop, where I handed in my coursework, revised for Psychology and showed the lab guys Eurovision videos. After break, it was Psychology, where I did terribly on the test, and I'm already dreading the result. But, moving on...
Jess and I stayed in Lisa's room over lunch to revise, then we went up to the lab where I should've had my Spanish speaking but I was allowed to miss it and do some more research seen as I can't talk all that well this week.
Last period was English, where I finished my coursework (hallelujah!) and spent most of the lesson sitting in the LRC doing nothing worth discussing, except for a conversation with Jeff about my EP.
So, not a terrible end to the week, but rather an underwhelming one. Except for that awful test (that was on the one bit I hadn't physically had time to revise, grrrr), quite a good week. In fact, as I drove out of the park this afternoon, I thought to myself about how I've actually managed to get through a whole week (while ill, I might add) without feeling sad or upset about anything. I'm actually quite proud of that fact, as if you know me well, you'll know that this is a rare, if not near-impossible, occurrance.
The sky also looked abnormally pretty when I came upstairs this evening, so here's an Instagram photo that I took through my bedroom window.
Two songs of the day - one is very appropriate considering the day (and no, it's not Rebecca Black) and one is one I showed my friends in the lab. Enjoy :)
I'm starting to think that I'm living in some sort of alternate universe at the moment. Today is my 4th good day in a row. If you know me personally, you'll know that's both odd and quite the achievement.
I dug one of my old scarves out this morning. Although, by ''old'', what I mean is that I haven't worn it in a long time. It was a present from Danny and Eliza last year, I believe, and I love it but I never seem to wear it. Perhaps I shouldn't be quite so happy about a scarf, but I'm certainly not going to complain about the fact that I am...
This morning was fairly eventful. Fern became the third of us (Eliza was first, then me) to fall victim to the college field and it's general love of making people fall in mud. English (period 1) was also quite eventful - since Monday the network hasn't been working properly and the computers all died when we were attempting to finish coursework. The deadline is Monday. Fun times. It gave Stevan and I the opportunity to to laugh at Poland memories from last July and provided me with today's quote of the day. He asked me the name of the male teacher who came with us, and I answered him appropriately. His response was the following: "is it true that he wrote a song for Bo Selecta?" - definitely gonna have to look into that one...
Psychology was fairly uneventful, but I met Jess after and we walked up to the lab for break together. The following happened:
I'm pretty sure I've also done that in the past, if I'm being honest. Still, it provided us with some breaktime amusement. I suggested that she stayed there for Spanish to see if Ester noticed, but she wasn't so keen on that idea...
Upon arriving home, I was greeted by one very sad looking guinea pig and one bored rabbit. I always feel bad for them when it's rainy because they have to sit outside in their hutches and it's miserable. Plus, with all the good weather we'd been getting used to recently, they've both been enjoying spending their days sunbathing. Poor things. Anyway, it didn't take long for me to cheer Peanut (the guinea pig) up... The rabbit wasn't interested, but she ate hers later :)
We all received an email with leaving day arrangements in it earlier. I'm not really sure what I think about the whole 'leavers' day' thing. At school, it was wonderful and emotional because it was the culmination of five years of being one big family. At college, it doesn't feel as important somehow. But, in many ways, I'm looking forward to our last week. I'm looking forward to moving on instead of feeling like I'm being forced to - I am, but I'm happy about it.
Anyway, I have (yet another) Psychology assessment in the morning, so I'd better go and get some more revision done. Song of the day is Drive By - Train.
If you hadn't already guessed, it's been raining today. In fact, it's been so heavy and so lengthy that I even looked at the #UKrain hashtag on Twitter (PS: I'm on there too, @rachelizabethxo). Sad times.
I didn't leave A block until lunchtime today. It was dreary and wet, and the lab seemed like a perfectly acceptable place to camp out all morning. Lunchtime was also choir, which I attended even though I have a cold so I probably put a few people off. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. We didn't spend the whole rehearsal giggling at Rob announcing that he was going to ''bring us off'' at a certain part of the song, nor did we even really laugh at any bizarre noises he made (Aiden can vouch for me when I say that's often more frequent than any singing at our rehearsals), but we sung and we felt productive.
Fern and I had a pretty miserable drive home, too. We established that we both have (quite bad) road rage, as indicated by Fern beginning the day by referring to another driver as ''an irritating little cretin'' and ending the day by making odd noises at the car in front - who clearly hadn't understood that 40mph does not mean 25mph... Still, it's always easier to laugh at something when there's someone laughing with you.
We were out of college early, and I also felt the need to 'bake' when I got in. I put Timmy the Dog on my phone (it may be known by Feeters and nobody else, but that album is so good - especially Nothing Changes and Poetry in a Lovesong) and I danced about the kitchen in a syrupy cloud of icing sugar, fully basking in the pure freedom that seldom occurs in a family home. I didn't really bake. I took the cheater's way out and glued together a bunch of rich tea biscuits. The glue? Icing and Nutella. I am yet to taste them, but they look pretty damn cute anyway.
And now I'm sitting at my laptop and writing. I have that feet-tapping, can't-sing-because-somebody's-home-now feeling that comes from good music and a noticeable sense of contentment. That, and I have the amusing experience of iTunes shuffle selecting two songs about water, one after the other, both by the incredible Josh Groban.
Rainy days? Yeah, they're not so bad after all.
I'm going to leave you in the capable hands of Mat Kearney's Fire and Rain for today.
"Do you ever think about me? Do you ever call my name? Ask me now I'll give you the reasons, my love will not fade. Through the fire and rain, the fire and rain..."
Good news! Jess and I went back to Starbucks today and the barista opted for the slightly less irritating ''can I take your name, please?'' (instead of last week's ''do you have a first name?''). Unfortunately, she also spelt my name 'Racheal', which isn't even the common alternative spelling of 'Rachael'... It also rained (a lot) and we ended up sitting in a car park reminiscing about Poland - it rained a lot in Poland, so we almost always ended up in Coffee Heaven where I discovered my love for a good caramel macchiato - and discussing the fact that I know how to write my name using the Hebrew alphabet. PS: Jess is now blogging and can be found here.
Spanish after lunch confused me. The civil war just makes no sense. Sigh. Moving on...
I had my Extended Project presentation last period. I've been ill for a couple of days and so I was quite lucky to just manage to talk all the way through it. Sophie did tell me afterwards ''your voice went so it sounded like you were about to cry'', though. Hmm. Nice. I'm sure it only added to the dullness of language preservation in Europe.
On the way home, Fern, Eliza and I followed a council van that was a) driving considerably slower than the 40mph speed limit for the road, b) driving half in the road and half in the cycle lane, and c) swerving more than it was going straight. Eliza concluded that the driver was probably drunk, which I agreed could probably explain it. It eventually turned off, though I imagine the driver is now just driving around with no idea where he/she is.
And now, I'm about to fall asleep at my laptop, so it's probably a good time to sign off. Happy Tuesday.
"If you hear nothing, learn from nothing, then you teach nothing when it's your turn." And now, "everyone will alter".
There's something in the air at college right now. We have a month and a half left there, and there's an odd mixture of excitement and nervousness about the future hanging around. Friends are, perhaps deliberately or perhaps unconsciously, drifting away from certain people that they know they won't see again after college, couples seem to be breaking up all of the time, those who are going to university are completely grade-focused... Everyone seems to be thinking about something different.
But this, this is nothing in comparison to the way everybody is going to change when the summer comes and some of us start to move away. Everyone will alter.
So, in the right now, it makes sense to 'make the most of what's left - 44 days.
44 days.
It's scary, but it's thrilling at the same time. In fact, I can't wait to leave and move on.
Everybody reading this will either have come here from Twitter, or you'll know me IRL. I have blogged before, and will continue to write over there when I feel like it (go here for that blog).
In truth, I'm a little tired of writing on a blog that's tied in with 'my old life' quite as much as that one is. I initially created my old blog because somebody from the Wakefield Express told my mum that while they couldn't take on anybody under 18 for work experience (ended up in a terrible primary school instead), I should start a blog. I debated over it for a long time and then gave in and started one. I think my first post was about friends. Typical of me, really.
And then I felt like I had to fit into some sort of blogging 'community', and it just didn't work. I only carried on writing because I enjoyed writing...until I didn't. I will still occasionally post over at my old blog - it's more of a record of how crappy life's been for the past few years than anything else - but I have 47 days until I leave college and enter the big, wide world of university, employment and debt (fun stuff, right?) and it's time to move away from all of the dramas of the past.
This is also a bit of an incentive to keep up with my goal of being 'more positive', and it would be quite nice to have a record of it too.
So, positive things this week...
1) Rhod Gilbert @ Leeds Town Hall with Danny and Fern. I remain firm in my belief that laughter is the best therapy a person can have, and there was a wonderful underlying message to the show - the whole thing was based around the idea of him overcoming his stresses and 'issues' - that added to this belief. And, of course, meeting him afterwards was pretty awesome (and nobody is seeing the first photo where we both have our eyes closed).
2) Coffee with Eliza this afternoon. We went and got a Starbucks (caramel macchiato - grande for me and venti for Eliza) and I laughed about the fact that they now ask "have you got a first name?" No, barista, I don't have a first name. Looks like you're going to have to invent one to scrawl on my cup. Sorry... We took our coffees and sat in the park reminiscing about school and amusing moments (nothing beats our head of year telling a girl she 'looks like she's been applying it [make-up] with a trowel').
3) Driving alone. Nothing beats going for a lone drive somewhere on an evening to refresh your head. I went to pick my mum up from work and enjoyed a peaceful drive singing old choir songs and Canciones de Amor by Julieta Venegas.
That's about it for today, don't forget to comment/follow :)
