Eurovision 2014: Chris's Grand Final Party

Conchita, Queen of Eurovision!

Held last night, Chris's 3rd Annual Eurovision Party was certainly the best ever! The twelve attendees cheered, squealed, grooved, joked, and sang our hearts out during the three-and-a-half hour extravaganza. Chris's decorations were second to none, with brightly coloured bunting, #TeamMolly posters and #JoinUs diamonds adorning the ceiling, walls and floor. When Austria's Conchita Wurst was announced as the victor, we were all delighted, especially Chris, who supported her from the start. We were also pleased with the UK's score, a respectable 40 points, which put us in 17th place. Here are the final standings in our group competition:

1. Chris - Austria - 1st place
2. Chelsea - Sweden - 3rd place
3. Jess - Armenia - 4th place
4. Wendy - Ukraine - 6th place
5. Steph - Denmark - 9th place
6. Jade - Finland -11th place
7. Emily - Romania - 12th place
8. Georgina - Switzerland - 13th place
9. Megan - United Kingdom - 17th place
10. Daisy - Azerbaijan - 22nd place
11. me - Malta - 23rd place
12. Rosie - Slovenia - 25th place

Yes, my beloved Firelight ended up four places above the bottom of the leaderboard, but I wasn't at all dispirited. Their performance was delightful, and I somehow managed to vote for them 50 times during the short interval. Amazingly, they were awarded 10 points by the UK, so the binge voting was well worth it! In total, they were given 32 points, which meant my pledge to eat one Malteser for each point they received was significant, yet easily doable.

32 maltesers

Daisy's tactical choice of Azerbaijan sadly failed to pay off; their 22nd place finish is the first time they've ever placed outside the top 8. After her win last year, Rosie was relegated to last place this time around. Chelsea and Chris both improved by 13 places on last year, and my first choice actually qualified this time around! The UK didn't do too badly, and the rest of the attendees' countries finished on the left hand side of the leaderboard. After the excitement of the contest, today I've felt rather melancholy, but I will look forward to Austria 2015!

Some of Chris's decoration

The artists we supported

Eurovision 2014: Country choices

Chris has continued his yearly tradition of getting each of us to choose a country to support, and this year, after much contemplation and soul-searching, I've gone for Malta! The song is called "Coming Home", and it's performed by the group Firelight, most of whom are siblings. I really like it's folky vibe and it reminds me of "Let Me Go" by Gary Barlow, a song I heard live at Gary's concert on the day we chose our countries. In truth, I can't see it winning, but I'm passionate about supporting it, which is ultimately the reason why I chose it, rather than one of the favourites like Armenia or Norway. I do think it deserves a spot in the final, and I shall definitely vote for it in the second semifinal on Thursday 8th May. However, as with last year, my choice will open the semifinal, which did not fare well for Austria's 2013 campaign, as the country did not qualify. Nonetheless, I believe Firelight has what it takes to earn a place in the 2014 final. I hope I'm correct!

Everyone else's choices are as follows:
Chris: Austria
Emily: Ireland
Georgina: Switzerland
Rosie: Slovenia
Chelsea: Sweden
Steph: Denmark
Wendy: Ukraine
Jade: Finland
Jess: Armenia
Megan: United Kingdom

May the best song win!

Prüfung und Pesto

Almost two weeks ago I sat my German A2 speaking exam. During the night I dreamt that I completely messed up, as documented in this tweet, but as morning rolled around, I became unusually calm. We were able to meet our examiner at the start of the day, and it was reassuring to find that she was just as jolly as we'd been told. After this brief introduction, Chris, Nilloy, Daisy and I left, while Rosie began her fifteen minutes of preparation. The remaining four of us returned to the Study Area, where we nervously carried out last minute revision and I correctly guessed that the word for sadness is "Traurigkeit". Over the course of the next two hours, Rosie returned, and Daisy, latecomer Lily and Chris all completed their exams. Finally, it was my turn. When I arrived, I was somewhat thankful to find that Chris was still in the examination room. Upon leaving he seemed content, which was encouraging. Before I could begin my exam, the examiner had a quick break, but she soon returned, and allowed me to choose my card. After this, the invigilator ushered me into the planning room. The time went by rather quickly, but I did manage to plan all three questions, so it was already going better than the dream. Thankfully, the topic was interesting and I had a lot to say about it. I recalled my Exposé faultlessly, then I only needed clarification on one of the questions during the discussion. Afterwards I couldn't stop smiling, and psychology breezed by in the afternoon. Later on Daisy drove Chris, Emily, Georgina and I to meet Rosie for a celebratory meal. Earlier, the examiner recommended that I have a big meal to commemorate the effort I put into the exam, so at the restaurant I chose the Rigatoni al Pesto, which almost put me off pesto for life, then later I shared a lemon meringue dessert with Chris. Coming home we realised just how great a driver Daisy is; her concentration never faltered despite the noise coming from her passengers, Chris in particular. It seems really odd that I'll never do another German speaking exam, but it's also a relief. Now I just have the three hour written exam to complete, as well as six exams from my other subjects... not too much!

An Awesome Achievement

On Friday evening, Chris, Chelsea, Rosie, Jade, Emily and I were once again the only student team at the PTA quiz night. Despite protest from Rosie, we incorporated this into our team name, selecting the moniker, "The Good, the Bad and the Sixth Formers". We weren't expecting much in the way of success, due to our prior inability to place any higher than last, but we were hoping for a fun night of revelling, snacking, and completely failing at the music round. Peculiarly, the picture round was delivered to us at the beginning of the night, and the largely recognisable faces were just the motivation we needed when our team captain, Chris, fell ill and had to leave a quarter of the way through. Our performance was satisfactory, with four being our median score; however, we soon found ourselves in the dredded last place. Nevertheless, things began to look up after a  round featuring school-related photos, which  garnered us six points. This score was in part due to Chelsea's guesses of "Grange" for the ones we didn't know, as one of the answers was Grange Hill. After the interval, we continued to maintain a five point deficit, even after scoring just three out of twenty in the music round. As the end drew near, the leaderboard was displayed less frequently, so we were unaware that our score of eight in the joker round on the subject of "days" had brought us level with the team above us, "The Winos". The final round focused on history and with my and Chelsea's knowledge, we were able to snatch up four points, while "The Winos" obtained… two! We were delighted with the result, and we also made history, being the only student team ever who had not placed last! Woo!

Happy/sad

Wednesday 10th of July was a day of contrasts for me; I awoke feeling refreshed and enthusiastic, but fell asleep with tear-stained cheeks and muddled thoughts. My emotions for most of the day were excitement about my sister's prom (a highly edited picture from the event is featured below), and anticipation for the NCIS season 9 finale, which aired for the first time on terrestrial UK TV at 9pm.

Prom people! (My sister is in the centre wearing purple)

Before the prom, I was nervous about taking photos for my sister, but once we were there I snapped away freely, capturing all of the main moments as the leavers paraded outside the front of the school. They were soon on their way to the prom venue, as my mother and I walked home. During the evening my excitement for the NCIS episode grew and grew, and it certainly did not disappoint; Jimmy and Breena are so sweet together, but the bomb blast and Ducky's heart attack on the beach moved me more than I expected them to. It didn't, however, prepare me for the bombshell that hit three hours later, when it was announced that Cote de Pablo is leaving NCIS. Initially I was in disbelief, but soon the reality hit me: Ziva will no longer be a part of the show. I cried a little, but I'm feeling better about it now; I'm just a bit apprehensive about the manner of her exit.

Mark Owen concert!

Last night, we threw ourselves away... but we made it out all right.

Yesterday my mother, Emily, Joe, Daisy and I attended Mark Owen's concert at the O2 Academy in Bristol. We got to the queue an hour and a half before the doors opened and my feelings, as we waited, were more of awe than excitement; I couldn't believe we were actually going to see Mark Owen live! The O2 priority queue extended much further than our non-O2 line, but we once the doors opened we managed to find a decent spot. The support act, Animal Kingdom, came on earlier than we anticipated and we enjoyed their songs, but the early start lead us to believe there would be another support act to follow. It turned out there wasn't; we realised this when we watched the rug, which Mark picked up from the set of Alan Carr: Chatty Man a few weeks ago, being laid out on the stage. The excitement continued to bubble up, then at 8:50pm the lights went down, the music began and Mark appeared! He started off with a couple of songs from the new album, which we weren't very familiar with as our (super deluxe, signed) copy had only arrived a few hours earlier, then he launched into the new single, "Stars" (available to download here), before Take That favourite "The Flood". By this point I was getting really into it, and still in disbelief at how close we were to Mark Owen, when a very familiar tune started and tears formed in my eyes as I realised we were about to hear one of my absolute favourite songs: "Makin' Out"! I put my all into singing along and dancing, while Em trustily filmed the song, and it was glorious! The rest of the show was the perfect mix of Mark's older solo hits, songs from the new album, and rousing Take That anthems, which were lovely to hear and sounded wonderful even without the other 3/4 members. "Shine" was another song which made me well up: I have so many memories attached to that song, which I didn't fully realise until we were there, hearing it live and dutifully singing along. Over all, it was an absolutely fantastic night that I will never forget!

An owlsome couple of days

This time two days ago, my sister, mother and I were getting ready to go to Owl City's concert later in the day. We arrived in London soon after 1pm and grabbed a quick lunch from McDonalds before looking at Buckingham Palace and walking through Green Park and St. James's Park. We then caught the tube to our accommodation in Southwark and dropped off our luggage before heading over to Charing Cross and joining the queue outside Heaven nightclub, which was already extending in front of the stairs up to the station. We spent one-and-a-half hours in the queue, nibbling on Krispy Kreme donuts and dodging spilt coffee before successfully passing through the metal detector and into the venue. We managed to get really near the front on the left side (from our perspective) and waited a little under an hour to see the warm up act, Matthew Koma. He was great, and after the show we met him and got a picture with him! The Owl City set began promptly at 8:30pm and was awesome! After the show we waited outside the venue for about an hour and a half and saw some of the musicians. The next day, we shopped on Oxford Street before returning home.

Matthew Koma

Owl City

Adam Young

I'm not bored...

I'm not bored but I am writing a blog post. Why is it I always seem to arrive here when I'm supposed to be journeying to a different destination all together? I've been meaning to listen to songs on YouTube for nearly a week, yet now, at the opportune moment, I am on my blog. How does this happen? How does this work? I'm thinking maybe- I should stop quoting Joey McIntyre lyrics and do what I set out to do... yeah. That seems like a good idea.

Things I must do in the near future:

• Send my St Brendan's application
• Prepare my Derbyshire diary before we go (in 4 days!)
• Learn the whereabouts of important household objects ahead of Em's operation so that I know what to do
• Revise maths and get graphics coursework off the ground

However, it's now jelly bean time!

The Status

On 24th November, Chris Green posted "listening to christmas songs ♥" as his facebook status. Nobody at the time would have predicted that, within 2 months, there would be over 10,000 comments on it, detailing the everday thoughts, feelings and activities of a group of teenagers. Included in its seemingly endless realms were gems such as "Chris Blue", word association games, and ringing in the new year. Unfortunately, Chris deleted it today. 

I miss you, status! Thanks for some good times! 

I know there is more to life than a facebook status, but it was good while it lasted.

Broken Dawn

Today, Em, Daisy, Georgina, Elisha, and the new couple, Chris and Chelsea, went to the cinema to see Breaking Dawn Part 1. We had a good time, eating loads of popcorn and pringles while Bella and Edward married, honeymooned and more on the 60 ft screen. After the film we said our goodbyes and departed, but Em and I will see Georgina, Elisha and the lovebirds again later as we're going to a film night at Chris's house!

First day back!

Today I started year 11. I could go on for ages about how I don't feel old enough to be sitting my GCSEs next May and how it only feels like yesterday that I was a nervous year 7 on my first day, but instead I'll outline the main events of today:

1. 6:45 am - get up my dad's clock is fast so we were up before 7, but at least it meant we weren't late to...
2. 8:07 am - meet Georgina a couple of minutes earlier than usual (only because it's the first day). Thanks to this, I subsequently miss seeing 8:09 on my watch, but the songs I listened to on the walk to school make up for it.
3. 8:31 am - at school Em, Daisy, Georgina and I are now at school, commenting on how small the new year 7s are and talking about TV shows. This area of conversation is lifted when Chelsea arrives; she will later attempt to work out how many hours of TV she watches in a week (it's a lot).
4. 8:45 am - tutor time we get our new planners (I predicted the cover would be dark and stripy), fill in our timetables, do a fire drill and Rosie's ruler makes my head bleed. Break follows, before our first proper lesson of the day:
5. 11:10 am - science work out our current grades in each module in science, and shake up our seating plan. We now sit (clockwise from the sink): Rachel, Chelsea, me, Chris Donati, Tom, Chris Green, Rosie.
6. 12:10 pm - RS same teacher, seating plan and module as before.
7. 1:10 pm - lunch hall closed so we eventually settle around the morning bench. I hold Em's mirror for her to put her brace bands in.
8. 1:55 pm - PE with no kit, there's nothing to do in PE except listen to sir talk for the best part of an hour. Luckily next lesson we can listen to music while walking. Good times.

I could go on, but assembly isn't particularly interesting and my right arm aches from the tetanus injection I had at the doctors earlier. See ya!

I'm feeling ever so slightly bored, so I figured it was time for another blog post.

So far this summer holiday I have:

• rolled down a hill
• tweeted 536 538 times
• posted a lot on tumblr (139 posts in August alone)
• rediscovered my love for Animal Crossing
• celebrated my sister's birthday
• listened to "2 In The Morning" by New Kids On The Block at 2am 5 times
• blown up 5 balloons
• read "To Kill A Mockingbird"
• consumed 32 toasted cheese sandwiches
• written 21 diary entries
• admitted my Joe girl tendencies (to myself, at least...)

Here's to the rest of summer!

Recent good times

So, topless Bono month on my U2 calendar is officially over (has been for days), and I'm still yet to compile a blog post in the merry month of July. What can I say, I've been not at all busy! Here's a few excerpts from the more interesting events of late:

Tuesday 28th - Brace date
I got braces a week ago today! They ached a bit at first but I'm getting used to them now.

Thursday 30th - Bad Teacher
I went to see the film Bad Teacher with Chelsea and Chris. It was fun, especially watching Chris on the dance game in Bowlplex.

Saturday 2nd - Georgina's party
I had so much fun around Georgina's house with her brother James, Em, Chris, Daisy, Chelsea and Elisha, especially trying to catch food in your mouth (I'm surprisingly good with small pieces of dorito!)

Here's to a fun-filled July!

Happy Breathe Day!

16th of June, 9:05, doorbell rings, man at the door says if I wanna stay alive a bit longer, there's a few things I need you to know... three!

Mangotsfield Festival

I had a great time today at the annual Mangotsfield Festival with Em, Chris and Chelsea; we bought random-flavoured ice creams (mine was cherry, apple and lemon), perused the wide variety of stalls, and sat in the bright summer sun (luckily I brought my shades!). We were just ambling around, looking at stock the library was trying to get rid of, when I found a U2 CD inamongst it. It turned out to be an exclusive All That You Can't Leave Behind promo EP from a newspaper, and I suddenly gained a keen interest in the content of these precariously stacked boxes. I discovered the full Batman Forever soundtrack, pounced on Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1, and was just about to leave when Chelsea picked up the Discothèque CD single! Perfect! Our shabbily organised outing to the Cleve rugby club grounds had yielded me 4 albums, 2.5 hours of music, and the opportunity to go mad in public, as well as help fund our local libraries. And I was home by 2:30. What could be better?

(As I write, the discs are scattered around the laptop after being uploaded to iTunes, except for OS1 because I already downloaded it, thinking that an event like this would be impossible, and basically being impatient.)

I should be revising...

I haven't posted a lot recently because I have a history exam coming up which is worth 35% of my final grade. Also I was feeling a bit ill at the end of May, but I'm feeling much better now! On the 29th, Em, Chelsea, Nina, Elisha, Jasmine and I went ice skating to celebrate Chelsea's birthday (which is in just over a week's time), then to Flavourz for the all you can eat buffet, which turned out to be very nice. On Tuesday it was my dad's birthday; we celebrated with a meal and a game of Monopoly at my grandparents' house. It's now the holidays, but rather than relaxing, I really should be revising...

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday's alright!

Today I listened to Zooropa (the album) all the way through for the first time since I posted random snippets of the lyrics to Chelsea on msn and she thought I was going mad (that was fun...), and it was very enjoyable, from the first solemn, mysterious chords of the title track, right through to the last wails of the strange alarm sounds that close this 1993 gem.

This was while I was on the way to town for shopping purposes, and I did quite well, buying:

• U2 Best Of 1990-2000 plus B-sides for just £2
• Scouting For Girls' eponymous debut album for £2.50
• New Kids On The Block: greatest hits - £2
• U2: A Diary (Book) - £4
• Bono In The Name Of Love - £6

There are now only 2 days of the holidays left, and I have quite a lot of revision to do, but I'll post again when I can!

Funderworld!

Em, Georgina and I went on a trip to Funderworld, the travelling themepark, yesterday, which was great! I loved the ride "Freak Out!"; the feeling on it was incredible, as though we were soaring high above the park, and although it was over in a few minutes, we felt euphoric for some time afterwards. Other highlights included Magic Mouse, which we bought a less-than-flattering photo of ourselves on, and another ride which I've forgotten the name of, but I remember one of the people painted on it looked a tad like Bono... ;)

On the subject of Bono, last night I dreamt that I met him and Bradley Walsh! I can't remember it very well, but I think I took Bono to school (why?), and woke up soon afterwards.

Why my leg hurts...

This morning I was surprised to receive a text from Tom, asking about science table meeting up later on. Eventually it was decided to go to Pomphrey Hill (again) and Em and Georgina were invited to make up the numbers, since Chelsea was busy and Chris Donati is on holiday. In the end only Rosie could come in addition to Tom, his sister Katie, Em, Georgina and I, but it was still good.



Apart from the awkward silences.

We played a lot of games including frisbee, rounders and football; I got 2 rounders as well as scoring a goal against Tom! Played manhunt after that (basically hide'n'seek) and got a few cuts and scratches from the trees, which were far spikier than they appeared (this is why my leg still hurts, about 8 hours later!). Rosie's friend Izzy came soon after that, but Georgina had leave, so Em and I went with her and wandered home in the afternoon sun. And it was 3:33.

Fun, fun, fun, fun!

Had a great day out today with Rosie, Chelsea, Daisy, Chris, Rachel and my sister Emily. We went to a park and enjoyed playing on the swings, roundabout and zip wire as though we were 5 years old again! I took a few videos on the camera including ones of Rosie falling off both the zip wire and a random spinning thing; luckily she wasn't hurt!