Summer: Done

This time tomorrow, I will be eating my lunch on my first day as a sixth former. On Thursday, I will have my first full day of lessons since 23rd May, over 100 days previously. Back in June, I posted this list of things I could do over the summer, and now that the season is ending, I feel it's time for a "Things I actually did over summer" post...

Things I actually did over the summer

1. Listened to two albums in their entirety: 8:09 by Joey McIntyre on August 9th and How The Mighty Fall by Mark Owen on the 27th. I was also "treated" to The Midsummer Station by Owl City, courtesy of my sister.
2. Watched at least 60 episodes of NCIS (actually, it's probably nearer 70+, as I watched About Face four times in the past three days)
3. Rekindled my character ideas, which were originally based on watching a few minutes of Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue when I was much younger. I also drew a character and created more.
4. Met up with friends a few times, this included three birthday parties, a trip to two parks and going to the seaside with my sister and some of her friends.
5. Created many roller coasters on RCT3
6. Had a great time in Derbyshire
7. Set up an Animal Crossing blog, purchased a second Wild World game and created an account on Animal Crossing Community
8. Saw two films at the cinema, Ted and Chernobyl Diaries
9. Completed the 25 Day iPod Challenge on here
10. Ate ketchup flavoured crisps dipped in ketchup!
11. Oh, and I've done a little preparation for my A-level subjects

Starting Sixth Form

This time next week I will have completed my first day of lessons as a sixth form student. Today, I had my final preliminary interview, during which I confirmed my GCSE grades and my subject choices for the next two years. Mrs Bird, my interviewer, was very surprised to hear that I managed to achieve an A* in English Language, especially after the marking scandal, and I was relieved to find that my A-level subjects (psychology, chemistry, biology and German) still fit into the timetable matrix. Also, us students were permitted to choose our tutor groups, and I managed to swindle a place in 12.1 with three of my best friends, plus the same tutor as I had during my mandatory schooling!

GCSE results day

At 8:00am today, most of my jitters from last night had subsided, and I only had one hour to wait to discover my GCSE destiny. The minutes passed swiftly; before I knew it, I was at school, nervously approaching the results desk. Overhearing somebody say that the documents were organised in alphabetical order, I slowly gravitated towards the left-hand side, and landed directly in front of my name. That was all I noticed as I snatched the stapled sheets and held them closely to my chest. Eventually, I summoned the courage to look, and was flabbergasted to find this:

• History: A*
• Religious Studies (full course): A*
• Biology: A*
• Chemistry: A*
• Physics: A*
• D&T Graphics Products: A* (I didn't expect this at all; a B would have been great)
• German: A*
• English Language: A*
• English Literature: A*
• ICT: Distinction
• (and Mathematics A* from March)

In total, that's 10 A*s and 1 Distinction, which is the highest grade attainable on the OCR national course and has the point equivalent to halfway between A and A*. I am absolutely delighted with these results; when I began Key Stage 4, over 23 months ago, and even as recently as May, I was rather frustrated by my high target grades, but now I have actually achieved them! My friends did very well too, getting lots of As and A*s between them. I'm especially happy for Jasmine, who has overcome a lot to become one of only 1.6% of students in the country [x] to achieve an A* in Health and Social Care. Now I have A levels to look forward to.

Pre-results day jitters

Tomorrow, in roughly ten-and-a-half hours time, my fingers will be grasping a crisp, freshly sealed envelope and battling against the shaking that will most likely overcome me, to tear the seal and discover my destiny. I'm feeling very weird at the moment, a bit light-headed, chatty (very unusual), energetic and shaky. It's reminding me of the night before Em's operation; I think being over-nervous manifests itself in this way with me. I'm sort of giddy, it's really weird. I'm looking forward to being on the other side, but I don't want to go through the difficulty (or discovery) to get there. It feels too soon, too big, too scary, too imminent. But it must happen. It's got to happen, and it will happen.

I will find out my GCSE results tomorrow, once and for all.

EDITED 2012-08-23 12:43PM: There was no envelope.

Ostrich in Derbyshire

I took these photos on Sunday in Derbyshire. Click the pictures to view larger versions.

Things to do tomorrow

The day after tomorrow I'm going away, so I'm going to make a note of outstanding things I must do tomorrow in preparation.

Things to do tomorrow:

• Pack (try to remember sunglasses)
• Schedule 25 day iPod challenge posts to cover my time away
• Design Derbyshire Diaries cover page
• Finish burger flavour Pringles (if not tonight)
• Schedule a "happy birthday Donnie Wahlberg" tweet for Friday 17th
• Delete pictures from the camera

I could reminisce forever...

Yesterday the primary school group, Georgina, Gemma, Megan, Alex, Chris and I, met up for the first time since 23rd December last year. It didn't feel like 6 months had passed; conversation still flowed like a waterfall between us, even me, at times. Alex, Georgina, Chris and I had organised to meet by the pub at 12:15 to walk to the complex together, but Chris took an extra half an hour just to wake up, and we didn't leave till after 1, when we were due to arrive! Thankfully, Georgina and Alex's constant text updates meant that we didn't keep Gemma and Megan waiting.

By 2pm the whole group was ordering delicious meals in Nando's, including Chris's whole chicken (which he did eat). After finishing our meals, we eventually decided to go bowling, and were especially enthralled to discover that we could bowl and receive a meal for just £5.95 after 3:30pm! Megan and Gemma's eyes lit up at the promise of more food, and the game was fun too! I got off to an early lead with 2 spares and 2 strikes, but by the end Chris (a.k.a. Camp) had overtaken me; he won with 145, but I was still happy with my score of 126, because it's the best I've ever done!

Next we returned to the food court; I munched away on veggie nuggets while we chatted about random things and Chris keeked for the first time in a week. Eventually we decided to call it a day, and headed home. It was great to see everyone again, and we hope to meet up a little sooner next time.

Things I could do over the summer

With around 77 days till I return to school, I really need to find some things to spend time on over the longest summer of my life. Some of these suggestions just might make the cut!

1. Listen to an album every day - there are more than enough in my house
2. Learn some Estonian - I already know "Kuula" means "listen" thanks to this
3. Have a Blue Bloods day - we only own the first season on DVD, but that's still 15 hours and 1 minute
4. Dance - We have all three main Just Dance games, and even without the wii I still enjoy moving to music
5. Draw - I haven't done it in a while, but maybe I can hone my artistic skills?
6. Write - I have many juvenile, unfinished ideas for novels; maybe I can will them closer to completeness?
7. Swot up on my A-level subject choices - might be the most useful suggestion on this list
8. Improve my writing with my right hand - it might be useful to have two hands to write with
9. Meet up with friends - I suppose going outside a bit wouldn't hurt
10. Blog, tweet, tumble etc.!

EDIT: 21:37 I just thought of another one:

   11. Dip ketchup flavoured crisps into ketchup, and eat

2nd annual "Happy Breathe Day" post

"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!"

After last year's post fail (I deleted the entire insightful content without realising), this time I will copy and paste the text somewhere else as a back up, to make sure I don't lose it to the black hole again.

This morning, I was woken at 9:01am by my purposely set watch alarm. While it was enough time to set my iPod up and sync the beginning of Breathe to the appropriate time, the four minute warning wasn't enough to get myself signed in and ready to post on the @U2 Forum - this made me even more thankful that the second verse includes "9:09", because that was when my post was ready!

Today I also had the opportunity to attend the Mangotsfield Festival for the second time, however it's been raining lots and I'm still wearing my bed clothes, so I decided not to.

Anyway, happy Breathe Day!

It's officially over!

My GCSE exams are over!

I have no more revision to do!

In the last 32 days, I've sat 10 exams, enduring over 14 hours of sitting within the confines of the sports hall. One day I spent about 4 hours 20 minutes scribbling away and peering at my watch in the place, but now it's over!
Now I can look forward to 2 and a half months of no school; I hope I can find things to keep me entertained!