A Celebration

Many things have happened since I last posted here. I've done my A2 exams, been to two eighteenth birthday parties, and on Tuesday I went to the sixth form prom, which was absolutely brilliant! Months before the event, I began looking at dresses on the Debenhams website. Most of my favourites were in the Yumi collection, which was unfortunately absent from the local Debenhams store. However, I remained persistant, and using the instore wifi, I discovered that a Yumi store existed a short bus ride away, so we headed over, only to find that the shop had closed down. Feeling defeated, we trudged home, and decided to return on Sunday. Thankfully, House of Fraser sells Yumi clothing, so I was able to try on a few of the dresses I'd seen online, and I eventually settled on this one:

My dress!

I accessorized the dress with pink nails, my shoes from the year 11 prom and Em's silver bracelet!

Daisy's dad kindly offered to give Chris, Jade, Daisy and I a lift to the venue, a lovely hotel in the city centre. We inadvertently arrived about an hour before the teachers, but the time passed quickly while I marvelled at the hotel's splendour. Eventually, all but three guests arrived, so we made our way into the room, where the teachers gave us each a delightful party bag. The food arrived promptly, and I wolfed down the starter, tomato and basil soup, but had little room for the creamy tortellini main course, and couldn't even finish the sweet cheesecake dessert. After the meal it was photo time; I had 17 taken with Mrs Royall, some of which were hilarious. Soon after, people began to depart. We were among the last to leave, and while waiting for the others, I was very tempted to jump in the luggage cart à la Sebalter in the Hunter of Stars music video!

Temptation!

The walk back to the car was majestic, and the evening was one I will never forget!

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!

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!

A challenge

Today, Jasmine, Chris D and I caught the bus to the cinema, while t'other Chris, Tom, Ben Winter, Jade, Rosie and Jess Boulton cycled to the same destination. It was a race, but not even self-confessed slow cyclists Chris and Rosie could hold out long enough to let bus team win, although our half-hour venture did  culminate in the vehicle momentarily breaking down. Eventually we met up with the victors, all of us apart from Jess entered the cinema to watch the film "Chernobyl Diaries". It was pretty scary; Jasmine's deathly arm grab got my right arm during the trailers, while Chris spent most of the final third cowering into my left. I was sceptical of the premise: a horror film set at Chernobyl seemed rather insensitive to me, but the focus was on the characters and their eerie situation, not sensationalising the disaster. Plus we got to see the trailer for Ted!

Prom

It's been four days since the class of year 11 formally waved goodbye to compulsory education, and the celebration certainly didn't disappoint! We had pictures taken at school, then twelve of us, in a sea of blue and purple, squeezed into a fire engine limo and were whisked away to the venue.

Posing in front of the limo

The event itself was brilliant! We lapped up the American-style buffet, before heading to the dance floor.  There, we grooved to classics such as the Macarena, as well as recent chart hits and nostalgic requests. All too soon it was over, but the memories still remain, assisted by the flurry of photos uploaded within hours, and videos, including this keek.