Autumn's pleasant

The crisp cold, the first time you can see your breath, the flushed pink cheeks. Oh, and my hands turn an interesting combination of coral and purple. It's lovely, really.

There's something about autumn/winter coats - they exude sophistication (if they're the right cut and colour, obviously) even when paired with casual clothing.

I went to a sixth-form college open day on Saturday. It was... nice. The scinece department was good, but the rest was uninspiring. The rooms were dull and the curtains looked like they were as old as me. I just knew it wasn't right. Oh, and the languages department was small and unimpressive which is a definite no. I love languages too much for that. Well, it didn't chane my decision at all - I'm going for my original choice of college.

Some people who take art for GCSE at my school have just got back from their trip to Cornwall. Now, I love art galleries and really want to see the Eden Project but I'd hate to be constantly skecthing and that's what they seemed to be doing. This only reinforces my choices of Drama and Spanish (two of my favourite subjects, too).

Okay, so, I'm ill for the first time in six months...

And I'm off school at the moment because I know that there's absolutely no way I could manage to learn feeling like this. Allow me to explain: it started last Friday with a cold that came on very quickly, followed by a cough. This became very bad over the weekend but I pushed on and tried to just deal with it. It was still horrible on Monday but I came into school because it was photo day and otherwise I might have had a blank spot in the year book (though my picture will probably have red eyes and nostrils). Going to school did help me feel a bit better, but the whole week it's been hard to concentrate because if it's not incessant coughing, sneezing or nose-running, it's the throbbing head and strange, ineffable aches.

I'm good at hiding my feelings, physical or emotional, hence the fact that when I was run over in the road by a bicycle I just got up and limped on, trying not to complain to anyone. But I knew today that if I went to school I wouldn't be able to learn very well at all, so it's better just to recover and catch up. It's only one day, anyway. My cold and cough have mostly gone away, but this has left the other symptoms worse. My body feels kind of empty which makes it hard to do things, so at the moment I'm resigned to the sofa or my bed.

I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about eating. I'm kind of hungry and there's something nice in the fridge but often when I'm ill it's completely different when the food's presented to me. It's incredibly odd for me to have lost my appetite so it's a sign that I'm really rather ill. Normally by now on a school day I would have at least had a chocolate bar as my mid-morning stack and would be waiting for lunch.

This is unrelated but weird. Before today I had no idea what The Lovely Bones was about. At all. Yesterday, I helped devise and performed in a drama piece that has exactly the same plot as The Lovely Bones. I want to read it now. I also have The Sisterhood, Hannibal, Glamour, Company and Love it! to read. That's arranged on the quality of reading material, I think.