Guilty pleasures

I don't understand them. Unless, that is, they really are something to feel guilty about; murder, for example. And if you felt guilt, you probably wouldn't find it pleasurable.

If I enjoy something, I'm usually happy to exclaim it. For example, watching the entire first series of Coach Trip in a matter of days - I see nothing wrong with that.

My French calendar phrase 'du jour':

Je n'ai pas de projets pour le week-end

My calendar knows me so well.

"Non, je ne regrette rien," "Vraiment? C'est possible?"

Actually, I don't know about regrets. I don't want to regret anything that I did academically, because I worked as hard as possible, so I really do hope that I achieve the results that I (along with my teachers) want. If I do, I'll have no regrets in terms of school.

As for regrets in other areas of life, I've never really done anything serious that's worthy or regret. Through what is essentially my own doing, my life has been sheltered, so I've had no opportunity to make some of the stupid mistakes that youths are supposed to make, according to newspapers, anyway.

But, on a more indulgent note, I think my parents and I regret the fact that we haven't been on more holidays abroad together. We've visited France, Belgium, Spain, Monaco (which is so small that it barely qualifies as a country - the country equivalent to Pluto, perhaps) and Ireland. Of course, we're lucky to have experienced these trips, as there are many families who can't afford any holiday at all, let alone one outside the UK.

However, yesterday my mother and I were thinking about our holiday past, and we realised that we should do more. We can get away with the environmental impact - we're recycling vegetarians without a car who fly no more than once a year, if that - and my parents are good with money so we'd have enough to do something nice.

One of the main problems is my aversion to heat. I just can't take it, and I burn so easily that I'd probably spend most of the time applying sun cream. Inevitably, this limits out holiday options. At some point I'll probably brave a hot country, but I'd need to build up my resistance - starting with an activity as simple as spending a few hours in the sun (well protected, of course), or visiting the beach for the first time in around four years

Not 'je suis fini' - I'm not dead

Well, that's it - 11.5 GCSEs, plus many miscellaneous qualifications, done. But I've kind of gone into a state of shock. I watched TV for over an hour in one go today, even after I'd finished eating, and it felt so strange. It was almost as if I was having withdrawal symptoms due to a lack of revision. I really don't know what I'm going to do this summer.

Actually, I suppose I do, a bit. My father came up to me the other day and said 'Abby, we're going to Alton Towers whether you like it or not!' Well, luckily I do. I haven't been for five years and at that stage I was only brave enough to go on the mildly scary rides like Corkscrew and the Spinball Whizzer. But now I feel a little more valiant, so my father and I will face the queues and take on some of the theme park's more intense offerings. After all, what could be more fun than experiencing a force four and a half times your natural weight?

Other planned summer events include numerous trips to London, a visit to Frome and perhaps even a short break in Paris and/or Marseille (j'adorerais avoir une occasion de parler le français en France, bien sûr!) I'd also like to see Avenue Q again, for the fifth time! Actually, I happen to be listening to the soundtrack right now.

Oh, is that an end in sight?

After an intensive week and a half of exams, I've now finished over half of my GCSEs - I'm getting there! Today was my final official day of secondary school before exam leave - an emotional whirlwind filled with signing autographs books, taking pictures, hugging and me pretending to be a dinosaur hatching out of an egg in RS. I really will miss so many people, quite a few teachers and some of the aspects of the school. I know I've outgrown it now, but it served me well for five years.

I've decided that today should be a break - no revision (what a novelty!), a bit of Facebook and music, and even arranging to see Sam for the first time in so long.

I didn't acknowledge that it was my birthday last Sunday and just persevered with revision. Of course, I will celebrate my birthday, and I'm going to do it properly during the summer. You know that phrase 'work hard play hard'? Well, perhaps I'll epitomise that during the summer - I've worked painstakingly during these past two years, so I really need to, er, 'play hard'. And by this, I mean that I'll maybe throw a birthday party, visit London, go on holiday, see friends, read for fun, learn a new skill and just partake in all the things that I've longed to do but have put off due to revision in GCSE years.

Never before has the phrase 'the end is in sight' been more relevant - it's exactly four weeks until my final exam. Four weeks from now, I will be rejoicing. It's not been an easy two years, but the time has had many fun points and was full of new experiences.

Oh yes, and I'm sixteen now. Okay, right, this is... exactly the same. Not that I expected to feel any different. When you don't celebrate your birthday, it's really just another day.

Could I be a brand?

Some slogan ideas from Slogan Maker:

Abby for high quality
Start your day with Abby
Abby is your freedom
Nobody does it like Abby
It's miracle in the rain, it's Abby
Be funny with Abby
Abby for every day
Abby is rolling, the others are stoned
Abby enjoy it
Famed for Abby
Soft and silky as Abby
Abby is the only way to be happy
Abby shot from guns
Abby for every walk in life
Everything for Abby
Abby the real obsession
The art of Abby
Abby is easy
Abby is a female force
Abby can do
Abby is be lovelier to love
Abby you can trust
Abby you like it
Abby is blended
Abby - the natural way
Abby for a long career
Abby makes you better
Abby is the door to success
Abby is a legend
Abby & more
The Spirit of Abby

Centripetal spill

A blur, a bang, a broom... okay, well that last one was actually a mop, but would the rule of two really have the same impact? Anyway, you'd never really suspect a humble water-filled bucket and some string to cause the level of entertainment experience in Physics today. I know I never did.

Naturally, trudging into the dulled, yet somehow enthralling, class room I awaited the norm - a few work sheets here, some calculations there and in general an affirming lesson proving to myself that this knowledge will reside in my head for the long-term.

So when, having completed the routine, my teacher pulled out the seemingly innocuous apparatus of a bucket filled with water hanging off a string, the class buzzed with excitement at a subtle change to the standard fare. Of course, this had a point - it was a model to demonstrate how centripetal forces (those acting towards the centre of an object and cause it to follow a circular path).

After watching our teacher hesitantly make the full circle (admittedly, it is a frightening thing and you really have to go for it with vigour) and impressively contain all of the water, it was the turn of any willing volunteer. As I, among others, suspected, one of my more daring peers and a regular hand-raiser got straight up to have ago. I shuffled back in my seat (you know, just in case), but inside knew that any soaking would be well worth the laugh. It looked promising as she began to swing the bucket and build momentum, but one over-zealous arm movement and water gushed down triumphantly, as if fooled into thinking that it had beaten centripetal forces. It spread itself out nicely, too, spanning around 6 feet, yet somehow no one was even splattered.

Now, as you probably know, school's never the most fascinating or humourous place, so when an utterly amazing and hilarious thing like this happens, it's impossible to contain yourself. The class, teacher et al, erupted in a haze of contagious laughter, literally to the extent that tears raced down my face, perhaps to join their floor-based liquid companions. Our teacher didn't appear at all frustrated and simply began to mop up while still in convulsions of laughter, which only added to the sheer splendour of that lesson. So, it all turned out to be even more exciting than could have ever been anticipated, and I know I'll remember the law of centripetal force now!

I've grown to resent a certain social networking site

I've never been addicted, but I used to visit it on an hourly basis at home out of boredom or convenience. Well, over the Christmas Holidays I inadvertently gave it up and it was one of the happiest times in the past year. And, no, it had nothing to do with the fact that it was Christmas.

Perhaps I'll just stick with it as it's not a constant bother, but the end may very well be nigh.

If we were perpetual...

Then I'd tell you everything, literally everything, that I love about London. Well, we're not so I'll try to shorten that a bit, but anyway:

• As soon as you get off the train, you immediately feel part of something bigger and better than yourself, like your future
• You're never stuck for food - if you want chips and green tea at the same time, you can have it
• Everyone's busy, constantly occupied, and that's how I like it
• It has nearly every kind of establishment and attraction - shop, restaurant, museum, musical, play, art gallery, etc. Oh, and all the non-cultural things too, I suppose
• It's for practically every type of person - it can cater to everyone
• It has the only MAC Pro shop in the country - yeah, that's still important, even to a non-makeup-wearing person like me
• There are probably more coffee shops than toilets, but that could be a problem as coffee is a diaretic... oh well!
• It's the capital of everything (maybe not everything in the world, but a lot revolves around it)
• It can be expensive, but it's completely worth it
• You can just spend all day travelling around the various districts
• Soho - camp (which is a bad thing), very seedy but with many sushi restaurants and an amazing frozen yoghurt place -Snog
• There are loads of Japanese supermarkets and shops - it's hardly a surprise that most of the money that I spend goes on food, is it?
• It has strange but occasionally fascinating things like the fourth plinth exhibition
• You can find every personality, nationality, language, race and culture there
• It's wonderful to be there whether you're with, parents, friends, grandparents etc. Just don't go with school - it kind of ruins the London experience
• It moulded me -oh, where would I be without London? I'd have hated to not have had at least some time somewhere lovely before begrudgingly moving to this place

I could go on, but let's leave it there, shall we?

A delayed climax

Naturally, the first day back at school has dragged me back into the routine, and as always it was fairly normal. However, I had an unexpected after-school adventure...

The walk home from school takes mere minutes, yet still manages to be unbearably dull. Mid-walk, I suddenly realised that during the Christmas holidays I unwittingly took out my purse, containing keys and a reasonable amount of money to suffice in emergencies, out of my strained bag.

My father's often out at around mid-afternoon, dashing around earning money, and my mother is always at work at this point, so of course I expected to have to wait around outside for a little bit. Okay, I thought - this is bearable. So I dawdled about from foot to foot, resting my bag on my long feet like a penguin's egg. But soon it became embarrassing - my house is in quite plain view of the public, and being after school there were plenty of passers-by.

The logical option was to retreat to my back garden. Hardly a paradise, but good enough for a few minutes. The not so logical option was to kick the gate to the back garden multiple times, before eventually spotting the rusty handle which promptly and efficiently opened this wooden wonder. Well, forgive me for thinking that my house would be equipped with better security measures.

I shuffled into the back garden, and for some reason expected more than I ever could from my plain old bit of green. Yes, there is a bike shelter, but I was unsure of the cleanliness of that area and din't mind snow at all, so I chose to stand in the middle of the garden. I gazed over at the broken-and-poorly-reassembled bench covered with leeks, which made standing feel all the better.

However, this was not a sustainable action, for I was aware of the fact that my father may have been in a different city and my mother was liable to be at work until 5, so I thought of trotting down the road to the nearest payphone. Easy! Except, of course, coins go in purses. Oh. Thankfully, a 10-year friendship led me to march down to Sam's house.

It's just down the road... a main road, and then there's a left, but that's beside the point. I reached his house in roughly 10 minutes, and upon opening the door he jumped a little in shock, good shock. I was greeted warmly by him, his mother and sister, so it was a lovely comfort after my stand-up experience, and not the comedy kind.

Having watched 'Come Dine With Me' for a little and discussing Slankets and exams, another kind gesture came my way. Sam's mother drove me back to my house, where I greeted my father wearing a bright orange, moth-ravished woollen jumper. Well, of course, he arrived back just minutes after I left.

So, my event was split up into minutes scattered around, and the whole chaos occurred in around an hour. Yes, I was delayed by about an hour and consequently was doing homework until after 6 pm, but ultimately it was enjoyable as I was able to see Sam. A good day, I suppose.

If I may reflect...

2009. An eventful year (isn't it always?), at least in my private yet ever expanding world. Though it's never been quite as terrible as I thought at the time, it's a wonderful relief to look back on some of the things I've done this year and think, well at least that's over. For example, half of my Science GCSEs, half of my Maths GCSE, part of my English Language and Literature GCSEs, 30% of my Drama GCSE, a quarter of my Spanish and French GCSEs, a bit of my History GCSE and, oh, a large amount of that preposterous ICT qualification that neither I nor my fellow academic peers agreed to.

Well, anyway, I suppose I'll wish readers a pleasant, prosperous and ultimately happy New Year (and I hope it's good when the year's old, too).

I've never really made resolutions (though at the age of 10 I did become rather enamoured with growing a giant vegetable that year - one day), however I have some goals:

• Achieve the best grades that I possibly can in my GCSEs
• Start giving more money to animal charities on a regular basis
  
• Learn to play a musical instrument, maybe
• Master French and Spanish so I'm fluent
• Learn a new language - choices: Italian, German, Irish, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese
• Start going clothes shopping again - I love clothes and fashion, but I can never bring myself to buy anything and only want to look
• Audition for a proper play/musical and maybe the National Youth Theatre, not just amateur youth theatre clubs
• Go to see Avenue Q again, hopefully twice
• Go to Harrods (and Harvey Nichols again, maybe)
• Write an article for a newspaper and send it in
• Start a few art projects that have been in my head for a while
• Reach the tenth generation on The Sims 3 (I'm on the fifth now which is huge for me)
  
• Go to a house party
• Actually buy some makeup, particularly from MAC, instead of just gazing longingly (this relates back to the clothes thing)
• Spend some of the money I have saved up - not a lot, but it's just sitting there growing and never gets to have fun
• Get my hair cut into a completely new style (I think two and a half years is a bit ridiculous)
• See some really good films at the cinema
• Start reading fashion magazines in French
• Expand my music tastes (of course, never forgetting Regina Spektor, but I know there's a lot out there that I sometimes miss out on a lot)
• Read more fiction (I can't help my love of Science textbooks and French grammar books!)
• Dress up whenever I feel like it, oh, and go to a costume party
• Do more photography
• Submit some of my photography to, er... somewhere important!

So, I'm fairly ambitious. But hopefully in the summer holidays when GCSEs are finished I'll have some time to do at least a few of these things. So, I hope your tonight's good!

Surprise surprise

London was great. Really great. I've eaten so much Japanese food over the past few days that I can't handle anymore for now, but I loved it.

I'll probably go into much more detail soon about the other, non-food, activites, but overall it was a very good holiday. Most of my family holidays are to European cities. It's just easier as it's only me and my parents, we don't have a car and all love culture, food etc. so it makes sense to go to places like London, Paris, Brussels, Dublin et al.