"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

So, Barcelona...

It was highly enjoyable, however:

• The room at the hostel housed six people and was incredibly small with only one bathroom, making the whole living experience unpleasant
• We walked almost everywhere, taking the Metro only occasionally, so I spent 6-8 hours a day on foot and consequently I'm now limping
• I felt a bit isolated for part of the trip, but I went to join a different group of friends and then it all got so much better

And though we were supposed to return home at around 1 am on Tuesday morning, our 8 o' clock flight was cancelled so we had to spend another night. At first I panicked - I'd really been looking forward to going home - but then Easyjet provided us with a rather luxurious, four-star hotel which was a stark contrast to the ghastly living conditions in the hostel, so that whole experience turned out to be rather wonderful in the end. I unabashedly declare that the hotel stay turned out to be the highlight of the visit.

Sorry Sara - there was no chocolate turron! It must be a Christmas thing...

Provisions, projects, planning

A brief plan of the near future, without too much thinking involved.

March - Finish French and Spanish Oral Booklets, learn them, begin to make notes of other subjects to revise, perform final Drama exam piece.

April - Focus on revision for French and Spanish Orals, do the exams, build up revision of other subjects.

May - Continue to revise, do some of my GCSE exams, maybe think about the fact that I turn 16.

June - Finish revision, do the rest of my GCSE exams.

July - Get over the shock of (temporarily) having no more coursework/homework/revision to do, have fun, go to London and Glasgow.

August - More of the same, maybe go to Somerset, Bristol and Paris, receive my GCSE results and (hopefully) rejoice.

September - Start sixth-form, work very hard again, make some new friends (while keeping in touch with old ones), establish myself as a new person.

October - Continue to work hard, begin revision for any upcoming January exams, go to an expensive hotel.

December - Revise for my January exams, celebrate Christmas.

So, that might be my year, if things go to plan.

Sorry, I NEED one

(Again, if you're Sara there's a post dedicated to you further down the page)

I could not imagine life without a shower. I feel I have to have a shower before I go out otherwise I feel ill and paranoid.

I'm going to Ireland on Tuesday and during the holiday we're having the bathroom refurbished. I asked for it to be done in this time so I wouldn't have to suffer the horror of not having a shower or at least a bath.

However, the refurbishment is going to start on Tuesday morning meaning that, should I stay at home until I have to leave for Ireland, I would be unable to have a shower until I got to to the hotel.

Therefore, I plan to stay at my grandparents' house on Monday night so I can have a shower in the morning (oh, and to spend time with them too, of course!). They will then drop me off at the train station.

Also, I plan to sneak my science books into my bag so I can revise on holiday. This probably seems ridiculous by mock exams are a month and 10 days away and the marks go towards my predicted grades so I really want to do well.

Teacher Abby

(If you're Sara, there's a post dedicated to you after this one)

In Maths today everyone was asking me for help with surds at once so I ended up teaching the class on the interactive white board. It was quite fun, actually. And apparently they understood it so that's great :)

It's half term now, which is rather good but I have loads of work to do. Let's review:
* English Language - second half of the Derek Bentley letter
* Chemistry - some questions which are in my planner but I can't remember them at the moment
* Biology - see above
* Physics - mark homework
* French - write first draft of coursework and fill in Oral booklet
* Spanish - write one minute presentation and fill in Oral booklet
* Drama - roughly devise script
* Revision in general - all three sciences, languages, RS Short Course, possibly History and techniques for answering English Language questions

Oh, and I'll be in Ireland from Tuesday to Friday so my holiday's going to be packed. I'm not going to have a social life but that's fine. The things due in for Monday are the English letter, Physics and French (oh, and I have Drama on Monday so I'll write the script before then), so:
* I'll try to do the English letter this weekend
* I'll at least make a start on the French homework - maybe do the coursework before Ireland and the Oral booklet after
* The Drama script is just to be written whenever I have the ideas - this could be in the middle of the night
* The Physics homework shouldn't take more than half an hour so that can be done next weekend
* I'm going to try to make some revision notes/flash cards so I can revise on holiday, specifically for science

The rest of the homework can be done the week back at school because it's due in at some point in that week and not the Monday back. I can do this.

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.