Disregarding pretension

No matter how pretentious it may sound to burst into a foreign language unannounced...

Mon examen oral de français est fini - comme c'est marveilleux!/Mi examen oral de español es terminado - ¡Qué maravilla!

Which translates as 'My French/Spanish oral exam is finished - how marvellous!' Of course, it's a big relief - I've been preparing for these exams for months and had to learn many pages of answers for both exams which were within a week of each other. This weekend I became quite ill with some kind of flu/cold/sore throat combination, thus making the Spanish oral of today even more difficult. But both are done now and I can resume revision for the written exams.

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.

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.