In which I undertake NaNoWriMo

I originally wrote half of this blog post about a week ago now, but for some reason I never finished it. I'm doing NaNoWriMo. Yup, that's right. I'm writing 50,000 words in 30 days, to help me with my book. So far I've written 27k words. Life is good.

As for school... well, it's the same old, same old Apart from the fact that I'm now doing my French GCSE in January. Also I had a Drama assessment a few days ago. It went pretty well.

We did the play 'Top Girls' by Carol Churchill. There's an adaptation on at the moment in the West End, and it was so freaking difficult to do. I actually didn't think we were going to pass it. None of us could do the whole thing through without a line prompt. So when it came to the performance... well, we skipped a few pages, but apart from that we managed to get through without a problem. Thank goodness for that, that's all I have to say!

I have a Biology retake next Tuesday for B1a. I got a very high B on it but I'm expected to get an A* or something ridiculous so I have to redo. I'm not alone though, something like 60 people in the year are doing it with me. I'm just going to put it down to the fact that it was a stupid paper and leave it at that. I've done pretty much one revision session so far. God help me. I just haven't had the time!

Anyways, I better go and write some more of my book. Mocks on the 28th, aaahhh! Peace out y'all!

In which I am enjoying myself way too much.

I'm here on half term now, just got back after a few wonderful days on holiday in Italy with my friends. First of all, I am attempting to do some form of revision, but I keep getting distracted by things, or I find something I've been meaning to do for ages, or something. For example, I spent all of yesterday with my best friends when I should have been recapping all the stuff I've forgotten after the holiday. On Saturday I watched a film and read a whole book. These things aren't going to get me my GCSEs, I know. I have done some things today, and writing to you is part of my 'free' period. (Which ends in about 40 minutes, I gave myself an hour for lunch when theoretically it only takes me 10 minutes to eat!)

I've also found a winning idea for my book, and I've just started writing it. I'm really enjoying it so far, so I hope I'll be able to complete it and get it published. Obviously even if it did get famous I'd probably have to do my GCSEs first, but still! At least it wouldn't matter if I totally failed.

Ugh. Additional Science is easily the most annoying thing in the world, as is History. (Why am I doing it for A-Level again?!) I just did some revision on cell anatomy this morning, and I think I'm gonna start on enzymes soon, as well as whatever topic 3 is in Physics *vomits*

Glad to have a small rest from the stress that is school though!

In Which I fail.

It's been about two weeks since I've last written. I often make excuses for being busy and I'm going to have to do the same now. Year 11 is... wow. I didn't expect it to be such a step up from Year 10 to 11. I prepared myself for that last year; when it didn't happen I let my guard down and now it's a struggle to  get on top of things. But I'm managing somehow.

We're coming to the end of the first half term now. Thoughts? Well, it's gone by so quickly, and I've already had a heap of exams, and even more in the next half term. I had my French oral BTW, and it went pretty well, even if I did mess up a little in the middle. I got an A for it, half a mark off an A* as well xD damn! As for my English exam that went pretty well as well, although I don't think the persuasive speech I had to write was quite as good as my essay :L

Next term I have my Drama play pretty much the first week into half term. I'll post more about that near the time but I have so many lines that it's not even funny. Trying to learn them is so difficult, what with everything else we have going on, but now that we have half term coming up hopefully I'll have some time to learn them then.

I've started sending off application forms to colleges and going to open evenings as well. For A-Level I want to do English, History, French and Psychology. I wanted to do Classical Civilisation as well, but I was advised by one of my brother's friends just to do four instead and get a part time job. Speaking of which, I have another form that I need to try and complete, as well as a song I need to finish writing and composing for my band, so I should probably go. See you guys soon! I'm going on holiday on Friday so it'll probably be the Saturday when I next talk to you!

In which I make too many promises

I realise that it's been more than a week since I last posted. Once again Year 11 has become even busier, and I've already found myself weighed down by homework and revision. I've decided that I'm not going to start revising for my Biology retake until October by the earliest, but a lot of teachers like us to start going over stuff now (in preparation for mocks and, ultimately, study leave in May). This is why I have my Chemistry textbook open now in front of me on page 114 - the beginnings of Additional Chemistry, where a double page spread on atomic structure grins back at me. It'll be nice to get it all in my head again. We're currently studying electrolysis about 70 pages on from that, and things are becoming pretty confusing seeing as I don't remember the basics of things like Ionic bonding.

Our teachers would like us to be studying every night but my parents and I both agree that this is not needed and will only tire me out. I get home from school at 4 o'clock on a normal day, apart from Mondays when I have French Media club (in which I get home at 5:30 or thereabouts), or Wednesdays when I have band practise and then extra French tutoring (7pm normally). Sometimes I don't get home 'till about 5 on Tuesdays because my mum has to come and pick me up from her college. After that I have to do my homework and then make myself dinner, which keeps me busy 'till about 8 or 9, when by then my mind is already starting to drift off into a secluded state of unconsciousness, so anything academic or rigorous I try to do then just fails completely. So therefore I've decided I'm going to do a little review in each subject at the weekend. Two hours per Saturday and Sunday isn't bad I don't think.

Anyways, the reason for the title of this journal post is because it's getting up to the time when I'm supposed to start choosing A-Levels (if I even make it that far!) Teachers have already started scouting round for who  they think should be doing their subject as an A-Level... and sadly they've all zoned in on me. I've now accidentally promised various teachers that I'm going to do English Language, English Literature, Drama, Biology, Maths and French for A-Level. In theory I actually only want to do three of those six. My options are: English Language, English Literature, French, History, Psychology and maybe something like Philosophy or Classical Civilisation. Hmm, A-Level options evening should be... interesting...

In which I fail to think of a witty title

I'm so tired. So, so tired. School is so difficult already and we're only a week in! I haven't written in a while so this post is probably gonna be pretty long but oh well. I have twenty minutes to do it in before I have to plunge myself into Thursday's excitement so here goes...

Retakes
For some reason a lot of people in my set did quite badly in our core science modules (we're using the AQA exam board for this). These are my results:
These are my results:
B1a - B - 38 UMS points
B1b - A - 40 UMS points
C1a - B - 36 UMS points
C1b - A - 42 UMS points
P1a - B - 39 UMS points
P1b - A* - 47 UMS points

A couple of days ago my Biology and Chemistry teachers asked me if I wanted to retake the 1a papers. I said no to both of them because I'm quite content with my Bs and I think they're good enough. When I said this to my Biology teacher he said, "They're not good enough... for you." I told him I'd retake the 1a paper though, I guess it's worth a shot. I'm not going to retake the Chemistry 1a though. We have them at the same time as our mocks in November and there's only so much you can revise for at once. Plus I have the school play, which I'll talk about now.

School play
I auditioned for the school play for a couple of our friends (as GCSE Drama students, it's strongly advised that we do it) and I thought it went really well. Instead, us Year 11s all got the part of pubgoers. In fairness I suppose it's a good thing, as it gives us less to worry about when it comes to doing homework and revising for mocks. But I did really want a good part seeing as it's my final year there. Ah well, you can't have everything that you want.

French oral
I have a French oral examination coming up in October, and I'm terrified. I suck at talking in French - I can read and write it fine, but I literally CANNOT think on my feet like that and come out with a load of good vocab. We had a practise a couple days ago which went... interestingly to say the least, but I definitely wasn't the worst in the class so I guess that's one good thing.

I actually think I'm one of the only people in the year who is actually keeping up with their homework. Left and right there's people doing it before class or before school has even started, doing it in the lessons, trying to make up witty excuses for why they haven't done it... And I probably do a lot more extra stuff than they do. My week looks like this:
Monday - French media club/Rehearsal
Tuesday - Rehearsal/free
Wednesday - French tutoring
Thursday - Band practice
Friday - Free

I guess I'm just really self-motivated.

D of E soon, aaahhh! We started planning our routes yesterday, it looks like it could be quite difficult and complicated, but hopefully we'll manage. Our practice expedition was a total disaster, so I really hope that it's easier this time.

I finished this post in ten minutes. Boo yah.

In which I realise that Year 11 is going to be veery hectic.

A couple of days ago my head of year took all of us through the layout of the year. This is the way things are gonna be for most year 11s around the country:

September - Getting back into things.
October - A Level options and college applications.
November - Science retakes (doesn't apply to me) and revision for mocks.
December - Mock GCSEs and revision for January GCSE modules.
January - GCSE modules (I have additional science, aahh)
February - Nothing, thank goodness.
March - January GCSE module results + a possible retakes.
April - Revision starts.
May - Study leave and revision. GCSE exams begin.
June - GCSEs
July - Freedom.

So basically things are okay for the first few weeks and then... boom, they're off. I'm also taking part in the school production, so aaah o_________o

Speaking of which, Friday lunchtime was hectic! I had a D of E meeting, my play audition, a meeting for a school trip we have coming up and then a meeting for a French Media club my teacher wants me and my friend to join. And somehow I managed to fit lunch in too. I literally did not stop all lunchtime, and even then I had to practically run everywhere.

Speaking of which I'm going to the cinema today with my friends, we're gonna go and see 'Friends with Benefits.' I'll write a film review when I get back, for now, peace out!

In which I get thoroughly confused about boys in general.

Started school today, I am now officially a Year 11! o__________________________o

The day begun with a whole crowd of us meeting outside the carpark and then finding our form and locker rooms to dump our bags in. We then hung around until our teacher appeared and gave us our timetables and homework diaries and things and then filled in homework timetables and collected locker keys, et cetera. I had all my textbooks and stuff in my bag, so it was definitely a relief to ditch them all somewhere. I actually found a note inside my locker, which read: 'Look after my locker, he's a good one :)' It did make me smile. I've decided I'm going to keep it in there and leave it when we clear them out next May. The next year 11 to use it will hopefully get a pleasant surprise!

First lesson of the year was Maths where we were constructing pie charts, something I've never actually done before o_0 it wasn't too difficult though which was definitely a good thing. We had a D of E meeting at lunch (our bronze expedition is in just a few weeks' time, asdf) where we organised our groups and stuff. After that I had Music, which is and always has been a laugh, and after that PE, which wasn't so great but was still fun. As someone who doesn't require pre-season hockey or netball training in order to try and make it onto the team our teacher told us to go into the mini-gym we had and do something there. Unfortunately quite a lot of us ended up in there so my friends and I didn't really do much.. Eventually we were given skipping ropes to go outside with which was definitely fun :) after that, it was the end of school, and our first day of Year 11 was officially over!

The reason for the title of this blog post is because I find myself in a pretty unfortunate predicament, one that will ring clear for many girls of my age. There's a guy who likes me. He likes me very much. We first got close about a year ago, after a hilarious and embarrassing on my part conversation about me being allergic to things and then suddenly not being allergic to them. It actually makes me go red just thinking about it! Anyway, he asked me out in, what, mid-June of last year? I said no because one, I wasn't expecting it and that was the reflex reaction - and two because (and here comes the difficult part) I like somebody else. Scratch that, I'm in love with someone else. I've loved him for two years now, and there's no sign of me getting over that any time soon. Does he like me? It's hard to tell? I have a feeling an ex-best friend has told him in order to spite me, and he acts quite cold when I try to strike up a conversation with him. However he often stares at me, and I caught him doing so quite a lot in PE today. Also when I walked past the guy who likes me he like flipped his hair and blushed when he saw me :L this is not good. I said no to him. That should be the end of it, shouldn't it? And why does this other guy keep staring at me when he acts cold when I talk to him? *Headdesk* Boys. They're so confusing. They can't decide what they want and when it's time to quit. I'm tired of it all already and it's only my first day!

Anyway, enough of that. Sorry if I sounded obnoxious up there, I was trying to word that in the best way possible. I probably won't blog every day but I'll do so about once or twice a week, depending on if anything happens or not ^^ so peace out for now!

In which I get even fatter.

I'm writing this to you with the rain slamming against the windows outside, nibbling away on my coveted Haribo milk bottles. No actually, that's a lie. That's the way I was  going to start off this blog post approximately eight hours ago, but just like everything else I was meant to get done  today, I failed to do it. The only thing true in the first sentence there was the whole thing about the rain slamming against the windows. It's been raining all day. Now that it's well into early September summer has packed up and left, and there's a definite autumnal chill in the air. To be honest I don't think summer ever really came. We had a horrible winter, a few whispers of spring, and then here we are in Autumn again. Sigh.

There are so many better ways to spend one's last day of summer than what I did. My brother and I trecked to the bus stop in the pouring rain, bought some more pick 'n mix and came home. We pretty much ate all our sweets by the time we got home, so I spent the remaining few hours of the day curled up with the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy, 'Mockingjay.' I'll write a book review about it some other time, if I remember. In my opinion it wasn't as good as the other two. It almost seemed tired and rushed in a way.

I did manage to do SOME things today though. My school bag has been packed. I caught up with some schoolmates I haven't seen all summer. I tidied my desk up and removed all the clutter that the holidays had brought onto it, so that I can now actually see what colour the wood is. My bedroom doesn't seem to be too messy and my uniform has been laid out in an accessible area. I think I'm ready.

Thoughts on school? I'm excited to see my friends and get back into a nice, solid routine. However I'm not too eager about GCSEs and homework and studying. Oh and all the crap I have to put up with from a few *certain* girls - nothing I can't handle of course, but irritating and tiresome all the same. Maybe they'll have cooled off this year. We live in hope :)

That's it for now. It's currently 11:16pm, and I'm only gonna get 6 and a bit hours' sleep if I don't hurry up and finish this. I felt like I needed to collect my thoughts and feelings up before I started though :) I'll see you all tomorrow after my first day of school!

In which I experience my first robotic massage.

I went shopping in town with my brother yesterday for school supplies. We figured that there would be virtually nobody around on a late Saturday afternoon when most schools don't start back until either next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - but alas we were wrong. Which begs the question - what exactly are all these people doing in the run up to school in the early days of next week? It'll all take on the appearance of an anticlimax now that school supplies have been bought, hair has been cut, new cold leather shoots fitted to small feet and scuffy, smaller ones thrown away. Either way WHSmith's was heaving on that late Saturday afternoon, mainly with small, screaming children whose desires for this that and the other were mingling with the anxieties and the sadness of watching the summer of 2011 die around them like the last embers of what was a simply glorious bonfire. Distressed looking parents crowded round the huge box which held all the sale items in, but my brother and I managed to fight our way through to take our own pick. There's a reason why half these items were for sale - mainly because they either only apply to a certain area of the back-to-school market (e.g. you're not going to see any primary school kids with biros and holepunchers now, are you?) or that they're pretty cheap anyway, meaning that not much has really been slashed off the price tag at all. My brother did grab a pad on our quick journey to the box though, before plunging into the aisles to seek out the things I needed.

The exciting trip into WHSmiths left me walking away with a pack of black biros, some pink mechanical pencils, a pink ruler/triangle thingy/protractor set and a pink rubber. It's a shame I'm not actually that fond of pink, isn't it? Then again, in my defence, I wasn't really concentrating, more rubbing my now-aching head with one hand as the cries of at least ten small children rose up around me and grabbing things absent-mindedly with the other. I also bought myself a new pencil case - a small, cylindrical like thing with 'I LOVE NEW YORK' written on the front, a similar tag tethered onto the side. I've never actually been to New York. But I suppose it makes me look slightly cultured so I can't complain.

While we were there, I also bought the second book in the 'Hunger Games' trilogy. I'm making my way through the series and hope to finish them before I go back to school on Wednesday, so if I buy the third one tomorrow I'll  be home and dry with hours to spare. We had some time to kill before the bus home arrived so we wandered round the shopping centre for a while, finally encountering the massage chairs that lie on the top floor on one side. Having never been on them before, we decided to try them out, as there's always a first time for everything. What followed were a lot of probably very inappropriate noises, judging by the looks children (probably the same ones we encountered in Smith's, no less) and adults alike were casting us as they walked by. It was easily the weirdest and perhaps the most uncomfortable three minutes of my life, but I did walk away with my back feeling a little stronger than it normally does.

Just before we got the bus home my brother and I bought some pick 'n mix, which I have had waaay too much of recently. Seriously. Within the past week I've been running around various towns so often that I've had pick 'n mix about three to four times. Which leads to today's question - yeah, I'm doing blog questions. Even if no-one answers, they're still fun for me to think of.
What is your favourite pick 'n mix sweet and why?


Mine is probably those milk bottles which you most commonly find in Haribo Super Mix. I absolutely adore them <3 but I also love gummy strawberries, jazzies (which are like disks of chocolate covered in rainbow sprinkles), chocolate peanuts and strawberry bonbons.

That's it for now. I hope everybody has had a lovely weekend!
Suki/The Nemo Author

I'm already procrastinating!

I'm writing this at 11:30pm on Friday September 2nd. In effect I was actually meant to start this blog approximately 2 days ago but meh, things came up. Things that involved my friend and I going on a daring excursion to London and hopping on a tube with no idea where we were going :') hence why I didn't write anything yesterday. Or the day before yesterday. Who knows!

I feel as if I should introduce myself. My internet name is Suki. I'm currently 15 years old and I just finished Year 10 at my school somewhere in the south of England. If I'm honest, I probably qualify as a bit of a dork (currently staring at a poster of my dear Matt Smith as the Doctor from Doctor Who while I type this on my iPod) but it's a good type of dork (: I enjoy writing, reading, listening to and playing music (I play piano and rhythm/lead guitar in our awesome band) and martial arts. I'm doing either 9 or 10 GCSEs, I can't quite remember, although I think it's 9. They are English Lit&Lang, Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, French, History, Drama and Music. Wait, is that 10? I guess it depends if English counts as 2 separate GCSEs or not...

My best subjects are probably English and French, although I'm not too shabby at History and Maths either. My worst are definitely the Sciences. In year 10 I took 3 English modules and got A* on all of them. I took 2 modules for the separate sciences and at the moment I'm on a high B in Biology and Chemistry and an A in Physics (somehow!)

That's all I think you need to know about me for now :) so peace out and see y'all around!