Sidenote #1: I don’t care if Habs is a hockey team, it’s the informal name of my ex-school, and I feel that I can publicise that since I no longer go there.

Sidenote #2: Yes, that Talulah Riley, who was in Pride and Prejudice, St Trinians, Doctor Who, and apparently Inception which I did not know and must see. Her last year at Habs was my first.

See, of course everyone at school knows of her as an actress, but six years after she left, her reputation amongst the students still lives on as “Talulah Riley… she had a bit of a thing going on with the head of sixth form, didn’t she?” – because of course gossip thrives at an all girls’ school. And of course, though I give no credit to any such ridiculous gossip, I do still partake in the whispering and giggling and silent judgement of it ALL.

Since she left there have been no such memorable girls who have had such long-living reputations, so you can imagine how surprised I was to find out that I myself have been slapped with the same label, and girls have been whispering and giggling and judging me behind my back. I have already become infamous as “the girl who had a thing going on with that music teacher”.

Disclaimer: I have never had any serious kind of thing going on with anybody, let alone a teacher. I do, however, have a friend thing going on with all of my music teachers.

I was rather bluntly informed of this by a few younger girls. My friends have always chastised me for teasing and insulting teachers, and sometimes being too touchy-feely with them (or rather anyone for that matter), but usually it didn’t matter because nobody teased me back – except for two of them. One was the aforementioned former head of sixth form, and the other the aforementioned music teacher. After being told to “tone down the flirting” by someone in the year below, finding a whole group of girls giggling over a photo with both of us in, and hearing “BC, BC!” being yelled in my/our direction multiple times, I began to think something was up. It wasn’t until the last day though when I was discussing this with a friend a couple of years below me and she said “you do realise everyone thinks you’re going out with him, don’t you?” – which she quickly amended to “well, that you have a “thing” going on with him at least” after seeing my shocked and somewhat disturbed expression – that I realised people actually meant it.

Honestly, I was kind of weirded out by this. Like, in a major way. Leaving aside the whole “thing” thing, which I’m confident anybody who actually knows me well knows not to be true, the weirdest part is that I have a reputation. People know who I am. People associate me with something. In a very small way, I am famous.

Actually, for about 12 hours I was freaked out by the fact that I had a bad reputation, until I realised that actually I didn’t care because it wasn’t true anyway – and also that I had a reputation for essentially being myself, and I wasn’t going to (or couldn’t) change that. And then after that… I kind of am enjoying it. Of course, the rumours will be annoying though I won’t have to bear the brunt of them, and the giggling, whispering and staring isn’t the nicest part of it, but other than that, I love it. Because think about this: I was the kid who used to be bullied. I’ve been run away from, been whispered at and watched from cliques of girls sitting together, been picked last for sports teams, had to go awkwardly around the room and ask if I could be someone else’s partner because I didn’t have a best, or even a close friend to pair up with. And now to feel known makes me feel special.

But then I wondered if having a bad reputation, which I suppose mine is a little bit, was really better than having no reputation at all. Personally, I don’t feel pressured to act in any certain way, but I am more aware that people are watching me now. Maybe this is no bad thing because perhaps I should feel self-concious when I am acting “inappropriately” – but I don’t think I ever will. I know that my personality has changed over the past couple of years, and I am far more intense, chatty, extroverted, even flirty than I used to be, and most of the time I like that about myself, so therefore I kind of like the fact that my reputation has been brought about by this. But then I also know that I have alienated a lot of people through this, and as Vicky put it: “you’re like Marmite – people either love you or hate you.” Maybe it would just be easier if I were to be a nice, quiet, sober girl. Maybe I would get along with more people, and I wouldn’t have such explosive relationships as I tend to have now. Maybe it would be better if I were just normal, without a reputation again.

But then again… where would the fun of that be?

• I finished my A levels
• I finished school
• I watched the Extended Editions of LOTR back-to-back with my friends
• I’m going to Austria in four hours

YES my lovelies I have done/will be doing all those things, and have been so busy with all the excitement all of those things bring, I have completely ignored you. Frankly, I’m not sorry, but there you go.

So about a week and a half ago I had my very last exam (it’s always Physics, why I did the subject I don’t know). Overall, the majority of my exams went well, with only three being really terrible. Unfortunately, the way the marks go those were my three most important ones, but hopefully I will have managed to scrape the grades required for Durham, or my second choice RHUL. If not, then I’ll take a gap year and reapply, which I’m not too bummed about since a couple of my friends will also be doing the same, and I’ve thought up all these amazing cool things I can do.

As for leaving school, officially I have done this, though I’ve been going in afterwards for rehearsals and such so it hasn’t felt like such a big deal yet, and I’ve had time to adjust. We all celebrated with a dance/prom like thing in which the teachers all drank far more than the rest of us put together (boys’ and girls’ schools) and made fools of themselves. It got really awkward and most of us left early – though it was still an experience, and was fun at times. I got hit on by a stranger for the first time, and blew him off rather smoothly if I say so myself, which I admit, made me feel quite flash afterwards.

And though I’ve been to numerous parties and things afterwards, I have to say the highlight of the week was my LOTR marathon with my friends, which seems to draw the reply of “you have friends?!” from anybody else I tell. Still, we revelled in our geekery for what should have been eleven non-stop hours, but what ended up being more like fourteen. Oh yes I’m so cool.

Finally, in four short hours I will be starting on a 24-hour coach journey to Salzburg for my last ever Music Tour with school (you may remember I’ve been to Tuscany and Spain previously) – hence the rehearsals. I’m feeling a little sad about this since this really the end of my school time, and of course the only thing I’m sorry about leaving is the music department who have been my muses for the past four or five years. Still, I’m also quite excited about the whole thing since from past experience I know they are the most fun holidays ever – even if Austria is nowhere near a beach, or not quite as hot as either Spain or Italy. But for all my moaning about holidaying with my family in Switzerland, the mountains are beautiful, and I’ll be sure to take a load of photos for you. Something else quite exciting is that I’ll be performing another violin solo there, which has blown my mind a little bit, to be doing something like that in the home of Mozart. All this has eased the pain of the long coach journey, although I count myself as a bit of a veteran of these and live and sleep quite happily on them now – plus I see 24 hours through Germany as quite pitiful compared to previous 25 and 26 hour journeys in the blazing Mediterranean heat.

So people, I will be back in a week and a bit… I’m not sure if I’ll have internet access in Austria and in any case it will probably be at an extortionate rate. I’ll also be conserving my iPod for those long journeys so you probably won’t hear from me. But I promise that I’ll be back with a video of us singing the do-re-mi thing on the steps in the Mirabel Gardens, a la Sound of Music. I know you’ll be so excited for that.

• Am crazily revising. Sort of. I’ve been really good this year and have written out a revision timetable, and actually have been working over the holidays for like the first time in my life. Beginning to slip this week though, and am starting to see the attraction of watching Zac Efron-based movies instead of figuring out how to integrate cosec(x). Gotta keep my eyes on the goal.
• Speaking of goals, mine is Durham Uni. Went up there on the post-offer Open Day to stay in my college and I had a really, fucking amazing time (and considering I tend not to swear on this blog, that says something). Everyone was really friendly, I’m convinced I picked the most awesome college, and I finally found a Music course which seems made for me (aurally based rather than performance based). Came back home and accepted it as my firm offer, with Royal Holloway as my insurance, though I’m practically in love with Durham I wouldn’t be as happy anywhere else.
• Which brings me back to exams – I’ve had my first, 40% of my Music which was the performance. I think it went OK, I freaked out a bit at the beginning so don’t remember much of that but after I calmed down I played really well. The questions the examiner asked about my performance were a bit odd, but I at least got in everything I wanted to say. Overall I think it went better than last year, so hopefully I’ve got that A in the bag, just for another two more to secure my A in music which I need for both Unis. Unfortunately I don’t get any leeway at all this year when it comes to marks and grades – Durham was very clear that due to the government’s cutbacks, and the fact that they’ll be fined £1000 for every student they go “over budget” with they won’t be taking anybody who just missed their grades, even by the tiniest of leeways such as one mark (when I probably would have before). ONE MARK under an A and I won’t be going to Uni. I hate this government.
• Speaking of which, I’m voting this year. Got a call earlier for the Lib Dems asking who I was going to vote for. I told them to sod off.
• Back to my life, in between the revising I’ve been watching quite a bit of telly. So happy for Guttenplan winning UC last week, gutted that Amit went out in the semis. Oh, and my friend is actually arranging coffee with him – he’s a friend of a friend. In her words, “Jews know every other Jew in the area.” I’m understandably jealous, but have considered bringing my Jewish roots into this.
• Also been watching Doctor Who. Am in love with Matt Smith, and would be with Steven Moffat if he wasn’t quite so old. Don’t even know who that other guy was who used to play the Doctor (I’ve been watching so much NCIS recently I think of Ziva when I see the name David anywhere).
• Finally, I’m taking this weekend off and going away with my oldest friend Rachael. Church group leaders have organised that the final year students go away for the weekend (I have no idea where) but since there are only three girls it’ll be me, her and some other girl I haven’t seen for a while, plus two leaders. The guys are going off somewhere (camping I think, which is why we’re not going together) and we’re just going to relax and catch up since work and exams mean we don’t spend much time together now, and since we’ll all be going off to Uni in different places come October. I’m really glad I get the chance to do this since I’m not bothered about leaving anything or anyone in general any more, but I haven’t really been thinking about leaving my friends at Church since they seem almost like family, and I know I’ll probably miss them more than anyone. I guess I feel I haven’t spent as much time with them as I want to. Meh. ANYWAY then on Sunday we’ll meet up with the boys and go off to church somewhere and then come home. CAN’T WAIT.
• I just ordered my mother the New Moon DVD for her birthday. Hey, I needed an excuse.

A lot of people in my year watch it including myself, perhaps because it appeals to the very kind of girls at my school – desperately competitive, clever and a little bit up themselves. About half of the questions are final-year standard, and more are general knowledge, so I’m sure they get an ego boost too when they can correctly answer questions most uni students puzzle over (I don’t include myself in this since I can only ever remember getting some music ones which noone ever knows, and a further maths one).

Last year Gayle Trimble made the headlines as the captain of one of the Oxford teams, as she became one of the most unlikely sex symbols, purely through her knowledge of aparrently everything. Well this year it’s the turn of the boys.

The first person we saw who appeared to know everything was the captain of one of the Cambridge teams, Alex Guttenplan. He instantly won over the hearts of girls like me by acing the round, yet constantly looking terrified he was going to get it wrong. Although I must admit he wasn’t the best looking of guys, I, and many girls (and guys) loved him and couldn’t wait for his next round.

BUT! That wasn’t all. Imperial College had a team, captained by someone who seemed to know just as much as Guttenplan – a guy called Gilead Amit. Of course, the Jewish girls in school were going crazy since both he and Guttenplan were Jewish, and everyone else instantly fell in love with him because he is pretty gorgeous. AND NOT ONLY IS HE GORGEOUS BUT HE KNOWS EVERYTHING TOO.

These two guys have divided our year – half are siding with Guttenplan because he may just have the edge of knowledge, but half are siding with Amit because he’s cute AND smart. It was tense when they were placed against each other in one of the quarter final rounds – Guttenplan’s team won but Imperial are back tonight because each team needs to win 2 out of 3 matches and this is their third. I, personally, am very much torn between the two, but my friends and I love Amit that little bit more. He studies PHYSICS (hardest subject in the world). He knows poetry. He couldn’t decide between studying English or History at Uni for a time, he was THAT CLEVER. He can seduce you in four languages. OMG.

Judging by the ratio of cute-builder-to-nerdy-guys in the year’s conversation, I think we can safely say that tonight, smart will definitely be the new sexy.

I think my sister’s in the minority on the cavewoman thing.

I joined Snark on 1st February 2008, when I was 16. I was blogging back then, but still used Paint Shop Pro, was hosted by someone I barely knew from my Piczo days, and often felt emo because nobody commented on my blogs. I’m sure you’ve been there. Many of the blogs I visited often referenced Snark, or seemed to be in one of these little circle of bloggers who knew each other, commented on each other’s posts, and were also a member of Snark… so I joined to see what all the fuss was about.

And do you know what? I was right! Snark was full of all these people who knew each other, and had really INTERESTING things to say on their blogs and on Snark. I didn’t introduce myself, but nosed around, posting here and there, and not getting much notice taken of me. Within a couple of weeks I’d decided that I didn’t like it since all the rumours were true: Snark was cliquey. It was full of snobby people with sites better than mine, more interesting things to say, who knew more about the internet than me, and who were all friends. I just didn’t fit in. Boo Hoo.

I, of course, blogged about this (the post has since been lost to the depths of time) and expected no more to come of it. Not so – Snarkers got wind of it, and started commenting, and one of them even blogged about it. And subconciously I learned my first lesson about Snark – the people there are interested in you (not in a pervy way, I hasten to add). They want to find out more about you, they want to relate to you, they want to talk to you. Because, after all, a forum is about talking, something which Snarkers love to do. I’d already isolated myself by not introducing myself, and by not actively joining in a lot of discussion – something I found hard to do since back then Snark was a lot more web-savvy-based than it is now.

So I attempted to integrate myself into this small community (and it was small – I remember when we passed 400 members… although 404 members was actually what everyone pointed out), since I’m sure you’ll agree that integrating into a community is the best way to learn about them. Now I think I can safely say I’ve done this, and am in a position to tell you all the other things I learned about the Snarkers.

1. A lot of people actually suck at the whole internet-web-design-coolness-thing. Sure, there are a few more geeks than usual present, but most people are comfortably unintelligent when it comes to computer stuff. Maybe that’s why there are a lot of discussions about it – we’re asking other people for advice.
2. People have the most unusual interests. I first encountered Jem when she was tearing apart some kid’s site in one of her follow up to a drama inducing Pants award. Now she’s had her daughter she’s turned into some crazy ninja mother, opening a whole new section for it in Snark.
3. People say what they think, and they’re not afraid of the repercussions. A lot of people get fired up by important issues to them, and sometimes arguments start. But interesting issues are explored, and everyone has their own say, and that’s what I like. People aren’t afraid to be genuine.
4. Sometimes people get the impression that Snarkers are a bunch of oldies because they use proper spelling and grammar. That, my friend, is the curse of the internet, and in my case, my FF spell checker. However, for the most part, Snark’s a mature bunch of people who just don’t like people adding extra letters to the end of wordsssss. Likeee thisss (incidentally, WHY do people do this on facebook ALL THE TIME NOW?)
5. Snark’s different to other places. And I like it.

I know there’s a kind of movement within the classical music genre and “those weird people who listen to it” to actually encourage non-listeners to overcome their fears and take the plunge into full-on classical music listening. ZOMG BIG SCARY ORCHESTRAS AND WAILING LADIES. And while I’m sure most of my readers are very intelligent beings and know that there is actually nothing to be afraid of when confronted by instruments such as french horns, or long pretentious words like fortissimo, you must nevertheless admit that a large proportion of you people do not listen to classical music regularly. And I am sure an even greater proportion of your offline friends and acquaintances won’t even go near the stuff.

The thing is, amongst no-way-I-don’t-listen-to-that-weird-classical-shit people there is a kind of feeling that classical music players and listeners are part of an elite pretentious crowd who “understand” the music and don’t think anyone else can understand, because it’s “clever” and “more intellectual” than other kinds of more popular music. Or, at the very least, there’s a feeling that it’s just odd, and “different” and “not for them”.

In response amongst the classical listeners there’s a mostly prevalent feeling that this is NOT true, and there’s a move to try and interest non-listeners in classical music, because it’s NOT elitist, and it’s for everyone, and we should try and push away the prejudices.

But I, as a life-long lover of Classical… and then Baroque, Romantic, Minimalist, Neo-Classical and Expressionist music, as a violinist and a classical singer, and as a would-be Music student and then graduate, beg to differ. I AM an elitist.

BUT WAIT. See, I love classical music so much I think everyone should listen to it. Of course, there will be the people in the world who just don’t like that kind of music, just like I don’t like hip hop. I think. And then there will be the horrible people in the world I am forever prejudiced against and will never, ever understand, like my ex-boyfriend, who don’t like music FULL STOP. But everyone else should at least try it out, just like I think people should listen to other genres they’ve never tried.

“YAY!” you say, “Ann isn’t an elitist! That’s just a nice opinion!” OH NO. The reason I want everyone to listen to classical music is because I think it is better than all other types of music. And I think it is better because it is more intricate, more deep, more versatile, more evocative, and more far-reaching than any other type of music. Obviously, the “better than everything else” IS just an opinion, but you get my point on the elitist thing.

I think I am perfectly justified in saying all this stuff, because unlike the majority of you people, I have studied these kinds of music in depth, plan on doing so for the foreseeable future, AND have got to the point where I analyse everything I hear in detail, add a timestamp to it, make an educated guess to the composer and even figure out why this song has got to number 1. I have JUST read that over and realised how patronising that sounds and OOH I THINK I JUST LOST A FEW SUBSCRIBERS.

And yes, I’ve even got to the point where I refuse to listen to classical music on the radio because they pronounce names wrong, and call pieces of music “relaxing” and “invigorating” when they are so obviously only doing it for the pretentious factor because HOW is a calm violin sonata “invigorating”? Yes, you may award me double elitist points for that.

But now you see – there are two types of classical elitists. There are the actual pretentious ones who, believe me, sometimes even scare ME away from music because they honestly believe that they are better, posher, and more intellectual because of the type of music they listen to. Most of the time they don’t care two straws for the music they listen to, and rather than appreciating it for the awesomeness that it is, actually degrade the stuff.

And then there are the nice ones like me. I firmly believe that the music is better and “deeper” than any other, but I don’t claim to be any better than you just because I spend a lot of time listening to it, appreciating it and studying it. And believe me, I’m down with the “spread the WORRRD. Classical music is AWEEESOMEEEE” people out there. I want everyone to appreciate it for the wonderful music it is. But let’s face it – there are classical elitists, and there always will be. And I’m proud to be one, and I hope you will be one too.

(Be prepared for a crash course in all these different, awesome, clever types of classical music, coming to a blog near you)

In other news, I have proved to my sister beyond all doubt that I will fail in reproducing, and should that happen, my offspring will be weak and feeble (unlike the master race she evidently believes she will produce). Her reason for this belief is as follows.

We’re having an extension built onto our school, which also happens to be right at the end of the sixth form corridor, aka where I spend most of my time. Having knocked down the wall, we spend a lot of the time freezing, but that is made up for by the eye candy we are given in the forms of the builders. Of course, going to an all girls’ school means that we are completely obsessed with any male who does not work for the school… well, let’s say most males who don’t work for the school, and therefore we spend all our free time oogling over which builder is our favourite.

(Not really.)

Sadly, due to the cold temperatures they have yet to take any of their clothes off, much to my friends’ disappointment. In fact, most of what you might call the “typical builder types” have gone since all the brickwork is finished, and the window fitting, plasterer people have come in. So, we were considering this, and I was thinking that I had yet to see anyone who impressed me with their gorgeous looks, when I saw THE CUTEST guy walking down the corridor. He didn’t look like a builder at all, in fact I only knew he was one because of his fluorescent jacket. Well, that and the large pane of glass he was wielding, too.

He looked nerdy. He was wearing thick glasses, he was as short as me, and he reminded me of Leonard from TBBT. HOW could you not love someone like that? He was just frigging adorable.

This, essentially, is what Lizzy insists sets me apart from her, and most other girls in the school. I lack what she calls the cavewoman instinct for huge, muscled, dirty, hair-covered men to protect me, and produce strong, muscled children. But you know? That’s fine with me. I’d rather read nerdy books with my boyfriend than watch him go hunting or something. I love my little, nerdy, weakling children already.

So, do you lack the cavewoman/man instinct?

Note: I shall be using the correct British spelling of “traveller” because I am BRITISH and refuse to be brainwashed. Kind of in the same vein as Lizzy saying “president of where?” every time “the president” is mentioned on the news, which even I think is a little stupid because HELLO this is still the UK and we have a QUEEN and PRIME MINISTER and we are not ruled by the US. Yet.

So.

I must admit, I’ve had this book lying around since I saw the trailer for the film and decided I should really read it, since everyone knows time travel is AWESOME and I am a tiny bit completely obsessed with anything relating to it. However, I’m ashamed to say that I read the first page, decided I didn’t like the way it was written, and left it alone until now. That was a dumb move Ann, A DUMB MOVE (congratulations if you got the Charade reference, Cary Grant FOR THE WIN… anyway) because it IS well written and the way it is set out is actually completely crucial to the theme of the book. The point is, the whole book is narrated by the two main characters, Henry (the time traveller), and Clare, his (eventual) wife. It is also written entirely in the present tense – hence my original beef. In reality (because I… wasn’t in the real world when I read it first time..?) it really helps enhance one of the main issues in the book: that both characters want to hold on to the present because neither of them know when Henry will disappear next.

The book is set out really well – obviously time travel can make telling a story confusing because you never really know where it begins and ends, but very helpfully at the beginning of each scene the date and location is written, in addition to which version(s) of the main characters are in the scene, and where they are. Cleverly, the author manages to entwine the different scenes in a way that makes sense, even when crossing entire decades – firstly by covering most of Clare’s childhood meetings with the adult Henry, and then focussing more on Henry’s present life as he flits in and out of the present.

The book actually starts when Clare is 20 and Henry is 28. Clare has known Henry for most of her life, but this is the first time Henry meets her in his present timeline.  As we go through the book we find out that Henry has a genetic disorder which causes him to time travel. Although on the face of it (and through most of the first part of the book) it’s just a sweet story about a girl growing up and getting to know/falling in love with a man who already knows and loves her, the book actually touches on some interesting points. It never explicitly explores them, but once I was into the book it really made me think about the ethical/moral/interesting issues it raised – for example I bet child psychologists would have a field day if you told them the above “sweet” scenario.

The second section IS more sombre, and in points, heartbreaking – but I really felt this added to the story as a whole, and made me relish in the rest of the happy and important scenes that we discovered with Henry. It was easy to guess early on what kind of ending the story would have although we never knew for sure, and interestingly that made me want to read on, but also want to hold back to stay in the story, and to wish for the slightly happier first section. Yay for drawing you in.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are some wonderful moments in the second half, and the whole book manages to keep its charm and magic the whole way through – which is incredible because apart from the whole time travelling thing, the story is just about two people meeting, falling in love, and living their lives together… just a little jumbled up. It’s really cute and I totally recommend it – for people who like cute books as well as for people who like interesting ones.

And I shall end this review with a short extract from an email conversation I had with Campi about the book, because no book review would be complete without a reference to her.

PS have you read the time travelers wife? SO SAD (but maybe not your kind of sad..? idk)
point is, I’m reading it now and I know what the ending is and I’m coming to the end and I’m getting slower and slower at reading it… do you do that? LOL

I haven’t read the Time Traveller’s Wife, but I’m sure your sadness is (as always) justified and your crying is not. And I think the looking at the end of books is a you thing. I just read them really fast in order to get to the end so I miss important bits out.

Anyway, I totally didn’t look at the end of the book this time. It’s a complicated ending to find. You know, with time travel and all, you never really know when it’s going to end, there can be past and future mix ups.
HOWEVER, I think I coerced a friend at work to tell me the end, or I wikipedia-ed the end or something.
You should read it. Because you love time travel, and I am going to read a lot of books this year, so you should too.
Also it’s a cute book. And my crying totally was justified at the end because there was A LETTER. And letters are always sad, right?

Sidenote: I’d completely forgotten I’d mentioned “stop being rude to teachers” last year. That is HILARIOUS, I’m sure everything I said that year pales in comparison to the kind of banter I’ve been having with a teacher(s) this year (as well as the numerous arguments I’ve been having with all my friends about how I have no boundaries when it comes to staff). LOL – remind me to tell you about that (it’s linked to the crying thing).

SO. Having given much thought to this, and also having sat through numerous sessions with teachers where they attempt to teach you how to write and then achieve targets, I think I have the answer. See, in t’ oolden dees (that was supposed to be a Somerset accent) of school, whenever we got a school report (every other term) we had to make up three targets we wanted to achieve, based upon things written in our report. I think there was a catchy little mnemonic which the school made up which was something like “TOAST” but I never cared enough to remember it and spent the time whining and grumbling my way through the session because I thought it was completely pointless because I didn’t actually want to do any of the things like “work harder” or “write longer essays” or “spend a proper amount of time on homework” so it didn’t matter whether I was writing them down or not, I still wasn’t going to do them!

Note: according to my school, those are not proper targets. They have to be achievable, measurable (OMG I REMEMBER, IT WAS “SMART”) and… lots of other things. So a proper target would be “read over my Chemistry notes for 10 minutes prior to starting all Chemistry homework” or something like that. Although I bet that wouldn’t be right in some way.

ANYWAY, I suppose some fragments of usefulness have rubbed off during those sessions of coercing the teacher to make the targets up for me and then making her believe I’d thought of them myself, since this year, my resolutions will be MEASURABLE. And ACHIEVABLE. And… well, whatever the rest of the words were. In other words, I need to tell myself how exactly I am going to go about fulfilling my resolutions, because OKAY, I ACCEPT “get all As this year” isn’t a very good resolution/target.

Personal

• Exercise more. This means every week. Being in the final year of school has its advantages, and not being forced to sit through hours of tedious and strenuous PE lessons by butch women are one of them. However, I’ve got to that point where I actually feel like I need to go jogging or something, which is fairly shocking for me, because I HATE EXERCISE. Therefore, for the rest of this year I am intending to drag Becca along to the gym for at least and hour every week. This will probably be done every Wednesday during our 2 hour morning free. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, BECCA. I’ll figure something out for when I leave school.
• Lose weight. Hopefully this will be linked to the above, since I love my food way too much to think about dieting, even when it’s linked to SUPER IMPORTANT resolutions which I WILL complete. I don’t want to go crazy or anything so I’ve worked out where I’d like to get to based on my height and other important things. I should probably also mention that despite having eaten a repulsive amount over the festive period and wanting to get the perfect beach body, this is mainly driven by health-related concerns. Unfortunately, should this succeed then my mother will be able to rope me into doing all these things I don’t actually want to do anyway without feeling guilty… but I’m hoping that the whole beach body thing will make up for it
• Actually pass my driving test. I really, really REALLY want to be able to drive before I go to Uni otherwise… well, I’ll just never get it done, and I’ll be one of those dreadful women who walk everywhere or have to get their family to drive them places (not really).  However, this will require me re-learning since I’ve pretty much forgotten the very little my old instructor actually taught me. Hopefully I can do that in the ~2 months I’ll have free this summer.
• Be nice to people. This is a bit of a crap one because it’s not really quantifiable in any way, but there are some situations where insults just fall out of my mouth and it has to stop! Thankfully they’re only situations where the people in question know I like them really… but other people don’t know and I don’t want them thinking I’m a horrible person! Ahh, I’m so shallow.
• Don’t spend the summer bumming about in front of the laptop. This will be one of my longest, work-free summers until I retire (maybe) so I really need to get my ass into gear and do something about it, otherwise I will inevitably spend the whole time talking to all the other bums who don’t have enough of a social life to spend the summer off the internet. To do this, I need to compile a list of at least 20 books I’ve not read yet (I read fast) and then actually read them over the summer, AND organise various trips out and such with my friends (all to be coordinated around my driving lessons in order that I will pass AND allowing some time for me to socialise online AND comment on new people’s blogs). Life gets complicated.
• Finish novel. Like I’ve said before, I refuse to start on any of my other awesome ideas until I’ve finished this one(s). If I can manage 25,000 words over about 6 months, then I can get to however-many-words-it-will-take-to-finish-this-darn-thing in the next year, right? Of course right.

Academic

• Do my best in my exams. Ultimately getting all As, or AAB which is what I need for Uni, is not within my control since I’m not the marker/moderator, and I know all too well about coursework being moderated down. All I can try to do is my best, and then if I don’t make it, I know it’s not right for me (inspirational words (c) music teacher). However, doing my best means working and revising properly, and as much as I can without overworking myself.
• Actually read that darn book. I can’t remember the name of it, but I tracked down the only copy I could find on the internet upon the recommendation of one of my music teachers, and because I thought it sounded interesting. It’s an academic book, but not something I need to read for my course – however I WANT to read it… I’m just slightly put off by the nerdiness of the fact that I’m reading around my subject when I don’t actually have any more interviews. I know, I’m lame.

Online

• Comment on a blog I’ve not commented on before once a week. For the eloquently put reasons Adam gave. I also want to look into doing a similar sort of thing to Aisling, who’s had a brilliant idea about sharing places where she’s commented via Twitter. In any case, I can certainly stalk where she’s been in order to find new blogs.

So there you go, the obligatory 2010 resolutions post! (Sorry Rose, I had to ) Nine resolutions which are almost exactly the same as everyone else’s, but which I am determined to keep. DETERMINED, I SAY.

Well, making an improvement on last year’s one would also be progress.

This year I’m going to try and make the list a bit more representative of bands and songs I have discovered during the month, so that when 2011 rolls around I can listen back at the list and be all “awww, meeeemmoorrriiiieeesss…” – as you do when listening to songs you’ve not heard in a while.

HOWEVER, I still sort of like the idea of songs that represent what I did during those months too, so I’ll try (and probably fail) to combine that into one big super song. And maybe I’ll explain it for you.

January: Dancing Queen – Meryl Streep (Mamma Mia! Soundtrack)

[See post to listen to audio]

I actually tried to work hard and complete my resolutions, and I also thought that I still liked Chemistry. Oh, and I stopped being emo.

February: High Hopes – Nightwish (End of an Era cover)

[See post to listen to audio]

I worked, I discovered my favourite guitar solo EVARRR and actually completed one resolution. Go me!

March: Someone Like Me – Royksopp

[See post to listen to audio]

Life started sucking a bit, but I had an amazing day out with friends.

April: Passing Afternoon – Iron & Wine

[See post to listen to audio]

I cut my hair, got MORE work over the summer (oh joy) and… finished series 4 of House *weeps*. So of course, this had to be the song.

May: Don’t Feel So Low – Rubylux

[See post to listen to audio]

Gahh, exams. However, this still cracks me up.

June: Here In Your Arms – Hellogoodbye

[See post to listen to audio]

Exams finished, but I think this was the time where I actually started to have zero time left, all due to Uni. See? Now I’ve finished applying I’ve actually got back to blogging. Stupid UCAS. Still, it was finally summer.

July: I’m Yours – Jason Mraz

[See post to listen to audio]

Went to Switzerland, went to Colwyn Bay… typical (great) summer. This was THE summer song.

August: You Can’t Stop The Beat – Hairspray Soundtrack

[See post to listen to audio]

Oh great, work. Still, during the long, boring hours of work, I managed to get a real start on my novel (and it still feels odd calling it that).

September: Prom Song – Eleventyseven

[See post to listen to audio]

Back at school. I was busy, so all my posts were boring. Also, school still sucked. This song was one of the only ones which was nostalgic enough to sometimes manage to convince me it wasn’t so bad.

October: Sugar Rush – Cash Cash

[See post to listen to audio]

I was 18!!!!1!!!11 ZOMG. ALSO there was *the concert* (and my boobs). And Allie’s Song.

NaNovember: Defying Gravity – Wicked

[See post to listen to audio]

Yes, I tried. And failed. But hey, I’ve just read over the 25,000 words I did manage to write during that crazy month, and they weren’t actually that bad. Go me! Also, this is a cute song.

December: Promise Me – Dead by April

[See post to listen to audio]

Well, nothing much happened except for me discovering Dead by April. And I love this song. There was Christmas I suppose… but it’s too soon for a cheesy song.

New Year: You’re The Voice – John Farnham

[See post to listen to audio]

I know, this song was in the last post, but I had to pick something really upbeat, and the Merlin people have really made me love this song recently. Bring it on 80′s power ballads!