Summer is nearly over!

Well, it's that time of year again, You can't walk into a shop without being bombarded with "BACK TO SCHOOL IN SEPTEMBER!" banners, I feel like saying "Oh yes, thanks for reminding me, I've only begun a new school year for the last 13 years of my life, I'd completely forgotten that it began in september." And its not like parents are likely to forget when school starts either, chances are they've been marking off the days on the calendar, just willing the brats to be spending their days at school rather than either pestering them, or bleeding them dry with childcare.
Anyway, rant over.
It's almost time for school, I've got myself organised this time, I've read ahead, split my specifications into sections, organised my folders and started writing out keywords, in a nutshell - I AM PREPARED for the horror that is year 13.

I'd better change the subject before I explode with excitement (that was a joke), I've just finished my annual Primeval marathon - Woop!
I do it every summer, during the year I might watch the odd episode but I only watch them in order during the summer holidays, it's become a sort of tradition.

Anyway, this time I thought I might go to London Comic Con in October, and I decided to go as Abby (I admire her feisty, no-nonsense character), Naturally, I asked around for someone to come as Connor, I found my man, I tried to get a whole team together but everyone else is busy on that day unfortunately.
Oh well, the two of us are gonna have some fun, I've got a skirt already, not the one I'd hoped for, but it only cost me £2 and it goes with another Abby outfit.

This is the outfit I was hoping for

This is probably what I'm going for now

I'll also be making an anomaly detector for connor, and rex for me, then I'll customise a gun or two to make EMDs. :)

That's my bargain skirt, I have leggings but I'll need to get my hands on a purple hoodie, a scarf and the boots.
I'll keep the blog updated with any additions to mine or "Connor's" outfits, and hopefully I'll do a post on the event itself.

I'm signing off now to do some sketches for my EPQ.
Alons-y!

Update

Morning all!
It's just occurred to me that it's GCSE results day today (ok, I was watching the news), so I'll take this opportunity to say good luck to everyone getting them.

On the topic of results, I thought I'd give you an update on my AS results and compare them to my GCSEs (and if your starting them in September, motivate you to work your socks off).

GCSEs:
History - A*
Biology - A
Chemistry - A
Physics - A
Statistics - A
Geography - A
English Language - A
English Literature - B
Maths - B
Humanities - B

Now, I was pretty happy with those results and was confident for year 12, and remained confident until around February, when I realised I wasn't retaining the info as well as I had at GCSE.
This led to me revising non-stop from just before Easter up to exams, and this took its toll on me.
You need to go over your notes, and perhaps condense them, EVERY DAY (I know you might have planned to do that, but the chances are, you won't.) Because, if something happens during the exam period, such as falling ill, that can drastically affect your results, and special consideration won't make up for what you've lost, you need to have as much information as possible in your long term memory by reading your notes throughout the year.

These were my overall results:
History - C (from an A* remember, I was confident in these exams.)
Biology - C
Geography - C
Psychology - B

And a breakdown of papers: to show the difference between when I was healthy, and when I was ill.

PAPER 1 - HEALTHY
Biology - B.
Geography - B.
History - B.
Psychology - A.

PAPER 2 - ILL
Biology - D
Geography - D
History - C
Psychology C

So basically, work hard! :D

Alons-y!

Lochearnhead Scout camp 27th July - 7th August 2013

Well, I'm finally home from a fantastic trip to Scotland with the scouts. It's taken a while to get this up as after getting back from Scotland, I was off to Wales and since then I've been doing all my homework and getting my folders organised for school. I can't believe year 13 starts in just 14 days! I've hardly had a chance to sit down (except to write this)!

DAY 1 - 27th July

I arrived at the station at 8:20am with my luggage ready for a brilliant summer camp, I placed my luggage onto the trailer that the coach was towing and then climbed onto the coach (a double decker) and found a seat upstairs near the front.

We finally set off at about 8:45, at this point I only knew 2 people on the trip and I watched the Hitchikers guide to The Galaxy on my ipod.

I also read my book and listened to music, we stopped twice along the way, once at the M6 toll services and then again at Carlisle services.

Stirling Castle

We finally arrived at Lochearnhead at around 5:30pm where the scouts unloaded the trailer and carried all the bags up to the station. 

We were then assigned our cabins and went to get settled in before dinner at 18:30.

After dinner we were told what each clan would be doing the next day, I happened to be going on a 3 day hike so I had to pack my rucksack after dinner in preparation.

Then we sorted out who would be sleeping on which bunk before eventually going to bed.

Our cabin

Starfishing

DAY 2 - 28th July

Got up early today to finish packing for the hike and then went to flag break at 8:55 before breakfast at 08:00. After breakfast I collected my lunch for the 3 days and then we had to collect our rations, we finally piled onto the minibus at about 09:15, once dropped off, we set off in search of our camping ground, we found it at around 17:00, there were 3 clans on the hike and each clan had to find a different spot to pitch the tents, after pitching our tents and sorting out the problem with numbers (we ended up with 3 girls in a 2-man tent which was tight) we cooked our dinner, I had curried rice.

After dinner we sat around chatting for a while before climbing into bed for what was a rather uncomfortable night.

Dinner!

The view from our pitch

DAY 3 - 29th July

Set off around 09:00 today to climb Beinn Challuim, it was tough, but we made it by 14:00 and got back to the tents around 17:00, by this point it was pouring with rain and we couldn't cook so dinner comprised of half a packet of chorizo, fridge raiders and some cereal bars, then we went to sleep.

Almost at the top

DAY 4 - 30th July

The rain had made the river to high to cross so we couldn't climb the second mountain, instead we hiked along the hills to a nearby town where the minibus picked us up and took us back to the station.

On arrival, we fought with the younger scouts for the showers (Well, we hadn't had one for days) before flag down and having a lovely hot meal for dinner.

We went to bed somewhat early, although the scouts on the bunk above had an argument about sleeping arrangements that didn't cease until around 23:30.

Halfway to the town

DAY 5 - 31st July

Got up at 07:30, flag break at 7:55, brekkie at 08:00.

By 09:00 My clan (MacNeil) and MacPherson were grouped around the mountain bikes. We hopped onto the minibus to get to our starting point and then cycled along the old railway line for about 7 miles before leaving the line for the remaining 8 miles, here it began to get quite hilly with some steep climbs and a VERY scary, VERY steep zigzag trail, brakes were on the whole way down!

The fate of one explorer after mountain biking

We got back to the station around 15:00 where we showered, had cake and then went to flag down at 18:35 and dinner at 18:30.

DAY 6 - 1st August

Today was sailing and the weather was DISGUSTING! Unfortunately I was ill in the morning so had to watch everyone else, after an hour though I started to feel better so decided to get in on the action after lunch. However, everyone came off the boats for lunch shivering, they were absolutely freezing, so we bailed out and got the minibus back to the station at 12:30. As we were back so early, I decided to sort out all my stuff seeing as we were off to Meggernie the next day. Once that was done we played cards for a bit, then I went and sat on the windowseat (under the heater), this didn't turn out well as I fell asleep and then fell on the floor, landing on my hip (which hurt for the next 7 days). 

After what seemed an eternity, it was time for flag down and dinner, it was VERY welcome!

Playing with Daisy (The dog)

 

DAY 7- 2nd August

KAYAKING! So, today was kayaking, it was sooo much fun, and the best part...despite how AWFUL I was (couldn't go more than three strokes without spinning), I didn't capsise, not even down the rapids and into the swirly water, I was so proud of myself! :D

It was warm and sunny today so we dried off quite well before heading back to the station for showers and food.

At 8pm, 34 Explorers and scout patrol leaders piled onto the minibuses to go to Meggernie outdoor centre, our home for the next 4 days. It was an hours journey and my minibus managed to get a puncture, but because the track was so uneven, we couldn't change the tyre so had to drive on it and change it when we got there!

On the plus side, the tents were already up (the first group had put them up on the 27th July), and ours was an 8-man with 5 girls in. However, we also had a bit of a leak, we managed though.

DAY 8 - 3rd August

Canoeing, but 2 of us were ill today, so we chilled in a hotel for the day (it was actually extremely boring and we were asleep most of the time).

We had a bat walk in the evening, which was fun.

DAY 9 - 4th August

Began with archery, where I came soooo close to bursting the balloon I was supposed to, I missed by millimetres! Then we went onto frisbee golf, grass sledging and finally traversing. 

Despite the mix of activities, it was a nice and relaxing day, and we didn't have to go off site.

We had a campfire in the evening and had a blast.

Missing the balloon

DAY 10 -5th August

Today we built a swing, cooked on open fires and did some orienteering, another relaxing day, but enjoyable nonetheless.

DAY 11 - 6th August

Back to Lochearnhead today, took the tents down and packed up Meggernie (and made friends with some of the Danish scouts) and got to Lochearnhead around 2. 

As there were no cabins available, all of us that had just come from Meggernie had to sleep in one big mess tent, it was chaos finding a spot!

We had a traditional dinner with someone on the bagpipes and then we all had some haggis (I personally quite liked it).

To round off the last night, each clan had to perform in a talent show, which was highly enjoyable.

DAY 12 -7th August

Up at 6am today to get everything packed away, so we could be on the coach by 9, then it was a simple 11 hour journey home (there were a few accidents on the roads), filled with music, sleeping, and a vague sadness that it was all over.

I made friends with one of the scouts though and found out he'll be starting my school in September, so I'll have to look out for him and be an unofficial buddy. :)