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January 21st, 2007

09:31 pm - Freezing, Exhausted, Exhilarated Edinburgh in late January. For those of you who have not been: you do not know the meaning of cold. Even if you have, you still have not experienced the full effect of the weather until you have stood for 6 hours on the lacrosse pitches of a school right next to the sea,with gale force winds blustering at you from over the water, and then had freezing rain seep through all your layers of clothing on the way back to the travel lodge because you left your raincoat and umbrella in the hotel room. Guess what happened to me this weekend. In all honesty the trip was really rather fun. I actually did not have to do as much running around as I'd thought since the second team was missing our goalkeeper and I filled in. The positive side of this is that I was able to avoid showing the lacrosse coaches just how unfit I really have become over the holidays. Unfortunately it also meant I was standing still in arctic conditions for 6 hours, an activity not conducive to making one feel warm. I must admit that I was pretty pleased with my performance (only 7 goals let in over the course of 6 matches and many more saved within this time!). True I saved some merely because the shots were aimed at my head and bounced off the helmet, but I did not flinch or run away from the ball even once! I also managed to see a great deal of the city in one afternoon: Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, Scottish Parliament, St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh Childhood Museum and a working Tartan Mill among others. One word of advice though: NEVER try to find the Tesco on Nicholson Street. Or if you do, make sure you have the map that actually has more than one in ten roads drawn on it. And whatever you do, MAKE SURE the map is NOT upside down; Esme is SO not going to be navigator on D of E! Following her directions we managed to walk out of the city (properly outside of the walls, that is) and almost up the hill to King Arthur's Seat (not that we knew it at the time). We settled for a local newsagents instead. The Scottish adults were all really helpful and friendly (except for the jerks who threw an open bottle of Dr. Pepper at us out of their car window). All the children we saw, however, were either goths or into grunge. I don't think I saw a single 'normal' teenager for the complete duration of the trip, although this could be due to the fact that thanks to Esme's map-reading skills we never reached the main shops and more fashionable areas of Edinburgh. Oh, and for any of you actually interested in the lacrosse tournament (nobody? that's more than I thought, then!) THE SECONDS CAME RUNNERS UP! Mrs. Tune (although everybody knows Mr. Tune is just a figment of her imagination and she will remain Miss. Ridgely evermore) was adorable and congratulated us considerably, while Miss. Newsome managed to lose track of all our passports. Miss Hanson also accompanied - such a sweetie! OK, now I really know I've probably exhausted your patience. If any of you actually do want to hear more details, just come and see me and I will happily enlighten you on the many other adventures and misadventures of this weekend. Oh, and it's my birthday tomorrow. Lucky me. Current Mood: sleepy

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January 18th, 2007

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November 12th, 2006

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August 31st, 2006

06:03 pm Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. I know I am going to get no sympathy at all about this but, oh well. I've just come home after completing the fourth day of lacrosse camp at St. Helen's School and my body is aching all over. Muscles I didn't even know existed have suddenly started complaining and become stiff, preventing me from completing any sort of movement. As for all of you out there smirking saying: that girl asked for it. lacrosse! what did she expect? I am going to respond in a way that will make you roll your eyeballs and convince you even more that when it comes down to it I really am a crazy masochistic freak of nature. Here goes: I LOVE THIS!!! Yes despite all the pains and bruises, blisters and scratches I am seriously enjoying (isn't that an oxymoron?) myself. I only wish my mum would have let me go a residential triple arrow camp so my lacrosse would actually have improved perceptibly for next year. The cross country next Wednesday isn't looking too fun either. Oh well, I suppose you can't have it your own way in everything! Current Location: Home Current Mood: - drained but not blue-faced! Current Music: Tribute - Tenacious D

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August 27th, 2006

09:09 pm Wow, my first entry in over one and a half years. Anybody out there reading this (though why on earth you're doing so, since I'm so hopeless at this, I can't imagine) BE PROUD OF ME. Despite having forgotten both my user name and password I managed to re-enter this account by finding myself listed as one of my friend's friends and getting lj to email me a new password. But enough of my online endeavours. I finally got my maths GCSE results through the post - an A* (phew!) - took an unforgivable amount of time to get through to me and I'm sorry to say the most prevalent emotion in me when I discovered this was relief rather than joy, but such is life as an NLCS student. Yesterday, after years of pestering, whining, whinging, persistent nagging, pleading and begging I actually got my parents to get me a ticket to see Les Mis at the West End. I've wanted to go ever since we sang On My Own and Castle On A Cloud in our school music lessons in year seven. It was INCREDIBLE. Not as showy, colourful or anywhere near as exuberant as the Lion King, but for sheer passion, power and amazing songs it did not come out the worse of the two in my comparisons. The songs still whizz around my head, haunting both my dreams and daydreams. Tomorrow I'm going to see the Life of Galileo by Bertholt Brecht. Oooh, and I can't believe it - but this holiday I've read two novels by the great man himself, Charles Dickens. Ever since I tried to read A Tale of Two Cities at the unhealthily young age of seven I have had an aversion for this author alone, even after i started reading, and what's more exceedingly enjoying all the other classics. But I determined that I should no longer be daunted by a fear of not understanding his work and so I eventually set to it, reading first The Pickwick Papers and then Great Expectations which I only just finished today. Why did I ever leave it so late? People may rant forever on how they hate Dickens or feel he has been spoiled for them because the way they had to read him at school - ignore them, they have no idea what they are on about. I would normally at this point give my reasons for this opinion, but i fear it would take too long to write - which also normally would never dissuade me from a task - but I am being called repeatedly and so must leave you with great haste. 'Til my next update (whenever that may be) Current Location: Home Current Mood: bouncy Current Music: Do you hear the people sing?

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