Musings of a Perfectionist

I found this in my draft folder the other day, and even though I don't actually go to Sinfonia anymore (due to the joy of exams), I thought that maybe I'd add some of the stuff to today's post. So, enjoy, I guess? I play flute in a few music groups, most of them are at school, but that's cool. Church has the better acoustics, and surprisingly I have about the same amount of space whether I play at school or squished in the corner at church. It doesn't help that playing the flute means (probably) poking the person next to you with your instrument. And playing the flute also means that tuning involves playing the note, pulling out/pushing in the head and saying close enough, knowing full well that the flute will heat up as you play and will go out of tune again. The joy of being musical. And this is what I was going to write a post about: we have a question at the beginning of orchestra, or at least, we used to. But anyway, here are some examples with my an...

So exams have well and truly started (yay) and my friend still told me that I needed to update my blog, and voila! Hope you're happy, friend. ☺️ Exams done: French Reading/Listening, Biology 1, English Lit 1. To be honest, I think that they all went okay, for GCSEs. It still doesn't feel like I'm doing actual, proper exams though. Will it ever? I don't know. Maybe when I get my results. But that's ages away, and besides, I still have two more exams this week alone, so revising it is. Fear not, however, for I am having rests and tea breaks (lots of tea breaks, because I love tea). I've been watching TV- like Ghosts (on BBC iPlayer) which was created by the old Horrible Histories cast, and also the new Taskmaster episode (I was actually crying with laughter yesterday when we watched it, which is, of course, better than just crying). And tomorrow, as I go on Study Leave (which will be weird, no?) I will be hopefully going on a run. I mean, I could get u...

So we are currently half way through the week of half term here, and have I done anything but revise? As a matter of fact, I have indeed done other things (and I hope that you, dear reader, have not been focusing on school/work this week...) For example, I went out to have a coffee with my friend yesterday (although I probably shouldn't have had yet another coffee), which was lovely. And I actually went outside. And then I also went outside today, because the gate to our front door (that we don't use) was open and I wanted to shut it. What I didn't realise was that the gate is such a long way away from our side door. I should have brought snacks and a bottle of water. And I also went to the dentist today (which is okay, although I have to have a crown put on one of my teeth after GCSEs). And while we were there, we heard the news that one lucky cat could inherit £150 million! In case you haven't heard, fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld's cat, Choupetter, co...

For those of you who don't know English Language Paper 2 Question 5, it involves having to write out an argument for or against a statement (no sitting on the fence EVER). As this is the mock that we'll be sitting soon, we have been doing a lot of practice writing out answers, and I thought that I'd share one with you (because I'm actually quite proud of it). The statement was this: Schools today should not take children on trips. They are expensive, little more than term time holidays, and in no way educational. I, of course, argued against this (as all children, at least, should). This is my argument:     "School trips should be banned? Who honestly believes this? If it's just bitter old parents who are jealous that their child is able to go to France for a week, have they already forgotten what it's like to be able to go away with your friends? Apparently, school trips are just holidays. Yeah, well, maybe they are- especially for the kids who do...

Hi! Well, I made it through the week of exams- although I did have an interesting Thursday (as predicted...) But I haven't really done anything but revise for the past week, which is a bit worrying. The date of release is fast approaching and I have so much to do (aghh) and I also have a flute exam next week that I need to practice for. Yay. First of all, there is something that I accidentally stumbled upon this morning while poaching eggs for breakfast and it is really, very annoying. Classic english grammar rules- no one says 'an European' because it is actually 'a European'. Even though 'an' + vowel is grammatically correct. I hate English. Also, speaking of language, I've noticed that I've started using French grammar when speaking English. As in, 'the dog black'. Which is quite a big problem as I honestly believe it's correct when I say it. What else do I do? Oh! Of course- I often forget words and so have to...

NOTE: I'm using the word 'literally' in the informal sense-  used for emphasis while not being literally true.  Therefore, while this afternoon was pretty stressful, it was not necessarily  the most stressful time ever. (Also, I may have  overdramatized  some events because my mind tends to blow things out of proportion) Anyway, to the context. MasterChef at my school. My friend and I had won the heats for our house, and were into the final along with pairs from the other five houses. She came over so that we could plan and practise our two dishes, and everything was fine. Until it wasn't. I obviously read my email wrong (and then couldn't double-check because the school emails are down!) and we found out in form that the competition was today. Today. We had no ingredients , no recipe, no nothing. I was on the verge of crying, so my friend stood up and took me to see my mum (who works at the school, so it's not like we went home) so that we could ask ...

So, in English, we have to do a presentation about a theme in Macbeth. As well as being completely terrified of public speaking (especially to my peers), I also have an embarrassing habit of going off on a massive rant about something that...is only very vaguely connected to what I am supposed to be speaking about. Case in point: I was practising with a friend, and I managed to spend at least two minutes rambling on about James I and the Duke of Buckingham, and about Shakespeare's sonnets (spoiler- someone changed the pronouns!) Anyway, I have decided to write down my speech here. Hopefully, it will give me more of a structure to follow so that I don't make it up on the spot. Here we go: I'm going to be talking about the Theme of Masculinity in the play Macbeth. Firstly, what does masculinity mean? Some synonyms are strength, toughness, muscular and powerful. In direct contrast, as femininity is the antonym of masculinity, synonyms for femininity are caring, ho...