Musings of a Perfectionist

Hi everyone! *waves dramatically* How are you all doing? So this post comes to be read by you because I put something on my author Instagram story yesterday about checking out my blog for updates during this weird time and I realised that I hadn't actually written any updates for quite a long time. Virtual school began last week, and this is now week two. I'm doing okay with the whole virtual school thing because I can listen to music and go at my own pace and there is pretty much an unlimited supply of coffee/tea. But it's also nice to have a little routine - I wake up, read and drink coffee, shower, breakfast, work...then we're continuing with Brownies on Mondays, Rangers on Thursdays, and various different video calls at the weekend. Saturdays, for example, are about family: we chat to Dad's family before lunch then do a quiz with Mum's family before supper (which is what I call tea/dinner, before anyone gets too confused). On Sundays, I have a chat with ...

Gooood afternoon, all! Again, very sorry about the longness between posts, but in my defence, I was off school for a WHOLE WEEK last week, and I now have managed to contract a cold (which is very unfair, in my personal opinion- why do I have to have back-to-back illnesses?). And then I've been hurriedly catching up with all the work I missed- hint for sixth form: don't miss school otherwise you'll have way too much work to do and your recovery will not be quite as fast. But I'm pretty much caught up now (yay) and so just need to do the homework due over the next week (double yay), of which I have just finished my history essay. This post may, therefore, be some form of procrastination before I continue with work (learning words for Anthropology, I believe, is planned next) but also I realised that I had not written anything about the truly brilliant film that I watched in the cinema at the beginning of January! The travesty! So here is my post about it (and also '...

So it's half term this week (yay!) and then after that, I have two weeks of exams (plus the next Tuesday for Add Maths) and then it's summer! There is a light shining at the end of the tunnel, I do believe. Do you know what my favourite thing to revise is? I love doing English Language Paper 1 papers, simply because I get to write a creative story and that makes me happy. When doing revision, it's important to be happy. Happiness, for me, often comes from doing things creatively, so I tend to do origami when I'm revising (also that's also stress-origami making...) And as I've made quite a lot of origami, I thought that I'd share some of the creations with you (also because there's only so much I can write about revision and looking after yourself etcetera). As you can see, I have two flowers (lotus is just origami, dahlia involves making lots of petals and sticking them all together) and butterflies (because they're easy to make). The...

I've just finished watching (binge-watching) 'Outnumbered', so I'm feeling a bit lost (what better way to ground myself than by writing a blog post, am I right). But I didn't cry (too much) at the last episode, like I did during to whole of the last episode of 'Bad Education'. But, anyway, if you haven't seen 'Outnumbered', I'd suggest watching it. So many of the things that happened are just so right and, as the oldest sibling, it makes sense. It helps that it is incredibly funny as well. So go and watch it (it's on BBC iPlayer at the moment) or go and rewatch it. But as one door closes, another opens, so I've just started doing 40acts for Lent. It's a Christian thing that sends me an email every day with challenges (easy, medium, hard) to be more generous, more loving, but whatever your religious beliefs, I think it's important to think of others, and what better time than right now to start (click this link to begin)....

I have just had 2000 views, so thank you- subscribe if you haven't, and we'll see how fast I can get to 3000! But, anyway, good evening, and happy valentine's day (even if I don't really acknowledge it). Do you get the Doctor Who reference? It's me, again, if you can still remember me...it's been ages since I last wrote something. Truth be told, I simply haven't had anything to write about, and every time I do open up a new post, I end up closing it down again. It's becoming a bit of an issue, really. But today, something pretty major happened in my life, something that will be crucial to my future. My first Sixth Form Interview *cough* sorry, Guidance Meeting. It's called a Guidance Meeting, but it is actually an interview, trust me. She was lovely and all, and we got to ask questions at the end, but it was definitely an interview. Basically, I was asked about my choices, why I wanted to do particular courses, any plans for the future...

Hi, guys- excellent news, I have! My novel has been finished completely (i.e. everything has been crossed off my to-do list) and it's ready to be released on the 15th December! That's 15th December , folks! Soon, I'll be releasing an extract on Wattpad, so make sure that you've subscribed to 'Musings of a Perfectionist' to get notified when I publish posts. My dream is finally coming true, although it now feels like publishing a book isn't actually that big of a deal. Is that weird? Oh well. *shrugs* Maybe it will be less underwhelming once I've actually published it (although it won't be published through Amazon because I don't have a TIN (because I'm not American) and I don't have a foreign version of the TIN, but that should be sorted out...hopefully). Anyway, to change the subject completely, I ran a Creative Writing session with four younger people from school the other day. We did some exercises in freeing the mind,...

Exams are over (for now)! Yay! I'm sorry if you personally are still doing exams, or looking forward to them, but I'm happy now. Not that I was too stressed, but it was exhausting and I'm so incredibly glad that they're over. Until next year, anyway. But that's after Christmas and all, so I'm not too worried. No fear, I will be doing some revision over the holidays, mostly because 'The Forgotten Ones' will have been published (17 days!) but also because it is good to do small (SMALL!) bits of revision over a longer period of time than to cram it all near the actual exams. I read an interesting article in The Guardian about this. Don't stress yourself out too much over the holidays though- make sure that you relax and actually enjoy Christmas. Personally, I'm not going to start relaxing until after my flute exam (Grade 6 yay), which is on Saturday. I practised with my accompaniest today and, while it didn't go terribly wrong, ...

Hi all! I'm back! Did you miss me? Did you miss the email pinging into your inbox, did you miss reading my (obviously hilarious) words scrawled out across the screen? Who am I kidding, of course you did. Anyway, I got back a few days ago (go and read my holiday posts if you haven't already- link is  here ) and I am so tired. To be honest though, people keep asking if I am jetlagged, and the real answer is that I am so used to always feeling tired during the day and awake at night that I haven't noticed any difference. But today I wish to tell you all about the brilliant experience that I had of visiting Parkside Sixth Form College! Basically, I have decided to do the IB next year (instead of A-Levels) and that leaves two schools in the area: Parkside and Impington. The Open Day for Impington is next week (keep an eye out for that post- or, better yet, subscribe! Please!) but the one for Parkside was today, and let me tell you this: it's really hard to work ...

Afternoon everyone! I have Brownies soon (where I am getting my Young Leader Qualification- more stuff for UCAS, yay) so some of this might be written later. If this happens, some of the tenses etc might not make much sense, but just roll with it, yeah? Anyway: on with the post! At Christian Union (*food club) over the past few weeks, we have been watching YouTube videos from Glamour Magazine where different (USA) people, ages 5-75, are all asked the same question. The question today was 'What Do You Want To Be Remembered For?' I'll attach a link at the bottom of the post (*), but that's not really what is important about this. It doesn't really matter what other people want to be remembered for, it matters what YOU want to be remembered for. It was pretty interesting seeing how people's views changed as they grew older, but it is also a pretty challenging thing to think about. What do you want to be remembered for? Personally, I want to be remembe...

Hi everyone! Wow, it's been a long time. Sorry about that. I've been very busy with school (bleugh) and the new house and unpacking (and washing up...a lot) and there's very little WiFi to boot. It's not been great. Anyway, big announcement. This blog has almost had 1000 views!!! This is seriously amazing and means so much to me, so thanks for continuing to read (and subscribe...you know you want to). So. The title of this post. If you didn't manage to guess it, the answer is a HAIKU. Basically, I knew that I needed to write a post soon (especially if I want to hit 1000 views!) and I was about to bin some stuff from school, before I thought, "Hey! I could put that in a blog post!" Life works out pretty well sometimes. I am an Interform Captain at my school, which means that once a week either my partner or I  have to come up with some sort of task for each form to compete against each other in. We've done some quizzes, a human knot gam...

So I wrote something last night (or was it this morning? I will never know) and I'd like to share it with as many people as possible, simply because it is a big issue for me. So, read it, digest it, and share it with others. Start a revolution- dare to dream again! When you're young, they teach you to dream. They ask you what you want to be, they tell you that you can do anything, that you have every right to aim for the stars. So with bright eyes and big smiles, you tell them. You tell them what you dream of doing, who you dream of being, and they smile and they tell you that it is a good dream to have. And then you grow up slightly, and your eyes start to dim and your smile starts to fade and they stop telling you that it is a good dream. They start freezing when you tell them, staring at you with a kind of morbid fascination before saying faintly that it's a nice dream And then your eyes are dry from crying and you can't remember how to smile but you're...

It's always sad when your childhood dies, isn't it? Yesterday, we had our biannual (I think that's the word anyway) festival for our village. Last time, I stayed for the whole day: participating in the parade as a Guide, eating burgers and ice cream, listening to the music, and finally watching the fireworks. This year, however, I participated in the parade (unwillingly, trust me) then went home. Despite there being something so wonderful about the family feel of a village collecting together to listen to some good music in the dark (maybe it's something to do with history and the thought of having to rely on your neighbours), I didn't want to be there for long in the heat and the noise (and I also saw loads of people that I know from school- embarrassing!☺️). So I was pretty boring and watched the Tour de France with my dad (as we do every year- those of you who also watched it, what the hell happened?? All the good riders were involved in crashes IN THE FIRST ...

I've been a little busy recently, which is sad because I like writing stuff for my blog. But yeah, exams suck and I'm so tired already and I've still got another week  but look on the bright side- oh, no, wait. There is no bright side. In other news, I don't really have anything important to talk about? Shock, horror, I know, but honestly, everything's just been so busy lately that I haven't thought about the latest news story and nothing funny happens at school anymore because, guess what? We're in exams! I had Food Practical for two hours today, but I'm not going into detail with that. Let's just say, I'm very glad that I have friends who are happy to give hugs, and that my hands were shaking so badly that I couldn't cut up the onions. But anyway! Yesterday we went to see Macbeth after school (we got back at midnight) and it was flipping awesome! (I now will not use exclamation marks for a few days, as I've used up my weekly limit...

She clutches the bear closer to her chest, nuzzling its soft fur with her nose. It still holds the faintest scent of her family, of her home. She keeps her nose buried in the fur, trying to hold onto hazy memories of warmth, of laughter, of joy but they keep blurring back into the ugly, twisted remains of her house in front of her. Terrible shame , they all had said. When it happened. What a terrible shame. She agreed with them, but it was so much more than a shame. It did not matter to her that the bricks and debris would have to be cleared away in order for a new house to be built on top, that new plants would need to be cultivated and grown for the place to seem alive again. None of this mattered to her as she stood on what would have been the doorstep, staring numbly at the blackness and desolation. Tears blind her, stinging her eyes before dribbling down her cheeks. They mix with the rain, and she only cries harder. It’s no good now , she wanted to scream. The fir...