Our final day!

It seems like forever since I first walked into Drayton, 5 years ago. Yet now we're only a week away from our GCSEs - the most important exams we've ever taken - and stepping out of the uniform forever.

To be honest, I don't quite understand what all the fuss is about. There are a few people leaving who I'll miss (Anya and Marianne especially), but something like 80% are coming back next year anyway! I guess the only reason I'm so cynical is because I never know what to write in those books other than "see you next week".

In other news, my shingles have returned - last I had them was just before the mocks. It's a form of chickenpox brought on by stress and tiredness, but thankfully not contagious to those who've had chickenpox before.

Ps. I'd heartily recommend checking out this gallery of photos taken over the last few days at school. Talk to Adam if you want to add your own photos to it.

Guitar: one week on

So, it's a week and one day since my first ever guitar lesson and I'm already far better than I was last wednesday. My teacher's away this week, so thankfully I have another week to brush up on my (non-existent) skills.

I guess the best way to sum up guitar is that it hurts. A lot. The tips of my left hand are still stinging, and my fingers cannot stretch the distance for even the simplest of tabs - just the intro to Tenacious D's Lee is beyond me.

But hey, I've only been playing a week now, and five chords isn't that bad, right?

Right?

The girl in my Msn display picture...

Is not my girlfriend! She's just my friend. Well, ex-girlfriend, if you want to get picky about it. Some might say "friends with benefits", but to be honest we're just quite close.

Since when has having someone with you in your display picture meant that you're going out with them, anyway? Alex H isn't going out with Mahad...*

*I think that was the display picture, and I'm pretty sure they're not going out. I might be wrong.

Guitar: first impressions

I had my first guitar lesson today, and it's bloody hard. Even a simple "D" chord takes me ages to put together, and then one of my fingers slips a millimetre and the chord sounds rubbish again. "A" is the worst, though. Three fingers cannot physically fit in the same fret bar. Well, they probably can, but it's damned hard.

Another problem, which I had been warned of previously: the tips of my fingers feel as though they've been cut with razor blades. The bloody strings are so thin that they leave deep marks in the ends of your fingers, and it hurts like hell.

I'm sure that all beginners suffer these problems, and that people who have been playing for years will roll their eyes at my complaints. But I get the impression that guitar has a pretty steep learning curve - I just hope it gets shallower later on.

My song of the moment

Winter cleaning

Well, I had a huge clear-out and re-arrange of my bedroom today. The first casualty? My computer.


I had been spending frankly unhealthy lengths of time on it, so my parents ripped it from its groove in my desk and moved it into the study two doors down.

So I may be a little slow repsonding to comments from now on, and I certainly won't be on Msn as late as I was (and would like to be). I shall, however, try to update this blog as often as possible, even if it won't be every single day.