I'll get this out of the way before I have holidays things to write about =D

First and Foremost, it's now finally the October break!

The official notice in my homework diary:

Okay, so technically the circle should include next Monday. Call it artistic license.
Anyhow, though it has been but a few short days (I find this so hard to believe!) since my last post, I feel though I have been neglecting this blog *sad face*. Yes... it may only have been mere days and yet it feels as though it were a lifetime! ;)

I suppose it is in order to underline the child-friendliness and general overall benevolence of the school that for the last three years on the Friday before we spilt for 'holls sweet holls', the pupils of Knox Academy are rewarded with an entire half-day free of lessons! On paper this is known as Faculty Challenge however more commonly amongst many pupils it's known simply as "Uuuurgh!".

To realise exactly why this is, you really have to sit through one hour repeatedly rolling die (occasionally getting a three and being permitted to draw yet another antenna onto your ladybird), followed by another doing nothing but tapping 'up' 'down' 'left' right' 'SPACE-SPACE-SPACE WORK DAMN YOU!' attempting to negotiate at least one half decent game of Tetris with a computer seemingly determined to lag.

By this point I could truly begin to see why I had woken up and dragged myself out of lovely, comfy, warm bed at 7.20 that morning...

"Today the school is alive with the Faculty Inter-House Challenges. Each faculty is offering activities to challenge mixed age groups of pupils. Challenges range from quizzes to origami to fun maths to sports. Points are awarded for participation and highest scores and will contribute to the overall House winner of the session. Congratulations to all pupils for their enthusiastic participation and thank you to all staff involved and, in particular, Ms Duff for organising the morning."

I shall tackle each point in turn.

Challenge. If -and only if- this is refers to maintaining the necessary control to keep from running screaming from the school gates, do I conceed the point.
Second: Fun Maths. No. Maths can be tolerable, 'okay', even interesting (depending upon exactly how well you're keeping up with the course), but when 'fun' is used to describe maths which is age/ability-appropriate for the entire school and is forced upon one for a full sixty minutes, it becomes synonomous with 'hefty dull'.
... and finally Pupils for their Enthusiastic.... I have not met these pupils.

I think though the rest of the day did a pretty good job of making up for a wasted morning.

I haven't ever seen it here before, but there was a Craft Fair set up nearby the Corn Exchange, in the same place the Farmer's Market usually is when it comes by Haddington. We think it's come from Aubigny- at any rate it's quite something. A tad like the German Market in Edinburgh each Christmas, albeit on a smaller scale, or some sort of Russian bazaar. After we spotted it yesterday Louise suggested we go there post FC today for crepes! I wasn't entirely sure exactly who was coming along, but it ended up being Louise, Claudia, Rosie, Sam and myself.

I acquired an obese miniture (Chinese) Buddha and Louise, Claudia and I feasted on crepes and some delicious Pick 'n Mix. The plan is to go down again tomorrow after our (Louise's, Beth's and mine) traditional coffee at 'The Golden Grain' (it would appear we are intiating Claudia into the cult- she only joined Knox in August), then head down to the fair and introduce Claudia to yet another new friend; Turkish Delight.

Possibly more on how that goes tomorrow. Depending on my degree of laziness.

I can't say anything much else interesting happened when I got home; tescos for food shopping then skedaddling to the library. However I rounded off the day quite spectacularly by ceremoniously mutilating my first mango.

By the time I had finished with it, it was quite a mess.

Before I meander wholly from the subject of school (it's too late isn't it? =S ) I quite wanted to mention that wednesday, you will be jealous to know, was largely cake-based. Dodie had just made cake at home. Anya brought her mum's homemade Brownies in for double Latin. Claudia bought four (small) cakelets on the way back from school -I must have been feeling uncommonly insane as I ended up giving mine to Lyovka- and in the Home Ec. department everyone had made lovely big chocolate cakes.

These -as it tends to be with most cakes- were to eat.

Only it seems that Paul, decided instead to decorate his face with one.

Taken post-wash.

I almost forgot =S

Oh, oh, and last but not least, today was Reace's Birthday. This means:
a) Happy Birthday too you...!
b) He's finally able to move into the Beth & Co. household so everything is GOOD. =D


All that... I'm sleepy. Cheerio!

The Sky and PC Gone Mad

For some reason getting up this morning was even worse than the usual torture. I woke and it was warm and I was dozy and vaguely thought there was something burning outside as the whole room glowed yellow.

On a morning like this it takes a superhuman effort of will to drag myself upstairs and then out, in the cold all the way to the school.

Numerous immensely long pairs of stripey socks really help.

That's the first thing done in such an emergency situation, pulling on two huge multicoloured socks. Also at times like these bacon sandwiches for breakfast aren't really the thing- too substantial-, so in come the cornflakes. And coffee. Of course.

Tuesday is 'Double English Day' - YAY! True to form the second period sparks intense debate when discussing ideas for a discursive essays- and particular outrage at the extent of political correctness in programs for young children.

Fig. 1

'Tinky Winky' from the 'Teletubbies' carrying a red handbag and therefore considered by some people to be a gay icon.

Fig. 2

'Big Ears' from 'Noddy' being renamed 'White Beard' so as to avoid causing offence and then, even better than that, 'Noddy' being cancelled because apparently Noddy and Big Ears sharing the same bed means that their relationship was "implicitly homosexual".


WHAT?! Oh come on! They're television programmes for toddlers for crying out loud! Are these really the things they're going to notice? And why the sudden problem?  I'm reasonably sure that watching these and similar programmes, and even worse, singing 'Baa-baa Black Sheep' - along with my Dominican friend; has not left me scarred for life or even marginally racist, homophobic or anything at all similar!
And ironically through noticing these things and making them issues, whoever was so overeager not to offend anyone have themselves made the distinctions between various factions within society where before perhaps no one saw any. Genius.

Now quite het up, but Rant Over.

As for all things new:

I got my first experience of after school basketball- about the only team sport I can really enjoy doing. Lots of other fifth-year regulars were off but there was still a decent crowd. I must say though having just had gym straight before and so two and a half hours of running nonstop in one direction and another I was feeling really quite knackered.

And I might have mentioned that I'm doing a Theatre Art Course so I spent another hour and a half being thoroughly remade as a grumpy old man- with sideburns! In all honesty it was probably an improvement.

To Finish

Here's the equivalent sky-from-window photo for the evening:

Oh, and I think I've just found the my next article to write about for our weekly homework disecting opinion pieces.

Why Black Sheep are Barred and Humpty Can't be Cracked

Revision-ing

There's so much going on at the moment, it's becoming quite hard to keep track of. Hopefully slow down soon... hopefully.

Aaanyway, tried maths revision class today! No, that isn't maths club. It's well-I-have-to-do-something-so-I-might-aswell-get-some-help-with-it class. Wasn't bad either. I actually did some maths, which in itself is shocking (I'm not good at revision).

Revising... well, sort of.

What else? Oh;

What else is new... hmmm. Well, I've started basketball on a Saturday. Nothing too serious, just going down to the sports centre with 15 or so other folks and booking a court. I've never really liked it before, only ever play at school gym sessions, which up until recently have been fairly horrendous.

But this was fun! No (permanent) injuries, bit of a miracle.

Hopefully doing that again this Saturday! Lor... quite a full diary at the moment!

(....haven't got any basketball photos)