A Melancholy Christmas

I saw a house with a plastic "merry Christmas" wreath on the front door today. How depressing.

Usually I'm really upbeat and excited by the time Christmas comes around, but this year I'm feeling rather lethargic. All I can think of is how Christmas time equals rushing around in the cold trying to desperately buy presents, some of which are for people you really don't want to give them to. Oh, and lots and lots of work being smushed into the tail end of the Autumn term.

The fact that it's getting dark later and later really seems to drain my energy at the end of the day too. Yesterday, something incredibly strange happened when I was on the bus home. I could feel myself getting dangerously close to falling asleep, and I needed to get off in a few stops, so I made myself open my eyes and try to be alert. Then the next thing I know, I'm standing at the (wrong) bus stop, and the bus is driving off...I didn't remember anything in between sitting down and standing on the pavement, and I don't know why the hell I got off the bus where I did, because I had to walk the rest of the journey.

Talking of buses, this morning a group of kids got on, and I swear, one of the girls had a laugh which was practically identical to that of Janice (from Friends). During the first minute of her laughing, it was funny. After 10 minutes, her uncontrollable shrill cackling was really starting to grate on me. I was trying to do some reading for English, but I ended up getting distracted and listening to their conversation about the girl colliding with a man on the pavement. No one actually changed the subject-they were talking (well, shouting and laughing) about this thing from Bruce Grove until Edmonton Green. Which is quite a while. I found the whole thing very odd.

Apart from that, nothing much else has been happening. I'm going to Essex this weekend to visit my grandparents, which will hopefully be nice. I started off really wishing it would snow (after hearing about the snow that is supposed to hit parts of the UK this week), because they live in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by loads of fields. So that would be fun. But then I thought about it more, and remembered that I'm getting the train there, and trains and snow don't usually get on very well.

Finally, I know it's really late, but here are some pictures from Bonfire Night. I have the Flickr link in the sidebar anyway, but I thought some people may like to look at them. I also know that my blog hasn't been very active recently, but at the time of writing, I have 972 hits. Only 28 more to go until 1000! Since I've set the counter to ignore my IP address (it's only fair), feel free to refresh the page a few times. Y'know, just to help things along.

Wilted paper poppies

I went to my old school yesterday to visit. I hadn't been back since collecting my results, and whilst walking home in the evening, I realised something which made me happy - even I have the ability to make a good decision once in a while! Because, seriously, I'm so glad I decided to go somewhere else for 6th form rather than stay on there. Actually, I think I'll take this opportunity to have a bit of a moan...

It was just a really disappointing reception that I received from almost all the teachers I saw. They were very...well, cold towards me. In fact, I even got totally ignored by one of the deputy heads, who as he was walking down the corridor and made eye contact with me. So as I say hello to him, he gives me a look as if to say "oh, it's you. I'm sure I know you from somewhere, but you're not important enough to bother with" and then carries on walking. The stupid thing is, I KNOW that he knew who I was, after being a student at that school for five years. But anyway, I shouldn't worry about it, because that guy is renowned for being a prize twat, as I'm sure one of my blog readers will agree ;)

Apart from that, the general crapiness that enveloped the place still stands. The 6th form have a miniscule common room, with nothing in it but 2 tables, a few dozen chairs and a coffee machine, because, y'know, everyone LOVES a nice steaming cup of foul tasting liquid for lunch. Oh, and the tracksuit loving hat maniacs which inhabit the common room. I honestly don't think I saw one boy who didn't have a hat planted on to his head (complete with price label, of course). It probably sounds like I'm being really snooty, and that my new school has moulded me into some kind of intolerant idiot, but that isn't the case. I knew the 6th form would be like that, and I just needed to and confirm my suspicions that there were lots of places to go that are so much better.

I do miss the friends that I left behind there, but we keep in contact. Plus, I think it was a good move for me to have a change of environment, meet new people, and do new things. It's still school, but school is so much better when it isn't tied with feeling depressed about stuff. I'll be back there (to school, not depression) next Thursday for this award presentation where I'll get my exam certificates, and some kind of award for English. One person got an award for each subject, and apparently I got the highest mark in the year group for English Lit (which I didn't even get told about until I heard it from someone else who had hounded teachers for all this valuable information). This year's AQA English Literature papers were appallingly marked-loads of people in my new school got remarks, and some went up by 2 grades! I also know someone who got marked up from a D to an A, so that's just an indication of the kind of morons they've got marking exam essays, which aren't just straight forward "right or wrong" questions.

Also, tomorrow is Remembrance Day (link there to the Poppy Appeal website, for anyone who isn't familiar with what I'm on about). Basically, the 11th of November marks when the first world war ended (at 11:11am), but remembrance day extends to other wars which have happened since then. We had this completely over the top, pretentious assembly at school today, where some war veterans who were former students came in to be given some wreaths. The whole of the 6th form had to "dress smartly" for the day, which was totally ridiculous, because aside from the fact that these visitors were coming in for 40 minutes of the day, the hall is huge, and they were probably too blind to even catch a glimpse of everyone sitting on the balcony. Everybody was given a programme, which included the words to 'God Save the Queen' and some other hymn. I refused to sing either of them though, and lots of people (you know the type-"I'm an atheist") were up in arms over how bits of religion had been incorporated into their Thursday morning.

Oh well, at least it'll be another year until I have to go through all that standing up and sitting down again.