French listening and Maths paper 1

I couldn't sleep last night, therefore was more tired than tired this morning, therefore went into school in a daze. Pedar offered to give me a lift, as he does most Wednesdays, which meant I had to listen to Radio Five. Consequently, Pedar and I both heard them reading out the winner of the British bid at European City of Culture, 2008.

It was Liverpool.

There are so many reasons for my disbelief I'm only going to go through a few, but Liverpool does not instantly come to mind when culture is mentioned, ne? It was the poorest city in Europe until not so long ago, it's full of scallies, and a few years ago, some artist or other was asked to create a sculpture to represent the people of Liverpool. For those who have never seen the Lambanana (sp?), it resemebles nothing so much as the front half of a lamb stuck to the back half of a banana, blown up until it's ten metres tall and sprayed yellow. It represents the people of Liverpool perfectly, inasmuch as its ridiculous and provokes mirth. And just to put the crowning touch on it, it moves. Every year, they relocate it so even more people can enjoy it. Oy.

This is not to say I'm not pleased. I am pleased. I'm especially pleased for my mother, who has had the city council on her tail for months, getting her to have "European city of culture" translated into dozens of different languages. There were other slogans too, but the most irritating one (for her, at least) was "Liverpool's learning." Apparently English is the only language in which this sentiment can be elegantly expressed. Once translated into Hindi, it came out as "Liverpool is in the process of being educated" and the other languages weren't much better.

But I digress.
I got into school entirely too early, flipped on all the lights and went to sleep on one of the desks. This only lasted twenty minutes until Becca, Mrs Doyle and Ella all came in at once. I had to wake up and think about French, and Helena amused herself by firing off random words and phrases at me, some of which I could translate, most of which I couldn't, and after a while we had to go to CL2, because it made so much sense to do a French listening GCSE in a Classics room.

The exam was... well, tricky. Make that difficult. I need to get eight points from it, but I'll probably only get seven, and I'm annoyed. It was really very demanding and I made up the whole of the English section, because I couldn't understand a damn thing. Apparently they lower the grade boundaries if everyone does badly, but I don't expect that will happen.

Lunch was amusing because of Bev's attempts to recite the names of the member nations of the EU, and because of Helena's presence. She was panicking about her Maths. I was, too, but in a less obvious manner. She was so scared because, well, her mother is a lot like mine. She started talking about the one practice paper she and I did together (we both got 92% percent, highest ever) and I wondered vaguely if we could do the exam together if we could prove we'd stay near each other for the rest of our lives, but I never got beyond wondering about it because she announce she felt sick and couldn't eat another thing. I didn't blame her (our blessed entrée was supposed to be "pasta bake" but resembled reddish ditchwater) but I ate her pie. It seemed like the thing to do.

The Maths paper itself was far from heartening. To be honest, it was awful, horrible, dire, disastrous, distressing, etc, etc. To start with, the room was warm, and I could hear the rain falling outside, and I'd had no sleep, and I was actually quite comfortable, so I just went to sleep. I don't know if it would have helped if I'd been awake, because while I did the paper, there was so much of it I couldn't do. I made random guesses because I couldn't cope. The time slipped away so slowly, and a few weird things happened (Mrs Myring was moderating barefoot) but it was just not a success. Afterwards, I found that everyone who did Intermediate thought it was a breeze. Everyone who did Higher was throwing fits. Helena wasn't in a particularly rational mood. She's stressed about this question, and that question, and while I was, too, I'm more annoyed about what my final grade will be. My coursework was crappy, and if this is crappy too, I may slip out of the A grade boundaries. An A is bad enough, but I was getting used to the idea. A B will not do wonders for my state of mind, but I can but wait and see. August 21st, day of reckoning and all that.

I came home in a dream, realised I'd forgotten my coat and got drenched. Ironically enough, I was listening to English Summer Rain.

Something Corporate

So...

Something Corporate in Manchester, Sunday, 22nd June, tickets are £10 and for sale on wayahead.com. Who's going? I had it down as myself, chanandlerbong, _detroit, cucharita, purplerainbow, and possibly spiderdragon, shipperkitten and osiris13.

We need a way to get there, we need a way to get back, we need someone to buy the tickets, and I hereby delegate all responsibility to cucharita.

Interviews

I got interview questions from flickgc!

1) Did Liverpool deserve to get City of Culture?

I was actually going to make a post retracting (much of) what I said earlier, so here goes. I started thinking about it earlier, and even though I'm biased (having been born and brought up in the city) I do think Liverpool deserved it. It was the poorest city in Europe. It isn't any more. It's turned itself completely around in a relatively short time - the city centre is now clean and fresh and revitalised, and it's being redeveloped in other places. And the people, despite their scally-ness, are wonderful people. I once got on a bus with a man who was holding a banjo. Five stops later, the entire bus was singing, "Oh, Susannah..."

2) Are you going to be a doctor or a journalist?

The quick answer is I don't know. I know what I want, I know what I might have to do, but I still don't know what's going to happen. I've resolved to let things be for a time, and not start thinking about it earnestly until some time has passed, as I've not been being particularly rational about it lately. In the end, I think it's more likely I'll be a journalist. Even in my crazier moments, I know deep down I'd do anything, run away from home, kill myself, than be forced to conform to the stereotype.

3) Do you think that your parents will try and arrange your marriage? Will you accept it if they do? Will you refuse it on principle?

I think my parents would find it hard to talk me into this, as their own marriage wasn't arranged, and they had to go through a lot of hassle from my grandparents before their marriage could go ahead. If my parents really did arrange my marriage, I'd refuse, I think. I couldn't just go along with it like so many girls do, and then live to regret it. But I doubt they'll try and do this to me. One of these days I might even tell them I think I'm bi. :)

4) Why should I try listening to the sort of music you like? Which three tracks I should download?

Why? Because it rocks. In the literal and figurative sense. Because it doesn't involve bizarre spelling (Nelly) or bubblegum!pop (S Club anything) or nothing but raararaaaah! noises (Cradle of Filth). Because it's generally guitar-driven, emotional, and approaches the poetic at times. And because it's always nice to know that however bad you feel, there's always someone out there with a guitar who feels worse. Three songs - Placebo's Sleeping With Ghosts, Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls, and Konstantine, by Something Corporate. All very me-ish type music.

5) Which do you prefer as a fandom - SG1 or M*A*S*H or something else? Why?

I used to like Stargate fandom back when it was small, and everyone knew everyone, and the fic was good and the atmosphere better. Then it got big, and the show jumped the shark a little, and suddenly there were flamewars wherever you looked. I like M*A*SH much better now because it has something of that smallness, that I-know-you-and-you-know-me mentality. And the slash is really, really good.
I would bring in Good Omens as well, but I've only really dabbled in it. From what I've seen though, I like it. Maybe I have a thing for small, eclectic fandoms.

Now, those were much more fun than the average quiz. I won't explain it myself - rather, will cut and paste from Flick's journal:

If you want me to interview you--post a comment that simply says, "Interview me." I'll respond with questions for you to take back to your own journal and answer as a post. Of course, they'll be different for each person since this is an interview and not a general survey. At the bottom of your post, after answering the Interviewer's questions, you ask if anyone wants to be interviewed. So it becomes your turn-- in the comments, you ask them any questions you have for them to take back to their journals and answer. And so it becomes the circle.

La fin. If you wanna be interviewed, comment!