We wish you a merry Christmas

Sorry that I haven’t updated in the space of three weeks. I’ve been busy with this that and this. You know how it is. Of course, now we find ourselves firmly in the Christmas period, something that’s gotten rather less exciting now that I’m fast approaching my sixteenth birthday and can only look forward to money. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s what I wanted but it’s just not the same as the excitement experienced when you get however many presents and don’t know what many of them are. That’s how Christmas used to be exciting. If I do get the fortune of a present under the tree then it’s likely to be clothes, again, what I want but hardly something to be losing sleep over if you catch my drift.

Anyway, in a fit of jolly spirit, me and a mate of mine, later turning into a threesome got onto the Christmas carolling bandwagon. It’s something we’ve tried to much success for the past two years and though we’re said to be growing out of it, it was a nice laugh. We made little money, £6 a piece for a grand three hour’s worth of knocking on doors and singing ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’ followed promptly by ‘Jingle Bells’ if our audience demanded more. What’s more, we were only politely told to ‘fuck off’ the once by the way of a pleasurable woman who evidently was about as excited as Ebenezer Scooge where the festive period is concerned. True story.

Despite feeling like a dick when asked which charity we were collecting for, responding in a low tone that we were merely attempting to spread the joy of Christmas, there’s nothing like a good night of Christmas carolling. Sure, at times all we did was explode into fits of laughter, yes, it was so freezing cold that I couldn’t feel my hands (no gloves) and no, we didn’t make a great deal but we did, as is always the case, happen to meet a fair bunch of odd balls and enjoy ourselves, thoroughly.

I am a doofus

Yes, I think we can safely say it’s official. I, I am a doofus. Remember me babbling on about some ICT Coursework I had to complete? Well, coursework in question was the pre release guff you get with an exam. Not having taken this seriously last year, I was entered into a resit and around a month ago, I was given what we had to do accompanied by a December 1st deadline. As usual, I left it until as late as possible before starting off. That was last weekend. All in all, I made some headway but could only be considered half way done. Knowing that I don’t have internet access for a large space of time in the week, I thought myself screwed but alas, for on Tuesday, last Tuesday we had academic review day, the perfect opportunity to finish upon what I had started.

You see, academic review day is an event which many consider a day off. You have a designated fifteen minute appointment with your form tutor and discuss targets. That’s it. When those fifteen minutes are over you’re free to leave the building and enjoy the rest of the day as you please. Perfect. Or so I thought, for only this time, they’d decided it a clever idea to make it a day where year 11 students behind in coursework could catch up.

When I got the letter to say I was one of these few, I was fairly surprised. Though admittedly behind, for many of my subjects, I’ve at the least handed in substandard drafts. Hunting down the source wasn’t difficult as my Media teacher explained. I was to use the time to catch up or at least make an attempt at catching up on my Media Studies class work. Trouble is, I’ve no intention to pass Media. I’ve got my passing formula in place and Media doesn’t come into the equation. Therefore, I ruled it a pointless exercise, a pointless waste of time. I have no need to pass Media. It’s a subject I regret taking on. With that in mind, I thought it in my interest to skip the day and do my ICT at home instead. For this to work, because we got a letter saying this was compulsory I’d have to blag a way out of it to my mother, which I did.

My plan worked. I spent all day practically on Tuesday working my coursework into a piece of art that would not only secure me a pass but would surely guarantee me a merit or distinction grade. Now you’ll note the deadline was December 1st, today, for it has to be sent off to the examiners. Well we’ve a day off. It was meant to be in yesterday. I knew this. I forgot. So, not only does that make ICT a whole lot tougher from here on in, not only did I waste a great deal of hours of my time getting it done but I got a letter sent home yesterday from the school to say I missed the compulsory coursework catch up day – all for nothing. Yes, it’s safe to say I am a doofus and it’s more than likely that I’ll now fail ICT by the scrape of the teeth, a few marks off that would’ve otherwise been secured through handing in this very piece of coursework.