Well, it finally crept up on me. I spent the last two weeks we had off studying either as I've always done (a mere 2 hours) or intensely enough (5 hours almost back to back while in school). In the latter week they let us come into school for study, so I took 'em up on the offer. It was really helpful as it allowed me to catch up with the notes I hadn't got to make up until then (mostly English and Geography...). They cut us loose from that on the Thursday, so since then I just relaxed, did my bit of study and awaited the inevitable, ineluctable, unavoidable come up. At least the weather was fantastic.

On Tuesday night I finished up my tea, lazed around for a while, went for the necessary cycle run and was back by half 8. I needed/wanted to play LoZ: the Wind Waker, continuing the quest for the Triforce. As soon as I get that put together I can fight Ganondorf and move onto Twilight Princess! I played that for some time and then my mom got me to take a shower (for the sake of the other students, mind!) and once that was completed I remembered I promised myself I would watch Michael Collins. I also promised myself I wouldn't study the day before, fat chance of that! It was 9pm by now and Collins beckoned. I watched about an hour and a half of it before my parnets came clanging about that it was late and my eyes were trying to protest by closing themselves to the world! I got the message and set my head down for the exams in the morning.

The Wednesday had a queer air about it - it was the first time in ages I had to wake up at twenty to 8 in the morning. On an off day, I wake up at twenty to 10! I went downstairs and turned on the GBA. Nothing like a video game to start the day, with Everybody loves Raymond in my peripheral vision. At 8 I made the ole' Ready Brek and grabbed a carton of juice - it was going to be a while before dinner! I sat around 'til half and then Andrew called in. We got in the car and drove in - no nerves or anything! Myself and Andrew did share a bit of excited chatter once we reached the set-down point by the school but otherwise, no panic.

At the school, most ofthe Leaving Cert lads were there. We greeted the familiar faces and were told the rooms had been assigned. I hurried inside to find I was in what was the supervised study room I had been attending for the last two years - sweet! Familiar surroundings but no familiar faces - the other lads were in different rooms. It was fun to join the rest of the year outside as we discussed what we had been up to but no real mention of the Paper I - we knew that the Paper II the next day would be the be all and the end all. The exam was at 9:30, but at 9 there was a concensus move towards the stairs inside the building. We got sucked into the movement and now the nerves were flaring with each step!

Everything was fairly efficient-like. I reached my exam room and was intrigued to find all the old desks were replaced by the newer tables and chairs. Whether this was a disadvantage or not I did not think of it at the time. My invigilator was a grey-haired, bespectacled and otherwise fairly nondescript fellow. He briskly got about the job of sorting people to their desks, but I had found mine - front left corner! I was initially dismayed until I discovered the sun went right over me, leaving me shady. Nice! I sat down and waited for any commands - that, and any familiar faces that would be in the exam hall with me. Not many to mention, but I was content after a while just to wait for the Paper to be handed out.

Paper 1 is the one paper you cannot study for. It is generally a test of ones' English ability, but someone could wing it easily or just as easily fail for not putting in effort. The theme of the Comprehensions was 'Decisions'. Wtf? As soon as I got the Paper I looked at the front for the theme and glanced over the simpe little word that could mean anything. 'Decisions'? It beat 'Childhood' at the Mocks... Whe we were told very nonchalantly to start, I immediately opened the Paper and was disappointed to find I didn;t like any of the Question B's. My teacher told us to read through, pick the B first, then the A, then the essay. I picked an A first that had a good article attached and a crappy B, so I picked the B afterwards. My choice of essays took about a nanosecond to decide on: there are 7 essay titles to choose from. Usually the bulk of them are personal essays and the like, with one or two short stories. I knew I was going to write the short story so I was delighted to find 2 choices. Q3 was a short story stemming from "the decisive moment" while Q7, which is traditionally a short story, involved the images of one of the comprehensions. I chose Q3 because I could easily bend it towards war!

I cleared the questions on the comprehension piece (A) after about 55 minutes. I then moved on to the less enjoyable B and gave that about 35 minutes. I would have preferred a diary entry or a monologue, as they are like short stories. When those two were down I had 1 hour and 20 minutes left to tackle the short story. I planned the essay with my four simple words: Conflict Tension Climax Resolution, allocatted 2 paragraphs to each and planned the contents of those paragraphs. It involved a man (me) heading a squad of men in the trenches. I had their nationality as Canadian, as the Canutes kicked arse in the Great War. The setting was Flanders during the Spring Offensive 1918, when Russia had surrenderred and Germany launched a fierce attack on the Western Front. My man was awaiting orders that seemed like they would never come, until finally a messenger boy arrived with the news of Russia and also that I was now the most senior commanind officer on the frontline. He needed to make a snap decision - the Climax. The Resolution was just them going over the top to see all the dead corpses and my man contemplating the vast decisions placed in the hands of the few. By the time I had finished, there were ten minutes left and when that happens you're not allowed out until its over. Oh well! More time to sit there, hands covered in unwarranted sweat and a satisfied air.

We all met up afterwards and I immediately asked the lads could we just go outside into the yard, rather than stand around upstairs. I found out that I had done the same A and B as Aaron and James, while one of those two had also done the same short story as me and even used the same setting! I don't know what the examiners will think of that! Andrew did completely different stuff, so never mind with that. All in all, very content with myself and was in full gear to do English Paper II the following morning - until that fateful phonecall. I won;t even go into all that - I'll just make a post tomorrow after Geography and Maths Paper 1.

Tags: english paper 2, lc, leaving cert, leaving certificate, louth, retardation
Current Location: Not a study hall
Current Mood: I'm full!
Current Music: GITS: Inner Universe

Mocks approach. I don't feel as panicked as I did for the Christmas exams, which they really scared us for. I think I preferred that; at least then they pressured us into studying. Now, the teachers are content to sit back with an air of inevibility. Bastards! The two months distance between Christmas and Mocks really wasn't enough. Whatever I get, it won't be a reflection of my actual ability. If anything, the whole Irish system of education doesn't reflect anybody's' true ability. Our education system is about revising subjects and regurgitating them, not actually learning about them.

Mocks hit since I wrote that paragraph and left it as a draft! First, Midterm. We got elated and worried,  glad to have a break to ourselves but fearing the impending Mocks. I stuck to a very tight schedule which actually made the week go by slower. Wake up at 10am. Eat massive breakfast as ever. Spend two hours on computer then go for a little walk. Back a 1pm for dinner or wait around for dinner. At 2pm, I start to study for 2 hours. At 4pm, pens down and out for a two hour walk. At 6pm, make my way to the cathedral and await the car to pick me up - parents and sister still working - hehe! Tea at 7pm. Relax for 5 hours by going on computer. Go upstairs around midnight to read for an hour, then bed.

Mornings were delightful. They are my favourite times to play games and eat cereal, one of those great inventions. I would get up and immediately turn turn on the computer, then start up Age of Wonders. There are maps to be made for people and PBEM turns to play! Speaking of which, I was playing in an AoW tourney. Won my first game by trumping some new guy, while my second match had me up against a veteran! I was touted bt everyone as the underdog in the most annoying fashion. Everyone wouldn't stop closely following the progress of the match, analysing everything. It sucked being called the underdog all the time... Something beautiful happened when the veteran lost all his units and was truly fudged - I could win! Despite playing my heart out the veteran did things only veterans are able to do well and managed to defeat me. G'lame, but very fun match nonetheless.

I went for a little walk at 12pm, usually into the Dangan Sports Centre. This was no different from my weekend walks before in Dangan, except now I did it everyday. I honestly can't say if I saw anything of interest! Returning at 1, I was always geared for just a little bit more AoW while waiting for dinner. Gotta fix some terrain to my liking...! I'd have dinner then start preparing for the inevitable. Study. At 2pm, I'd go up to my room with all my subjects I intended on studying, sitting in that chair unbroken for 2 hours. I found ways of procrastinating...

Study wasn't too bad. I told myself at the start of the week that I shouldn't look at every subject. That would be pointless. I picked up English, Geography, History and Biology. I was most intent on learning the latter two. I was unfamiliar with what an English paper even looked like, so I had to go by me a Folens book of exam papers. I knew Geography from my accumulated 5 year liking of the subject, yet Mick Small promised certain questions on the Physical section. In the end, I let these two slide! I picked up History and Biology and revised the crap outta them. Daily, an hour on each and then off. French was guaranteed, Irish is finally understood by me on some base level - enough to bollock on - while Maths was completely forgotten. That would get me later...

My 2 hour walks around Galway were originally a Sunday only thing, but with a whole week off I needed something to do. I generally set off to town, trying to take as long as possible to do so. This I did by going the Circular Road way. I enjoyed this way, nice and breezy but feckin' cars passing me by did my head in. They alwasy swerved a million miles out away from me when passing by, looking all huffed in their windows. Feckers, I jumped onto the sides of the road so many times to avoid the inevitable cras passing each other out. That would've been messy with me there... Hopefully I'd arrive in town well after 5. This meant I only had to walk around for less than an hour 'til getting a lift home. I alwasy met 'Che Guevara' around, as well as that stupid Roma guy in the wheelchair. After a few days of this routine, I started to take longer getting into town by going the Prom way. Often I had little objectives in mind when going out for a walk, such as 'find the Western Distributor road on foot' - a failure!

Arriving home after 6 with the family for some tea was excellent. Plenty of bread and dirty fry for all. Tea for those so inclined. Tea would be followed by a disproportionate amount of relaxtion time... Why didn't I study, you ask, for another little while? Bot nothered. Mr. Small said 2 hours is the optimal amount of study. After that, your brain becomes denatured. Anyways, more AoW was had, listening to game music on Youtube to inspire my efforts and general fun times all round. This was the daily routine, with Saturday proving a delightful break - Gran torino with teh lads! Brilliant!

Mocks. Monday: Maths Paper 2 and English Paper 1. I told my mom when leaving the house that morning that I wasn't ging to do well, and my usual 'not reflection of ability' theory. All the hubbub of the other rooms was unnoticed by me - my world in school comprised of the locker rooms, town and room M3 I *think* its called... Maths was pretty bad... I recognised questions all over the place, but couldn't, err, do them. I did the questions I liked and hope to pass. Failing is equally likely! English was weird. Just when you thought it was impossible, you get a paper that asks you your opinions and stuff. The comprehension theme was 'Childhood', something I didn't mind doing... I got all sorts of questions on the texts which allowed me to compare adults to children, which is similar to my teenager-adult comparison I oh so love doing. My 'personal essay on the importance of imagination' was rife with anecdotes - true ones - from my childhood. Fun!

English Paper 2 and Geography. Prepare to fall, Eoghan. Paper 2 is all poets, Comparative study and Macbeth. I had Mahon and Montague recently, so I was banking on them. I had a vague idea of how to use Longley too. Bishop was a total no-no. Got the test and was please with the Macbeth question. 'The depiction of evil in Macbeth is far more compelling than that of virtue.' Simple, compare Macbeth to Banquo and King Edward and all the other minor charcters who make up the good side! For the comparative study, I just wrote on what I knew, comparing and contrasting and what-not as the man taught us. Not too bad. Poets. No Mahon. No Monatague! Bishop and Longley were on! I took Longley and used the old answer on how he depicts violence encroaching on the innocent. I had to use a poem in the answer we didn't study officially but one I read often - Self-Heal. How... erotic. Geography was daunting, but we got a very easy test. The short questions which I've forgotten now were very easy bar the OS map questions, whihc required a little more thought. The long questions. I got Small's question, so no worries! Unfortunately, Section 3,Options with Culture and Identity, required quick thinking. There was no migration question! I had to do how political institutions and cultural groups do not coincide. Ireland North and South, Israel and Nazi Germany. Again, C & I plays the history question...

Irish Paper 1 and Biology. Dear Gods. At last, I can finally say I understand Irish on a very base level, at least, when answering, I can abuse actions to my hearts content. I used the Conversation and the Letter. In the former, you like tradtional music but your friend doesn't. Have a chat. Oh a Dhia, that was easy! Litir, write to a friend that you like the Gaeltacht you went to. My guy didn't like it until after a ceilithe. Then I just banged on. Plenty of go maiths and iontachs around... Biology was scary, but I had studied. The short questions were weird - way too many choice questions and a lot of leverage granted to the student that wanted it. Not for me, I wanted nice narrow questions.The long questions were okay - I got my Diffusion and Osmosis question and Virus Questions. I chanced the heart and ecology, though the former I royaaly fudged in. Enzymes and Respiration, my favourites, came up as they always do. I hated the way I found out I was horribly mistaken all over the place in this test...

Irish Paper 2 and History. Let's do this. Irish Paper 2 was pretty horific: In the Filiocht, 1 good poem and 2 shite ones. Wrote on the 1 good poem and 1 bad poem equally enough - the latter I knew used pathetic fallacy, or rather 'fallas na truamhala'. I hope to Christ I got that right... In the Pros, An Bhean Og came up, hooray. It came up in a weird form that I had to manipulate though... Write about her relationship with her husband. He is oppressive, shes depressed. Score! Got to do Fiche Blian ag Fas too, writing about their stupid drinking tour of Ireland. I was finished after 50 minutes, which was horrendous. I had to wait 3 hours to be let out! I began to panic. I was completely satisfied with the pieces I had written, so I was left to draw for entertainment. Luckily the idiot teacher we had had given the papers out early to the pass people. We were supposed to have 40 mins. to study at the start. We got out early as a result, yay! Came back for History, armed with 5 answer booklets. I couldn't be more ready. Got the test. Topic 2, 1885-1886 elections. Perfect! Topic 3, Rise of Sinn Fein and Decline of Home Rule. Excellent! Topic 5, Why did Stalin have a load of Show Trials? Mentality! I got everything I studied for and felt comfortable with. I wrote wreaths on my answers. They were MY answers that day. The Document question on Montgomery was like a stunted English question. I don;t know how well I did there...

Friday means French and the end. The test I approached very casually, but I had to think for a lot of it. The Comprehensions asked in English were easy enough, while those in French required infinitely more thinking. The fill in the blanks section and postcard were a joke. Finished nice and early and relaxed. Mocks over!

Tags: bollocks, chicken fillet, general, intelligence bonus, mocks
Current Location: Wrapped in blanket, blinking out of blindfold
Current Music: Easily - Red hot Chili Peppers

Merry Christmas! I have fallen far behind in internet related matters, particularly my Age of Wonders play-by-email games. They know it's the holidays and thats all that matters. In the run-up to Christmas, I adopted a new breakfast - a large bowl filled with Weetabix Oataflakes poured into another, larger bowl and then add milk. It was absoulute sex to eat, especially while watching 'Hitler's Generals' on Discovery every morning at 10. This was my pre-Christmas routine, and it had its cost. At the worst time of the year, the muscle below my sternum and above my stomach actually twisted at the amount of food I was eating in the morning... 120g of cereal, I was increduled to discover, was the amount consumed daily. That's 4 times the standard amount on the box. It really was sexual, but it had to stop after Christmas Day.

Town was a load of piss before Christmas Day, in the run-up. I went in every day as part of my daily after dinner-walk, but I always asked why I did it afterwards. People just kept getting in my way! Normally people melt out of your way in town, but before Christmas everyone just gets in the way with their own agendas. On Christmas Eve my Mom and I marched into town to change the shoes and pants she had bought the previous night with me. Not enough roof on the shoes and a light shade of blue was present on the pants, which was criminal. Got myself a good pair of jeans - no bagginess this time - and great shoes. I ran off on my own afterwards and realised that Gamestop had slashed all their prices. I ran around looking for a copy of GTAIV everywhere but no look. Maybe in the January sales...

We visited Nanny's house later on Christmas Eve after a fabulous ham dinner. My Dad cooked it in cider! It was sweet but not soaked through like that, just on the outside. Niall and I went in his car - it was a great laugh listening to the Beatles and talking. The journey there was quick as ever to Kilconnell, just before Ballinasloe. When we got there it was great to see everyone. We stayed until after tea, when it was time for us to up and away to Midnight Mass - at 10pm. We were back in Galway for a few minutes 'til whisked off for a carol service at 9:30pm in Bushypark, followed by Mass. I keep forgetting that its Easter when they do the horribly long Masses. Ahem.

Christmas Day arrived painlessly for me this year. When I was younger I would tell everyone how I spent the night 'rolling around' in bed. I couldn't get to sleep with the excitement! This time I just said fuck it and after reading was tired enough to got to sleepies, like every other night. Woke up at around 8am, which was well before my alarm. I did not get up. I lay around until 9, by the which time waiting for my 9.40 alarm became painful and I set off downstairs. There was my little pile of boxes! I zealously set about opening 'em all and carefully granting them a scan of their respective blurbs.
 
Gears of War 2, Iron Man, 300, Die Hard 4.0 and a pile of history related books. Excellent! My sister Aghna handed me a huge bag of Princess Marshmallows and a candle that smells exactly like Granny Smith. We both watched Sweeney Todd as a morning Christmas movie, which was actually quite excellent. I had a 120g bowl of cereal in light of the day, but regretted it later. Stomach bloat! The parents were up eventually and set about getting the dinner ready. In that time, Oisin arrived and opened his host of presents = he had more at his house! Aideen gave me a pound of Dr. Pepper flavour Jelly Belly beans, a book and for myself and Aghna two pounds of Jelly Flops - all the jelly beans that didn't meet factory standards for shape in a bag!

Dinner was excellent. Turkey and stuffing, ham, mashed potato with plenty of mint sauce for myself and a host of vegetables. Christmas crackers abound, with myself and Donal splitting one - all the spoils went to Oisin. Everyone had a great laugh comparing head sizes, with many of the Fallon unable to fit into their crowns. The brothers Fallon proceeded to watch Blackadder season 1, provided by Niall for my good self. Its excellent! I can't wait to collect em all. My Dad's excellent trifle followed; it had been fermenting in the fridge in port for the last few days. In tune with my holdiay resolution to try everything, I gave it a whirl. 'Twas excellent with fruit salad and cream. Ceol agus craic ensued. We visited our cousins' out in Oranswell as we usually o for an hour and enjoyed their brand new Wii. Returned home for Wallace & Gromit followed by Breakfast on Pluto - another great movie.
 
Collapsed into bed afterwards, what a great Christmas!

Tags: curves, draft, ftw, nice
Current Location: wrapped in blankets
Current Mood: Christmas!
Current Music: Gutterballs

Long time since an update. A lot of stuff has actually happened over the course of the last week or so since last update. I've been confronted by Mick Small a number of times around the monastery area with comments of 'you're not looking well' and the like. It climaxed one day when he pulled me out of English and brought me to Ms. Gleeson, the counselor! She was probably the nicest teacher I've ever met, so I told her the full story behind my poorly health and everything - the chilblaines, my nutrition, the cold, the doctors. Small was convinced it was a family thing of me being neglected or stress relating to exams! No sir... I did note that several teachers suddenly took an interest in my health - Mr. O'Keefe finally knows my name!

School has become very lazy - not on the students' behalf, I'm increduled to say! Maths has become a wishy-washy affair, particularly seeing as we're dealing with probability, the most touch-and-go subject ever. Geography hasn't had a proper lesson in ages, we're committed to revision and cloze tests. Fun. In Irish and French, she gave up on a new lesson plan for the last few days, but she was the worst offender when it came to when to end class. I hate getting out too early for lunch or break! History has merely had him plough on as usual, but we have reached the excellent yellow book! I always said it was the best written. Other subjects have been strange jobs: Biology has moved forward to human sexual reproduction with no laughs at all and English is all Cinema Paradiso - which is excellent.

I've came home everyday from study recently and put my feet up. Doctor's orders. Well, not really. I've had no energy lately with the duration of my cold and cough, so I've been interacting less with people and getting complacent... My energy has come back recently with the end of my cold but I've adapted very lazy habits. After dinner I sit down for ages watching the telly, not a care in the world. I've also taken to eating suppers, which are becoming flippant in size and content in light of the holidays!

Very warm reviews for the Parent Teacher meetings! I can't post any names or anything, but there were some surprises from teachers of subjects I didn't really care for as much! With that hurdle behind, all I can think of is Christmas - at Donal's on Friday night, we were treated to mulled juice, homemade mince pies, christmas crackers and confetti poppers! It was like Christmas Day there!

Tags: christmas, complacent, feet up, holidays, lazy
Current Location: with blanket on
Current Mood: so lazy
Current Music: Jethro Tull Sweet Dreams

Been a quick week. Monday flew by; it's all serious learning again in Biology. I won't lie to myself and say I was interested, but I did take in a bit more than usual. I think I'm actually working at his undefined speed, for once. Religion was actually good this week; the single class on Monday turned out to be Conboy telling us about an emotionless killer who committed a horrible murder on a packed bus and then stated afterwards he simply wanted to die. He did the whole thing w/o emotion, so we all got into a debate afterwards on whether or not the law should be amended to have him killed or what to do with him. I was on the 'let's jail him him to spite him' side of the argument, based on his statement. The other POVs included 'kill the bastard' and 'treat him for mental illness'.

Still no Irish or French results. We got back the French Aural and I was delighted - top of the class! I knew what margin of error I was facing in the test and I knew I had got a good result but this was great! Kinda diluted by the eternal fact; our French class is pants. We spent all week doing obsolete oral revision - we did that ages ago! Irish is similar, except I'm at the bottom of the heap. She likes to think she's teaching Honours to them, so I'm left way behind with Andrew. Again, studying for the Orals which are actually coming up next week but not too worried at all. I know not to panic in front of the bastard, whoever it is we forked out €3 to...

Alongside Biology, I have 3 other Honours subjects: English, Geography and History. I only passed Biology; while I don't expect a pat on the back I hope to Christ he doesn't write 'recommend ordinary level' or anything. I wouldn't drop down - just to spite the man! Geography was somewhat more disappointing, got an honour but I knew everywhere I went wrong and as I said before I tried to do everything and fudged more stuff because of that. I was satisifed with my English result; I was convinced I'd just passed but my terrible Question A was balanced by the QB and Macbeth Q for a much higher result. While he was handing them out, I was sweating like a madman! History was very good, no complaints to be had!

The retreat on Thursday rolled around - no big fuss was made on either the teachers' or students' behalf. We got the bus at the standard time from the school corner and ploughed towards Claregalway. Father Benny was introduced to us and he quickly made a great impression as a funny-man. His first talk revolved around coping, which he tied very neatly together in the end. Good narrow focus! Break came and soon afterwards we were treated to the second part, which dealt with relationships. Lunch rolled round and the lads in the year took to the guitar - fair play to all who got in on it; great craic! Father Benny took us for the final part of the talk which finally mentioned God; I athought he was going to tie all his earlier talk into this but he went off on an occult tangent to my relief. We had run over time so we said our goodbye. Well done on keeping us going for so long but screw sitting down for 6 hours! I just had to walk home to get my ass in gear, quite literally.

Friday had come seeming like no real solace. Andrew informed me of the g'lameness of our absence! Irish and French was supposedely awful... I got my Maths result back today and was absolutely delira! I assummed I would pass due to the obscene amount of attempt marks I must've wracked up, but I wasn't expecting such a good result! Clarke talked me through the entire exam in good detail and I was very happy to have it. Survived the rest of the day without a scratch on me - what could get me now! ...Other than forgetting to bring athird fruit in my lunchbox. Ghey.

Study, biology grinds and Donal's. All excellent, actually. Got a competent amount of work done in study despite Egghead being there; learned about old 5th year stuff again with Frank; popped into Donal's for D & D to finish the night off. Food review for Domino's Pizza here. Donal was going with Yolande to get Chinese, so I said no bother I'll get in on a pizza with Paddy and Mo. Had a great chat with Paddy about his excellent GURPS scenario while getting the 'Meal for 4' deal for €25. Large 14' pizza w/ chicken kickers, garlic bread mini pizza thing and wedges. We ordered a half and half pizza; pepperoni, sausage and green peppers were on my share. Crust was as I remembered it, full and good, yet the whole thing was so greasy. Toppings were generous enough while sides were decent. Dips were a mixed bag; their garlic dip has nothing on Papa John's. Their sweet and sour was water. Their barbecue sauce was too small. All in all, I won't be eating there again - Ed's NYP is actually back on my list for future takeaways!

Rounded off the night with D&D money-laundering - coming close to earning a tidy profit! Got lift home and eventually got my mitts on the computer. AoW for a moment then lots of internet time. Win.

Tags: biology, for, is, level, liam, not, ordinary, satisfied, stuffed
Current Location: tired on computer
Current Mood: so lazy nowadays
Current Music: Fleeting Dream

Another bleary Sunday has rolled around; as you can imagine, woke up nice and toasty and found myself gingerly placing my feet on the frozen bedroom floor. I was reluctant when I moved into Niall's old room - it was reputed as the coldest in the house. In light of my crappy circulatory condition, especially this year, I'm not faring too well in there! I have to have the plug-in radiator on 'eco' all night... Whatever. I wandered downstairs for breakfast and watched some history channels on the box. My Dad was working Saturday night, so no Mass today. He arrived in, said his hello and promptly went off to sleep. Lucky man.

I did not cycle into town today for a brief moment I believe, instead hanging around the house nice and warm. Fiddled around on the internet, most certainly... Had a lovely dinner of more curried chicken, rice and a naan that all went down so well here. I planned to charge into town later, with my Mom taking the lone car to Nanny's with Aghna and Dad - the latter to be dropped off in Monivea to collect his car. NCT coming up! That, as well as having his Aldi CD player installed in it... I eventually bucked up sometime after they left to leave the house and check out all the shinies in town!

The walk there wasn't too miserable... I'm always happy when my feet are moving - then they're warm! Charged first into an open River Deep Mountain High, which is usually closed on Sundays. Looked at all the hyper expensive gloves again and said fuck this. GAME allowed me to warm up, as well as look at assorted games I guess. I popped into HMV and managed to stop myself checking out the upstairs(but the cheap, obscure movies...!) and instead went to Charlie Byrne's. They are huge! I only ever see the fantasy section by the counter, I went right in this time to find a history section deep in there. Rock on, or something!

I've been taking the time to look at prices of goods I wish to purchase as gifts... All cheap, granted, yet very desirable. I don't think anoyone will be disappointed with my recession-busting award-winning gifts! Resolved to go into town next Sunday to buy them, depending on a certain factor. It was getting dark, so I jumped into Dunnes at Corbettcourt to see if they had any milks with vanilla as well as some scones. I got two white scones (no wholemeal, boo!) but had no luck with the milk. Paddy Delaney was telling me high tales! Dragged myself away from the biscuit tins, which always attract my attention nowadays for the journey home. I decided to go the Quinncinntennial way - Tescoes and Happy Days!

Arrived home freezing to find Dad and car back. Woo! Waited around in front of the fire for some time, watching the Antiques Roadshow with Dad. He always watches it on Sundays and hates missing it - it really was fun to watch! Broke out the last sausage with relish, Balticky bread with butter and cheese (naturally) and topped off with a microwaved scone with jam. Scrumptious in every sense. Made myself feel sleepy over the next few hours by watching the telly, studying Maths in vain and finally breaking out Star Ocean for a run. Superb. Now at 10/12 levels down the Cave of Trials!

Here are some pictures of me as Karl Marx at Hallowe'en. This was my exact costume which got me a big bag of sweets which I shared with my sister and demolished on the night. ...Unfortunately this is a retake done a few weeks after the night, as no pictures were taken then. At least, not to my knowledge (the Gardai made me a file for yelling at them).

http://s155.photobucket.com/albums/s293/CrazySlyHawk/?action=view&current=Aghnacamcap015-1.jpg

http://s155.photobucket.com/albums/s293/CrazySlyHawk/?action=view&current=Aghnacamcap017.jpg

Tags: entry, i'm, late, not, santa, soz
Current Location: freezing feet falling from fallon
Current Mood: frigid
Current Music: Last Christmas

Another lovely Saturday rolled around, with another big breakfast and cycle to enjoy. I flew off to town and made it as far as the Town Hall where I mounted the kerb only to go flying off my bike... I dismounted almost instinctively, allowing me to land on my feet but not without looking like an ass to drivers. I dismounted further up Eglinton Street and proceeded to pass by the market as usual, sampling the sights and sounds. I could smell Donut guy from a mile away. Reached the Bish and mounted the bike again to go home, which was very uneventful on the return!

Dropped my bike at home and proceeded to do a little walk for myself, heading down Dangan and around the usual haunts. Was very interested in some college students being taught to row. A lot of steps involved in one stroke! Nearly slipped on some solid ice, too... Advanced back up by Dangan Heights for the final leg of a good walk when James called at me, walking Chip. The pooch was in good health! James told me some great stories about his DS emulator(wish I had one!) while walking the dog around the way. We both had plenty of time to burn anyways! I reminded myself of the gig on today which Andrew was very cute not to remind me of when I had him for Halo. James produced a ticket and told me it's there if I wanted it. I didn't know it was a battle of the bands, either.

Returned home for excellent curried chicken, rice and mouth-watering naan bread. Downed a milk and terminated my meal with a fruit, as the French exam told me to. Lazed around indefinitely - well, until 3. I rang Aaron through Andrew to get the time for bowling tonight - it was the former's birthday! I swore an oath to Mrs. Hastings to deliver his forgotten phone to him in town. I did... at 7pm that night at City Limits bowling. I wandered into town myself eventually and perused all the Saturday shops as well as infringing a bit on Sunday policy - poking where we don't usually prod.  Went to the Roisin Dubh at 5:30 - the gig was just f'ingover! Met the lads and we fled home through the night, with them regaling me with tales of their exploits.

Arrived home for delicious Balticky bread(y'know it), saussies and some cheese. Rory rang on Aaron's phone then - I told him to politely fudge it 'til I finished eating! Bowling was the order of the day. Aaron the birthday boy, Rory, James, Paul Murphy, Andrew, Brian-Uchiha, Jason and his girlfriend Mairead did meet in battle. Eoghan fought too. Eoghan doth stinketh! My fingers got caught in the ball once, while my thumb was cut by another! Played a terrible game, but it was great craic. I think I scared Paul again... We lost our lift home (again, apology accepted, Andrew) and got a lift to squareyes with the lovely Mairead and Jason Parmele! They were dead sound and we arrived in [ii] for fun fun fun.

Was wrecked after an hour of Left for Dead - we finished the airport level! Judicious use of pipebombs ftw! Paul had to leave, so the other lads played Rock Band minus 1, but they had fun too. Again, was wrecked... but happy. Bring on the sleep! Thanks Aaron for a very fun birthday gradulations!
 

Tags: birthday, messing, stop, wankjob, yourself
Current Location: Writing late blog, late
Current Mood: party!
Current Music: Promise I made

Well. We had exams all this week. I had my exam booklets purchased and freshly laundered the weekend before. I adopted a three subjects a day rotation thing that allowed me to cover all my bases; most teachers gave us the gist on what they would be giving out. I felt comfortable with most of my subjects bar Maths, which came dead last in the order of testing and we had no idea what the paper would look like. Clarke didn't even know!

Myself and Andrew agreed that we learned the most we've ever learned in a small space of time and wish teachers did this to us more often! This whole debacle really brought the exam psyche home to a lot of us and I for one am appreciative of that as well as resentful towards some teachers. They really should have got us prepped for the exams a few weeks in advance at least. Some teachers were very well behaved in that regard while others told us we had an entire course to look at in a week. Boo!


Monday went fairly slowly yet constructively. Poor 'Aaronandrew' had to sit an Ag. Science exam straight off. I bid them adieau as we set ourselves for several study classes. We were studying instead of RE in M2 when the bell went and all the Ag lads emerged looking cheery enough. James and myself were chatting when Andrew came over and said don't talk about it; pig reproduction came up for him at least! We dawdled through the rest of the day when we remembered we had a French listening after lunch! I wasn't so surprised as to start studying for it - how do you study an aural outside your own home? When the test rolled around, it was nice and slow but there were some tricky ones. My post mortem of sorts came in the form of a loud Q & A between the class and Joyce - I discovered I had between 14-18 out of 20 answers correct! Not bad!

More study as things began to get feverish for us all - the real exams were to start for most of us! English and Biology on Tuesday. I used Frank Thornton's excellent notes to compile a few A4 pages of summaries on most of the topics coming up on the Bio exam. Quilty had prepared 3 essential handouts that covered Lady Macbeth, Macbeth and the whole play, all with quotes. The previous night I read over the latter - what could I do, really? I made a few points ready...
 
The exam came and I wasn't too pleased. I fudged my time management horrifically - I spent under an hour carefully on QA, then was rushing to get QB and the Macbeth question done. QA turned out to be my weakest answer, while for my QB I was happy enough with the scribbles I got done - I was Malcolm reflecting on his choice to make the thanes earls and thus created several Macbeths! The Macbeth question was a Macbeth fascinates and terrifies us to equal degree... Sound. Biology whipped around and I was equally bemused at what we got. Enzymes and Respiration came up as well as Genetics. I knew all that. I also knew the Sensory systems would come up, but I hadn't really studied 'em. I always take the eye and the ear etc. for granted. I didn't like the questions he asked, either. Most of them were the worst ones from old papers, i.e. the ones I enjoyed doing out least in study. I had so much time I did most long questions, so not too many worries...

More study followed this for Wednesday, which was to be Irish and Geography. 'Languages in the mornings!' I had told everyone who asked me. I already had stuff prepared for Irish, while Geography was the real concern. We had an entire course to learn again! It all came flooding back while studying yet I wasn't too impressed with the lack of prepping. James got the test yesterday so he gave me the general gist - their whole class told us all! Irish was very satisfactory; I wrote a competent Litir, did the comprehension then answered all the Prós and Filiocht questions I could. I then wrote my Sceal at the end - some load of pants. Geography rolled up and I was very pleased with what we got - the same test as yesterday! I demolished the short questions and then did something really stupid. I got to the long questions and attempted to do all of them. I fudged time management again, as I found myself rushing to finish what I had started. The result was a greater mess but I can feel good no matter what grade I get!

Half the tests over! I studied half heartedly for French and History, knowing I could only do so much. The French attacked in the morning; the big bastard had 4 reading comprehensions; the writing was on one side and the questions on the other. It was so painful flipping between the two. They were all very colourful and fun to read, despite the slog. The rest of it was satifactory, much like Irish! History became the make or break test for everyone afterwards... We walked into the study room later to find everyone quietly reading the Red and Blue books! I was comfortable with studying the Land Question 1870-1903 while having a general knowledge of the rise of Fascism as well as Britain. Among others, we got the Land Question and how Conservatives did more than Liberals to sort it, as well as Britain socially & economically between 1929 - 1939. Perfect! Was very happy with the first one (that was the kind of question I was ready for) and comfortable with the second... just band on about unemployment!

This was it, I felt like the tests were over. 'Cept the inevitable Maths exam. I had been to grinds on Wednesday but it didn't matter - we're doing the circle right now. Not on the test. I didn't study much the previous night, with Star Ocean coming to mind along with sleep and the warmth of the house rising to prevalence. Maths came as 2008 Paper 1 I believe, with questions we didn;t even do recently like Income that can be answered by anyone. Ordinary level Maths is so simple to us that we were only expected to do 5 of 8 questions...  Unnaturally I did all of them. Only because I had time! I could only do 2 of them with any certainty. I forgot First Principles, which Clarke expected me to know. Thank the gods it was inside a bad question that won;t be regarded as one of the 5...

Tests over. No fails this time around, with passes in surprising places I hope. Biology and Maths, my two grind subjects, have been brought to the fore, while all my subjects with long course - Geog, History - now need a good ground-up revision. Satisfied enough with my languages, though the English can be blamed on time. Not too bad... A study timetable is in order, not one to the scale of the last two weeks but certainly its existence will stimulate my brain to create some TAH(thickness-alleviation hormone) to be pumped to me in copious doses.

Tags: a, at, done, give, last, pass, us
Current Location: Stuffed with excellent food
Current Mood: satisfied (reservadely so)
Current Music: I miss this phairt right 'ere

Saturday was very unusual this week; a lot of things that I'd normally do got fudged some way or another. Woke up to a big bowl of Cheerios and milk followed by the usual juice, all a Saturday thing. Cycled into town briefly and the first change happened - I walked through Shop Street to look at McCambridges! Normally I'd walk by the market, but this time I went into town proper and stood outside that luxury store debating whether or not to go in - had no lock, so said fuck it and went home.

Arsed about until the lads called, played a bit of Halo2. Memories! We walked into town as per usual and another unusual thing happened - we forgot to call for Aaron! I only realised it well after we were in town and was kicking myself... all was well, as he'd been town since around the same time. We perused th usual stores' contents and inevitably wound around to squareyes for some excellent Left for Dead. Great craic! That was the longest hour I've ever played in there (we had somehow managed to slip in CoD5 before LFD) and Aaron told me it was because they give people 1h 5 mins. I'm a tard, then :)

We walked home fairly early, yet it was still dark. We agreed to meet up for D & D later and I helped myself to the usual Polish bread or Balticky anda fry then hung around until the lads called down again. Donal popped in for some tea and we had a bit of a laugh! Glad to hear he was doing well and I discovered two things. Microwaved scones and afterwards, he was moving house! Later, I managed to freak Andrew out a bit with new developments in the plot, so I must be doing something right! I believe I played Star Ocean until conking out. Great fun once again...

Sunday was very disappointing in the morning. Woke up and had a very sobre breakfast of Weeta and cold milk not heated up at all. The rain hit my window soon afterwards and I knew my planned cycle was gone. Mass was weird, with another new imported priest. He wore really big boots. As we walked out, a leaflet was thrust in my face by O'Conghaile - night in at Mary's! Bring a sleeping bag! Returned home for some excellent curry and braced myself for some study. Exams the next few days! Kept going 'til 3 or so and then said I'd go for a walk...

My walk into town was eerie. I kept looking up at the menacing rainclouds... Wandered all over town, poking at everything we don't on a Saturday. Found myself craving a scone for tea, heated up in the microwave! I went into HMV and found myself looking for Gandhi. I must have looked strange saying 'G' all over the shop... Found Gandhi AND Hot Shots! Part Deux and fulfilled my vow to purchase 'em both. I clutched the HMV bag to my side and walked home.
 
I was walking the Shantella way behind the hospital when rain struck. Fudge. Arrived at Dunnes for the scone, not too sopping but miserable. My hands... Piece of shizz gloves! Bought a single, 45c wholemeal scone ("is that all?" - big checkout guy) and headed out home. My HMV bag was in atters, and by the time I got home, had glued itself to my side!!! You could see the pink from the paper on my jacket the next day!!!

Arrived back freezing for more Balticky and a lovely scone with a bit of jam. Lovely! Set myself for more studying, I think it was all English. I got sick of making points about Macbeth after quite a while and contented myself to playing Star Ocean again. I'm getting sooo far in the Cave of Trials... The music is excellent, too!

Stay posted for a bumper exam coverage thing.

Tags: are, blog, examiners, exams, my, pants, read
Current Location: After-exam laze in house
Current Mood: finished!
Current Music: Talk to Joe theme

Sorry, Aaron.

Monday was a lot less painless than usual. Andrew had taken his puritan and his berocca in the morning, so he was hitting highs and lows. Mostly lows - he wasn't distracting me while I tried to learn! Religion was the non-plussed face of Kelly, got more study in while my Ready Brek kept me going. I'm pretty sure the rest of the week passed in a similar manner, with every morning unbroken work and study classes followed by a scrummy break-time.

Some of the double classes have been royally fudged in light of the exam season; History had no Griffin so we were with either Macky or Egghead. Macky was the substitute who taught us (at dreadful, post-sound speeds) about France between the wars. I already said Britain and France had the worst written chapters in that book, while his reading didn't help. Biology was more a Q & A while working at your own study. Geography was the worst offender: we had study classes. No prompts, just fuck off and do your thing. Everything we studied last year came flooding back and everything I studied mattered. That's the thing about approaching exams. Your teachers give you a narrow focus that helps so much.

Maths is probably my worst subject right now. I don't know whats on the exam and can;t study accordingly. I let Irish and French, the latter especially slide a bit. Will be back in gear come Sunday. History is hard! No, you'd be wrong to take that as assent to your views, Aaron... We really have a lot to cover. Again, narrow focus helped. I'm studying 2 of the 3 topics in the Red Book while leaving the Blue Book to seed. I'll read up on the fun stuff from there in good time. English is the hardest subject approaching but I have no fears. Quilty has promised a scope of Macbeth-related questions so we really need to be ready for anything. He is excellent to the end. Geography again is comfortable. I know my long questions well enough, yet the short questions will be unnerving. I hate vulcanicity and physical geography in general! Biology has seen a huge improvement this year, but not due to personal efforts. This week I know enzymes and respiration/breathig inside out... thanks to Frank.

People are being stupid about the Grads., but if you are going and reading this for some reason don't get me wrong. When Millenium Madness was the norm and approaching, everybody changed. Talk switched to clothes, drink and who's going etc. Everyone I know took on a different air, it dominated their existence for the few weeks. People have all been obsessing over what they're going to get up to - I assessed price and dismissed the notion of going at all! The Grads'll hit and I won't be there - I'll be bowling. I guarantee there'll be at least one joke on how sad we are. I'll be the one asking "why?"!

Forgot to mention it on the blog but I've had chilblaines on my right hand for the last few weeks. They were often my focus in an especially boring Monday morning feast of Biology. I referred to them angrily as my 'chilbollixes' and marvelled myself by comparing the size of my affected fingers with my left hand. I acquired them from the abysmal yet bearable late September weather. Back when I was still jogging before dinner after study and cycling 1 1/2 hours after dinner. I would jog in the hazy rain and find myself clinging my hoodie around my hands - I could feel the rain and then the cold bit me! It was the same with cycling; I'd go out and find my hands 'bitten' by the time I returned to Tudor Lawn. Had to go to Wesdoc twice for blood and skin examinations... All is well! Not enough subcutaneous fat on hands - I have to have a glass of milk a day with dinner; not a luxury when I used to do it but a welcome return... Nowadays I'd normally just have the little bit in my breakfast and the cheese in my sandwiches!

No Donal's this week, so I arranged on Thursday night to go to Papa John's after Biology grinds with my sister, Aghna! She was really excited and I was beaming at my 'on the spot' decision that won us both over. I had a little pile of pizza offers and menus but the PJ voucher book shone. I was obsessing over price and quantity while my sister and parents were exascerbated at my fuss over transport... I kept changing the plans! The result was Aghna to be brought in by my Dad after study, we'd get lifted to Hospital and leave my bag, the car and Dad for pizza place. As soon as we arrived I was fussing over price again, so expect a review right here. We were set on getting a Large 14'' pizza, All the Meats for €21 and use a voucher for chicken dippers. I changed our minds on the spot - we were now to buy a Small 10'' All the Meats pizza for €14 euro, use a voucher to get a duplicate and buy the Chicken Dippers. Gained 6'' of pizza and saved €1. I win. "We beat the system" was our chant in there!

Ordered the pizzas with minimal fuss and told to wait for 10 minutes. We sat next to a draughty door that kept opening - busy in here! Pizzas arrived within the designated time. Two very meaty looking pizzas and a box of pretty chicken dippers. I took a very tentative, tiny bite - having burned my mouth the previous day, was wary of heat - and my eyes opened, jaw dropped. This was the best pizza ever. The spicy beef dominated the taste and all the meats complemented it ideally. Cheese was not too heavy or noticeable, while sauce was not very evident as I was warned. The pizzas came with a garlic dip for the crusts, both of which I relished. Chicken dippers were fantastic; very light and high quality with an excellent Barbecque dip. Destroyed the pizza in a paced manner and even slipped in 3-4 dippers. I normally save the best-looking slice for last, but this time I didn't take heed of it - it just happened to my luck! Aghna left one slice behind but ate all her share of dippers. We were both extremely impressed and I declare it the best pizza I have ever eaten. We walked home with Club Orange, Coke and a lot of happy memories!

No sooner had I arrived home I was gathering the lads together for squareyes. James was collected by my goodself and we got Andrew in at Tudor. We had a great laugh walking in and soon were in the Red Room of [ii] trying to play Left for Dead - no servers for us 3! We played Cod5 Zombies for a bit and got to round 10 before being overwhelmed... We got one hour initially and managed to play LFD inside that - was great craic! I was Charles I believe but I called him General Defense in my ignorance. We bought another half hour and played as far as the hospital roof rescue - slaughtered twice before running out of time! We listened to some Rock Band 2 while waiting for lift... Aaron and Brian are real showmen! Got lift around home and was back in Dangan all sleepy by 12. Played Star Ocean bonus dungeon 'til 2, then the fucking thing crashed. I had gotten so far!!! Normally I'd give up on a game when it does that but I want to do this... I just wish I had time.

I wish I could write all Saturday, but I've ran outta time.

Tags: aaron, no, ok!, oops, reference, sorry, this, time, you're
Current Location: Awaiting bike ride
Current Mood: delira!
Current Music: Fuck what was it again...