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I should be revising.
Technically, I did some revising yesterday. It consisted of a lot of tidying, some reading of the M4 part of my Mechanics textbook, and reasonable quantities of staring blankly at a sheet of paper feeling sorry for myself. There were not inconsiderable quantities of attempting to convince myself that really I wanted to go to York anyway so I didn't have anything to worry about.
I have hayfever, which annoys me, because it makes it awkward to go out for walks. It is far too hot in here, even with my nice pedestal fan on and the windows open.
On Saturday I did lots of things, like going to the gym, and driving, and ironing, and washing my hair, and making myself a calender. None of these things contributed in any way to my revision.
Friday, I had a very busy day indeed. P5 in the morning (which went surprisingly well; thankfully for once all the right questions turned up and all the wrong ones stayed away, except I *still* couldn't do the last question very well, even though I should have been able to), Law 5 in the afternoon, at Braintree College.
The latter was quite amusing, really. I got there uneventfully, wandered around until I found the noticeboard, then went and found the room (actually asked someone the way), which had two of the others from the evening class already there, which was good. The invigilator bustled in with a boxful of stuff and I held the door for her. And then we waited. And waited. And waited. The other exam-taking people showed up, and the teacher of the Dance group (dressed in flowy white things) showed up, and the corridor grew steadily hotter and hotter. We leaned against the walls because they were nice and cool. And waited. The invigilator came out with postery things and stuck them up; 'no mobile phones', exam regulations, 'no drinks' (idiots), lists of people taking the exams. About fifteen minutes after the published start time of the exams, she came back out again and apologised that she was invigilating single-handedly and hence she was going to be a bit slow.
Around this point someone said something about Law 4 and Law 5 (because the vast majority of people were re-taking Law 4, which says something in itself), and the invigilator looked worried when I said that I was only taking Law 5, and asked if I could come back in an hour and a half. No, I *couldn't* come back in an hour and a half; I had an appontment with a chiropractor. Much umming and ahhing ensued, while I calmly pointed out that not only was I not the only person not taking Law 4 (there were two others), there was nobody taking Law 4 who was not taking Law 5, so it would make sense to do Law 5 first, so the people who were doing just that one could leave 'early'. Reluctantly, she agreed, on the condition that everyone agreed to it.
Eventually (about 20 minutes after the start time) we were finally allowed into the room, which wasn't a vast improvement on the corridor, due to a wall of windows which were all firmly closed. Several people asked if they could get drinks between the exams, which was reluctantly agreed to, as long as they'd brought them in their bags. The seats appeared to be numbered in order, so I looked for my number, 26. Not there. I walked up and down looking at every single desk. No, there was no seat number 26. Or for that matter 27 and 28, which were the seat numbers for the other two people who were only taking Law 5. So I hovered nervously by the invigilator, who was moving one of the evening class people who insists on sitting at the back in exams so she doesn't feel people are watching her, and informed her that I didn't have a seat. The other two combing the room for their seats looked up and confirmed that they, too, had no seats. So the invigilator went and got some more laminated numbers and set out seats 25 to 28, and then discovered she'd missed out 27 (just as we'd got all our stuff out) and insisted we all moved up, and then we discovered that the 27 and 28 people had got swapped around, at which point she did give up and just swap the numbers rather than forcing us to all swap seats again.
Finally, a full half-hour after the published start time, we actually got to start our exams. Now, I'd done next to no revision for Law 5; an hour or so at lunchtime. Naturally, I had revised absolutely the wrong set of things. The paper was 'offences against property', but there wasn't a proper question on the main offence of 'theft' at all; it was mostly 'deception', which my textbook doesn't even *cover*. I managed to scrape together enough to answer the first of the two questions there was to choose between, though, and think I acquitted myself reasonably well given the circumstances.
Because I wouldn't have had time to get home on a bus even if the exam had started on time, me and my mother had come up with this wonderful idea of me going to my grandparents' house instead to wait for my mother to come take me to the chiropractor. So, after checking that I indeed could not get a bus home (or rather, after finding out that only the 352 stopped at the stop I thought the 21 (the bus into the village) stopped at, and passing up a ride on a 352 going in the right direction to my grandparents' because I forgot it did, then being annoyed about that as I kept coming across 352 bus stops, and deciding not to make the trek over to the nearest known 21 stop just to find I'd missed it), I set off towards my grandparents' house. About halfway there, a thought struck me; my mother and I had discussed this wonderful plan at length, but nobody had bothered to inform the grandparents in question. Undaunted, I took out my mobile phone, and rang their house.
No answer.
I stopped, indeed began to walk back, and phoned my mother instead. She insisted that her parents would be in, and would just be in the garden. This sounded perfectly reasonable, so I turned around again and walked on. When I got down to where they lived, I discovered another problem; it's impossible to see into their garden from easily accessible places. So I rattled the gate a bit (attempting to open it). Nothing (especially not an open gate). I was beginning to feel rather discouraged, but I went and tried the doorbell anyhow, and waited on the doorstep, feeling rather stupid. Thankfully, they *were* in, and soon enough they'd come to the door and ushered me in.
Now, my mother had instructed me that I was to wash my feet before I went to the chiropractor. So I asked if that would be reasonable, and my grandmother insisted that I have a complete bath instead. So we started the water running, found some towels, got out some soap... I had just locked the bathroom door when I realised that I had nothing to tie my hair back with. Naturally, neither did they. My grand-dad suggested string. We got some string.
It is practically impossible to tie one's hair on top of one's head in any sustainable manner with string, if said hair is about a metre long. After several dozen failed attempts, I tied it into a rough approximation of a ponytail and used my hair slides to pin it to the top of my head. This worked for roughly thirty seconds. Thankfully the bath had a soap shelf which I could rest the failed concoction on as it slowly but surely unravelled itself. I decided to stand up and just have a wash. This would have been a wonderful idea if it wasn't for the framed magazine pictures with no glass in front and the fact that the water stained the blue walls white. Nobody has mentioned this to me so I assume by drying most of it off I got away with it.
I'd just finished getting dressed (and experimenting with the string some more, out of interest; I wanted to know how you could tie hair up without elastic, and had previously naievely assumed you could just tie ribbons around it. It appears that if you plait it first, a piece of string at the bottom is better than nothing, but only slightly, and I didn't try it for extended periods, although I did wave the plait around a lot) when my mother turned up to take me to the chiropractor, where I had much weird stuff put on my foot, and bits cut off it, and was told to do the normal verruca-zapping thing and come back in a month, and charged £15 for the privilage. Ho hum.
That got quite long. I need to eat lunch (and revise) now.
Technically, I did some revising yesterday. It consisted of a lot of tidying, some reading of the M4 part of my Mechanics textbook, and reasonable quantities of staring blankly at a sheet of paper feeling sorry for myself. There were not inconsiderable quantities of attempting to convince myself that really I wanted to go to York anyway so I didn't have anything to worry about.
I have hayfever, which annoys me, because it makes it awkward to go out for walks. It is far too hot in here, even with my nice pedestal fan on and the windows open.
On Saturday I did lots of things, like going to the gym, and driving, and ironing, and washing my hair, and making myself a calender. None of these things contributed in any way to my revision.
Friday, I had a very busy day indeed. P5 in the morning (which went surprisingly well; thankfully for once all the right questions turned up and all the wrong ones stayed away, except I *still* couldn't do the last question very well, even though I should have been able to), Law 5 in the afternoon, at Braintree College.
The latter was quite amusing, really. I got there uneventfully, wandered around until I found the noticeboard, then went and found the room (actually asked someone the way), which had two of the others from the evening class already there, which was good. The invigilator bustled in with a boxful of stuff and I held the door for her. And then we waited. And waited. And waited. The other exam-taking people showed up, and the teacher of the Dance group (dressed in flowy white things) showed up, and the corridor grew steadily hotter and hotter. We leaned against the walls because they were nice and cool. And waited. The invigilator came out with postery things and stuck them up; 'no mobile phones', exam regulations, 'no drinks' (idiots), lists of people taking the exams. About fifteen minutes after the published start time of the exams, she came back out again and apologised that she was invigilating single-handedly and hence she was going to be a bit slow.
Around this point someone said something about Law 4 and Law 5 (because the vast majority of people were re-taking Law 4, which says something in itself), and the invigilator looked worried when I said that I was only taking Law 5, and asked if I could come back in an hour and a half. No, I *couldn't* come back in an hour and a half; I had an appontment with a chiropractor. Much umming and ahhing ensued, while I calmly pointed out that not only was I not the only person not taking Law 4 (there were two others), there was nobody taking Law 4 who was not taking Law 5, so it would make sense to do Law 5 first, so the people who were doing just that one could leave 'early'. Reluctantly, she agreed, on the condition that everyone agreed to it.
Eventually (about 20 minutes after the start time) we were finally allowed into the room, which wasn't a vast improvement on the corridor, due to a wall of windows which were all firmly closed. Several people asked if they could get drinks between the exams, which was reluctantly agreed to, as long as they'd brought them in their bags. The seats appeared to be numbered in order, so I looked for my number, 26. Not there. I walked up and down looking at every single desk. No, there was no seat number 26. Or for that matter 27 and 28, which were the seat numbers for the other two people who were only taking Law 5. So I hovered nervously by the invigilator, who was moving one of the evening class people who insists on sitting at the back in exams so she doesn't feel people are watching her, and informed her that I didn't have a seat. The other two combing the room for their seats looked up and confirmed that they, too, had no seats. So the invigilator went and got some more laminated numbers and set out seats 25 to 28, and then discovered she'd missed out 27 (just as we'd got all our stuff out) and insisted we all moved up, and then we discovered that the 27 and 28 people had got swapped around, at which point she did give up and just swap the numbers rather than forcing us to all swap seats again.
Finally, a full half-hour after the published start time, we actually got to start our exams. Now, I'd done next to no revision for Law 5; an hour or so at lunchtime. Naturally, I had revised absolutely the wrong set of things. The paper was 'offences against property', but there wasn't a proper question on the main offence of 'theft' at all; it was mostly 'deception', which my textbook doesn't even *cover*. I managed to scrape together enough to answer the first of the two questions there was to choose between, though, and think I acquitted myself reasonably well given the circumstances.
Because I wouldn't have had time to get home on a bus even if the exam had started on time, me and my mother had come up with this wonderful idea of me going to my grandparents' house instead to wait for my mother to come take me to the chiropractor. So, after checking that I indeed could not get a bus home (or rather, after finding out that only the 352 stopped at the stop I thought the 21 (the bus into the village) stopped at, and passing up a ride on a 352 going in the right direction to my grandparents' because I forgot it did, then being annoyed about that as I kept coming across 352 bus stops, and deciding not to make the trek over to the nearest known 21 stop just to find I'd missed it), I set off towards my grandparents' house. About halfway there, a thought struck me; my mother and I had discussed this wonderful plan at length, but nobody had bothered to inform the grandparents in question. Undaunted, I took out my mobile phone, and rang their house.
No answer.
I stopped, indeed began to walk back, and phoned my mother instead. She insisted that her parents would be in, and would just be in the garden. This sounded perfectly reasonable, so I turned around again and walked on. When I got down to where they lived, I discovered another problem; it's impossible to see into their garden from easily accessible places. So I rattled the gate a bit (attempting to open it). Nothing (especially not an open gate). I was beginning to feel rather discouraged, but I went and tried the doorbell anyhow, and waited on the doorstep, feeling rather stupid. Thankfully, they *were* in, and soon enough they'd come to the door and ushered me in.
Now, my mother had instructed me that I was to wash my feet before I went to the chiropractor. So I asked if that would be reasonable, and my grandmother insisted that I have a complete bath instead. So we started the water running, found some towels, got out some soap... I had just locked the bathroom door when I realised that I had nothing to tie my hair back with. Naturally, neither did they. My grand-dad suggested string. We got some string.
It is practically impossible to tie one's hair on top of one's head in any sustainable manner with string, if said hair is about a metre long. After several dozen failed attempts, I tied it into a rough approximation of a ponytail and used my hair slides to pin it to the top of my head. This worked for roughly thirty seconds. Thankfully the bath had a soap shelf which I could rest the failed concoction on as it slowly but surely unravelled itself. I decided to stand up and just have a wash. This would have been a wonderful idea if it wasn't for the framed magazine pictures with no glass in front and the fact that the water stained the blue walls white. Nobody has mentioned this to me so I assume by drying most of it off I got away with it.
I'd just finished getting dressed (and experimenting with the string some more, out of interest; I wanted to know how you could tie hair up without elastic, and had previously naievely assumed you could just tie ribbons around it. It appears that if you plait it first, a piece of string at the bottom is better than nothing, but only slightly, and I didn't try it for extended periods, although I did wave the plait around a lot) when my mother turned up to take me to the chiropractor, where I had much weird stuff put on my foot, and bits cut off it, and was told to do the normal verruca-zapping thing and come back in a month, and charged £15 for the privilage. Ho hum.
That got quite long. I need to eat lunch (and revise) now.
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Interesting
Date: 2003-06-16 05:46 am (UTC)From:And if you pass your law does that meen that you can defend me in cought?
I love visiting my grandparents. they do live further away but i can get there quickly on the bike.
Have a nice day and good luck. ;-)