Of studying and losses to metal.

 Image from WeHeartIt.

Tuesday.
Japanese exam on Thursday.
This is followed by music, English and media.
I have been spending every waking moment of my life studying. If I get any more stressed, my head is actually going to explode.

Still, in a month's time, this'll all be over. It'll be summer, it'll be carefree, some of my friends might be able to drive so we can go anywhere. (My goal is Paris but due to lack of money I don't know how realistic this). Also, my family just got tickets to go and see Gorillaz in September. They used to be my favourite band, I haven't listened to them properly for a while now but I'm still excited. Plus it'll be Damon Albarn round #4.

I'm gonna try and get an early night as I have a whole day of Japanese revision ahead of me, but before I go, (sorry to end on a sad note) I have to mention Mr Ronnie James Dio, who passed away last weekend after a battle with stomach cancer. It's a sad day for rock and roll.
1942-2010. RIP

 Funny the things you notice after something like this happens. The first thing I noticed was that his wikipedia article had been re-written in the past tense. Today's music is Holy Diver.
Peace&Love

Of a week in pictures

Except Thursday. Nothing ever seems to happen on a Thursday...

Monday brought with it a pear shaped like a dick, much to the amusment of my friends.

Tuesday brought with it massive political change, and destroyed a lot of my faith in this country.

Wednesday brought with it the weirdest weather EVER.

Friday brought with it a party-in-the-park with a Peter-Pan-piss-up theme.

Well, that's all you'll be hearing from me for like a week. My Japanese exam is in like NO DAYS and I am bricking it, so I'll be spending most of my time revising.

Today's "music" is the only thing preventing me from having an exam induced breakdown.

Peace&Love

Of universities and the city.

I went up to London with George yesterday. Forgot Mum's camera of course, so here are my crappy phone pictures:

I was meant to live here. Seriously. Apparently I would've been if my family had been able to afford it.

Today, on the other hand, was spent ordering uni prospectuses, noting down open days etcetra etcetra. I ordered about twelve, but I have two uni's that I love (York and Nottingham) and one where I love the course but not so much the rest of the place (City of London. The trouble is, I'm constantly worrying that I'm aiming too high. York and Nottingham both have pretty much everything I'm looking for - courses with varying modules so you can get an all round view of the subject (music) while still focussing on certain areas, study abroad oppurtunities to places I' really interested in (Finland and Japan respectively), and they're in good locations. Plus they're quite far from where I live, and while I love my family, I don't particularly fancy living with them and commuting up to London every day. Which would be what would happen.

However, I need two As and a B for York, and one A and two Bs for Nottingham, and I don't know if I can manage it. Then there's the trouble of what subjects to take next year: I love English and I fucking HATE media studies, but should I take the one I like more, or suffer for a year if I'd be more likely to get into a decent uni? Ugh, this is such a mission! Help! At least I know the exact course I want to take...

Also, my thoughts go out to everyone in Poland following the plane crash that killed many important members of their government, including the president. May they all rest in peace.

Today's music is a Florence & The Machine demo. I like it way more than the final version!


Peace&Love

Of encouraging comments and strange cravings.

I had parents evening at school today. Saw one of the teachers in Japanese and English, and both for music. I managed to get good comments from everyone, which was encouraging. This was probably due to my media studies teacher being ill and thus unable to attend. She's a great teacher and really lovely, but I am HORRIBLE at that subject.

It's been snowing again here. I love the snow, I just don't like how it mucks up all the public transport. I hate having to wait in the cold. Plus I'm getting a little bit bored of winter now. Even though I love it, I really want it to be summer so I can go out without freezing my arse off. Plus reading My Life Is A Mess has given me a massive craving for strawberries, which I never associate with winter.

What else... saw a string quartet at school today which was awesome. Media coursework still not done. Boyfriend away on Valentines Day so celebrating it on the Tuesday instead. Going for Chinese with Georgie etc. Pancakes and drunkeness with Hayley etc.

I cannot wait for half term.

Peace & Love

Of music nerdery and insatiable wanderlust

Yesterday, I heard about a documentary film made for some Australian film festival, called "4". All it is is four different violinists in four different parts of the world, each showing an insight into life there in four different seasons, and each of them is playing a movement of Vivaldi's four seasons. Spring is set in Japan, summer in Australia, autumn in the United States and winter in Finland.

I really like the idea of this, since it ties in my music obsession with my massive desiresee things in the world, to not to mention my interest in the countries of Japan and Finland.Unfortunately, said film seems to be nigh impossible to get hold of. Still, I found a littleYouTube. bit of it on

Peace & Love

Of hopes and dreams

I was talking about this with George, so I decided to make a bucket list.

.Go scuba diving

I love the sea and I've always wanted to try this, but I've never managed it. I go snorkeling on holiday but I'd love to be able to dive down and see all the fish and such.

.Get a band started up

Kind of done this. Myself and Emi had a band practice today, and will hopefully be doing the same every week. We'll find the rest of the members eventually!

.Go To Japan

Done this. I went there about a year ago and it was incredible. I'd love to see my host sister again, and all the people there were just so much nicer that here. I'm almost definite that I'll always be living in England, but if the BNP came into power or something, Japan would be my second choice!

.Go to Lapland and see the Northern Lights

I've had a bit of a thing with the Northern Lights ever since I read the Phillip Pullman book, uh, Northern Lights. Lapland (I've only seen pictures of Finnish Lapland but I'd like to see Swedish Lapland too) seems to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. And I'd like to see Father Christmas.

.Meet Tuomas Holopainen

Nightwish's keyboard player/main man. A bit of a personal hero of mine. I'd just like to see him long enough to say hi or something. I'm not a weird obsessive fangirl, but I do have a massive respect for the guy due to his massive composing skillage.

.Make sure that people know I'm there for them

Sometimes I worry that people don't know this, and I hope some day I'll be able to make it clear.

.Read ALL of Shakespeare's plays

I used to hate this kind of thing, but I love Shakespeare right now. So far I've read Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night and half of The Merchant Of Venice, all for English Lit. This could take a while.

.Be able to at least make myself understood in a foreign language

I'm not exactly a genius at languages so I don't know whether this will ever be achieved, but I'm in my sixth year of studying Japanese now. I'm also attempting to teach myself Finnish.

.Go to a music festival

Done this. I went to Love Music Hate Racism back in '08, the second time I saw a Damon Albarn related project live. I wasn't really sure what was going on when I went but I left with a totally different view of politics! I'd like to go to Glastonbury or Download or something one day.

.Hurl an onion bhaji at Nick Griffin

I'm pretty sure he's been egged before, but due to his racist views an onion bhaji would just be immense. Plus they're quite tasty.

Peace & Love