Flutterby Cakes

Today me and Moth made Butterfly Cakes. Well, I say 'me and Moth'. It should be 'Today Moth made some butterfly cakes and I helped'. So, Today, Moth made some butterfly cakes and I helped her.

They are delicious.

Well, first, cupcakes were made:

Om nom nom!

These are cupcakes and not flutterby (or indeed butterfly) cakes.

Now the tops were cut off and the buttercream was made. We had three lumps of buttercream, each in a different colour. One load was left as it was, to be white. Moth mixed in red to the next one, while I stirred the blue. And then she stirred the blue instead of me. These were Team GB Cupcakes, some with red, some with white, and some with blue.

After buttercream was applied I stuck the wings in, and that is what makes them flutterby cakes. They have wings. Moth did a couple of the wings but I did the main bulk.

Then we added sprinkles. Moth did the pastel coloured balls and the hearts. I did the gold stars. You can tell I did them because they were very erratic.

Some cakes don't get gold, of course.

We've each tasted one and they are very yummy. Nom.

Guess What?

I am owed £1970 because of PPI. Even though I've never had a credit card, mortgage, or whatever you needed to be missold it. But apparently, records show it.

[block number]

[save]

[inbox]

[delete message]

PPI, stop clogging up my phone. Even if I rarely use it, I don't want to get all excited to find your messages instead of a real text. Especially when I'm doing something like watching weird videos or dealing with my Sim's needs. (Even if I am a cheat and turn off motive decay, they still have wishes!) I don't want to have a lousy time at a Hitori puzzle because you came along, nor do I wish to have to listen to your fictions when there are much more interesting and worthwhile stories out there that can teach you how to deal with rickets and stuff.

Now stop bothering me, and go away.

No - not you, audience! I only meant those PPI companies who mysteriously manage to get my number and text me.

I bet you've had texts from these companies as well. Go on - say so.

Question

Anyone got a spare dose of concentration they can give me?

Because all I'm doing is gfhskdjfhgfuid. (random typing of rubbish) I Need to not get fobbed off by rogue builders.

Argos catal- Meow. I feel like a cat.

What was I talking about?

Typos. I just made one.

I go and research typosquatting.

Hama Beads

With almost every person, there are deeds that they have done that they don't remember, that other people do. This can be very annoying, as they will insist on repeating it or them over and over and over again even when you know that you've done it and don't remember it.

So here are some of mine.

I once took a bite out of a glass. (I wonder how I even managed it - or if it hurt)

I used to go to the toilet every time I saw a sign. (Yes I did teach myself to read at about 4 years of age, (Correction, well earlier than that, possibly even at 2) apparently, and this was a sign of it)

I once stuck Hama Beads up my nose.

I once 'had a fight with' a radiator and cracked my head open. they stuck it back together with Super Glue (its initial purpose in life). I then peeled most of the glue off but it had worked its magic by then. I still have the scar on my forehead.

Once in a car after another driver had done some dangerous manoeuvres and my mother had uttered some less than nice language, I said "Mother, there's a child in the car,"

I used to eat anything except custard and cream - this includes slugs, snails, and snowberries.

I tripped up and I said that my knees etc. weren't hurt. Once we'd got close to home I said "And my hands don't hurt either!"

I convinced a load of nursery nurses that I couldn't speak. They learnt I could when they saw me gabbling away to my mother, and they were very shocked, to say the least.

I got sick on fudge.

There may be a couple more, but I can't think of any at the moment.

Hi

As I haven't updated you for a couple of days and I can't think of anything to write about or how to go about it I'm not in the mood to write about any memories, you can have this instead.

It's one of my t-shirts and it's from The Literary Gift Company.

Enjoy.

The Suicidal Teddy Bear

Yesterday was a chaotic day at this household, with construction problems...

...faults on the railway...

...and masses apon masses of bubbles!

The reason for all of this madness was that my 2-and-a-half year old nephew came for a day while my sister Quaver went to a course elsewhere.

We (me and Moth) had to keep this young monster preoccupied for the day. We played with a train set, a car park set, a bubble machine, and a load of Jenga bricks. Moth also corrupted him with original images of Winnie the Pooh and friends.

The bubbles made the floor slippery, which meant it was a hazard zone until the magical mop and the kitchen roll came.

Before Magic Mop

After Magic Mop

But the bubble machine broke, so we couldn't make any more bubbles. So the Jenga-ing commenced, although were structurally poor. Elaborate designs like this:

Soon turned into wrecks like this:

It probably didn't help that there was a giant knocking it over all of the time.

But the thing that caught me up was the suicidal teddy bear:

Apart from its antics, which we will go into in a moment, there were faults on the line, mostly derailment:

But the bear's antics are far more interesting.

A couple of times, it tried to fling itself from the train, but after a fault was resolved, it could no longer fly over the station. Without getting scratched.

(looked fun, though)

So next it tried to jump on the tracks. Unfortunately, it often missed the tracks completely, going over them and landing on the ground. And even when it did manage to hit the tracks, a mysterious force would always remove it from the tracks.

However, one time it did manage to stay on the tracks. But did the train dent it?

No.

The train just pushed it around the track without hurting it whatsoever. That was, until the train got to the bridge.

Because then the train got stuck on the bear. We rescued the bear then, of course.

And it still wasn't hurt in any way.

Maybe next time, eh?

Student Code of Conduct

Today I received in the post from the Sixth Form College a Student Code of Conduct. It talks about a lot of different stuff about how to behave and treat other people etc etc.

If I had to summarize it in its categories, then I would say - work hard with as little distraction as possible, be respectful to everyone, be responsible about heath and safety and so on.

It is interesting, although really it's just a bunch of rules, you have to sign and say that you will abide these rules. Even then, people still don't abide by them. I know this because my mother actually works there in the library.

Condensed version:

You are expected to attend all lessons, be punctual and prepared, be organised and use study time wisely, ask for help when needed, submit only your own work, keep your phone switched off during 'teaching-related activities', and don't have them with you when there are exams, don't take holidays during term (as if!) and avoid doing to much part-time work during term.

You are expected to treat everyone with respect and politeness, respect others who are learning, be calm, responsible, and orderly, don't harass or bully people, don't distribute notices without permission, don't take drugs or alcohol, and don't bring them on site, dress appropriately (what does this even mean? Where does the boundary stop?), and behave well off-site as well as on.

You are expected to follow H&S instructions, always have your ID card with you and show it when requested (by staff, I presume), don't help or invite those who aren't students onto College premises, be responsible in using IT, look after valuables, if you have a car or motorbike register it with the college and drive safely (who has this stuff anyway?) and respect the environment (there's a list of things but I can't be bothered to share it).

Yeah, I can follow all of that. Easy peasy lemon sqeezey.

I've tested my brain...

One of the things I like to do is find surveys and tests and stuff and go through them, and see what comes out (i.e. what results I get).

Today, I went on this site and took the test of multiple memory types, the face in the branches, and the Learning Unfamiliar Faces ones. These seem to be accumulations of different tests designed to test recognition and memory.

The Test of Multiple Memory Types was made up of Abstract Art, Verbal Paired Associates, and Cambridge Face Memory Test: Real Faces. And this is how I did:

Abstract Art: A bit above average (Yay!) and I scored higher than 6 out of 10 people who took the test before me. Result!

Verbal Paired Associates: A little below Average, but not far. And the other 4 in 10 who scored below me probably did a lot worse.

Real Face Memory: No-one scored worse than me. I have the worst score, then. Ahh, well.

Face in the Branches was made up of Face in the Noise Branches, Old-New Women, and Face in the Black Branches.

Face in Noise: Another one where 0 out of 10 scored lower than me. Do not do Faces well, it seems.

Old-New Women: And again, no-one scored below me. I fail at faces.

Face in Black: Wow! 1 in 10 scored lower than me! Awesome!

Learning Unfamiliar Faces was bottled down to just 2 tests, Cambridge Face Memory Test: Computer Generated, and Social Pleasure Questionnaire. Hmm.

Computer Face Memory: And another time no-one scored lower! I really do fail at faces.

Social Pleasure: I got so low I might as well have not taken it.

If you have any ideas for other net surveys and tests and stuff like that you've found, post a comment. If you think that this is tedious and you don't want content like this again, post a comment. Then I'll know.

Picture

I drew this recently:

I didn't like it very much. There was about the same emphasis on 'I'm weird' as there was on 'Me' and it would be better if there was more emphasis on the 'Me' because that was what I wanted.

That was better, and also had a picture of me in it. And the biggest word was 'me'. It is evidently the focus of the whole thing.

But I wanted more.

There we go!

Update: why did I search 'qwertyuioplkjhgfdsamnbvcxzpoiuytrewq,mnbvcxzsdcfvgbhnbvxvhfhfgbcvx c' on Google?

Update: It's Friday the 13th, so it's my lucky day! :D

And I can navigate Rainbow Road

Snowdon trip - Day 1

It was a Friday morning, on Enrichment day. A group of us got to school early in the morning, and gathered, with cases and things, to take with us.

We all went onto the school mini-buses, the boys in one, the girls and luggage in the other. We were about to set off, only...

...one of the mini-buses wouldn't start.

It took us a while to get moving, but eventually, we did.

There were 5 girls, including me. 2 of them were from my own band, and they were likely to go off together. The other two were from the other band, and they went off together. I was happy by myself.

We went out of our town, and on to lots of roads and motorways and stuff like that. As always, I stared out of the window and observed the scenery as it flew past. I also may have had my iPod and so I may have been listening to music as well. I know I was looking at numberplates and turning the initials into phrases.

On the way to our camping ground we stopped off at one of those motorway stations. I didn't need any kind of comfort stop, but I did appreciate the leg stretch and so on. I had brought a tenner but I didn't buy anything.

Soon we were back in the mini-bus and going on, into Wales. We were to be in the North of Wales, in a place called Snowdonia. We were going to climb Mt Snowdon. I had been to Snowdonia with my father and brother, but for some reason or another we never went up Snowdon. And I'd never been camping before. This was something to look forward to.

We arrived. The address was actually a pub, not that it mattered. We got the tents set up, and then went to do our own thing.

I sat by myself, and wrote. I wrote what happened during the day, only with a fictional character in the place of me.

People tended to be interested in my writing, and so they asked me about it. I was always happy to show them my writing, although these days I often read writings of then and wonder if I was brain-dead stupid. I think I must have been.

Anyhow, we cooked on these small stove things we had brought with us (open flames etc. weren't allowed). Once our food was cooked, we ate it, obviously (What good would there be in cooking and not eating?). We had to wash up after that, but that business was soon over, and we could do whatever we liked again.

I went to the end of the what-I-called pier (there was a lake and the end of this wooden construction type thing was over it) and sat, looking at the beauty of the lake and so on.

That is about the best summary I can make of the first day at this moment in time. I don't totally remember it all, which is a shame, really.

10 Things to do in Life

There are a lot of things you can do in life. Here are some suggestions of things all people should do.

1. People should read 100 books. This is not hard, unless you're like my brother and are scared of books. These should also be hardback or paperback, and not electronic. The soul of a book is not held in a Kindle.

2. Write a letter. And receive one back, although as this bit is not controlled by you it is pretty hard to make sure that it happens. You could always write in another language to one you're comfortable if you want/have to. Just write one.

3. Write a diary. If you only write in it once a year it doesn't matter, but just write one. No matter whether it's moaning about some lost love of yours, observing what's happening around you without piecing it together, or talking about interesting things that happened today, it always helps to write one sometimes.

4. Be a part of a festival or carnival. No matter how big or small it is, or how big or small your part is, taking part in one is probably good fun and enjoyable all the same. So try to have a go.

5. Own a helium filled balloon with a string attached. They're so fun and if you've got a cat it can be funny too (when the cat tries to get the string). The balloon will bounce on the ceiling.

6. Win something. A race, a competition, as part of a team, whatever. One of the best feelings in the world is the satisfaction of winning something.

7. Lose something. The opposite of number 6. We need to learn to be good losers as well as good winners, and accept that losing is a part of life. It is best to lose as a child to learn how to lose, so child-like adults should be able to do it too.

8. Lose an item. This item ought to be glasses as they're bloody impossible to find again, but any small item will do. This is called experience.

9. Play a game. Whatever you want to play, play it.

10. Live. Do what you want to do. Prosper. Life is not complete if you don't live how you want.

First Day of High School - Part 3

Welcome to the third and final part of my first day serial - for previous episodes, go here and then here.

The next few bits were the basics of school life. The rest of lunchtime was spent outside in the warmth of early September. Then we had 15 minutes back in the form room before having a lesson. I think it was Music, so it would have been a doddle to get through, seeing as I had already done violin for 3 years by that point, and that early when no-one else had done Music, it would have been back to the basics.

The last lesson of the day was languages. The whole of Band B had to go to the hall this time. We had all said which language we wanted to do earlier in the day, so that the school could arrange us into language classes. I'd picked Spanish, copying my brother and sisters (Being rather annoyed at their constant teasing in Spanish, and not knowing what the hell they were on about. But then, they always teased me and I still don't understand the logarithms of teasing, so it wouldn't have helped!)

Spanish was the last language, and by that time, they just said 'The rest of you are in Spanish'. I was one of them, and I was tired of waiting, so I was glad to know that I would be in Spanish! (And get a walk to the correct room, of course)

That first lesson was not the best. There were two other boys and one other girl in the class, who were in my form. Though that bit isn't important. (Well, the girl was revolting, but she left the school after that year anyway)

The teacher first asked us if any of us had done any Spanish beforehand. No-one had, which made her job easier, and meant that we didn't have to take a test. Some teaching happened, but at some point nearer the end of the lesson, we were asked to copy down some vocabulary etcetera from the board.

There was a teensy problem with this: the writing was small tiny miniscule and I needed an eye test. So it was bleeding impossible to do it at the rate wanted. I was still writing by the end of the lesson, and I let whoever was collecting the books to collect it, although I did feel a little nervous. This teacher was not one who would tolerate... anything.

There were still one or two things to get through, though, after school. I was unsure about where to wait for Crotchet, as we were supposed to walk home together. I hung around the front gate, wondering if this really was the way out. Finally, after everyone had left, Crotchet walked up the pathway, and said he wasn't going to collect me from lessons, and I should wait at the lamp-post outside the school. We then walked home.

The route home was up the hill. It was very warm, and so for the most of it I had my water-bottle in my mouth often. However, as my energetic younger self it had less effect then it did in later years. We finally got home. It was a first day to remember, in a mass of many days I spent at that school.

Names, please

Specifically, female names 7 letters or more.

I am building up a list of long girls names in a spreadsheet program, and I need (i.e. want) suggestions on names. I may be buffering it up with my Names spreadsheet to get some more (and if you've got any other name suggestions, they go in that spreadsheet).

The more... interesting ones may be posted up on this post.

Or, I'm just being annoying and asking you to provide names. Go on, then. I want to see whatever crazy names you can come up with.

If you want to be competitive, then, who can come up with the best name? The weirdest? The name you wouldn't actually want to give a child? The one you'd give to every child (if you could)?

The competition only applies to female names 7 characters or more. That's what I'm actually looking for.

An unhelpful message

You're listening to some of the most awesome music ever, in your opinion, and you're laughing along (depending on the song). Then you get an email announcing some Facebook photo you're tagged in.

You tend to avoid Facebook but recently you were at some big event, and you were looking pretty awesome. You want to look at yourself wearing that kit again, so you click on the email expecting a link to the photo.

But instead, you get this:

This is not helpful. It repeats itself, for a start, which is just pointless. It doesn't even have anything specific to identify the error.

What if trying again didn't actually help? (Okay, it did, but what if?) The message wouldn't help you in finding a solution, apart from trying again. The only thing you could do is click 'OK' even though it evidently isn't. Even if there was an error code, it would help if the problem isn't just solved by trying again.

But then again, what would I know? Trying again did help, after all.

First Day of High School - Part 2

Welcome to the second part of my three-part serial about my first day ever at the school I've now left - First part is here.

However, what we got was a one week system, and what initially was an issue of concern was now a good thing instead of a concerning thing.. At my previous school, any timetable was kept to - for about two weeks a year! This timetable was firm, and even had which teachers and the room numbers. I copied the room numbers but not the teachers. Who needed to know that when going to your next lesson anyway?

We were then introduced to our learning leaders. I was soon to learn that all they did was come come into form time and check our planners or take us for reading when our tutors wanted to talk about us to the form, without us. They had a different tie to us and I thought this part was cool.

The Learning Leaders took us on mini-tours of the school before taking us back to the form-room. When I say mini-tour, I mean, our group went round out of the T-block, down around the library (not inside, just the outside! And we weren't even told!), under an arch, and into the science block. We only stayed downstairs S-block as well, not going upstairs. As the only thing I ever touched downstairs was the Homework club (all being learning mentors and IL and stuff like that) it wasn't particularly helpful to know that!

Mini-tour over, we went back to the form-room, but soon it was time for break. I dispelled my energy by myself in a corner of the field. All of the bigger students had come, now, and they too were having break. I looked around at the field and surveyed it, but there was nothing there for my old (and weird, but imaginative) game. It was all spaced too far apart, and there weren't enough bushes anyway. I decided to put that particular game away, never to come back.

After Break, we were due to go to the lesson timetabled, which was Science. However, I was unsure of the way. I distinctly remembered an arch, only I could not see an arch. Maybe I had made that bit up? I panicked slightly.

And then, a girl from my form, Alice, joined me, and we went together from there. We went in one direction, and asked a teacher's help. Well, she did all the asking. I'd seen the science block while she was showing the map of the school in her planner to the teacher. I could also see the arch from here, and was relieved. At least I hadn't made that bit up. I said nothing about knowing this, though, and finally we made our way to Science. I never actually got lost after that one time.

We were by no means the latest. It was a large group of boys who were. The teacher was more annoyed with those boys than she'd been with us, speaking somewhat sympathetically to us, and far less so, in fact, impatiently, to the gang of boys. The lesson progressed after that.

After the hour of Science, it was lunchtime. Alice and I went to the canteen (which wasn't that far from the Science block). We both had packed lunches (and lunch cards that we were given in Form), but I bought a bottle of water from there as well.

Keep an eye out for Part 3 - which has a good tip hidden in it.

Form Room

Remember in a previous post when I told you that our form had the same form room for the 5 years we spent at our high school?

Well, that is mostly true, apart from the one term we spent in a different Form Room.

Next door.

We've always been in one of the two form rooms in that area. It's a very small area, and so when we were in Year 7 and shared with some GCSE students, the small area between the rooms was crowded and squashed. This led to problems in that area, and it was a relief when those students disappeared in our Year 8. Although by that time our form were lining up just outside the block anyway.

For about the next three years we had that area all to ourselves. In the middle of that we had a change of form tutor, and now we had two tutors, hence the room change. When one of our tutors left we moved to the other room again, as our now only form tutor had that room (he was the less prominent of the two).

Nearer the end of our Year 10, a Year 7 form got the other room up there. This caused little problem as they lined up in the outside conditions this time, unless we had an assembly. When we had assembly they would go upstairs instead, once we had told them that we were lining up here, not them. They were the same form who shared that area the next year.

Apart from the two form/classrooms, where we first had Humanities in Year 7 and later had RE, there was a trapdoor on the ceiling. Many of the boys tried to open it (and/or hit the fire bell up there). There was also a display board, which stayed the same for about three years and was slightly broken.

There was also a disused cupboard, which turned into the Best Maths Teacher's office in Year 10. Then there were books and files and paintings and stuff in there, and some song lyrics were pinned to the wall. In our Year 11, it became a disused office, but it was unlocked, so we could easily open the door and go in.

This area was separated from the little landing with the big window and staircase leading downstairs with a door. A door that was very easy to open in our earlier years of High School, but in Year 10 got very hard to open.

That is about it for that area, some point soon, other areas of interest will be shown to you.

Today is ROA

Today is my ROA, or if you prefer, Record of Achievement! (Or, Leaving Ceremony). This is the day where we all dress up into dresses and such, and admire each other's clothes, before the ceremony commences and we all go to the Hall.

I am very excited about this! Although I am a bit nervous as well. It's kinda scary to think that we're leaving and going on to the local (rated Excellent by Ofsted) Sixth Form College. Although some other people will be going on to the 'Satisfactory' college of these areas.

Everyone thinks that I'll be wearing a blue dress. The same blue dress that Semibreve wore for the same ceremony.

Yeah, right!

I'll actually be wearing very gothic clothes. Mainly black, but there is also a fair deal of red, and a bit of black and white gingham as well.

I'll see if I can keep you updated on ROA preparations through the day.

Update: I have just had my hair washed by Moth so it can be styled. Because me hair is so very long (one slightly wavy bit has its tip resting on my lap) it would have been a difficult job for her. Wetness makes my hair look blacker than its usual brown. But the usual brown is unusual in my school, where everyone has black hair.

Update: Moth is now getting all my clothes out for the ROA.

First Day of High School - Part 1

This is the first part of my three-part serial of my first day at my beloved High School.

For most people who are 11 years old, starting at a new school is a terrifying, nerve-racking experience that could only be beaten in the horrifying stakes by being ripped apart by tigers, while being watched by the people they loathe, and not being able to escape from the cage they were stranded in. They tend to stick with people from their own previous school only, until they are settled in and ready to browse the market.

I have never been 'most people'.

I faced only pure excitement at starting at the same place that my sisters had gone to and my brother still went. And even wearing the uniform. I loved it.

My brother Crotchet still got a lie in that morning when I went down to my first day ever. He would be there later. My sister Semibreve, who was just about to, or already had started at the local Sixth Form college, took me to the school, and had promised to show me the way to a shop in the area.

She never did. Instead, she dumped me outside the hall, where the other Year 7s would be gathering. I took a seat, and waited.

Once there were lots of people in there we had an assembly of a kind. One of the teachers had a strong accent, and it wasn't easy to decipher what he was actually saying. His voice was grumbly as well which didn't help. When it came to the form-lists I hoped that it was the other person who would say my name because I was not sure about him.

Then they did the form lists. I kept my ear out for my name. I knew it was planned earlier that me and another guy from my school would be in this certain form. Apparently this was learnt from taster day, only many people from my old school hadn't been to it, and that included me. He would have come after me, probably straight after, and I disliked him. 

The two teachers took it in turns to announce the names of the people in each form. The Maths said, and indeed it was, the guy with the strong-accented voice who told of the names of the form I was to be in. Thankfully, I knew he said my name, and I joined the form it was planned for me to be in a while earlier. And the male I disliked who was planned to be in the same form? Well, he wasn't. I was the only person from my old school in that class and I didn't mind a bit.

I was also the only white person in that form (not counting the form tutor). The rest were all Asian, apart from one black guy. This led to confusion, particularly when it came to males, who looked all the same to me at that age.

We went to our form room, and it was a delight. (We were lucky to have all our 5 years of form-time in that room, apart for one term where we were next door). There we sorted out our official business, which included planners, timetables, going through the rules, and lunch cards.

I had initially been concerned about timetables because Semibreve, who showed me her planner once, had a two-week system. How would I know which week was A and which B? What would happen after half-terms and holidays? I wouldn't know how to deal with it when that happened!

Keep your eye out for the second part - in which I get slightly lost...