From Under The Duvet..: March 2007

Thursday, March 29, 2007

I sense a flaw...

So, one of my teachers has written a "revision timetable" for us Upper Sixth students. She teaches me one and a half modules. For the main module she teaches us she has this timetable for over Easter. It has a very generous two day break - we get Easter Sunday and Monday off - yipee!

However, there is a flaw in this wonderful plan. It is only for one module and apparently we would need two-three hours a day to revise what she has set out for us to do on that day.

Now, being from this school maybe my maths isn't a strong point (how on earth did my school suddenly get this ditzy reputation.. hmm Jayne? ;)) - you know, an A* and A in GCSE maths and ad maths clearly means nothing. But I do ten modules (well, I have ten modular exams - two coursework modules). If for every module I had to revise for 2-3 hours a day over my Easter break... That's 20-30 hours a day...

Am I wrong or can someone point out this fatal flaw to my teacher?

There's no way I'll follow the timetable - it just serves to scare the hell out of me. Although this year I may actually need to start revising before study leave as my first exam is quite early (although there are earlier ones!)... Pants pants pants.

ARRRRGGGHHHH.

I don't like these Easter holidays! Someone please cheer me up...

Labels: Easter, exams, holidays, hope?, pants, rar, revision, school, stress

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Surprises from Northern Ireland...

Firstly, this happened earlier this week - that is the DUP and Sinn Fein sat down and talked to one another. Is it wrong I'm rather surprised? Well, maybe I'm not surprised - had this not happened the pay would have disappeared and that could not have happened! When will they talk again though? The bare minimum to keep the cheques rolling in? (Am I too cynical?)

Then, tonight, this happened. All I can say is WOW! Absolutely amazing! Healy is amazing! National treasure... Long live the reign, eh?

And, finally, (because everyone seems to make points in threes, including ministers) I have just printed out my psychology coursework (all that needs done is one definition of the 'critical value' and she said she'll give me that after Easter). It's not ground breaking but it's mine - my own wee study. Over nine thousand words of my words and lots and lots of pages. Yes, there were cries of "I hate statistics!" and "I'm doing a degree in this?!" but I'm so pleased and proud of it! Is that sad?

Labels: coursework, football, NI, politics, psychology

Sunday, March 25, 2007

World Freedom Day

Today it's the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery yet 27 million people are in slavery around the world today, half of them children. This slavery today takes many forms - whether it's bonded slavery with men, women and children toiling on plantations, in rice mills, brick kilns and many other industries; or, the deplorable and prevalent trade in humans to serve as sex slaves, slavery is flourishing in many parts of the world. It is still every bit as ugly as it was 200 years ago and it must end.
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Millions of people are trafficked everyday. Here are a few estimates and facts about it all:
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600,000-800,000 men, women and children trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80 per cent are women and girls. Up to 50% are minors.

[US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2005]
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An estimated 1.2 million children trafficked each year.
[UNICEF UK Child Trafficking Information sheet, January 2003]
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The majority of trafficked victims arguably come from the poorest countries and poorest strata of the national population.
[A global alliance against forced labor, International Labour Organisation, 2005]
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Trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are caught in the trap of slavery.
[Anti-Slavery]
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Human trafficking is the third largest source of income for organised crime, exceeded only by arms and drugs trafficking.
[UN office on drugs and crime]
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It is the fastest growing form of international crime, already generating 7 billion dollars per year in criminal proceeds. There are even reports that some trafficking groups are switching their cargo from drugs to human beings, in a search of high profits at lower risk.
[UN office on drugs and crime]
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People are trafficked into prostitution, begging, forced labour, military service, domestic service, forced illegal adoption, forced marriage etc.
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Types of recruitment; include abduction, false agreement with parents, sold by parents, runaways, travel with family, orphans
sold from street or institutions.

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We can sit around and celebrate the great victory that people achieved 200 years ago but we can go further and aspire to their wonderful example and help to do something today about the millions of people who are forced into slavery. And poverty is one of the things that can force people as parents sell their children into these trades or mothers can think of no other way to feed her children than to sell her body for sex.
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We can condemn these people and wonder how they could ever be pushed that far or stoop so low but in reality there are many things we do to encourage and support this awful trade in human lives.
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One particularly worrying statistic for me is the 12,000 children have been trafficked into cocoa farms in Cote D'Ivoire. When we buy chocolate we are being forced to be oppressors ourselves as we have no guarantee that the chocolate we eat is 'traffik free'. Can we really enjoy that delicious bar of chocolate when we know that innocent children who should be playing or learning are being forced to work in these cocoa farms?
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I would encourage people to really think about buying FairTrade chocolate – a good chocolate guide can be found here. I know I love chocolate and I still buy regular chocolate (or I would, if I was eating it… two weeks of lent left! Hooray!) but I’m really going to try to shop more ethically – or at least adamantly avoid companies which have a horrific human rights record.
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Clothing is another industry which can have a poor human rights record and you can find out more about campaigns such as the Lift the Label campaign here.
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There are many other ways to get involved:
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Sign the petition and get involved at www.stopthetraffik.org.
Buy a ‘Freedom Key’
Learn more.

Get a new myspace friend.
Tell others.
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These are real issues and we will be judged by future generations by how we attack and deal with them. I would encourage anyone who hasn’t seen it to go and check out Bono’s speech at the NAACP Image Awards - "True religion won't let us fall asleep in the comfort of our freedom" [ht for the video - Our Souls in Church and Livingloud].
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PS – in the last post about the formal I mentioned a weird thing about one of my MS Word documents? Well, the mystery has yet to be solved! Anyone any ideas?
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PPS – yesterday I was at a team meeting for the Czech trip I’ll be going on in the summer and we were sharing what our fears were about the trip. Mine at that time was that I’d go out there and be useless but I think I’d like to change it – even though being useless is still a big fear! I have spent a large part of the last couple of days and all of today so far in pain – my back is really killing me (with a no-longer-are-the-nice-prescription-strength-painkillers-working-properly kind of way) – I haven’t been able to do any marathon practicing and last night driving was not really something I probably should have been doing (it wasn’t that bad when I set off). What if that happened when I was away?! Anyway, prayer would be appreciated. I really hope my physio has an appointment soon when I ring her on Tuesday!
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Labels: activism, do something, future, hope?, today, world, World Freedom Day, you

Friday, March 23, 2007

The Formal

So, it was my school's formal last night.

It was a really good night - at the Culloden Hotel in Hollywood - the NI one, obviously, outside Belfast, which was infinitely more glamorous than Hollywood LA could ever claim to be. The after-formal was in the Elephant Room (down the wee street to the left of the Europa)..

It was a night of lovely dresses and guys in tuxes - and a few even came in kilts (and a few kilt-wearers were more than willing to show that they were "true Scotsmen"...). After arriving photos were taken and there was a cocktail reception - the alcoholic cocktail was disgusting and reminded me of a course of antibiotics forced on me as a child! A few teachers were there for the reception bit to see their pupils all dressed up.

Then it was meal which was lovely - the starter was melon with a strawberry sauce, the main course was chicken wrapped in bacon with veg and dessert was death by chocolate (completely worth breaking lent for!). At the table there were little presents for everyone - lip gloss, a lottery scratchcard and £5 for girls - and I didn't win anything on the scratchcard. The guys presents were a little less orthodox..

After the dinner there was a speech given by one of the formal committee which was good and prizes were given to certain people in our year - there was "The Most Likely Gay Couple", "Most Metrosexual Male", "Most Legally Blonde Girl", "Most Likely to be a Radio DJ" etc etc. Jonathan got "Most Likely to Take Over the World" - the scary thing is that it is perfectly viable - and a VERY scary prospect as he likes Stalin because he killed people... There was also a King and Queen of the evening elected - and a kind of awkward moment when the King, after the crown was placed on his head, shouted "No Surrender". Time and place, perhaps...

There was a great band which played for a couple of hours after the speeches. A really good mix of music - including some lovely songs by Van Morison, Frank Sinatra etc but also lots of recent chart songs. The dancing was great! And even Rose danced! I have photographic proof - I would have had more but she managed to delete them! As good as the dancing was, my shoes but it was a good time. were less than comfortable and were soon left underneath my chair.

After the dancing etc the coaches arrived to take people to the after-formal but there wasn't enough room for everyone so some of us waited for the buses to return. We arrived at the Elephant Room around half one and the taxis had been booked for half two - we did a little dancing (shoes could not be taken off or left anywhere).

We were staying at a flat owned by Rachel's aunt opposite the King's Hall so it wasn't too far to go. When we arrived some of us wee craving food so we had some toast and generally futtered about. It took me a while to get over having to take the dress off! hehe! Sleep came sometime after four and I woke up at 7 and 9.

After breakfast and some more loafing around my mum picked me up at 11 with my granny. We went to the Lisburn Road to have some coffee... I ordered a latte and there was a hair in it! Ick! But I got a new one and a refund so it's not too bad.

This afternoon has been spent futtering, spending some time with Val, dropping the photos in to get developed and being locked out of the house waiting for someone to come home! I took some gorgeous photos of the lane with all the daffodils but it can wait for another time - I spent a lot of time uploading formal photos which can be found here.

I've got a few bits and bobs to do and then it will be a very early night (well, compared to last night). Have a good weekend guys!

PS - I have done something incredibly weird to my computer (and that's excluding the fact I got nail varnish on my mouse and then the remover made the top of the mouse sticky etc...) which means MS Word is currently going backwards. Yes, you heard me, backwards - I had to type this post this way so please excuse errors! The photographic proof can be found here! I've no idea how it happened (I was typing at the time.. no idea what combination of buttons I hit) - does anyone have any idea? I think I should be employed by computer people to find out things that go funny with their computers and help them make a list for silly people like me...

Labels: computers, formal, photos

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Anchor Boys

Tonight was my last night at Anchor Boys! Well, my last night for at least a couple of months anyway (whether I get into it again when I go off to uni remains to be decided!)!

I've helped out at Anchor Boys for four years now! I remember four displays - the year a boy's tooth came out in the middle of a running race and I'd the pleasure of holding it, the year a boy fell asleep when the prizes were being given out and this year (the display was on Friday night) the boy who bumped into a door and received a bruise so big it looked like a horn on his forehead!

And yes I have dreaded going some weeks. There have been weeks I'm just not in the mood and have a million and ten things to do when I get home. But some of the boys are so class - their wee personalities are just hilarious! And to see the boys I helped with in now going through the ranks of the Juniors is pretty scary - although infinitely worse is knowing the boys that were there in my first year are entering "big school" next year!

If nothing else, it'll be cool to see them around and about or maybe in church to see how they grow up and mature (if that word can be used with males...) - and, if nothing else, recall to their embarrassment how "I remember when... you grabbed hold of my leg and wouldn't let go etc etc".

As much as I sometimes dreaded going.. I will miss the wee guys! It definitely was a laugh - and, if not, a good way of developing patience!

Another "last" ticked off the list...

Labels: church, lasts

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Bits and Pieces

I thought I would show you the "creative process" *ahem* that is A-level life. Here's a corner of the den where the computer and TV is. Notice to the bottom left of the photograph most of my A-level notes - if anything happened to them I'd probably die or something similar! You can also see two boxes of Lucky Charms I've been munching my way through - although I stopped a while ago and one is probably out of date... any takers?

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A close up of the desk area. There is the ever-present To-Do list and cup of tea. There is also always handcream, nail varnish, candles and enough pens, books and random bits of paper (which usually have vital bits of information on them...) to sink a ship nearby. All around my computer screen are little quotations I like - most of them Bible verses which are important to look at when I'm ready to kill someone with the amount of work I've got to do. But today was a very productive day - I got lots done and the place is now tidy.

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This is one of the things I did today. Some of you may remember last year I ordered some moo cards - the reason I wanted them was so I could make a couple of collages out of favourite photos I've taken. This is one (not stuck down) for my time in the States - surrounding the wee cards are airline tickets, tickets into places like Disney, hotels and subway etc.

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This is the other design for the America one - exact same photos/cards (I don't like the lilac background, I was just messing about) but not so much business round the edges. I can't decide which one! Any suggestions?

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This is the other collage I did. Again, it's not stuck down just yet. This one is a more general theme - there are lots of nature/scenic shots but there are also photos of Romania and Spain in there.

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I thought I'd introduce you to the best fizzy drink in the world - pink lemonade! The photo was taken in bad light - it's lighter and more translucent-y than that shows. But it's amazing - if you live in Saintfield you can get it in Jacksons! But it wasn't until Val presented me with a bottle after lunch that I realised you could buy big bottles! What have I been missing out on?! And it's an ooold bottle style - the top/cap bit with the metal. It is just really cool - I'll probably rinse out the bottle when I'm done to keep because it's really pretty!

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And, a final picture of what my car looked like tonight when I came out of yf after church. It's March - are you kidding me?! Although hopefully something awful will have happened to the pipes in my ancient school so we may actually get the Bank Holiday off - we go to school in the HOME of St Patrick and we don't get the day off?! Should have went to a Catholic school... Anyway, in attempts to clear my car I had the super clever idea to just bring my window down and then push all the snow out of the way. Have you guessed what happened? Yeah.. a large proportion of the snow came back in on me! Pants! Oh well, it did the job...

Labels: disjointed, random, silly billy me, tidying, to-do list

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Happy St Paddy's Day!

Happy St Patrick's Day everyone! They say "everyone's Irish on St Patrick's Day" so enjoy it!

As for the rugby.. my gosh. I was out and taped the Irish game - singing "la la las" anytime anyone threatened to tell me the score - I started watching it as the France game was underway. Eventually I gave in and looked up the Ireland-Italy score and watched the end of the France game.

I want to know how the IRISH touch judge is going to sleep tonight knowing he awarded the try to sodding France - had he not Ireland would have won! VERY disappointing - Ireland were great! And we did get the Triple Crown, like last year, which is a great achievement. But to have the Six Nations robbed from us thanks to the couple of tries scored at the end of both the Italy-Ireland and Scotland-France games is pretty disappointing - where was the 'luck of the Irish'..?

Oh well, let's see what happens later this year...

To leave, an Irish Blessing.

May you always have work for your hands to do.
May your pockets hold always a coin or two.
May the sun shine bright on your windowpane.
May the rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you.
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.
~Irish Blessing

Have a good weekend!

Labels: disappointing, NI, rugby

Monday, March 12, 2007

Scary Maths

So, today I did a little calculation… I’ve always been quite bad with dates and stuff but I’ve checked this one a lot. It’s two months and six days till my first exam… Oh dear goodness…
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I’ve finally managed to sit down and DO the edits of my English lit coursework. Why is it that any time I’ve a big assignment due I sit and worry and scratch my head and cry etc etc and do pretty much anything but do it. And then, once I manage to sit down and start doing it it’s a whole lot easier!
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I hate editing and re-drafting my work. Honestly, once I do a piece I never really want to see it again. But, obviously for coursework the better I edit it I better chance I have at getting a better mark etc.
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Then today, amidst all my frustration and severe case of I-can’t-be-bothered disease I found two verses:
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“…rebuke a wise man and he will love you.” [Proverbs 9 v 8]
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“Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise.” [Proverbs 19:20]

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So, hopefully I’ll really listen to my teachers and realise that I should be completely grateful for this correction because it helps me… And hopefully will help me get that AAA in the exams!
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Anyway, random thoughts!

Labels: dates, exams, faith, scary

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Were My Eyes Deceiving Me?

Tonight I made two cheesecakes for the mission team at my church from Vanguard University, California. Never in my life have I seen two cheesecakes disappear so quickly!

Although, I did see one particular person being gross with the cheesecake again, so there may be another cheesecake strike...

And, for the first time in all my making of cheesecake for church, someone other than Rose (and maybe Paul, who may have dried a few dishes, on one occassion, can't remember..) came and helped with the washing up! And, what's more. It was a guy!!

I was under the impression that most guys thought pixies came and did the washing up - pixies being their mothers, their housemates, the women on the catering the next night etc etc...

But maybe these American guys are actually taught manners... Something to think about NI guys!

(I've some great post ideas for the post-coursework period.. Bare with me!).

Labels: random, thoughts, tongue in cheek...

Friday, March 09, 2007

Last School Concert

It's now becoming the time when the 'lasts' are beginning. Tonight was the last school concert the Upper Sixth will be at and soon it will be the last Anchor Boys and last GB etc etc...

Scary scary biscuits...

Labels: lasts, school

Thursday, March 08, 2007

It's the Little Things...

At the moment I seem to have done something to the little finger on my left hand (I am left handed). It gets lots of stuff to do when I'm typing so that couldn't have helped. So, I've taped my little finger to my ring finger in the hope that being immobile might help it (it was having trouble being straight). But it's amazing the difference have one giant unbendable finger instead of two nice flexible fingers (well, one flexible, one sore) will have!

It is definitely the little things that make the difference. Like one of my favourite stories - the Princess and the Pea - the little pea made all the difference to that good sleep. And who doesn't notice that little tiny piece of grit in their shoe?

And don't think it's just bad little things that get noticed. Holding the door open for someone, or thanking them for holding the door open for you, can make people smile. And if you donate money to a charity, even if it's only a little loose change all the pennies add up..

So.. what little things did you notice today?

PS - I have a new hat. It's red and incredibly pretty! And a big thank you to Rose for getting me it!

PPS - only 40 pages to go of the book I started last night - the review will be up soon!

Labels: random, Rose

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

The Elections

I voted today! It was my first time so I'm naturally excited. Even though I only finally decided who I was going to vote for on the way to the poling station this afternoon (although, technically I voted for seven people..) - I knew I was going to vote no matter what because I think everyone should vote (like in Oz) and many people throughout the years fought to give people (and women) the right to vote! So, I just had to decide - I'm pretty happy with who I voted for - their policies largely support how I feel on certain things etc.

Let's just sit back and see the results roll in...

Labels: politics

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

School of Death, Part II

A couple of posts ago I talked about the Firebell incident which was incredibly fun but my school, yet again, seem to fail...

Both my classrooms for RS are in one tempory hut (one of the older huts) - ie there are two classrooms which branch out of one porch-type area. There is a couple of inches of a gap between where the outside door ends and the floor of the porch. So, when it rains (like it has been here for much of the night and most of today too) the water all comes flooding in to the porch creating a Noah-esque feel to the mobile.

Now, water all over a floor which is used by two classes almost every half hour in the day is not a good thing. But when an electric wire/pipe thing runs through the porch and close to the incoming water it is really not a good thing. So, as water conducts electricity, if the water reaches the pipe all the water will carry that electrical charge and people who get in contact with the water will know all about that electrical charge!

Can I refuse to go to class on Health and Safety grounds?

Labels: school

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Sometimes You Can’t Make it on Your Own

What a fantastic song from U2. And a great message.
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The past couple of Sunday’s I have been in a rotten mood, for various reasons, but I left and went to church and yf (youth fellowship) and the messages at both have just… fitted and resonated with me so much! To an almost scary degree. And, without knowing it my friends and my church have supported and encouraged me – thank you all so much!
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Last week when I came home I was talking to a friend and I said (rather sarcastically!) “I mean, how dare they cheer me up?!” – I had the pity party planned, the invites weren’t sent out because, sure, who would want to come to one of my parties? (We've all been there.) And then my friends just went a ruined all my plans! How dare they, eh? (I love you guys!)
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This morning I was on Kidzone and we were doing the story of Elijah and the story about the people who believed in the god Baal (see 1 Kings 18: 22-39). In the story (which I hadn’t heard before today, so excuse errors!) Elijah gets sick of these people following a false god, Baal, and challenges them – they’ll both build an altar and will pray to their God to send down fire.

The Baal guys go first and pray and dance etc but their altar doesn’t light. It’s Elijah’s turn and he was so confident that God would send fire down to light his altar that he got people to drench it in water. And, of course, his altar lights.
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In our little groups we talked to the kids about different types of thread and chord. There was a little piece of sewing thread and a rope. The little piece of sewing thread was easily broken and even the kids managed to break it but the rope was a different story. It was impossible to break – and even scissors had a tough job of cutting it!

What was the difference? The thread was just one little strand of thread but the rope was made up of lots and lots of strands of fibre all twisted together. Even if the thread was doubled up twice it was hard to break.
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The lesson from that little demonstration was of course that we can’t do things on our own. When we’re on our own we have no strength – look at how easy it was to snap that little sewing thread? But when we are with God or in a community we’re with someone else and that makes us stronger.
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I know this week is gonna be tough… There are some stressful things ahead this week. But we weren’t made to go through life alone. Lean on the community that’s around you. And, to finish with the lyrics of the same song I started with…
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Listen to me now
I need to let you know
You don't have to go it alone

Labels: church, friends, thoughts

Friday, March 02, 2007

Philosophy Class...

At the moment we’re studying life after death in philosophy. We’ve been looking at the idea of dualism – that when we die our bodies disintegrate and our souls live on (in different ways depending on the philosopher who is talking). It has lead to some… interesting quotations in class. Here are the two that stand out:

“If dogs don’t have souls and they don’t get to heaven how could women have souls or go to heaven?”

This little gem was, of course, said by the class atheist who doesn’t even believe there are such things as souls! His “logic” (oh, that’s a stretch…) was that man was created so is obviously most important (remember, this is HIS logic…) and then animals (the dogs etc) and then women who must be the least important. Of course man was created after animals and then woman after man (because you do do a rough draft before the masterpiece…) but the guy didn’t listen.

We tried to put forward our point of view, but he refused to listen – and his girlfriend was nodding and agreeing! Meanwhile the teacher is practically crying she’s laughing so much. The other guy in the class (he wants to become an Anglican minister) said “sure man was created before woman and woman was created from man but since then every other man in the world has been born from a woman”.

The same guy who said that if dogs don’t go to heaven, women won’t then went on to say that all men will be queuing outside heaven with their dogs beside them waiting to get through the pearly gates and the women will be queuing for somewhere else entirely. The thing that gets me about this guy is that he argues for the sake of arguing – he doesn’t believe in souls and he doesn’t believe in an afterlife he was just making up arguments to annoy some of us off (I should really stop letting him!). Also, he doesn’t even listen to us when we’re responding to him!

He has also been complaining because he had an interview at a Catholic university in Glasgow to study philosophy of religion, theology and teacher studies so he could graduate being able to teach RS. When at the interview he quoted Richard Dawkins and said what a brilliant guy he was. He also said that to label a child ‘Catholic’ without giving them other options (ie telling them about other faiths) is child abuse. He said that at an interview for a Catholic university where, if he graduated, he could go into a Catholic school where he would be expected to support the Catholic ethos of that school.

Now, I am not for one minute suggesting that an atheist would not make a great teacher of RS – an objective atheist who facilitates class discussion would be far better than someone of another faith who just talked about their faith position – but I don’t know how objective this guy could be based on what I know about him. He’s really worried he won’t get an offer because the interviewers were really hard on him after the child abuse quotation and him supporting Richard Dawkins. (I love this article by the way!)

Anyway… That was a long side track! . The second quotation comes from the guy who wants to be an Anglican minister. We were discussing the idea that maybe this earth is a testing ground before eternity and he said:

“I the Lord your God will not test His people… [pause, class is silent] That’s not me that said that by the way!”

Hmm… maybe you had to be there!

Talking about life after death, the 16 year old girl who decided to stop treatment of her leukaemia back in December because she was tired of hospitals and wanted to spend time with her family, after exploring all other options, died this week. I think that was so incredibly brave and I really don't know what I'd have done in that situation (and I pray I never will find out...).

Labels: arguments, philosophy

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Firebells

I have a scary amount of stuff I want to blog about! But I’ll carefully limit myself for this post!
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Tuesday afternoon is the only afternoon where I have classes after ten past two. So at around ten to three I was sitting in geography working on my psychology coursework (the teacher knew the class before she wasn’t going to be there so had already set all the work to be done in class – a mountain of notes I did on Sunday because I’m a lot faster at typing!) when the bell rang. But the end of period nine bell had rang just five minutes earlier – we soon realised this must have been a firebell.
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Now, to fully appreciate the story you need a little map of my school. The map is nowhere near perfect – the sports’ hall is bigger and closer to the canteen etc etc etc. But, as far as maps go it isn’t that bad! (Well, as far as maps drawn in paint with the worst mouse in the world and are then uploaded to a blog to be shrunk and made small go).

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So, that’s my school. The original building was actually a gaol house back before the 1930s – and the guys who were executed were pushed of the gatehouse. Some people do of course argue that it looks like a prison – I personally prefer the idea that it looks like some sort of displaced persons camp because of all the little mobile huts sitting everywhere on the left (there are at least 29… there could be more that I’ve forgotten). I also could subscribe to the view that it’s run like a prison... But I digress.
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The firebell rang and I was in the top room where the yellow asterisk is on the map – the nearest stairs to get down from there are where the blue and green areas meet. But a teacher from a nearby room (our second covering teacher hadn’t arrived yet) pointed us all down the fire stairs and off we went (meanwhile I’m debating if I should have lifted my psychology coursework – it’s ALL sitting on that desk – AND my English coursework draft with improvements written all over it is in my bag… and I didn’t lift it! Pants!).
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We went down the stairs and reach the bottom. We find a door that would open into the prep department corridor. I say would because there was no handle on our side! So we couldn’t open it. There was another door which led outside so outside we went. This took us to approximately where the green/blue scribble is on the map and we had been told to go out the gate (the orange line) at windy corner to get to the fire assembly point which is in the playground.
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So, we try the bolt on the gate… but it had been bent by some eejit so it wouldn’t release! The gate wouldn’t open… And we couldn’t go back into the building (aside from the fact that we wouldn’t have been able to get anywhere as the fire escapes only opened into the stairwell). So we went on a journey all the way round the back of school – marked on the map by the blue/green line.
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We had to go outside the school boundary (marked by a hideously tall wall which remains, though it was reduced in height a little, from the time the building was the county gaol) and walk round to the front entrance to finally get to the fire assembly point – about five minutes after the fire bell had rang!! Pretty much as soon as we got there the whistle was blown and everyone went back inside.
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The cause of the alarm? Some eejit in the year below was playing Fireball in their common room (one of the mobiles – we get a nice cosy common room inside school). Wondering what fireball is? Joey and Chandler play it in Friends (not that you ever see them playing it) and there’s a football version. It’s basically when you soak a ball in an accelerant (in this case it was a golf ball and an aerosol). Clever, huh?
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The teacher covering us summed it up with “The boss is going to be mad!” (although, when she heard about what caused the fire alarm she said “class!”).
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But it highlights are really important safety point – five minutes is a ridiculous time for getting out of a building – what if there had been a real fire? With so many of us caught at that end of school would they be sending people in to find us? And what would have happened to my coursework!?
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The headteacher was told about the gate and we were told that we shouldn’t have gone down those stairs. How were we supposed to know that? Oh, yeah, apparently we should have located the fire escape plan poster and followed it… The firebell was ringing and we should have stopped to read a poster… Riiiight…
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So, should I concede defeat at how rubbish my school is?

Anyway, sorry for the INCREDIBLY long post! There’s a lot more in my head I want to write but I doubt anyone will have made it this far (if you have, well done!!).
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Until next time….