I am so s-c-c-c-ared! (Teeth chatter noisily…)

I seriously have not thought this through! I mean, what if I don’t obtain the grades (i.e. points) I need from these examinations? What if I slide into a stupor of self-pity? What if the world becomes a perpetually black dwelling, where not even Gollum or Dracula come out to play? Or, what if we all just take a moment, sit back and meditate, and simply relax? Will we spontaneously combust; our poor fragmented souls unable to take the pressure of taking a break?

No! We will simply live on, however the Leaving Certificate turns out for us. Life simply must continue, and we should be grateful. There are all kinds of access courses, night classes and experiences to be had in this world, so if we don’t achieve our goals, there will always be pastures new and invigorating for us to move on to. No matter how hard we try, if it is simply not meant to be, it is simply not meant to me!

In hindsight, we are incredibly lucky to live in a society that values education; that encourages young people to fill every potential; that has made earning a degree a neccessity, yet also an attainable goal. So everyone: RELAX! We have between 5-7 weeks left, and with a little effort we shall do well. If we don’t do as well as we expected; it may be the end of one road, but there are so many others out there to travel. We stress too much! Take solace in the friends that are experiencing what we are experiencing now. Speak with older brothers/sisters/cousins who have been through what we’re about to go through. And, most importantly, irrespective of what kind of relationship you have with them: rely on your parent(s)!!! They are the greastest support you shall ever have and a simple chat over a cup of tea (whiskey-laced, or otherwise ) will make them feel more included, and you feel more supported! But, whatever you choose to do, it better NOT be worrying! Or else….(Laughs demonically in background…)

My experience, like yours no doubt, has been to this point about Orals and Practicals! So, how did I do? Well….

Gaelige: I entered my old school, practically retching on an empty stomach and a mind full of fear. I adore the language, yet I’m not fluent (nor anywhere near it!), and so I was ”brickin’ it” ! Yet, the examiner was a wonderfully approachable woman who made me feel quite at ease (well, as much as could be expected!). Bidi Early was her choice of poison and reading that passage intoxicated me with anxiety…at first. After a few seconds, I had an epiphany: what is the worst that can happen? She isn’t likely to get up and slap me across the face, backhandedly, for making a grammatical error! Is she?….Well, no she didn’t! Then we talked about my family, friends, area ( she was really impressed with this), school and subjects, next year et cetera… I wasn’t doing brilliantly and she knew this. She asked me about the weather and I -STUPIDLY! – didn’t prepare anything on it!!! Aside from that, I still think I struggled though, but I told her AS GAELIGE that I’m studying from home, without any teachers and she seemed to pity me, as if she was going to mark me easily because of this fact! I, in turn, put on the “puppy-dog look” (which, with years of training, never fails to receive sympathy! ) And I think it worked!!!! She turned to me at the end, and said, “Well done! You needn’t have been nervous. That was an excellent oral (in Irish of course)”!…Or at least thats what I think she said….

Le Francais: This was a little too easy for my taste! I was first in and I think I may have overheard a discussion between the examiner and the teacher of the school speaking about my nervous disposition, how he was to only ask me easy questions, and how I was studying from home, which was really annoying – maybe I imagined it! – because I quite enjoy French, and I hope to do well in it come June! As well as that, my family and I have taken French students for the past 8 years so my accent is pretty flawless (no conceit intended!), so once I finally got into the room and started speaking with him, I’m sure he proabably thought, “Are they having me on?” Yet, he asked me no difficult questions (mainly about family and friends etc) and I had a seriously brilliant answer for the recession but nooooooooooooooooo, as much as I tried to introduce it, he wasn’t giving in! Now I’m worried he thinks I’m an Ordinary Level student (in which case, I’d  probably get high marks!), but I’m a Higher Level student (and I’m scared I’ll only get low marks because he refused to talk about difficult topics!!!) Grrrrrrrr….

Music: Ok! 50% up for grabs for singing six songs and clapping back a rhythm- not as easy as it sounds though! My voice gave up half-way through my last song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But other than that, no complaints! I think I might be walking into the written exam with a pass (40%) under my belt…..hopefully…..

History R.S.R: My study: “Harvey Milk & The LGBT Civil Rights Movement”! Seriously had to cut it down in the end and still managed to reach 1,638 words…(one’s maximum is 1500!) But I think it is a good project; controversial, inspirational and enjoyable…hopefully the examiner will correct it with the same enthusiasm!

I am nervous for the other examinations, yet, I’m not overly worried. I do a bit of study every day (between 7-9 hours) and if I don’t achieve what I want, well I don’t care! I’ve tried, and am trying! No one can ever say I didn’t, or am not! Life is far too short to be hung up on exams. I intend to be happy and content alongside my friends and family in life. Anything else is a bonus. But not a necessity!

A toute a l’heure!

Ian

Sorry for my absence on this for the past few…I don’t even want to check how long it’s been since my last post! But really, as a Fifth Year student on a website mostly visited by Sixth Years, I felt that as exams are approaching, the last thing they want to read are my minor complaints! I’m just after reading the others’ recounts of the orals and now all I want to do is go study for them! I’m going to the Gaeltacht this summer so that should be a help but as for French… I have never put on a French accent once in class because I can’t take myself seriously with it. It’s a bit unfair, expecting us with our rural Irish accents to suddenly become Audrey Tatou for twelve minutes!

Okay, so I’m going to jump right into this. I’m sure like most of you, I’ve had this thought for years but it was only when I changed my Facebook language from English to Gaeilge (after a pretty hilarious/confusing period of using Pirate language) that I thought to myself:

If methods of learning were a little bit more fun, I think I’d do a lot better in school!

Over the past few years attending secondary school, I’ve tried to make learning stuff as easy as possible. The methods varied from the common acronyms to composing a song about the rock cycle. Revision books are handy to concise facts and carry home instead of the 10-tonne Business book but are much the same as your actual textbook. Here are some of my ideas:

Irish- introduce newer and more modern stories and poems. Some of the ones on the course are good but others are quite pointless. A 21st century romance novel as Gaeilge? Yes please! Until the department takes my ideas on board, try some fun ways of enhancing your Irish. Foinse comes with the Irish Independent every Wednesday and there’s great articles to suit everyone. I love the fashion column personally. There are some great songs in Irish too that will get you in the right mindset. Des Bishop’s Léim Thart, The Corona’s Heroes or Ghosts, Mundy’s Mexico and Galway Girl can all be found on Youtube as Gaeilge, along with some others that may appear in the sidebar while you’re watching. And if all else fails, follow every muinteoir Gaeilge’s favourite tip: Watch TG4!

French- many of the same pointers here. Popular culture is the greatest learning aid for languages, I think. For music, I love Carla Bruni, especially Quelq’un M’a Dit. I don’t know much about French films or TV but I’ve seen Entre Les Murs and Les Choristes in class and loved them! Coco Avant Chanel is on my must-see list too.

English- seeing as we speak English all the time, that’s most of the work done. Reading and writing regularly will of course enhance your abilities for Paper 1 but as for Paper 2 all you can really do is study what’s in the books. I did find, however, that watching The Simpsons’ version of Hamlet many times in my youth helped me when we were doing it in class. You may laugh but I knew what was going to happen before anyone else and the teacher thought I was some sort of psychic!

Maths- there’s not much you can do here but even simple changes in the books could make a difference. For the Area and Volume chapter, Find the volume of a cylindrical rod is just plain boring. Find the volume of a cylindrical tube of Oreos, however, is more appealing!

Business- I don’t have too much of a problem with the Business course because the exam gives you room for creativity already. You know the questions that say ‘illustrate with a product of your choice‘? I love picking the craziest products for them because as long as you answer the question properly, you can waffle on about pooper-scoopers and tricycles all you like! Shows like The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den give you a basic knowledge of Business skills and we often discuss them in my class. I’d love to see a question such as Write 100 words on your favourite Apprentice character.

History- movies are great for this subject and of course documentaries. Michael Collins, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Downfall… there are ones to suit nearly every aspect of the course!

Geography- this is a tricky one. All I can really suggest is, go outdoors!

Hi all!

Ok, I know it’s been ages  since I last wrote a blog so today,  I decided to get my ass into gear. I have finally started to make progress on my study! It took a while to actually force myself to sit down and open a book instead of telling myself  “ah sure it’ll be graaand! I’ll do it later”…unfortunately later never seemed to come.

So, the mocks (yeah, I know they were a while back!) gave me a good kick up the thòn. 390 out of 5 subjects…not too bad but I need to improve by 100 points. My course is 405 but I’m aiming for 500 in case I decide to go to Maynooth or Dublin instead of Limerick. I Decision making is not really a natural skill for me. My future plans seem to change drastically every 5 hours these days but I’m sure that eventually I’ll get it figured out.

I dropped Irish this year, Thank God! I couldn’t face having to sit another oral this year after the disaster that was french. I’m still cringing when I think about it. I was first in on Friday morning. You would really think that I would have spent the previous night and that morning studying, but, no….I was too cocky. Y’see this year, my french has quite improved and as the examiner wasn;t asking the hard-hitting questions, I decided to wing it.. I’d go in there and wow her with my wonderful french vocab and pronounciation and I’d get an A in My Leaving Cert French and everything would be great!

These positive thoughts remained with me as I sat outside the room, laughing and joking with not a bit of french to be revising with me. I was cool, calm and collected. That was until the door opened and I was called in. Immediately, I thought of what would happen if I ran. I don’t know why but it was my first reaction to get the hell out of there! But I didn’t. I sat down and she began to talk to me. She spoke in french and I stared at her terrified.

I signed the roll thingimajig and she pressed the button. She told me to tell her about myself. So I started with the usual stuff of my name, age, family and then that was it. My mind went completely blank. She asked me questions and I had to force her into a horrible game of charades with her trying to mime what she was trying to ask me. I was still really confused. She asked me what I wanted to do next year. Study journalism in UL, I told her. I should have shut up then but I went on to tell her I worked as a journalist for two years.

I realised what I said. She looked at me confused…I’m only 17 and I am apparently an experienced journalist…I then had to elaborate about a job I never had. I silently begged her to leave me alone about it now. Then she asked my what I did on Easter Holidays. The first time I didn’t hear her, the second time I didn’t know what paques was and the five or six times she asked my again, she had to tell me in English. What did I do on my Easter holidays?? Nothing. So I shrugged and said “J’etudie.” (I don’t know if I even spelt that right.)

Then, she asked me what I was going to do during the summer. I replied I hope to work. She asked as what and to this I had no answer in french. So, I had an instant thought, french accent on an english word, they’d have to give a girl marks for trying. Except my french accent is worse than Gerard Butler’s irish accent in PS I love you which meant that when I replied waitressing, it came out sounding  Japanese. It was her turn to look at me blankly and that ended it. The longest 12 minutes of my life.

I ran out the door as soon as (I hope!) she told me it was over. The initial high of it all being over was great. It was only later when I thought about it I realised how awful it truly was. My dislike for French has now definitely bcome even more immense. But on the polus side my history project is completely finished!! So all I have to focus on now is the written exams in, what, six weeks now?

Seriously, cannot wait until June 23rd!!

Bonne chance!

Today marked the last of my orals with my weaker of the two, French. For the past two weeks, questions have been flying around the year such as ‘What’s she like?’ and ‘What did she ask you?’ with people trying to get some last minute prep on each exam. I’ll start with Irish. Over preparation was my only downfall here. For months, we’ve been bombarded with notes on politics, the recession, the education system and just about everything else topical that would make for an intelligent conversation. Us being the Higher level class in the year, we thought we would try steer the conversation towards these topics and try sound bombastic as Gaeilge. But no. Instead, the examiner just happened to be the nicest woman in the world. She point blankly refused to talk about any of this stuff. Walking into the room, I was surprisingly calm. I happened to be the last person in for the day, but being greeted by an ’I’m knackered’ from the examiner was the last thing I wanted to hear. Her laziness at that stage came to the fore when she asked me to read the sliocht I had facing up. I looked down and to my horror, Peig Sayers, my least favourite starred back up. Bad planning I figured. It went well however and gave her my ‘Oh Mo shliocht is fearr!’ fib. I’m pretty sure I saw her scribbling down 30 across the desk. Or 20. Maybe she could smell the lies. All I got was a ceart go leor. Thanks for your indifference like, every pass guy got an ‘Ar Fheabhas!’. Funny enough, both orals started with ‘Have you any brothers or sister….’ Although any time I threw out these ‘nascanna’ for my prepared topics, the next question was always something simple like ‘Inis dom faoi do chaiteamh amisire?’ It’s quite hard to show off whatever Irish you have when you’ve to deal with this. I came out of the exam thinking ‘great!’, but as I aptly walked into Irish class, I thought ‘Súcra, forgot to use the Modh Coinnealeach!’ I managed to use the gnáthchaite a few times, but with an Irish teacher who is actually in love with the tense and continuously talks in it, I feel ashamed of how I managed to not use it! The only consolation is that the majority of my class was relying on reeling off notes, but from trips to the Gaeltacht, I’m able to make up things on the spot fairly easca. We did a few mock orals before the test and I was always hitting the 70ish mark, so hopeful it was in and around that on the day!

All Irish did however was give me a big head for French. Maybe arrogance is a trait of the French, but not a good trait going into the exam. So for the following few days, I was convinced all I could do was wing it. That was until I did a mock oral with a friend. And then it hit me, I’m gonna have to learn this stuff… Me and French have never really got on well. It has always had its ways of annoying me. Not being particularly blessed with great teachers for the JC, and finally when we get a good teacher for the Leaving, she decides to leave us two weeks before our Orals to adopt a baby! Granted she hadn’t planned to leave so soon, but we’ve now had three different French teachers in three weeks, with our current one only staying if they cannot find a replacement! So with no teacher pressure, preparation kind of slacked off. I can honestly say I learned to speak the language in five days. Writing a language will only get you so far, but you really have to be speaking it regularly to get any sort of fluency going. So for five days I studied nothing but French despite Economics and Chemistry tests in between (still got 91 and 95 respectively!) I threw together some brilliant notes. I had sentences prepared using all the irregular subjunctives and what have you. Everything learned of to a tee on any subject. I still felt apprehensive about the whole thing, as I had only ever spoke French once before to a fluent speaker, while with Irish I had countless encounters. Reports said she was nice, and spent up to six minutes on the Document with some people, I had ten minutes prepared on it. Before going in, I downed half a bottle of Rescue Remedy. For those of you that don’t know what it is, It’s a whiskey-like substance with much the same side-effects I suppose. So I strolled into the room, reeking of alcohol. In hindsight, not clever. I think she knew something was up. I started with a warm ’Bonjour Madame, ca va?’ to which I just got ‘Bien’ back. Grrrrr. What about me and my ‘Je suis trés nerveux madame, c’est eprouvant!?’. That kind of set the tone for the exam. She sounded exactly like the woman off the SEC listening tests. She was a native French speaker and that worried me a little. Within a minute of the exam, she asked me if I liked ‘to shoot birds’. What the hell! How do I know this is what she asked? She turned to the side the imitated someone shooting a recoiling shotgun, I kid you not. I tried not to laugh, and began to wonder if I was drunk and hallucinating things. I muttered a childish ‘Euh…. Non, j’aime les oiseaux’. Thanks. That wasn’t the end of the bizarre questions, out of nowhere, I got a ‘So why do young people today not go to mass?’. That really threw me. I ended up giving a conflicting response and at that point I truly felt like a French man, like giving up that is. Thankfully this women picked up on a few hints. I managed to talk about the economy and NAMA for a minute or so and that was my saving grace. I weakly managed a regular subjunctive and that was it. I always thought that getting these questions during an Oral was a good thing and a sign you were doing well, but in my case, unequivocally not. I really came across as being a weak higher level student when really I am normally one of the better ones in the class. The standard is poor enough as it is and French really was my place to shine. I guess not. I would have hoped for a B from both. Irish I’d imagine so but in French, a very mediocre C. It annoys me because it’ll be a toss up between the two for my sixth subject on the day, and seeing as I got a B in the mocks in French, it’s looking less likely that it’ll make that B category come August.
If I can give any tips to fifth years, it’s to get cracking on the Oral section as soon as you return in September. Try hold a conversation in whatever language and it’s amazing how it helps. All this year there has been people I just spoke Irish to and it really gives you the confidence speaking it on the day.
I’ve decided to take the evening off as a reward, not that I’ve done much, but with 47 to go, I’m taking one last break before tearing into it for the last six or so weeks. Instead, I’m writing articles for our School Magazine, or prep for English Paper 1 as I call it. We just got our student profile forms for the yearbook, so that’s a sure reminder that the year is quickly coming to an end. With just over four weeks until we graduate, one feels that the Leaving Cert is just around the corner.
I hope the Orals went well for everyone else!
Aurevoir!

Hey everyone!!

whoo! I am so relieved right now.  The orals are finished and I no longer have to worry about saying tá soeur amhain agam,,,no more! I just had my french oral today but I’d prefer working my way chronologically through this post. I also apologise for the probable spelling and grammer mistakes as I have glee waiting for me on sky plus and a sister who aint in the mood for waiting. So, I shall begin!

Easter was ok, I did some revision in school during the second week. I had my Irish oral that following week, on Tuesday. I can’t begin to explain how nervous I was. I mean, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts I honestly despise Gaeilge, well the written aspect to it, I don’t mind the talking it’s just hard to suddenly get rid of all that french inside of my head!! On the day though, i was fine, the examiner had a generic irish accent so all was well. He was by far the nicest man i have and will ever in my life meet. He was in his late fifties and was just adorable, like he was actually smiling the whole time! The little grin on his face…ahh, I’m all warm and cuddly just thinking about him! He even gave our school giant helium balloons that said ‘thank you’ on them! I wanted to hug him after my oral! He asked me all the basics, the health system since i said i was all for medicine,,nothing really major. I got my gold fáinne that day too from my teacher so i wore that in along with my gaisce award and was asked on those, sure wasn’t it great! I was really happy with my performance, ‘ar fheabhas!’ was all he said after, I was still thinking to myself  ‘how can you be so nice?’. everyone loved him needless to say. Balloons like! how many of you got balloons from an examiner?

My french orals were more nerve wrecking that i had expected. i think it was the fact that i had done so well in the mocks that i expected myself to nail it. I think it went great if im honest. just the basic stuff, my document was good too,,,she didn’t ask me any abstract topics,,,yeah it was good! im happy anyway!! =) The examiner herself was nice but her accent was dreadful,pure,pure Irish. Easy to understand sure..but just disappointing really. The other french examiner was a twat. People hated her and got really annoyed. My friend was asked ’so do you have any brothers/sisters?’ she said she had a brother but no sisters, the examiner then went and said ’so do you share a room with your sister?’, and it basically went like that for most people.  The woman just would not listen to the students. She also asked totally random questions, one minute its ‘what’s your favourite subject’ the next ‘young people seem to hate modern languages today no?’. Really put people off. The chief examiner was called in because of that. I don’t really know what to think, I just hoped that an examiner would realise that students are already nervous as it is, so being totally random and confusing them isn’t exactly going to help them at this time.

Anywho..they’re over now,one less thing to worry about. I’ve upped my studying. My chemistry teacher has been recommending ‘berocca’ to us lately, a girl was sleeping in class on Tuesday! I can’t stress how important rest is for us soldiers. I find myself staying up, as late as 11.30 pm lately, just fitting in last minute studying that I need to make up and I almost always regret it in the morning and next day when I’m fighting to keep my eyes awake in classes where the teacher’s voice is like a silent buzzing I no longer want to hear. SO just try to sleep earlier for your own sake. And eat plenty of fruit and veg too, at this stage especially. Right now we should be doing exam questions for revision, focusing on our weakest spots and learning off those notes we keep putting off till the next time we’re free. Now’s the last time to put in all the effort,,,we’re almost there!!!!

On a slightly different note, I will, unfortunately be missing my L.C.V.P. written exam (handed in my portfolio). It’s worth a lot i suppose and without it I can only get a mere merit if my portfolio is good enough. I was hoping to use it for points since a pass maths A1 can only get me 60 points,the 70 for the L.C.V.P. distinction could make the difference. But alas, I have no choice. I’m actually going to Canada for a week, ill be leaving on the 1st of May. Why? Well, my Dad suddenly got an offer from a hospital there and they want us to see the area and schools,colleges or whatever. I’m kind of looking forward to it actually!   Its also a chance for me to do some early summer shopping! Ill be bringing my books and all with me too though, god id feel like id be doing an injustice otherwise!

All in all it’s been a hectic week for me  and im looking forward to (really?) getting into my study again this week. For those of you who still await your orals, be optimistic, whatever you’ve learned will come out there’s no doubt..for everyone else,lets kick it into third gear and really fight for these last weeks! It all comes down to this time and our own choices,to study or not? don’t kill yourself obviously but be smart about it. Ha, and a last note for fifth years,,do the work now!!! you wont regret it !

Bonne Chance mes amis!!

-Ally.

Hey guys

I know , I know … I’m terrible at writing these blog things regularly and it’s not like I even have a reason other than complete laziness. So since the last time I wrote I’ve :

- Been A Vegetarian For 30 Days:

So , this all started when I was watching a you-tube clip of a ‘vlogger’ talking about how he became a vegetarian. He took the 30 day veg-pledge for PETA. I was talking to some people about it and the majority of them said they didn’t think I would be able to do it. So being stubborn I felt that I had to prove something by doing this ‘30 Day Veg-Pledge’. It was a completely no-strings attached no sponsorship needed thing so I decided why not sign up for it. I did my 30 days cold-turkey(no pun intended) and at the end of it I felt like I accomplished something. I know it may sound cheesy but after signing up for the PETA newsletter and seeing what happens to animals I’m proud I was able to play my part in helping them even if it was for just 30 days.

- Got My Tongue Pierced:

So this one doesn’t have a reason exactly. I’ve wanted to get my tongue pierced for over a year now but my Dad asked me not to get this one thing done. I had my ears and my tragus pierced already and one tattoo that he was alright about so I decided not to get it. But lately we haven’t been getting on that well so when my sister asked me to go with her to get her latest tattoo last week I saw an opportunity. On the way there I told her about wanting to get it done and she offered to pay half so I thought ‘why not?’. After-ward’s though I felt like I had let my Dad down a bit. When we got home and I saw the look on his face I knew I had made a mistake. I was in pain for about 3 days after and still have a lisp so do I regret getting it done? Absolutely. But not over the pain over the look on my Dads face when I got home.

- Put On My First Student Council Fund-Raiser:

In my school there are five different people on the student council every year. Two sixth years (Head-Girl and Vice) and three fifth years (P.R.O , Secretary and Treasurer). Since I’m in fifth year this year I decided to apply for P.R.O and I got the position. Every year the student council put on a Christmas fundraiser but this year the school calender was so hectic we decided to postpone it until after the New-Year. We were going to have a big New-Years raffle but because of the Haiti earthquake by the time our arranged date came there had already been a few fund-raising days. So we just decided to go with a simple No-Uniform Day ,easy and cheap, with a draw for a pair of JLS Live at the Marquee tickets. Altogether we raised just under €1000 which for a small enough school in my opinion isn’t that bad. The money went to the Haiti Appeal and I felt good for contributing. So all in all it was a good experience.

- Dropped Down To My First Ever Ordinary Level Subject:

This one I know probably shouldn’t be such a big deal to me but it is. I’ve wanted to be a Primary School Teacher since I can remember and one of the very first things I ever asked my Guidance Councilor on First Year was what subjects I needed to do it. She told me the main one was Higher Level Irish , so since then that’s the one subject I was adamant that I would stay at higher level until my leaving cert. But wouldn’t you know it , it’s the only ordinary level subject I do. Don’t get me wrong I loooooove Irish but I absolutely hated my teacher and felt that if I had to stay in her class any longer I would be sent away for murder. So now I have to decide on a different college course and career. No biggie there

- Watched My School Make Cork History:

I’ve been on my school basketball team since First Year but had to quit this year because of a pretty bad ankle injury Our school is quite well known for having good basketball teams we’ve either had our teams get into the Cork finals and place first or second. Or get into the All-Ireland qualifiers and get into the Top-Ten. But this year my school had three out of four of our teams in the Cork finals. The senior team won first place in Cork before Christmas and our first and second year teams played in the Cork finals last week with both of them winning. And may I just say the Second Year match was the best Basketball game I have ever watched – they were basically losing the entire game , they were down by one point with 4 seconds on the clock when Megan stole the ball and scored a lay-up. The best basketball moment I have ever in my life seen Making our school the first ever Cork All-Girls school to have three of their teams win the Cork Finals Woo … Haha

- Seen My First Ghost (I think):

So has everyone seen that story on the news a few weeks back of the haunted house in Hollyhill , Cork City ?? Well that house just happens to be a few minutes drive from my house so myself and a few friends all piled into a car Paddy’s night to go up and see what all the fuss was about. Up until that point I was sceptical about ‘ghosts’ but for some reason when I looked into the window of the then abandoned house I thought I saw something and ran for the life of me. Now stopping to re-check to see if it was just a shadow. So there’s my ‘ghost’ story. Not really sure what I saw but lets just put it this way … I won’t be going back to check if I was right.

- Had My First Grown-Up Night Out:

Alrighty so up until recently every time I went out at night to pubs , clubs etc. I was with someone I was related to – older sister , older cousins. But about a month ago I went out with just friends and I felt so independent and grown-up. I know I sound about 12 talking about feeling grown-up and I know I’m completely contradicting myself but I don’t care HA . I loved it and felt that my Mam finally trusted me enough to let me have that freedom

So there is my catch-up … I know it’s pretty boring but what do you expect ?? I have a pretty normal life

How did everyone’s pre’s go ?? Did ye all get on okay ?? Better/Worse than ye expected ?? I’m so glad I wasn’t in yer position this year

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE … ‘Til next time … Auf Wiedersehen xOx