For all of you lucky people who are doing Dancing at Lughnasa you’ll completely understand the title, for those of you who haven’t, you’ll live

3 classes of 6th years went to see Dancing at Lughnasa in Galway today. Buses broke down, trains got mixed up, beautiful sights on the motorway . Good day though. Dancing at Lughnasa is actually quite good on stage. For any of you who seen Hamlet in The Helix last year, the actress who played Ophelia played Rosie and to be honest, I thought she did a much better job at Rosie. Then again, I’m no theatre critic

Oh, the tests I was supposed to have last time I blogged? Cancelled. Woke up to a phone call from my best friend asking me was I going to school.

“Of course”, I said.

“Look out your window”

“Oh right, Yeah, no”

So school was cancelled and I was housebound for 4 days. And I’m telling ya, cabin fever hit hard. By the time Friday came and I was going to Childline, I was going, hell or high water.

And I did Childline was class. McFly were my favourite followed closely by Olly Murs and The Wanted. I’d never call myself a “pop fan” but as I’m getting older (the ripe old age of 18;)) my music taste has definately mellowed, along with all of my friends’. I dunno what it is, but once your faced with exams, something upbeat and happy doesn’t seem so bad

The worst thing about not having school was having all our tests pushed together. On Tuesday I had French written first, then Double Biology test after lunch then Double Physics after that. Twas a fun day lol jk it was awful.

Anyone miss the green? You know that colour? Normally leaves and fields are that colour. I’m sick of white and then off shades of white as the days progress. .

Only16 days till Christmas.

holidaysarecomingholidaysarecoming

Something about the Coca Cola ad just mades me so excited That and The “Ho,ho,ho” Cornflakes ad

Till next time,

Niamh

x

Oh the irony of Ireland having a meltdown.. Because it’s covered in snow.. Which refuses to melt. God I’m funny! Right? No? Well there goes No. 1 on my my list..

1. Become a comedian. What better time to crack jokes than when your country is in disarray? Try come up with a few new snow puns, because really, we all know we love them. If that’s proving to be snow fun, count how many times you can bring the recession into a conversation. Zero points if you just try to end everything by saying “Because we’re poor!” Minus three points if you rob the idea from Facebook.

2. Watch TV. Ah, the old faithful. Stick on the box and turn into a couch spud. Refuse to allow your mammy to turn it off because you are LEARNING. X Factor is helping you with your Music homework. D’Apprentice is contributing to your Business knowledge. I’m A Celebrity is about Geography. The Panel brings you up to date on Current Affairs, perfect for CSPE! Not to worry if you don’t actually do any of these subjects – coming up with all of these excuses requires creativity, similar to English!

3. Facebook. Oh it was obvious that it’d feature in the list SOMEWHERE. But just in care you’re really bored, post a new status. One of those really annoying, unbearable ones that goes “Like this & I’ll tell you what I like about you!” You can take up an entire evening by checking who has liked it, then wondering what to do when someone whom you don’t like, likes it. It also takes quite a while to come up with a compliment for someone whom you haven’t actually seen since Junior Infants, before they moved to Monaghan and added you as a friend eleven years later. The panic you will face is useful: “Oh My God, what am I supposed to write about her?! I barely know her! Okay, let’s think calmly.. Oh Jesus she’s gone offline! Before I wrote back! Now she thinks I HATE HER!! Calm.. Calm.. ‘Dear Mary, I like how you borrowed my pink crayon in Junior Infants. Hahahahahahahahaha!!!’ Right. There. Sor’ed” This is similar to the panic you will face in an exam. Think of it as practice.

4. Eat. No, this does not require snow. If you are anything like me, you will have doubled your diet since you began an exam year. You will also only use exams as an excuse to eat what you could eat anyway. But you need brain power! Your parents will try convince you that fish, and vegetables, and icky things are best for you, but ignore them. THEY’RE JUST TRYING TO GET THESE ICKY THINGS OUTTA THE WAY SO THEY DON’T HAVE TO EAT THEM! Because they would then get to eat the chocolate. The chocolate which has been proven to aid happiness. You need to be happy. You need sugar for energy. Clearly, you, as a student, need chocolate. Or ice cream. Remind parents that during winter, you need extra calories to create body heat. Reassure them that you are eating brain food and saving them money because you’re making your own body heat. You don’t need central heating.

5. Be at one with nature. Go for a long, relaxing walk in the snow. Skip through the fields. Glide down the road which is free from cars. Spin around while snow falls. Reason with yourself that maybe William Wordsworth WAS right about nature. You love nature, and you’re so peaceful that you will ace your exams because you have had a spiritual resurrection. Smile and breathe deeply. Then fall and whack your hip and curse and cry and rub your hip and look around hoping that no-one has seen you. Trudge back home, muttering under your breath about how you hate nature and it’s useless, and there’s a reason we have technology. Sit by the fire and ring your daddy to ask him to put more coal on the fire because you’re cold. He will do this because you are facing exam stress and cannot be aggravated. Put on your slippers to find your feet have broken out in blisters due to the wellies you wore which were three sizes too small. Decide that you are sick and tired of trying to amuse yourself.

6. Study. Realise that your novel ways of studying aren’t really helping you. Go into your room and sit down at the desk with all your books, which you haven’t organised in accordance with the principles of Feng Shui because you’re only trying to fool yourself. You now know this and are going to fight the urge to procrastinate. You sit down, determined to work, open your Irish book.. And the electricity goes. Oh well, no-one can say you didn’t try!

P.S. Another great way to amuse yourself is to write a nonsense blog, then spend half an hour praying that nobody actually follows this advice.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..” 

No please, make it stop!

I’ll be honest here, I’m a proper scrooge when it comes to Christmas; I hate the snow, I hate missing school because of a bit of snow, I hate making snowmen, I hate snowballs (especially when I’m pelted with them on my way to school..), I hate ice-skating, I hate the cold, I hate the commercialism of Christmas, I hate how greedy kids are, I hate how you have to give up your bed for family members who should have spent Christmas in the Bermuda Triangle – “yes Aunty Mary, I know.. “A tidy room is a tidy mind” ..” Like C’MON!

It feels like I’m the only one who feels like this but I can’t be. Can I..? C’mon, there has to be a few more people out there that have spent the morning studying and can’t understand the madness of not being in school today? No? Oh okay then..

My younger siblings were in school today so I had to bring them to school, and as our schools are conveniently next door to each other, I was tempted to go in and ask the Principal could I work on my construction project but I didn’t as I knew the answer would be no and I’d only end up cleaning the cafeteria anyway.. By the way, does anyone else do construction? It’s an absolute wagon of a subject I think 

I actually got excited earlier when I saw the snow melting, but then it started to snow again. I’m supposed to be going to the TCD open day tomorrow but in that weather I just don’t know? The only thing is, I went last year so I’m comfortable with the college, but I haven’t been to a talk on one of the courses I have on my CAO.. Ah sure, I’ll decide in the moro.

So basically this has just been a rant, or a waste of a blog.. Whatever you want to call it? I’m also thinking, (well actually no, not thinking, doing!), blogs as Gaeilge so if that interests you make sure you keep an eye out for my blogs! 

Peace out, and happy studying! 

hi everyone

Sorry for my lackage of posts recently. Honestly when I said I’d take up this blod I’d hoped to blog at least one a week or one a fortnight at a push but then again I had never been in 6th year

How’s everyone Christmas Tests coming along? Mine aren’t going too bad. I’ve figured one you come to 6th year, no test really matters except the mocks or the real thing so getting stressed over small tests is pointless. In saying that however I’ve just spent the last four hours doing French and Physics study. I really cannot stand semiconductors. Or anything that involves any sort of particle physics. My mind is now swimming with n and p junctions and random french vocab . .

Since I’ve last blogged I’ve been at two open days and we’ve had 3 talks in school. Talks on DCU,TCD and NUIM and I went to the DCU and Maynooth open days.

The talks were interesting but I have to hand it to the Maynooth speaker, she was very good at her job. Even though it was last class she managed to keep a room full of tired 6th years (and some 5ths) completely engaged for 50 minutes. No chatting or whispering or even just general noise making like the other talks, she just kept everyone interested. I think it was because she spent a lot of the talk just talking about college in general but still towards the end she made you really want to go to Maynooth, just because she was so good!

The DCU and TCD talks were also quite good but didn’t make such a big impression.

I went to the DCU open day and thought  it was really nice The campus was lovely. There wasn’t as many there as I thought there’d be. I went in thinking about Physics but came out seriously thinking about Biotechnology. Just shows again how much of an impression a speaker can make on you!

Went to Maynooth last Friday. Love the place. Such a pretty campus and the town seemed so friendly. Their Science course looks really good so definitely thinking about there. It all seems so far away when I’m so bogged down in books

Cannot wait for Friday. Last Christmas test AND I’m going to see childline

Gonna Be a good weekend

Hope everyone isn’t snowed in:P

Niamh xxx

Hello everyone =D

Firstly, I’m sorry it’s been so long since you’ve heard from me….. I haven’t even got a proper excuse…

I hope you all had a good Christmas, and that Santie was good to you! My Christmases are usually filled with racing around from one horsey competition to the next, trying to get as much in as possible. The weather put a stop to that this time! Believe it or not I’ve only been able to get out on the horse once in my three weeks off. The ground is just too hard! So you’d think that I would have had lots of time to complete all my set revision and more – not a chance!!!
Ok well since it’s been so long since I’ve blogged this is probably a distant memory to most! I found the evening focus group in Dublin on the Friday very interesting and the different tips I picked up from different people were very helpful =D It was interesting to sit and talk about different study methods and tools. You guys are all so organised! And will definitely get whatever results you need in June. Anyway it was great to get a chance to put a face to some of the blogs and meet some really sound people at the same time =D

That Sunday I did possibly the stupidest thing I have ever done, and that’s saying something! I tripped over my feet, fell down the stairs, and split my ear off the pool table….. Please laugh… it will make me feel a little less special!! One incentive not to do it again (aside from the mess to be cleaned up) is that I never ever want to have to spend a Sunday night (or any night for that matter) sitting in A&E in James’ street….. Not a pretty sight. I arrived in at about 10.30 that night wasn’t seen by a doctor until 8.30 the next morning, left at about 9 with the addition of nine stitches in my right ear. Lovely!!

One good thing came out of it though. I am afraid of injections, and I want to be a doctor. I needed lots of local anaesthetics for my ear. This terrified me. But it worried me even more to think that the one thing that I was letting stand between me and the career I wanted was a tiny piece of metal! Crazy, I know… Well, I managed to get over that fear. It was all in my head!! Since that I’ve had blood taken without a single flinch. Result. Mind over matter.

That was basically the drama of my holidays! Naturally I spent the next week lounging around feeling sorry for myself… Santie came and brought lovely red hunter wellies (I’m a culchie at heart!) and lots of other nice things and I began to face up to the reality that yes, I had chosen to cut my holiday short for this Leaving Cert malarkey, and head up to Leeson street for 5 days. I now realise how lucky I was to have had that choice to make!! I took Biology (both halves), English and Maths. The latter was probably a foolish choice since I’ve just dropped from honours, but hey, I was intent on “getting the course done in a week!!” My own naivety surprises me! Of course I was useful revision but my time (and money) could have been spent on something else.

As for the biology and english… Mr. Burke and Mr. Kelly, I bow down before you… you are proper teachers. You know your subjects and, more importantly, you know how to teach it. To anyone who says that in Leeson Street they just “throw the notes at you,” “they’re hardly teachers,” I challenge you to sit in one of the afore mentioned teachers classes and not be inspired. Mr. Burke, as old as the hills he may be, but I have never seen anyone explain photosynthesis in one single diagram – no words, just labels…. wow!! It was definitely time well spent. Trying to negotiate the buses on New Year’s day would have been fun but I got a lift home =) Only in Ireland would a little dusting of snow equate to a national emergency!! Crazy…

Over the last few days it has been such a chore to actually sit down and study while I could hear the snowball fights going on outside! I made a compromise; study for three hours in the morning and then I could whizz down the Hill of Tara on fertiliser bags to my heart’s content! Exercise combined in with fun! Perfect =DThose are days that will be remembered.

Delighted and all as I was to get those two extra days off, now I’m kind of worried about the amount of catch-up work that is going to have to be done when we eventually get back to school… Oh well the teachers can worry about that one and ill just get as much revision done as I can =D Anyway, we’ve enough to be thinking about with the CAO closing date and the HPAT all coming up.

I completed my levels eight choices on the CAO for what I hope will be the last time, but that’s doubtful! Medicine in Trinity is sitting at the top, but sure we’ll see how it goes! As for the HPAT, I’ve registered and am trying to do as much practice as possible from the sample booklet. I find the timing really difficult to stick to but I suppose it all takes practice. My Mum insisted that I enrol in a prep course so I’ll be back up in Leeson Street next weekend. I suppose doing it is better than regretting not doing it.

I hope everything is going according to plan for everyone, and if it’s not, well don’t worry. “Brick by brick my citizens, brick by brick.” (I watched seabiscuit last night!! Red Pollard you legend)
Remember its all mind over matter!
For now, there is a slippery slope on Tara with my name on it =D
Toodles
xxx