Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Man, I've been working hard recently. Somehow I managed to do everything I needed to do yesterday, but today I'm really tired. I have an appointment with the headmaster later, to talk about choosing universities/colleges. Since I've already made up my mind about where I'm applying to, I think it's a bit pointless, but it's always important to keep the boss happy. And then I've got another play rehearsal - this time the girls from Abbey School who are playing the female roles should be here.

Monday, September 22, 2003

I'm too tired today. Shooting yesterday went really badly - I didn't shoot very well at all. I think I was just too tired. Anyway, today's basically been working solidly, apart from choir after lunch and this gap between supper and the first rehearsal for Pirates. I ought to have done some horn practise, but I haven't.

Saturday, September 20, 2003

The recital last night didn't go too badly - I've played better, but equally I've played a lot worse. I've got to start work on the second movement now, for next Friday's concert. After I'd played at the recital I went to the prefects' evening in the New Pavilion, and then went to the pub - I must have got to bed about eleven in the end. I got a copy of the libretto for Pirates this morning, and I really have got one of the biggest parts! I've got at least one song to myself, and I'm on stage almost constantly. I'd better start learning my lines!

Friday, September 19, 2003

The casting's been announced for Pirates - and I'm the Pirate King! We still can't play full contact rugby, because the ground's too hard (it hasn't rained properly in weeks), but the senior squad's been split into four and we're going to have a touch rugby tournament tomorrow. Training today was good fun - and we're going win. As far as the GB U19 shooting team form is concerned... this morning I managed to get a character report done by Mr. Hennessy, got it endorsed by the headmaster, printed a photo and attached it to the form, and having done all that noticed that Mr. Topham had failed to sign a crucial part of the form. So I had to get hold of Major Fraser at CCRS (a saga in itself) and he told me to send a photocopy and then send the real thing when I'd got Mr. Topham to sign it on Monday. Now, I wonder if my suspicion that Dr. Nicoll has lost my Cambridge form is correct?
I still haven't got my Cadet Rifle Team form sorted - primarily because I had an allergic reaction to something at dinner yesterday and was cooped up in the sanatorium for the whole evening. This was bad, especially since I needed to get Mr. Topham to sign my form, and he's not going to be here again until Monday (which is the deadline for the form getting to CCRS). It seems I'm not very good at getting shooting forms in on time - I left my Imperial Meeting application form until the last minute as well. Ho hum. I'm not looking forward to barging in on Mr. Dytor and demanding an endorsement for my application either, but I'm going to have to do it. Now I have to go and see the doctor again.

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

I finally got my Year in Industry form posted - now I need to chase up Mr. Hennessy to send a copy of my reference to them as well. But now I'm probably going to have to stay up all night to get my GB Rifle Team application ready, because I've got to send it tomorrow. And I've got prep for tomorrow to boot. I just did my audition for The Pirates of Penzance, and I hope I'll be able to land a decent part. Interestingly, this would be my first time ever acting in a play at this school! I was technical manager for Twelth Night and prompter for Twelve Angry Men, but this would be my first time actually as an actor... We had 27 people at orchestra this afternoon - the most for as long as I can remember. We're not very good yet, but I'm sure we'll get there eventually! And the rugby? Things went much better today - I guess everyone was just tired and fed up yesterday. Can't blame them if they were - at the moment it's much too hot here for rugby training.

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

I was training with the third team today; it was terrible. An absolute joke. We don't have enough people for a proper team, and the people we do have can't be bothered to put any effort in at all. It makes me sick. I've just finished reading Cities in Flight by James Blish - it's a great read. Very much old-school, Cold War sci-fi - a real classic work.
I'm going to audition for The Pirates of Penzance!

Monday, September 15, 2003

Yes, I've finally managed to get around to blogging. Wow! What a weekend. I missed Friday and Saturday school - on Friday OCYO was giving concerts for local primary school children in Oxford Town Hall. Then I spent Friday night and Saturday morning at Lizzie's house (yay!) before going back to the Town Hall for a rehearsal before our annual Gala Concert (which went much better than I was expecting it to). On Sunday I went shooting, and had a lazy time but still managed a maximum in the Gallery match! Today I managed to catch up with all my work, and did lots of horn practice. At the moment I'm working on Mozart's 3rd Horn Concerto, and Dukas' Villanelle, which is just about the hardest horn piece I've played that's still managed to be enjoyable. Only bad thing is I don't get to see Lizzie again for another three weeks...

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

School orchestra was better than usual. We got quite a few people to turn up for a change - I think the change of time has had a good effect. I'm actually feeling quite positive about how it's going so far. Today we rehearsed an arrangement of the Dambusters' March from the film... and it didn't sound too bad at all! I'm settling back down into playing on the wing. Everything's getting back to how I remember it... catching, passing, looping, switching, all at high speed. I'm almost disappointed about not being available for the match this weekend!
FreeNetName's web servers are being infuriating at the moment. When I first go to a page on my website I get a 404, but when I hit F5 up the page pops. I do intend to get better hosting at some point, but I just haven't got the time to organize it. I'd quite like hosting with PHP and MySQL but I doubt that's going to happen any time soon... too expensive. Rebecca has persuaded me to become a member of the Royal Institution - now that I have Monday and Thursday afternoons free hopefully I'll be able to go along to some lectures. There's a very interesting one on the 24th October about the development of flight over the last hundred years, and I'm going to try and get to that. I've decided to apply for the IEE Faraday Scholarship, but I think I'll be lucky to get it. There's only 12 available... but it would be cool if I could, because it would really help to subsidise the meagre student loan I'm likely to get.
I'm definitely feeling worse for wear this morning. 'Nuff said.

Tuesday, September 09, 2003

Rugby training went quite well today - it's all coming back to me now. I'm quite looking forward to training tomorrow! Maybe I'll be able to make the second team once I get my gumshield. My mum threatened to make a cake and bring it in this evening, but I fortunately managed to persuade her not to. Fortunately, I've now got all my maths lessons sorted out. We're going to be studying six modules this year - S2, M3 and P3 to P6. I have nine a week! But fortunately I'll miss one of my stats lessons each week - I find stats mind-numbingly boring. Plans for the evening: shooting, horn practise, and then I'll go to the pub if I have time.
I'm eighteen!

Monday, September 08, 2003

Bad news for h2g2...
I've nearly finished filling out the various forms I need to do - Year In Industry, UCAS, and Cambridge - but I haven't even started on the Cadet Rifle Team application yet. Ironically, this is the one that needs to be in first. Speaking of shooting, a random girl from the Stamford team just e-mailed me and wished me a happy birthday. Which was nice, if suprising. Apparently she'd looked at my website and decided to e-mail me. The weekend is rapidly approaching - and I haven't done any horn practise today. I'm dreadful.
Depressingly, Tiscali have now started advertising their products in my e-mails. I've sent off a complaint to their customer service department, but I'm not sure if they're going to do anything about it. I find it quite annoying that it seems almost impossible to find an ISP that doesn't put its own advertisement signature on your e-mails. It's my 18th birthday tomorrow! But I'm not really looking forward to it, because the rest of my year have sworn to give me a wedgie, the b@$t@rds! I think I'm going to have to make myself scarce tomorrow: I've got some tactics prepared though. The school choir has kicked off for the year - and the new Director of Music here is really putting the boot in. He's not messing around at all, which bodes well for the rest of the year. Hopefully Greg, who has a very poor opinion of the school choir, should be placated if we get to a reasonable standard this year.

Sunday, September 07, 2003

I got my comeupance for "borrowing" a CD player from the Music Dept: it was a broken CD player, and it scratched my copy of "Night Works" (Layo & Bushwacka). I am now somewhat disgruntled. Fortunately, however, I'd made an MP3 backup. Isn't it a good thing the CD wasn't pirate-proof? I've spent most of the day shooting at Pirbright, training for the CADet Skill-at-Arms Match (CADSAM). My brother's being really annoyingly good at the moment: it's not that he's good, it's that he's ridiculously good without even seeming to try, whereas I try really hard and am still only fairly competent. It's infuriating. Concert plug: OCYO are playing their annual Gala Concert in Oxford Town Hall on September 13th. Programme: Rimsky Korsakov Russian Easter Festival Overture, Debussy L'Aprés Midi d'Une Faune, Hindermitt Symphonic Metamorphoses, and Rachmaninov's Second Symphony. It should be good, so come along if you have time! I'm playing first horn in the Hindermitt, so I'd better do some practice this week. The Adams Family is an incredibly amusing film.

Saturday, September 06, 2003

Despite my initial plans to play badminton this term rather than rugby, Mr. Hennessy has persuaded me otherwise. Fortunately they're going to give me a pair of boots so I'm spared that expense, and I've already got the majority of the kit I need. I started of the term doing as much exercise as I intended: yesterday I went for a run in the morning and an ergo in the evening, but didn't do as much as I intended. I even did some horn practise, but unfortunately it's really not going well at the moment. Ming has gone! And I didn't even notice! Terrible. Anyway, it's about time I started paying more attention to h2g2 again.

Friday, September 05, 2003

This seems worth a read...
So, I'm finally back at school and bored enough to start blogging again. No, I haven't updated my website for ages (too busy) and probably won't be able to for just as long (my laptop's battery has died, and we haven't even got the supplier to collect it for servicing yet). I'm going to be eighteen in a few days, and I'm finally going to be getting a Visa card! I'm looking forward to the end of not knowing whether the shop I'm in will or won't accept my piece of plastic...