I am still alive...

I realise that it has been a while since I last blogged.
So yeah.... this year's resolution appears to be failing as well.

But never mind. We all knew it wouldn't work. And I've made another resolution to 're-organise my life'.

I know that the word 're-organise' implies that my life used to be organised, and in a way, it was. Although my room was a tip, if you managed to clamber over the stuff on the floor to open the wardrobe, all my clothes are arranged according to colour. In rainbow order, no less.
And my books - they are arranged as in a library; fiction, non-fiction, reference, poetry...

So, as I was explaining to Elizabeth, that proves that I can be organised. I just need to channel the organisation vibes in a more useful direction. So Elizabeth has taken on the mammoth task of getting me organised. Starting with my school work.

I started digging in the corner of my room, and found my desk. So my desk is now very tidy, and all the stuff that used to be on the desk is stacked on the floor.
But thats OK. After all, I don't walk on the bit by the window. And I'm planning to move it when I'm next free.


Anyway.....except for being busy keeping up with work, not much interesting has happened...
I'm trying hard to think of something to write about.

I've finished all my exams now. But I don't want to talk about that. They were awful. I don't want the results back. I think I'll just tell my teachers I'll re-sit the modules in June, and leave it at that.

Ummm....................

Oh! I went to Subway the other day, on the way home from work (OK...so I took a big detour), and the Subway Man was there! And he remembered me! =)
But it was quite busy in there, so we didn't have such a meaningful conversation.
Not that the other conversation was all that meaningful.


hmmmm..........

My Mum told me that my stalker approached her in the Waitrose car park and asked if I have a boyfriend.
Apparently she said, 'No. At the moment Anna is wanting to concentrate on her studies.'
I told her she should have said that I have a very butch, jealous boyfriend who is a black belt in karate. You would have thought that my Mum would now start to think that legal action should be taken, but no, she still thinks it is hilarious, and is still refusing to phone the police.
I'm contemplating taking out a restraining order.

And just to clarify, the 'concentrating on work' thing is my excuse for when my Mum's friends ask me why I am still single. I know it's not particularly true that I am concentrating on school work, but every day I plan to start concentrating on it, and one of these days, I will. And thanks to Sarah, it's not strictly true that I don't have a boyfriend. She helped me to make up an imaginary boyfriend. He's called Ben, and is very romantic. He is practically perfect in every way. Like Mary Poppins. (Btw, I've found it's best to try not to think too hard about the psychological implications of having an imaginary boyfriend.)
Anyway, why do my Mum's friends ask me that? It's not like I'm the only single 16 year old in the country. In fact, it's quite common to be 16 and single.

Actually, I'm 17 now.

AND I'VE STARTED DRIVING!

Yeah, Dad put me on the car insurance!

I haven't had any formal lessons yet, but Dad's taken me out a few times.

It's WICKED!

The first time I went out, I stalled quite a lot, and the first time I used the brake was very exciting, because I thought you had to push the brake in as far as the clutch. So it was quite a sudden stop. Not quite sudden enough for the air bags to go off, but it came pretty close....

So apart from that minor incident, I think I'm a natural. I can do 3 point turns, and parallel parking and reverse round a corner and everything.

And I must say, I am very impressed at how much you can see in the rear view mirror. You can see the whole road behind you. It's amazing!

The hardest part about driving is the idiots on the road. I don't know how they passed their tests. It really freaks me out when the car behind drives really close to me. It makes me feel like I have to go faster, but when I go faster, they go faster, and it has a tendancy to spiral out of control when that happens.
My latest technique is to lightly touch the brake pedal - not enough to slow the car, but enough to make the brake lights come on. Then the driver behind freaks out and thinks, 'Oh no! The stupid learner is about to stop in the middle of the road' and they slam on their brakes and allow you to carry on driving without them on your tail. It's quite effective. Unless you do it to the same driver more than about 3 times (sometimes they manage to catch up...).

Another minor incident was when I was driving in the dark, and there were 2 joggers running across the road wearing black. I managed to stop in time though. I always knew there had to be something dangerous about jogging....


Well. I should really get back to my Biology coursework now. I started writing this because I couldn't come up with a way of justifying my choice of filter in the colorimeter. I used the 590nm one because everyone else was using that one, and I thought it would be easier to go along with them. But I can't write that in my coursework.
You don't get marks for living in peace and harmony with other scientists...

Driving Videos

It's really frustrating to have my provisional licence and not be able to drive. The licence isn't valid for another 9 days (it feels like YEARS!!!).



So to try and occupy myself until then, I've been watching videos about how to drive, on this website. The videos are unbelievably boring. It's just a man driving a car and telling you how to do everything...



I watched about 15 video clips of him doing stuff like parrallel parking, reversing into a minor road on the left...etc. He keeps on saying 'prepare the car as you would do normally....', but he never once explains how to do that.



What does he mean by preparing the car? Is that just making sure it is switched on, and that you're tuned to the right radio station?!



Anyway, it was getting a bit boring, and I was about to forget about it and move on, but then I saw that the next video was the emergency stopping one.



On my 13th birthday, I'd been beggin my Dad to let me drive the car for ages, so he finally let me have a go (on private land, obviously. My Dad is a very upstanding member of the community. He wouldn't unleash someone like me on the general public. And he wouldn't break the law either.)



I was just driving around in circles, not doing anything too fancy. i was having a great time, but Dad kept telling me to go faster coz he said he was getting bored.



Eventually, he must have got a bit fed up with it, because he told me to try an emergency brake. He said all I had to do was stop the car as quickly as possible.



So, I started driving the car, just in a straight line, but getting faster and faster (and a bigger and bigger adrenaline rush) and then he shouted "STOP!!!!", so I slammed on the brake pedal, and yanked on the hand break as well, and I left some long skid marks on the field. It was really exciting.



Which meant I had high hopes for the next video.



So I clicked on the link, and watched the clip.



The man was pulled over at the side of the road, and then a deep scary voice said, "I'm going to ask you to do an emergency stop. I want you to start the car in the normal way [see? There is is again! The 'normal way'.] and when I say stop, I want you to stop the car as quickly as possible, while maintaining full control of the vehicle".



Maintaining full control of the vehicle.

There goes any chance of having a bit of fun....



Anyway, the car pulled away, and started driving down the road.

I was getting a bit excited, because, you know.... I was anticipating it.... I was waiting for the deep scary voice to shout, and the car to suddenly stop.



After what seemed like ages, the deep scary voice calmly said, "Stop," in the least sudden way I've ever heard anybody ever say it.

And then the person who was driving kept both hands on the steering wheel (apparently that was to 'maintain total control' but it would have stopped faster if he'd used the handbrake as well) and he put his foot on the brake.



That was IT.



I know some people who normally brake the car like that. Even when it's not an emergency. It's slightly less comfortable than braking smoothly, but it's not very exciting.





What a let down.





Still, it's gonna be wicked when I can drive.



I already have L plates.





Maybe I'll go and stick them in the car now. Just so that they are ready.







I'd better not. My Dad still hasn't given me any indication as to whether he is putting me on the insurance.





I told him that if I accidently crash it, it would give him an opportunity to get a better car (our current car is pretty shabby to be honest. And covered in dog hairs).

But he told me that he has only insured it against theft and 3rd party damage.



I don't blame him. It would probably be cheaper to scrap our car and get a new one than it would be to make a claim on the insurance.

Guess what arrived today?!

Yep, thats right. I can now drive.

(Don't be offended by the censoring.... I just think that you're an obsessive stalker. Which is bad. But I just want to let you know that it doesn't necessarily make you a bad person. There are support groups for people like you. You deserve a second chance.)

(I actually thought about censoring the picture as well, because it's not very flattering, but then it could have been anyones licence... so I left it there. Please, no malicious comments!)