GCSE French Oral Exam, Part 2

I did my French oral exam today. It went quite well.

I started getting properly nervous about it at about 1:00 pm, and my exam was at 1:50 pm.

The two roleplays I had to do were:
i) At the post office.
ii) Having just witnessed a car accident.

I didn't do outstandingly well on either, but I also didn't do badly.

I recited my presentation quite well which was about school and education, and the questions were OK.

The general conversation which followed was about spare time and health. eg. sport

I asked my teacher (Mrs Sweeney (or Miss Mooney as me and my friends know her as (because she taught us two years ago as well before she was married))) how she thought I had done and what mark she would estimate I would get. She said she couldn't tell anyone a mark in case the actual people marking it think differently and give a lower mark, but she said to me "I would be very surprised if you didn't get a very good mark."

I was nervous before the exam, but now I'm so relieved that it's over, and I performed well. It's interesting how so much work (supposedly) goes into an exam which ends up at roughly 7 minutes long. But now I can sleep easily at night knowing I don't have any more important exams for a while.

It's not long until my short course Food exam.

RJ

GCSE French Oral Exam

Tomorrow I have my proper GCSE French Oral Exam. I'm doing it in year 10 because I'm part of an accelarated course which means we'll be doing the AS level in year 11 and, if we choose to, do the A2 level in year 12. I probably will carry it on in year 12.

I think I'm well prepared for the exam tomorrow. I got an A* in the mock two or three months ago, and I am better prepared this time so I'm hoping for a similar, if not better, mark.

I'll post again tomorrow to express my relief and tell you my thoughts on how it went.

RJ

Tennis Fun Day

Yesterday there was a "Fun Day" at the Orchard tennis club, which I attended. It was good fun.

There was one stall/game/raffle type thing where a large toy dog was on display and next to it was a large list of possible names for the dog. You pay 50p and choose one of the names, and all the selected names go into a hat and one is picked at random. I won. I chose the name Murdoch which was picked, so I got the dog, a garden bowling set for ages 6 to 8, and a bottle of Malibu, an acoholic beverage. I was worried whilst carrying it home as according to Leslie (see earlier posts), a policeman could have confiscated it and/or poured it away in front of me.

There was also a little machine there which measured how fast your serve is, and mine was measured at 76 mph (miles per hour). My dad's was 70 mph, and Joe just managed to get 77 mph.

The group of us went on the bouncy castle right at the end as most people were going or had gone so we got to stay on for ages and for free.

Grant Shapps also turned up for a bit to officially open the new courts, which are quite nice, and a large group photograph was taken, most likely for the Welwyn & Hatfield Times. We don't buy that newspaper, so I will only see the photo if one of my friends get it.

I was hoping to talk to Grant Shapps for a little bit, but he left before I got an opportunity.

All in all, the day was very good fun.

RJ

Back to School

We went back to school this week on the Tuesday, which I don't really think anybody enjoyed. I mean, school's a laugh, but I hate having to get up in the early morning.

I had a bit of insomnia on the Monday night, and I don't know how much sleep I got in total, but I don't think it could have been more than an hour or two. It was probably due to the fact that I got up so late on Monday, at about 12:30 pm or so.

Now we've been back for 3 days, and I still haven't learned about my results in the maths Olympiad.

I also went to Cambridge last Thursday (Maundy Thursday) with Laura, Laura and Mike and we met up with Hannah at Cambridge station and wandered around from there. Well, Mike came up an hour later and we met him outside Burger King. Joe could unfortunately not come this time so hopefully we'll be doing something in the near future which he can come to.

The day in Cambridge was fun. We didn't really do anything in particular, just walked around quite a bit talking. Went to Starbucks, had a hot chocolate. Pretty good.

RJ

John Smith's Grand National at Aintree, 2006

4 years ago, my parents told me about the Grand National in detail and said I could bet a little money on a horse. This was all an attempt to show me how gambling is essentially throwing your money down the drain. I certainly showed them.

I'll explain my strategy for picking horses:
My dad will bring a newspaper home on the morning of the Grand National, normally The Times I expect. I'll look at the odds of all the horses, and circle the ones with fairly good odds, so they have a chance of winning, but will also have a nice pay-off if they do win. Then from that shortlist I'll read the little description of the horses and then cross out the ones which don't sound too good. This method has proved fairly useful.

I'd managed to pick the winning horse of the Grand National 3 years in a row.
2002 - Bindaree
2003 - Monty's Pass
2004 - Amberleigh House
Over these 3 years, from money bet by myself, my brother and my dad we won about £200.

Then in 2005 it all went wrong. I had never bet on the favourite, and had always won, and so I chose to follow the same pattern of picking a fairly random horse but also winning. I was half right. I chose Colonel Rayburn and Forest Gunner (I think) and altogether bet £11, but in fact, the favourite, Hedgehunter, won, which was a shame.

This year Hedgehunter was the favourite to win again, but I chose to stick with not betting on the favourite. I bet £6 on Innox, which had odds of 14-1, and I bet £5 on Numbersixvalverde, which had odds of 12-1.

I don't know if you already know who won, but I won't tell you yet. I want to tell my whole story.

The Grand National this year was on Saturday the 8th of April, which was also the same day we had to drive up to Scotland. I however refused to not place a bet this year as it would be breaking with a tradition which is very dear to me. Gambling. I just can't wait until I'm legally old enough to do it!

So we left for Scotland at about 10 o'clock (in the morning) after having quickly gone to Ladbroke's and placing a £10 bet on Innox to win and a £10 bet on Numbersixvalverde to win. I knew at least one would definitely lose, but it would be worth it if the other one won. I paid £11 of the total £20, my brother Scott bet £4 and my dad made up the remaining £5.

We arrived in Glasgow (in Scotland) at about 4:15 in the afternoon and the race was at 4:15. We were planning to visit my great-aunt Helen (who is partially mad but I don't know how much detail I can go into here) but she was not in. Either out or in some institution. We were hoping to switch her TV on (assuming it has been switched on since the 50's and still works) and watch the race. No such luck. So we drove on in the direction of my uncle Frank's house, where my aunt Jane and cousins Dan, Neil and Fiona also reside. Frank is my dad's brother. We had to listen to the race on the radio which one could argue made it more exciting but harder to follow who was winning. I was hoping Innox would win as the odds were higher and I had placed more money on him (or her?) although equally I wasn't about to complain if Numbersixvalverde won.

The race started and me and my dad really got into it, which may not have been too safe as my dad was driving at the time. I was expecting Hedgehunter to win, even though no horse has won the Grand National twice in a row since the legendary Red Rum who won it in 1973 and 1974, and again in 1977, but with a different jockey.

Anyway, the race had started and all the horses are pretty even. Not very long through I realised the commentators were not mentioning Innox at all and I later learned he had fallen at the first fence.

Damn.

As the horses were nearing the finish the commentators were concentrating on the 6 horses in the lead. They may have been the only ones remaining actually. Among them were Hedgehunter, Clan Royal and Numbersixvalverde. I can't remember the others. But I think that was the order of the 3 in front. Suddenly Numbersixvalverde began to catch up, and the commentators were getting worked up, and I was getting very hopeful. I then hear that Numbersixvalverde has taken 1st place and is well on its way to victory. And then the race was over.

Numbersixvalverde was the winning horse!

Which means I'll be getting £60 tomorrow when we collect our winnings from Ladbroke's.

I'm certainly looking forward to next year's Grand National!

RJ

P.S. If you didn't know, John Smith is the name of the beer which sponsors the Grand National.

Hot Fuzz

Simon Pegg's new film, Hot Fuzz, is currently being filmed. I don't know if that's the film's final name or they're going to come up with something better...

My brother Scott is an extra in the film. (I was too young to try for the part of an extra.)

They're currently shooting a few scenes at the Barn Theathre, a crummy little theatre about a 5 minute walk from my house. Scott phoned me asking me if I wanted to see Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and perhaps others and I obviously said I did. So I went along with a green jumper to give to Scott, as that particular group of extras were meant to be dressed plainly, and I just stood around waiting with him for a while, and I got to see Simon Pegg and Timothy Dalton, but not Nick Frost.

I also nicked a 500ml bottle of water from where they kept the refreshments. After all, why not?

RJ

Easter Holidays

I'm so glad that I'm on holiday. No work and no getting up in the mornings. I got up at about 1:30 pm today. I'd have preferred to get up later, but the curtains in my bedroom are light blue and thin, which don't do a very good job at keeping the sunlight out. I'm hoping to get some new thick and black curtains.

I haven't particularly accomplished much this holiday so far. I'm not complaining. I've been on holiday since last Friday, when we had only half a day at school, and Jack and Nick came back to my house and we got some Domino's Pizza. We also played some table-tennis. Me and Jack play table-tennis a fair bit these days, and it's often quite an intense game. He generally wins though.

I finally got around to watching Garden State, a film written and directed by Zach Braff (the star of Scrubs), and starring Zach Braff and Natalie Portman. I bought it several months ago but only just remembered about it and realised I had not yet watched it.

It's really good. Really good. One of my favourtie films of all time and I strongly recommend you all go and buy a few copies of the DVD and watch them.

I might be playing some table-tennis with my friend Ben today, but I'm not sure...

RJ

Gavin, Part 2

Well, we took Gavin back up to Cambridge a few days ago (Saturday) and there he remains.

I'm going up to Cambridge next Friday actually, but I probably won't see Gavin.

RJ