"You're so Hypnotising"

If you didn't get that title they're the lyrics from the song ET by Katy Perry and Kanye West ;) And why I hear you asking am I putting lyrics from the most random song up there, well on Friday (the day of my Birthday Partaaaay!) all the TYs met together in the hall for the Home Ec fashion show, it was such a great show! I couldn't get over how great the outfits were! And well done to everyone who got a prize, Meg here did brilliantly and came first in her class, or should I say Rawwry ;) Just want to say thanks to all the Home Ec teachers involved in it, it really was so much fun!

Here's a quick pic (rhyming!) of our outfit, inspired by Katy Perry's quirky colourful style:
What do you think of it? :)

 

and yes, that is me modelling it..

Let it snow, Let it Snow, Let it snow!

Woow, today I just totally got the "Christmasy" feel going on! Well, actually Saturday night (my Birthday!) opening all my presents it really felt like Christmas, just as if Santy had come! But it got me in the mood to listen to some all time classic Christmas tunes:

ENJOY!

  

Oh I also found a super cool thing on Google! Type in "Let it snow" in Google and...

BE AMAZED! :D 

Link to Google: "Let it Snow!".. CLICK CLICK CLICK!

Exam jitters..

Okay technically, because I'm a Transisiton Year and they're only Christmas exams I shouldn't be nervous, but because I'm syill up at 12 O'clock the night before, blogging means something! I'm a little bit nervous just because exams seem so foreign to us now! Even though we just did them in June..

But anyway, tomorrow I am faced with French, Religion and then English.. short day and hopefully not too tough! Just though a nice blog would be good just before I head off for a rest, good luck to the rest of you girls tomorrow! :)

Talk soon xo

Sigh of relief...

Rehearsals, singing, laughs, drama, costumes, makeup.. the list is endless! After all of the build up to the renowned (in our school!!) School Musical - "The Sound of Music", my countdown has run out of time and last night was kick-off. We began the four-night wonder last night, the 5th December. The thrill was indescribable. We began at eight O'Clock and each and every actor, director, prop-person, wardrobe team (EVERYONE!) held their breath until the final call for bows. We were nervous to say the least. We still hadn't done a dress rehearsal or a full run through. But we were still extrememly excited! Of course, considering this was our first run through, there were some glitches. However, everyone did such a tremendous job, and I want to commend our Head Nun, Mother Abbess played by a sixth year who had the loss of a mic for the majority of her night. But he voice filled the hall, without the help of a microphone! All the children were wonderful, and of course Leah, our Maria was incredible which certainly wasn't a surprise.
   At half one today we're heading up to the GAA club for a short rehearsal and freshen up again before tonight's show, so goodluck to everyone involved again, And tonight should be a wonderful night, now that we know what goes wrong and where!
  This is a link to a short synopsis of the story line because I just realised that I have been blogging on about this musical and some of you may not know the entire storyline!

Talk soon xo

    

English Novel Review - "Crescendo" le Becca Fitzpatrick.

As part of our English course we have been asked to review a novel of our choice. Below is my review of the amazing novel, 'Crescendo' by Becca Fitzpatrick. She is an absolutely gifted and talented writer and as you will discover she is one of my favourite authors.

I hope you enjoy this review as much as I loved to write it!

Novel Review

In the novel Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick, there were many elements and features of her work that stood out to me. I was intrigued by her characters, the various styles and relationships and the plot development. Crescendo is the second book of the series, following ‘Hush, Hush’. I was first introduced to ‘Hush, Hush’ and Crescendo was a book that most defiantly had “big shoes to fill”.

Nora Grey, the protagonist of the novel can only be described as a three-dimensional, ever changing character. We gather from the first book that Nora is a conservative character, she wears the basic clothes – jeans and a t-shirt and her hair is never done to any extravagance. Her mother is her only guardian, after the tragic death of her father (which acts as a sub-plot throughout the series). Her mother however is more than often away from home due to work and so Nora has developed an independence that she believes she can do everything alone, which you may call somewhat headstrong. In this novel, Crescendo, Nora and the second main character, Patch fall in love.  As she is with him she changes, in very subtle ways. More than before she is able to speak her mind and protect herself from allowing others to talk her down, which shone through over a dispute with Patch; “I have the right to be angry!”.  It is clear that Nora contrasts to the character she once was, a timid country living girl.
Vee is Nora’s best friend – she is a large girl with a large personality. I was extremely interested to see how Fitzpatrick made two completely opposite characters relate to each other. Vee is louder than life, and has a unique personality. Even the choice of name “Vee” displays that Fitzpatrick wanted to emphasise the difference between Nora and her best friend. I found this very enjoyable to watch, as I could relate to both Vee and Nora throughout the novel in different situations. The contrast between the pair was highlighted several times, however I believe Fitzpatrick’s main message; that two completely different people can be attracted to each other was most defiantly highlighted.

As a reader, the most intriguing part of a novel is most defiantly the styles and features used. Becca Fitzpatrick’s features of writing are highly commendable and her descriptions throughout the novel are breath taking. There are many moments as I read that I was transported into the world of the novel. Fitzpatrick achieved greatly at one point by grabbing my attention with one particular description that stands out to me. She describes an event that happens as Nora is driving home, which was thrilling. I could feel the fear in Nora and noticed the pace of the section picked up. Fitzpatrick used short sentences to heighten the tension and build the moment to a climax. I can say that many the times I have seen movies and find my face cupped in my hands with fear. However, I never thought it to be true that it could happen while reading a book! I had to turn away from the book for a moment while caught in this episode to remind myself that I was only a reader. In my opinion, to have the skill to make a reader feel the raw emotion of the moment it truly astounding, and for that reason I would recommend this book to any reader.

I believe this book is most defiantly aimed towards the teen age group, although I would recommend it to people of all ages. For that reason I thoroughly enjoyed it as it was written from the view point of another teenage girl. This made the book more relatable to me as a reader as I could see and understand her viewpoints. Fitzpatrick, although a woman, flawlessly captured the thoughts and words of a teenage girl. Nora Grey is not your average American high school-going teen and I believe that Fitzpatrick proved this very skilfully.

The novel revolves around the relationship between Patch and Nora. Patch may seem like an unusual name, and there is no doubting it is. However, it is perfectly suitable to his title of a “fallen angel”. Hearing this many of you, I’m sure are comparing this this to the Twilight series, and if you’re not a fan you may feel uninterested. But let me assure you that these books are unforgettable and are once again that book that once you pick it up you cannot put it down. Patch was that boy that nobody understood. He sashayed into the school as a new student and kept to himself. A quiet and incomprehensible boy. Until he met Nora. In the first novel their relationship can only be described as a whirlwind of emotion and there were ups and of course their downs. However in Crescendo the first chapter transports us straight back into the relationship between the two, who are at this point in time deeply in love. Their relationship was built on trust and commitment to each other.  I found their relationship to be particularly fascinating, as we saw them face many obstacles that prevented them from falling in love, in Crescendo and for a time it separated them, yet they overcame these obstacles. As I read this, I could relate back to the novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and compare the relationship of Elizabeth and Darcy to that of Nora and Patch. I loved this aspect of the reading to be able to think about how they could overcome such obstacles and compare it to how Elizabeth and Darcy overcame their difficulties, such as their social class. This relationship developed gradually over the course of the novel .

The plot and plot development in this novel was extremely interesting. The novel moved at a perfect pace and Fitzpatrick did an outstanding job to develop the plot gradually over the course of the novel. She uses small, unnoticeable techniques to remind us of the happenings of the previous book, Hush, Hush, which really appealed to me. The plot was linked perfectly between the books and as it started to unravel even further in Crescendo I was captivated into the world of the text. I felt like an onlooker rather than a reader at moments, which I found truly fascinating – that it was possible to make a reader feel so involved. Our unanswered questions from Hush, Hush were uncovered throughout Crescendo, but new questions also arose – which was another captivating stylistic technique used by Fitzpatrick to absorb her readers into her world and that of Nora’s. I was very moved at certain areas and I would most defiantly agree that Fitzpatrick achieved to develop the plot of her story to a high standard over the duration of Crescendo.

Personally, as a young reader this was one of the most exciting, enthralling,  chilling and unforgettable books I have read. When I heard that the 3^rd book (Silence) was soon to be released I was sure to be one of the first Irish buyers. It is the cliché ‘once you pick it up you won’t put it down’ type of book and I honestly read this from beginning to end within two days. Had I the time it most certainly would have been finished within one! It is at the top of my favourite books, and if you haven’t read or heard of it before I would undoubtedly recommend it.

This book was utterly appealing to me as I enjoyed the characters and contrasting friendships, the beautiful and masterful descriptions used to create or emphasise an emotion. The relationship between Patch and Nora had a huge influence on my love for this novel and finally the steady development of the plot was captivating.

"I'm singing in the rain", actually you're singing in 'The Sound of Music'

I know that I neglected blogging for a while and after coming back into the game, I promised that I would write about the Don Giovanni Opera, but I just must must must blog about the musical today!
It's all most defaintly underway! Actually on Monday 5th at 8 O'Clock we will be beginning our first show, oooh come to think of it I might add a widget of a countdown to the big day!
Lately we've been rehearsing, rehearsing and more rehearsing, rehearsing.. etc, it's never ending! But I know that I can speak for everyone invloved that rehearsals are the most exciting thing to look forward to at the end of the day. This weekend will be a toughie, with rehearsals starting at 10 on both Saturday and Sunday and ending at 4 or 5 each day. And then up at 9:30 until 4 O'Clock on Monday! Although it's a lot of commitment I know that we've all had such an enjoyable time - laughter, fun and making new friends. From the nuns (& Contestants in Festival!) to Maria and Captain.
It was great to see how many people are actually involved in the Musical today in class our Director (THE BEST DIRECTOR YOU COULD ASK FOR!) asked us how many we're not involved - and not one girl put up her had, meaning 30 girls from TY alone are helping out!
I've so much more to blog about but after rehearsals today I'll blog and keep you all updated

Talk soon xo

This one's for you Mrs. L!

So since Friday Mrs. L has been on me to get up the recipe for my 'Carrot Cake Muffins'. We had a bakesale for our Mini Comapny to raise some airgead! And booy did we do well, around €160 we made! If you're not a huge food lover, I'm betting you're turning your nose up at the thought of Sweet cakes and Carrots! But you HAVE to try this. And the icing is just TO DIE FOR!
I did this recipe for my Junior Cert Home Ec. prcatical and I have now perfected it, so if you're a lover of carrot cake, let me know and I'll whip up a quick batch for you! :)

Carrot Cake Muffins

Mixture

125g Wholemeal Flour
125g Plain Flower
175g Brown Sugar
4 Eggs
150g Sunflower Oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Cinnamon/Mixed Spice (I always do a little of both!)
CARROTS! (Roughly 350g, but around 4 large carrots - the more the better!)
50g Hazlenuts/Walnuts (If you wish!)

Delicious Cream Cheese Icing

200g Cream Cheese
120g Icing sugar (do to taste also - I like to keep the icing more thick and not too sweet!)
1 teaspoon Vanilla essence (A MUST - it makes such a difference to the icing)

If any of you want to make these just let me know and I'll post the method - it's so simple! Almost like an all-in-one mixture, but not quite! Just comment below and let me know :)

Enjooooy!

Talk soon xo

"Rolling, rolling, rolling down to the bistro!" - Roly's Bistro, Work Experience

Honestly, I don't know where to begin with this amazing experience. I rememeber this time last year reading the Transition Year's blogs about Work Experience and my excitment and anticipation for my week & I can safely say that it definalty lived up to my expectations! I was working in a gorgeous restaurant - Roly's Bistro in Ballsbridge, Dublin. I really don't think I could have been more pleased with my week!

  I was so anxious the first day; 'Was I dressed appropriatly?', 'Was I going to be spending my week washing dishes?', 'What was the staff going to be like?'. Literally thousands of worries running through my mind. But as soon as I stepped foot into the restaurant I calmed myself. I  couldn't believe how friendly each worker was & even more so my superviser. I was brought to the bakery the first morning, believe it or not! How lucky? The smell was unbelievable and again everyone was so welcoming. It ended up that the baker in there was from the same town as me! I was straight into work - no waiting around! I honestly expected to be treated and seen as a nusance & that I was more in the way than anything else but I was given the responsibility of so many desserts that day - my spcialty was 'Bread and Butter Pudding' which I had mastered on that first day! Warning: This will get your mouth watering!

I also made Cheesecake, Pavlova, Breakfast Compot (which is mixed berries, yogurt, museli & fresh fruit in one small cup) and cute individual Apple Pies to name but a few! I was off at a reasonable time - just 2 O'Clock and so I had the rest of the day to massage my feet!

   The second day I arrived in and went for the bakery again, but I was able to stay a little while longer and have a couple of tasters through out the day! One of my jobs was to sort the "Tapas" & my oh my was I glad I was given that job! They were miniature desserts, like mini cheesecakes, bonoffie pie, eclair's! Yuuuum.
   On the third day I headed to the main kitchen, which was where there prepared the vegetables, soup, casseroles all the foodstuuf that can be prepared in advance. It was a tough day, on the feet and there is so much to be done, you wouldn't believe. For spinach alone there is so much involved - by taking out the stalk from the middle. And it's spinach! Not including the mushrooms, peppers, garlics and the onions (I was blubering the entire time!) Tears were literally falling from my eyes. Onions and I really don't have the best relationship!
    I've been dying to talk about my last day! My most exciting and FAVOURITE day! I was down again in the preparation kitchen and then my all time favourite part of the day - I went up to the serving kitchen. OH MY GOD! That's all I can say. I must admit that it was tough and I felt a little awkward at the start but once I came to terms with the way the kitchen worked I felt so much more at ease. I was put on starters and helped the chef prepare all the starters. It was so thrilling to get the orders in and have to count how many of what dish was needed, any special requests and so on. I couldn't believe how much I loved it! I prepeared dishes such as pigeon, paté, crab cakes.. food that you'd never think of preparing! I was then put onto *drum roll please* DESSERTS! And boy were they delicious :) I got to prepare cheesecake, pavlova, crumble & a knickerbocker glory - something to suit everyone! Delicious delicious food, and I'll be heading back sometime soon because my supervisor have me a gift of a dinner for two (which means people gotta be nice to me and maybe give me a chocolate bar some days!) I was in until 11 o'clock that night, but it was most defaintly worth it. I gained so much experience and now know that I am sure to do something along those lines when I'm older.

Check out Roly's website: http://www.rolysbistro.ie/

and the delicious food!

P.S.! OMG can't believe I forgot to mention this, but the list of celebs that have eaten there is endless - from Colin Farrell to Sarah Jessica Parker! And the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were in the week before me, so dissappointed - did they not know I was going to be there the next week?

I would definalty reccommend Roly's as a Work Expereince placement for anyone interested in that forte :)

Talk soon xo

Well that's a first...

I know, I'm terrible! I haven't been blogging in such a long time & it actually feels great blogging again! And it's really not like i have nothing to blog about, in the next couple of days I'll hopefully have a fair few blogs posted of all our TY doings.. Work Experience, "Don Giovanni" opera, MUSICAL (!) & overal TY happenings. Gonna begin my bloggin blitz, wish me luck :)

xo

Juno & The Paycock - yes, Paycock not Peacock

Most of you probably won't know this play ( yes btw it's a play!) written by Séan ó Casey, an Irish writer. It's set in Dublin around the 1920s, so around the 1916 rising and anything to do with that and Im instantly interested! It's about a family of four - Mr. Boyle, or as he would rather be reffered to as 'The Captain' , his wife Juno and their two 'chizzlers' Johnny and Mary. It's all very dramatic - it can be tragic and funny at the same time. But what an explosion of an ending!! CAUTION: if you don't want to know the ending turn away now!

Mary gets pregnant. And Johnny (after losing his arm in another battle) is killed.

Wondering why I'm telling you about this play? Well, inné all Transition Years went into Dublin City to the Abbey Theatre to see this play. It was brill! I'm really into acting (maybe not the best myslef but love to watch actors) and I have to applaud the setting on the stage - I think it looked so cool! They had a stove, and an old bed, old chair which was literally in taters. My stomach started to rumble during the play because Juno (the mother) began to cook sausages for the family for breaky! You could smell the sausages and I never believed before that, that the actors actually cooked the food! Anyway enough about food, that was my last blog! But on our wonderful journey yesterday in town, not onbly did we see the play but we also got to visit the Yeats exhibition and the National Musuem and I'm guessing the National musuem was the highlight of most people's tour with the bog bodies!

I'm gonna post a picture of the bog bodies so if you're squemish probably best you don't look!

This guy was in the National Musuem. Most of the bodies were murdered and then buried in the bogs!

The day was orgainised by all TY English teachers and Mrs. L! Thanks to them for a great day!

I'll blog later today hopefully!

Talk soon xo

Dinner Time! For some...

This is a difficult topic! There is just so much you can write about food. It's everywhere, and almost controls our lives. Every holiday revolves around food in some way - Christmas = need I even say anything?
Easter = chocolate bunnies! (Mmm..)
Halloween = Pumpkins (even though we don't eat them, it still counts)

We wake up to food, we deal with food throughout the day and then end the day with food! It's constantly food, food, food! But what if we didn't have this access? What if we woke up to nothing, had nothing through out the day and fell asleep again with an empty stomach? I bring this up because just recently in Religion class we've been learning about the Millennium Development Goals and their importance - and No.1 is to 'Eradicate Extreme poverty and hunger'. The first, and most important goal is to do with food.

Food is our key to survival. We can survive only a few weeks on water alone and after that food must be consumed. But in countries where the 'tesco' isn't our next door neighbour problems are much more severe. The MDGs have high aims to lower the number of people in developing countries, especially, living in disastrous conditions. By the way, if ever you decide you want to educate yourself on some important topic, I would definatly reccommend the MDGs (sounds like I'm reccommending a movie or book!). But they are very interesting and some statistics are absolutely shocking! But here's a link to a brilliant website giving information on all the goals.

But, back to the point I was making before. Food has such a huge effect on people not only physically but mentally. For example, when I need food let's just say you'll know about it cause I might get a little bit crabby! But as well there are many disorders concentrated on the topic of food. People in most third world countries are starved for their entire life - from the moment they were born as their mother was not given enough nutrition through out her pregnancy. There are so many diffirent effects food can have on people. There is a huge contrast to those living in developing countries to developed. The phisical contrast is unbelievable and it's hard to understand how one country can have such a wide availablity of food in comparision to another that result in famine. Some may question is famine even acceptable in the 21sh Century with all the advances in technology? There could be deabtes that would continue on without ending, but the bottom line is - what is going to be done about it?

Food is such a wide topic, there is so much to write about it, but what I wanted to get out of this blog was to highlight the importance of food and it's diffirent effects. The MDGs are very important in the role of improving food levels in some countries and to get rid of death due to starvation. Like many other things, food isn't shared equally in the world which needs to change.

I know some of you might find this a very boring blog kinda "down in the dumps" but hopefully it will show you that the food you eat every day shouldn't be taken for granted and next time you drink your coffee and leave it to go cold think of the poor people in Kenya who slaved for hours and get less than quarter the profit. Or the next time you let the bananas go brown think of young people, school-going age, who have left anf forced to work to earn some money.

Thanks for taking the time to read this! Hope you all enjoyed the blogging today and leave me a comment or link to your piece on food!

Talk soon xo

Things to do.. Want me to write a novel?

Okay so our next 'small' task of TY is to make a list of all the things we have to do! Are you kidding? The list will be NEVER ENDING! I'm going to try to confine my list to less than 10 things.. here it goes.

Numero uno:
Geography Project! Agh, super stressful! I've already dedicated a blog to the project, but just in case you haven't read it: it's an Around The World Trip and we are given €12,000 each to go off and spend on a first, second and third world country of our choice. It may sound easy, but you would definatly be mistaken! Well, that must be done for 3 weeks time! Evn though I know we've had 6 weeks already, TY has been stressful enougt so I've barely had time to think let alone do!

No. 2:
MINI COMPANY! Okay I know I was barking on about the geography project, but after our visit to the Kildare Enterprise meeting yesterday all of us are feeling the pressure. Our idea is good, we think anyway for the competition! We have a meeting today, which is very formal - in the Demo room at 1.20 (remember that girls!). We have an agenda, the minutes will be taken and a roll call! Woo! We have promised oursleves that we will disuss the Mini Company ONLY. Nothing else. For our next Kildare meeting we must have our product (or a good excuse not to have it!!) and from the looks of things we mightn't have the product. We firstly have to fundraise money (hoping to go to the farmer's market on Saturday to sale cakes!) because we honestly need mula mula mula! $$$

Trois:
Okay, I know have it done.. but I'm so proud with myself I have to put this up! WORK EXPERIENCE! This would have been the first tihng on my list, this time last week, but I got a placement for November.. FINALLY! I put so much effort into work experience, and I was getting really dis-heartened when every place I contacted turned me down. But last week I rang a restaurant and they seemed happy to offer me the work! *Weight off my shoulders* And its something Im interested in.. now all I hope is that I'll have an enjoyable week.

We only got FOUR minutes..
Read, read, read! It may not seem like its the top of the list for most people, but from creative writing and english class (and Niamh!) I've been influenced to read. I'm very proud of Niamhy here, cos she has read "Jane Eyre" and boy is that tough! I'm in the midst of reading something atm but I haven't gotten into it properly yet so my goal is to begin to enjoy the books, rather than feeling like its a must.

5 Five 5 Five 5 Five..
MUSICAL MUSICAL MUSICAL! (Just felt the need there to repeat everything!) I have been cast as 'Frau Schmidt' the housekeeper in The Sound of Music. Although it may not seem as a huge part.. the best thing is rehearsals. Have them today!! Woo, I LOVE GOING TO THEM !

Talk soon xo


PS. Orla is beside me right now with her arm around me. I annoyed her. But I said sorry. So therefore we're friends again!

Hmm.. "Trouble in Paradise" ?

There's a weird feeling at the moment in the class. In IT there's usually a couple of quiet converstaions and people whispering among themselves. But today it's different. All I can hear is the clicking of the keyboard as everyone furiously types. And I have a feeling almost everyone is writing about the same thing today: 'The Fun Walk'. Every year we have a walk with the entire school and each year is given a specific coulour, and from that colour they have to choose a theme. As Transition Years we were given the colour yellow, and from that we chose Bananas as our theme.. which may be a bit cliché! We also have to think up of a dance to impress the judges. From rumours the other two TY class are more like cheerleaders rather than doing a simple dance. We've heard whispers of  crowd surfing and "throwing!" a fellow TY in the air! So, we decided to up our game and make human pyramids. Never in my life have I seen something so unbelievably difficult! We're having so much trouble trying to arrange this dance so we can have some shot of winning (the chocolate bars!!!). There seems to be a bit of division arising in the class aswell. I just hope once the Fun Walk is over with, the class will just be 'back to normal'.

Talk soon xo

Feeling geographical!

So I'm sitting here in IT class, and after blogging about the Solheim Cup and all the other happenings that have gone on, Mrs. L has influenced us to talk about Geography (funny enought she's a Geography teacher too! Never would have guessed!) In Geography at the moment we're doing an 'Around The World Trip', and its really so interesting. We've been working on it for the past while, but the most stressful part, believe it or not is getting the flights! We have a budget of €12,000 each. Ok that is alot seeing as there is two in the group (I'm working with Martha Brady, she wanted to be mentioned!!) and we're going to very exotic places if I do say so myself: China, Sweden, Russia, Meh-hico, Kenya, Tanzania and Chile! Its uber exciting. In Russia we're going to this gorgeous lake; Lake Baikal.. here's a link to this picture below

"The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Music"

One very short, quick post dedicated to the beginning of the Musical! Woo, tomorrow it all begins, the practice, singing dancing and acting.. so excited. The cast list was put up just last week, and I want to congratulate everyone that got a part (especially the nuns and "Contestants in Festival" !) Can't wait to get started tomorrow, but first have to get a good night's sleep.


Talk soon xo

Golfers at the ready!

What a better way to spend your Friday afternoon than out in the sunshine in the beautiful grounds of Killeen castle watching the European and American women battle it out for the Solheim Cup (Golf btw!). During the week there was talk about the Solheim Cup in school, and students were given the chance to head along, free of charge! I don't know why I only decided to go on Thursday because it was such a great opportunity! There was about 15 girls, from 4th and 5th year that decided to go. We had very strict instructions from our PE teacher that there were to be no jeans worn or any tracksuits, which seemed very limiting. But we all looked as smart and as posh as you please heading of for the day. We first followed a group of the players around from the 14th to the 18th tee, it was such a gorgeous day - no clouds at all in the sky. The competition has been going on since Friday and ended today with singles. And believe it or not the Europeans walked away with the winning title :) Never understood golf so clearly until I visited this, its given my inspiration to get out and practice, the only thing I couldn't be bothered doing is the long 2hour walk!

Here's a link to the Solheim Cup website to get an idea of what its about & see all the players:
http://www.solheimcup.com/

Talk soon xo

End of an Era.

Little less than a week ago, on September 14th, all current Transition and 5th Year students spent the first couple of hours in school waiting on that dreded bell and the voice of the Deputy Principal to call us to the hall, knowing it was time to recieve our results for the Junior Cert. All morning teachers were making their best effort to calm our nerves, through meditation and charades!
       In Third Year, no one could see past the Junior Cert. It felt as if the only thing that mattered was study, read, learn and study some more! Honestly, the 2weeks spent in doors as all other students in the school enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere of the summer, third years and sixth years were "locked" inside, with 2 exams a day, wasn't as bad as we expected.
       But on Wednesday, the build up to the results and the end of the Junior Cert, was finally over. It seemed so informal , we were handed our results in a brown envelope and sent on our way. Some girls screamed with excitement, others cried, even before the results were opened. It was all over very quickly. I didnt look at my results straight away, I was too nervous and I didnt know if I wanted to know exactly how I had done. I would have been heartbroken to see results that I wasn't happy with, after the hours and tears I had put in throughout third year. But I was absolutely over the moon with the results, some I honestly did not expect and as much as I dreded the opening of them and receiving them, Im glad to say that I can now put it behind me.
       Wednesday night, of course, brought with it: Celebrations! TYs and 5th years were almost unrecognisable with the dark tans, false nails, and dyed hair. We all headed to the "local" disco in a nightclub, Time. Each and every one of us had such an enjoyable night, which had to live up to great expectations.

Talk soon.

Off to Carlingford we go.

Early morning rise by the alarm clock on Monday morning at 6 o'clock, to head off to Carlingford Adventure Centre for two days. It was still the dead of night (or so it seemed) at 6 showing that the summer is defaintly over, and winter is here. Over the past couple years I've heard so much about Carlingford from past Transition Year students, some good and some bad responses, mostly people saying it was a brilliant experience, so I went with very high hopes. And they were certainly fulfilled! I was pleased with the fact that we were heading off on the trip the two days before our results came out. I didn't give them a second thought down there, which kept me much calmer.
     We left for the centre at seven, some people still half asleep while others were wide awake jumping and screaming with delight that we were heading off on our famous Carlingford trip! We arrived at around 9 and no time was lost. We were given a room for our bags for the day (not our bedrooms, they had to wait!) and headed off to our first activity - Lasers! Everyone enjoyed themselves and really got into the spirit of things, especially with the army gear, including laser guns on. It was very similar to paintballing, without the pain and bruises! It was definatly a good start to the trip to say the least. We headed back to the centre for lunch, but it wasn't long till we were back out with more activities. We then were brought to "The Challenge Course" which was another hike to get to, as well as to the lasers. There was a mixture of team building excercises on this course, and it seems everyone gave it their best shot, loved the 'Communication Breakdown'  challenge which was like a small maze in a shed, pitch black dark, and our aim was to go in and find our way back out again. Sounds easy but let me assure you it was a very difficult challenge when 7 other people were concerned & you weren't just worrying about getting yourdelf out. After hours of working as 'one'(!) and collecting our gems as prizes we went back for dinner this time to the centre.
       After Spagetti we were super excited ot be going on anmother activity - Nightline, woo! This is when you're blindfolded and one had is one a rope and the other on the person's sholders in front and you have to communicate to tell eachother about whats coming like a tree for example ( I guess you've gathered by now that this was team bonding trip!). Of course when we got to the forest, it couldnt be drama free, oh no! Something had to happen, so we got a forest fire. Yep. It was across the bay so it certainly wasn;t going to reach us, ut the thought alone was scary enough! Us, at the back of the line saw the fire begin and spread, and spread.. & spread. It got kinda frightning to be honest, and the fact we were being blindfolded and been brought through and dark forest certainly didnt help.
        With that big scare over we came back once again to the centre, to be greated by a visiting boys school. I guess you could say that some girls made a few friends? *Cough cough*., We had an enjoyable night in until we had to head to bed at 11, which only led to continuation of a party in the bedrooms, with sweets galore! Our goal was to do an 'all nighter' but we lasted only until 3:00, guessing thats not the earlier time to head to bed for anyway! But some how or another we got up at 7:00 the next morning and began our day with a bit or abseiling and rock climbing. I've never enjoyed something more, probablly becaue I felt like a little risk taker.. climbing up the mountain (?) face blindfolded! Very pleased with myself. Abseiling was great fun too, but can be very scary putting your trust in trees to hold you up when you're going down the mountain backwards!
        Returning from lunch we finished up with orienteering and archery. The route for orienteering was so long they may as well have given us a mp of the world and told us to walk up and down the alps, some of the mountains felt just as steep! It was definatly a tough test of the fitness levels, and I can obviously say I was exausted afterwards.
        It all seemed to end so quickly. We arrived back and within ten minutes we were walking and lugging my suitcase (:s) back onto the bus, where a lot of us took the chance to catch up on some much needed sleeep!
      I hope I can speak for everyone in the year and say that the trip definatly fulfilled our high expectations, and that we bonded more as a group. I'm alreading jealous of next year's TYs and their trip to Carlingford, and hope they'll have just as much fun.
     Thank you Mrs. L for organising the trip, and to Ms. O'C and Ms. B for all your help (and added fun!) on the trip!

talk soon xo

Long time no talk.

For the past week I know I haven't made much of an effort really to keep my blog updated, it certainly has been a hectic week so far, to say the least, but once everything calms down and the hype of the Junior Cert is completely over I vow to blog as much as the others. Some people seem to have time to blog every 2minutes! So much has happened over the past couple of days I feel I need to dedicate a blog to: "Social Developing", Carlingford and of course the Junior Cert results day. I'll also blog this evening or tomorrow about our wonderful Thursday evening activities - pilates, photography and a little bit of Charleston dancing to keep us going!

talk soon.

First TY Blog!

This is the first blog I've ever written, I've never done anything like 'blogging' before. To be honest, up until now I didn't really know what blogging was! I've reached my second week of TY and I absolutely love it so far. I loved TY on the first day back but it seems not everyone felt the same way. We really didn't do much, but I've been looking forward to TY for years and Im so excited to be finally here , after a tough year last year, of continuous studying & work, work, WORK! We seem to have a great year lined up for us & I'm excited to get involved in as much as I can. This is a year which is more focused on Personal Development, rather than academics. We've been given plenty of stuff to keep us busy, though! Alot of projects, in almost every subject. I was so happy when I heard that this year we'll be doing a musical - 'The Sound of Music'! I can't wait, because I'm going to have so much spare time.. I really hope that I get some part, even backstage! I have an audition later today - in 25mins! Agh! Im excited but obviously nervous too. I'll keep you updated on the Musical throughout the year :)

TY!