Having done the economics assessment today, my arm was sore from all that writing. I didn’t even write that much, only four pages. I don’t think I covered everything either.

It doesn’t help that it’s a Monday. Hollowing out the double figure today should’ve been the perfect timing if I want to finish everything this term. I managed to finish hollowing out the double figure, but my arm is even more sore from all that digging.

I got my mouse back too. Meet Mouldy Mouse! I was expecting it to be a lighter blue-grey colour (I obviously don’t know anything about glazes xD), but it came out to be this dark grey with green bits. Still a good colour for a mouse, it must’ve been in the cheese. At least Mouldy Mouse is coming out a lot better than the tall figure.

The glaze on the tall figure cracked. Apparently, I must’ve had greasy hands. If anything, my hands are really dry! How could I have greasy hands? The tall figure will probably be fired without glaze since I’ve put more glaze on it and it cracked again.

Only one more lesson to go. I think everything will work out right.

Well, may be not. The others in the class are planning to have a party next week. How nice, I have an assessment starting at 7 on next Tuesday, and there’s going to be a party in my sculpture class. As if I don’t already feel guilty enough about going to my sculpture class even if I have an assessment on the next day! Now there’s going to be a party. No matter how prepared for the assessment I might be, it just feels wrong to be out at a party on the evening before the assessment. But I have to go, because I have to glaze the double figure.

See, everyone else is probably worried about their assessments, but I’m not. I’m just stuck in this guilt trap. If I go, I’ll feel guilty because it’s just wrong to be at a party when there’s an assessment on the next day. If I don’t go, I feel guilty about not finishing what I started, especially since I’m not going back next term.

Well, I’ve kind of came up with a way around this.

I’m not worried about my maths assessment.
I’m worried about the sculpture class.
But I’m worried about the sculpture class because of the maths assessment.
Therefore, I’m just worried about the maths assessment.
But I said I’m not worried about my maths assessment.
Therefore, I’m not worried about anything at all. xD

Point Zero day was quite pointless. It’s just the same things that we hear once or twice every year. It was good to not have to work for a day though.

Somehow the assembly today was really noisy. The “Aussie Oi Oi Oi” cheer at the end was so loud, and the hall was so crowded. I took this photo before the assembly. By the time it was opening of the common room, I was so nervous that I started acting confused.

At the beginning of lunch time it was still raining, so I had to stay inside the noisy and crowded common room, and it doesn’t help me calm down. During lunch time, there was a fire alarm and we had to go outside in the rain. Normally I would’ve been taking photos of everyone standing in the rain, but I was still so nervous and panicky that I just stood there and did nothing. There was the saying that it was someone lighting a candle indoors that triggered the smoke alarm, but apparently it was actually rainwater short circuiting the fire alarm. After the whole fire alarm thing, it was still raining, so the only place to go to was the noisy common room. I tried not to let the nervousness get to me, so I focused on picking out the fact that the usage of “thy” and “thee” in the common room commandments seemed to be swapped around instead.

In the session after lunch, I managed to calm down, but I was really tired. I took a photo of the police youth liason officer demonstrating putting handcuffs on someone.

After that, there was extension 2 maths. Somehow, I wasn’t too tired by then. One lesson earlier on this term, the teacher showed some “happy face maths” to the class, and I came up with a few of my own, and I drew them out and showed her, and she took the page out of my sketch book. Like, “Oh wow! I’m taking that.” and she pulled the page out. This teacher is so bold. First it was going through my pencil case, and now this. Oh well, I’ll just draw it out again.

If Siu Bo didn’t die, she’d be 9 today.

Just posting this so I can see that I still remember it.

I glazed my mouse and the tall figure today. I’ve almost finished the double figure too, so I can hollow it next week, and it’ll be bisque fired and ready for glazing on week 9, and then I’ll leave early. Perfect timing!

The sandpaper isn’t doing much for my mouse’s tail, so my little mouse will just have to have a tail without a tip… At least it has a tail, unlike some of the clay mice that I’ve made years and years ago which invariably lost their tails after a while…

You know there’s something wrong with your chemistry class when… you learn more chemistry from your sculpture class than from your chemistry class.

Just kidding, my chemistry classes are nowhere near that bad. Look at this mouse. I want it to be a blue-grey colour, so here it is, with the blue glaze. Looks too pink to be blue, doesn’t it? Apparently, the cobalt carbonate (which makes it blue) needs some iron oxide (that’s what makes it look pink now) to balance out so it’s not so bright blue, and it’ll be the blue-grey colour I want after firing.

As for this white one, I think it has titanium oxide or something like that in it? I know there’s silica (silicon dioxide) and feldspar in all the glazes. The feldspar is supposed to lower the melting point. See? There’s so much chemistry in this. I guess this will be plenty of motivation for me to work hard in chemistry. May be this will even give me a good start in one of the topics coming up? As if I’d be that lucky! Even if it doesn’t, who cares? This is fun! I can always do with the extra motivation. This also makes me notice more about chemistry from a different perspective, and this will probably help me better than any kind of tutoring. Well, at least it’ll help me understand things better.

This class is great. I’m not worried about anything now. Not even about probably having to quit this class next term.

It’s surprising how unwell I can get just because of my mood. Being upset really drains a lot of energy, and I was tired enough the way I was… I ended up collapsing during the first maths lesson on Friday, which means I missed the second maths lesson. I’ll probably collapse again when I see how much catching up I’ll have to do.

Well, may be not, considering that if I collapse on Monday I won’t be able to go to my sculpture class, and then I’ll be even more upset and get even more unwell. I mustn’t miss another lesson, otherwise I won’t be able to finish everything even if I go on week 9.

That was all I’ve been worrying about to begin with. I think it was the maths assessment notices that made me start this – trying to decide whether to miss the lesson on week 9 just so I won’t be tired on the day of the assessment is not a good idea! I might’ve been worrying about the maths assessment to start with, but I was much more worried about finishing off my sculpture, especially since I really doubt that I’ll go back next term. Having something on Monday evening followed by having to get up extra early on Tuesday is just too much for me, and more importantly, I want to try something else anyway. Glass beads for beginners seems interesting, and I think there’ll be a class on Tuesday evening. I want to go back to the fabric class too, if it’s not cancelled again. (Well that’s on Monday too, so it’s out of question, unless I try to make up an excuse to never turn up to Tuesday house time and go to the afternoon class xD)

I think I felt guilty about worrying about the sculpture class: I don’t think I was worried about the maths at all. Why was I so worried about a class that I won’t even continue next term?

Just having something to look forward to makes all the difference. I’m not worried now. Tomorrow will be fine. I’ll go to my sculpture class and try to finish everything off. I’ll try not to tell either teacher about what’s going on. You know how in the song “This Land Is Your Land” there’s a line that goes “but on the other side it didn’t say nothing”? On the other side, I won’t say nothing. Well, it should be “anything”, not “nothing” – that’s a double negative. Isn’t it just like me to pick out this kind of thing? xD

Well, may be I’m not my usual self – since when did I become like this? I was never someone to worry about anything. I used to be the one who never does any extracurricular activities too, but now I can’t imagine not doing one.

It’s confirmed. The first maths extension 2 assessment will be on the last Tuesday of the term. Not surprisingly, quite a few people weren’t very happy about the fact that it’s going to start at 7 in the morning. As for me, I went “NO!!! Any day but TUESDAY!!!” and I got a response “don’t look at me like that” – somehow, I don’t think the teacher noticed that I was emphasising the fact that it’s on a Tuesday rather than the fact that it starting at 7 in the morning.

I just wanted to finish this term. Looks like even that’s too much to ask for.

Should I rush to finish everything in two lessons, and say goodbye to my class on week 8?
Should I go even if it means turning up to the assessment looking as if I was going to fall asleep, and possibly still have to rush to finish off everything?

And if I don’t finish everything this term, should I go back next term to finish off what I don’t finish this term? Or will I just end up starting more that I’ll never finish?

I think I should just keep going next term and take the lesson off if I have assessments. This week wasn’t too bad. I don’t want to quit!

It’d be so appropriate to make a sculpture of myself hiding my face looking as if I’m crying, or may be one of me slicing cones (like in conics). xD Not that I’d have time left this term. I have two lessons left if I don’t turn up to the last one, and in those two lessons I have to glaze two pieces (which won’t take long) and finish off the one I started on Monday for bisque firing, glaze it on the next one, and then may be I could just turn up on the last lesson to pick it up.

Well, I still have until next Monday to decide what to do. Why am I so upset about this? I didn’t even feel sad when I left Hong Kong, and now I’m crying over having to quit a class that I’ve been attending for one term.

For a Tuesday, I’m really wide awake today. Even if I had to get up at 5:30 in order to be at school at 7. I guess all the swimming yesterday really helps. I even picked out a mistake on the board in maths.

I don’t like the new vertical group system. May be this is what I’ve been dreading. It didn’t help that the teacher was actually late for house time. What’s the point in getting anywhere on time when there’s always someone that doesn’t? A few lost people (who are now in the other vertical groups) turned up in house time, and I offered to show them the list, and even the teacher said I was organised. This teacher doesn’t seem interested in seeing what I’ve got to show on Tuesdays. Oh well, it’s a maths teacher, so what can I expect. I didn’t try showing it to my maths teacher either. Apparently, a lot of people from my vertical group hate her. xD

Somehow, swimming carnival wasn’t as fun as I expected it to be. May be it’s because the noise made me nervous, and the stands were so crowded that I didn’t get to sit down. Or may be it’s because I entered in all three 50 metre events and by the end of the third one I was sitting on the floor being dizzy with people asking me if I was OK. I came fourth in the freestyle race though.

The synchronised swim didn’t go so well – the music didn’t come out right. I don’t really like the way I looked with makeup on either. Booralee came fourth, so I got another yellow ribbon. So yellow…

Well, if I was dizzy after the swimming, I certainly wasn’t in the evening. It’s Monday, so of course I go to my sculpture class. My two other sculptures have been fired. The tip of my mouse’s tail broke off before firing, so it’s been fired when the tip (which was found when I asked what happened) hasn’t, and look what it’s like now. I’m not going to stick the tip back on, I’ll just have to sand the tip of what’s left of the tail.

This session was a double model session. Having two models is surely challenging! The teacher recommended the class to sketch the models first, but I’m really slow with sketching, so I scribbled on my sketchbook a bit and gave up. It’s probably better that I start on the clay earlier, because I don’t know how I’m going to finish off this piece. The first one that I did this term actually looks quite promising, but the double model session surely proves to be a challenge. It’s starting to lean to one side by the end of the lesson. I just hope it survives to next week. Only last Thursday I felt sad for no reason, and now I actually have something to worry about just as I start to feel better.

It was funny how just about every time the teacher says something that doesn’t come out right. Last week she said “wash your bottom [of the sculpture, and then realising what she said] eh… underneath, that’s a better word”, this week with the models she said it was a “one night stand”… xD

I got up early today for land practice. It’s the second time this week. This time isn’t that bad, simply because it’s not Tuesday. May be I can even get used to getting early on Tuesdays. I’ll have to. I won’t quit.

In physics, the teacher was offering this extra worksheet to the class, and I tried to look over her shoulder to see what’s on it. I ended up getting one because *someone* told the teacher that I wanted one. I have too much to do the way it is, I seriously don’t need an extra physics worksheet! Oh well, I’ll do it anyway.

Well, my guessing wasn’t that good. I got two of the lessons the wrong way around.

What I expected:

What it turns out to be:

I’m not in the same room for roll call any more because of the vertical groups. No more being the one who’s waiting for the chemistry class to come in after roll call… I get a different economics teacher too.

Overall, compared to what some other people have, it’s not too bad.

Now, if only I could get out of having to go to house time on Tuesday, I could take up another class… (As if! I can forget about taking up an afternoon class.)

Speaking of classes, it’s Monday! You know what to expect…

I made a clay mouse in sculpture class tonight. The tail kept breaking off, and I kept making holes in it trying to hollow it out, but it’s alright now.

Now it’s waiting for its bisque firing along with the one that I’ve been working on for three weeks. Huge mouse, isn’t it? I mean, it looks more like a dog standing next to the other piece that I made…