PSHCE Day

This week at school we had a PSHCE day. If you don't know what that is I'll explain it for you. It's a day off timetable where you learn all about car maintenance and law and government and budgeting and waste six hours of your life. I don't know whether you can tell but I hate these days. My theory is that their only purpose within the school year is to make everyone realise how much they prefer normal school days in the hope that they'll stop wingeing about them for a week or two.

Now I'm in the sixth form I don't have full days of lessons anymore; I would have only had two lessons on Wednesday meaning I could go home early and get some work done, but Wednesday was a PSHCE day... So I had a full day of school. After spending a year and a third rarely having a day with all five lessons, I suddenly had one, and not just relaxing lessons, we built flat pack furniture and checked oil in cars and did budgets and listened to people talk about university finance. That may not sound that hard but it was a shock to the system; I was practically falling asleep on the walk home from school, not from boredom (although that was a factor) but from pure exhaustion.

I didn't even learn anything new, apart from the car stuff, which I won't need for another four years anyway. I wouldn't have minded if we had spent a day off schedule and we'd learnt useful things like how to get stains out of things or how to make technology work. Things that might actually be useful when we go off to university (other life paths are available). Instead we spent our time reading instruction books, putting numbers in spreadsheets and looking at engines, thrilling.

See you all next week,

Adam

New Year!

Hello again everyone! Happy New Year and welcome to the first post of 2014. It's the time of year for resolutions so I thought I'd share mine.

This year is my last year of school before I hopefully head off to university so one of my resolutions is to do all of the work that I need to get my grades for uni. It'll be tough and I know there will be times where I really don't want to work but if I can get it all done then the outcome will be brilliant.

I want to try and do more sport this year and get fitter. I already run three times a week most weeks and I want to continue this in preparation for the 10k in the summer. I've also started playing five-a-side football once a week which is great fun.

Another resolution is to do more in general. Create more things, design more things and have more fun. I really enjoy making things and would like to do more of it this year, so I'm challenging myself to try.

Finally I would like to raise £100 for charity. I'm running in the 10k and am setting up a Just Giving account to raise money for Parkinson's UK. I'm going to post the details when it's ready and it would mean a lot if you could all help me reach this target.

That's all from me this week. I'd love to hear about your resolutions, either in the comments or via twitter (@tigerads). See you all next Friday.

Adam

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everybody! It's Christmas Eve, the presents are wrapped, the lights on the tree are twinkling and the mince pies have been eaten. Every child across the country is getting ready for Christmas Day and every parent in the country is trying to persuade their children that Santa won't come until nine-thirty so there's definitely no point getting up before ten.

I love this time of year, everything looks prettier, everyone seems happier and most importantly, I get presents! As I've grown up I've started to enjoy giving presents to others almost as much as receiving them back. I'm really excited to see the look on my brother's face when he opens his presents this year. I think that the excitement on Christmas Eve, looking forward to presents and festivities, is what makes Christmas so special.

I've also done a lot more to help this year; I've helped with the decorating, done some of the wrapping, I even helped with eating all the food, which I thought was very generous of me! It's the first time we've cooked a traditional Christmas dinner this year and I'm quite excited. We've ordered the turkey and all the trimmings to go with it and I can't wait for lunchtime tomorrow.

I'd like to wish all of you a very merry Christmas, wherever you are and whatever you do and I'd love to hear some of your Christmas traditions in the comments or on twitter (@tigerads). I hope you get everything you want and have a really nice time.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Adam

Christmas Week 2

Hi everyone, we're getting even closer to Christmas now, there are only 12 sleeps to go! I'm getting really excited; decorations are going up everywhere and the radio is jam packed full of Christmas music.

This weekend I'm going to be putting up my decorations which makes the house look so magical, with tinsel everywhere and some very pretty lights. Then of course there's the tree, the pinnacle of all decorations, a symbol of the whole festive period. Christmas is one of the best times of the year because everything looks better, the decorations transform houses and make them seem so much more welcoming.

I've realised that I'm really bad at buying presents. If I know what someone wants then that's fine, I can do that but as soon as someone says surprise me I struggle. Even with members of my own family I can't think of anything to buy. I should know what to get but I just can't think, I'm worried at how little I seem to know about what people would like. That's the hardest thing about Christmas, choosing what presents to buy for everyone.

So there you have it, my favourite and least favourite things about Christmas. It's only two weeks to Christmas Day so I'd better get on with my shopping. See you all next week.

Adam

December!

Hi everyone, first of all I'd like to apologise for the lack of a blog last week. I had a very busy week and didn't have time to write a post. This week is the first week of December, which means it's nearly Christmas. I was talking to my Dad about Christmas and his opinion particularly amused me so I thought I'd put it in a blog:

What's happened to Christmas?

It wasn't that many years ago, that you could always rely on Christmas for hundreds of festive pop songs and something decent to watch on the telly, apart from the holiday adverts. The first hint that Christmas was on its way would be when the first carol singers used to arrive on your doorstep on the 1st of December, blissfully ignorant of the carol or song they were murdering. The canny ones even saved expending energy by not bothering to sing until you opened the door.

And then was the traditional Boxing Day sales that actually started on Boxing Day with people queueing outside over night to ensure they got  "their bargain" and it had all been worth it after all. Today every day is a sale day in at least one shop somewhere - the pre (pre...) Christmas sale, you get the idea.

Nowadays the run up to Christmas starts earlier and earlier. This year the first Christmas items appeared in the shops in September, just as they were also starting to replace their autumn / winter ranges with their spring / summer collections.

No matter how often you wish for a white Christmas, you can pretty much guarantee that it will be grim, dull and completely snowless, unless you live in Scotland or on top of a big hill.

They might as well just rename Autumn, Christmas! Or does that just provide the opportunity for Christmas to keep creeping forward until Wizzard do get their wish and it really is Christmas every day.

That was what my Dad had to say on the subject of Christmas. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'll see all next week for some more festive fun!

Adam

Life Of Pi

I've just sat down to watch the film "The Life Of Pi" and thought it might be an interesting idea to write this blog whilst watching it. If you haven't seen the film and don't want to know what happens then I suggest you stop reading this blog now as there will be quite a lot of spoilers through the main part of the post.

I have to admit I was a bit sceptical about watching The Life Of Pi, and for quite a while I thought I had been right. For what seemed like the first half an hour all we saw were shots of various animals in a zoo, none of which were doing much at all. We were then introduced to a boy named after a swimming pool. But that wasn't his only claim to fame, oh no, he could also recite the number Pi, after which he nicknamed himself, to an unbelievable number of decimal places.

It has improved now though. A plot has started to develop as we are shown the child growing up. The adult version of Pi continues to tell the tale of his childhood, interrupted far too frequently by unnecessary, but stunning panoramas. Pi and his family have boarded a boat, bound for Canada, and the real story has begun. If the film had started now very little would have been missed, other than Pi falling in love right before he had to leave, which I'm assuming was foreshadowing something due to its complete lack of relevance to the rest of the film.

The boat has just been hit by a massive storm. Pi is left on his own, stranded on a lifeboat after a tranquillised zebra, rather comically, stumbled onto the tiny wooden structure, dropping it into the rough seas. Cue dramatic shots of raging water and grey skies. At least the film is getting interesting now.

I've just watched an orang-utan, a zebra and a hyena have a fight and I didn't think it could get any more surreal but now a tiger, named Richard Parker due to a clerical error, has joined in and it's becoming a free for all.

Skipping past a section in which Pi comes perilously close to death in almost every imaginable way, gets chased off his boat by Richard Parker and hit by another storm, he has now reached an island and quite possibly the strangest part of the film so far. The island is covered in meerkats; that sounds like an exaggeration but I am being very literal, it is like the crowd at a One Direction but with meerkats instead of people. It's a shame we've not heard from adult Pi in a while.

He's back! Adult Pi has done some more narrating and we're now seeing the weirdest bit, I know I just said it but this is even weirder. It turns out that the island is carnivorous and had eaten it's last inhabitant. Delightful.

Yay, Pi has been found. He's reached a desert island, not man-eating this time, and has been carried to safety by a group of locals. Surprise, surprise, Richard Parker has left Pi like the cold-hearted animal he really is and adult Pi is getting a little teary-eyed just thinking about it. Typical tigers eh?

I think we are coming to the end of the film now and Pi is being questioned by the owners of the ship that sank back at the start of the film. Pi describes, in detail, everything that has happened but the interviewers don't believe him. This is because he said that an orang-utan had floated through the sea on some bananas and everyone knows bananas can't float. Honestly.

We've finally reached the end of the film and adult Pi finishes his story just as his wife arrives home, and you'll never guess what... She's not the girl from India that he fell in love with right before he left. How disappointing. I guess I was wrong about that, but at least he named his daughter after her. And that's the end, a far-fetched but entertaining film that, despite not being my favourite film, is one that I quite enjoyed. Adult Pi finished the film by saying there are two versions of every story and the true one is only the one we choose to believe. That's an interesting statement to think about.

That's all for this week,

Adam

Lifescouts Part 2

Hi everyone, this is my second blog in the Lifescouts miniseries. I'm going to tell the stories behind some more of the badges that I've earned. Lifescouts is a collection of badges, awarded upon completion of activities or gaining skills considered important or fun. Like boyscouts but using life experiences and anyone can join in.

Scuba diving
I first learnt to scuba dive in Centre Parcs and it was so much fun! Being able to breathe under water is one of the coolest feelings I've ever had. It was a fantastic experience and I will definitely try it out if I ever get the chance again.

Picnic
Picnics are a fairly common occurrence that I imagine most people have experienced, but I had an incredible picnic in a park in Paris. It was a scorching hot day, the sun was beating down on the lake and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We were sat in the shade of a collection of tall trees on an incline, looking out over the rocks and shrubbery scattered throughout this park, eating baguettes that had been hand made that very morning. It was such an amazing day!

Piano
When I was younger I learnt to play the piano. Me and my brother were taught by a piano teacher called John, who would spend an hour each week teaching us songs and helping us to improve our playing. I stopped a couple of years ago and although I can't remember a lot of what we were taught, I still like to play a bit every now and then.

Camping
The first camp that I went on was when I was seven. I was in the Cubs at the time (the age group below Scouts) and I was invited along to a residential in some woods somewhere. We spent a weekend doing adventure activities and team-bonding. It wasn't very fun and I didn't go on many more camps after that one.

Birthday Parties
I've been to my fair share of birthday parties, the most recent of which was for a friends 17th. I've also had some great birthday parties thrown for me, ranging from doing sports to going to the cinema and much, much more. A couple of my more recent birthdays have been celebrated whilst abroad but every single one is special.

That's five more badges done, I hope you've enjoyed it. If you want a full list of badges or you want to buy some for yourselves, they are available from lifescouts.com and be sure to go back and check out part one here if you haven't already. That's all for this week.

Adam

Twenty Questions Tag

Hi everyone, today I thought I'd do a tag style blog so you can all get to know me, these are just a few questions that I found when I was surfing the web. If you have any suggestions for tags that I can do in the future then please let me know.

1- Do you have any pets? No, we used to have three gerbils but they are no longer with us.

2- Name three things that are close to you. My family and friends, sport and music are three things that I would struggle to live without.

3- What's the weather like right now? It's very cold and there are occasional showers.

4- Do you drive? No, not yet.

5- What time did you wake up this morning? It's a school day so I have to get up at 7am to make sure I'm ready on time.

6- When was the last time you showered? This afternoon after I got back from my run.

7- What was the last movie that you saw? I watched The Adjustment Bureau again recently, it's a very good film with a lot of action.

8- What does your last text message say? It's from virginmedia and is asking me to 'top up with ten pounds now and receive 100 free texts next month'

9- What is your ringtone? It's just a generic samsung one.

10- Have you ever been abroad? Yes, I've been to quite a few different places, but my favourite so far is France.

11- Do you like sushi? Yes, I've only ever had it once, but the few things that I tried I really liked.

12- Where do you buy your groceries? Sainsbury's

13- How many siblings do you have? I have a younger brother, Matthew.

14- Apple or Android? I've never used an Android device but I like all the Apple stuff that I've got, so I'll say Apple.

15- How old will you be on your next birthday? I will be 18!

16- Tell me something you are planning to do today. I am playing a football match later this evening, which will be fun.

17- What is your favourite pizza topping(s)? I really like bacon, but I think my favourite is the Fiorentina combination: Spinach, Egg and Parmesan.

18- Hamburger or Cheeseburger? Cheeseburger but if there was some bacon in there as well it would be perfect.

19- Have you ever had an all-nighter? Yeah, I've had a few, never turn out to be the best idea when the following day comes around.

20- What colour are your eyes? A sort of bluey-grey colour.

That's all of the questions. I hope that you've enjoyed this post and would love to hear your responses, either in the comments below or via twitter @tigerads.

See you all next week,

Adam

Holidays

I've almost reached the last holiday with my family before I head off to university and so I thought I'd take this opportunity to take a look back at some of my favourite memories from holidays gone by. I've been really lucky in that I've been able to have quite a few holidays to a number of different places throughout my childhood.

Paris is one of my favourite holiday destinations and I've been there numerous times. I love the laid back way of life that the locals follow. It's amazing how you can be walking through a fairly built up area and then you turn the corner and there is a perfectly kept little park. Last time I was there my family and I went for a couple of walks through the 'Old Quarter' of the city. It is just as nice whether it's a beautiful sunny day or it's late afternoon and the sun is setting and the skies are darkening. We also spent some great hours sitting in a stunning park eating fresh baguettes and relaxing in the sun. It's incredible how one city can provide so many varied activities.

Last Easter I spent a week in Rome in Italy; we were based across the street from an ice cream parlour and just down the road from a shop that made some of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten. In our flat's living room there was a strange window which was set back into the thick exterior wall to form a ledge. In the lazy afternoons I would sit and watch the people walking past, maybe stopping for an ice cream or maybe just conducting their everyday business. I'd listen to music and just relax.

When we go on holidays in England, we tend to travel up to Northumberland and stay in Lower Newton. While we're there we make the short journey down the hill to the beach, play various sports and have a really fun time in the summer sun. After we'd finished we'd go to the pub at the top of the beach and enjoy some tasty ham and cheese toasties and tubs of crisps while relaxing and playing games. I really enjoy going to Northumberland because it's a nice change from a lot of the busier, bustling places that we go to normally.

I'm going to miss going on regular holidays with my family when I leave but I've had some fantastic trips and made great memories that will stay with me forever.

That's all for this week,

Adam

Running

I've been running for just over a month and I'm working towards running in the Leeds 10K. I've gradually increased the distance and have been trying to get my time as quick as possible. Hopefully I can complete the race in under an hour when the day comes next summer. It'll be interesting to see how fast I do it when it comes down to it.

While running the race I will be trying to raise money for Parkinson's UK. They provide support for sufferers of Parkinson's in the UK and have put a lot of money into researching the disease and searching for a cure. This charity means a lot to me because my dad was diagnosed four years ago.

There are loads of other benefits of running on top of fundraising. It is a great way of getting fitter and losing weight. It's also brilliant for getting away from everything; school can get very stressful sometimes and running can help you clear your head and relax after a tough day. I've also had most of my ideas while running. Most importantly however, running is fun. It's a really enjoyable hobby. I went on a run in torrential rain recently and although it sounds horrible, it was fantastic! I got absolutely soaked but for some reason I loved it.

That's all for this week but I have a new project that I'm working on at the moment so I'll keep you updated if that progresses at all.

See you all next week,

Adam