reasons why I twitch a bit when...

...people complain, in the middle of winter, that they wish it was summer. Those of you in the UK will know what I'm on about - as per usual in the British summer, it's gone very hot all of a sudden.
I'm fully aware that 28 degree temperatures (Celsius, not Farenheit obviously) are not that hot by some standards, but this is the UK where the slightest sign of extremity in the weather is staggering. Those same people who complain about the winter are, in many cases, now complaining about the heat.
I'm complaining about the heat, but I'm allowed. I never wish that summer would hurry up in the dead of winter. I like the cold. At least when it's cold you can put more clothes on. I complain about the winter because it is dark - most of my immediate family suffers with varying levels of SAD, and living with four miserable buggers when you're miserable yourself isn't the most fun.

On that subject, I'll admit that the summer hardly seems to have improved some moods this year, but at least one person has seen the benefit since the spring equinox.

So, I complain about the heat, never the cold. I can warm up when it's cold but, as some side effect of my size and shape - I'm not exactly petite in scale - and my circulation - in contrast to apparently most women, whose extremities lose circulation at the slightest chill, my mum and I have warm hands almost all the time - I cannot cool down when it's warm. When it's like this and nighttime temperatures are 16-18 degrees, I freeze my hot water bottle to try and keep cool.

I always knew I was a Norman really. The Mountford name on Mum's side gives it away, along with the tendency towards being tall, leggy and broad shouldered that comes from her side of the family - I should be living in Scandinavia!

It's over? really? huh...

yup. At the end of fourteen long years of school, including run-ins with spectacularly unpleasant people, totally wonderful people, hundreds of homeworks, dozens of detentions (for not doing the homework usually), probably millions of words of coursework and many, many hours of exams... I'm done. No more school.

Now what?
I'm not sure. So far, it's been just doing very little at home and hoping the open sores on my heels (from walking the two miles into town on Friday in the wrong shoes) will heal up in time for Friday so I can wear the utterly fabby gladiator sandals I got for the ball when me and Tracey - my mum - went to Hereford in the hopes of finding some on Saturday.
Hereford is quite surprising. Considering it's a city, the population is small. My hometown has a population of 110,013 people (according to the 2001 Census) while Hereford, a city, the county town of Herefordshire, has a population less than half the size at 50,400 people. Nevertheless, the shopping is just as good and their New Look store is huge. It has three floors and carries six of the 'extra ranges' including, in the footwear section, wide-fitting shoes. When your width fitting is EE to EEE (normal width is C or D) this is very important, especially when it is a week until your leavers ball and you still have no shoes.

It was a successful trip from where I'm sitting. I got the last few things I needed for this Friday - shoes, a bra whose straps wont't show in my dress, a stole and a purse that will fit in the bag I got for my birthday (Thanks Ash!) because the one I usually use is mahousive - and two tops, a cardigan, and a pair of shorts. We even managed to spend some gift vouchers we'd had for ages - £15 at M&S and £7 at New Look (note for Dee, they were a good present, we just have a crappy New Look).

So yeah, shopping is good! At no point did I feel like a fatty which is unusual when doing clothes shopping and I got lots of nice things for a relatively small amount of money.

Sexy times? not so much

Last week, the biology department had arranged for a local sexual health nurse to come and talk to us about contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, abortion and infertility. fascinating stuff, albeit somewhat revolting (that stuff about STDs? there were pictures).

people from all three classes were in the room for the talk, and we started with some examples of contraception - several brands of the combined pill, including the evil one that made both me and Hanna crazy (we did actually shout "it's the evil one!" when she handed it to us), a female condom (one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen), an IUD, an implant etc, etc. Then of course, she moves on to the diseases. Start with a list, fine. Then those pictures. Oh dear . There was a point when I looked across the classroom and spotted several of the boys looking very uncomfortable.

We were all given leaflets at the end of the session, including one about safe oral sex. This leaflet had some diagrams of how to use a dental dam. It's not terribly... descriptive. Luckily for us, the sexual health nurse was sat with the sixth form's admin assistant next door, so Celia, Hanna and me went to ask about it. She was of course well prepared and just happened to have one to hand that she could show us.

When we went back to our friends and explained what it is, the boys were all giggly and silly (no change there then). The dividing wall has a big window in it, and through this, the ever helpful nurse was waving the thing around like a bullfighters cape, stretching and bending it and generally (I suspect) trying to embarrass the boys - she succeeded.

Other news: More Blog virus outbreaks! Lysha has joined in here

This would be the blog then?

I keep trying to do things like this, and here I am hoping that I'll keep it up this time. If I'm honest I've started this at a pretty stupid time, as I'm about to take my last exams for my A-Levels. However, I am a total div from time to time so there we go.

So, who am I, and what's this all about? I'm Leah, an almost-18, creatively minded, bright, procrastinating Drama student. I live with my parents and my two younger brothers, I'm nearly finished with school and I have no idea what I'm doing next year.
This blog... it should be about showing off my creative pursuits, which come in quite a wide variety, and for just burbling on about whatever happens to have got into my head that day.

So, Welcome along! I hope we'll enjoy ourselves