May 1986 - finishing school

Altrincham have won the FA Trophy, beating Runcorn. Yeah!

Today has been a strange mixture of satisfying and unsatisfying. Satisfying because I have done a very reasonable amount of work; I have done both sorts of Maths; a large amount of learning Prime Minister and Cabinet; and when I have written this I will do some Italian. It has been satisfying because I have ticks for the £5000 prize on the Supamatch a Manchester Evening News scratchcard – therefore I need four more ticks with nearly sixty days of it to come. Satisfying because my Stats is going in: I need to make sure I don’t make careless mistakes; satisfying because I really believe I am absorbing my govt.

Why isn’t it satisfying. Well, I have stuffed my face with grub; because my Pure Maths is impossible. Oh yeah, Alex phoned this lunchtime , he wanted to know what happened on Thursday – “too busy at school” he suggested before I had time to say anything. Obviously he’s keen; I haven’t the guts to say I’m not interested; at least I got my message over that I’m working hard for A-Levels. But now I’m all depressed because I do like him, but I really do not think that I could handle a relationship like that; it’s too intense.

I’m beginning to feel a little bit more confident about my A-Levels. A little bit.

What is the point of staying off school with the aim of working when you end up having your working time constantly interrupted by the parents. I think they reckon I’m here for a holiday; don’t they realise that my A-Levels start in two days.

I listened to Today. They were talking to both Neil Kinnock and David Owen on the South African bombing of ANC headquarters in Harare, and a couple of other cities in that area. The govt are sitting on the fence over this one: obviously they can’t condemn it, because in reality it’s a little different from Reagan and Thatcher did to Libya, but obviously they can’t condone, for Britain would be even more isolated in the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth ‘Eminent Persons Group’ has withdrawn, for the simple reason that PW Botha, in that sort of belligerent mood isn’t likely to enter into negotiations. The Opposition parties are calling for sanctions; as the Labour Party have for years; as the likes of Desmond Tutu are; as Commonwealth leaders like Rajiv Ghandi are; only Thatcher, Reagan & Botha are opposed to sanctions.

I really didn’t do much work in the afternoon but it did me a good deal to lie down and rest.

In the evening Matth and I had the sudden impulse – well, I had the impulse, and he encouraged it – to male garlic bread. It was great.

Today has been very mixed: for example, I have had three lessons: Pure Maths, followed by Stats, and then Italian: and that’s it – in the words of Alice Cooper’s immortal song, which I heard this evening for the first time in a couple of years: “Schools out for summer, schools out for ever, no more lessons no more rules, no more teachers.” I was nearly in tears after Italian: bit daft considering I’m glad to be out of the place: I will go in tomorrow for General Studies; a week on Monday for Italian, two weeks on Monday for History & Italian, Tuesday for Politics, Wednesday for Maths & History, three weeks on Monday for Government and Stats, four weeks on Wednesday for the last day, 14th August for A-Level results, & 21st August for O-Level – ie nine times in my life to go into Loreto.

And the time span until I finish my As is the same period as going backwards as the day Matth heard his eleven plus result.

We had a meal with a few members of the staff at lunchtime. Only Mrs Qn, and sort of Mr S bothered to speak to our group, and S was only talking to us because he wanted me and Charlie to go on Magda’s photo of the History group. We weren’t prepared to be party to her hypocrisy – we know she hates us.

We were allowed to go home early. I messed around, and didn’t get started on work until after tea. I did three hours after that, and what’s more; I did six Pure Maths questions and got five right. I’m WELL chuffed.

News today: Maggie’s reshuffled. Keith Joseph has bowed out as education secretary…Norman Lamont (having recovered from his black eye, inflicted by a jealous husband) is now Financial Secretary to the Treasury.

Well today has been funny. Put another way, we had our General Studies today. Everyone was going on about how they’d stayed up all night reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica, like I had as well, but I got really depressed when Sandra said she had also learnt the map of the world and I had forgotten to do that.

Heneh was in the library before school, that girl’s going to work herself into a nervous breakdown: even at the moment she’s very snappy. It would be a shame if she fluffed through doing too much, a big shame.
The exam was alright, if not particularly exciting. I worked through the first paper, being totally unimpressed by a number of the questions. There was a very ambiguous question, on party policy, always a bit dicey, especially when it says which of the following policys have been adopted by the Labour, Con and All parties in recent years. The policies in question were unilateral nuclear disarmament, regional govt, proportional representation, public ownership of banks, & control of the money supply. Well, it was obvious that the Cons are control of the money supply; the Alliance could be equally P.R. or regional government – the Liberals have supported them since the 1970s, the SDP have for al the SDP’s brief history. What do you put? I put PR, so did most informed people, but I myself wouldn’t like to say that regional government is wrong. Furthermore, the Liberals are in fudgy terms fairly interested in nuclear disarmament. Lastly, I turn to the Labour Party. Obviously disarmament was the answer they were wanting; nationalising banks has been ideology if not policy for years. BUT since that paper was set, there has been a policy document published by the Labour Party supporting the idea of regional government.
I think I did a reasonable science essay on house design. I didn’t go too heavy on scientific principles, but I wrote a considerable amount about social factors: about the problems of tower blocks and deck access flats. I also wrote about houses have to be built to suit people’s lifestyles. I wasn’t heavily turned on by the Maths; I found them difficult, I later discovered that other Maths people found them equally difficult.

At lunchtime we had a photo of the U6 on the front lawn , only Charlie, Sandra and Helen played awkward buggers and didn’t bother to go down. Nor did Anita, her excuse was that she forgot about it. Peculiar girl is Anita.

In the afternoon we had Paper II. I struggled through the Science comp, and I think I did fairly well on my Arts and Social Science multi-choice, but I made a total mess of the spatial mechanics. Mind you, I did a brilliant essay on the rise of the Alliance, and the consequences for British politics of a three party system. It was probably of B/C standard for Government but for General Studies, definitely A standard. I also did a reasonable essay on comparison on two different forms of TV comedy: I did Spitting Image and Happy Families.
General Studies Prediction: B/A (actual, A)