Point To Point

What a tiring last few weeks I’ve had! No sooner had I finished exams than I was swept off up to London for a week’s work experience which, I might add, went really well. And then as soon as I finished work down at Vauxhall last Friday I was expected to get back on a bus down to Cheltenham for our end of work experience meeting. This meeting turned out to be a complete waste of time, or so my friends said… I didn’t go . However, I was still expected back on school premises the next day so I could go on a Foundation Course for two days. Now does that strike you as something I would particular like to do straight after my exams? No, is the answer, and I was fairly skeptical when we boarded the bus early on Sunday morning. I was only armed with the knowledge that I needed comfortable clothes, trainers and a waterproof.

I’m happy to say that as much as I hated the idea of going to some random place on a Sunday afternoon, the Foundation Course was excellent. It showed me a lot about myself as a person, and the sort of role I could fulfill in a team of working adults. And that role is…. leader. I’ve always had large dreams about running some multinational company, and I thought I had it within me to manage a team of talented people… well, I was one of the two people in my team who emerged as leaders, and I enjoyed the role thoroughly. But what of the course itself? Well, the two day course took place in the new Cotswold Conference Center, somewhere near Oxford. Owned by the famous entrepreneur Jorgen-Philip Sorensen, my school is the only one in the United Kingdom which has the privelege of using this world renowned business training centre (because Sorensen has relatives who go to Dean Close). After an eventful journey in which the bus overheated, we arrived at the conference center. On the way, there had been a incessant beeping which we couldn’t deduce the source of… there I was joking “It’s a bomb” a la Speed, but it turns out that beeping signals the bus is overweight and the engine is overheating.

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I rolled out of bed this morning and rolled up my blinds to take in the beautiful sunshine that would fill my room; it is almost June after all. Yet no sooner had I rolled up the blinds than I was blasted back by gale force winds and smatterings of rain trying to force their way through the 2 inch gap the ajar window left. It hasn’t stopped all day; the constant taps at my window are driving me insane, and aren’t really helping as I’m meant to be doing work. Arghh…. what tragedies we British people face! This is meant to be summer, after all…

I have always been puzzled by how it is possible for cigarettes to still exist. Containing over 50 known carcinogens and 3000 other man-made chemicals besides, a cigarette is a horrible concoction of addictive substances, sweeteners and ‘filters’. And yet despite the in-your-face warnings on every cigarette box and billboard in the country, smoking still exists as a part of the United Kingdom’s culture. Given the huge amount of exotic names that smoker give them (from coffin nails to lung darts) it is obvious people are aware of the dangers, so why do they still do it?

As a British School kid, I have obviously tried a cigarette, although it wasn’t in my lower years: in fact it was fairly recently. After a night out I decided to find out what all the fuss was about; I had never really felt the urge to try smoking before. And you want to know how my first and last cigarette went? It wasn’t anything special: I didn’t cough out of disgust, or from the smoke, and I actually thought the taste wasn’t that bad. In fact, I realized in that moment how cool smoking was, and I stand by that feeling to this day. But even at that point in time the pros and cons were running through my mind: what’s being cool when you’ve got lung cancer or heart disease at the age of 35? I would rather live my live to the full by doing something dangerous that isn’t guaranteed to kill me, especially when you can pay upwards of £2000 a year to feed you nicotine addiction.

So why do people do it? Well, there is obviously the power of addiction: I have never experienced the cravings so I wouldn’t know how hard they are to shake, but I believe that if you felt strongly enough about it, you could beat your addiction, however strong it is. Or is it the fact that its ’sociable’. I really don’t know who came up with that idea: how is having yellow teeth, bad breath and smelling like a dustbin “sociable”? I hope that the bans that are being imposed in the near future will help to rid the United Kingdom and in time, the rest of the world, of what is a disgusting and harmful habit.

I’ve just been reading through the bbc news online, and saw that inevitably, Prince Harry would not be sent to Iraq due to ’safety issues’. Its a shame that they have been going on about how he would be one of the first Princes to actively serve in a war, and it is obvious that Harry was very keen to actively serve in Iraq. He is said to be extremely disappointed, but the question is, who gets to make the decision for him? As only the second in line for the throne, I believe Harry should have been able to make his own choice concerning the matter.

The Ministry Of Defence have stated that the ‘insurgants’ were planning to target Harry, and that his photo had been circulated around, in an attempt to ‘kidnap or kill’ him. This is strongly possible, considering last month the Ministry issued an official release saying that Prince Harry would be going to Iraq as an armed reconnaissance officer. But despite all these dangers, I still believe Harry should have been able to make his own choices about his career, and ultimately, his life…

I’m lying in my bed with the rain pouring down my window in front of me. This might seem normal to be lying in bed on a Saturday morning, but for me, it is out of the ordinary. At my school we have a six day week; half a day of lessons on Saturday.

Unfortunately, I’m not really able to enjoy this luxury, as I am ill and bedridden. I currently feel like someone has stuck sandpaper down my throat and completely removed my ability to breath through my nose. Add onto that the fact that I am loaded up with ibuprofen to keep me sleeping, and you basically have a zombie. How convenient, then, that I am going to see 28 Weeks Later this afternoon.