Unlikely combinations

 Tinie Tempah's latest single, Wonderman, features one of my favourite artists of them all, Ellie Goulding.

On paper, this should not work. R n B/Hip Hop street-cool meets Acoustic/Folksy/Pop/Electronic blond starlet. When I first heard about the song, my first thought was 'Ellie, what have you done?!' Because after seeing her live, I am now entitled to judge her musical choices, of course. But somehow, it just works-they complement each other perfectly!

This made me think of other unlikely combinations-things which are so wrong...yet so right.

1. PBJ
The most famous combo of them all, and one which still divides opinion the world over. In my opinion, peanut butter and jam (or jelly, if you're going to be picky and American) is the food of the gods. But when I tell people that I had this on toast with a cup of tea, expecting a coo of understanding, people often look at me like I told them I breakfasted on roadkill. 'WHAT? Eeeew. That's sick.' I ignore these non-believers. One day they will be converted to the crunchy salty sweet jammy mixture of a pbj sandwich. But- 1) the peanut putter has to be crunchy, and 2) the jam has to go on top. Just the way it is.

2. Peanut butter and apple?
Imi informs me that peanut butter also goes well with cut-up apple, but I am yet to test this out :)

3. Black and brown
I remember my mum telling me when I was little and had no clue about which items of clothing went with what, that black and brown were colours you did not, on any account, mix. Much like green and red for their Christmas elf-connections, or purple and yellow for just pure grossness, brown and black were a no-go in my house. But recently, it seems colour rules are being broken. I am currently wearing a black dress with a brown belt, for example, and I've just bought a lovely pair of brown shoes that I intend to wear with black skinny trousers. Take that, colour wheel! But-again, another condition of unlikely combinations, the brown should ideally be tan, not too red that it looks orange, but not too chocolately to be an obvious clash.
Pah, who am I to give fashion advice! I am sure I will be corrected on that last point.


3. Tomato ketchup and macaroni cheese
This could also be entitled 'tomato ketchup and...anything and everything' if you are my good friend Hannah. It is entirely down to her that I discovered this scrummy combo. The sweet tangyness of the nation's favourite sauce sets of the creaminess of the mac and cheese to perfection. Not very gourmet, but delish all the same.

4. Chili chocolate?
I've seen posh bars of this in shops, but I have never been tempted to try out this flavour mix. It may be nice, well...it must be, or why on earth would they sell it, but I'm still unsure. I think the combination of spice and sugar could be too much for me.  
Has anyone ever tried this? Please let me know what it was like! Are you and your tastebuds permanently scarred, or are you a convert?

5. Cheese and marmite
Especially in a toasted sandwich, mmmm. Imi also tells me marmite works well mixed into pasta. Excellent student carbo-loading cuisine :) Marmite cereal bars on the other hand, my word. The texture and slight taste of an ordinary sweet cereal bar, with the sourness of Marmite. Not good.

I didn't mean all of these to be about food, but hey, that seems to be how my mind works. Leave me a comment if you can think of any others that I should include :)

School Trips

Even though it’s a while away yet, the conversation in my French class has turned to our upcoming school trip. After grappling with verbs and vocabulary, we usually end up squealing with excitement at the thought of our continental adventure. Paris, the city of lights, croissants, Limoges, city of, er, porcelain, romantic train journeys, cafe au lait, I cannot wait!

This made me think of the many school trips I have been on over the years. Some are more memorable than others. A bird pooing on my painstakingly-drawn field sketch was a definite low point, as was enduring the worst  48 hours of  my life in  torrential rain on the Dorset coast.

I have, however, had better experiences. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have taken part in a choir tour to Prague, seen Shakespeare performed in Stratford-upon-Avon, worked in Barcelona and in a French primary school, all at a subsidised cost.

School trips are great for several reasons. They enable students to learn in a different way outside the normal classroom environment. Visiting new places broadens our horizons and brings that boring bit in the textbook to life.  Despite the copious red-tape involved, I have particularly enjoyed foreign exchanges because as well as meeting new people abroad, it also a great bonding experience for the English-speaking group to travel together.

In the current climate, some may question the value of school trips. Do we really need to visit Bluewater for Geography, or Thorpe Park for Science? But education is about more than just classroom book-learning and sometimes you have to  actually experience something to understand it. I think that school trips are genuinely valuable, and frankly, I can’t wait for my next one.

Juggling Act

My sister was told that to survive the International Baccalaureate, she could have two of the following: good grades, a social life and sleep. Although I have it easy by some standards-I ‘only’ do three A-levels and not the six subjects required for the I.B. - I feel caught in a constant trap.

You see, I want to find a job so that I have money to go out-and keep up - with my employed friends and their seemingly never-ending wages. However, if I get said job, I will have less time for said social life with said friends. I also need to work to save up for university. But, if I do, I will have less time to study in order to achieve the sky-high grades needed to get me there.

Catch-22?

My life at the moment is a juggling act of gigantic proportions as I attempt to squeeze in job-hunting, coursework, babysitting, copious reading, sleep, some semblance of a social life and of course, essential TV. (Glee, 90210, Big Fat Gypsy Weddings and other such high-brow programmes)

Essay crisis after essay crisis: a student’s work is never done. French verbs can never be completely learned, that coursework can always be tweaked...and revision can never start early enough. Meanwhile, that list of ‘useful extra-curricular books’ grows ever longer.

Ah well. To misquote Shakespeare, the path of an A-level student never did run smooth. It will all be worth it when I get to university... and no doubt find myself with a workload to match my debt!

World Book Day

Crowds of wizards, hordes of pirates and packs of animals descended on schools across the area last week. This was not some sort of youth fancy dress convention, but all in aid of World Book Day, which took place on Thursday, 3^rd March.

This brings back great memories for me. But at the time, it always induced panic as the day loomed dangerously close and I was still costume-less. ‘Costume drama’ took on another meaning in my desperate search for inspiration. I am indebted to my mum’s quick thinking as she ran up Harry Potter cloaks on the sewing machine or plaited my hair with pipe cleaners, Pippy Longstocking-style.

At my current school, Book Day is taken very seriously. People start planning their outfits months in advance, hoping to win a prize in the lunchtime parade.

The biggest fancy-dress faux-pas is to go as a little known character, prompting that awful question: ‘and who are you meant to be?’

I have full experience of this. Once I accessorised my normal clothes with mittens, tail and a full cat headdress to go as Puss in Boots. This did not have the desired effect. Apparently, I did not resemble the perfect feline, but merely a person in normal clothes with a cat head. Humiliation.

World Book Day never fails to make me remember why I love my school, and how lucky I am to belong to such a good community. It’s worth making an utter fool of myself just for that.

 For more, see http://www.worldbookday.com/index.asp 

Update

Hi everyone :) 

Just thought I would update you on my goings on! I recently sent my blog to lots of people, with unexpected but lovely results.

I now have a regular column in The Chronicle on the School Report page-so look out for me every Thursday! I'm going to put up some of my previous columns at Abby's request. I will also soon be writing for Vine, a monthly magazine for Sevenoaks, probably writing history articles.

Plus, I've now got nearly 2600 views-wowwzers.And it's all down to you lovely people out there.

Thank you so much again for reading and for all your comments.

xxx

Tears, Tantrums and Three-Point Turns

This week finds me a fully fledged driver. That’s right; I have now reached another milestone and passed my driving test!

However, my road to success-if you’ll excuse the pun- has definitely been rocky. Unlike normal people  my age, I never wanted to drive-in fact I was almost violently against it. My inner eco-warrior came out in force to protest about fossil fuels and the greenhouse effect. I used every excuse going-I didn't need to drive because I am lucky enough to live within walking distance almost everything I could ever need, it would be too dark to learn in winter, I would be a danger to the town...none of these cut it, and I eventually started lessons last April. 

After my first lesson, where I was so bad at steering that my instructor made me practise on a plastic plate, I was ready to give up. It was only after much persuasion that I carried on, bribed with the thought of never having to drive again if I didn’t want to. After most lessons I would stomp up to my room in need of a lie-down after another stressful hour wreaking havoc on the roads.

Learning to drive has been almost a year of ups and downs: tears, tantrums and three-point turns. Then, when I failed my first test, it looked like the odds were stacked against me.

But to cut a long story short-I passed in the end! 

Afterwards, when my mum said she had bought me a car, for a second, I was over the moon.  My environmental principles went out the window as I dreamed of true freedom.

Then I thought of soaring petrol prices, insurance, how could I ever afford it all?

So it was with great relief that instead of leading me out to a shiny new motor, my mum presented me with a BMW ...of the chocolate variety.

In the long run, I suppose it’s probably better-for my bank account and for the environment. See you on the roads!