My Jamboree Journey
Today has been a very long day. I woke up for my 9am lecture on Algorithms where the lectures spoke about SatNavs before learning about integration. I then ate porridge for my mid morning snack before completing some coding.
During the evening, I helped at a local Beaver unit to make Christmas decorations before helping at Scouts where we played the peel game. This was learning about capitalism and the unfair trade market. I then headed back to my flat and it was snowing.
As usual, I am going to try and blog every single day leading up to Christmas (we shall ignore last year as I may or may not have given up on day 3/4). I will explain my chaotic day below:
I went to my SSAGO meeting and we made Christmas hats for our pom-pom duck. I then went back to my flat to write up my maths work before heading off house hunting with my future flatmates. We found a lovely house which we are gonna reserve for next year. After getting back in the rain (near hail), we cooked dinner (where Ella, nearly almost poisoned herself). Following this, we watched I’m a Celeb before dragging George out to game with Ella. For supper we ate garlic bread, opened our advent calendars, defrosted tomorrow’s dinner and listened to Christmas music.
Yesterday was the last day of school for me this year and after some reflection, I realise it was very strange and chaotic. The year started off well working upon my Extended Project Qualification and applying for head student however, soon it took a strange turn. I was not offered a head student role but instead was offered the Centenary position. I flew out to Poland for a day with the Holocaust Education Trust to visit Auschwitz and continued Sixth Form usually until March the 20th when everything changed. Suddenly it was online school, copying from a textbook whilst revising for my year 12 mocks.
During England’s first national lockdown, we were not in school instead completing our school work at home (and sometimes completing an online lesson). We completed our year 12 mock examinations at home. Over June and July, I was able to attend school twice which I blogged about here and here. Then it was the summer holidays before returning back face to face in September, this raised many concerns for me and so I wrote to my school expressing my view.
I survived the first half term and then the second half term where I submitted my UCAS application and applied to American universities abroad. I wrote to my MP and was filmed for the schools Christmas concert. Yesterday was a half day at school so we had virtual events within our form groups. This included completing a virtual Christmas quiz, watching a virtual assembly and watching houses got talent (which my house won!). Overall the day went very quickly and it was a good way to end the strange year. I am now waiting to see what the New Year has in store for school.
In today’s blog I will be ranking my typical Christmas dinner giving a my views on each item.
Pigs in blankets – 100/10 these are a stable to a British Christmas dinner where they only appear upon the 25th of December. For anyone who does not live in Britain, this dish is sausages wrapped in bacon.
Roast potatoes – 10/10 when made perfectly they are crispy on the outside being fluffy in the centre.
Cranberry sauce – 9/10 game changing to add a new flavour onto your plate.
Roasted parsnips – 9/10 parsnips are just below roasties due to being just as tasty but never as elite as roast potatoes.
Sage and Onion Stuffing – 9/10 stuffing brings the plate together and is my job to make on Christmas. The secret is to add butter to make it 10x better.
Gravy – 8/10 it is standard for a Sunday roast and adds a good flavour however, sometimes it can be too watery of too thick.
Turkey – 8/10 without this, you cannot consider this dish to be a Christmas dinner. Turkey is the pinnacle of the dish being the base of the other items.
Swede and carrot mash – 8/10 a lot better than normal mash but is more elite.
Brussels sprouts – 7/10 they are average. Could be better, could be worse but I’m not complaining.
Broccoli and cauliflower – 7/10 similar to sprouts, they are average but are needed for a Christmas dinner to be complete.
Bread sauce – 6/10 it’s good but sometimes I am not a big fan if it is cold.
What are your rankings? Leave your opinions in the comments below.
Howdy Blue here,
I am back with a fan favourite of Christmas jokes this season to spread the Christmas cheer:
Who hides in the bakery at Christmas? A mince spy!
How does Christmas Day end? With the letter Y!
What do you call an obnoxious reindeer? Rude-olph!
What do you call Santa living at the South Pole? A lost clause!
What did the Christmas tree say to the ornament? Quit hanging around
What do Santa’s little helpers learn at school? The elf-abet!
What goes “Oh, Oh, Oh”? Santa walking backwards!
Why is it getting harder to buy Advent calendars? Their days are numbered!
What do snowmen have for breakfast? Snowflakes!
Today at school we have been filming for the virtual Christmas Concert. This year, I am in three pieces with two being part of the Sixth Form Choir (‘A Glad Noel’ and ‘The Colours of Christmas’) and the other piece I am in is The Boar’s Head carol.
During lunch, we filmed out Sixth Form Choir pieces which went pretty well. It was very weird being filmed singing instead of performing live and in a way it was slightly nerving due to having a professional film crew to film each of our pieces. I am very happy that we were still able to put on the annual Christmas concert allowing for a little normal to the current world.
Throughout the day, I was able to send off my UCAS application – which I have chosen to apply for a Mathematics and Computer Science courses. I also spent my break time fixing the Christmas tree lights upon our school stage and did some homework throughout the day.
In today’s blogmas I will show you how to make paper snowflake decorations. You will need a sheet of paper, a pair of scissors and a pencil.
Here are the steps to success:
Finally make as many snowflakes as you desire to hang around and display.
Howdy y’all and welcome to Blogmas 2020. After a chaotic year, I believe that bringing back Blogmas will help with the holiday cheer. This year I am going to do it slightly differently, with blog posts of Blue teaching and crafting with you as well as an update of my week from me (I may also bring back the fan favourite Christmas cheese jokes!). To start day one off I am going to write about the Boar’s Head Christmas Carol.
The Boar’s Head Carol is a tradition at my school (and many others) which is sung by the sixth formers in acapella (aged 16-18). This (and last year), I am taking part in singing the traditional song. The carol is about a sacrificing a boar and resenting it at the head of a Yuletide festival. It has been around since the 15th century and has been sung at my school for 100 years. Usually we perform it in the dark with lanterns during the beginning of our Christmas concert however going this year it is being filmed to be shown virtually.
The lyrics are as follows:
Chorus: Caput apri defero. Redens laudes domino. Caput apri defero. Redens laudes domino.
Verse 1: The Boar’s head in hand bear I, Bedecked with bays and rosemary. And I pray you my masters be merry, Quot est-is convivio.
Chorus: Caput apri defero. Redens laudes domino. Caput apri defero. Redens laudes domino.
Verse 2: The Boar’s head as I understand, Is the rarest dish in all the land. Which thus be decked with a gay garland, Let us servire coniuco.
Chorus: Caput apri defero. Redens laudes domino. Caput apri defero. Redens laudes domino.
Verse 3: Our steward hath provided this, In honour of the kind of bliss. Which in this day to be served is, In reginensi a trio.
Chorus: Caput apri defero. Redens laudes domino. Caput apri defero. Redens laudes domino.
Verse 1 repeat: The Boar’s head in hand bear I, Bedecked with bays and rosemary. And I pray you my masters be merry, Quot est-is convivio.
Throughout this week, many brands have been releasing their Christmas adverts. Usually I would consider the Christmas season to start as soon as the infamous John Lewis Christmas Advert is released which gets better each year. This year however, I was not a big fan of the John Lewis Christmas advert yet, I thought it was very clever how it was made. Below is a list of my favourite Christmas adverts from this year with a mini review. So, in no particular order:
In conclusion, it is now the start of Christmas! I can rock to Christmas music and start to put festive decorations up around the house. I have already started watching Christmas movies and shows to get into the festive spirit!
If you have any other good Christmas adverts or Christmas movies and shows I should review, let me know in the comments below.
I hope everyone has had an amazing Christmas and have a happy new year! Personally I enjoyed Christmas this year with my extended family and so we travelled down to the Jurassic Coast.
Halfway through our journey on the way I realis ed we had forgotten the strawberries needed for the Boxing day trifle and so we ended up in a Waitrose service station buying strawberries and a few other snacks to keep us going on our journey. It is also worth mentioning that we took our cats down with us so my cat Hallie kept yowing for attention.
Once we arrived, and the cats had settled, we headed to my Grandma’s for Christmas lunch. I helped with the washing up and then headed out to the beach to take a mini Christmas walk. On the beach there was lots of driftwood from the recent storms which they have had. I then saw my cousin and a different auntie before we headed back to where we were staying. In the evening, we watched Call the midwife (a yearly tradition) before I headed to bed.
Boxing day, is my favourite day of the year. I woke up and was asked whether I wanted to go to the pub (with some of my family) where our discussion included: ‘did the moon landing really happen’, ‘aritificial intelligence’, ‘aliens’ etc. After this we went for my Nans infamous Boxing day lunch. There was: turkey, beef, ham, jacket potatoes, chips, sausages, crisps, fruit and vegetables, stuffing, cranberry sauce, bread sauce, sausage rolls,cheese and onion rolls and more. And then for dessert there was freshly made trifle and crumble.
Afterwards, some of my cousins and I slowly stole the Lindt chocolates from their knitted cases and replaced the chocolates with grapes, a tomato and baubles. (UPDATE: Classified)
In the afternoon, we played a game of charades as a family and then in the evening we watched Paddington 2.
The next day we explored the Jurrasic Coast and headed first to Swanage to go to Wimpy’s for lunch. In Swanage we bought rock as well as walked along the beach and went into the arcade to play on the 2p falls. We then drove past Corfe Castle on the way to a lost village.
The village was Tyneham and had been evacuated during the Second World War to help with military practices. As we entered there were loads of warning signs as the area was now a MOD range. After this visit, we headed towards Durdle Door however, we went to the beach before this and ended up in Lulworth Cove.
We then returned home the next day, after I had the opportunity to stand on the roof due to a suspected leak. It was nice taking our cats with us and they thoroughly enjoyed exploring a new house.
