*wind and tumbleweed*

This half term is going by waaaaay too quickly. Blah. I had my first driving lesson today though... finally It was fun, although I got so bored of that little block of houses, round and round and round...

Did you watch the first episode of Dollhouse, Ricky?

Thank you friends. I feel a little better.

Haha awww. How's the work experience going Amy? Learning anything from those 8 year olds?

Ricky, have you seen the Championship table? It's looking good! http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot ... efault.stm

Zippy, very cool about the driving lesson. I was doing a surprising amount very quickly. I was doing 60mph on my second lesson. And i felt completely comfortable. Normal driving is ridiculously easy. It's the reversing around corners and parking etc that's so hard! About Dollhouse (i'm not Ricky i know ) i couldn't watch it because i was watching Leicester beat Reading on Sky and i was recording Flash Forward. However, i noticed that it is being repeated tomorrow night. I am off to a concert tomorrow night, but i will record it. You know me Zippy, i'll try anything at least once.

I'm seeing Niamh in 4 days time. I'm seeing Muse in 8 days time. Exciting times!

That's good!

Work experience was good! Was with a class of 4-6 year olds today who are all already completely fluent- it was slightly confusing- if you spoke to them in irish, they normally answered in english, and vice versa They seemed a lot more fluent than some of the older classes, for some reason. They were all lovely though. I definitely wouldn't want to be a primary school teacher, and only went on work experience there to see what it would be like working in an irish-medium place, and that side of things seemed good

Did you enjoy driving then gingerbread?

4 days is so soon Ben! Have a great time!

sounds good amy lol.

Yes Ben leicester are doing good. very impressive!

Ginger yes i did watch Dollhouse(watched flash forward 2nite), i enjoyed it an Elisha Dhusku is good in it and hot lol. i see what u mean though by takin a few eps to get into it but im going to stick with it.

60mph Ben? At this point just the thought of doing that myself scares me

It's good that you're enjoying your work experience Amy! I'm jealous of those 4 year olds who are fluent in english and irish though Maybe the younger ones are better at it because they haven't been exposed to the english speaking world and tv and everything? I don't know. I'd never want to be a primary school teacher either, or any teacher for that matter... just because I'd be so rubbish at it. People do generally underrate the importance of a good teacher though, they make such a difference.

I'm glad both of you are willing to give Dollhouse a chance, Ben and Ricky! And I sound like a broken record but do remember that the show basically gets better with every episode and if you just hang in there until episode 6, or return to it at no. 6 (the FOX network forced the writers to make the first 5 standalone episodes) it is amazingincredibleIloveitsomuch

Whoa, fluent little kids! That's quite scary (in a great way, lol) xD they'll be doing great when they grow up bilingual people are generally amazingly smart. The German transfer students in my school are as fluent in French and English as we are in English! xD

Whoa, Ben. 60?! I was nearly crying at 20 cos I thought I was going soooo fast and my instructor tried to make me go 60 on a national speed limit lane! xD I suck at reversing around corners though. I don't see the point :/ Have a great time when you see Niamh!!

Although I passed my theory yesterday! 50/50 woop xD but I missed one of the fourteen parts on the hazard perception - THAT was scary, lol.

Got an offer from Nottingham University today! They want AAB whereas Warwick want AAA. Both want A in Pure Maths AND Further Maths >_< Ahhhhh.

Amy, haha seems like you had a good time. Is it over? How long did you do it for? It's good that the younger kids are fluent. Perhaps it shows the language might be making a comeback. That would be great. Hopefully they won't lose it as they get older. Zippy, you're probably right about them not being exposed to so much English. It also maybe has something to do with teaching. Amy, do you know if more kids are speaking Irish? I know in Wales they've started to bring the Welsh language back more.

Ricky, hmm... Leeds beat Bristol Rovers 4-0 last night. 4-0. And you aren't on here gloating about it? I can only think of one reason: you didn't realise Leeds were playing! You've had a good start to the season, i have to say. Almost as good as Leicester last season.

Haha, actually to be more precise it was 58mph on my second lesson. I was as shocked as anyone. Shocked that he was allowing me to drive that quick (it was legal by the way, we weren't driving in a 30mph speed limit area! ) and shocked that i felt comfortable doing it. He did ask "have you done this before?" and i said "no". I think he started to believe me when we did the reversing and parking etc. I wasn't very good at that. Actually, i struggled to keep my speed low. He would always be saying "watch your speed" because i'd always be going too quick. I couldn't help it. Well done Kat on passing your theory. Well done on the Nottingham Uni offer too. You'll be just down the road from me! Well, about 45 minutes away.

Thanks everyone. I can't wait to see Niamh. It's going to be a great moment!

Well done for your theory and offer, Kat!! That's great!

I don't really know anything about driving at all, but 60mph definitely sounds fast Ben- you must have been really good to be allowed to do that!

Yeah- the work experience is over- it was for two days because the school is closed for the rest of the week. I'm not sure if the language is making a comeback or not- it's popularity seems to have stayed about the same for the last while. I can't see it ever going back to the way it used to be, with nearly everyone speaking it, but it's still far from dead The irish tv channel/radio stations probably help keep it going. In the republic, it's taught in most primary schools and most people there have at least some knowledge of it. Understandably, it's a lot less popular here in the north, but in this area anyway, quite a few new irish playschools/primary schools opened over the last 2 or 3 years- most of them are really small, like around 15 pupils, but the one I went to earlier in the week has been opened for over 100 years, and has a couple of hundred pupils. There's also lots of gaeltacht colleges which seem to be as popular now as ever (basically, they are like summer camps, where 11-18 year olds go and stay in a gaeltacht area with a local family for 3 weeks in the summer and do irish language-based activities) - ok, that probably makes them sound rubbish, but they're great - the summer colleges are probably one of the only parts of the language with the same popularity in the north as in the south, even though they're all based in the republic. My irish teacher said that there would have been a really strong comeback for the language over the next couple of years, but with the recession, the funding for irish-medium education, summer colleges and for promotion has been cut to barely anything, but after 5 years or so, it should be restored again, and will hopefully get more popular. Anyway, it's one of those things that seems to be passed on through generations regardless of popularity, so it's not likely to disappear completely (at least not for a couple of centuries ) Sorry for that mini essay

Sounds really interesting, Amy! It won't do to have languages disappearing :( cos it's culture! And knowing Irish is part of being Irish, no? Just like everyone expects you to know Chinese if you're Chinese etc. What does gaeltact mean (literally)? And how do you pronounce it? Sorry if it seems like I'm harassing xD but I love gaelic words (that's gaelic, right? I'm not making a prat of myself? ) like NIAMH! Eeeep!

The summer camp sounds great too. I looove summer camps. They're great for kids too. I find that my brain empties quite a lot if I don't do a bit of studying over the holidays, so any sort of educational camps is great.

No, you're right- it is gaelic (different than scottish gaelic though). Depending on where you go, it's pronounced like 'gale-talked' or 'gale-tawh', and I don't think it has a direct translation into english- it just comes from 'gael'- a gaelic or irish person- to mean like a gaelic speaking area. (I think ) Yes like Niamh! (the word for radiance) For some reason, her name always reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAEy5j6gCCc Although they pronounce it as 'nave' in the song (the singer is probably southern- each of the 4 provinces in ireland have different dialects of irish). Sorry if I'm confusing you!

Hope everyone's well

Ben yes i did know Leeds were playing, great win for us

Enjoy Niamh!

Well done on your offers kat!

Just got back from seeing Green Day. Amazing!!!!! Seriously, amazing!!!!! I LIKE Green Day, i LOVE Green Day live. They were amazing. We had everything. It was hilarious at times. It was a wonderful show. Like a party. They got someone to come up and sing one of their songs, and he did a great job. You could tell it was a moment he'd never forget. Performing with Green Day in front of 10,000 people. It was amazing! They had a man dressed up as a drunk rabbit and we did the YMCA with him. The lead singer showed us his bottom. Flames and explosions. They had this gun type thing at one point and they started shooting it and t-shirts came out of it, so they sent out loads of t-shirts into the crowd. They went right to the back of the arena, i've never seen anything like it. So clever. One of the best (if not THE best) concerts i've ever been to.

Amy, i was good at going forward and steering. That was easy. Like i said, everything else was impossible. Don't worry about the essay at all, it was a wonderful lesson Miss Amy. If all my teachers were like you Miss, school would have been a far nicer place. Hopefully things will improve with regards to the popularity of the language and the number of speakers. The world is getting smaller what with Internet and soon we'll have things like scramjets that'll get us around the world in no time. Lesser languages will fade away, so it's important we try and establish them now. That's what i think anyway. Don't want to seem thick Amy, is the language actually called "Irish" or is it called Gaelic? I'm an idiot i know.

I didn't even look to see what speed I was going! No clue

Well done for ANOTHER offer Katzie! Is that 2 out of 4 now? I seem to think that medics only apply to 4 but I could be wrong. If so, that's amazing!

I do hope that these smaller languages don't die out. Like people have said, you lose so much of the culture if you lose the language, it shapes so much of how we think/see the world.

Glad you enjoyed the Green Day concert Ben!

Is anyone doing anything for halloween? Costumes? I'm just asking because I have no idea what to wear for Saturday.

The concert sounds great Ben! Glad you had a good time!

Sorry if this sounds confusing, but it seems to mainly be called Irish in the north, and Gaelic in the republic, but it's proper name is Gaelige (as just Gaelic would refer to Scottish Gaelic and Manx too).

I don't think I'll dress up for Halloween gingerbread so I don't have many costume ideas, although I know a few people going as Snap, Crackle and Pop, and my sister's going as the game Twister. I saw a wee boy the other day going to school completely covered in cereal boxes with 'cereal killer' written on his head

I read somewhere that Niamh can be pronounced 'Ni-eve' cos there's a dash thing where the dot is on the 'i'?

Ginger ~ Heh I haven't had any offers for medicine yet! Thanks though Nottingham and Warwick are for maths and they're my backups. I've applied to 3 med and 2 maths. Apparently medicine schools don't start giving replies until February! but that didn't stop me checking UCAS Track multiple times a day! even though they do give you an email (a day later) when your status changes.

That Tir na nog song kept making me think they're singing English, but undecipherable English xD it sounds lovely!

wow sounds like a brilliant concert ben! where was it? id love to see green day live!

lol, i was like that amy checkin my status all the time

Hmm i probably wont be going anywhere on halloween, but you could dress as a witch ginger? or a mummy?

Halloween really isn't my thing. I'll be spending my Saturday evening with Niamh anyway.

Thanks for the language explanation Amy. You've definitely helped me understand.

Ricky, when you read what people say you really should double check who's actually saying it. Anyway, Green Day were in Birmingham. LG Arena. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=981D7DPj ... re=channel Not my video. Amazing night. Over to Muse next Wednesday!

Zippy, i watched Dollhouse earlier. I thought it was really good. I'm looking forward to watching more episodes.

Off to London tomorrow morning. See you all on Sunday.

Have a great time Ben! You must be really excited after waiting so long!

That 'cereal killer' thing is hilarious Amy! I don't know, I really have no time to put together a costume but it would be kind of boring to go to my friend's house in normal clothes... hmm

I didn't realise medics won't find out until February! That's touch, although just the thought of maths at uni makes my stomach curdle so well done for getting those!

Yay glad you enjoyed Dollhouse Ben! It only gets better as the bigger picture opens up
And enjoy London! Have an amazing time seeing Mamma Mia!

Don't quote me on the February for medics thing though - it's one of those things that goes she said he said she said she said he said...etc etc xD

Enjoy London, Ben!! Niamhniamhniamh!

Lmao. "Cereal Killer" actually made me lol

oops sorry kat i meant to refer to you about the ucas thing lol.

Enjoy Niamh ben!

Ginger u could go as a ghost as all u need is a white sheet and flour lol.

cereal killer LOL!

Happy Halloween! (< the closest thing we have here)

Although I really need to work. Really... but it's halloween! And I put together my costume this morning. Basically it's all white and a skirt became a dress and an old halloween outfit became a cape and I found a silver whistle and some random little silver heart object thing so I'll wear all those and invent some character who's a 'caller of the dead' type thing. Meh.

Happy Halloween Ginger! your outfit sounds cool and quite scary lol. enjoy urself!

Sounds really groovy, Ginger!

I've never actually gone trick-or-treating, lol xD never saw the appeal. Although I do see the appeal of having a house with a side door, and a little dark alleyway that leads to said side door! Nobody comes trick-or-treating (well, we had two lots and it's nearly 8pm already) so I get the sweets afterwards, muahahahaha