How to Survive Exams

So I'm sure that many of you, like me and Lucy, have just had exams of one type or another. Therefore, you will know that the examination period is not a fun one and can be pretty tough; frantically cramming 10 minutes before every exam, worried when you need to pee during one of them, running out of water halfway through- all the kind of traumas you experience during this stressful time.
To reduce the worrying and nail biting a little, I have come up with a few ways to help you in surviving exams.

1) Go to the bathroom immediately before every exam

This is very important as it greatly decreases the chances of you needing to use the conveniences during an exam, when all of your time should be spent working on getting as close to full marks as possible; needing to pee is very distracting and actually going to do so wastes valuable time.

If you know that you have an exam at 11.45, go to the loo at 11.35ish, for example. If you absolutely have to go, run to the water closet and back but you may have to forfeit hand washing, I'm sorry.

Weird talk over... Promise it won't happen again.

2) Wear comfortable clothes

If you were in the fortunate position of being allowed to wear your own clothing during your exam weeks then it is very important that you adhere to this point.

Shoes with any form of heel are a big no-no, if you are (like me) someone that likes to sit on your feet then imagine how uncomfortable you would be if you were basically sitting on blocks of wood. Optimum footwear would be Uggs or Converse.

Best form of legwear is leggings because you don't necessarily have to look majorly slobby wearing these (like you would in trackies) and they are comfortable and allow you to move around, plus jeans can be uncomfortable and have itchy labels.

Side note- don't wear puffy coats that make massive amounts of noise whenever you move your arms and distract and annoy the person sitting behind you (sorry Lucy).

3) Arrive on time

There is nothing worse than going into an exam already stressed out and frazzled about other things, this is induced greatly by arriving to an exam a tiny bit late and making everyone else in the exam hall wait for you. Teachers will be less than impressed with you and you may receive some judgemental and exasperated looks when you finally enter. This will not put you in your happy place, which is where you need to be for exams. Plus then all your friends are completely entitled to blame you if they don't do as well as they would like in the exam that you held them up in.

4) Don't be tired

The obvious way of ensuring that you aren't knackered prior to sitting an exam is by getting a good night's sleep the night before, however, I know how hard this can be when you know that you have a greatly nerve-racking 2 and a half hour history exam the next day (or something similar), but there are other ways of staying awake.

What you eat can help (less Dairy Milk, more spinach), drink loads of water, Starbucks in the morning can help, have snacks and eat 3 whole meals. Good? Semi-health lecture over.

5) Water

Even though this will inevitably make you need to go to the bathroom, water is a good thing to have with you during exams if you drink it sporadically in small volumes. Try to have water bottles that make the least noise when you open and drink out of them (*cough* Lucy) and be careful not to spill any on your paper!

6) Actually Revise...

It's nice going into an exam knowing that you will be able to give reasonable answers to every question that you will be asked. This is not a feeling commonly experienced by yours truly but I've heard it's great. Suss out how you learn things best (notes, reading, mind-maps, whatever) and really drill the facts.

I hope you appreciate how teachers' Powerpoint that picture is.

There is no way that your exam experience will be fun, easy and carefree because they're not meant to be, but hopefully following the above guidelines will help to ease the experience a tiny bit.

If the above are no help and you fail every exam you can always try this one:

7) Bribe Your Teachers
I find cakes and other baked goods work best especially if you are a talented baker but I know that money also works.
Good luck if you are receiving any results these coming weeks!

M x

The Phenomenon of Gingers

It's been a while since either of us blogged, but neither of us have died and we do still have the ability to write despite the fact that my hand is still throbbing as a result of my 12-page History exam that I did today, I apologise if I randomly write something like 'Adolf' or 'atomic bomb' somewhere in this post.
I'm sure you'll be glad to know that my exams are going alright so far! 4 down, 600 more to go! Onwards and upwards.

Anyway, onto what this blog is really about- Gingers.
There was an article in the Daily Telegraph (I'm so intellectual) about the bullying of gingers and how hard gingers have it. I'm not going to lie, I don't get bullied about the colour of my hair (I have red hair in case that hadn't been grasped already); the worst I get is being asked if I have 'Gingeritis' when I'm ill. That's not even funny... I don't actually get it, so I'm not going to talk about the treatment of red-haired people. Instead I'm going to bore everyone and talk about the science of gingers. Amongst other things.
(I may be blogging but I do still have to revise for Biology)

I greatly apologise if you are gingerist or suffer from gingerphobia (swear on my life, those are real things).


Prince Harry

Genes
For those of you that don't know- Genes make you who you are, appearance and other characteristics-wise. Basically, if a gene is recessive then that trait won't be seen in a person, if it is dominant then it will. Capiche?
According to the well known scientist, Wikipedia, the gene for red hair is recessive, so you can only have red hair if you have two recessive genes. For this reason, gingerness often skips a generation; if you're ginger and you want someone to blame- blame your grandparents.
Also because of ginger being a recessive gene, you can carry it but not be red headed; this is also the reason that some men grow ginger beards but are non-gingers themselves.

Dying Breed?
I have often been told that soon us gingers will die out and the world will be ruled by blondes and brunettes. Professor WikiAnswers tells me otherwise, a National Geographic article said:
"While redheads may decline, the potential for red isn't going away." Not sure what that means in English, you're guess is as good as mine.
But what's important to know is that we won't be running out of redheads anytime soon, so there is not need to start inter-breeding now to repopulate them, pervy gingers.

Medical Stuff
I'm just going to put it out there that I have red hair and I still tan. Gasp all you want, but it's true.
However, on that note, it is true that gingers lack 'Melanin' and therefore are less likely to tan and more likely to receive excessive amounts of freckles. Which is wonderful.
There is also more chance of a red headed person getting sunburnt than anyone else... I think that's a good thing, makes it easy for my family to spot me on the beach. (Ignore the pain and the skin cancer thing)

History
Like I said, I've done my History exam already so I won't lecture you about important things. Just ginger history. You may as well call this section "Fun Facts"

• The term "redhead" has been in use since 1510.
• Some old man once said that in order to make gold from copper you need to mix the blood of someone with red hair with the ashes of a Basilisk. Be right back, just off to slay a basilisk and find some copper.
• In September 2011, one of the largest sperm banks said that they would no longer accept donations from red headed men. Not going to divulge on this one.
• The Chinese word 'ang mo' means redhead and is used in Malaysia and Singapore to refer to all English people. HA.
• Red heads have often been thought of as being a little... slutty (sorry, I wasn't going to use Wikipedia's word suggestion for this one). No comment.

Ed Sheeran

Being Ginger is Awesome
There have been many studies into this, everyone wants to know about them gingerz, and apparently people with red hair are less receptive to pain from electrical stimuli (also mechanical and chemical, but I don't know any examples of those). Go for it gingers- go stick your finger in a plug socket while holding a metal conductor and see if the current travels throught the conductor and into your hand and electrocutes you/gives you an electric shock (Physics revision. Check), 'cause it won't! Gingers are indestructible, when it comes to electricity.

However... being Ginger is Lame
This is yet to be completely proven but apparently redheads bruise more easily than those with other hair colours. Lucy often says that she "bruises like a peach", this is clearly because she carries the ginger gene and is going to have lots of ginger babies. LOL.
To make matters worse, apparently pain killers work less well on red headed people (something to do with some sciencey letters and numbers).
Aaand to put a really negative spin on it- people with the ginger gene, whether you are red headed or not, have a higher chance of getting some skin cancers. FML. 

Lily Cole


Bibliography of this post:
Wikipedia
The Daily Mail (they supplied me with all of the negative facts and kept referring to being ginger as a "mutation". Thanks Daily Mail)
My imagination

Oh and also, there is a celebration of redheads in Holland that is called "redheadday". I'll be there if you need me.
There is also a chance that I am a witch, a werewolf, or a vampire seeing as I have red hair and green eyes. I think it's because I'm Irish, but I'll try howling at the moon next time it's a full one and see what happens.

And also, pregnant people (if there are any), if your newborn baby has red hair, check out the window to see if Mars is "rising above the eastern horizon." Because gingers being born triggers that, whatever that is.

Hope you enjoyed this super long post about my peoples and I hope it makes up for our recent silence.

M x

How to Respond to Holiday-Related Questions

Hate to remind everyone, but the new school term is starting soon and it means you'll be back to the workload, aching shoulders and constant fatigue, but it means that you'll see all of your friends again! Which, after Christmas/Hanukkah/whatever you celebrate, can be a bad thing. They ask all of those irritating generic holiday questions to which you give the lamest responses.
Fear not! For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy (I'm just casually quoting the Bible there), I am here to feed you the answers that you shall respond with when you are asked the annoying festive questions which you will inevitably be questioned with (no longer quoting the Bible).

Pre: How was your holiday?

Only response: "Goooood"

Now you're ready to answer the advanced level questions:
1) What did you get for Christmas/Hanukkah/whatever excuse you use to get presents?

~ People don't ask this question because they genuinely care, they ask it because they want to compare their present-load to yours and see who had a better haul this year.

Response 1: Pick your best present and say that and "...  plus some other cool stuff"
Response 2: Be obnoxious and say "I didn't need presents this year, having my family around me was enough"
Response 3: Make it up completely, go for random but fantastic things like a Finger-Monkey, a massage table, a small cottage in Andorra, a pink lawn mower etc...

~ Whatever you respond with, do not then ask the questioner what they received, this adds fuel to their comparisons and they will inevitably make their festive celebration gifts sound better than yours.

2) What did you do to celebrate Christmas/Hanukkah/Blah Blah this year?

The only response that there will ever be for this question, even if the truth is the polar opposite: "Oh, you know, family thing..."


3) So, what did you do for New Year?

~ Once again, people don't really care, how you broke in the new year is actually a massive popularity contest. TRUST NO-ONE.

Response 1: "I stayed in with my grandparents, and I'm really glad I did because Grandma said it was the best day of her life and she died the next day." Add a smile, a gulp and a tear if you want to go all-out.
Response 2: Make 'em really jealous "Yeah, it was casual, first I went to Elton John and David Furnish's place for pre-drinks, then I headed out with Brad and Ange for some dinner followed by a private fireworks display and I finished the night in some club with Selena and Justin. They are so back together." Too far?
Response 3: "Oh I just went to (common name like Issy, Chris, Max, Niall's)'s party"

~ Note how none of those responses incorporated the truth.
Unless you do know a host of celebrities that have nothing to do with one another and hang out with them on a regular basis, in which case, I commend your honesty.

4) What did you eat for Christmas dinner? (sorry this is a Christmas-only one)

Response 1: For meat-eaters: "Turkey, stuffing, Brussels sprouts *make 'ew' face*, the standard"
Response 2: For fish-eaters: "Fish pie and the regular veggies" (don't elaborate on the type of fish that makes your answer sound too planned out)
Response 3: For vegetarians: "Nut roast, carrots, parsnips, Brussels sprouts *make 'yum' face*"

~ Optional afterword: "and we drank mulled wine" *wink* or not...
~ After each response, you can say something like "it was delicious" if appropriate.
~ To this question you may ask what they ate too, because I don't think you can make a competition out of food.

5) What did you get for your sister?
Being someone who only has sisters, I have not got you covered if they ask the same question about your brother (you could still do the first thing though).

~ PAAANIICCCC
~ Then pull yourself together.

Response 1: *put your hand on your heart* "This adorable dress from Topshop that she has wanted for ages" (making you: kind and loving sibling)
Response 2: "Oh she picked it herself on boxing day once the sales started. I payed for it though" (making you: nonchalant yet generous and money-conscious sibling)
Response 3: "Oh I haven't got her anything yet" (making you: receive many death stares)


There will of course be other questions asked, because friends are annoying like that, but the above will hopefully help you out a little with the basics.

Remember, if you are unable to answer the question- shush your friend say you thought you heard your phone ringing, apologise and just walk off or change the subject.

Hope you had a great holiday, whatever you celebrate, and happy 2013!!

M x

'Little Things' Is An Important Song For Our Time

Before you exit this web page because you think this is just a crazed One Direction-related post, please read on. I'm not some crazy obsessed fan, I don't tweet Mr Styles every time my grandma dies (on a side note follow @HarryMyCatDied for hilarious tweets from bonkers fans)

But you've kinda got to admire these boys. Kind of. Yes, they were churned out of the Simon Cowell machine, destined to make millions from the beginning due to their dashing good looks, but they've come quite far in just a couple of years. And be honest, if you saw Louis Tomlinson and his girlfriend clothes shopping in Harvey Nichols, you'd probably do some subtle stalking... ok just me?

In 2012, they released their second studio album in just under a year and released their first single from it, 'Little Things'. Admittedly it follows the same themes as most of their other songs, as it's about a girl. Original. But this one is so different, and, in my opinion, actually speaks a very important message to young people today, their audience.

Harry, stop giving me those eyes. You're with Taylor, it would be inappropriate.

Before you start to think I'm a complete loony, listen to some of the songs on their first album. The girls they sing of are portrayed as absolute angels. Just listen to some of the lyrics from their first album. 'The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed'?! Are you serious, there's this great girl in front of you, and the best thing you can find to comment on is her hair? Additionally, 'It's everything about you, everything that you do'. And they're not half picky these boys: 'I NEED that One Thing and you've got that One Thing'. No pressure there then.

Don't get me wrong, I know why One Direction only sing about getting girls and falling in love. Because of their target market (spotty pre-teen girls whose most serious relationships are with their teddy bears), they know they will make money from making these girls swoon. But some of these girls, they're no Victoria's Secret Angels. They write fan fiction, for Christ's sake.

Look, you've got to stop freaking out when I flip my hair, Zayn...

So 'Little Things' was a huge breath of fresh air. How awesome is it to be told that that its ok to 'never want to know how much you weigh'?? (Especially after a super-indulgent festive period). It's true, the majority of girls don't like their stomach or their thighs. Can we all just collectively ignore the stupid line 'You can't go to bed without a cup of tea, and maybe that's the reason that you talk in your sleep. And all those conversations are the secrets that I keep, though it makes no sense to me', like are you serious? C'mon Louis, buck up.

Back to the important issue at hand. Girls nowadays suffer from so many self-esteem issues, never believing that they are good enough to get the guy. Let alone bag a member of One Direction. And whose to blame for a whole generation, and probably even generations before, developing confidence issues? The media and the artists of today, that's who. Or, in One Direction's case, their songwriters.

It seems as if you cannot go on the Internet anymore without being told that a celebrity is struggling to keep off the pounds, therefore being branded as 'fat'. She's not fat, she's 110 pounds for Christ's sake. These online newspapers then proceed to publish articles about how low self-esteem is ruining so many bright futures. Ironic much?! I'm talking about you, Mail Online.

Living in a big city like London, it is hard to avoid models and London Fashion Week. I believe LFW is a great way of showcasing British talent, but in recent years, controversy surrounding Size 0 models has hit the headlines, reaching the eyes of millions of easily-manipulated teenage girls. Although London isn't the most popular fashion capital for using Size 0 models, it's still happening. Back in 2011, the nations beloved SamCam, wife of the less loved PM David Cameron, said she was 'disgusted' by the inclusion of a Size 0 model at a show she attended. Hey model, it's not normal to look skeletal and it don't suit you, babe.

On the subject of self-esteem issues, let me bring up a topical issue that you may/may not be aware of. You'll undoubtedly have seem them. The yobs at the back of the bus will usually leave them around. You may even know someone who buys it just to see them. That's right, I'm talking about The Sun's Page 3 models. These hugely out-of-proportion girls are basically telling girls everywhere that they have to look like that. They may not be realising they're doing it or doing it intentionally because they don't think that their audience may include young girls, but yeah, they're doing it. Don't even get me started on the over-sexualisation of youngsters. I think I'm too young/not mardy enough to address that right now.

These images are basically saying that this is what young women everywhere should look like. No slightly flabby thighs for you, missy. So we are trying to get rid of it. Forever.

So here is today's task for you. Two things actually.
1) Sign this petition to get rid of the Page 3 models, and then tell absolutely everyone you know to sign it.
2) Listen to Little Things, open a box of Quality Street and hug your normal thighs. They're not thunder thighs, I promise. You go girl.

So girls, stretch marks are fine. Spots are cool too. Because, hey, you may still bag a member of One Direction. I hear Niall may be free...

L x