Dangling a carrot and gobbling it up
#11 - apple pies are yummy
Hi everyone!
Great to be back ‘at the keyboard’, tapping away for this lovely newsletter.
My mock exams are all but done now and we eagerly wait for results day on Wednesday 8th December. I think, overall, I’ve done pretty well but only time will tell.
In terms of the comings and goings of the last 168 hours, I had my 16th birthday on Wednesday. Alas, I had 3 exams on the same day as well: History, Chemistry and Computing. Still, we did the best under the circumstances, cutting a cake and thanks to having the solitary exam the following day, paying a trip to Shere Khan, an Indian restaurant with delectable food.
Below are the cakes of the night, the one on the right from the nearby Asda and the other made by my sister. Which one is better? Let me know in the comments. (The special effects were done by my sister when snapping the photo)
To round off, the highlight of the week is, in fact, not going to be the anniversary of my birth (a weird but clever way of putting it?). Perhaps this is recency bias at work but…this evening, I made a sumptuous apple pie. The recipe I followed was this one on BBC GoodFood except I didn’t (wasn’t allowed) to make my own pastry and used 1/3 of all the items. Also added a hint of lemon juice into the filling.
And the snow was quite nice.
Today, I’m actually going to veer away from the life advice-y theme on this blog/newsletter (I’m still not sure which of the two to call it). I actually wanted to think through an idea I had in my head.
So, after 9 days of hard graft, spending hours upon hours in the exam rooms, watching the same clock spin round and round for an eternity, we were instructed to come into school on Friday by the Senior Leadership Team. When I chatted to my class teacher, he said that most of the teachers are against it and think we should have the day off. This was a sentiment shared by all of our teachers on the Friday: in 5 lessons, we watched a documentary on the periodic table, cut out triangles with keywords and stuck them together and watched a funny set of videos on electrocution.
What I found interesting was that we had originally been told that we would have the day off. Or at least that was what was imagined. But then, when this privilege (really) was revoked from us, we were all disheartened and in dismay.
I thought: “What if we had never been told that we got the Friday off? How would we have reacted? Would we have been so upset?” It’s interesting how when a privilege is given and then taken away, it tastes worse than not having it in the first place.
For example, I use the to-do list app Any.do for tasks that are time-bound and that I need to be reminded about (Todoist Free doesn’t include notifications). And they have such a good interface that I can press the ‘voice microphone button thingy’ and say ‘Call grandma at 2pm Saturday’ and voila I get notified then.
However, recently, when I voice-typed, the app refused to “natural language process” the time out of the text. I got frustrated and even went to the length of finding the app creators’ emails (in the end, I never got round to emailing them) Thank God it’s fixed now - it is unbelievably useful and convenient.
Perhaps this can serve as a reminder for us to be grateful not just for the basic necessities we have but also for the little things that we are blessed and lucky to have and be able to do. Google Assistant or Siri (or other voice assistants, if anyone uses them), your mum who remembers to pack you a spoon with your food, stuff like that. At the end of the day, you can never be too grateful.
So, yes, I’ve indeliberately turned it into something we can learn from. I’m sorry.
Or if you appreciated it,
Book of the week 📖
The mocks have meant that Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty has been on the backburner. Will strive to get to the bottom of it this week.
Podcast of the week🎙️
On Purpose with Jay Shetty: 6 Ways Successful People Spend Their Time Instead of Wasting It
And Jay Shetty features again with a useful one.
Article of the week📰
The man turning cities into giant sponges to embrace floods
I read this on the way to school earlier this month but didn’t get the chance to share this. A pertinent issue solved with innovation and passion.
Quote of the week💬
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. - Oscar Wilde
Have a fantastic week!
P.S. as for the “ambitious vocabulary” choices of ‘delectable’, ‘sumptuous and ‘‘, you’ve got the English Language mark scheme to thank!