Being sixteen...

...and these are the things I get to do:

-Get my learner driver's license. Except, hang on, I forgot to mention that I can't drive without my mum next to me (so what is the point of driving if my mum has to be there and there's higher risk of car crash when I'm behind the wheel) until I'm 17  and have completed 120 hours of practice driving.
-Get most piercings without my mum's permission. Oh yeah, like I've always wanted the eyebrow piercing. Might just go get it soon!
-Get to move out of home and get my own place. Sure, I have like sixty dollars in my pocket. That will last me maybe a week, give or take, on the streets. I'll survive on Maccas everyday. Oh hang on, I can't even do that because I have to spend the money on my remaining english textbook!
-Get to have sex. Wow. Like, there's going to be police peeking through the windows of all the teenage sluts and arresting them if they do it before 16.

So it's a bit disappointing. But yesterday was cool. Thanks guys, it was sweet *hugs*. I guess I'll wait until I'm 18. Then I can rent a hotel by myself. That's all I can think of at the moment. It's be awesome to save up and go holidaying on your own.
Hate hate hate Optus. Too bad Bigpond's network coverage or whatever is crap and doesn't service our house, other wise I would go for Bigpond. I want my internet so bad. So so bad. I hate Vodafone internet, the minute Optus comes in I'm breaking my USB in half and chucking it out the window into the ugly leaves of my freaky neighbour's banana tree, where it belongs. I was meant to get my internet on the 25th. The 25th! And their cable was too short or something. And they say they would call us back. Except they never did, and when my mum rings they say they can't come back until mid-February! I don't think anyone understands how slow my mobile internet is. It not only takes up one of only 2 USB ports on my computer (the other one you can't use anyway because the stupid internet stick is huge so basically when I use internet I have no other free USB slot). If the Macbook Pro has one fault, it is not enough USB ports. Or maybe that's Vodafone's fault for inventing such a big stick. I don't know. Half the time my internet just decides to give up and show the dreaded 'this webpage is not available'. Which is why I have to remember to copy everything I write that is long. And I can't upload photos off my iPod, or update its software when I don't have a free USB slot! Boo.

I'd love to know what Juliet and Georgia did in New Mexico after their 1st trip to Walmart like 2 months ago. Shame they ABANDONED their blog! Tut tut. So, here was a belated birthday present for me: I've just been informed by my piano teacher that I have to 'really work hard' from now on. Gr-eat, just when school starts. My piano exam is sometime between 28 April-9th June. See, I can even memorise the date. She's implied that she wants to see me twice a week but I doubt I'll find 90 dollars lying around every week. And she's cancelled theory lessons, which sucks. I've actually been practising. And it also means the money spent on theory was wasted because 3 months later (when she starts up again) everyone will forget everything and we'll have to start fresh. My mum's pretty pissed about that because my teacher does that all the time. Cancel lessons after like 10 of them, then start them up again after 2 months and we have to waste time and money revising lots of things from scratch. I really hate theory. Melody writing, argh. I wonder when I will ever compose anything that isn't 'bad rhythm' or 'too many repeated notes' or 'not remotely like a Minuet' or sounding oriental! I'm meant to have my 4th grade theory pass certificate already but I've only got my grade 2 even though we're learning grade 5 (she makes me skip every exam practically) which means I don't even have my official 8th grade certificate even though I did the prac exam like 2 years ago (I only have the examiner's report and grade, because a pass in 4th grade is compulsory to get an actual certificate), nor will I get my diploma this year even if I pass the practical exam (because I need a 5th grade certificate, not a useless 2nd grade one).

I am learning oboe this year. It's an endangered instrument and I love the sound. Unfortunately I'm paying for it myself, which means I can't do it with the school because they charge like $80 an hour which is a rip-off for a beginner. I found a $60 per hour teacher that's gotten her Amus so I can even ask her about the general knowledge section of my upcoming piano exam, seeing as my piano teacher is hopeless at teaching it. Her way: *chucks me a huge pile of badly photocopied paper* "Here's some info on Bach, here's some info on the structure of the fugue, here's some info on when the piano was invented and here's some italian definitions. Memorise the amount of each type of composition all your composers wrote, the dates they wrote everything and the cities they travelled, and also three other composers for each era and oh you can't forget the dates all four composers were born and died and what their wives and children did, and of course memorise everything by next week, I'll quiz you" which is a fat lot of help and makes the following week sound pretty lame. I've got this memory in my head still : 1 week after our year 9 Canberra trip and the day before my 8th grade exam, Claudine was quizzing me on Debussy and the harpsichord while we were lining up for Geography and the teacher looked like she thought we were total weirdos. Haha I was so stressed I only cared about memorising the amount of compositions Bach composed for the harpsichord or something. So my lesson next week will be like 6:45 pm Sunday which is late, I don't want to go (not as bad as the 8pm-10pm lessons she scheduled for me every Wednesday school night in yr 9). And what's worse: the ominous "I don't know, I'm a bit confused about the times so I don't know when you'll start, maybe 7 but come at 6:45 anyway" what, just for the fun of waiting? I have homework and its a school night! I think I'll bring 'Huckleberry Finn' with me if I have to wait. And then she goes, 'oh and tell your mum to not pick you up until you call her, I need extra time with you' which was when I thought crap, she's going to make me finish at like 9 or something when I'm half asleep. Or even worse she's arranged another student 'get-together' to exercise our performance skills in front of like 5 other students (who last year all played better than me, but seeing as this year I'm not in 8th grade anymore she might invite the lower students that are doing their grade 8 and hopefully it won't be as bad). And she always criticises you in front of everyone. If she does that it won't end until like 10pm. Argh this is depressing. The only thing worse, much worse, than exam stress: piano stress. 2 years worth of playing 6 songs all come down to nothing if I fail. Especially when the exam costs $300 to take and the pass rate is 30%...oh my god I need to stop thinking about that. Especially when my piano teacher is pressuring me to do Music Extension (or as she calls it, Music 3). No thanks, I can barely get my head around my 'Music Composition Toolbox' textbook for Music 2. It looks sooo hard.

This is embarrassing but I was offered an audition and interview for a cello learning scholarship (I know, cellos are lame and I hate the sound but it's free tuition for a year) with the Sydney Youth Symphony Orchestra, except I had to cancel it at the last minute. Why? Because I only just realised that the venue (Castle Hill) was too far away. Yeah, so that was lame and pretty embarrassing when I had to tell them after I applied and got contacted back and everything.

I'm itching all over even though my cat's gone. I mean, my hands itch, even, and my back. I have red rashes on the back of my hands. So annoying. And I think I just lost a student, boo because my mum isn't on great terms with his mum. But I got 2 more (their mum just moved here and came to my mum's shop and got friendly with her, and asked her if she knew a teacher). One of them wants me to tutor English. She goes to a partially selective school, kind of like Rose Bay, so I'm not completely sure how that will work out. I didn't really like tutoring English for the little boy I taught last year because he was like 10 and he wrote the crappiest (no offense) stories sort of plagiarised from Harry Potter, like 'Harry Potter and the Secret Diary' it wasn't as bad as teaching piano though. Just a few spelling mistakes to fix and make up more junk for him to add onto the pile of crap he already wrote. Whereas year 7 english sounds a bit easier to tutor. I mean, there are actually rules in essay writing. I could hark on about ATEEL and similes and that stuff, and hopefully the time will pass faster than piano. The other kid needs English tutoring too as well as piano and he's eight, so that's a bit sad. I don't like reading messy writing and inventing purposefully crappy stories for a kid (I can't make it too good or it just screams 'not a 8 year old's work'). I'd much rather go on about ATEEL. I guess I'm happy that I'm getting the same money for English tutoring as piano, because English tutors usually charge less. Teaching English is way less boring than teaching piano because time passes faster. Hopefully their mum (they're siblings) doesn't realise that she could find a cheaper and more experienced English tutor on Gumtree or something. By the way, I have my iPad again. My bid on the iPad I made before I knew my mum needed the money actually won, so looks like I actually will get it sometime next week. Which is lame because my mum needed the money and I don't have my Optus wifi internet yet so it's not like I'll be using it anytime soon. Oh well. I'm still kind of excited.

My iPad accessories I am sooo getting (yeah, I'm spending all my earnings on this stuff):
-A bookbook. It's so cool. I also found a really cool cover disguised as the first edition of 'The Great Gatsby' (the one with the eyes and ferris wheel) but that was really expensive, like $55 so I think I'll go for the 30 dollar bookbook.
-A GelaSkin. I know it's a rip-off but I was thinking: do I want an iPod touch one, a Macbook or an iPad Gelaskin? I think I'll go for the iPad one. I don't know which one to choose yet but most of them are really cool so it'll be hard deciding.
-Screen protector. Enough said, nothing too special.
-http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/110814293139?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_2378wt_1141 <---- one of these to type on, it looks like a really nice keyboard, all sleek and polished.

I think that's it. I just ate the leftover Arthur's pizza and it kind of tasted a bit funny because the tomatoes were wrinkled and the mushroom looked dry and was actually crispy which was weird. But not too much to complain about, they were leftovers after all! Currently watching Djokovic and Nadal do their thing. I don't usually have tennis favourites so I'm not sure who I want to win. Maybe Nadal. Hmm I don't know. Nadal is getting a bit boring, he's always top. And Djokovic won last year so that's boring too. I thought the Women's finals yesterday were really interesting though.