I went to St Aelred's this morning with Dad and Nathan, conscious that the academic year was drawing to a close, in order to pick up my artwork before it all got thrown away. The weather was glorious, ELO on the car stereo, sun on my face - I was quite looking forward to seeing my artwork again after all this time - to feel the weight of the sketchbooks and the sheer size of that bloody huge A1 piece I'd done for my exam. A whole academic year had gone by, I realised, since all that stress, all that mithering, all those all-nighters with the thick aroma of coffee choking out my room.

We arrived and were received by a receptionist who asked what we were visiting for as we signed in. When I explained with a smile that I was picking my artwork up (at last!), she gave me this blank look and said that I'd be lucky if it hadn't been thrown out. She just said it, direct and devoid of sympathy. Gave Dad and I our visitor badges and hurried us on.

( Panic set in as I led the way to Mr Kelly's art classroom... )

My fourth and final illustration for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The idea was to include more biro (i.e. ballpoint pen) as the series progressed, and so this final piece was entirely in biro on coffeewashed paper collage.

A note: any vagueness in quality, most notably in the top half of the 'scan', is entirely the camera's fault. I didn't use the flash, but the lighting in the room caught in the ink and made it look all pale. Biro ink is strangely reflective, even when it's dry...

This one wasn't so bad. I was quite pleased with the way I portrayed my ideas, and in the way I portrayed the character; the wild hair, the half-eaten face, the bulging eyes... it worked exactly as I wanted.

What I wasn't happy about was the proportions. I feel her hand should have been much larger, for one; think about it, when you hold your hand up to your face, it goes from your chin to half-way between your eyebrows and hairline, generally. Her hand is tiny (and I mean it is way too small), and I don't think it stands out as much as it should have done.

Another fundamental aspect was looked over for this reason; the dice in her hand. It is by rolling dice in the epic that she wins the Mariner's life, and so I feel the poor little dice should have had a better portrayal.

Oil pastel, 2B pencil and touches of acrylic paint on torn, coffee-washed paper collage. It would have been A2, only it got on the right side of a pair of scissors.

This one I hated. My main issue was how to compose the piece, as you can tell. I didn't work from a reference image of an albatross, which is probably why this looks like a badly composed oil piece of a troubled seagull. This is definitely one for the 'try again' pile!

The little white bit in the top left corner is where a bit of the paper collage fell off, after all the colour had been layered on. The collage itself was basically bits of roughly torn paper glued down, then coffeewashed over. The coffee would sink into the edges of the paper, making them darker. When oil pastel was applied, the edges of the paper bits would show through, giving a 'broken' feel which was intentional.

Oil pastel, 2B pencil and touches of acrylic paint on torn, coffee-washed paper collage. It would have been A2, only its mother decided it needed a trim.

The first, and in my eyes the best, of my A2 Art final pieces. This is the piece in which I discovered how much I loved working with oil pastels, for their boldness, the way they blend and for their ease in covering such a large scale.

Oil pastel, 2B pencil and touches of acrylic paint on torn, coffee-washed paper collage. It's vaguely A2 in size; or it was before I got to it.

The end of my second full day is drawing near. The sun's setting as I write this; it's quite a sight. My window faces west, so the sun sets outside of it. And with the road being nice and wide, I can see a lot of sky from my room, which means in the evenings I have a spectacular view of the sunset.

Two days in and I still feel a little weird in a new house. But it doesn't feel as weird or oppressive as my old house did. When I lived there, I was picked on an awful lot and there was a lot of stress regarding the local area - so in moving, I've put all that behind me. Dad's much happier here, as well, and I have a bigger room with bigger windows. I don't feel claustrophobic any more. It still feels odd because most of my stuff remains packed and I'm still adjusting, but it's better.

Music's helping an awful lot. Huzzah for stealage of Dad's stereo. I've got Kevin Ayers and the Whole World's 'Lunatic's Lament' playing right now, listening to Mike Oldfield unleash that blistering guitar solo. I've worked a little on the novel but it's proving hard to get back into. I just planned chapter fifteen and the start of sixteen.

( Anyway, here's some bedroom/college supplies waffling )

All went well and I'm officially a Y13 student. And guess what? Grade E's at A-Level are equivalent to a C at GCSE, which to me is a satisfactory result. And considering there's only one year's difference between A-Levels and GCSE, I haven't done too bad. Not only that but an E at A-Level is also a pass. Yes, chums, I'll be working my face off next year on three A2's, one of which is... *drumroll* Art!

I didn't pick any AS subjects in the end. Yeah, no Media for me. Sian is going to kill me for being one of the most unreliable people she's ever known. But with three A2s to focus on, I don't think any more subjects would be a wise choice. Even Mrs Vernazza said it would be too much work. So, I have my three subjects, all carried on from last academic year (except Photography), and I intend to get good grades on all three of them.

School looks a lot different now. They've been working on it over the summer. There's a patch of previously unused and derelict-looking ground outside the Sixth Form block that's had a garden put in - it looks pretty good.

We nipped up to Earlestown on foot to tell the opticians about my glasses fee problem and it turns out that my glasses aren't even there yet anyway. So, Wednesday, hopefully, I'll have my beloved eyesight back so I can read Mrs. Hughes' ghastly black-text-on-purple presentations. On the way back, it rained. Hard.

Ooh, I also need some new biros (for writing, not art). Most just disappeared during the move.

In other news, I'm hungry. We've got baked potatoes for dinner, though. Awesome!

Lee's getting his new car on Monday. He said he'd visit once he has it. Yay!

What the hell was I thinking a few weeks ago? I can't drop Art. Without Art, I think I would go crazy.

So, Art, English Language, English Literature at A2, along with AS Media? As much as I love Photography, I can't do it without a camera.

And besides, the Art course I do covers Photography, as well as fine art, graphic design, ceramics, textiles... the list goes on. And being above Sixth Form age wouldn't prevent me from doing an A-Level in future *shameless burst of optimism*

P.S. You know the results day? Looks like I'm walking.