(diaryland) February 24, 2005 - 10:31 a.m.

I have to start university again next week.

I think that this year will be easier than last year, since I'm not doing the main subject, which is playing difficult stuff (for me) in front of famous people in a huge empty hall whilst pissing your pants.

I didn't get the best mark ever for that subject last year.

No, instead, this year I have to do the subject I was supposed to do last year but I couldn't handle doing because it was so crap.

That subject is the 'singing in the choir' subject. This means that every Monday, I have to hang around in a big hall singing madrigals or spirituals every now and then but the bulk of rehearsal time is always taken up by singing students yelling at each other very loudly or wrestling, which I think is supposed to be interpreted as flirting. The singing students are too much up their own arses and too fucking noisy.

I had coffee with one of my uni friends the other day. She was forced to do choir last year. I asked whether you can read a novel or something while you are waiting for the singing students to pipe down, but she said, no, you can't possibly, because they are too distracting.

I went to one class of it last year, then panicked and desperately tried to join the orchestra instead, but my violin playing was too shameful.

Oh, well. I shouldn't complain too much, because in the scheme of things, choir can't be the worst compulsory subject ever. The worst compulsory subject ever would have to be Construction Technology 4.

In Construction Technology 4, we had to do things like be able to draw a diagram of any one of several complex air conditioning systems from memory. Boy, those were dark days.

When I was small, I thought that 'choir' was spelt 'quire'.

Probably most people did.

The extensive length of this entry is dedicated to Rosemary.