Don’t care was made to care
Don’t care was hung (parliament)
Don’t care was put in a pot
And boiled till he was able to evaluate parties’ policies and make a proper decision.

Pah. I wish I was old enough to vote.

Then I worked out why – because I’d suddenly realised how we’ve beaten nature; not by concreting over floodplains, (I don’t think it’s very nice to beat nature in that way…) but by doing things we weren’t intended for. As far as nature is concerned, all we have to do is eat, sleep and have kids. But that’s not all we do! People have composed the most marvellous music, created the most marvellous pieces of art and written the most marvellous books – and were never really meant to! We’ve just done it, and do it and will go on doing it – we’ve beaten nature.

So as I sat there listening to the music, with my viola on my lap, it was unquashable creativity that I heard once again.

Well, you know what? I always press backspace until I have passed the “error”, then retype the word. It gives me a feeling of satisfaction to know that there is now definitely no possibility of Word uncorrecting all my mistakes just as I press print.

Call me paranoid, call me petty. But this is how I “roll”.

But luckily, responsible sixth-former that I am, I can now wear my own clothes to school, so have been making the most of the jumper option. My friends are only just beginning to realise the joys of the woolly jumper, but I was there way before them (this year, in mid-July). School life wasn’t always this comfortable. Before now, my free time during winter consisted of a continual search for warmth. When kicked out of one, we’d find the next cosy place. Our uniform – the same in winter and summer, and equally unsuitable all year round – offered no protection from the cold. In summer, we boiled.

Like a giant, heat-seeking swarm, we infested the warmest classrooms – we knew instinctively which ones they were, as though  it were some primeval memory handed down through the generations – and if dispersed by exam re-sits, the library (the exceptions to this rule being the students for whom the library is like a church to an antichrist; they took their chances in the hall). The buildings, however, do little to retain the heat. Built in the seventies, there are even rumours that some of the buildings (particularly the one that sways in the wind) were intended to be temporary when they were built forty years ago… The walls are one sheet of metal thick. In the cupboards, delightful green and brown mould decorates the inside wall. In the other old buildings, tin-tacks are forbidden – blue tack is the only way to fix posters up without running the risk of asbestos poisoning. But at least it offers a kind of insulation.

I realise I have made my school sound like a complete and utter wreck. But it’s not that bad, I promise. It’s just a bit cold.

First things first, what I’d take depends on the time I’d be going back to. For the moment, I am working on the basis that I would love to visit the Medieval world.

So what would I need in order to make my visit more comfortable? Well, they were pretty brutal times, so definitely some Ibuprofen. Even if I don’t need it while I’m there, I could perhaps use its pain-killing properties to make some friends.

Toothache? Have one of these. Magic, you ask? Why yes, a branch of magic called science…

Another thing about those times. They weren’t… squeaky clean. So wipes and anti-bacterial handwash in industrial quantities. Dental hygiene wasn’t a top priority either, so I would certainly take some Tic-Tacs. (For them, not me. I’ll take my toothbrush.)

I would also take a wind-up torch (More Magic!!) though I’d hope they would merely be in awe of it and not so scared they wanted to lynch me. I’d like to take something like AA batteries, or a video tape – as a little present for future archaeologists.

In terms of ideas to blow their minds, I’d like to take the concept of atoms and the universe (someone might listen…?) and also of drawing with perspective. Then when I get back to the present, I can look at things from the Renaissance and think “I started that”. I’d like to think I’d introduce women’s rights etc. But actually, women’s lives may not have been so bad then as they later became – everyone’s life was tough, especially in terms of the lives of normal people. It would also be extremely difficult, obviously.

There wouldn’t be much point in taking mobile phones or laptops or anything – they wouldn’t work and they might really frighten people… Antibiotics might on the one hand be a marvellous thing to take with me, but on the other hand I have no idea how to administer them. Perhaps I could take a lovely doctor, too… But that would still leave the problem of whether, by saving these people’s lives, I would create a rift in the space-time continuum.

Oooh! And I’d take a bicycle.

Now, ideally, I’d somehow ingraciate myself into the King’s court (although, Historians rest assured, I wouldn’t miss the opportunity to find out about the lives of ordinary people). I think I would do this by wearing blue or purple, and taking some costume jewellery. When they wondered about my weird way of talking and manners, I would merely tell them that I was a daughter of the King of a little-known country, sent to experience the English court…

Perhaps I’d bag myself a forward-thinking medieval person and whisk them back to the future, opening their minds and hopefully not sending them mad..! Hopefully.