The Friday E-Mail - 20th Edition Special

Why hello there to each and every one of my fuzzy little friends!

Today is a very special day, and for so many reasons.

Number One: This is the 20^th edition of The Friday E-Mail this year and 25^th overall. How it keeps on going I don’t know, but it has done!

Number Two: It also marks the re-launch of the Friday E-Mail Blog, in swish and fancy new colours, but with the same old articles. Interested? Go to http://thefridayemail.blogspot.com!

Number Three: Today is the day that Britain takes hold of the EU rotating presidency, with an aim to give Europe an identity once more, making it a Europe for the people rather than a Europe that no one likes.

Number Four: This e-mail is now reaching a fair few more inboxes than it has done before, too. If you’re wondering why this is your first one and not your 20^th one, then that’s most likely due to my contacts lost being minimised to only include my commonly e-mailed contacts rather than everybody. So some people just get missed, and for that, I am truly sorry.

Number Five: The last A2 Examination finished today at 12:15 pm (or at least the last one being sat by any of us) and so we cheer Kyle after completing a massive 14 exams, spanning nearly 26 hours in the examination room. A truly mammoth effort of gargantuan proportions, and I bet he’s happy to have finished at long last. I shouldn’t take any credit from others, especially the GCSE people who probably took even more exams, and over many more subjects than our very limited three or four subjects. But with the start of July, comes the end of the examination period for everyone, and we can now all breathe a collective sigh of relief that they have finally come to an end. It’s taken a fair few years to get this far, seven in fact for the Year 13 people, but now the bar moves as our time at Bolton School comes to a bitter-sweet end.

Seven years, just under half of your life so far, has fizzled out to this kind of disappointing end. Seven years of abiding to the will of the bells, even if you were late as we regularly were. Seven years of school lunches! Seven years with the same people. OK, so best friends came and went in that time for most, but we were a close block overall and now we all go our separate ways into the big wild world of University. Things will never be the same again, but the memories shall remain for some time yet. And to every single one of you, although this will be said many, many times yet; The best of luck to you all, and have a utterly fantastic future. Never waste a chance, never pass an opportunity, take everything you can and enjoy every single second of it!

Enough of the sentimental stuff for now though, we’ve got a week to dissect yet.

Firstly, to Scott’s ‘Parfait’ Pool Party. What a night it was. The much needed night to unwind in good friends’ company and play a few games of pool in the bargain. The beer was great, the lollipops a fantastic idea and we must congratulate Scotty on not one but two trips out to fetch food leaving his house in our very ‘capable’ hands. May I take this opportunity to thank him whole-heartedly for a great night, providing us with everything we needed and a little bit more to help us kick back and relax for what was going to be a very trying week indeed for some of us. The highlight of the night were the games of pool, and some very chance happenings lucked me into a couple of victories, Chris’s potting of the black and the white in the same shot being one of the great ones! King of the cues had to be ‘Ickle Jonah who romped home to victory on many occasions in just the one night.

Plodding on to Monday night, at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester for the Summer Gala Concert to end all other summer concerts. The quality of it all was of such a consistently high calibre it almost looked like a professional outfit. For the first half, a few of us were seated at the very, very top of the hall, with a commanding view of the right hand side of the stage and most of the rest of the hall. Trusty DR was darting about taking photo after photo of what was going on on stage, whilst the music staff realised their moment had come. From the sole trombone solo in the joint concert band, through the awe of the guitar groups, including Andy Lockett singing Hotel California. At first, it looked like he was doing a monologue, as he sat on a chair centre stage with only a microphone, but it was a sterling performance of epic proportions. Then came one of the sights of the night as a 300 strong choir of Year 7 boys and girls, plus middle school choirs performed the ultimate Beatles Medley. It was stupendous to hear them singing as one voice, swaying to Yellow Submarine and the Mr Martin showpiece close with the show-hands perfectly executed. Safe to say the audience was not safe, and indeed had to sing the last couple of songs, including actions, closing with show-hands towards the choirs up above the stage. It was some sight to close the first half. To close the second half though was the Proms Medley, performed by a very under rehearsed orchestra, and a conductor with no music or baton. How we managed it still eludes me, and to be honest, we barely got through at all, although quitting was not an option when in front of a packed out 3,000 strong audience. The patriotic songs rolled over with the pomp and circumstance that they do at the last night of the proms, and the atmosphere was electric. The final soloist came on in a Union Jack waistcoat, a 14-member bagpipe band helped things along nicely, and in the penultimate song the choirs sat above the stage brought out their little Union Jack flags and fluttered them like crazy to the crowd. And for closing on, Auld Lang Sine was the piece to close with, as the audience and choirs linked arms, singing away as the 160 piece orchestra and the pipe band played as loud as they could just to heard. To close on a feeling like that, what will be many people’s last school concert, is something that will never be forgotten. What a night!

The final highlight of the week was the Year 11 Leavers’ Ball on Wednesday night. By all accounts it was another night to remember with dancing and joy for all present. I don’t know much about what happened though, so I’ll have to leave it to someone else to spread the word.

I think that will be it though. The end of the longest Friday E-Mail ever, so congrats if you got this far in one sitting, or two, or in fact, just made it at all. Not a lot left to say but have a stupendous summer if I don’t speak to you again, or, if you’re coming along on Saturday, I’ll see you then! I’m hoping it to be yet another night to remember, so if you can’t make it – unlucky! Still, there’s a whole summer of fun left to go!

Fare thee well for now!

Paul