Basket.

3-day weekend. It's been wonderful.

The class blog, dormant for so long, has been revived. With a lovely picture to stir the memories, too.

I wondered, at the end of 2003, whether the coming year would be able to beat it in terms of excitement, high drama and sheer fun. My inclination was that it would not be, because most of it would be concentrated on preparing for the A-levels.

I've never been more glad to be wrong. Despite a strangely subdued beginning, 2004 was 2003 and more. Much more.

I'll always remember it, personally, as a year of struggle. When I grappled with various difficulties in the academic sphere, my CCA and worst of all, my personal life - all aspects of it. When I would come home dead tired from an entire day of lessons and CCA, with demanding piles of work to complete, and have my seemingly unsympathetic parents berate me for not putting enough effort into my work. When I was brought to the very edge at times by the seemingly unending difficulties and fears - of the A-Levels, of NS, of being able to maintain my personal relationships.

But that doesn't mean I didn't have plenty of fun last year. It may always be people that make life difficult, but it is also always people (albeit a different bunch) that make life worthwhile.

It was truly, the year that had everything. I won't see another year like it ever again.