Thank Goodness my Nana's okay...Not so lucky for 60,000 Others

Well today we went to North Shore Hospital to take our nana home, who had just been discharged. I got the honour of pushing her around in a wheelchair. I pushed her a bit too fast over a bump though and she exclaimed

“Oh you need to push me a bit slower over the bumps! I might go flying off the wheelchair otherwise!”

I chatted to Pita, a guy in my class for the first time tonight, which was really cool. He told me he had been meaning to chat to me but didn’t know what to say. I guess most people have a bit of a problem chatting to me since I’m pretty boring! I don’t really know, but everything I seem to be interested in such as grown up stuff: politics and current affairs, is such a bore to most people the same age to me. Don’t get me wrong though! There are a few who like to argue that benefits shouldn’t be paid out…not talking about anyone in particular…I sometimes get this feeling that because I’m nice to everyone, other people try to be nice back to me or they’d feel stink. In the end it ain’t fun for anyone!

One morning at school before class started, I told a group of friends about this TV show I watched, which had synchronized swimmers spelling *dirty* words. They were all so shocked to hear me talking about it, one person cried out

“Is this really Calum?! Or did an alien kidnap him?!”

I sometimes feel trapped because I can’t have any fun. It isn’t the sort of thing people expect me to be. I don’t know but I’ll have to change something about myself before school starts this year.

 

I am happy to announce that most of my friends who are either holidaying or living in the South-East Asian region survived the tsunami! Jacqueline and Nick, who are both holidaying in their homeland Malaysia, let me know that they’re OK, while Disha, who only recently moved back to India, told me that she wasn’t affected. The death toll is climbing nearer to 60,000.

 

 

OK Today's the day

I’m having a problem with procrastinating all the time! I was meant to finish tidying up the bedroom and lounge today so I could concentrate more on studying, but the rooms are no tidier, and I haven’t advanced much with my studying! All I accomplished today was printing out most of the past NCEA papers. I’ve also got to read To Kill a Mockingbird by the end of these holidays too. So far…8 pages in 2 weeks. Not looking too great. Time to pick it up a bit.

 

Ain’t the effects of the tsunami devastating aye? 50,000 deaths and climbing. It was surprising to see ONE News put a correspondent in both Sri Lanka and Thailand. Good on them.

 

As for 3 News, this is what it was like in their 6 o’clock news bulletin last night.

“Now we will talk to ….. live in …., who is the owner of the restaurant Three Black Sheep. …, how did you survive the tsunami? <<shuffles papers>>silence……….<<shuffles papers again>> Police are launching a homicide inquiry after …”

As you can see, it isn’t accurately quoted.

 

Funnily enough, this is what they said in their 3 News update:

“Tonight we plan to cross live to …”

Interesting how they used the word PLAN. Are they not so certain anymore?

 

Man my skin is really tender now. I shuffled backwards today away from the TV, and accidentally rubbed my hand against the carpet. Guess what? I got carpet burn! Now I’m all covered in cuts!

It's not me it's the pills!

I’ve run out of pills! My lips are dry, my limbs are stiff, and the problem? The pharmacy doesn’t open up again till Wednesday! The guide to Isotane says that ‘you shouldn’t run out of pills over the weekend or during a holiday’ and that ‘you shouldn’t stop using the pills without consultation with the doctor’…oops….

Last night the neighbours called us over to give us some strawberries and while we were there we stayed and talked for a while, but Aonghas did most of it while I didn’t feel like saying anything. I don’t know if that’s the pills kicking in either though. Anyway the sun’s out for a change!

 

Weather hasn’t been too good in Asia though with that huge tsunami, death toll at time of writing 15,500+. Unfortunately one New Zealander has been killed while another has been injured. I wonder whether the Americans took notice of this great natural disaster and the huge loss of life, or maybe because it wasn’t caused by terrorists or it didn’t occur in America, they don’t give a damn? I’ll have to have a look through CNN

Merry Christmas and Boxing Day everyone! (A couple days late!)

Christmas which began as a disaster turned out to be a pretty great day! In the morning our dad told us that our nana had been admitted to North Shore Hospital after having some back pains, sparking a lot of worries amongst us. Then our dad told us that he was too poor to buy us anything for Christmas this year!

In the end after a lot of persuading from our mum, we each were given some money that we'll probably put in our bank account towards our university fees.

We spent most of the day playing around outside in the backyard with our neighbour Crystal, until the neighbours came home, whom we were going to have a barbeque with. Tonight all their friends were there, including those two girls who didn't really want to say much to me and many other people. Again those two girls (I think!) tried to avoid being near me! Apart from that we had heaps of fun with the neighbours Zippo and Szelin, playing cards and my favourite primary school game Sausage! (One person hides, and then he suddenly pops out shouting 'SAUSAGE!' and whoever laughs loses) Yeah it sounds really corny but amazingly everyone lost! We finally left their house at about 10:30 at night and came home to watch Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon which is a really cool Chinese movie.

Zippo told me that she dumped her boyfriend, continuing her track record of never lasting longer than a week with anyone! Its still better than me though...I'm still trying to find ONE person!

Yesterday's (Boxing Day) church service was a special Baptism service with two churches combined. I wish the other church would come to ours more frequently because there are a lot more people my age from that church! After the service while my mum learnt how to make sponge cake with some other people, I shot some hoops with Aonghas and some other people. The hoop was on the verge of falling off, and it happened to be my shoot that broke one of the supporting bars of the rim off. A girl asked me to help fold some tables away and when I returned, the other people who had been playing basketball had all gone because the hoop was dangling off the board!

I've got to get off to bed but I'll continue on tomorrow

 

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One day till Christmas!

Today is Christmas Eve!

We visited Mrs Simpson, our old neighbour to give her a Christmas present. We had a little chat and she’s still going strong. Last night we visited Phillip, Kenneth and the Mobberleys, who told us that early next year Phillip will be moving down to Palmerston North to take on an engineering apprenticeship, while Kenneth will be moving down to Wellington to join the army, to work with electronics. It’ll be really sad seeing them grow! They’ve been my neighbours ever since I was born!

 

Tonight Hamish, Aonghas and I performed our accordion trio at our Mandarin Church Christmas service. It was really nerve-wracking performing in front of an all Chinese audience! Not being racist of anything but Chinese are extremely good at music and so it was important for us not to make mistakes or then they would easily pick it up, unlike performing in front of an elderly audience. In the church hall it felt as though I was the only one playing. It must have been the acoustics, as my brothers felt the same way! Even though I did a few mistakes (because of my long fingernails!), most people didn’t really notice our mistakes and came up to us, commenting on how much they enjoyed our performance which was cool.

 

Tomorrow is Christmas and we’ll be having a barbeque with the neighbours. So MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

 

I cooked for the first time in a LOOONG time! Together with Hamish and Aonghas, we cooked rice, boiled eggs, and baked a sponge cake as well as meringues. The sponge cake turned out well but the meringues were burnt and flat, so they didn’t taste too good. We did this while our parents were out shopping and throughout these holidays my mum has been going on about how we should be learning how to cook. So we decided we would surprise them on their arrival by cooking them dinner. It turns out the surprise was on us as they had bought Chinese takeaways for dinner instead!  

Church, Playing Ball and Amanda Bynes

We had a shared lunch today at church which is pretty cool because there is always heaps of different and yummy food, not just the usual plain old rice and meat. After that, Hamish, Aonghas and I rehearsed our trio in front of Aunty Helen and the other performers again. She had asked us to play another Christmas hymn in addition to the piece we’re already performing. Originally we were going to play Deck the Halls, but when we realised that someone else was already performing it, I tried asking Aunty Helen if I could arrange another piece by Friday (performance night), but she wanted to watch us perform first. I hope it’s not because she couldn’t trust us! We decided not to play another piece.

Crystal came over to play with us again today, and when I got out the rugby ball and the ball pump and needle, Crystal took it off me and said she would pump the ball up while I went to get my cap. When I came out, I found the rugby ball still flat, the air pump with no needle! The needle had snapped and was stuck in the rugby ball! Of course Crystal was nowhere to be seen! We’re going to have to spend another 67c on a new needle.

Tonight we’ve just been tidying up the house – so many clothes! Tonight’s movies were Big Fat Liar, Sweet November and Urban Legend 2: Final Cut. Keanu Reeves definitely has featured in quite a lot of movies this week, from Hardball to Sweet November to The Gift. Big Fat Liar which starred Frankie Muntz (Malcom in the Middle) and Amanda Bynes was actually quite good, considering it was only a G rated movie, and I’m sure it was more than the fact that Amanda Bynes starred in it! Most G rated movies, or ‘Colgate Saturday Features’ as I like to call them (TV2 used to have a movie slot on Saturday nights sponsored by Colgate toothpaste, with little kids movies screening) are usually pretty gumbie and unrealistic. For example, the movie with the dog playing basketball or soccer or some other sport. OK so Big Fat Liar wasn’t completely realistic. No one would spend all their money flying all the way to Los Angeles to get some bigshot movie director to ring his parents to prove that he didn’t lie, but it was quite humorous, especially the evil mean movie directory (lost his name now). He wasn’t too ‘GET THEM YOU FOOLS!!!!’ nor the whacky type either.

Clumsy Me

I left the toast in the toaster for too long, burnt the toast and filled the kitchen with smoke. It stunk for more than an hour! I have a tendency to burn toast. It occurred when my parents weren’t home, and so when they arrived home, the first thing they asked was if I had set a fire! Our house is still in one piece fortunately, with the toaster just covered in a bit of soot.

 

Today was our last accordion lesson for the year. I got my accordion exam results back today as well. Here goes…

I got 86/100 which means I passed with merit! I won’t have to resit the exam!

Scales – 17/18

List A Piece: Le Cou Cou – 16/18

List B Piece: Sonata in C (Mozart) – 20/24

List C Piece: Preludio – 12/18

Aural – 7/8

Initiative Test (Sight-reading) – 8/10

(That should add up to 100…I think…)

 

We came across Denis the clarinet teacher at Lynn Mall today. He suggests that I should become an accordion teacher at the Music Centre next year. According to him the pay is better than if I worked at a supermarket, so I might consider it.

 

Originally we were at New Lynn to watch some Chinese dance performance, but because our music lessons finished at about 3, and it takes an hour to get back home, by the time we got there it had finished. We managed to watch a few people play Mah Jong and my mum has promised me that she’ll teach me these holidays (with no gambling involved of course). We also watched as this Chinese man painted shrimp with his BARE hands.

 

I’ve started tidying up the lounge and conservatory. I folded all the clothes while watching a bit of the movie Jaws and Hearts of Atlantis. It’s a coincidence that Jaws is being screened on TV in light of what has happened in Australia regarding the surfer being ripped in half by two sharks. In the scene that had the first shark mauling, I couldn’t bare to watch it! Hearts of Atlantis however was a completely different movie which was very touching. Now I know I am a guy but it does make one think about how each second, minute, day and year of our life is precious and full of memories. Man I’ve got to start making the most of my life now!

 

Anyway there’s going to be a full dress rehearsal of the Christmas concert and us Anderson brothers haven’t even practised our trio since the last rehearsal! We were asked if we could play a Christmas song as well as the piece ‘A French Visit’ that we will be performing, so I had to arrange Deck The Halls for three accordions. It isn’t complete though and we haven’t got it by memory so we’re in a bit of a sticky situation! Let’s just see how it goes tomorrow.

 

Having to do up our family website is definitely time-consuming. I’ve decided to incorporate Macromedia Flash into our website and it has been taking a lot more time than planned to get everything up and running.

I had originally planned to sit the learner’s license test today but in the end I wasn’t prepared and I would have been the first in the world to fail what is considered as an unbelievably easy test. So I decided not to do it. I’d rather not waste $40 of my mum’s money. CONGRATULATIONS to Yuk kit though! He sat it in under 8 minutes and passed! However…he failed the eye sight test twice. That makes me shiver – I would most likely fail as well!

 

Zippo’s been going on at me about me not being too successful with my challenge of finding a girlfriend, and so last night I asked her if she could find a boyfriend in the time I have to find a girlfriend and she replied with a ‘yes’. Surprise surprise this morning she rang me to tell me that she’s going out with a guy!

Our old couches have been stripped down to bare wood – it’s so sad to see the very thing I’ve been sitting on for most of my life being destroyed…Farewell couch!!

 

I watched this real-life TV show called NYPD 24/7 and I must say I was appalled at the attitudes of the cops on display. One man was pulled over and his car confiscated for being too intoxicated. He was told to take a taxi home with his daughter, but the man asked for permission to get his keys out of his car first but the policeman refused to let him do so. When the man became upset and angry, the policeman called for backup and an ambulance. When another police officer arrived at the scene they pushed this man to the ground, handcuffed him and then forced him onto a stretcher. He was then taken to hospital for a check-up. The police officer later claimed that he was only trying to help the man. If he really wanted to avoid the whole situation and really help the man out, why not just give the man the keys to his house and let him be on his way?! No wonder people do not understand Americans.

Reply from TVNZ Re:Dedicated Weekly Science/Health/Technology Show

Dear Paul (my dad)

Thanks for your suggestion. While we do not have a dedicated programme we try to 

cover the portfolios you refer to in our general news and current affairs output. That is not 

the same I agree but I shall ensure your idea is referred up. Thanks  for writing in.

Mike Farman

News and Current Affairs.

My Sad Tale Continues...

(Continuing on from the previous post)…Zippo tried introducing me to her new friends who were relatively new to this country from Malaysia, one the same age as me and one the same age as Aonghas. It was her attempt to help me to try find a girlfriend before the end of this year so I could win the bet! Yeah right! So while her sister Szelin and she talked to their friends, I had a go at making conversation with them. At first it was a little slow, but as soon as I asked them if they ate cats and dogs in Malaysia it picked up a bit! Once Szelin’s friends’ parents came to pick them up, the Malaysian girls instantly left the room to do something. I must’ve scared them away! They soon came in after a while and sat in the corner reading magazines amongst them. Later Zippo explained that even she found it difficult to make conversation with them, and she’s someone who can carry a conversation on for ages (not an insult but a good thing because it makes it interesting chatting to her)!

About Time!

My friend Yuk-kit is off to Hong Kong on Saturday so we went to his house to drop off a Christmas present and say goodbye before then. Yuk-kit and I made an agreement that we would sit the learner’s license test this Friday (after much procrastination!) but since he will be leaving earlier, he’ll probably sit it before me. The weather has been so hot today I nearly fell asleep in the middle of my violin lesson!

Well yesterday finally marked the end of grade 8 accordion for me (fingers crossed that I passed though!!) The exam went…so so…Sight-reading was OK, and so were the aural tests and scales. There was a slight emphasis on cadences and modulations but what let me down were my pieces. MEMORY LAPSES!!! I think I did one major mistake in each of my pieces! I really do hope I pass though so I can get on with my new pieces, getting them ready for the NZ competitions next year.

 

On Sunday we all went over to the neighbours for a barbeque. The youngest daughter had her two friends over and the family had some friends over as well. Although I didn’t really get to know the youngest daughter’s friends, Zippo tried to introduce me to the other friends. Oh its late I’ll finish off tomorrow.

 

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Telly Talk

I just watched Christmas in the Park on tape and you won’t know how irate it left me feeling at the end of it. TV3 have done an appalling job at broadcasting this event and have abused their right by using the time to showcase and publicise their presenters. During Petra Bagust’s totally unnecessary interviews, you could hear the performances already beginning. They cut the broadcast down to an hour, yet they put in a lot of this garbage in it. I remember when Christmas in the Park was screened on TVNZ back in the early years of the event in 1994, and TVNZ did a great job of it. I sent an email to TV3 with my complaint and I’ll post their reply (that is if I receive one) on this blog.

 

I came to realise that on TVNZ, they have shows such as ASB Business which report on business news, Agenda, Face to Face with Kim Hill and Closeup@7 reporting and analysing current affairs and politics, but where are the television shows looking at science/technology/health? It would be great if there was a weekly show providing an in-depth analysis of science news of the week such as the latest breakthroughs, discoveries, etc. That suggestion has been emailed to TVNZ and I’ll post their reply on this blog as well.

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Farewell Dr James

We went back to school today to farewell Dr James (the HOD of music at our school) before she leaves with her children to join her husband in Australia. I’m really going to miss her!!

I saw an advert in the newspaper that the Auckland Youth Symphony are holding auditions for brass, woodwind and percussion players who are grade 8 and above, so maybe I might try learn the clarinet and see if I can make it in…

The Civil Union Bill looks set to be passed. In what SHOULD be a conscience vote in which the MPs vote on how they individually feel on the issue rather than the party’s stance, they should really be representing the views of the constituents of their electorates, not their personal opinion. If 90% of all submissions on the bill were opposed to it but more MPs vote IN favour of it, how are our MPs representing the people of this country? New Zealand should be a democracy!

On another matter, how can Ahmed Zaoui apply for bail when he hasn’t even been convicted?

Sad moments...and happy moments

Today was my final accordion lesson before my grade 8 exam on Monday! It turns out it will be at 7:15 at night! My scales still need working on and I have no idea how well my singing will be though!

We happened to catch up with Jessica Chen, one of my RIVALS! Nah she really is a nice person. Anyway she was having a few doubts about when she wanted to sit her grade 8 exam but she's going ahead with it anyway and will sit it on Thursday. Another of my rivals Ben is sitting his exam on the same day, but today I discovered that he and his family are moving to Canada at the beginning of next year which will be really sad!

Another sad thing (but happy too!) was getting rid of the couches we've had for more than 10 years. So many memories....sleeping, eating, watching TV.... We bought a second-hand sofa and reclining couch to replace them. Our old couches are still in the house but are on death row though. Their fate is still undetermined! Originally Aonghas, Hamish and I were going to carry the sofa down the main road all the way back home, but fortunately the guy whom we bought it off was able to fit it in his car. I discovered the girl that lives at the house we bought the sofas from is the elder sister of James Malama, this guy I used to go to primary school with. He's living in Australia now though, and his sister and other relatives will soon join him.

Christmas in the Park was held in Auckland Domain tonight, a free open-air family concert with heaps of entertainment and stuff. I thought it'd be a great time to have some 'family bonding time'. Our mum thought that it was going to rain and so instead we stayed home. In the end it never did and we'll just have to watch it on TV tomorrow night! (At least we've got comfy couches to sit on)  

Tomorrow morning the three of us will be rehearsing our trio at church in preparation for the church's Christmas concert. Our song isn't Christmasy at all though, it's a French valse!

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Man some people can't take a joke and can be so uptight sometimes. I was chatting to a friend (won't mention anyone's name) when she told me about something which she found bad, and when I tried to look at the positive side of it, she lashed out at me saying

"You are so annoying. You think you're funny but you're not. I'm not in the mood to talk to idiots like you."

....Uh huh....No I don't know what that was all about. Maybe I said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Who knows

We went to the Rutherford Primary School gala, where we met Dr James and her children Juanita and Chris for the LAST ABSOLUTELY FINAL time. We bought a few things and had a meal. Juanita paid Aonghas to enter a dart competition and although he missed his first throw (which rebounded off the board), his second throw scored a prize for Juanita.

I've been preparing for my grade 8 accordion exam for the past week, and after realising that I have so much that I need to practise (three pieces, aural tests, initiative tests, scales, general knowledge...) I've had to focus a lot more time on the accordion. After next week, no more Sonata in C by Mozart, no more Preludio and no more Le Cou cou!!

 

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ThereÂ’s never been a better time to get Xtra JetStream!

We went back to school today to farewell Dr James (the HOD of music at our school) before she leaves with her children to join her husband in Australia. I’m really going to miss her!!

 

I saw an advert in the newspaper that the Auckland Youth Symphony are holding auditions for brass, woodwind and percussion players who are grade 8 and above, so maybe I might try learn the clarinet and see if I can make it in…

 

The Civil Union Bill looks set to be passed. In what SHOULD be a conscience vote in which the MPs vote on how they individually feel on the issue rather than the party’s stance, they should really be representing the views of the constituents of their electorates, not their personal opinion. If 90% of all submissions on the bill were opposed to it but more MPs vote IN favour of it, how are our MPs representing the people of this country? New Zealand should be a democracy!

 

On another matter, how can Ahmed Zaoui apply for bail when he hasn’t even been convicted?

Our telephone is running perfectly again, which has meant we didn’t even miss those people with the wrong phone numbers. We had someone asking for a Paul Anderson married to a Louise (ours is married to a Margaret), a Maori who started speaking to me in Maori before she asked me

“Are you a Maori?”

Probably someone from the same family rang us not too long after.

 

 

Thanks to the readers who have commented on how fascinating and interesting this blog is!

 

The weather has been pretty weird lately. Yesterday it kept hailing then stopping, then hailing again, then stopping. As soon as we drove out from an underground carpark it started raining! Last night the neighbours arrived home to find their parents had gone out without them and since it was raining they took shelter in our house, and boy was our house messy! We had to throw a lot of stuff off the couches before there was anywhere for them to sit!

 

Today we mowed Gayle’s (OTHER neighbour) lawn (of course we got paid too) and little crazy Crystal came over to play with us. It’s the first time we’ve seen her in a long time. As soon as she had to go inside for dinner we ran inside! We don’t know if our uncle’s coming round tonight or not for some reason but we’ve quickly tidied our lounge just in case!

 

People have been having problems trying to ring us for the past few weeks, so if you’re one of them, please bear with us and keep trying! We’ll try get everything fixed or we’ll just have to use the internet less…

 

 ä»Šå¤©å¤©æ°”很热。我和我的弟弟打篮球。

(Today’s weather is hot. Me and my brother played basketball).

The performance to a full house was great! Even though it was so hot, the performance went well with the crowd giving a standing ovation in the end. Unfortunately my mum tried recording the performance with a camcorder but the same lady who told me not to take photos of the orchestra at a previous performance told my mum that she couldn’t record this performance!

 

While we were at the Auckland Town Hall performance, Hamish was enjoying a meal with his fellow year 13 students at a Mission Bay Restaurant. It was their farewell dinner. After the concert we thought we’d pay them a visit so we went driving past their restaurant four times yelling out Hamish’s name…don’t think he heard though!

 

Rutherford College Prize-Giving

I’ve now got two blogs:

http://mrcalum.blogspot.com

http://spaces.msn.com/members/mrcalum

Both blogs will have the same content on them.

 

I just got back from the Rutherford College Prize-Giving Ceremony. Aonghas took out the Most Promising Year 9 Boy Award, Top Year 9 student in Science and maths and first in his form class 9BK. Rose He was awarded Top Year 9 Student in English, while in Year 10, Chen Liu won Top in Year 10 Science, Maths and English. (My fake-ex-girlfriend) Phoebe got a merit award in Health Education too. After the prize-giving ceremony I rushed round the school trying to find all the teachers to give presents to. Our wrapping was horrible and the present was exposed on either sides of the presents (most were just a block of chocolate). It was a bit sad seeing my English teacher Ms Symss for the last time. She’s off to England to visit family for Christmas before holidaying in Brazil. I’ve got a few more hours before I have to prepare for tonight’s concert at the Auckland Town Hall. Remember:

 

Auckland Symphony Orchestra and Choirs

Christmas Concert

Auckland Town Hall

7:30pm, Friday 3 December

 

Do come if you can make it. It will definitely be enjoyable, and make sure you call out for me. I’ll be sitting somewhere in the back of the viola section trying to hide my mistakes!

 

Anyway, congratulations to those who won awards at the Rutherford College Junior Prize-Giving Ceremony today!

 

I just got back from the dress rehearsal of the Christmas concert with the Auckland Symphony Orchestra Concert at the Town Hall. The choirs are massive but sound really good! Anyone who can get to the concert should do so tomorrow night at 7:00pm at the Auckland Town Hall in the city.

We’ve finally sorted out Hamish’s university application, so now all we can do is wait for his results and see if he is accepted. The good thing about being poor is that Hamish can apply for a student allowance which means he gets free money! Walking around university made me feel really short! I really need to find some way of boosting my height in what little time I have left!

 

Tomorrow I’ll be going to Rutherford College’s Junior prize-giving ceremony. Aonghas will be getting a prize (hopefully something good!) and so will Chen. Good news is that Zippo’s also getting a prize at her school’s prize-giving too.

 

The Civil Union Bill passed its second reading 65-55. Next week will be the final reading. I now agree that a referendum should be held on this issue as it definitely will affect everyone in this country, but the Labour government has a thing against referendums.

 

 

I went back to school today to return all my books (when the real book return day was supposed to be Monday!). I'm really going to miss my English teacher Ms Symms, and it turns out that EVERY SINGLE teacher in the performing arts department is leaving. That means next year no one in the whole department will know me. However, there is some good news from this. The HOD of music before our current one joined Rutherford College is returning next year, and she knew my older brother Hamish well. Hopefully she will recognise me as his brother and will be nice to me!
I didn't write many Christmas cards to my friends because I wasn't sure who would be at school today. It turns out that three quarters of my form class came on Monday while only five of us turned up today. Anyway I got my yearbook, and I've got my photo a few times in there. This year instead of having class photos, they have the id photos of individuals in alphabetical order. I looked terrible in mine! My head was like a round ball! I had to write a report on being student representative on the Board of Trustees for the school, and the teacher who organised the school magazine forgot to take a photo of me, so she used my school id photo again instead.

My music teacher was looking through the magazine and when she saw my photo by my report, she was like "What happened to Calum?"

Lunch was a total rip-off. My mum took me to a Chinese takeaway shop. We saw a LUCKY SPECIAL Chow Mein for $5.00. We bought it believing it'd be a reasonable size, but when we got it, it was pretty small! My mum asked for an extra fork to the one he gave us, and being the kinda guy who likes to drain every single cent from your wallet, the Chinese guy told us it'd cost us an extra 20c! By the time I got back to school to eat it, the paper bag he had put the container in had been completely soaked in juice. I next discovered that half the container was actually full of juice, leaving little space for the vegetables! What a rip-off! We definitely won't be going there again!

I stayed at school to watch the year 10 speech competition. Congratulations to Chen for winning the Year 10 Speech Competition today! He spoke on being an Asian. All the other contestants were females who spoke on topics such as teaching REM (religious education) at all schools, to Victorian punishment. The impromptu speakers had to speak on such topics as gangsters, boys, girls, chairs and snails.

Just gotten back from the Auckland Symphony Orchestra rehearsal. The orchestra is rehearsing for a Friday night Christmas performance at the Auckland Town Hall. Due to a few of the regulars being absent, my violin/viola teacher invited my brothers and I to play with the orchestra for this concert. So if you're free on Friday the 3rd December, come along to the Town Hall at about 7:00pm and try spot me in the orchestra! I'll be playing the viola in the...viola section. Aonghas will be playing 2nd violin while Hamish won't be there at all and instead will be dining with his fellow year 13s at the farewell dinner.

Auckland Symphony Orchestra

Friday 3 December, 7:30pm

Auckland Town Hall

FREE

It's really great playing in a full-piece symphony orchestra, as every single orchestra I've ever played in has comprised of less than 20 musicians, and I've more than often been the only violia player in it! It's really cool having the brass blasting your ears behind you, because in school orchestras....well there aren't any brass instruments full stop! I now really want to join an orchestra! I've been thinking of the Aotea Youth Symphony Orchestra. I might try auditioin one day, but first I probably need to pass an exam!

NOW for my rant and rave for the day: The Civil Union Bill
So instead of having husbands/wives/spouses, partners who have a civil union will be called 'Civil Union Partners' will be called CUPs? That is completely ridiculous! Of course the Select Committee would be in favour of the Civil Union Bill because it is none other than gay Labour MP Tim Barnett who chairs the committee! I would not have a problem with the Civil Union Bill if it were only open to homosexuals, but not if heterosexual couples are allowed to have one. It will make a mess, especially since the Civil Union Act will apparently be so similar to the Marriage Act. If heterosexual couples are given the choice of marriage or a civil union, things will be like 'So...Mary's your wife aye?' 'No she's my Cup' Let's keep it simple - gays can have a civil union; straights have marriage.

Anyone notice 3News' new theme song? To me it doesn't sound 'newsy' at all and sounds pretty cheap and low budget. Looks like ONE News and 3News did a swap-around of colours. Originally it was ONE News with the orange/yellow colour and 3News with the bluey green colour. Now its the complete opposite.

With John Campbell set to host his new current affairs show at 7pm next year, Paul Holmes hosting his own show 7pm on Prime and TV One having their own show with most likely currently Closeup @ 7 host Susan Wood, Breakfast host Paul Henry (or maybe even Hugh Sundae as The Herald on Sunday has put forward), the 7pm slot will definitely be dominated by current affairs. Could this benefit Shortland St as the only non-news show at that timeslot? Or maybe even the music videos on C4?

It will be really interesting to see what TVNZ Head of News and Current Affairs Bill Ralston decides to do with that 7pm slot. What is really needed is good analysis of the day's news, and hopefully they will deliver.

I just found out that everyone went back to school today for half a day to return their books and get their yearbook! This might be the first time I’ve wagged school (if you can call it that) I wonder if the twins went to school today though…

 

I’m still searching for a part-time job for the holidays. So far I’ve applied at Pak N’ Save. That was a couple of months ago though, and still no reply. To be honest, I don’t really know if I do want to work at Pak N’ Save or not. I’d much rather work at a smaller place like McDonalds or Burger King, but I’d be happy just to have a job. I’m kinda looking forward to meeting new people…;)

Check this website out Calum’s Home Page. I’ve now been included in the list of ‘Calums’ from around the world!

 

Yesterday was Aonghas's Birthday!! (28th November)

We celebrated by going to church, and spent the day at a pet shop, which was kinda like visiting the zoo, only free!

The side effects of the isotane (pimple removing) pills are starting to kick in. I've been having to rub lip balm on my dry lips and my skin's starting to go dry as well. Still no sign of the increased growth or hair loss yet though (preferably growth upwards and LEG hair loss), and Aonghas is catching up to my height pretty quickly!!

I really have no idea which day I'm supposed to go to school to return my books. Three of my friends say it's today (Monday) whereas I thought it was going to be on Wednesday since it said that on the form. I rang my good friends (the twins) and they told me that we could come any day. I really want to see everyone again before the holidays but I don't know whether to give everyone or only a few people a Christmas card. Last year I couldn't bear to miss anyone out so I gave one to everyone in my form class! This year I haven't really talked to some people in my form class that much, and so it'd be a bit weird to give some people I don't know too well a Christmas card.
I still haven't bought any presents for anyone yet! So I'll come to school on Wednesday instead...I think...

Check out my friend Bojana's blog

I forgot to mention that our aunty (I think that's what she is to me???? the family tree on my mum's side is muddled up) gave us about 11 really big goldfish. She told us that she was going to throw them into the nearby river and that we could have them if we wanted. If we didn't want to look after them, we could eat them! We decided to keep them as pets, but we then realised our fishtank is pretty small! They are all swimming in there at the moment, which kinda looks like the Auckland traffic. Our water filter's been playing up as well. It seems as though the water isn't being filtered as fast as it is being pumped! This means that we've had a big puddle form under the fishtank.
Looks like our cat now has the choice of going for the fish, or going for the birds! We can guarantee that each of our pets will be safe and we will look after them very well ;)

I went to this primary school gala with my mum brother and neighbour to have a look. My mum and neighbour are really into dolls and stuff while Aonghas and I just went through the stuff to see if there was anything interesting. At first it was 50c a bag…..then 10c a bag…..then free! So you can guess how much my mum and Zippo brought back home. It’s the annual rubbish collection for our road, and when we came home Aonghas spotted a treadmill across the road, so he carried it across the road and into the house.

If you haven’t noticed yet, The New Zealand Herald has changed its website design. These days a change in design would most likely signal the introduction of subscription services in order to read articles such as The National Business Review which now only gives us one paragraph of each article for free! Let’s hope The NZ Herald will continue to be free. There aren’t too many New Zealand news websites and if more and more can only be accessed by subscribing, I’m stuffed!

Okay tonight's the night I'll start on working towards next year. By the end of these holidays I'm hoping to have gone through all of year 12 chemistry, biology (even though I'm not studying it next year) and year 13 calculus. Oh and year 12 Chinese.

 

I missed out on meeting a friend I've never met before as well as one I haven't met in a year. I'm constantly kicking myself!

 

Tomorrow morning is the local Christmas parade as well as this mini Violin Concert I've got to perform at so all's on tomorrow.