All On

I just got back from squash practice at the gym. It was supposed to be a girls practice today but only Sarena showed up! So I ended up playing against her. Shen, whose gym membership expired decided to join the squash team, so he and his friend Pere came today. Shen accidentally hit Aonghas hard in the chest with the squash ball! I had a bit of an injury of my own as well, getting a really huge blister on my foot. Our games will start in May.

Yesterday in the library, Aonghas and Hamish were sitting at the 'Childrens Help-Desk', and a couple of primary school kids came up to them, asking

"Can you help me find books on whales?"

(Hamish) "What?"

"Can you help me find books about whales?....Are you librarians?"

At that point Hamish got up, put his books into his school bag and left them!

I texted one of my friends who I was concerned about on Sunday morning. However, before I finished writing the text, I had to go to the car, so I put the cellphone in my pocket, and a few buttons must've been pushed and sent the text message to one of Aonghas's friends!

I FINALLY FINISHED READING LIFE OF PI (the book I must read for English)!!! Took me 8 hours over four days! Now I have to write a 500 word essay on the book for an English internal assessment, as well as doing a Biology assessment on Ecology next week!

 

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What a Night

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALISON, EMMA AND S…(So sorry for forgetting your name but I will replace this with it as soon as I remember!!)

Today Zippo had her friends Kylie, Alison and Emma over. It was Alison and Emma’s birthday so they were holding a birthday party at Zippo’s house. Tonight they came over, offering some cakes to us. Aonghas and I stepped outside to accept them when…they sprayed our hair pink and purple! 

Last night Zippo made a deal with me that if I proposed to Alison, she would bake me a really nice cake with Easter eggs in it and everything, and so tonight she kinda pressured me to go ahead with it.

So out I came, with my tie on. I faced Alison, the girl I tried to kiss but miss last year…

“Well…I’ve known you for about……how long now? [EIGHT MONTHS (shouts her sister)] And I’ve become very fond of you…”

I got down on one knee, and took out that round thing off a key ring from a small Vix Vapour rub box…

“Will you have a civil union with me?”

It drew a blank look from Alison’s face, and Zippo shouted at me to get on with it

“Alison, will you marry me?”

She replied:

“I’M NOT ANSWERIN THAT!!”

(Her friends) “Just say no!”

“NO!”

I then tried going for Kylie, but she had already ran inside.

The only thing though is I didn’t really notice the significance of Zippo recording all of this on her camera until I told Yuk-kit about it tonight on the phone! ARGHH I never think! But be well aware THIS WAS ALL JUST A JOKE! I DIDN’T PROPOSE TO ALISON FOR REAL (ONLY BECAUSE ZIPPO OFFERED CAKE TO ME IF I DID IT)!

It looks like Yuk-kit won’t be coming to New Zealand this Easter after all. It was going to be kept a secret so everyone would get a surprise when he arrived here, but he and his family had a change of plans

Leaving me Behind

Today I really didn’t do anything on my teachers only day. Oh I did go shopping at Pak n’ Save when all the power went out. I thought I’d have a little fun and randomly phone people with our new cellphone (since its new no one would know who was calling ;) ). The only person to reply was Diane, who asked who it was. I didn’t bother replying till later in the night. She replied saying that she was having the happiest days of her life, as she had found a new guy.

Now this is what has taken me by surprise, how everyone likes everyone else. It seems as though nearly all my friends are having good luck with the opposite sex, except for me, or am I just having delusions?! Maybe it might work to my advantage though. While everyone else is distracted by the opposite sex, maybe good ‘ole lonely me can focus on schoolwork and outdo them? I’m not saying it’s possible, but it’s an optimistic look on this whole situation ;)

Our First Loss

Oh by the way I forgot to mention about our debate on Tuesday against McAuley High School. Well…we lost. It was our first loss for the year as well. The scores were 315-105. The adjudicator didn’t mention what we did that caused us to lose, but said it was one of the closest debates she had to adjudicate (I bet she says that at every debate she adjudicates!). I at least got speaker of the day anyway so that compensated a little for the loss. However we’re likely to fall in the rankings, and because the next highest Rutherford team at 16 won, they’ll probably leap above us.

 

We talked to the girls from McAuley High School afterwards and they were actually pretty cool! They were mostly of Samoan and Pacific Island decent but that didn’t mean anything, they were really funny people!

Woops

Finally school is over for this week, thanks to a ‘teachers only day’ and the early Easter holidays. No rest for the wicked though. I’ve got a Physics assignment, English essay, Chinese sentences, Biology essay and an English research assignment to get through. Don’t forget sitting the learners license test! I’m definitely going for that!

 

We had our first squash training after school today at Club Physical. We just played against other team members. Hyun swung his racquet too hard and hurt himself once again. Two years ago when we were playing squash for Wider Living Week, Sarena *accidentally* (we don’t really know for sure if it was intentional or not) whacked Hyun in the face with a squash racquet, requiring him to get a few stitches. Maybe squash just isn’t the sport for Hyun…nah I’m only kidding! I got wasted a bit by the people I played against, but as I got started I got better and better! It was just unfortunate that we had to stop when I was on a run!

 

After, Aonghas, my mum and I went to this fast-food restaurant not too far away (I won’t name which one). I thought I’d freshen up in the toilet. The washing basin in the toilet was slightly hanging from the wall, with some nuts and bolts missing. I turned on the tap to wash my hands and as soon as I turned the tap off, the whole thing fell off and flipped upside down! I had no idea what to do! So I calmly walked out pretending nothing had happened. Aonghas later told me after returning from an observation, that black gooey stuff was flowing out of a pipe. The bottom line though is that it wasn’t my fault! It was already broken!

Marvellous Campbell Live is on (I'm being Sarcastic)

TV3 have got a whole new set to accompany the brand new Campbell Live! They began with a bit of a whizz, not so much of a bang. Their lead story on drivers’ licenses being able to be bought caused some sort of noise in the news, but not as big as I bet they had hoped. Campbell Live! achieved a 11% overall rating, coming in third behind Close Up (14%) and Shortland St (11.7%). Remember that in the first few days of a new show’s life, people go browsing round to see what its like. It’s still early days…

Running Around

I had a meeting with the associate principal of the school during Tuesday lunchtime (forgoing both vocal group and young enterprise meeting) talking about how I should go about talking to students. The conversation very soon led to how to raise school pride, and then developing potential leaders. Instead of restarting another version of the failed Junior Council which really had no specific purpose, a group of year 11 and 12 students could get together and discuss ways of improving the school’s ‘pride’ and profile. This group could also be the stepping stone for students aspiring to become year 13 student leaders in the future. So I was sent to approach people I thought who had leadership potential and ask if they would be interested in joining this group. Most were, but only because they wanted to become student leaders.

The only problem is that I talked to the deputy principal today (I may have gotten my principals mixed up but anyway) and he had another version of what will is planned. He says an anti-bullying committee is being planned as well as one dedicated to improving school pride and its profile. If that will be the scenario, then I don’t think those people will be interested anymore.

 

Good news though! First of all congratulations to Zippo for getting an excellence in her NCEA Measurement assessment! Well deserved! She’s been learning how to drive up and down the driveway recently, and told me that she nearly crashed into our fence! We wouldn’t be as worried for our fence as much as for their jeep though! It would be more of an excuse to get our old dingy fence replaced! I’m still planning on getting my learners license in the near future. Since the Easter holidays fall during Term One rather than being part of the school holidays, it means we get extra holidays. Since our teachers only day is put together with the Easter holiday, we’ll get six days off school! A few weeks after that and it will be the two week school holiday!  Not bad… I’ll probably use the week off to get my learners license.

 

More good news – Yuk kit’s coming to town in a few weeks! He’ll be staying at our house for a couple of weeks (I think – yet to be confirmed though). He just rang me tonight which was a complete surprise. We talked for several minutes before he got disconnected. It’ll surely be interesting for him to see how much our school has changed (if it has done so at all this year). More news to come soon!

 

I’ve come up with another idea for the 40 Hour Famine. I could attempt to practise my accordion for 40 hours non-stop. For meals I could get Aonghas to spoon-feed me, and I could try play while I’m half asleep. No one really thinks I would be able to survive it but maybe this is why I should attempt it!

 

The twins and I had debating meeting with our student coach Elizapeta yesterday after school. The moot of our next debate will be

“That affluent nations should accept more refugees”

 

We will be the affirmative and will be up against McAuleys College or High School or something like that. I have to check that out, but I’m aware that they’re a Catholic girls school located in Otahuhu. Current rankings show that our team the Rutherford Commanders are ranked 11^th out of 57 in the Senior competition, while our opposing team is ranked 22^nd. This will be tough.

 

The debating meeting got a bit sidetracked when the twins demanded that I retold the whole sad story of my tragic social life to our student coach. Upon hearing it, she claimed that

“You [Calum] are a male version of Bridget Jones, only worse!”

 

I’m pretty sure the story of Bridget Jones ended positively though?

 

I joined the squash team today, and according to the teacher in charge, if you’re useless, you’ll play against useless people. That was definitely comforting and was enough to get me to sign up for it. Lets see if I can come away being the champion of the useless squash players!

Finally Some things are done

Lately I’ve managed to complete a few tasks I set out to do.

YES I found the deputy principal and sorted out a plan for starting up a year 11/12 student leaders group (or something of the sort)

YES I found the associate principal, gave him a map with marked spots of where people play handball so that they can go ahead and paint squares on the ground for them to play.

The teacher in charge of the cultural committee is also interested in running Rutherford Idol again this year and so has asked us (ex-Student Committee) members if we’d be interested in organising it again for this year. Everyone I’ve spoken to so far is interested, and last year we managed to get 5% of the school’s roll to audition; this year our target will be 10%. I’ll post more on as details become available.

 

The board of trustees meeting will be held on Monday night and I am yet to have anything to report back as I haven’t started surveying form periods! It seems as though there is always something to do during each form period! Either we have an assembly, have to pick up rubbish, or the other classes are at assembly! Anyway I’ll try start next week.

 

I told Sarena about my plight with my Korean speaking friends and she has been really cool about it, inviting me to join her friends! My Korean friends aren’t speaking Korean that often anymore so everything’s OK.

 

My recorder lessons went pretty well yesterday as well! Disha recommended I play games with the kids, while Sarena recommended I give them chocolate. I did both, and nearly all the kids were interested and not shy anymore, and they were all able to play! I got my papers to fill out yesterday as well, so I’ve got to weigh up the benefits against the disadvantages of joining a union.

 

Our second debate against McAuley’s College is this Tuesday, and I have yet to write the moot and team case, since I’m first speaker. I’ll get round to doing that as soon as I finish typing this. What has made things worse is that I caught a cold just last night, so right throughout church I was blowing my nose every few minutes, with watery eyes whenever I was about to sneeze! Don’t forget the red nose too, due to the rough tissue paper at church. I don’t know how I’m going to survive!

A loooong year to come...

A lot has happened since the weekend.

I taught my first recorder classes on Saturday morning. It was horrible! I had two beginner classes and one intermediate class. The beginner classes were really screwed, although not unexpectedly. None of them knew anything about music; they didn't know how to play the recorder nor could they read music. One girl was more advanced than the rest though and so it was hard to accommodate for her while at the same time teaching the very basics to the rest of the class. There was also a five year old girl who most likely didn't understand a single word I said because she was Chinese, but fortunately her father was helping her out. In fact, I have no idea if any students understood me at all! Nearly all of them except for one was were Asian, and they were all too shy to talk! I asked them to go round and introduce themselves and say one
thing they really liked, but no one wanted to speak and I ended up introducing everyone to the class. Ay yaiyaiyai this year will be a long one....

The same could be said about the way things are going at school. I'm still hanging out with my Korean friends who continue to speak Korean with their Korean friends (no surprises), while I sit there by myself. Not being able to understand a thing except for the occasional English word makes me a loner. I've got less than two years of high school left and I'm not making any new friends. Yeah my Korean friends are socializing with their fellow Koreans, but as for me I'm making contact with no one.

It's for the very reason why I've tried to fill up my lunchtimes with something to keep me occupied so I don't waste time doing nothing. In some cases I've overbooked myself! On Mondays I do string ensemble, Tuesdays is the vocal group AND young enterprise, Wednesdays is environmental committee, Thursdays (I can't really remember') and Friday is international student newspaper committee. I wish those social soccer or rugby games would be played on the field during lunchtime, like in the good old days. Those were fun.

One thing that is starting to really frustrate me is having to chase the principals down in order to get something achieved. The associate principal asked me to determine where students play handball and let him know so they can draw up markings for the students. I've done that, but whenever I try to get back to him he's either busy or not in his office. The same applies to the deputy principal. I had a meeting with her regarding school pride/profile and setting up some new year 11/12 leaders group. She asked me to get back to her with some names of interested
students so we could get something started up before the next board meeting (which happens to be next Monday!!) This is a common trait amongst the principals. I admit they're pretty busy but I have to communicate a lot with them and some things I can't get done without input from them. I also had a meeting with the principal on Friday after school regarding possible questions I could ask on my 'form class tour', and he told me to get back to him if I had anything to ask him. It just happens that I do have a few things to ask but guess what? I can't find him!!! I accept that as student rep it's my job to represent the school and work for the students, but when I can't liaise with these people how can I do my job? A lot hinders on their decisions. I check their offices every interval/lunch/after school without any success. And so it continues...

I was called a

'fair-weather friend'

by a friend I tried to help comfort yesterday but to no success. I was just annoying her even more. I didn't really know what it meant till I checked the dictionary:

"A friend who will be there for you in good times, but not when times are bad"

I admit I'm not good at comforting people over the net, but I do really care for people whether or not it comes across that way! I offered to leave but she wanted me to stay, so that really confused me. I said I'd be there for her and she said that was the best thing I had said all night, so at least some of the self-help books have been working! (NB that was a joke! I don't read self-help books...OK maybe a little of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus)

I got this unusual email from Diane telling me that she thought of me as a great friend and she would always be there for me and stuff like that, which I found really touching *sniff sniff*, but unusual (yet again). She's not one to talk about friendship, as I realized a couple of years ago. Then a few days ago she told me she would go out with me if I went to Mt Roskill Grammar, but I didn't so yeah. I talked to her friend yesterday, and she said that Diane was probably feeling lonely. That kinda makes a mockery of me. When you've got no other person to turn to, come to Calum! Lol Hey I suppose it ain't that bad. I even get to be a backup for Alison if she doesn't get a partner to go with her to the ball too (apparently). I guess that's not too bad. Anyway Diane's back to her normal self, which means ignoring me again.

I understand fully how males cannot decipher the female species. They insult you, they abuse you, they ignore you, but when they're upset they expect you to be there for you.

An interesting thing someone has said to me this week (coming from a female, unsurprisingly) is that she wants to like someone who likes her for her personality, not for her looks, but she admits herself that she is shallow and would like a guy for his looks. That is hypocritical. I rest my case.

Happy Birthday Phoebe!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHOEBE!

A lot has happened since I last posted. It's starting to get late so I promise to post an extra long post tomorrow!

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Running Around

I had a meeting with the associate principal of the school during Tuesday lunchtime (forgoing both vocal group and young enterprise meeting) talking about how I should go about talking to students. The conversation very soon led to how to raise school pride, and then developing potential leaders. Instead of restarting another version of the failed Junior Council which really had no specific purpose, a group of year 11 and 12 students could get together and discuss ways of improving the school’s ‘pride’ and profile. This group could also be the stepping stone for students aspiring to become year 13 student leaders in the future. So I was sent to approach people I thought who had leadership potential and ask if they would be interested in joining this group. Most were, but only because they wanted to become student leaders.
The only problem is that I talked to the deputy principal today (I may have gotten my principals mixed up but anyway) and he had another version of what will is planned. He says an anti-bullying committee is being planned as well as one dedicated to improving school pride and its profile. If that will be the scenario, then I don’t think those people will be interested anymore.

Good news though! First of all congratulations to Zippo for getting an excellence in her NCEA Measurement assessment! Well deserved! She’s been learning how to drive up and down the driveway recently, and told me that she nearly crashed into our fence! We wouldn’t be as worried for our fence as much as for their jeep though! It would be more of an excuse to get our old dingy fence replaced! I’m still planning on getting my learners license in the near future. Since the Easter holidays fall during Term One rather than being part of the school holidays, it means we get extra holidays. Since our teachers only day is put together with the Easter holiday, we’ll get six days off school! A few weeks after that and it will be the two week school holiday! Not bad… I’ll probably use the week off to get my learners license.

More good news – Yuk kit’s coming to town in a few weeks! He’ll be staying at our house for a couple of weeks (I think – yet to be confirmed though). He just rang me tonight which was a complete surprise. We talked for several minutes before he got disconnected. It’ll surely be interesting for him to see how much our school has changed (if it has done so at all this year). More news to come soon!

I’ve come up with another idea for the 40 Hour Famine. I could attempt to practise my accordion for 40 hours non-stop. For meals I could get Aonghas to spoon-feed me, and I could try play while I’m half asleep. No one really thinks I would be able to survive it but maybe this is why I should attempt it!

The twins and I had debating meeting with our student coach Elizapeta yesterday after school. The moot of our next debate will be

“That affluent nations should accept more refugees”

We will be the affirmative and will be up against McAuleys College or High School or something like that. I have to check that out, but I’m aware that they’re a Catholic girls school located in Otahuhu. Current rankings show that our team the Rutherford Commanders are ranked 11th out of 57 in the Senior competition, while our opposing team is ranked 22nd. This will be tough.

The debating meeting got a bit sidetracked when the twins demanded that I retold the whole sad story of my tragic social life to our student coach. Upon hearing it, she claimed that

“You [Calum] are a male version of Bridget Jones, only worse!”

I’m pretty sure the story of Bridget Jones ended positively though?

I joined the squash team today, and according to the teacher in charge, if you’re useless, you’ll play against useless people. That was definitely comforting and was enough to get me to sign up for it. Lets see if I can come away being the champion of the useless squash players!

What Should I Sacrifice?

Yesterday I went to this Auckland Cultural Festival at Potters Park in Mt Eden. There were heaps of ethnicities represented, predominantly from Africa, South-east Asia and South America. 

The performances were interesting, including this Japanese guy whose Australian visa expired and so he came over to New Zealand. He tried busking down Queen St but was told that it was against the law to use an amplifier on the side of the road. So instead, he decided to busk at this festival! I have to admit he was pretty good. The small little Indian musical instrument he was playing made these BOOINNGGYY BOOOIINGGGY sounds which sounded really good when dance/techo music was played in the background. This other really cool performance was this Bolivian guy who played the panpipes and guitar all at the same time. The only downside was the weather. Even though we usually complain about too much rain, yesterday was pretty much TOO MUCH SUN! It was so hot, and when most of the stalls are selling hot food, it ain’t that great.

Today wasn’t so bad. I realised I did my Physics experiment write-up completely wrong. Apart from that though, the cello/string ensemble teacher was in a good mood, and I signed up for the 40 Hour Famine. I still haven’t decided what I’ll sacrifice for 40 hours though. So far some ideas and suggestions from others have been:

• Sleeping in a cardboard box for two nights
• Asking girls out for 40 hours (not so sure about this one, I might run out of girls to ask and my safety wouldn’t be guaranteed if I turned to the streets)
• Forgoing technology for 40 hours (did this one last year)
• Not eating for 40 hours
• Not studying for 40 hours

Anyway I’ll try think of some more and decide before the time comes.

I’m hoping things are getting better between Zippo and me. She has thought of me as weird and disturbing (for some reason…must be something I said), so I’m really trying hard to get back in her good books. I decided to part with my $5 and fulfil the bet I made with her (actually it’s money from Young Enterprise but don’t tell the twins! I’ll pay the business back when I find enough loose change around the house). I like to think of it as compensation for whatever psychological damage I’ve caused her. I’ve talked to her on the phone a few times in the past week which is hopefully a good sign, and let’s hope things get better.

I’ve realised how important friends are recently, and so I’m determined to keep the friends I’ve got so far, and hopefully in thirty decades’ time, I’ll still be close friends with them.

In Another World

We beat Diocesan which was really good 323-314 (I think it was) to us. My speech didn't go too well though. I dropped the documents I was about to table, and had to instead plonk the mixed-up pile of papers down. I then went slightly overtime and had to cut some bits out of my speech. When the adjudicator commented on each of our teams, he was like:

"When I first heard your speech [Diocesan's first speaker, remember that she was also the first speaker of the debate], I thought that you guys were definitely going to win!"

It's amazing he thought that way even before he heard the other team's case! I wonder if it's because they're just Diocesan, the rich private girls school who should be the best at everything because they have everything and can afford it unlike Rutherford.

I have to admit that I was stunned upon arriving at their school. There were girls sitting outside on benches playing around on their laptops, and the main office was several stories high! The classrooms in this big building all had projectors in them, smartboards (like whiteboards only that they're like a huge touchscreen which can also be connected to a laptop) and each table had those swingy-round office chairs that can go up and down! Man do I wish I went to Diocesan, and not because of the girls!

Chen's team was up against St Kentigens (another rich private school), and unfortunately they lost, but at least a little bit was salvaged from it - Chen got the highest mark for an individual speaker.

Four out of six Rutherford teams won in the first round, including the advanced team which beat Macleans College (yes another rich school, not too sure whether they're a rich private or a rich public school though...)

As you know I applied for the recorder teaching job at the Lincoln Music School. Well yesterday afterschool I had my interview with the principal of the school and the executive officer. I was expecting a man to be the principal but instead it was a woman! Nevertheless that didn't bother me. They asked me quite a lot of questions about how I would go about teaching and controlling little children. I tried to answer them as wisely as I could, going on about how important it is that they are interested and trying to get them hooked on music and classical music, and maybe even offering rewards to those who practised throughout the week. I was told to ring back after 5pm today to find out whether I got the job or not, but right up till 9pm I couldn't get through, but finally after that time I did get through and they told me that I got the job! So now I'm officially Calum Anderson, Recorder Teacher. lol

School's starting to get so tedious - boring boring boring... I think I hang around too many people I don't understand (language-wise), so either I should find other people that I do understand to hang around with, or I should try learn their language so I can join in! I joined the Environmental Committee this week. Don't ask me if that was such a wise decision because I'm still yet to decide on that! They're planning to fundraise for a 'Pride Board' through a 'Feed the Teachers' thing where they sell food to teachers. The 'Pride Board' is to show off some of the achievements of students from around the school. It may sound lame but it's a good start to injecting some of that much needed pride into our school's students! One person suggested just using the abandoned Sports Noticeboard that was up outside the school theatre. The only problem about that though is that the theatre's set to be demolished within the next few months!

I also joined the International Student Newspaper Committee. Don't ask me why I joined that either, because I have no idea. It's supposed to be focused on international students, and this is where one of the problems comes in, because I don't really talk to many international students because they don't often speak English and therefore I don't understand them! I don't know how to go about writing articles either. Would it need to be written in easy-to-understand English? I have no idea.

Anyway I've been so exhausted this week from staying up too late too often, I'm going to go off to bed and try to enjoy the few hours of sleep before I have to wake up early for violin lessons.

 

WE WON!!

WE BEAT DIOCESAN AT THEIR OWN SCHOOL!!

 

(It’s the morning so I’ll type some more later in the day)

A Rather Large Portion of My Time

I know I said I would post more regularly in my last post, but preparing for this debate tomorrow has taken up a lot of my time and nearly all of my weekend, as they do…

I had to stay up till 2.30am Sunday morning just to get it finished! Originally I was going to base my argument that we do not support human cloning on the fact that it is inhumane. That was until I realised Joon was going to cover it in his! Next I thought I’d cover the evil ways people could use human cloning. Guess what? Joon also covered that too! In the end I decided to prove with statistics that we do NOT in fact support human cloning. Thank goodness everyone was OK with it!

 

Anyway the weekend turned out to be pretty exciting. It first started off with my first violin lesson in the morning at Lincoln Heights School (or Lincoln Heights Music School). It was there where Nelly, the school co-ordinator told us that they needed a recorder teacher for six little kiddy beginners and asked if any of us wanted to fill the position. My mum put my name forward, and if I’m successful, I’ll be teaching two half hour classes every Saturday morning and will be paid $26/hr which would be pretty good!

 

Later that day I went with my brothers and my mum to the Chinese Lantern Festival at Albert Park. As expected it was crowded, but nonetheless I still managed to meet up with some of my friends at school like Sarena, Nikki and Ellyce! I was talking to them, and my mum didn’t notice so she kept walking, and when she realised I wasn’t there she started shouting out

“CALUM!!! CAAAAAALLLUUM!!!!”

 

Another girl who called out to me had an American accent and looked very much like Kimberly, this Eurasian girl (finally someone like me!) who used to be in my class. If it was in fact her, than I could be considered lucky to be able to have met up with her again, no matter how brief it was!

 

The festival concluded with a performance by Beijing Opera performers on stilts doing summersaults, back flips and all these other dazzling moves. Our dad who was working in the city till 11pm picked us up soon after.

 

Zippo went for her learner’s license (I think) on Saturday, and upon hearing that, it ignited my mum’s anger towards me for continuing to procrastinate in getting mine. She went on about how Zippo was younger than I was, how heaps of young people were all getting their learners license and I was still doing nothing about it. I’m aiming to get it within the next two weeks though! It costs about $80 to sit the test, and you can only get 3 out of 35 questions wrong, so I’ve always been afraid of being the first person to fail this ‘relatively simple’ test! However after I went through all three hundred and something questions the other day, it seemed to me that all you require is basically commonsense!

 

I had my cello lesson with the infamous Ms Williams. She’s pretty tough and strict because she demands perfection. She’s also in charge of the string ensemble of which the twins and I are members of. Since we had a debate meeting at lunch today, it was my job to break the news to her. Thankfully she took it well and didn’t slaughter me.

 

The practise debate during lunch was between our debating team (Hyun, Joon and me) and Chen’s team. It turned out to be pretty interesting, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough time for Chen and me to read our speeches.

 

It does sound as though quite a lot of time and effort is going into this debate, but if we win against a school such as Diocesan tomorrow, it’ll all be worth it!

A Large Portion of my Time

I know I said I would post more regularly in my last post, but preparing for this debate tomorrow has taken up a lot of my time and nearly all of my weekend, as they do…
I had to stay up till 2.30am Sunday morning just to get it finished! Originally I was going to base my argument that we do not support human cloning on the fact that it is inhumane. That was until I realised Joon was going to cover it in his! Next I thought I’d cover the evil ways people could use human cloning. Guess what? Joon also covered that too! In the end I decided to prove with statistics that we do NOT in fact support human cloning. Thank goodness everyone was OK with it!

Anyway the weekend turned out to be pretty exciting. It first started off with my first violin lesson in the morning at Lincoln Heights School (or Lincoln Heights Music School). It was there where Nelly, the school co-ordinator told us that they needed a recorder teacher for six little kiddy beginners and asked if any of us wanted to fill the position. My mum put my name forward, and if I’m successful, I’ll be teaching two half hour classes every Saturday morning and will be paid $26/hr which would be pretty good!

Later that day I went with my brothers and my mum to the Chinese Lantern Festival at Albert Park. As expected it was crowded, but nonetheless I still managed to meet up with some of my friends at school like Sarena, Nikki and Ellyce! I was talking to them, and my mum didn’t notice so she kept walking, and when she realised I wasn’t there she started shouting out
“CALUM!!! CAAAAAALLLUUM!!!!”

Another girl who called out to me had an American accent and looked very much like Kimberly, this Eurasian girl (finally someone like me!) who used to be in my class. If it was in fact her, than I could be considered lucky to be able to have met up with her again, no matter how brief it was!

The festival concluded with a performance by Beijing Opera performers on stilts doing summersaults, back flips and all these other dazzling moves. Our dad who was working in the city till 11pm picked us up soon after.

Zippo went for her learner’s license (I think) on Saturday, and upon hearing that, it ignited my mum’s anger towards me for continuing to procrastinate in getting mine. She went on about how Zippo was younger than I was, how heaps of young people were all getting their learners license and I was still doing nothing about it. I’m aiming to get it within the next two weeks though! It costs about $80 to sit the test, and you can only get 3 out of 35 questions wrong, so I’ve always been afraid of being the first person to fail this ‘relatively simple’ test! However after I went through all three hundred and something questions the other day, it seemed to me that all you require is basically commonsense!

I had my cello lesson with the infamous Ms Williams. She’s pretty tough and strict because she demands perfection. She’s also in charge of the string ensemble of which the twins and I are members of. Since we had a debate meeting at lunch today, it was my job to break the news to her. Thankfully she took it well and didn’t slaughter me.

The practise debate during lunch was between our debating team (Hyun, Joon and me) and Chen’s team. It turned out to be pretty interesting, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough time for Chen and me to read our speeches.

It does sound as though quite a lot of time and effort is going into this debate, but if we win against a school such as Diocesan tomorrow, it’ll all be worth it!