Nothing Done

Nothing as dramatic has happened in the last two days. I did end up driving the next day after the encounter with the police, but this time it was just to the cemetery to visit my grandparents there. I took the side streets to practise my uphill starts and three point turns. Those still aren't going too great. It's embarrassing stopping the car when you're parked right across the road blocking traffic!

I've been spending most of my holidays at home trying to balance my time studying with tidying up the house. I don't think I've accomplished much so far. I've finally managed to finish writing articles for the school magazine though so that's one thing, but I'm planning to get back on track in the second week of holidays! So yeah the holidays have been boring being stuck at home. I don't think I've even gone anywhere or been anywhere apart from driving! Oh yeah I went to a few garage sales this morning with my mum, but there wasn't much to buy though. I've been invited to go out with some friends next week, but once again it's looking unlikely because of my parents.

It's weird! I was thinking while just lying there on the ground doing nothing about how I even spend less time with my bester friends than I do with others! Can't wait till university to be able to have a bit more freedom!

Things have been interesting in the last few days though!...well not for me but for other people! Yay for those other people!

Calum's First Police Pull-Over

This time when out driving with my dad in his car, I got pulled over by the police, for apparent 'dangerous driving and nearly crashing into a police car' :S

After driving all the way to Massey and then around the Helensville/Kumeu area practising uphill starts, 3-point turns and doing heaps of stalls, I was driving along the main road (or highway?) when my dad told me to turn right into a side road. I stopped to wait for traffic to pass, and then there was this truck that was turning into the same side road as well, but he seemed to be giving way to me, so I turned. Suddenly I saw this police car right behind me with its lights flashing, so I pulled over and the police car stopped behind me.

Constable Keith came up to my window, wanting to look at my license, and then went over to my dad's side of the car wanting to look at his. He asked my dad how long I had been learning for, and my dad said two days. OK that's not entirely true (even though it is for these school holidays!) and my dad was going to continue to explain, but I think he was a bit more shellshocked at having been pulled over. Anyway Constable Keith told my dad the area I was in was a black spot, and that there had been many crashes in that area, and that I nearly crashed into the police car. When I turned though I never saw the police car as I thought the truck was behind me! Thank goodness for Constable Keith though he let me get away and said had it been another police officer I may have ended up with a $150 fine.

I decided to swap over with my dad, and decided just to go back home and have lunch. My dad was still recovering from the shock, as the encounter with the police had shaken him a little bit so he was sticking to the letter of the law, holding up traffic along the main road as he stuck strictly to the speed limit!

When I got home my mum asked me why I wasn't driving. I just told her I was hungry. Let's keep this one a secret from my mum as well aye ;)

Calum's First Crash

Yes I drove my mum's car into a mailbox today (my neighbour's) when I turned too sharply into the driveway! OK so things didn't turn out badly in the end. I only smacked the side mirror into the mailbox and it bent right backwards. My dad was yelling at me, but fortunately it was one of those mirrors that flips back, so we flipped it back into position. No damage was done to the mailbox ...actually I should go back and check...and the car was only left with some scratches on the back of the mirror. My mum still doesn't know yet. She's the parent most afraid of my driving, so telling her would do my cause no good, so let's just keep this a secret between you, me and my dad ;)

I was surprised my dad still wanted me to practise driving his car afterwards! We drove all the way to Piha and back through Swanson. It was freaky driving through the Waitakere Ranges where there were deep ditches on the side of the road. I couldn't even look at the view as it would freak me out! (soooo high!) I drove through Titirangi township where I got shouted at by some lady behind me when I stalled the car in front of a round-about.

An hour or so later we finally got home with my mum coming outside. She asked my dad how my driving was.

"Uhhhh......(grins at me)...needs a bit more practice!"

Yay! Holidays!

Finally reached 500 posts! (OK well this is actually the 501st)

Holidays have started off slowly. Yesterday morning I had one student turn up when usually everyone in that class shows up, and two other students didn't come. I'm guessing it's either because it was raining heavily then or because school was finished.

After accordion lessons my mum drove us all home from North Shore but before she did she took us on a grand tour of nearly every vegetable and fruit shop in Henderson which took nearly an hour! With no water and drink for the past three hours and the temperature being really high, us brothers locked in the car were starting to be dehydrated! When we finally got home, we got a drink of water and that fixed everything. Wow what an anticlimax to that story!

Today it was also really really hot and sunny, I suppose it had something to do with the ozone layer. Apparently you'd burn a lot faster today than usual, so I stayed out of the sun. What a good excuse my mum used for us to tidy up the house! Well we managed to get half the lounge tidy! It's just the area where you usually sit down which is still messy, so we have to sit/lie on the ground when watching TV.

Aonghas was playing basketball outside with our 8-year-old neighbour Crystal (or is she 9 now? Oh well...) when I came outside to join them. I turned away for a second to text someone when suddenly this basketball went flying straight at my face knocking my glasses off! Fortunately the lens but those little things that places your glasses on your nose were bent and so were the arms of the glasses, so now my glasses keep slipping off my face!

Snail's Pace

I can't believe how slow this day went. My free period was the slowest ever! I just sat there and sat there doing nothing... Check the time and it's only 12.00. Sit there and sit there doing nothing...it's only 12.05!

I suppose it was better sitting there doing nothing rather than having to run around school trying to sort out who has written articles for the school magazine and when they have to be handed in by, and who we have to hand them in to by...so tiring thinking about it all!

I had to take photos of various groups like the Korean Christian group and Joon's Young Enterprise group during lunch. Joon's Young Enterprise group is interesting, and full of gossip and scandals! (OK not so much scandals)

If you got The Friday 22 September NZ Herald, check out pg A14, and see if you can see any familiar faces amongst those students!

The professional ball photos arrived at school as well! I went to the office to pick up the one I ordered of all the 7th formers together after school, and instead I got a lovely photo of a couple! $5 for that! Originally I was just going to give it to the couple as a Christmas present but my friend urged to take it back to the office, so I did. I must've written down the wrong code. If there isn't anything they can do about it though, I might just give it away. A photo of a couple ain't much use to me!

The rest of the afternoon after school has been so slow, with the only exciting hour coming from 24, oh yeah and Project Runway (go Chloe!) Chatting on MSN hasn't been too exciting as well, but yeah that's probably because it's the last day of school YAY!

It seems as though all the teachers were told to say the same thing: THERE'S ONLY 26 SCHOOL DAYS LEFT!!!!! (or is it 27? I can't remember)

Results Day

We had a nasty shock early Thursday morning when we found our last remaining big fish Rydia floating vertically. Usually this is a sign that the fish is dead, but fortunately a few minutes later it resumed normal activity, swimming into the wall. We're pretty sure it is still alive and not just the pump moving it. We saw it breathing!

 

Anyway, most exam results came out yesterday at school. Overall outcome=BADBADBAD. No actually it was more or less just average. A few excellences, but mainly merits and achieved's. I felt I did the best in history (compared to how I did in other subjects) while I did really badly in statistics, making heaps of stupid mistakes like misreading the calculator, forgetting that square root, not rounding properly...and you wonder why my mum emphasises the importance of READING THE QUESTION PROPERLY AND CHECKING YOUR ANSWER to me all the time before exams! Physics...well I can say I have slightly improved since last year! It was disappointing overall. I know I could've done a whole lot better and it was my aim at the beginning of the year to make sure I did a whole lot better, but I didn't, and there really isn't anything I can do about this set of exams anymore apart from to learn from them and make sure I am fully prepared for the real exams.

 

What does make things worse especially when you don't do so well are the 'what did you get? He's going to get first in class..She's going to get first in class...he did better than you!!' moments. Yes I was aware I didn't do as well as others and won't get anything thanks for pointing that out to me and the rest of the class :D I managed to establish a completely no-awards/prize-giving talkzone momentarily with a few people.

 

I stayed behind after school to help Mrs Devitt (English teacher) set up the hall for some Wome's meeting in the evening, and ended up missing my ride. Aonghas had to stay behind till 5pm doing some English revision in the library with some other year 11's, so I went in there and read a bit of Where's Wally and Ling Ling's New Year (picture book that goes something along the lines of...LingLing's grandfather's bike broke a tyre so they had to push the bike. Then some crazy lady rode straight into them, causing all her oranges to fall out the basket. LingLing helped pick them up, then notice they had stopped right outside a bike repair shop! Lucky!! They got their tyre fixed and ma....CLOSE THE BOOK)

 

While sitting on the side of the road with Aonghas waiting for my mum to pick me up, this blonde girl who I've come across before (she once saw me eating out of my lunchbox and asked why I still had one) was walking along the footpath with two older girls. I was looking away when I heard the little girl shout out

 

"F**************K YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! F*****************K YOU!!!!!!!"

 

I turned around to see who she was shouting at, and she shouted at me

 

"YES I'M TALKING TO YOU!!!!"

 

The two embarrassed older girls pushed her to keep moving along, and as they walked away, I could hear the little blonde girl telling them about how I still have a lunchbox. I wonder if she even knows what the F* word means!

 

Very Profitable Day

On Wednesday, my free day off from school, Heather, Patrick, Jane and I were going to the ASB Bursary Scholarship lunch at Eden Park! What was exciting was not only getting to go to the lunch, but getting to go to Eden Park! Oh yeah and also getting to see all the other schools there! I told the others I would come at normal school time so that I would be there on time, but I ended up only getting there on time, only to have Heather point out to me that I had a huge dust mark going right across my blazer which I didn't notice! I ended up soaking myself in water, and then having to try dry myself in the sun (thank goodness there was sun!)

 

When we got to Eden Park we were one of the first groups there. Waitakere College students in their maroon blazers were sitting inside. There was one guy who looked slightly like Hurley from Lost, who Patrick kept having...issues...with...As more and more schools arrived, we began identifying them, checking them and their blazers out (let's face it they were ALL wearing blazers, except for maybe West City Christian School who were wearing polo t-shirts, but you know...west...) Fortunately we were in our blazers so we didn't stand out too much. Just imagine us in our normal school uniform there!

 

I was on the lookout for this girl from Mt Roskill Grammar, one of Diane's friends, who she told to look out for me as well. I caught glimpses of the MRGS group but didn't get round to randomly going over and say HI ARE ANY OF YOU CALLED KARMEN? OH HEY KARMEN I'M DIANE'S FRIEND...HI!!

 

Our principal Mr Moore joined us four and Mrs Taylor our dean and we all went into one of the function rooms to stand there and drink juice, until we were shepherded onto the seats outside for a huge group photo. When we got back inside, that's when we got the lunch!

 

Lunch was just salad, a bun and chicken with some ham rolled inside it. Dessert was this cake with jam and cream.

 

Patrick, Heather and I were discussing politics at the table, with Heather bagging Helen Clark, when it was announced our guest speaker had arrived. Who else, but Helen Clark! She gave a speech about taking opportunities, finding the right balance and stuff like that. After that representatives from each of the 80+ schools (there were over 400 students present) lined up alongside the stage to receive the awards from Helen Clark. For some reason I was chosen as the representative so I got to go up, shake Aunty Helen's hand and receive the package.

 

We spent no time after the awards ceremony was over in leaving and heading off to University of Auckland to watch the Software Design Competition prize-giving in which David was competing in. David came second, and won an Ipod as well as a $2000 scholarship for engineering! CONGRATULATIONS DAVID!!!!!!!!!!

 

We all celebrated with a [non-alcoholic] drink at the cafe (dean's shout) before leaving to go back home.

 

That's It!

I've finally finished my exams for this week! I had a Chinese conversation internal assessment this afternoon. I hadn't even prepared till this morning! I ended up typing out possible answers to the teacher's questions, and then trying to memorise them. The situation was that my Chinese teacher would be the dean of international students wanting to have a little catch-up with me on how things have been during my first year studying in China.

I got to school by midday, still trying to memorise my answers. Fortunately I was fifth out of sixth on the list (or really fourth, as one of the students had to pull out after losing her voice). Judging from the reactions of the first three to go before me, things weren't going too well. I went in when it was finally my turn. I instantly stuffed up the beginning! Fortunately the teacher let me start again, and I went on from there. She asked me a few questions I hadn't prepared for, and so I'm just hoping I didn't give her answers that didn't make any sense!

For the rest of the afternoon I hung around with Nikki and Shiu Tai who also only had their Chinese conversation. We went to the nearby takeaways 'Kia Ora Takeaways', which was different since I don't think I've seen one run by Maoris before! (that's not in a racist way or anything!)

Nearly There!

I had my history exam this morning. I was really worried going into this, as I hadn't managed to memorise much in the weekend. Nothing stuck in my head, so I ended up trying to memorise the main points of previous essays I had written throughout the year and bank on being lucky! Fortunately there was a history question on Vogel's Scheme and early contact, so I was lucky!

 

Once again towards the end of the exam I was busting to go to the toilet, and I made sure I didn't drink too much in the morning before school as well! This is the third morning exam in three morning exams that I've been busting to go to the toilet! I must have a bladder problem...nah hopefully not!

 

History was my last proper exam, with only my Chinese conversation assessment to go tomorrow. I'm not too well prepared for that either, so hopefully it all goes well! That's pretty much been the sum-up of these end-of-year exams - NOT PREPARED

 

Church has been interesting lately, or should I say Sunday School. Angie, a girl from my school has been in my Sunday school class for the last two weeks. It's been good having someone you know in Sunday school class. When she first came and one of the Sunday school teachers asked if we were friends from school and I was about to just say yeah, she replied

 

"Uhhh....we know each other from school.."

 

So when moments later the other Sunday school teacher came by and asked us the same question, I had to rethink my answer and say something similar! It's been good though because she asks all the questions I have during class but don't ask for fear of sounding stupid (since I've been at this church for three years now!). But yeah I've been getting to know her better and it's made it a bit easier getting to know the other two in the class a bit easier now that there are two NON-CHINESE speakers, so that I'm not left out!

 

We got a laser printer today, and while Aonghas was at the school BOT meeting, my mum got me to set the printer up. As usual she assumed I was going to stuff things up and asked me if I wanted to wait for Aonghas to come home, but I persisted and got it sorted out. Funnily enough, when Aonghas got home and used the printer he caused a paper jam :D

 

Oh and congratulations to Stephen woohoo yeah go Stephen!

Recap

Because of exams I haven't posed in aaaages so here's a quick update of how my week went:

 

Friday:

 

I got to go to Henderson High with Heather and Mrs Butler Shaw (science teacher) to attend this Royal Children's Variety Club Bash, where they were celebrating the opening of the special education unit that had recently been renovated by Cocksy the builder and others. When he got up to speak, he pretty much criticised the Henderson community for coming and supporting them once the building was finished, but not supporting them while they were renovating the building! Simon Dallow awarded us our huge cheque. We got $2000 originally for blazers (after helping the charity out with the book fair) but they couldn't donate the money for that so they gave it to some at risk youth programme for our students.

I met up with my cousins at Henderson. Greg as head boy had to welcome all the vehicles (and there were heaps! Firetrucks, ordinary cars with sirens, etcetc). I met him later in the day. Then I came across Janice! As we were walking back to the car, I came across Graeme! The teacher was like

 

"Let's get out of here before we meet another of Calum's cousins!"

 

Later that night I had to perform with the string quartet at my last ever Studio Show!!!! So sad!!!! I stayed after school while waiting for Aonghas who was helping out his Young Enterprise group. I just walked around with Joon talking about life. We ended up walking all the way to Subway! I went into Woolworths to find a toilet and saw Estee working at the checkout! Cool! Our performance went OK. I accidentally jumped a line and had to try cover it up. After the studio show I was running down the school driveway in the dark, didn't see the chain and ran right into it. Fortunately no one saw me do that!

 

Monday:

 

They had some 'Make some right decisions and blablabla' presentation at assembly and 6th period. Phew no Chinese. They had some entertaining videos, but there was some band and a rapper who performed. I didn't see how that was related to their message. The rapper was just like

 

"Yeah yeah...don't drink and drive...make the right decisions...and my single comes out in ..."

 

Tuesday:

 

I went into the city in the morning for an interview. I'm not too sure how it went but I'll just have to find out in October!

 

Thursday and Friday:

 

Exams!!! HORRIBLE!!!! Worst EVER!!

 

Chemistry - I didn't look at the time properly, and rushed everything, finishing it within an hour thinking 2.5hrs had passed (yes time flies by when you need to go to the toilet!) As soon as I realised we didn't have to stop, I went to the toilet and then went over my paper trying to undo my scribbles.

Statistics - Stuffed up! There was this big long question in the equations paper with several sections. I took one look at it and thought um.... I don't know if I'm just getting lazy or what these days..The statistics exam was definitely manageable and would've been a lot more enjoyable had I been a lot more prepared!

Physics - This is going to be my biggest embarrassment. You would assume that since I did yr 13 physics last year I would ace this, but no not me. I'm likely to screw this up and barely scrape through if I'm lucky.

 

I'm starting to think now that I made probably one of the worst decisions in my life by taking science subjects. After thinking about things, I've come to realise that I've made a lot of stupid decisions - I got all excellences in history and accounting in NCEA level 1, but I dropped those two subjects. I got first in biology last year, and then I dropped that subject. Without any direction I'm probably going to end up nowhere in life!

 

 

BusyBusy

On Wednesday and Thursday night I've been performing my accordion at the school Studio Show. Originally I wasn't going to perform at all, till they asked the string quartet to perform on Friday. I originally wasn't going to perform on Thursday until Mrs Klaassen (performing arts teacher) asked me to perform on Thursday. I wasn't going to perform on Wednesday night until she begged me to play on Wednesday night to balance her programme! In the end I got stuck with performing on all three nights. I was going to play a duet with Aonghas, and since this will be my last Studio Show I was hoping to do something different, but at such late notice I wasn't able to sort anything out in time! I ended up just playing two different accordion solos on the first two nights.

In the music room (backstage) I've gotten to know some year 9's really well, like the guys in the year 9 band Firewood WHO ROCK!!!!! GO FIREWOOD!!!!!! They're really cool. I've got problems with memorising people's names, but I've finally remembered the members of the band are Lloyd, Jesse, Marcus and Phillip!! Yay!!

I got to wear a Mickey Mouse tie with a blue shirt too. I've always wanted to wear a Mickey Mouse tie at something to do with school, but it has never matched anything I've worn to the ball. Since it matched my blue shirt I thought why not!

School has been a little more hectic as we approach exams. Mr Breckall, good ol' chemistry teacher came by the other day during lunch asking me if my involvement in extra-curricular activities had dropped off since exams were coming up, I told him most of them were. He had caught me at a bad time because I was about to go to string quartet lessons!

I've also had Stephen and Julie spreading rumours about me to people. You evil evil people I will get you back for that! That's right aye Joon? ;) There wouldn't be anything to be ashamed of if they were true but they're not and it ain't fair when people believe something that's wrong, so best advice would be just don't believe everything Stephen tells you ;) (no offence Stephen!)

woops..

Almost forgot...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIA (for yesterday)

and

RIP STEVE IRWIN MR CROCODILE HUNTER!!!

What a happy...and sad...day it has been!

Coming Our Way

Exams are fast approaching. My last week and a half rush of cram-studying is taking place, something I was hoping to avoid! I've got exams on four of the five exam days, with two exams in one day. Luckily I get a day off on the last day of the exam period though!

 

I went to the water polo game at West Wave last night. It was Rutherford vs Henderson in the finals. It was such an exciting game! At first I had no idea what was going on as it was the first ever game of water polo I had ever watched. I soon realised it was kinda like soccer in water, and worked out which team I was supposed to be cheering for. The scoring was really close. It was first 1-0 to Rutherford, then 1-1, then 2-1 to us, then 2-2, then 3-2 to us, then by the end of the game locked at 3-3. The game went into extra time and it was so tense! Fortunately we scored and won 4-3!

 

Anyway the Oh boys were back at school today after their cruisy holiday in Korea. I nodded off a bit in a few of my classes probably because I didn't get much sleep the night before, having to write a history essay in a rush. I spent the rest of the afternoon after school in the library studying. Highlight of the day: the talking lifts! Doesn't it just feel so welcoming when the lift tells you the doors are opening!

Close One!

Rutherford won against Henderson High in waterpolo tonight 4-3 in extra time!

Good on those guys! It was such a close game (and an exciting one too)! I've just finished my history essay so I'm off to bed

Good Fortune

I think I finally settled on my future! OK it's a little messy, and may be a little stupid and unrealistic. My dean suggested it to me so right now since I have no other idea I'll just go with it! If I get the law scholarship, I'll just go straight on to law, and choose something for my conjoing (not too sure about that yet). If I don't get it, then I'll do health science for the first year and try get into medicine school. If I don't (chances are I won't), I'll try apply for law the following year, drop health science and pick up something else as my conjoint. I don't know if this is the wisest decision or even possible, but I'll just go with it and see what happens!

I found out this week that I came first equal in the Chinese speech competition with the white boy from Lynfield College (I think?) while Aonghas got merit in his class. The prize-giving is in October sometime. Hopefully I won't have to memorise my speech all over again!

Today there was this rock concert at lunch. I scheduled a Junior Council meeting for lunchtime too. I had reminded this member just two periods before lunch to come, but she never turned up! We got a good turnout anyway. Apparently this Monday the school board of trustees are meeting to discuss the school uniform and Chen the student rep wanted feedback from the Junior Council. Hopefully the board make a good decision!

I spent the last of the money in my wallet today, buying a packet of M&M's for $2 from these girls who said it was going towards Wider Living Week. I think I must be a compulsive spender, spending money on all sorts of fundraisers! I was going to save the money in my wallet for whatever Christmas presents I could get my friends but now I'm going to have to gather more loose change around the house to save up again!

NB If any of you have spare change, donate some money to Andrew Poh to help him buy a Mini!
 
Also if you guys have any time to kill on Sunday night, come to West Wave Aquatic Centre and support Rutherford as they take on Henderson High in the water polo finals! What makes this game important is that my cousins go to Henderson High and I would really like to have something to skite about to them! Go Rutherford!!!!