Halloween Horror

This morning at interval I attempted to bring fear to hearts and minds of some of my friends...but it didn't work. OK so maybe I wasn't loud enough and my cheap $2 halloween mask (complete with fake hair!!!) wasn't that convincing. I jumped from behind the wall and went BOOOOO!!!! ARRGGHGHHHH!!! YAHAHAHHHH! And they just looked at me! It wasn't till I begged for them to scream that one of them did! So that was a complete disaster.

I had to go off to Middlemore for another dental check-up later in the afternoon. The dentist changed the colour of those rubber things on my braces from dark blue to green, but I don't think anyone will even notice anyway. She originally suggested orange for halloween, before suggesting green which was a much better option! I came away wondering if I had made the right decision though...what if I get vegetables like brocolli stuck in my braces? How will I know? Oh well that's what the toothbrush is for!

Vodafone Supa Prepay was announced today and as I had suspected there's nothing free in their new offers (well what should I have expected? Nothing's free these days!) Looks like now I'm too poor to afford to text to either Vodafone or Telecom phones, let alone my 'best mate' whoever that may be! (I got a few but they have boyfriends and girlfriends...)

After coming back from the hospital, I anticipated little trick-or-treaters knocking at our door. We got some guy in a suit, a salesman I'm assuming, so we just ignored him and waited till he left. We had another knock at the door and looking through the blinds I could see they were trick-or-treaters! We scowered the house for lollies but by the time we fonud them they were gone! They turned out to be our neighbours so we caught up with them as they walked back up the driveway. Szelin was dressed up in black...umm....maybe an emo or a goth? I'm not too sure but that's scary enough for me! She brought along with her the little children staying with her, one as a fairy, another as JaJa Binks and the other little boy as a little boy in little boy's clothes. I came outside with my old man's mask and tried scaring the little kids (hey it's Halloween afterall!) but they just pointed and laughed at me!
"You look like an old man!!! Hahahahahaha!"
The little girl pointed at our house and said it was haunted. I asked them which did they like out of witches, wizards and me, and the little kids replied
"Not yoooooouuu!!!!!!"

The older girl living at their house didn't come along, apparently because she's either scared of guys or just scared of us. Anyway I followed Szelin and the kids back to their house to try scare this other girl. She came out and I popped out from behind the car and did my BOOOOOO ARRRGGGGGGGGHHH routine and she just stared at me! What is it? Am I just not that scary enough?!

What I did notice was that my face looked a lot better after taking off the mask! (Obviously, but just how often does my face ever look any good?)

In the Real World

I've been meaning to post in the last few days but didn't get round to doing it. So anyway here we go. On Friday night I went with Heather to watch the Junior Production 'Aladdin' which was fantastic!! I was so proud to see these junior students doing their stuff on stage and they all certainly have bright futures ahead of them on stage! The Junior Council even got a mention in the programme as having approached the drama department about putting on a junior production! Yay!! Congratulations to Ryan on directing yet another great play! At first I was a little unsure about what to expect, as I hadn't seen any set on stage during school, and I heard there was no 'A Whole New World', which is one of THE BEST Disney songs out there! Heather and I originally planned on doing our own rendition of the song during the break between Act I and Act II to fill the void, but I guess after watching Act I there was no need to!

Saturday was the start of the last free texting weekend EVER! It's so sad as I've had so many good free txtn memories, from the time when my friends comforted me when my nana died, to the time when I told a girl I liked her! Rumour has it that Vodafone will be announcing the new deal this Wednesday, with another rumour of 2000 texts for $9.95-$10 going around? I think I need to get a job so I can afford to text!

I watched Love Actually on Saturday night and wasn't that such a lovely movie! Awwwww at that little boy who fell in love! I never knew Christmas is the time when you're supposed to tell the truth to people! Maybe I should try it! 24 which screened afterwards was at its usual best. I don't get TV3's logic in screening it at such a late hour, but then again I've never been a fan of TV3! Anyway the big twist in the plot left me confuzzled, dazed, and utterly shocked! I can't wait for next week's episode now!

Anyway back to the real world the Anderson accordion trio might be getting a new member! Jessica, my fierce fierce accordion rival who I have been losing to lately might join us to form an accordion quartet after her mum approached me while waiting for my accordion lesson. This will be cool as there is a lot of accordon quartet music that us three boys haven't been able to do anything with.

Sunday was a sad sad day being the last ever day of free weekend texting. I watched NZ Idol that night in the hope of Indira becoming the NZ Idol. Yeah I know I'll get slagged off for watching Idol but I thought the final was a whole lot better with an orchestra, a proper set and a much larger venue at St James! My reason for wanting Indira to win NZ Idol was more of a personal thing, as not only was she from out west but she is an ACCORDIONIST!! I remember back when I was a youngin and used to watch her and her sister play accordion solos and duets and represent West Auckland at the North Shore dominated accordion championships. They were also members of the championship winning West Auckland Accordion Orchestra in 1997, the year before I joined and destroyed the orchestra (believe me when I say destroy I mean destroy...I lost the championship for the orchestra by forgetting we had already repeated the last section of the music and doing the repeat one more time while the rest of the orchestra had stopped! The orchestra members were adament we lost the championship by one point because of the other orchestra's conductor's cowboy hat but I'm not so sure...after that, most of the members decided it was time to move on to other things!) Anyway hopefully Matt will go further than the two previous idols and we'll have to wait and see if TVNZ decide to do a fourth series!

Back to the real world again...so yeah free texting ended, with drum roll...Melissa being the last person I texted! You should feel very special Melissa!

That night I suddenly remembered I had a history essay due the following day and hadn't even started! I planned on typing it in bed but I fell asleep, so I decided I'd gamble on my cello lesson taking up all of history period so I wouldn't have to go and hand in my essay. Fortunately on Monday the cello lesson took up all of history period so I didn't have to go and hand my essay in! Phew! I've spent all night typing it up so I'll almost definitely hand it in tomorrow.

We got our reports at the end of school today. Mine was soso. Most of the comments were constructive.
Statistics teacher was something along the lines of...
"Calum would be the first to admit that there have been quite a few distractions which have caused him to not be prepared for the exams as well as he should have been. However with plenty of practice and revision he should gain results to be proud of in the externals"
Physics teacher -
"Calum has a good understanding of the content of the course but has difficulty applying them in an exam situation"
That was a pretty good comment since I haven't been turning up to quite a few physics classes this year! Of course the periods absent box was blank...

My Chinese teacher only gave me a 3 for 'Works Purposefully'! I thought I did work in Chinese class but obviously not. I must've been talking in class too much or something.

Anyway Halloween today, let's see how it turns out! It's going to be a screamer! (OK well I hope so or I'll be disappointed!)

No Schoolwork!!

This morning I went along with the Junior Councillors and a few prefects over to Rutherford Primary to run games for the little primary school kids. I got to play the game Battleship with the senior kids. I had to call out words like BOW! STERN! CAPTAIN'S COMING! SEAGULLS! IN THE LIFEBOATS! CAPTAIN'S SON/DAUGHTER!! It went really well with the kids getting into it. It was just a shame I had two girls trip over hoops that had been left lying on the ground (where you had to jump into when I shouted out SHARKS!!!). The first girl was more serious. She was crying in pain and had to be helped up. I think she sprained her knee. The second girl was only temporarily injured before rejoining the group.

It was cool that later in the day when some primary school kids walked by they saw me and called out

"Hey you're the battleship guy!!!"

Once it was interval we all got a free ice block before having to go back to school. Apparently the reason why some of us prefects got in trouble the day before was because our statistics teacher was unhappy! It turns out she has been the only one who has been unhappy about our absence from school! Fortunately after statistics I had a free period, and then lunch.

Spacifix came during lunch. I only got to watch for a little while before I had to go off to the prefects meeting with AUT. I didn't get to catch up with Stephen but I caught up with one of the other guys who remembered me from earlier in the year when they came to our school to perform.

The prefects meeting with AUT was cool. We caught up with Rebecca after a while. She brought along a student who filmed us head students so that they could put it in their promotional video for next year. Rebecca also then wanted to know what had been going on and got to Evan and asked him if he had a girlfriend, but when he said no, she looked to me and said

"No wait! Calum's got a girlfriend!"

Haha yeah right! We got told we might get invited back next year to run some workshops or sessions with next year's prefects at their camp which will be cool!

Oh yeah by the way all the best to all those students going for head boy and head girl!! Let the bickering and cat fighting begin!

Fun and Games

This week has been nothing special. I've made it to school on time every day. Oh yeah we didn't have to go to school on Monday! That was cool but I didn't do much. I tried studying physics but fell asleep again.

Yesterday was the last day of my Chinese writing assessment. I was trying to get it all finished during my Chinese period before lunch, but then I had the Japanese teacher come into the classroom and say there was a telephone call for me! It was the office lady letting me know I had a guest waiting at the office for me. I have been in charge of getting a group of students (predominantly Junior Council students with a few prefects) to help run games for primary school students at their travel thingy launch tomorrow. The guests were going to train us during form period and last period yesterday. I met up with the guests in the office and let them know of our arranged time and then went back to Chinese class where my Chinese teacher was pleased to see me back! I ended up working right throughout lunch and into a little bit of form period. I had to go to the training during last period and then after school I had to go back to finish it off.

The training was pretty fun. It was a long time since I had last played little kids games such as Seaweed (Octopus) and Battleship ('Captain's Coming!'...'Scrub the Deck!!'). I get to run games of Battleship with junior students at the primary school tomorow. Fingers crossed the weather will be good or else we'll have to look after the kids inside while they watch TV or colour in!

I was working during statistics today when the dean came in and dragged out all the students in my class who had attended the training yesterday afternoon. She then questioned us on our whereabouts during last period yesterday and told us she didn't want us missing out on class and blablabla. I had to sort things out with Mr Coughlan to make sure we DEFINITELY had permission to attend the real thing tomorrow morning!

I've been hearing weird things lately, like today I heard that people were warning others that I was zooming in on them and taking photos of them! The other day someone asked me this weird question I won't say what!

First Party

I was invited to Sarena's birthday party, which I'm thankful for as I haven't been invited to any birthday party or party for that matter in the last few years! So this was going to be a new experience for me.

I spent the morning before accordion lessons looking around Westfield Glenfield for a present for her. I'm really bad at buying presents! I managed to find something at the last minute and so I got that along with a card and went off to my accordion lesson.

I went to the party slightly later than four and arrived at Sarena's huge house. Heaps of people were there already so that was good! They were all doing karaoke and everything. Somewhere along the way I ended up singing Hero by Mariah Carey really badly!

I was offered a glass of punch by Hyun and was about to walk away with it before being warned that it had alcohol in it! Phew!

When it was time for the food I got given four shrimps and a big piece of meat. After realising I had no idea how to eat it without making a big mess I tried offering the food to other people but no one would take it so I had to eat it myself. We then watched a bit of TV.

Later on in the night some people decided to have a few drinks. I stayed in one of the bedrooms for a little while with a few other non-alcoholics before coming downstairs to see what all the fuss and commotion was all about. They were all gathered around the bottles of alcohol all having shots of it. I was doing my best to encourage those being encouraged to drink some NOT to drink some, as well as promote water as a healthy and wise alternative to alcohol but of course no one listened to me and I just got ignored, so I just hung around others with our cool water. The fridge had some cool water/ice dispenser which I enjoyed playing with anyway! I suppose I go a bit further than other non-alcoholics to try influence others, and so everyone kinda knew I wasn't into alcohol already. When some of us guys were asked if we wanted a drink it went something like this...
"*&*( you want a drink?"
"Nah it's OK"
"How about you *&(&?"
"No thanks"
"Oh and I know DEFINITELY NOT FOR YOU CALUM"
Oh well I tried but its their decision in the end. My only disappointment was probably at one of my good friends who had promised me earlier he would never drink. He ended up succumbing to peer pressure (not matter how subtle) and drank more than most people, but once again it was his decision so I shall say no more.

But nah seriously I didn't mind it didn't take anything away from the night or anything! Being around my peers drinking was a new experience for me and something I've got to get used to, as I've been sheltered from the real world at home for too long, so yeah...something different!

In the end the candles were blown out and the cake was cut and distributed. It tasted very good too! Thanks once again Sarena for inviting me to your party!

You can bet Calum will never get invited to another party again!

Vodafone's Free Txt Replacement??

"For $6 a month you can text call and video conference unlimited times your 'bestmate'. You can only pick one person. Rolling out to prepay customers first and then on account customers in Feb 07."

Source

Rutherford Day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARENA!

Yesterday was Rutherford Day. We had two periods in the morning before interval and then the assembly with our guest speaker Mr Barber. We were running late for school again. I really wanted to have a shower in the morning (because I was going to be on stage for the assembly!) and I had woken up late so I had a quick less than 10 minute shower (a record for me I think) and then rush off to school. Fortunately I got to school in time for the practice assembly in the morning where the school had to rehearse the school song for the last time.

I was supposed to finish off my Chinese assessment in 2nd period but I had orchestra rehearsal, so I went to see the Chinese teacher during first period to tell her. The Chinese teacher asked if Nikki and Jacqueline wouldn't be able to come to class either (I think she thought we had prefect/head boy duties) and I told her they wouldn't be able to either, and so she said she'd kill us on Tuesday. I had to try ask Nikki and Jacqueline to wag Chinese for me, and they were pretty happy Nikki gave me a hug (the first from a girl in several months - the two previous days I had gotten two 'manly' hugs from random guys around school who had asked me for one). After a while of doing nothing and getting bored of it, they decided to go back to class.

I was later told that my thank-you speech was to be a little more substantial than first thought, and so I quickly wrote my speech during interval and didn't even finish it by the time the assembly started! The assembly went well faster than I expected it to. The orchestra started off by performing Pomp and Circumstance as the guests walked up the aisle. Afterwards Mr Moore gave his speech and tripped up as he stepped off the podium! The jazz band then performed and were extremely good! Then Mr Barber gave his speech. Mr Barber is a top neurologist at Auckland City Hospital and spoke of how he played rugby league as well as be the first violinist of the school orchestra! It was great to see what an ex-Rutherford student can achieve!

I had to thank him afterwards and hopefully didn't stuff up! Afterwards we went into the old library for some snacks and a drink before go to watch Mr Edmeades open the new Information Commons. It may have been raining but it didn't dampen the excitement! The Information Commons was impressive! The computers were all state-of-the-art, the seminar rooms had smartboards and projectors hanging from the ceilings. I just wish I could use the building but I don't think it'll be open for long before exams start!

Lunch afterwards was yum. I talked to a few people around the place including Mr Edmeades and Mr Smale (from Smales Farm). He came to our school in a Mercedes! Snazzy!

Not Again

Yesterday morning I came to school late after the bell! I had physics first period and had made a promise to myself that I would attend EVERY SINGLE CLASS this term. So now I had to decide...should I go to the office and get a late detention, or break this promise and skip physics. Well...I decided on the latter. Shame on me I know! I just really wanted my longest run of not having a late detention for the whole year to continue till the end of this year!

I was on my way to the transition room yesterday when I came across this group of juniors including the girls who had asked me for their socks. They asked me if they could sell my socks on E-Bay when I became famous (IF I ever become famous!) and poked me a bit before the guy asked if he could have a hug (a MANLY hug!)

Tonight is the sports dinner which I'll be attending. I'm not getting any award while Aonghas will be getting something for squash. He'll probably sit at the squash table. As for me I don't really know who else will be going or who I'll be sitting with. Hopefully I don't end up a loner!

Black Friday

I didn't notice it was Black Friday till 3rd period in stats class today!

I spent most of the day today having cultural group (and a few other) photos taken. All in all I had ten group photos taken - orchestra, chamber group, prefects, studio show 1 + 2, junior council, crazy costume day, choir, advanced debating team and international languages week group. For each group we had two good photos, one with flash and one without, and the last photo was the funny photo. I did my best to do weird stuff like pretend to eat my tie, some girls' hair, play my cello upside down, do some sort of gangster sign (Annette taught me that!) and pretend to kiss a girl. I haven't seen the photos yet but I'll probably look like a dork in those!

After having to drop off some notes and teasing the Korean Christian Group while they were posing for a photograph outside (no not really just standing, staring and smiling at them ;) ) I joined Alex, David, Pita, Sarena, Estee and Amy in their card game for the first time! Amy taught me how to play poker in an amazingly straight-forward way that I was able to get it in just a few minutes! I still remember (correct me if I'm wrong!) straight is if you get the cards the same, flush is if you get a run, straight-flush is if its a run with all the cards in the same suit, and if it's a full house then its a run + a straight? Afterwards I tried teaching Amy blackjack (she probably knew how to play already!)

OK bad stuff that happened? Not a lot, although when I was talking to some girls and just talking about weights (I was planning something...) they asked me how heavy I was and I told them I was 60kg (yeah I know I'm light for my age!) and they said they thought I looked heavier than I weighed! Hmm....not too sure what that means....I just said it was my jacket!  I was also accused by them of being addicted to girls because that's all I could think of when all I asked one of them was if she saw my neighbour at Taste of Chaos last week, who looked like an Asian girl with black hair! I must have annoyed them or something...

It was also really hot towards the end of and after school. What a tiring end to the first week back at school!

On and Off

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACQUELINE!

You come back to school and discover all these new things! I heard about couples who had broken up, and people who were now together! Awww that's nice of those people who are getting together!

Classes went surprisingly fast today, that is apart from chemistry. Nothing can go slower than chemistry, especially when you're in that commerce classroom that is so small and plain! Mr Breckall asked me two questions in class, which caught me offguard and I wasn't able to answer them even though they were really simple ones!

Our string quartet teacher wasn't here today so that gave me slightly more time to try figure out what to put on my leavers hoodie. I asked a few people and more people are starting to say Mr Anderson. These two girls who think I slightly look like Keanu Reeves (haha yeah right I think they said from the forehead up!) recognised the connection when they suggested Mr Anderson to me! Someone else suggested Calumbian!

Turns out we don't have to hand in our forms till Wednesday so I've got more time to think about it.

It was the first time I wore this new schoolbag to school, as my old one was falling to pieces. Apparently it's Puma, but I'm not sure if it's a girls bag or not, as it looks a bit like a handbag! Fortunately I was told it didn't look like one, and that it's OK for me to wear it, even if it is a girl's bag!

Mysterious Person

I got this random text from someone this afternoon claiming to be my secret admirer. I asked if the person was a girl (you know, just got to check these things!) and the person told me he/she was half and half, so I assumed the person meant he/she was half guy half girl! When I tried guessing he/she replied:

"Calum of course, gosh ur sucha silly billy. well u must knw a lot of half n halfs if u cnt guess who i am"

I asked if he/she meant half and half as in half girl half guy or half Kiwi half something else, and then the person accused me of being DISGUSTING and RUDE! and that she (OK I'm going to assume that it's a she) was going to tell everyone. I asked which school, and she said she doesn't go to Rutherford. She then said it didn't matter because the main point is she LOVES ME. After trying to get a name from her she kept telling me SHE LOVES ME. At that point I didn't know what to say, so turning to my trusty female friends, they told me just to tell the person that I love her too, so I jokingly told her that I loved her too. Thinking the joke would be over, the person then asked when we should hang out together! I asked for an email address or a name just so I knew who I was talking to, an d

"OH who cares. I HATE U nw. dnt eva txt me again!"

So I'm none the wiser, my chances of finding my one and only true love have gone (haha just joking!) but I'm now curious as to who this person is! So if anyone recognises these texts above, and knows who this person is, please let me know! It's all most likely a prank anyway!

Filling in the Time

In the last few days I really haven't been doing much AGAIN. On Wednesday though I went out food shopping to all the Chinese grocery shops around the city like Tai Ping and some other one in Mt Albert. Anyway while waiting for my mum to do the shopping Aonghas and I went over to have a look at that new Vector Arena. It looks pretty flash! I can't wait till it opens!

After having a look we went back to the shop to find our mum. It was the first time in a while that I've actually been in a Chinese food shop and boy is there heaps of yummy stuff in there! It's just so expensive though! While I was in there though, I got a text from Teresa though asking me if I was at Tai Ping. I replied saying I was and started looking around to see if she was anywhere near. It turns out her boyfriend Stan was shopping there and had recognised me! I never knew he would remember who I was, since I had only met him once and that was on New Years Eve way back in 2004!

Since then I've just been at home mucking around doing nothing. I've had some late nights staying up and chatting to people, and ending up sleeping at 3am and not waking up till 11am! Apart from that Saturday when I woke up before 8 to check out garage sales with my mum, I haven't been able to wake up any earlier!

Anyway I've come up with a goal for term 4 - I'm going to try take a photo with as many people from school as I possibly can starting on Monday!

Redoing Work

I've been meaning to focus solely on studying this week. I have done more than last week so far, focusing mostly on chemistry and stats. I really should be revising physics! However, I've been working on redeveloping the student website with a content management system so that next year's students (and the year after and year after) can add, delete and customise content by themselves. It'll at least be better than what the site has been like at the moment, which has always been a drag having to edit so many pages and upload them etc.

Anyway I shouldn't be focusing on that! I keep forgetting I've got NCEA exams coming up! Part of me can't wait for school to start up again, to keep me on track (oops that reminds me history homework to get done), and also because quite a lot will be going on in what little time of term four we have left, like the junior production and the other production!

I've been trying to come up with some sort of nickname for myself to put on my leaver's hoodie. I think they're going to put it on the back. I really want to put something that will give me memories in a few years time. Unfortunately it hasn't been that easy coming up with anything! Someone suggested Camera Anderson (but that's too long), while another friend suggested Calumino because she's always calling me that (Calumino is like the feminine version of Calum, like how Agnes is to Aonghas), and someone else suggested arched eyebrows and head boy. And...that's about it. No one can really think of anything. I guess I don't really have a unique identity!

Speaking of cameras though, watch out for term four! Intense photo-taking to come as we draw nearer to the end of school!!

Struggling to Stay Awake

The church service this morning was interesting, despite the not-so-interesting sermon. It was about love, go figure! Anyway Aonghas was dozing off beside me swaying from side to side while I was tapping his foot trying to keep him awake and from falling on me. I managed to keep myself awake for most of the time by thinking about things and looking around to see if I could recognise anyone at the service. There was hardly anyone there at the beginning! Must've been the start of day-light saving!

Anyway we were three quarters the way through the sermon, when I was starting to doze off a little bit as well, when someone from behind dropped their bible on the ground and made a really big thud which made us all jump and wake up! I had a suspicion as to who did it, and turns out I was right! Angie dropped her bible as she was about to fall asleep during the sermon as well!

After church we all went to West City to have fish and chips for lunch (since we missed out at church) and then just browse the shops. I checked out that redeveloped area by West City just beside Burger King, and was impressed with the classical music being played on the loudspeakers! I guess it's supposed to make the atmosphere more pleasant, or at least calm the gangsters who hang around there!