Premature Relaxation

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHEN!!

Woohoo all my 'serious' exams are over!...well except for Chinese and less importantly Scholarship Statistics.

I had chemistry earlier in the week on Monday morning. That was absolutely terrible! During the weekend I realised how much I DIDN'T know and started to freak out a little bit! So I ended up studying and studying, and even by Monday morning I hadn't memorised and learnt everything I needed to! I didn't even know what I was doing for one Achievement Standard (Aqueous Solutions)!

Oh yeah even though I was trying to study hard all weekend, I took some time off to go to church on Sunday morning, but ended up being the only person to show up at Sunday school class! They all must've been studying hard at home! So it was just me and two Sunday school teachers. We ended up talking about what rules we'd make if we were parents. I suggested no boyfriends or girlfriends till university! :D They then asked me how I thought about that rule, and I told them there were some good things and some bad things about it, in that having a girlfriend could be distracting and my parents thought I'd get heartbroken, but that I sometimes kinda wanted a bit more freedom. One of the Sunday school teachers commented that when he was in form 1 at school in Hong Kong, there was this guy in his class who never did any work and was at the bottom of the class. When he got a girlfriend, he rocketed to the top of his class!

Anyway I managed to get through the chemistry exam, answering as many questions as I possibly could. The organics paper turned out to be the most difficult for me. Upon coming out of the exams everyone was commenting on how hard it was, and that made me feel better temporarily! I later checked out the StudyIt website to see what other people thought, but they all thought it was pretty good!!! :S

On Tuesday I had my history exam, so that day after my chemistry exam I got straight onto history, as I have a really really bad memory. History is my most important exam of them all, as if I don't pass at least two of the three papers, then I won't get in to Bachelor of Health Science or Bachelor of Science (Biomed). I was a little anxious going into the exams, hoping they'd give me suitable essay questions. I had prepared for pre-1840 Pakeha-Maori race relations. Fortunately essay questions which I had written essays for earlier in the year appeared, just with different wording! I hope I answered the questions properly though. The resource interpretation was a little tricky though. I got stuck on one of the questions, and only just managed to answer all the questions as the exam supervisor told us to put our pens down!

So now that I've only got Chinese and Scholarship Stats left, I've been relaxing a bit TOO much, not having done anything in the past two days. I probably won't take Scholarship Stats too seriously, but I should put in a bit of work into Chinese.

I'm still looking for a job so I can afford to continue texting people (and eventually buy my own phone!). So far I've applied at one place (last Friday), but still haven't gotten any reply from them yet. It's probably too soon, but I might as well try applying for jobs at other places just in case.

Christmas in the Park is coming up!! I'm not too sure who is going, but the twins and I are thinking of going, so is Jacqueline and Ben (I think), so hopefully a few more people will come along too, as you won't get such great coverage on TV3! (no surprises there! ;) )

And finally...I heard quite a few random things on TV all day today ao here goes:

"What sort of mother steals her daughter's boyfriend?!" - Home and Away "I tried cutting my boobs off, but that was no good..." - 20/20

"You f****n b!tch! You f****n wait!" - ONE News

They Just Won't Go Away!! (well apart from a few things)

I had a day off from exams today so I TRIED studying but didn't really get far.

Throughout these exams I always seem to have a song stuck in my head!

During the statistics exam I had that song But it's Better if You Do by Panic! At the Disco going through my head over and over again...till I started stressing towards the exam and started concentrating on statistics.

I've also had that song Changes by All American Rejects and Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance stuck in my head, and now I've got that song The Only Difference Between Martydom and Suicide is Press Coverage by Panic! At the Disco repeating in my head now! (you've just gotta love the names they come up for their songs don't you!)

In other news sorry to hear Don Brash quitting the National Party...or am I? Nah he was a good guy. I'm just against him because he was in the National Party! I liked the little gaffe he made while being interviewed by Susan Wood on Close Up tonight:

Don Brash: We're almost at the end of the parliamentary year, next week is a recess week in fact, and I thought it was desirable, in fact originally the plan was to go in a few days time, but I thought look, given the end of the parliamentary year, let's get it dealt with now, so that we can have a caucus meeting and John Key will have a, well, excuse me... (clutching earpiece for guidance)

Susan Wood: [Laughing with Glee] Ohhh, are you telling me John Key's going to be the leader?

Don Brash: Err, no, eventually the caucus will make that decision...

We will miss you Donnie! I can't wait to hear what sort of allegations are being made in the book, and whether it will have any effect on John Key's chances of becoming the next leader (and I doubt the last) to take on Helen Clark.

Also yay to the Auckland City Council voting in favour (conditionally) of the waterfront stadium! OK so ratepayers may have to foot the bill, but with all the bureaucracy that goes on in local politics in Auckland we may never get to see this sort of major development for many years to come! It's far better looking than containers!

7-1-1

Yesterday I had my statistics exam yesterday afternoon, but I had to come into school early in the morning with Aonghas as he had an English exam in the morning. I ended up just hanging out with Chen studying statistics for most of the time. It was great being back at school, even though it felt a little weird being one of only a few seniors around!

I sat right at the back of the first row, Stephen sat all the way at the opposite end of the row. The exam wasn't too bad, although I'm not too sure about how I did with the excellence questions, and I won't really know how well I did till I get my results. After feeling as though things went OK in my school exams and then discovering my bad results afterwards, I'm a little anxious that I've made silly little mistakes unknowingly!

Today I had Scholarship Chinese in the afternoon. This time I stayed at home to study in the morning, trying to memorise as many characters and grammar structures as I possibly could! I was a little apprehensive before the exams as I wasn't sure how it was going to run. I was the only student that would be sitting scholarship Chinese and was aware that some time during my exam I would have to record myself speaking to a tape recorder in front of some supervisor!

Fortunately the exam wasn't too bad. I only got to school in time, run all the way to the hall only to see on the whiteboard that I had to go all the way to Room 60 in D Block. All the year 12s were outside the hall as they had their year 12 English exam. So I ran all the way to D Block only to find the gate was closed, so I had to try the other gate, which was closed, so I ran back to the other one when I saw a teacher was out there. She then told me to try the third gate! Finally an open gate! I then got to Room 60, where I would be the only student in the room with one other supervisor.

The exam consisted of two main parts. I first had to listen to three passages being read for half an hour, and then write an essay based on what I heard (what to do during school holidays). The second part was to read a passage and then record my answers given verbally onto tape. Because I was the only person, I could record my voice right before the end of the exam. It wasn't that uncomfortable! I had enough time to write twice as much as I needed to for my essay and managed to speak for 4 minutes out of the maximum 6 minutes I was allowed to. Whether or not I was talking/writing about anything that made actual sense is another matter!

And They Begin!

Yesterday I had my first exam in the morning - physics. I wasn't going into this one too confident, as usual. As you probably know I've been a bit slack with physics all year, and so I've been cramming in everything physicky in the last weekend. I only just got how inductors worked yesterday!!

The exam was slightly different to previous years. The context in which some of the questions were set in, such as the 'laser harp' in the waves paper and the 'bouncer switch' in the electrical systems paper was a little weird and confusing. I made up a bit of bull in some of the questions. For one question which asked for a physics principle (I know most of you people who sat this exam would've gotten this question but yeah I'm just not as good as you guys in physics!), I couldn't think of anything at that time, so I just wrote down NEWTON'S LAW.

I was hoping to do better in the photons, nucleons and nuclei paper and the electrical systems paper as I only got achieved in those papers last year. I'm not sure if I'll even be able to match what I got last year now! The electrical systems paper definitely was the hardest! We'll just have to wait and see. It's definitely not a great start to NCEA!

Anyway I've got statistics tomorrow afternoon, hopefully should be better!

I've Applied!!

I finally hit the Submit Application button and off went my application to the University of Auckland!!! Now all I have to do is wait for the letter of acknowledgement, and then photocopy my birth certificate and get my physics teacher who is a JP to sign it. I've already got my passport photo and academic documents all sorted out. Now I can concentrate on studying again!

The courses I ended up choosing are:

Choice 1

    Programme:         Bach of Health Sciences (BHSC)
    Term:         2007 First Semester
    Campus:         Medicine and Health Science
    Plans:         Health Sciences Specialisation

    Choice 2

    Programme:         Bach of Science (BSC)
    Term:         2007 First Semester
    Campus:         City
    Plans:         Biomedical Science Specialisation

    Choice 3

    Programme:         Conjoint: BE/LLB (BELLB)
    Term:         2007 First Semester
    Campus:         City
    Plans:         Law Part I Specialisation, Engineering, General Specialisation

    Choice 4

    Programme:         Conjoint: BCom/LLB (BCLB)
    Term:         2007 First Semester
    Campus:         City
    Plans:         Law Pt I Specialisation, Information Systems Major

I also noticed in the University of Auckland prospectus that one university you could study abroad in as part of a cultural exchange is Yonsei University, the university in Korea the twins will be studying at! I could go over to Korea and study together with them for a while! Only thing is I probably won't be able to understand anything over there...

Study Begins...or so I Thought

Yesterday was the first day full of no school that I had. I was expecting to study for the whole day on physics and statistics (my first exams next week), but we ended up going to Esther's house for lunch with her and her mum. Because her sister Julia is yr 9, she still had to go to school yesterday so it was just Esther and her mum at home.

We got there at about midday, and we explored her house, and had some really hot Malaysian noodles and soup for lunch. It tasted good! I think I must've looked like a slob, always making a mess with the food!

Afterwards while my mum and Esther walked around the garden talking, my brothers and I went into Esther's study room and checked out her artwork (which deserves an EXCELLENCE!), watched her play the piano, which she learnt all on her own (which is impressive!), and then we talked for a little while.

Because we spent most of the day there, I didn't really get to study much and I think we distracted Esther from her studying! Later that night I was adament I was going to apply for university, but I got as far as I have in previous attempts and ended up giving up! Tonight will be the night!

Farewell Speech at Prize-Giving

Since I posted my first ever speech as head boy in December last year, I thought I'd post my last ever speech as head boy at prize-giving for sentimental purposes!

I first stepped foot in this school as a pimple-faced little boy, with my short shorts riding up my legs. It was a big step, coming into this school almost twice as big as intermediate, and twice as tall.

As I write the final entries in my Rutherford diary, all these memories that have been stored up at the back of my mind have come flooding out, attaching themselves to people, places and events I have known for what seems like an eternity. I'm sure many of you 7^th formers are going through the exact same thing. The reason for this is that everything we have come to love, enjoy and get used to, will be no more. This is the last time we as a group of students will attend an assembly together in this hall. We are about to embark on a major change in our life, whether we want to or not.

The reality is that even though change smacks us in the face at the end of 7^th form, we are actually experiencing it right throughout our years at Rutherford. It is only once you have reached the end when you look back and notice how the people and environment around you has developed since then, and more importantly how you are so different to five years ago. We are no longer the same people. We have grown. We have changed. Puberty is over…for most of us. Leaving school is a choice we may not have. However, to absorb from our community, our teachers and our peers, to get involved with school activities – these choices which  will ultimately shape who we are when we leave the school, are ones we do have, and are ones we should take.

I look back on my time at Rutherford, and at how various influences have sculpted me. Without teachers I would not be able to differentiate in maths, or explain what ionisation energy is. Without my friends, I wouldn't have discovered the female species. Without all the regular meetings I wouldn't have had so much practise at being late. The choice I took to learn from others, and to get involved in activities has upgraded Calum Anderson.

It has been a privilege for me to be head boy this year, and I have enjoyed every single moment of it. It has been great being able to meet all sorts of students from right across the spectrum, from the friendly, to the pretty, to the downright weird. With supportive staff and students the job has been a whole lot easier. I would like to personally thank the prefects group who have put a lot of their own time in to improve school life, and I would also like to thank the head students Patrick, Hyun, Jane and Joanne, and especially Head Girl Heather, who have been an excellent group of leaders. Remember their names. Their autographs will be worth millions later.

We have been through a lot in the space of a year, having farewelled one principal and welcome in another, watched rock bands perform at lunch, dress up as lollies and women and being auctioned off to students. And that's not even the strange stuff.

It has been a memorable year, and one I will never forget. I wish this year didn't have to end so soon! To the year 13 students the best year level out there, I wish you all success in the future wherever that may be. As the Janice Joplin once said, "I'd trade all of my tomorrows for one single yesterday."As for the year 11s and year 12s, I know you will make the most of your remaining years at high school. They will fly by quicker than a ray of light. In a split second, you'll end up in the same state I'm in right now.

I'd like to end with the following universal message.

Time does not stop, and nor do we. No two days are the same, no two days are we the same. Change is evidence of life. Some change is out of our power, but what we have control over is what we must focus on today, as this will ultimately affect the outcome tomorrow. Make choices. Take chances. Just remember if making the right decision in learning from others and getting involved managed to help even Calum grow from nerd to cool guy with nice comfortable trousers, then just think of how the choices make may change you!

Thank you all, and good luck.

Last Ever Day at School!!!

I only managed to finish my farewell speech at 3am in the morning, feeling really not confident about it, especially the ending! I had a few hours of sleep, woke up and went to school late as usual, to arrive at another prize-giving practice. We were told again not to stomp, trip or anything like that, and then we were dismissed.

Us head students (except for Hyun) then jumped in Patrick's car and we went down to the flower shop nearby to buy our dean a bouquet of flowers. After asking the flower shop lady for some advice, we picked this bouquet worth $50, with each of us contributing $10 (I owe them that!). We returned to school, found Hyun and got him to sign the card, and then went to Mrs Taylor to give her the flowers. She was delighted and thanked us for them. She then asked me if I had decided what I was going to do at uni and I told her I still hadn't decided!

I then went to orchestra rehearsal. We rehearsed Mei Hui Hui, the school song, which had been arranged by Jonathan Wilson for orchestra. It sounded a lot slower and had a different style to the original one, which made it appropriate for the occasion!

I went back to chemistry class, the first chemistry class I had attended all day and did nothing but take photos and sign t-shirts. We had interval afterwards and I rushed off to transition room to tweak my farewell speech, as Chen kindly proofread it for me earlier in the morning!

Once the bell rang I went off to Chinese class, where we had our shared lunch. I brought deep-fried wontons that my mum had cooked. Even though there were only six of us in the class, there was plenty of food and so we sat around the table eating, and talking with Ms Hsiao the Chinese teacher. She wanted to know about our private lives and started asking who was going out with who or who had a girlfriend or not. When she asked me if I had a girlfriend, I told her I was still single, and then she said

"Calum would make a good boyfriend, he's a nice guy...but girls don't really like nice guys"

OK so I should practise being meaner to people then! I was practising my speech quietly throughout class, trying to keep it under wraps. When lunchtime came around, I was heading over to the village to hang out with the 'village girls' and Phoebe on my last lunchtime as I was going to FINALLY get a photo together with her and giver her something, but then Joon just had to come along and tell me there was orchestra rehearsal! So I had to reschedule it for after prize-giving and rushed off to orchestra rehearsal. On the way I ended up crossing paths with a 'semi-streaker', I think it was Dale, this year 12 guy who ran out from the boys toilets and then down the drive wearing his t-shirt and golden boxers, as people chucked water bombs at him! I managed to get a photo of him just as he ran away!

It was really hot inside, especially when wearing a blazer! As soon as orchestra rehearsal was over and form class began, I grabbed the deodorant, ran to the toilets and made myself smell nice, then ran back! By then I was probably sweating again! The guests had all arrived, and it was cool to see our old principal Mr Edmeades come up as well!

The prize-giving ceremony finally began! It started off with Mr Moore's speech, then it went straight into year 11 awards. Aonghas got First in Chinese and First equal in Maths (there's a long long story behind this award but I probably shouldn't say...) while Rose grabbed a whole lot of awards. Next were year 12 awards, in which Phoebe got First in Chinese (yay!! proud moment!!), Cameron got a lot of awards, and so did Chen unexpectedly. Last were year 13 awards. I only got First in Chinese and Contribution to School Music Award. The twins also each got an award which was cool! Mrs Taylor who announced the year 13 awards, ended with a quote from our school's namesake Sir Lord Rutherford, which was really funny:

"We don't have any money, so we must think" (something along those lines!)

She then introduced us head students Heather and me. This was the big moment, our last ever speeches in front of the school! I was a little nervous at first because while I was sitting, reading my speech during the assembly I noticed I left out a change that Chen had made, and was trying to whisper to him who was sitting a few rows behind.

Heather went first, and her speech was really good! There was a bit of noise when she mentioned how bananas were set on fire, and desks, chairs and windows were broken when she was a junior though! Once she had finished, I stepped up to the podium to deliver my speech. I'll post the speech a little later. I nearly choked a few times, and lost my place at one stage! Hopefully it didn't sound as though I was about to cry!

After our speeches the special awards were presented. Heather and I went up on stage to receive our awards for head students. Mr Coughlan the deputy principal read out a little blurb about his thoughts on each of us, saying that I was always a busy person rushing around doing this or doing that, or taking photos of people, and that I had mastered the art of arriving to meetings just as they were about to finish, and that he would like me to teach him that skill! He then went on to say that Rutherford wouldn't be the same without me and that if a novel on Rutherford was ever to be written, there would definitely be a bit about me under the Head Boy section! That was so nice! A bigger surprise was getting our parents to come up on stage to acknowledge them!  Aonghas thought my dad had his trousers a little too high! Next year's head students Chen and Yvia presented our parents with flowers and chocolate.

After that, more special awards and scholarships were presented. Patrick was awarded this huge long plaque for contribution to school, and he leaned it up against his chair as he had to go back up on stage with Heather (both who were sitting next to me) to receive a scholarship. As they stepped out the plaque fell over and made a huge noise as it hit the ground! I bent over to flip it around the right way and everyone turned around and looked at me, making the OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO noise, thinking I had knocked the plaque over! I quickly sat back up and pretended as if nothing had happened! The audience also made noises throughout assembly whenever the MC Ms Heath (assistant principal) gave guests a present and a little kiss, which led to her telling everyone to GET OVER IT!

I was later awarded with some contribution to school award, and the Auckland University Scholarship by the former principal of Mt Roskill Grammar School (whose name I've forgotten already!) who now works for the uni. All my course fees will be paid for, as long as I do well in these upcoming exams! :S The big awards were finally to be announced. Tukitahi got the dux for sport (dux ludorum I think), and I was awarded Dux Artium (for performing arts I think). Heather was awarded Dux Accessit (runner-up), and the big one Dux Litterarum (I think I spelt it wrong) went to....Pita!!! Congratulations Pita!! He really deserved it! We had been starting to suspect that Pita would get something big, especially since earlier in the morning Mrs Taylor was making a big deal about Pita not wearing his tie, and even going out to buy a new one for him!

As soon as prize-giving was over, we had to return to form class to receive our exam slips and leavers' hoodies. I had to pack away my cello, and then went to meet Phoebe and the group outside to grab my t-shirt I had asked them to sign and also to get some photos. After a bit of talking I finally got a photo together with Phoebe, with me lifting her up! I then walked her to the front gate, before returning to the afternoon tea for prize-winners and their families.

I caught up with my parents and the other head students and talked to some of the staff members. It sounded as though my speech was well-received, with several of the staff members and the principal saying it was the best speech from a head boy they had ever heard (I'm not too sure about that!!). More importantly though, I asked them about visiting next year, as the principal had stressed he didn't want us to leave at the assembly, and fortunately they said we could come back and visit as much as we wanted!

As I left the school for the last time (officially), I realised I hadn't taken the flag down! So I did that, and that marked the last day of school EVER for me. Throughout the evening that day I kept thinking about how I was never going to go through another full day of school again, and it was really starting to get to me! Thank goodness for Wednesday night telly!

(By the way, the nickname I ended up having on my leavers' hoodie was THE C-MAN, something I'm really ashamed of! This guy at school already has a well-established nickname V-MAN, and I didn't want to look as though I was copying him. I also wanted something people knew me by, like MR ANDERSON, but my mum said it wasn't personal enough as Aonghas my brother could be MR ANDERSON as well. She also said that C-MAN sounds like gentleman in Chinese, and that she wanted me to have that despite me telling her several times that it sounded disgusting, but she didn't get it and I ended up with no choice!)

Second to Last Day at School

Even though first period was my free, I still had to come to school early because I had forgotten to pay for my year 13 dinner, when Monday was supposed to be the last day! Typical me forgot all about it! Fortunately I was able to pay for it in the morning before school. We had prize-giving practice first period. Ms Heath the assistant principal went through the procedure, where we should sit, how we should line up, what we should do and all that. She told the year 13s that they had to get it right as we were a shambles in the merit prize-giving! (Don't look at me just because I had to tell people where to sit...!) Afterwards when we were released I went to transition room to work on (or should I say start on) my farewell speech for prize-giving.

Next period we had cultural prize-giving practice. I was a little clueless so thank goodness we did have a practice! It didn't last too long, so once we were released again I went back to transition room to work on my speech again! I didn't get very far though!

Cultural Prize-giving was during third and fourth period. Ms Geddes the former music teacher was there with her baby who was so cool! The format of the prize-giving was slightly different to previous years. Juniors and seniors were both awarded prizes at the same ceremony. There were also awards for each different cultural group, with some getting trophies, instead of everyone getting one like in previous years. I was awarded Outstanding Performer of the Orchestra.

I had to do this little intro speech for the guest speaker let's see if I can still remember...Opeluge Apulu Ah Sam!!! I had been practising that name all day! He was an ex-student from Mt Albert Grammar School who had completed a PhD in music at Melbourne University, and had arranged music and conducted various choirs at various events. After his speech he and a few friends of his performed Samoan opera, which was interesting!

We finished the day with statistics class, in which we didn't have to do anything. Alex provoked me to chuck my t-shirt across the room to him along with the marker pen so that he could sign it. I was a little apprehensive but did it, and thought it'd be OK, till the statistics teacher turned around and looked at me and said

"Calum!!! Is this the first time I've ever told you off?"

with some sort of grin, and the whole class heard it!

Final Days of School

I've been meaning to post my last few days of school on this blog but I've been a little caught up in trying to figure out what to write for my farewell speech!! I only got it finished at interval today at school, a couple hours before prize-giving!

Monday:

We were supposed to have a shared lunch for all those who regularly used the transition room at lunchtime. The only problem was...we had string quartet rehearsal at lunch! I attended my cello lesson, and once again Ms Williams the teacher was late. She turned up, sounding like she had a cold or some sort of sickness. The arts co-ordinator tried telling her that she should look after herself and stay at home, but the cello teacher just snapped back along the lines of:

"Look, I'm sick of people making a fuss and telling me what I should and should not do, OK I've had enough and I don't need it!"

I was definitely surprised at the way she talked to a fellow staff member at Rutherford College, especially since she wasn't a permanent teacher at the school and just an itinerant music teacher. The arts coordinator definitely did not sound too happy the next time the cello teacher asked her for a favour!

Anywho the teacher was nice to me, till the twins came in to give her bad news that is. They came in and told her that we had another 'meeting' during lunchtime and so we couldn't make it to string quartet, or could only make it to the first five minutes. The barrage of criticism directed at us began. We hadn't informed her early enough about this, blablabla. Funny how we weren't earlier informed of her absence the week before! So she made an 'executive decision' to have string quartet rehearsal the next period (period 4), which would be during my chemistry period. We continuted my cello lesson, with a noticeable change in the atmosphere.

As soon as the bell went, I went off to inform my chemistry teacher that I had to go to string quartet rehearsal. I also had to collect the food my mum was going to bring in for the shared lunch as well, so I did that first, then went to see my chemistry teacher.

He wasn't very happy when I told him! He told me to tell my teacher that he wouldn't let me go. I tried telling him that my cello teacher was a very scary woman and I was scared of her! He said he didn't care. I warned him that she would probably come to his classroom and argue with him. Again he said he didn't care! I pleaded with him to just let me go, and eventually he told me to do what I thought was best.

String quartet wasn't too bad. We talked about the future, said our farewells, played Mozart K80 for the very last time as a group. We then stopped at the bell, took a few photos as a group, and gave Ms Williams a small gift. We then rushed off to our shared lunch.

There was heaps of food at the shared lunch! My mum cooked these little coconut things as well as wontons for the lunch. Not many people knew what the coconut ball things were though. The teachers didn't see the wontons so they didn't serve them!

As soon as the bell went we had to go to Merit prize-giving. I only got Merit in History, which I already knew I would get as I had seen the awards list earlier! The others who I think had seen on the list (Hyun, Joon and Estee the only ones I could remember) got what I had seen!
The merit prizegiving ceremony went by pretty fast and we managed to finish half an hour early at 2.30pm so I just hung around outside with the twins, Gwen, Alex, Phoebe, Aone and a few others, taking photos and talking.

Church Lunch

This morning we had another typical church service. The minister went on and on and on about who knows what. We were going to have this sharing thing at lunch today regarding this little book of stories about God that we were supposed to have read during the week, so I read that throughout the service. Thankfully that made the service fly by a lot faster! I saw Phoebe and Angie at church today! I think that's the highest number of Rutherford students we've had at the church at one time! I was going to say hi to Phoebe at the end of the service but I looked down at the phone to check the score of the rugby and when I looked up she was gone.

Sunday school wasn't too bad. Afterwards since our class was going to stick together for lunch so we could do the sharing thing, we decided we'd have Wendy's for lunch. Angie decided to stay for lunch. While the teachers went out to buy our Wendy's, Angie and I just walked around the church talking about stuff, how she gives up on nearly everything and etc etc. I also never knew by crunching ice you could be sexually frustrated! (She heard it from someone else and didn't know what it meant either). Anyway apparently Joon was crunching on ice when their Young Enterprise team went to Burger King, so that means Joon's sexually frustrated??

Anyway we walked right around the church and probably around once more before the teachers came back with our Wendy's food. We all sat together at the table eating it. The teachers had bought both Angie and me some combo with large fries, large drink and a burger. I was hoping this would take me a while to eat so I wouldn't have to go to the prayer meeting! Unfortunately the church lady saw me, approached me and tapped me on the shoulder telling me it was time. I lowered my head in disappointment, while the church lady asked Angie if she would like to come (now I was just laughing behind her back) Anyway we finished our lunch and walked into the foyer, with me looking out for that lady so I could escape her, but she was standing right in the middle looking at me, so we had no option.

Prayer meeting wasn't so bad. We just prayed. I prayed for Pastor Willy's right eye! (that it got better that is!) After that we dropped Angie home before we went home ourselves. My mum told me that some old guy/girl from church asked her if Angie was my girlfriend! :S

This afternoon apart from mowing the neighbour's lawn and killing time, I was just having a look through all our computers, finding some old videos of me singing at school. Man I was so out of tune! We did a count-up of our photos on the computer too which so far totals at 16,000 (this year alone 6,000). I just wish we had a digital camera that I was allowed to take photos with when I was a junior and also back at intermediate school. So many memories that have eluded me!!

Counting Down the Days

There was a call for 7th form students to dye their white school polo shirts a different colour and wear it to school on Friday. Because it was something different, I thought I'd join the guys and do it too, but...I completely forgot about it till just a few minutes before leaving home on Friday morning for school. Instead I just grabbed one of Aonghas' black polo t-shirts and took that to school. Fortunately we got to school the earliest in several weeks and I caught up with everyone else who had dyed their shirts. Some of the more intelligent people like Heather, Sarena and Nikki didn't dye their collars so they could put their jumpers on top and no one would realise what they had done. There were also some with funky colours like Bronwen's multicoloured t-shirt and Evan's pink shirt! Everyone got together for a photo before the bell went. After that I decided to take my t-shirt off as it didn't really fit, plus I would be wearing four layers of clothing and I was hot already as it was! Lucky I did though, as later in the day a few people got caught by the dean and were put on detention! Aonghas told me after school that apparently an email went around to all the teachers, warning them to look out for students with dyed t-shirts!

 

We had merit award prize-giving practice at the beginning of first period. Mr Coughlan (the deputy principal) put me in charge of sorting out the 7th formers, expecting us to be the intelligent ones, but they didn't seem to know what they were doing! I guess there was some fault on my behalf. I was given the list with people's names and what they were getting though! I spent most of the time trying to prevent other people from looking at it that I didn't spend enough time memorising what some people got!

 

My chemistry teacher was back after being absent for two days. He had this patch on his lower forehead between his eyebrows. Apparently he walked into a door! (either a door or a wall? I don't think it was moving anyway!)

 

I spent the rest of the day and lunch taking photos with people and started my quest to take photos with as many people at school as I possibly can! So far I'm up to 23 so I'm getting there! I'll probably only end up taking photos with people I actually know. I really should have started doing this earlier! I was standing opposite the school tuck shop during lunch when I came across some friends and took photos with them. Then along came some guys and I ended up taking photos with them, and it was only then I realised who they were! I've read about some people at Bebo, but only met them for the first time (or realised who they were in real life) on Friday!

 

I'm starting to wish I did a few things a lot earlier than I have! I've been talking a bit more to this group of students lately, such as Aone, Lisa, Gwen, Angie, Alex, Archi and Rhea (I think the first time I talked to her was Friday actually even though I've talked to her brother before!). They've been pretty fun to talk to and hang around with, and prior to term two I had never talked to any of them! Just as I've been getting to know them even more, school's finished!

 

During lunch I also took some photos of the Korean percussion group at a teacher's request, and so I got the opportunity to watch them practise. It was really good to see another cultural group getting going at school! We always have the usual ones like the Samoan, Maori and Indian groups but nothing much else. The school did used to have a Korean Dance Group but not for a few years, so hopefully this will be able to continue for quite a few years to come!

Plenty of Firsts

My dreams of going through a whole year of school at Rutherford without getting a late detention ended today, as I got my first late detention for 2006. Thanks Aonghas! He didn't wake up early enough, and it was raining hard out. We ended up getting stuck in traffic and didn't get to school till 10 minutes after the bell. That makes my total late detentions at high school for the five years to about eight. At least I won't be late to school on a Thursday ever again!!

I brought my camera and video camera to school today to do record some precious memories. I ended up filming Stephen being...well...Stephen in statistics class, and documenting my thoughts of the D Block toilets in the D Block toilets during my free period (you know like which cubicle was my favourite etc. etc.). As soon as I heard someone walk into the toilets I dashed inside that cubicle and put away my camera!

We had our prefects lunch today. Mr Moore (the principal) and Mrs Taylor (our dean) provided us with some Subway and other yummy stuff (less healthy than the sandwiches he gave us at the last lunch!). He then asked us for our opinion on what we thought the prefects uniform should look like. I wish I could stay a little longer to witness the changes! I didn't bring any lunch as I was counting on this lunch to fill me up, which it did!

After lunch we had a special assembly so that prize winners names could be read out. At the beginning though I was awarded my trophy and certificate for coming first in the Chinese Speech Competition. I was sitting at the back of the hall with Hyun and because the microphone wasn't working, I couldn't hear the principal call out my name!

After that they went through the list of names. The usuals were called out, like Chen Liu Chen Liu Chen Liu, as well as my brother, the Oh boys and the other usual year 13s. Yay!!!! though that Phoebe got called out for a year 12 prize, as I told her I'd kick ...someone...for her if she didn't get one (showing how confident I was of her getting one), which means I don't have to kick that...someone...anymore!

I'm really running out of time, with the end of school fast approaching!! I need to do everything I've wanted to do before it comes! OK I'm off so I can get to school ON TIME tomorrow!

Super Fast!

Last week we decided to completely rid ourselves of Telecom once and for all and be with Ihug for both broadband and home phone. At the same time we decided to upgrade our broadband connection from 2Mb to 7.6Mb. After a few days of no change, we tried ringing Ihug, having to wait at least half an hour to get through to a human being on the other end of the phone, who told us we would get upgraded in the next few days. Finally yesterday our broadband deal got changed to 7.6Mb! However so far our Internet connection hasn't gone any faster than 3Mb so we're yet to have a taste of 7.6Mb!

Time is flying by pretty fast too! I can't believe there is only a week of school left...EVER! Today I had my last ever Wednesday Chinese period! I've got to get into photo-taking hyper drive! I do feel a little weird taking photos though as there's hardly anyone else with cameras yet! Usually when I've been the only one taking photos at events it doesn't matter because there's something to take photos of, but to be the only one taking photos during class time feels a bit random! I've got to bring my video camera sometime as well and do a little video diary of a day at school so I can remember what it was like in several years' time!

I came late to school once again (about 20 minutes late) and had to skip physics class so I wouldn't get a late detention.

We had our last head students meeting with Mr Coughlan today, which was a bit sad. All six of us head students turned up, which was quite a feat! Mr Coughlan's going to take us out to lunch after exams, which will be cool!

Speaking of lunches, we've got a prefects' lunch tomorrow with the principal, which is something to look forward to. What I'm a little anxious about is that while we've got only five lunchtimes left, I have commitments during three of them. I have string quartet rehearsal and orchestra rehearsal on the 3rd and 2nd to last days of school! I still want to go around and get peoples signatures (just in case they become famous) and photos of them! Oh and don't forget the sad and teary farewells!!

After the head students' meeting I went over to the village to help Phoebe again with her maths and then had a free period in which I got a bit of help from the careers advisors (once again!) on what I should do at university next year. I tried applying for university again last night. I asked my mum what she wants me to apply for, and she told me to do what I enjoy, so I made a suggestion, and then my mum told me

"You can't get a job in that!...Pfffffft you want to study that??"

I asked her what I should study and she said she didn't know...after that I just gave up for another night. I've got to apply sometime soon so I might just end up putting anything down!

Congratulations and Commiserations

This morning I arrived late to school when Heather gave me the good news - Yvia got head girl!!! Yay!!! She also told me that Lauren and Falen were going to be deputies!! She couldn't tell me about the guys though. It wasn't till a little later that I heard that Chen got head boy!! However, the deputy head boy (notice the singular) hadn't been chosen yet as they couldn't decide. I'm really glad with the outcome! After discussing a few things with Chen prior to his interview, I realised that we both are on the same wavelength and have similar visions for the school (or had in my case)!

I felt a little bad for Christine who was the only girl who got short-listed but didn't get a position, when she had done so much for the school! I met with her at lunch when I went with Joon to the Village so that he could get some stuff (not too sure why he needed me...). I got three hugs from her WOOHOO GO ME!!! I got a little over-enthusiastic in one of them and whacked her in the mouth, but fortunately all was good! From the sound of things though, the bickering and bitterness has already started! Ooooooh yeah this is going to get exciting! It brings back memories from our head student election race last year when there was a lot of that going on!

I was lowering the flag after school today when I had another person call out to me

"Don't let the flag touch the ground!"

as they walked by. I just carried on doing my job, when some Junior Councillors came over to help me fold it (because I probably looked a little disjointed and muddled with the flag in one hand and the rope in the other). They helped me fold the flag and warned me not to let the flag touch the ground!! I walked back into the office to return the folded flag to Mr Coughlan, when I came across a friend who started talking to, before he told me not to let the flag touch the ground!! I told him that I've had heaps and heaps of people tell me this, and I wasn't sure why! I first thought that probably they were warning me because they didn't want me to let the flag get dirty or scraped along the ground and get a hole in it, or maybe it was some sort of curse. My friend told me he wasn't sure either but had heard that it was some sort of sign of disrespect! So I'll try not to let the flag touch the ground!

It's getting really close to the end of the year now and I've got to start writing my prize-giving speech, which I haven't thought about till now! There is this huge pressure on me to make people cry!!! Hopefully I won't make people sleep...

Anyway congratulations to all of you guys on getting your head/deputy head student positions!

Another One Departs

REST IN PEACE GREAT UNCLE TOM

We were planning on visiting him and his wife Great Aunty Mary at their rest home this afternoon to celebrate their upcoming 65th wedding anniversary when this morning our aunty rang us to let us know that Great Uncle Tom passed away earlier in the morning. He's my nana's (who passed away late last year) brother, so now there are only two sisters remaining amongst the siblings. He was so close to making 65 years of marriage! Oh well 64 is still pretty impressive. Hopefully he's in a better place!

Fireworks

I had one of my worst classes today. I was trying to teach my 2nd year class this rhythm (dotted quaver + semiquaver) comparing it to a dotted crotchet + quaver, as the students were about to play this piece 'Clementine' which included the rhythm. I tried explaining it to them on the blackboard and they all just had blank looks on their faces! I asked them if they knew what I was talking about, and only one boy said he kinda did while the others were like

"....nooooo....."

I had no idea what to do! I tried saving face by sounding like I knew what I was doing and this was all planned, telling them I would have a big RHYTHM REVISION class next week. I don't really know what I'm going to do next week yet but I'll have to actually plan ahead by a few days this time!

As part of my accordion championship programme I have to play a baroque piece, and so I chose to play a keyboard sonata by Scarlatti, and this week my teacher actually remembered to bring the music to give to me! He lent me three books of sonatas, so I spent the afternoon listening to Scarlatti until I reached the limit on the Scarlatti midi website. I think I like Scarlatti now!

Later in the evening I went over to Phoebe's work to meet up with her to go to the fireworks at the Trusts Stadium. Because her boss's kids wanted to come as well, I ended up walking with her, the kids and Aonghas (who wanted to come along as well). We came late to pick her up because my mum couldn't remember whether she left the stove on or not, and we couldn't trust Hamish to use his initiative (doubt he knows how to work the stove!).

The fireworks were about to start at 8.30 and we had 15 minutes so we walked all the way down Lincoln Rd and cut across the field to the stadium. We managed to get there in time, and met up with Aone, Alex, Natasha (just had a intelligent moment so that one was Natasha! Click!) and then we all went over to sit at on the steps to watch the fireworks.

When we sat down there was some Chinese guy teaching everyone how to say NI HAO ZHONG GUO (hello China!) as CCTV (a TV station in China) were going to broadcast the event to China. That was weird I'm not too sure people over in China would've understood what the crowd was trying to say!

The fireworks were really great! They went on for more than 15 minutes at least! There were also lasers and flames amongst other things. There were some fireworks that I hadn't seen before either!

Afterwards we walked back to the takeaways and waited for Phoebe's dad to drop us home. I tried getting a photo together with her and the kids but she didn't want to! Maybe she's ashamed to be seen near me or something lol

Anyway it was a pretty good night overall. I didn't see certain friends there (you know who you are! Hope you didn't get up to no good!) but I'm sure they DEFINITELY had a good time!

Loneliness Begins

Don't get me wrong I don't need to be on suicide watch or anything. I've just already started getting free weekend txtn withdrawal symptoms! I used to text a few people right throughout the weekend from midnight Friday to midnight Sunday about all sorts of stuff and they'd keep me company! Now I'm feeling lonely!! I hope Vodafone knows what they've done to me! They've taken what little txtn-dependent social life I had in the weekend away from me!!! The offside is now I get to concentrate on my studies yay!!!

I've kinda been ..persuaded..to go to this fireworks thing at the Trusts Stadium tomorrow with a few friends. I don't exactly know how it's going to go with lovey dovey stuff going on but you know we resilient single people will survive!

Today we got 6th period off school as a reward for attending Rutherford Day a couple weeks ago (or was it last week?) All our classes were moved up one, so I had Chinese first period and history last. History was probably the most fun. We got into teams and played this game. Ellyce, Heather, Patrick and I were all in one team. The teacher thought we were the best in the class (probably not so much me, I think I was the weak link in the team) and didn't want to do all the work for the others, so we sat at the back table as a team. One person from each group would go up and the teacher would give them a history-related word and the students would have to draw, mime or 'play dough' the word to the other members of the group with the first group to guess it correctly getting a point. Of course our team was leading in front, but were in fierce competition with Nick's team! It took a turn for the dirty towards the end with pushing and shoving and a bit of cheating going on! In the end our team won!

Chen came over to our house for the afternoon to wait for his parents. He and the other shortlisted candidates for head students were interviewed by the executive team today. From the sound of it though they all went all right! Hopefully we get the desired outcome on Monday!

The Side You Never See

This morning I only just managed to get into history class after coming to school after the bell. I saw Heather and Patrick (head girl and deputy head boy) hoisting the flag up and so I tagged along with them along with another late girl who joined. I was a little worried when we got in class as the history teacher knew the other two head students had been doing the flag. She questioned the other girl why she was late, and so I was quickly trying to ask Heather if I could say I was with them as an excuse! She couldn't hear me properly but fortunately the teacher never bothered asking me!

I arrived at the transition room at interval to find the twins with their Young Enterprise groups. Gwen, Angie and Alex were all there (the ones who could speak and understand Chinese) so I got started speaking Cantonese to them (and a bit of Mandarin to Angie). OK so I probably didn't make a whole lot of sense but it felt great being the one who other people couldn't understand for once!

I spent lunch with Phoebe again trying to help her out with maths. We ended up not doing much maths and just started talking. I should really stop getting side-tracked! The bell went and we hadn't done much so Phoebe asked her form teacher if she could stay outside to hang out with me (to learn maths) and she said go ahead. I was a little surprised at hearing Phoebe tell her form teacher we used to go out! We were talking about the head students election when she told me she wasn't sure if she voted for me either for head boy or for student rep! My bestest friend!!!!! Oh well it's over so it doesn't matter anyway! I don't know why people look at me weirdly and make comments whenever I'm around her. It's not as if she's the only girl I hang around and talk to!

We had physics during the last period, in which we had a nuclear physics teast - a test I completely forgot about and did no study for! Because the teacher gave us the 2005 paper, the same paper I sat last year and got achieved, he was expecting me to get excellence (I'm sure he was being sarcastic!). Us guys were just sitting there with pretty blank pieces of paper looking at each other! Fortunately reports have been decided already!

By the way congratulations on the short-listed candidates for head students! I felt a little bad for those who didn't make it, and even offered Melissa (one of the girls who didn't get short-listed) a hug but she didn't want it. What is it with girls not wanting hugs from me?! I've had more hugs from guys than girls this term which is disturbing!

A Little Bit of Help Please!

NOTE: If you speak Cantonese, don't speak to Calum in English!! (He may be slow but he'll slowly get it!)

 

Today we got told we get to go home from school a period early on Friday if we attended Rutherford Day! Well I had to speak at the assembly so yay I get that period off! It just means I don't have chemistry class. Those guys who have a free period before that are lucky!

 

I spent lunchtime today helping Phoebe out with her maths, while her funky friends hung around. It was the first time I saw Gwen without her glasses on and the first time I heard her speak Cantonese! She's supposed to speak Cantonese to me everytime I talk to her! She did a little bit. Phoebe wouldn't because it was too weird for her and her friend (I'm not too sure what his name is but I think it sounds like ZEE-MAN) tried talking to me in Cantonese but I was left there going

"Uhhhhhhhh....."

trying to process the Cantonese through my slow brain. I really need to hear and speak more if I'm ever going to be able to master this language or else I'm going to live the rest of my life as a failure in Cantonese!!

 

More people are starting to trust me again! I'm so happy! Believe me other people spread stuff more than me but I won't name them! I haven't spread anything people have told me not to, so if anyone needs someone to talk to who they can trust, I'm there for you! ;)

 

I spent the night attempting to do voice conversations with my friend Diane who I last talked to in February when she told me she got a boyfriend, but the stupid computer kept disconnecting me from the internet, and the conversation was two way for only a couple of minutes before her voice cut off and I was left the only one talking! Congratulations to her and her boyfriend for lasting nine months!