Most Common Naughtiest Boy's Name?

Parenting club Bounty.com has surveyed 3,000 school teachers, and has found out that they expect boys named Callum to most likely be trouble makers in the class! Fortunately boys named Callum are also fourth most likely to be popular in class as well! Here are Top Ten lists:

TOP 10 NAUGHTIEST BOYS

1. Callum

2. Connor

3. Jack

4. Daniel

5. Brandon

6. Charlie

7. Kyle

8. Liam

9. Jake

10. Brooklyn

TOP 10 NAUGHTIEST GIRLS

1. Chelsea

2. Courtney

3. Chardonnay

4. Aleisha

5. Casey

6. Crystal

7. Jessica

8. Brooke

9. Demi

10. Aisha

TOP 10 BRIGHTEST BOYS

1. Alexander

2. Adam

3. Christopher

4. Benjamin

5. Edward

6. Matthew

7. Daniel

8. James

9. Harry

10. William

TOP 10 BRIGHTEST GIRLS

1. Elisabeth

2. Charlotte

3. Emma

4. Hannah

5. Rebecca

6. Abigail

7. Grace

8. Alice

9. Anna

10. Sophie

TOP 10 MOST POPULAR BOYS IN THE CLASS

1. Jack

2. Daniel

3. Charlie

4. Callum

5. Benjamin

6. Connor

7. Adam

8. Alfie

9. Christopher

10. James

TOP 10 MOST POPULAR GIRLS IN THE CLASS

1. Emma

2. Charlotte

3. Hannah

4. Anna

5. Caitlin

6. Chelsea

7. Courtney

8. Holly

9. Brooke

10. Jessica

- Telegraph.co.uk

Graeme's 21st!

On the 15th of August it was my cousin Graeme's 21st birthday party at his house. When we first got there us three Anderson brothers joined some of the other guys from the family in the garage where they were having a few drinks and corn chips and just caught up with them. Our cousin Martyn was telling us about how he wants to try get in the army next year, or else he'll try study to become a primary school teacher which is pretty cool for him!

Once dinner was ready, we all went into the house for food and we caught up with our other cousins Greg, Janice, Korina and Nadine where we were told some...interesting stories...

Finally it was time to sing Graeme 'Happy Birthday' and the speeches! The cake was pretty cool, in the shape of a blue key with a photo of him as a little boy with chicken-pox!

After the speeches a few of his friends read out a poem they wrote about him which was cool.

We stayed on a little bit longer to discuss Graeme's older brother Jeremy's wedding with his girlfriend Asumi. Us three brothers will be playing music at their wedding so we have to start sorting out some music!

Two Saturday's later on the 29th it was Greg's (my other cousin) 21st birthday! There was a little miscommunication though and so we didn't end up showing up, but hopefully he had a great time!

Earlier that day though I helped out at the Pharmacy School's stand at the University of Auckland's Courses and Careers Day, trying to promote pharmacy. It was really fun, and a little ironic, seeing as my thoughts on pharmacy haven't been the most positive at times. When you get into it though, you forget all about what you think and end up selling it as if it's the best thing in the world! I sometimes accidentally say what I really think and dissed the medicine students next door...well not really diss them but mention that we correct their mistakes. A medicine student just happened to be reaching over to our table for some lollies when I mentioned that!

For some odd reason as well, the medicine stand was more popular than our pharmacy stand! I couldn't think of any possible reason to explain that! It was cool hanging out with the second year pharmacy students though. I also spotted Stephanie and Vanissa, two sisters from my youth group come by!

The Musical Highlight of the Year!

One of the highlights of my year, the KBB Schools Music Festival was held a couple weeks ago at Aotea Centre from the 18th to 20th August. Every year I look forward to this event as it is really inspiring (and FREE) watching all these different school music groups perform.

This year three of my friends from youth group were performing. Rebecca was performing in her school's symphonic band on Tuesday while Jenny and Cleo were performing in their school's symphonia orchestra on Thursday.

I was able to make it to Rebecca's performance on Tuesday, and stayed for a little while to watch some of the other concert bands that day. It was really fun! Rebecca's group performed a Shrek medley, as well as a few other pieces.

Pirates of the Carribean seemed to be popular amongst the other bands, while Avondale's band performed a medley of Michael Jackson's music.

There was this band from some South Auckland school, I can't quite remember which, but their conductor was a little...odd. Just before he was about to conduct a piece, he walked up to the microphone and told us about how his band consisted of students who only started learning instruments in year nine, and that their school didn't have the luxury of having students coming into the school already having learnt an instrument like some other schools. After their first piece, he walked over to the microphone again to thank KBB for the secondhand instruments they purchased with a grant, and that ideally they would have bought new instruments but they don't have the money. Was this conductor trying to make us feel sorry for them?!

It was hard, but Aonghas and I finally left by midday, as I had to get back to Grafton for a workshop.

I couldn't watch any performances on Wednesday because of class, but Thursday was the big day. It was the day of the orchestras! The two performances I mainly wanted to watch were Epsom Symphonia (as Cleo and Jenny from my youth group were in that orchestra) and Westlake Symphonia, probably one of the biggest school orchestras in Auckland, if not New Zealand.

Sadly I had a practice dispensing assessment at the same time as Epsom Symphonia's performance! Well that's the real reason why I couldn't make it. Cleo told me that at their rehearsal when their conductor told them all to invite all their friends and family to come and support, Jenny looked at her and mouthed the words

"NO NOT CALUM"


and then doing the whole camera taking photo hand action. I told them I didn't come because I was hurt! Apparently she was joking though, but I knew that!

The assessment wasn't too bad. There were nine 'stations' where we had to do these small tasks, like check whether the prescription had been written correctly, consult a patient or a doctor, etc. Because it was just a practice there wasn't as much pressure on us. If I didn't have to do it I would've gone and watch the orchestra!

As soon as the assessment finished though I rushed straight to the Aotea Centre, and managed to catch Auckland Grammar's Symphony Orchestra perform. One stand-out performance was this piece they played where a percussionist using percussion instruments found in a music classroom had a solo. It was very creative and catchy!

Cleo was in the audience, and Aonghas was with Cleo's sisters Claire and Carmen who were walking up to the Aotea Centre to meet her. After the afternoon session finished we all met up together and walked down to Elliot Stables for dinner.

I've never been to that place before! It's like some European town inside a building with all these little European food stalls! We sat outside this sausage shop that was selling

"Fresh, juicy juicy sausages!"

The girls ordered some food while Aonghas and I ate the rice our mum made for lunch. During the whole time we were entertained by some lady singing and shaking some shakers, while one man played an accordion and another played a double bass. It was pretty cool!

After we had finished, we walked down to the Britomart Train Station, and by then it was 7pm. I had missed most of the evening session that I was going to attend, but I decided I'd try make it back to the Aotea Centre to at least catch the Westlake Symphony Orchestra. I managed to watch them, as well as a bit of the Macleans Symphony Orchestra.

Once again the KBB Music Festival was very inspiring and it was great to watch these schoolkids make some great music! Congratulations too to the Westlake Girls Symphonic Band winning Bronze, and the Epsom Symphonia winning Silver!

Making up the Month

Because so much time has past since I last posted, here's just a quick summary of things that have happened since:

- Uni...snore....because I have early mornings everyday and such large gaps between morning and afternoon classes, I've been taking naps in Philson Library!

- We've been given 'clickers' to use for one of our pharmacy papers! It's really cool as they put up a multiple choice question on the big screen and we select a letter with our clicker. A graph then shows up displaying how the class answered! It's funny because as soon as the answer is said the bars of the bar graph suddenly readjust, with the correct answer shooting up! We've only used the clickers once so far though.

- I've joined the MHSSSO (Medical Health Sciences Students Symphony Orchestra...they thought MHSSSO sounded better than MHSSO!), which is an orchestra one of the third year med students tried to get off the ground. We have rehearsals every Monday night, and I offered to play the viola (since there's usually a shortage of violists and I'd make it in out of need rather than choice!). This means I have to carry my viola around campus every Monday. It's proven to be a good conversation starter, despite everyone thinking it's a violin! I've missed two rehearsals though due to too much work and my over-nighter last night. We've got a performance coming up...next week I think?

- We have a dispensing lab for our Pharmacy Practice paper in which we have to practise checking prescriptions and contacting patients and doctors to make sure they're correct, as well as printing out labels, counting pills and labelling the containers. Wow the tutors are so strict on how things are done! We had a practice assessment last week which had nine different stations with different tasks.

- 'Jesus Week' took place at uni. I didn't attend any of the events as I was up at Grafton, but a few of my friends attended the Atheists vs Christians debate (apparently the Christians wiped the floor clean!), and I did walk by on Friday afternoon after class. I managed to catch a glimpse of some Asians dancing to some slow Christian song, which was amusing. There was also this 'Prayer Station' and people wearing bibs offering to prayer for people (I think..). Good on them for getting out there and doing something!

- Our pharmacy students association (APSA) had an inter-year indoor soccer tournament. Our year which has some pretty die-hard soccer fans/players were hoping to take out the tournament this time round after failing to do so last year. I didn't get to go watch, but apparently we came oh so close to winning the final! Unfortunately the interns won with a controversial goal!

 

- Jireh and Andrew, two guys from our youth group who play for their schools' respective soccer teams finally faced each other! It was Rutherford vs Rangitoto! While I'd tend to remain neutral, being a Rutherford old-boy made me support Andrew slightly more! Unfortunately Rangitoto won by one goal, which was scored in the dying minutes of the game!

- Last week I was catching the bus home. I fell asleep, but when I woke up, our bus had pulled up beside another that was parked on the side of the road in Pt Chevalier. There was a man being attended to on the ground, while the front windscreen of the bus was smashed! The passengers of the bus got on our bus, and they were talking about how the man looked slightly intoxicated, walked onto the road and got hit by the bus! They sounded quite shocked and a little traumatised!

 

- I've been assigned this community pharmacy in Lincoln (out West Auckland) for three whole days during the upcoming holidays. This year we have to spend three full days at a community pharmacy! Nooooo!!!!! And I thought one day was enough! I'm also freaked out about it because I have to actually dispense six scripts and consult a patient or two! I'm not good at that stuff, as I can't remember anything! I really don't want to give the wrong advice and end up looking like a complete fool!

There is a lot more that has happened but I'll add to this post as I think of more...

Start of Uni = End of Sleep

Wow over a month since I last posted..don't think I've ever gone that long without posting! So here's a post to finally get things going again!

Uni has been hell in terms of the amount of sleep I'm getting, and it's not because I'm doing so much study, but because of the 8am starts I have almost everyday! I get to sleep just slightly after midnight, and not only find it so hard to get up in the morning but I've been falling asleep in class more often this semester than last, and I always end up having a little nap in the library!

This semester my timetable is arranged so that I tend to have a lecture early in the morning, followed by a large gap and then a lab or workshop in the afternoon that finishes at about 5pm. I'm up at Grafton for all my classes now which to me isn't such a great thing, as most of my friends are over in the city campus! Sometimes I try to wander back to the city and hope that I stumble across some of my friends!

So far the first few weeks of the semester have been non-eventful. In the first two days of uni all third year pharmacy, medicine and nursing students had to attend this Quality and Safety Assurance Seminar, or something like that at the Rendezvous Hotel in the city. We were put in mixed groups and assigned a table. I was in group 32, and just happened to be sitting at a table which was behind a pillar! This meant that the speaker on the stage always ended up standing right behind the pillar, so all I'd be able to see was an empty stage!

I was reunited with this nursing student who was in my Maori Health Week group last year, and so we sorta hung out together for most of the two-day seminar, which involved listening to speakers, as well as working on a group case. Our one happened to be based in the hospital. I can't really be too specific because we have to be confidential about it, but all I'll say is it involved an overdose. I was so clueless, as I had no idea what registrars, consultants and charge nurses were! We don't really learn that sorta stuff in pharmacy.

We were getting marked on our participation, so I did my best to act as if I was contributing whenever our supervisor came along (she had to look after two groups).

To be honest, it was quite hard staying awake during the talks! I kept falling asleep! There was one time when I was starting to doze off, and one of the girls hit the table quite loud and I suddenly jumped. I don't know if she hit the table just to wake me up or what!

During morning tea on the second day, I thought I'd try make myself a cup of tea to see if it'd help me stay awake. The result? FAIL...I thought I'd try again with a different type of tea at afternoon tea later that day, but when I went to fill my cup with hot water, I didn't realise the giant tank had coffee in it! I ended up just making myself some coffee, and surprisingly it worked! I stayed awake for the rest of the afternoon! Fortunately our group didn't have to present on stage.

I originally thought that seminar was bad...well it feels like a holiday compared to the actual semester now that it's in full swing with classes, assignments, labs and reports! I've just done an all-nighter trying to complete a lab report that was due today, and have a presentation on anaemia tomorrow, so I will continue this post tomorrow!