Lauren's first night in NZ

Yes, I know that was over a week ago, but better late than never. Not a bad night out, considering Lauren had just had a 36-hour plane journey to get here! I gather staying up late is a good way to prevent jet lag anyway.

Lauren and Fish, having just arrived at the BlacktoSchool karoke party.

Lauren and Merv (Merrrrv!) singing a duet. Awwww.

Fish singing with Jeremy - an ex student who was at the party to run the music machine. Rosita seems to be enjoying herself too.

Choir School is over for another year.

I think I should have gone to boarding school in my High School years. My Ma did, and hated every moment. I think my Dad also went to boarding school and hated it. My Sister reckons she wouldn't be suited to boarding school, but I reckon I would have LOVED it.

Over the last fifteen or so years I have attended heaps of live-in courses and camps and never wanted to leave any of them when the time came to leave. I love the routine, the staff and other students being around, having my own little room or dorm space, and communal activities in the free time. There's always the Harry Potter fantasy aspect too.

Anyway, I had an absolutely fabulous time. We were at St Matthew's Collegiate in Masterton, which has nice single dorms with a few double/triple rooms. I had a wee single with a lovely view of the Chapel out my window.

We had larger numbers than last year, and so there were four Houses, rather than the three we had last year. They were:

Gibbons - trebles (boys' unbroken voices). 9 - 11 year old boys.

Purcell - young sopranos, 9 - 11 year old girls.

Stanford - older sopranos (11-13 year olds) and some broken voice boy altos

Byrd - four part broken voice choir, including mature soprano and alto girls, and two boy altos. It turned out that there was only one tenor, so I helped out at rehearsals, along with Christina. We were literally The Three Tenors!

We had Chapel services twice a day - spoken prayers and meditation after breakfast, and sung services after dinner. Each night service was lead by a different house. The first night, the staff sang a full evensong with versicles & responses, a psalm, Magnificat & Nunc Dimittus, an anthem, and two hymns. We sounded pretty good, considering we had just met that afternoon and had never sung together. I guess my sightreading was better than I thought.

The tutors were all great - we had Stephen Rowley and Alison Stewart from last year's School, and two new tutors from Christchurch; Robert Cross and Paul Ellis. Christina from last year, a couple of parents and myself were all there as mere "house staff" - read "camp mums", but in the evenings, the music staff and house staff all came together to talk crap over a quiet drink in the staff lounge.

The organ scholar this year was a chorister from last year's School - Paul Tarling. Only eighteen, but very talented (and cute too!) I think it might have been a little wierd for him this year being staff, having been just "one of the kids" last year. Still, he loosened up a little as the week continued. I even got a foot rub out of him on the last couple of nights.

The final service was in the acoustic vortex that is St Matthew's Church in Masterton. The digital organ sounded less crap than last year though - maybe they loaded some anti-crap software in it. We sounded awesome and I made only two mistakes in the whole pile of music we sang. My favourite bass (Thomas, 16, from Tawa) scored the only Yellow Ribbon award, and also a sightreading scholarship to come back next year.

After the final service, we all ran around getting photos, hugs and email addresses from each other and headed homeward for a well-earned rest.

The guy standing 2 over from me is Thomas, the one I reckon looks like my friend James from netball. The photo doesn't really do him justice. The dark haired guy right up the back is Harry - the only MALE tenor in the School.

Winter Choir school is in early July '08. I'm looking forward to it already.

Here I am - I'm here!!

I've been out of the sphere for the last wee while, but I'm back now. Here's some of the stuff I've been up to...

Watching Derren Brown
This guy is amazing! I've always been interested in hypnotism, but this guy manages to mix hypnotism, neuro-linguistic programming, misdirection, magic, and pure showmanship to do some really cool things. My favourite clip is where he NLP's a young guy to be drunk, just from imagining it, then linking the feeling to a word that he flashes in front of him. I want that - a good buzz with no hangover the next day. Yeah!

Losing weight
I have now lost a total of 4kg and have maintained it for over 2 weeks. Wierd! I'm listening to a Paul McKenna NLP recording every night, which is supposedly helping my willpower to resist eating so much. Guess it's working, huh?

Reports
Two hundred and fifty (times five or six!) Senior reports all proofread,commented and signed. Whew! Deaning is not fun this time of year. And Junior reports are still to come in Term 3.

Netball
FINALLY we have finished the season from Hell! Next season will be better,I hope. It's a good thing I still have ring-in games at Petone. It's keeping me sane. And today I'm in the staff team playing the Prem 1 girls at lunch. Wish me luck!

What Sam said...

Here. See you all in a week or so.

Four short paragraphs

We got a postcard from Lauren today. Yay! Roll on July 13 :)

I have somehow managed to lose 2kg. I blame excessive netballing and other exercise.

I dug up some grass in the backyard so that we can pave it for Summer and get more use out of the 'deck to nowhere'. My shoulder hurts.

Roll on, end of term! I am SOOOOO ready for a break. If you call spending a week in Masterton with 65 junior choristers a break.

yeah baby

Jack and Heather had their second bub recently. Yay! I kept meaning to check in on their blog to see if it had happened, but it seems I forgot.

Her name is Margaret - I love it - it's my middle name, so I'm biased perhaps. She looks very precious in the photos.

Time for an update

Sign of the times

I was at the Bristol last Friday after a hilarious comedy show at SanFranBathHouse. I looked down from the level I was on and saw a bunch of people signing - it seemed most of the people there were actually Hearing, but a few of the people were quite fluent in their signing and were probably Deaf. From the goings-on, it seemed to be a birthday celebration, so I was reluctant to go down and bother them. I was itching for a bit of sign practice, so in the end I plucked up the courage to go downstairs and butt in.

I ended up 'talking' with a couple of Deaf guys who explained that they were tutors for the DEAF 201 course at Vic Uni, and one of the girls had invited the whole class out for her birthday celebrations. I was quite pleased that after learning NZSL about 6 years ago, I was still able to understand and make myself understood! We had a good chat about all the basics - where we live, work, family and all that other basic stuff you learn in sign class. I told Darrel (one of the two Deaf guys) that I had taught some signs to kids at school for NZ sign language week, and he was really encouraging. He reckoned I should start a Deaf Club at school and keep these kids interested - apparently NZSL interpreters are in short supply. Ah, if only I had the time... Still, it was cool that I could sign properly even though I haven't really kept in practice.

Rekha's leaving party

We had a MASSIVE cocktail party to farewell Rekha from UHC as she goes back to England. I bought a lovely new dress, which I bought also to wear to the school ball in July. Unfortunately, I'm going on a ski trip on the same weekend, so I will miss it. Bugger.

Anyway, back to the party. I drank way to much and ended up fertilising the garden out the back with the contents of my stomach. Bit of a shame really, as I ended up going home quite early and missed all the shenanigans later in the evening! I blame Mihail's cocktails. He makes them really strong. And yummy. I suppose my lack of willpower is partly responsible too, but I like to blame Mihail anyway. At least I made it to the garden. I gather someone else used the couch. Euuu.

I was pretty sorry for myself the next day. I took Dad to a motorbike show in the Town Hall for his birthday and wheeled him around, trying not to vomit the whole time. After that I went to a rat-meet, where I met a few people from the online rat club. Then I played three games of netball, which boosted my metabolism somewhat so that I was STARVING when I got home. Still felt crap on Monday at school and got a bit of ribbing for not living up to my nickname.

Netball

I'm going to see the Shakers lose, er, I mean *play* netball on Sunday. I've always said to myself, "I should go see some national level netball", and never made it. Well, this coming game is the last Shakers game EVER as the league goes through a re-shuffle, so it's now or never really. Going with my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin who are in town for the weekend. Should be fun.

Edward's 21st


So Edward (who I remember when he first came to St James as the son of the new Vicar, at age 6) just turned 21. What the?? Where did all that time go?

Anyway, the theme was National Dress. So I came as a Silver Fern. Yay for my excellent sewing skills!

I freehand stitched the logo on the front and machine stiched the white letters on the back. The velcro bibs are courtesy of my netball team. Pity not many people dressed up. Losers. Maybe they knew I would look so good that they shouldn't even bother. The photo below is my "Does my bum look big in this?" pose. Note: the correct answer is "Yes, and I like it that way".


I just noticed you can see a nice bruise on my elbow. From netball THREE weeks ago!



Paul Holmes is gone

Oh well. Although he didn't set the dance floor on fire, he certainly burned rather nicely on my back porch. I want Suzanne (aka Richard the bastard) to win anyway. Go Suzie!!



Note I am wearing my new 'fish' hoodie that Sarah made for my birthday. I've hardly taken it off since I got it.



The fish hoodie



Yeah baby! I reckon these would sell like hotcakes! Maybe only to wierd people like me, but what the hey :) I LOVE this hoodie!





Rat Photos below
(You have been warned!)

The wee ratties are growing bigger by the day. Still uber-cute though :)

Poppy likes to surf the net too.

This is the cutest little school bus! It's for taking the babies to school once a week or so. I now have a second cage that lives at work so it's a little easier than lugging the travel cage around.

I hope to blog a little more regularly next week. I only have 2 games of netball planned, rather than the five I played this week. Life is a little crazy at the mo.

Slacker

I have been too busy to blog. I am now off to have a relaxing bath to unwind from the exhausting week I have just had.


Oh yeah, big thanks and hugs and smoochy kisses to all those who made it to my birthday open home. You won't have realised it at the time but you are responsible for me:

• Raising one of my kitchen cupboards by 8 inches to make usable bench space.
• Mounting my noticeboard on the wall rather than the floor.
• Getting the computer out of the hallway and into the spare room.

All jobs that I was "getting around to doing" but could never find the time. I work well with deadlines.


The bath is calling...

Late notice I know...

... but I turn 31 on Sunday and I'm hosting an open home at our place!

We will be home any time after 1pm. Pop round for a muffin/coffee/slice/beer/tea/whatever.
You can also play with the rats if you wish.

Comment me your email if you need our address, or email fish@paradise.net.nz

Fishbowl News Roundup

We are the Champions

Hillary House, in their usual tradition of winning, took first prize in the International Karaoke competition today at Upper Hutt College. Team members Pesi Sina, Heu Sina, Kaila Malama and Vini Malama sang a medley of songs in Samoan to rapturous applause from their peers and teachers. Three staff also sang a piece in Latin - Bruckner's Locus Iste. Alto Fiona Hall said, "we tried to find a Soprano but there was nobody available to learn it in the limited time we had. Despite that, it sounded pretty good with only three parts instead of four".

The Canadians are coming!

Tattooed and pierced musician/teacher extraordinaire Lauren is soon to leave the shores of Canada for a four month stint at a Lower Hutt college. Lauren's host family, Fiona and Sam Hall are said to be "delighted" at the prospect of a new housemate coming to stay. Lauren will be teaching at Hutt Valley High School, and will also be a guest artist in the world-renowned Saint James Church Choir during her visit. In addition, she will be trained in the ancient art of Netball by Mr and Mrs Hall, and will be expected to take her new knowledge and skills back to Canada to educate the natives.

Home Again

Mr David Hall returned home from hospital today after a brief ilness. Sources close to the family say he is very glad to be home.

My Dad is in hospital. I won't go into details about why, but essentially the thing that's wrong with him is really painful and as a result he finds it hard to breathe. (His lungs are already poked from years of smoking, even though he stopped over 20 years ago.) So he's taking only tiny wee breaths and can't get enough oxygen but he's too scared to take big breaths cos it starts him coughing and that hurts and then he gets scared because he can't breathe. Kind of a vicious cycle.

It hurts to see my big strong Daddy look so weak and small.

special K not little K

I found this person's blog, thinking my mate Kirsten had finally jumped on the blog-wagon.

Not so, but I'm sure Kimberley is just as lovely as little K. :)

In the continuing chain of five hard questions, these are the ones she has asked me. I will answer them later tonight:

aka Special K said...
Your questions, with love from Special K, are:

1. What's the hardest thing you've ever had to do?
Doing a reading at my Brother's funeral was pretty difficult. I cry at tissue ads, so you can imagine I was a bit of a wreck. Apparently I set everyone else going too.
Also, the confidence course at Linton army camp is a challenge. I sprained my ankle jumping off a 3m high pylon thingy when I was there in 1991, and when I went back in 1994 I couldn't even look at that part of the course without remembering how awful it was. I completed every part of it except my nemesis the 3m pylon in 1994 and I cried almost all the way through. But I *did* it!

2. What song do you sing in the mirror with a hairbrush when you think noone is looking?
Somebody to Love by Queen. I'm not really a hairbrush in the mirror girl; more often I sing it in the car when there's nobody else in the car with me. Then when I pull up at traffic lights, I get wierd looks from the other drivers. I like to do it at karaoke too. It suits my range well.

3. What was the last lie you told?
"You can have your cellphone back at the end of the day". Then I got on the phone to the kid's Mum and said I would give it back on Thursday. Meh, she can break the bad news to him. He shouldn't have been texting in class anyway, and he wouldn't have given it to me if I had told him he had to wait three days...

4. What thing do you regret doing? Or not doing?
When you visit Waitomo caves, they give a big speil about the largest underground room and they say Kiri Te Kanawa sang there one time because of the great acoustics in there. Then they ask if anyone would like to sing something. I've been there twice but I've not been brave enough either time. I would probably sing something Church-y in Latin, to suit the atmosphere. Maybe Mozart's Ave Verum, maybe Bruckner's Locus Iste. The latter piece was the one sung at our Wedding, for those who were there.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world, and not be allowed to go anywhere else in your life, where would it be?
Sunrise Island, Fiji? Naah, I think I would get sick of it eventually. Umm... I think NZ in general suits me pretty well. I've only ever lived in Lower Hutt all my life, so it's hard to compare with other places that I have only visited. I think this one needs some more thinking...

Introducing...

Poppy and Lily.

Poppy is the dark one, Lily is the light one.
So cute!!
I put this last photo in because it looks (unintentionally) arty. It looks like Lily is about to be mugged by Poppy standing in the shadows. Maybe it's just me.

Going...

... going...

... gone.

Bye little pine forest!

Turns out all the trees *were* on the school side of the boundary, dammit.

Rat-tastic!

Yay! Two baby girl ratties for fish and sam!

I get them on Saturday.

Be warned Mum, not-kate, hottie: there WILL be pictures :)

fingers, rats, trees

As not-Kate mentioned in a recent post, I have had a bad run of finger injuries at netball. I now look like a character from the Simpsons with only three fingers and a thumb on each hand. Even if the middle one on each hand is twice as wide and has tape round it.

And I can't do the fingers (not that I would - I'm too well mannered for that), or sign the number two. Like last night when I tried to tell not-Kate that the money was for TWO players.

***

Still waiting on news about possible baby rats. I cleaned out the cage and set it up all nice for when I get them though :)

***

There are workmen cutting down trees along our rear boundary. Where there used to be a fence till yesterday. Till they removed it to cut the trees down. On OUR SIDE of the boundary. Wierd that we didn't get notified. Note the two tree stumps marked in yellow and the fencepost (in red).

I don't really mind as we get more light, but it would have been nice to know.

Gosh, it HAS been a while, hasn't it?

Visiting family

Sam and his Dad and (nibling) Thomas - and me all travelled to Blenheim for an airshow.

Actually I only tagged along because Carol and Murray live there, but I went to the airshow anyway. Even if I read my book for most of it.Megan is one now, and has just started walking. She has a few words too, like 'mum', 'dad' 'cat' and 'ta'. The plane is a Caribou - Canadian in origin, but it belongs to the Aussie Air Force.

Ange's birthday dinner

Matterhorn has yummy food, but it is massively overpriced - thank goodness for the Entertainment Book. Did I mention that I am selling the 2007/2008 Entertainment Book to raise funds for my netball club? Only $55. What a bargain - go out for dinner a few times and it's paid for itself! Let me know if you want to get one. I liked Mighty Mighty too - that tall fellow thought we were a bit of allright, eh Kate!

Here are photos of some people that were at dinner:

...and this is a spider that likes hanging round our back porch:

Rat News

I have just joined Rat Club so I can find two baby girls to replace Wee Man. Well, not replace him as such, but you get the idea. There are so many cute photos of all the peoples' rats! If you like that kind of thing...

Last day of term

Yeah! It is officially the end of Term One. Nine weeks of teaching/policing/mothering my students is over for two weeks. Sometimes I do feel more like a policeman/mother rather than a teacher. For example, three students have come to me so far this year to tell me they are (or might be) pregnant. Another 65 or so have had detentions with me, and I've had to chase another 20 or so that didn't go to their detentions. These kids stress me out big time sometimes.

I had a senior teacher come visit my class the other day. I'm struggling with my year 11s. They have a poor work ethic, and some of them have highly developed work avoidance strategies they have been using successfully for years. This class makes me feel like a first year teacher at times - and nothing I try with them seems to help. He has made some really good suggestions and I'm looking forward to getting them back on side next term (hopefully!).

For comparison I asked him to come see my year 10 (favourite) class, and I was really pleased by his feedback. All the things I try with the year 11s (that don't work) DO work in the year 10 class. So I'm not as useless as I thought! I will keep his feedback in my folder and whenever I am having a bad day I will remind myself to look at it.

A quote from his feedback:
"...you are IN CHARGE but still have a WONDERFUL smile! You make their day!"

and another:
"... you work HARD - you get into it with the kids, share your enthusiasm, you're involved, positive and enjoy working with them"

just one more:
" A really neat working relationship!"

What a lovely way to end the term. I love my year 10s.

I just visited the school library and got some books issued for the school holidays. I intend to do a fair bit of lazing round with a book or three these holidays. One of the perks of being a teacher :) I'll think of you working plebs while I laze round on the couch.

Lent

...is a season in the Christian calendar. Most of you lapsed Catholics out there would know what it is, but most people I come across seem not to know much about it. When I tell people that I have given up alcohol for Lent, most people say, "Why - are you pregnant?"

Like, er, no...?

By the way, did you know the 40 hour famine is done in March because it's in Lent and it echoes the "giving something up for Lent" thing? Albeit 40 hours rather than 40 days. Actually, 40 days not counting Sundays, so it's really more like 47 days.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Giving up alcohol for Lent is hard work. Especially when you go to social events at a pub (Wednesday quiz/Friday 3.15pm wind-down...) and everyone else is drinking. And it's not like I'm an alcoholic or anything, but sometimes I would just LOVE a nice cold beer with my fries and conversation. Even if I was driving I would still treat myself with ONE beer.

I have rekindled my affair with spicy tomato juice - my non-alcoholic drink of choice. There is a real art to it - not too much ice, for starters. Then lots of tobasco and Worcester sauce so it's got a lovely bite to it. The more spicy it is the less inclined I am to guzzle it down and need another one. I am also drinking a lot more Coke than I used to, due to it being cheaper than tomato juice.

* * *

It's my birthday soon. That is all.

* * *

I played in a netball tournament at the weekend. I was supposed to play three games but I pinged my finger (TWICE!) in the second game and had to sit the third one out. It held up ok at indoor last night but I had to tape it just in case.

Can I just mention to all the people who were at the game last night: I did NOT crash into that dopey blond girl on purpose! I was going for THE BALL - as one does in this game. The ref gave the ball to me afterwards so obviously it was not my contact. So there. :P

That girl sure was dopey though. She contacted me every time she went to run into the circle and seemed to have no idea what 'standing down' looked like. I'm looking forward to playing them again later on when they learn the rules a bit better. I think we will still beat them though - as long as we get to the court on time and don't lose 5 points!