To the bastard that broke into my car last night

I hope your hand got cut breaking my window and that glass got stuck in it and that it gets infected so your stupid hand falls off.

So there.

Yay - I got some more pictures from Choir School!

Our Church choir is rare in that we don't wear red. Makes me easy to spot though. This was taken about 20 minutes before the final service.


I *do* however, wear red when I'm dancing. This is me in action at the in-house concert on the Thursday night.

Beep test

I just did a beep test by myself in the Gym before school. I dropped out at level 5-9. That's a crap score apparently. The kids do it in groups - I think maybe if there were some other people to run with I might not have given up so easily. Still, it's a start. I can only improve from there. And I can still beat all the Year 13 PE class in the swim.

I saw an infomercial yesterday morning for something I MAY ACTUALLY BUY. I know - strange but true! It's a set of exercise DVDs, but here's the cool thing - it's a hip hop dance class! Cool. I can learn to dance hip hop AND get killer abs at the same time. I don't want to pay just three instalments of $39.95 though. Does anyone wanna go halves/threes and we can illegaly burn copies? Go on...

So I have a facebook account but I'm not really convinced that I'll use it once the fuss dies down.

I don't see the point in being a zombie/pirate/ninja/vampire/whatever. (Can anyone explain to me what purpose that has??)

If I want to give my friends a present, or a poke for that matter, I'll do it in real life.

I'm not interested in acquiring thousands of friends so I can say "look how popular I am, darlinks!"

The only useful thing that I can see is that you can keep in touch with people even when their email addresses change - because fb emails you when you have messages and stuff. Of course, this is assuming said friends update fb with their new address when it changes. And if they are the kind of person who doesn't update YOU with their email, why on earth would they tell fb? There goes that theory.

I do have the aquarium application of course, which is almost the only reason I keep using facebook. Meh. Read the blog if you want to know what I'm doing; don't expect a daily update either.

Wins all round!

UHC Senior 4 vs Sacred Heart
We won 20-24 and are in the Collegiate 10 final next week.

UHC Senior 5 vs St Oran's
We won 35-10 and are in the Collegiate 12 final next week.

High School Old Girls 3 vs Resene Paints
We won 13-17 and next week we play the loser of 5v6.
If we win that game, we play in the minor final the next week.

And I was named player of the day. Yay me!

Netball on Saturday

** From an email that I have sent to our netball co-ordinator at school. She will be passing it on to the College Sport people for me. So there, HVHS! **

Upper Hutt 14 played netball against Hutt Valley High School 13 on the weekend. At three-quarter time, the score was 41-2 to UHC. At the start of the fourth quarter, most of the HVHS team began to yell loudly whenever UHC had the ball, and screamed even louder when the GA/GS were shooting. They were not yelling out cheers or encouragement - it was just plain screaming. In my opinion, they were not cheering their team on - they were making noise with the express purpose of putting us off our game.

When the ball went over the sideline a few minutes into the quarter, I asked the UHC umpire to have a word to the girls before play re-started. She reminded the girls that this was a competetion game, and to take it seriously. Play re-started, and as it did, the HVHS umpire (a student, and possibly their coach?) called out "no girls, keep doing it!". The screaming and yelling continued.

The HVHS Goal Shoot mentioned to the UHC Goal Keep that they were doing it to put UHC off, and then proceeded to elbow the GK sharply in the stomach, allegedly on purpose. The GK was injured by this, so much so that she needed to call time and leave the court for someone else to take her place. She did not retake the court for the rest of the game.

I talked with the venue manager after the game, and he said I should have notified him during the game so he could have seen what was going on. I didn't think of this at the time, but I certainly will if it happens again.

The HVHS team showed a gross lack of judgement and very poor sportsmanship at this game, and I believe their school netball manager needs to be notified that this is not acceptable.

************

Thanks for tea on Saturday, Sarah and Ronnie!! Yum :)

Harry Potter and swimming

*** WARNING!! Allusions to Harry Potter content below, but no genuine spoilers ***

Rich lent me his workmate's copy of Harry Potter on Saturday morning. I read a few chapters on Saturday, but was so busy with everything else I didn't really get into it till Sunday afternoon.

After a few hours reading on Sunday, and a couple of hours on Monday/Tuesday, I finally finished it last night before I had to race out the door to netball.

I have to remind myself this is a kids' book, so then I don't feel too disappointed with the Scooby Doo ending. I ALMOST cried at the bit where Harry did something really nice for someone who died (near the middle of the book) but managed to control myself. Wuss.

*************

I went to the pool with one of the Year 13 PE classes yesterday. They were doing a 300m time trial in preparation for the Naenae Tri, which I am also going to do this year (anyone want to join me??). I swam rather slowly, as I kept tagging the feet of the two kids in front of me, but I did the 12 laps in 6m 40s. Totally within reach of my under 6 minute goal. Only one other kid managed to do faster than me (6:30), and he had a clear lane in front of him. I will triumph over you, Chris M!!!

The kids were quite impressed with my machine-like swimming prowess. Not only did I do the 12 laps, but I did it THREE times, once with each set of kids! And as I said, I still beat (nearly) all of them. Yay for fish!

They will of course, kick my ass in the run/cycle bits.

snap out of it fishy!

I'm feeling low today. Not sure why, but I've been on the verge of tears all day. I have heaps to cheer me up, so I thought I would post a list and see if that helps...

I have lost 5kg and kept it off for a month.
My husband is back in town after a weekend away.
I have a neat bunch of Year 9,10,13 students (even though my Year 11s are awful).
My HoD likes and respects me.
I am going on a maths course in 2 weeks.
I have two free periods tomorrow.

That should do for now I think.

Te wiki o te reo Maori - rima

Phrase-a-day: Ramere 27 Hongoingoi

Ka rawe to korero Maori
Gee, speaking Maori is good fun!

I probably won't have time to post on the weekend, so that's all from me. I hope you have enjoyed this week. Ka kite ano!

Te wiki o te reo Maori - wha

Phrase-a-day: Rapare 26 Hongoingoi

Today there are two for the price of one!

Kei te pehea koe?
how are you?
Kei te pai ahau
I am well

practice this one with a partner :)

Te wiki o te reo Maori - toru

Phrase-a-day: Raapa 25 Hongongoi

Today's one is a little naughty...
patu i te kumu
smack on the bum - haha!

Put homai te at the front to say "give me..." if you're feeling naughty :)

Te wiki o te reo Maori - Rua

Phrase-a-day: Ratu 24 Hongongoi
ko te aroha taku koe
I love you!

Go and use it on your loved ones. If you don't have a loved one, go find a hot guy or girl and see if they like your lingo!

Te wiki o te reo Maori - Tahi

Kia Ora readers

This week is Maori language week. I will try to post a phrase a day for you to practise. Make sure you visit!

Phrase-a-day: Rahina 23 Hongongoi (Monday 23 July)
ka nui tena maku
You look good!

Off you go, poppets. Practice saying it out loud and you will have it in no time!

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.