Green and white

(So evidently when I say ‘I'll try to get [a new post] up sometime next week’, it means ‘I’ll procrastinate as much as normal, and make the deadline with hours to spare’. Go me.)

In any case, three guesses as to what this blog’s about. The number of times I’ve exhibited patriotism (ha) for Trinity Grammar on the whole can be counted on one hand (the music and language departments, though…), but yeah, this’ll be one of them.

So.

It’s strange, but the rest of the thanks-for-coming proceedings were a bit of a blur compared to the K-12 dinner. (Yes, Jordan, for reasons other than the fact I’m blogging about them a month later.) I guess the WUT YEAR TWELVE IS OVER shock wore off or something.

Friday of that same week, we had our house dinner. Everyone bar one showed up – which is in itself amazing, given our attendance record, and yet still only eight people (woo smallest house) – to an Italian/Australian place in Newtown; we had a great time chatting. It was equal parts sad and amusing to see a few of the guys drinking from under the table. Goooo 12 Wynn Jones '08!

The last week of term was nice and relaxed, with all assignments finally in. On that (the following) Friday, nearly all of year 12 turned up to school at 0700 so that we could head to the beach. Which, for some reason, was in the national park… I’d deliberately left my iPod in my locker, too. In the end, I got an unexpected amount of conversation in (another stab in the face of my introversion? hopefully), and my knack for playing music with my brain (finally) came in handy.

But in any case, screw that, I didn't go to the beach for the bus trip.

It probably goes without saying that we had great fun. Watching some of the guys carrying teachers into the water, carrying Yatty into the water, burying Matt in the sand (albeit badly).... And yes, Jordan got a few suss shots of me helping to write "TGS WAS HERE" into Matt's coffin. (Price of those photos is a seperate defenestration of Jordan from the top of the Founders block per second of viewing.)

Got back to school, sat through the valedictory assembly (which, unsurprisingly, is only slightly less boring when you know the people being named), got my 15 seconds on the stage (with our 'wonderful house captain', thank you Mrs Witheridge). Because seating of year 12s was one house per row, we, the smallest house, had practically a whole chair's worth of space between seats. Hilarious. (Similarly hilarious: only taking up half the stage when we assembled. For comparison, Jordan's house spanned the whole stage.)

After the assembly, we headed to the music block, grabbed some photos with the teachers, had a long chat, then bumped into the St Julians in compass court, and had a looooooooong chat. Darren joined us after a bit.

The valedictory dinner was perhaps the biggest blur of them all. We (ie. me and mum) turned up just as they started shepherding people to their seats, and then, um. There were speeches, good food (but small portions), grabbing photos with any teacher that knew our names, and egads it's 2230 already? Basically sums the night up. I have to say, seeing the whole grade in suits (smart casual) was amusing. Sorry, I mean, the whole grade barring Jordan. He can elaborate on that one.

There a few other relevant events of note since then. On the following Wednesday, we had a sort of Bible study farewell dinner at Haberfield. Again, great conversation, a few photos, swapping contact details, that sort of thing. Of particular note was an animated debate as to whether Muggers is an introvert (in spite of his protests, he isn't), and the food. Bish, the teacher who picked the restaurant, wasn't able to come because his son was sick, but he had arranged a sort of all-you-can-eat basic pizzas deal for us. Good food, but served very sloooowly. As in, 3 pizzas minute^-1 slow. Given that we had a ravenous table of fifteen that amounted to one slice per half hour, two if you were lucky. We also weren't aware that drinks weren't included until we got the bill. (Seriously, $200 worth of soft drink? Aaagggghh.) But all in all, 'twas a great night.

The other thing: last week was speech day. Which meant two days of juggling revision classes with orchestra preparation. Given that I don't really have trouble understanding the various syllabi, I ended up going to four of six rehearsals (and thus two of six classes). Things came together nicely, and I think we sounded pretty okay at the final thing (hooray for being the first year in which we managed to play two pieces on a single term's practice!). The venue really sucked, though. I'm not gonna whine about it in much detail, but the acoustic, the PA, the heat, the lighting (it matters when the wind can't see the conductor)... A--, would not hire again. That and Luna Park really is a strange place for your last speech day. Ah wells. Good news is that the music department's looking in to hiring a proper hall for a performance of those pieces - Mars, the Bringer of War; and Finlandia - sometime next year. Needless to say, that would be awesome.

OK, I think I need to rinse out my mouth after all that reminiscing. Back to study for me, all the best to Jordan and Louise (who I hope are not wasting time on my incoherence right now), who are slogging their way through the HSC at the moment.

Peace out.