That’s right, daylight savings has begun, which has meant that I have spent a lot of my day changing all the things that seem to have clocks in them, ie. car, iPod, alarm clock, stereo, phone (landline and mobile) and even my blog. The start of daylight savings heralds in sunny days, warm nights and here in the land of OZ - flies, wasps and everything else that annoys the hell out of you during the day.

Yesterday was the last day of school. We started with the breakfast in Altera Terra, then moved onto our final House Assembly. At the house assembly we were all given a small bag which contained a Year 12 photo of Castlefield, a big Year 12 photo with everyones photo as well as a caricature drawn by Darwin Truong and finally a copy of the House DVD. After the House Assembly we moved onto our final school assembly which was awesome. Amazingly not many water bombs were thrown and it was a fantastic way to see out our last assembly. Then we moved onto chapel where the Rev told his favourite joke, and we all sang Jerusalem for the last time as students. Then to cap off the day we all had lunch with the staff in the Year 12 common room, which was pretty good except there was no where near enough food or drinks. We listened to speeches by Luke Skelton, Matthew Robinson and Adam Ricciuti as well as an impromptu speech by Stephen Cavnoudias.

About 4 hours later we all headed back to school for our graduation. The graduation was rather boring (as was last years) but it marked the official end of my time at Haileybury as a student. Then came the best part of the night, the Valedictory dinner. With free alcohol and awesome music provided by the staff band (thank you Mrs. Kendall) it proved to be an unforgettable night. I got a lot of photos which I have put up on my gallery for those that are interested. All in all yesterday was a day that wont ever be forgotten and it marked the beginning of a new journey. I hope that I will stay in touch with most of the people in my year level, it has been an absolute honour to know you and I wish you all the very best for the future.

There’s one more day of school before I graduate. Today was the last combined assembly which was rather sad. We sang “For We Are Haileybury” and there’s was a funny Pac Man prank that happened during assembly. I also had my last classes today which also included my last ever class of Math. It’s kinda sad to finish classes but they have never been my favourite part of school. I also gave most of my teachers there gifts which for many was a bottle of wine, although Watto got the South African Edition of Monopoly (and a bottle of wine). I still have to give some of my smaller gifts out (ie. to teachers that didn’t teach me etc.) many of them are those page a day calendars which I got a pretty good deal on and chocolates.

Today was the last day with the girls which was rather sad, and I spent most of the day getting hugs and signing dresses (and the occasional shirt for those guys that couldn’t wait till thursday). Tomorrow there is no school as it is the girls graduation, then finally Thursday is our graduation which I’m looking forward, yet at the same time it feels like it is way too soon.

Today was back to day and I had the pleasure of going back to Edrington. It’s amazing to see exactly what has changed, and what has stayed the same. It was weird to be walking around somewhere so familiar yet so different but it was a great morning reminiscing about some of the great memories I have of Middle School. I must admit, I miss being in Middle School. There was so much less pressure, we went and played sport nearly every day and most importantly everyone knew each other. It was good to see some of the teachers that came back such as Ms. Stewart (who now works at Caulfield Grammar), Ms Ruse, Mr. Twist (now Vice Principal) and Mr. Bennett (Dean of Staff). We also spent ages talking about some of the other teachers like Mr. Edgoose and his $350 canteen tab (made up primarily of Dim Sims), Mr. Clayton and the time he got his keys stuck in the roof, Mr. Shiell and his overall enthusiasm for the subjects he taught and Ms. Watts for her, well, controversy.

We then went back to Keysborough on what would be our last ever bus trip together as the Berwick boys, and it was off to class then the OHA lunch. Then finally the Year 12 review which was funny as always (although the problems with the video caused many of the jokes to be ruined). Now there is only two more days of school until we graduate and I suppose it has hit me that in 3 days time everything that I enjoy the most about my life will be gone. Although I won’t lose touch with Haileybury it will never be the same with everyone gone.

Today was a rather hectic yet productive day. I got to school moderately late for me (about 8:20am) and went to tutor to listen to a speech by Mr. Hopwood about my political aspirations (I want to run for parliament in the 2010 election). Then it was class and then some more class closely followed by recess and then more class. Then during lunchtime I managed to get about 20 photos for the graduation power point bringing the total number of needed photos down to 7. I then loaded the photos onto the network, went to another class and then spent until about 5:45pm adding photos to the power point and talking to Luke (not to mention answering my phone about 10 times). Tomorrow will sadly be my last Friday of school as a student, and then it’s onto the final week.

Today was the last ever Wednesday for us boys as students of Haileybury. It marks the final stretch on what has been a 13 year journey. It’s amazing to think that 13 years of schooling all boil down to the next couple of weeks. I must admit I will miss Haileybury (for the two weeks that I wont be there, but after all my other stuff is completed it will be goodbye) and it has always been a great place to spend your day. On Monday I will return to Edrington on what will very likely be the last time ever. Anyway I’m sure I will find some way to stay connected to the school but of course without everyone there it wont quite be the same. I was thinking the other day about how you lose touch with people, and I’m sure that I will probably never see 20-30% of my year level again after 2nd November (English exam -everyones there). The other 70% will be the ones that I’ll catch up with, see at reunions etc. Well life moves on and there’s not a whole lot you can do about it.

Only two more weeks until I graduate, and then it’s exams and it will be all over. I’m looking forward to it, however my absence from school will be short lived as I will be coming back to finish off the Year 12 magazine.

And finally this morning was my final school tours ever and it went pretty well. There was a couple of interested parents and better yet, free coffee from the cafe. I went back to my car after the tours and discovered that Luke had visited and had left a techie version of a note (a red bull can stick to my car with gaff tape).

For those of you who use a feed reader for my blog you may be getting old posts being re-imported by your feed reader. This is due to some of the changes I am making which has resulted in this error. You may continue to receive old posts until everything is back up and running.

Today was the beginning of the last few weeks of school for me. Today was surprisingly productive, if not a little long. Due to classes finishing at normal time (3:45pm) I will most lost spend the majority of the week at school until about 6:00pm trying to finish things like the graduation powerpoint off. We also received our Year 12 rings today which was good. I also received my trial exams back which was pretty good, my results weren’t great but they were certainly above the class average in all my subjects which is always a good thing.

You may have noticed that I have taken down the ‘Gallery’ & ‘Profile’ pages. Don’t worry they will be back (eventually), it’s just simpler to make some rather significant changes to my blog with them down. I hope to bring you a completely new site by December, I will be abandoning my ‘less is more’ philosophy simply because the vast majority of my readers have Cable/ADSL which allows me to build greater interactivity and functionality into my little site.

I’ve finally found the time to write a post. It’s now halfway through the holidays and I’ve used it as a time to have a break, as well as do some school work. I can’t be bothered going through my previous week in detail but I had a pretty good weekend. I obviously watched the AFL grand final on Saturday at the Stamford Plaza in Melbourne, and then headed to Liam’s place for a ‘couple’ of drinks. Overall it was an enjoyable night and gave me a good chance to catch up with people that I don’t often get to at school. Then Sunday was the long awaited NRL grand final in which Melbourne Storm overcame the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles. Then today was a quiet day, however I did wash my car and gave it a much needed vacuum. I also received another article for the Year 12 magazine bringing the total to three, so for those who still owe articles (I knows that two of you read my blog on occasion) please send/start them.