Well tonight I went and saw the Haileybury Year 10 play. I was actually pretty impressed with the acting and overall how the play was presented. Children of the Black Skirt is a very dark play about an orphanage and the children who once were in it. The technical aspect of the show was “acceptable”, with no major mistakes being made. Overall it was certainly worth the $5 for the ticket and I look forward to seeing some of the Year 10 actors in future performances.

Well 2007 has finally ended and what a year it has been. It amazes me just how fast 2007 went, it seems like it was only yesterday that I was recapping 2006. So here’s what happened in my life in 2007.

• Turned 18 (probably the biggest thing to happen)
• Subsequently went to Crown and a great time was had by all (you all know the story)
• Got my license (again a very big thing)
• Began, and successfully completed Year 12
• Graduated from Haileybury.
• Went to the Year 12 Formal
• My Great Grandmother passed away
• Had a fantastic year as a School Prefect and Vice Captain of Editorial
• Bought an iPod (who’d of thought!)
• Also bought a GPS (yeah I know it was only a couple of days ago but it was a highlight of 2007)
• Went to the Boxing Day Test
• Drastically improved this blog by getting a domain name, a host and moving it to the Wordpress platform
• Went to Sydney to visit my brother and see the city (twice)
• Went down to Phillip Island for ’schoolies’
• Saw the school play ‘Inheritance’
• Saw the school musical ‘Fame’
• Saw the Castlefield musical “A High School Musical” (Luke also went to see it as he “received” tickets for his birthday)
• Applied for University, and received my VCE results.

So that’s 2007 in review, I wish everyone a happy new year and I look forward to recapping what I hope will be a wonderful 2008.

Last night I went and saw Fame. I was very impressed with the professionalism of the show and I congratulate all the cast and crew on their work. Luke has however earnt the nickname “Curtains” for his wonderful performance on opening night, however apart from that everything went relatively well. I wish I had the time to actually be involved with the performance however unfortunately this was not possible.

On another note this weekend will be a relatively quiet one, however I am going into the University of Melbourne on Sunday for their open day so that should be good.

This morning I had breakfast with Nic at Brew Cafe down on Poath Road. It was good to catch up with an old friend with a variety of topics being discussed ranging from school to apartments. I then went up to Chadstone to buy my brother his birthday present (unfortunately I can’t tell you what it is because he has stumbled across this blog before). The most exciting part of my day however was when I walked into Kmart and saw giant Clarabel’s on sale. I immediately told Luke who seemed very keen to know which Kmart store and how big. They had a variety of sizes including the small Clarabel so if anyone wants one then Kmart is the place to be.

Today is Luke’s 18th Birthday which was exciting for him. To celebrate we went to Castlefield’s musical “High School Musical”, anyway a riveting time was had by all especially Bosko who at the end announced that he hated me for forcing him to go. I ended up spending most of the day at Southland which was not really that exciting as I was looking for a birthday present for Luke (and got sidetracked by the food court), in the end I ended up getting him an iTunes voucher as its the only thing he’ll actually use. So all in all Castlefield was relatively exciting and was a swell way to spend Luke’s birthday.

I have been stupidly busy the last week, without even a moment to myself and unfortunately this won’t change for the next couple of weeks. I did however manage to dig up a photo of the Kindergarten class of 1994, which in case you didn’t know is the year the current year 12’s were in kindergarten. Anyway I now have a photo of Luke when he was like 4, as well as some other year 12’s which is pretty funny. I would post it however I would get in a lot of trouble from the school for doing so, so if you want a copy and go to Haileybury I can send it to you via school email. If you don’t go to (or work at) Haileybury then I can’t help you.

The Year 12 magazine has been coming along nicely, and we should actually start putting the content on pages soon. Also in between all this I managed to get a SAC done, and have multiple coming up fast, as well as speeches at each precinct, and literally hundreds of meetings and countless luncheons. Also apparently the play went well last night, and is coming along well tonight (I was just talking to a crew member on MSN). So well done to you guys. And finally I’m beginning to become cynical of Connex like Pant, you see this morning I was stuck at Hughesdale station for 90 minutes while a train was derailed on one of  four tracks at Oakleigh. During this time no alternative arrangements were made in regards to buses, no announcements, no nothing, just an increasingly full platform.

On Friday I went and saw the school play, Inheritance. I must say It was brilliant, a big improvement over last year’s Romeo & Juliet (which just went on and on and on). On the technical side everything went off without a hitch (to the best of the audiences knowledge). Overall it was a brilliant night, however I did have to stand up during the second act as those damn black chairs are impossible to sit in for more than an hour.

On Saturday I had the usual job of taking photos of sport which was pretty boring. However we have now covered Boys and Girls Firsts Soccer as well as Boys Hockey and Martial Arts. After sport I headed home, and then went up to Chadstone. I ended up buying Frasier Season 5 on DVD (I already had 1-4) and picked up a couple of politics and foreign policy magazines from Borders.

On another note it is my brothers 26th birthday today, he’s enjoying his new job up at Sydney and says it’s much better than his boring, stressful one in Melbourne. He ended up getting a gift voucher from Mum to buy some furniture for his new house, and managed to win $7 on a scratchie I put in his card (He usually never wins a thing). Anyway I’m now sitting here watching National Lampoons European Vacation on Foxtel.

Today was an extremely busy day, as I needed to see some people about work which was pretty boring and overall pointless (at least I get paid ). I then spent about 30 minutes on hold for Telstra’s business support to fix up a billing issue, they tried to blame me and it was only when I challenged this they admitted that it was their fault. After my Telstra dose I headed down to school to offer my moral support to all the technical crew (I didn’t actually do anything technical related), but I managed to speak to Ms. Hill which was good. After “helping” at school I then headed into JB Hi-Fi to pick up a MiniSD card for my phone, I managed to get a 1Gb Sandisk for $29 (got it reduced from $33 ). After reveling in my awesome bargaining power and the $4 I saved I then made my way to Caulfield and had lunch (at 3:30pm). I then spent the rest of the afternoon getting prices for the Nokia N95 (for my boss), anyway it will cost a small fortune (about $1250) but that’s the phone he wants so that’s the phone he will get (he reminds me of a certain principal I know ). I’m now sitting down watching the football (Collingwood Vs Richmond), I was going to go but decided that I really can’t be bothered.

Also another note to a certain Connex cynic who shall remain nameless (his blog can be found at http://www.jamesx.net), I caught 5 trains today, and they were all on time (one was 2 minutes late to be accurate). The buses however were a different story (both of them more than 10 minutes late).

Also this is post #98

Today I headed out to a family BBQ at Cardinia Reservoir Park, which is only a few kilometres south of Emerald in the suburb of Narre Warren East to be exact. Overall it was a enjoyable day with brilliant weather. I managed to snare a few wickets at the game of cricket we held (not a hugely difficult task) and spent the rest of the day betting on the horses at the Emirates Doncaster Handicap (held at Randwick) and the Victoria Handicap at Caulfield. I didn’t manage to actually win anything above my initial investment. The rest of the week will be fairly quite, however I do have something on Wednesday (cannot for the life of me remember what it is) and I will be heading to the inheritance rehearsals on Friday (I have to show up at least once ).

There are a number of things that piss me off about our school, and it seems this week I have encountered all of them. As you are all probably aware everyone; administration, teachers, students and even IT techs are ridiculously busy. Hence why I always try and go out of my way to make things just a little easier for everyone else, and in return I ask that they pay the same courtesy to me.

However this last week (actually the last 2 days) nearly every staff member I deal with has pissed me off, this is basically through their inability to perform the job that they get paid to do.

For example when I send an email with a query or instruction, I can reasonably expect a response within 7 days. So here I am wondering why an email that has been sent on the 8th December, re-sent on the 27th January and again sent on the 14th and 28th February is yet to receive a response, now of course there is an easy way to deal with this and that is simply refer it to the principal.

I could also reasonably expect that if a point of contact for a certain department or area within the school changes, that I am notified of this so that I do not waste my time trying to contact that staff member (why the staff member didn’t email me back and say they no longer handled this area is beyond me). I was of course not notified of this until today when I found out by asking a senior member of staff. This has been referred to a Vice-Principal.

I could also reasonably expect that any policy changes that are made that directly effect myself or the work I do is passed onto me. I do not appreciate being told two weeks before the end of term that things are going to be done a different (and more time consuming) way this year. This has been referred to the Principal.

Also if a staff member takes actions that I believe have not been what I requested and have not been told about (I discovered it) then I would expect that the particular staff member in question fix this issue if I request it, but of course I have to go through the usual bureaucratic nonsense. This has been referred to a Vice-Principal.

And finally I beleive I could also reasonably expect to be told I have to turn up to events before the actual day, I really don’t find it all that difficult to give the school at least a weeks notice if I am unable to be somewhere, so why can’t they at least give me 24 hours. This has been referred to Head of Precinct.

Basically as you see that I am so fed up with being stuffed around that I have taken the step to make complaints about all of them to the people that can actually make a difference. I of course am realistic and know that the majority of the problems that I have highlighted will never be fixed, or will only be fixed for a short period. However I am confident that all matters referred to the Principal will be dealt with as he made it clear last year that if it continued to happen then he would like to be contacted and would of course take action. Sorry about the long post but I feel that I had to get that off my chest.