Well today I headed into the city to pay for my RSA Course which I’m doing tomorrow. It never ceases to amaze me the great amount of effort that is required just to get out of Flinders Street Station.

Firstly you have to get off the train, which can be quite difficult since everyone is also attempting to get on the train at the same time to grab those oh so elusive seats that are so hard to find on a midday train from the city. You then have to try and get on the escalator which can be quite a task since the bottom seems to be where everyone enjoys standing and having a chat. Now the next part is usually pretty easy, walking to the ticket machines to actually get out of the station, but then you are faced with a new problem, you have those people that are trying to come through the other way despite there being a big X on their side. So after this you would think it was clear sailing, well its not, you then have to play a game of ‘try not to step on an emo’ while at the same time tell some guy thats trying to hand you a pamphlet about human rights abuses in China that it’s really not the best time. After all this, well your out of the station, now you just have to try and make your way through the crowded city streets to your destination.

Also I ran into Nick Kong and Matthew Robinson in the city today, just thought you should know.

Over the last few days, I have been doing a ’spring clean’ (I’m well aware of the fact that it is summer). Basically we have been throwing anything that isn’t completely necessary which is pretty much everything. We have managed to fill a skip and then some full of junk collected over the last 15 years. Some items have included 3 computers, 2 fax machines, 2 printers, roughly 500 books, a couple thousand sheets of paper, old clothing, 100+ CD’s, walkmans, remote control cars, 3 gameboys + games and many other knick knacks. I’m amazed at the amount of junk that I/we have collected over the years.

In other news Pat got his probationary license after failing the first time (in the VicRoads carpark), so congratulations to Pat.

On my way to buy a new printer and other computer goodies my car decided that it no longer liked its occupation and died. So after a call to the RACV my car was being loaded on the back of the tow truck to take to the mechanics who will look it over. The RACV guy reckons it was water leaking all over the distributer that was causing the problem so if thats the case it will be a simple fix and may mean that my head gasket is indeed fine. So without a car I have resorted to buying things on eBay which is annoying because I hate waiting for things and I absolutely hate people that charge outrageous postage (especially from the US).

Today I had my Probationary Licence Test which I managed to pass (Have no idea how considering I was convinced I made about 20 mistakes). So I can now drive around anywhere, anytime no matter what my parents are doing. The most exciting part of this is that I now no longer have to rely on Connex to get me anywhere, so all I can say is Au Revoir!

I then just got an email telling me one of my SAC’s is now rescheduled for Thursday which just topped my day off, so overall I had a very good day.

I just got back before from Essendon Vs Richmond which was an interesting game. Despite it being Kevin Sheedy’s last game in Melbourne Essendon just couldn’t get there act together and were defeated by the mighty tigers. At the end they had a bit of a fireworks diplay and a movie about James Hird and Kevin Sheedy. I then had to brave Melbourne’s fantastic public transport system which ended up getting me home safe and sound (albeit a little late)

Now onto my past week, last Friday I had the University transistion day which was pretty much useless, as usual Connex made this day more difficult than it needed to be with trains being cancelled between Caulfield and Springvale, so I had to rely on a public bus to get me home. Friday was my second visit to the University of Melbourne in the past week with me also going there last Sunday for their Open Day. The open day was pretty good and I got some good info about the Uni and its courses.

Tomorrow will be a big day with the  careers expo which is the final event of all my careers and uni orientated events. I have approximately a month to put in my application and then its just sitting and waiting for an offer.

Overall I have found the last month to be a very academic orientated one, which unfortunately wont change for the next few months at least.

It seems that my weekends are far shorter than two standard ‘week days’. Anyway this weekend has been reasonably busy, with school (which just never ends) and ‘other’ commitments. One thing that did piss me off was Saturday morning on the train, it was reasonably empty and this lady came and sat next to me. This was despite the fact that there was maybe another 3 people on the carriage. Anyway I just thought I should update this blog as otherwise people (Satwick & Co) start harassing me.

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

My travels between school and home are usually boring and rather non-eventful. They usually involve some conversations with Pat and a lot of money spent on pointless sms’s, phone calls and the occasional mms. Today however was rather different with a Haileybury Year 11 student being mugged at the station. The student is alright, and the actual mugging was rather uneventful, the thieves only managed to escape with about $3.50 worth of coins after the student convinced the muggers to give his iPod back.

In other news the formal is coming up, so everyone buy your tickets ASAP as we will stop selling them on Friday.

It’s already 2007, it seems like 2006 flew past. I thought however that I should recap 2006 (I’m kinda stealing James Panther’s idea)

• Went to Hamilton Island
• Started Year 11
• Got my Learners
• Got an infringement notice for “Harassing a Ticket Validator”
• Went and saw most of the school play “Romeo & Juliet”
• We got a cat “Simba”
• Started this blog
• Was involved in all six nights of the Tattoo - 20th Century Events
• Got Drama Colours
• Got Editorial Honours
• Pat received 150 free sms’s from 3
• Got competent in VET IT 3 & 4
• Began Year 12 (don’t ask how this works)
• Was elected Prefect
• Luke was elected Drama Captain (Belly’s Bitch)
• Pat had a major medical emergency with his knee and tonsils
• Krispy Kreme opened at Chadstone
• I did my two Unit 3 & 4 exams and got alright marks
• I got a new computer
• I wrote this post

Anyway thats my (and pat’s) year in point form. I also forgot to mention that I got a new computer for Christmas, here are the specs;

Intel 2 Core Duo E6600 (2.4)
2 Gig Ram
400 GB HD
Radeon X1650 Graphics Accelerator (512mb)
20″ Samsung SyncMaster 204b LCD Screen
Creative Audigy 2 Platinum Sound Card

Plus all the standard things like keyboard, mouse, Win XP Pro and speakers. I’ve also copied Luke and created a gallery over at flickr, click here to access it (the link is also in the sidebar). Well thats it for now, anyway happy new year and I hope you all have a great 2007.

This saga seems like its coming to an end. We (4 leaders and myself) spoke to Mr. Scott this afternoon, and unfortunately it doesn’t look like Haileybury will budge. Pretty much Haileybury are stuck with twelve or so Metlink funded bus routes that can’t be changed without losing the Metlink funding for that route. So in order to meet demand Haileybury have had to introduce ‘Haileybury’ funded buses, and of course these buses cost money, a lot of money.

Unfortunately Haileybury is pretty much being held over a barrel and theres not much they can do, except cover the cost of the new buses themselves, which they do, and of course to do this, ticket prices must rise. Mr. Scott is going to raise some of our concerns with Mr. Dwyer, mainly about the flexibility of the system and some issues such as late buses etc.

Also Luke Hawley got his Haileybury vest embroidered with ‘Tech Crew’ on the back, it looks very cool and I must say I’m very jealous.