watch out Cate Blanchett.....

I took my Mum with me to the Bundaberg State High School open day. She went there in 1963 and 1964 and completed Years 9 and 10. That was in the time in Queensland where Year 8 was part of primary school and everyone sat "scholarship". I went there from 1986 to 1990 in the days of the T.E. Score. That's the system that was before the OP score for all you young 'uns. My Grandma went there in (I think) 1936 and 1937. She was not that interested in walking around the school given that most of it wasn't in place when she was a student. The original building is still there. It has been turned into computer labs and they have replaced the lovely wooden railings on the butterfly staircase with metal. I'm sure it's to do with health and safety but it's just not quite the same.

The weather was dreary with showers but we soldiered around the school grounds, studiously avoiding the "guided tours" run by current Year 12 students. We visited my Mum's old room in "D block". Then we went to "G block" which in Mum's time was the Home Science building. In my time we did one year of cooking there before they built a new Home Economics building and turned G Block into classrooms. I spent Year 9 in there, as well Year 11 and 12 English. Here was the patronising sign on the staff room door.

In my day the teachers used to leave the door open! Now, it seems they cannot get up to answer it for themselves.

Then I made my mother take my picture on the stairs which were the scene of a dreadful accident. I was not a terrifically clumsy 13 year old but I did manage to spectacularly scrape the skin off both knees in year 9 as I was racing down these stairs. I still have a faint scar on my left knee from the incident. Ah. Memories!

And then we went and checked out the memorabilia in the library. (Mother: "In my day, we didn't even have a library!"). I found my Year 12 photo. Blergh. And also this....notice which prize I won in Year 12. Watch out Cate Blanchett. If I remember correctly I did a pretty magnificent soliloquy from Hamlet.

Overall impressions? It looked like the school I went to but then it didn't. Where were the bike racks in the middle of the school? Gone, because kids don't ride bikes to school anymore. They get the bus or get dropped off. Why were all the windows covered with ugly security mesh? Because Bundy High is in the middle of town, its demographics have changed over the last 20 or so years and like all schools it is at risk from vandalism. That also explains the six foot high black spiky fence that surrounds the entire school grounds. Where was the tuckshop where I used to buy a ham and salad roll, a can of sarsaparilla and a packet of salt and vinegar chips for less than 2 dollars? It seems to have been bricked in and turned into a toilet block? Where were all the port racks? They took them away. Students can't leave their bag in one place anymore because other kids steal things. They carry their bag from class to class and never let it out of their sight.

I had a great secondary school education at Bundy High. And I'm proud of the fact that I did so at a state school. At that time unless you were Catholic (which we weren't) you didn't even consider going to the Catholic high school. Now it's packed and highly competitive to get into. There were no other independent high schools. Now Bundaberg has two more. And for many parents these are the first choice. Perhaps that explains the tiredness of the school, the cheap paint jobs, and the peeling paint on other buildings. There wasn't much that was shiny and new. Many buildings looked a bit grim. Who knows? Maybe it looked like that when I was there too and I didn't notice. I don't think it did me any harm anyway.

Dreaming of my very own Josh Lyman

Thank goodness it was Friday today. And now for a wonderful long weekend. For the first time in forever I have no assignments to do and I have not brought home any marking or work things. I do have a conference paper/presentation to put together but I'm hoping that will be fun!

The other thing that is happening over the weekend is the centenary celebrations of my high school. I have just discovered that the concert I thought I was playing in is on Sunday evening, not Saturday. That is a relief. I thought I was going to have practice tonight! Instead, I shall continue my West Wing-a-thon and dream of meeting my very own Josh Lyman.

Tomorrow I am going to wander around my old high school. There may be photos of old classrooms, and bench seats. You have been warned.

Two ice creams in one day

Just right, muesli and milk, Green vanilla tea, Mandarin, Cous cous and tuna, Banana, Honey nougat bar, Ice cream sandwich, Cup of tea, Potato wedges with sour cream, Lamb korma and rice, Caramel magnum.

It's the music you see.....

Today being Wednesday saw the regular afternoon of piano teaching. As usual I raced home from work in time to make the music room tidy enough that people could walk into without tripping over music stands, instrument cases and other bits and pieces. I quickly made my cup of tea and settled in for three hours of surprises.

First up are the brother and sister. They have been learning for a couple of years. Still in primary school, they did their first official exams a couple of weeks ago. Since then they have been firing on all cylinders piano-wise. I have given them a new piece every week for the last fortnight and each week they have returned to their next lesson with it COMPLETE, HANDS TOGETHER, THE LOT. All you music teachers out there will know that rarely, if ever happens. Today was no exception. What joy it was!

Then my newest student arrives. He is 8 and preparing for his first exam in September. He takes everything vey seriously, and is something of a perfectionist. That's alright by me. I like it when students make a mistake and go back and do it again without me having to tell them to.

Then, my longest serving student who is preparing for her A.Mus diploma in September. This is an hour lesson that can be quite full-on as she is playing at a very advanced level. I have to put my brain fully into gear for this. It's wonderful to think and talk about music in such a concentrated way.

Lastly, is one of my three adult students. Sometimes, with all my adult students we make the mistake of starting to chat and suddenly the lesson time is gone. This happened today. But luckily he is the last of the day so we made up the time and I finished about 7.

As always, time flew by. Strangely, that always seems to happen even when I am less than enthusiastic about starting because work has been a pain, or I'm tired, or I'm out of sorts. It's the music you see. It makes things better.

what Frank Black said...

I will save my fascinating post about my excursion to the Fairymead House Sugar Museum until tomorrow. For today was totally overtaken by a revolting headache that I woke up with and still have now. (yes I have taken painkillers). So I give you this instead. It's all I'm up to.....

Acceptable: 7/10 for discipline

Last night I went to my parents for dinner and because I've been working with my lovely group on our proposal for a local history cultural heritage collection I asked about a photo I remember seeing in an album of my grandma's. My dear mum went and dug it out. It's a photo of my mum as a toddler at her grandparents' farm at Apple Tree Creek. The family are all sitting on a wooden sled kind of thing, that is being pulled by a big draught horse. After my Grandpa died, and my Grandma moved to a retirement village my Mum cleaned out all their photos and bits and pieces. I was horrified to see what my Grandma had done to her old photos from when she was young...for some reason she had cut them out of their original photo albums so there are all these weird shaped pieces of cardboard with photos still stuck on both sides. We found a photo of my Grandma going to her debutante ball in the late 1930s. She was quite glamorous! We also found all my Grandpa's war documentation, including the will he had to write in 1939. He had also kept some amazingly grotesque cards from his Sunday School teacher, a photo of himself at 15 with his premiership winning football team (most likely in Childers) and some photos of himself walking along the main street of Childers in a very dashing striped jacket and slicked back hair. There were photos of his beloved cars. Until the day he died he took immaculate care of his cars. (I would be an immense disappointment to him in this regard I fear). And there was also a photo of another woman who, family history has it, he was close to marrying, before he met my Grandma. The other woman looks very jolly. (I'll leave it at that I think). We also found my Grandma's high school reports from Bundy High from 1936 and 1937 as well as her workbooks from teacher's training college and the inspector's reports from when she was teaching. It seems like at teacher's training college she spent most of her time preparing an anthology of poetry in her finest penmanship. And her inspector's reports all said the same thing. Acceptable. 7/10 for discipline.

Blind mice, Brahms, books and Belafonte (with added Muppets)

Ah Sunday...a day of blind mice, Brahms and books. I began the day by getting up late, eating a nutritious yet slightly horrible breakfast of cereal,music and yoghurt (yoghurt because I ran out of milk yesterday and forgot to buy any at the shops). Then I raced through the shower, jumped in the car and went to a rehearsal for concert that is next Saturday night. Next Saturday night, my high school alma mater, Bundaberg State High School, is celebrating its centenary. That's right, 100 years old. Pretty old when you think about. Anyway, as part of the "festivities" they're having a concert on Saturday night. It's all been a little bit last minute but I'm playing a piano duet with the conductor of our choir (who is also an excellent pianist). She was a music teacher at Bundy High many moons ago. I student there for five years not quite so many moons ago, but still, quite a few moons now. We are playing a cute piece we have played before "Three Blind Mice go to Mexico" by Sonny Chua who is a contemporary Australian composer. It is what it sounds like. Three Blind Mice with a Mexican flavour. It's fun, not actually that simple, and a little bit silly. Even though the piece last about five minutes, the rehearsal went for nearly two hours. Because, of course we had to chit chat in between. That's the best bit of rehearsals really I think. Then it was home, for a spot of lunch, a little bit of laundry, some reading about weeding digital library collections and I was off out again to choir practice. Yes! I know, choir is Monday night. But seeing that we have a concert in two weekends time, and the Brahms chorus from the German requiem is a little bit iffy in places, we all gave up two hours on a Sunday afternoon for some extra practice. Brahms did improve. Goodness gracious though he didn't like tenors - so high! And, this week I really must bring my piano folders into the house (out of the car where they usually live) and practice the blasted accompaniment. I'm constantly missing a flat here and there at some vital moment. Stupid orchestral reductions for piano. They never work! What was the other thing? Oh yes! Books...when I got into town I remembered that the Bundaberg Library book sale had been on all weekend and was about to finish in 15 minutes. That was more than enough time for me to spend 10 dollars and get four lovely hard copy books. I'll probably never read them...but really, you can never have too many books. Or can you? And with that, it seemed entirely appropriate that after attending a "weeding" event from the Bundaberg Library, that I came home and managed to put something together for our assignment on weeding our proposed, imaginary collection for the Bundaberg Library. See, see how things come full circle and are all connected. I'll leave you with one final B.... Belafonte...we are singing this song in our concert too...It's about connections as well.

Wendy spends the day at her desk

Wendy gets involved in exciting things: the crowd sourcing post

So I was working away on my Collections Management assignment, doing some research and reading about crowd sourcing in libraries when I got totally distracted and inspired. I follow Amanda Palmer on twitter. For weeks and weeks I had been watching her tweets and retweets her kick-starter project roll by. Sure I'd taken notice but I hadn't been compelled to actually bother to take part in it. Then all the stuff about libraries employing crowd sourcing techniques to take them into the 21st century suddenly took hold and before I knew it I had created a kick-starter account, made a contribution and tweeted it out to the world. I also sent Amanda Palmer a message explaining the reason for my contribution. What she will make of it I have no idea. Anyway, then soon after my tweet the excellent @misspoppysmith urged me to go to possible to support what you see below. And I did. Without hesitation. What's all this got to do with anything. I'm not quite sure yet. But I'll keep thinking about it. What I do think is that we are on the cusp (or perhaps in the middle) of a change to the way the arts in all their amazing forms operate in our culture. Participation, engagement, involvement - all these things are forces that will hold our communities together when elsewhere it seems to be fracturing. If I can play a small part in that then that must be good.

church pews, old school pride, marking, soup

So in the interests of getting my blogging mojo back I've decided to #blogjune. This means I have to post something every day in June. Today being June 1, I thought I should start off on the right foot. Actually, yesterday being May 31 I actually thought I would be ultra organised and schedule a post for today which will hopefully appear later this evening. Already, I'm ahead of the game! What's been happening today I hear you ask? Well, I woke up with the same icky sore throat as yesterday. I rejoiced in the fact that I could work from home because I am marking, marking, marking essays. I also did some work on my assignment for Collections Management. Lunch was soup. Minestrone. Out of tin. Edible but not delicious-to-die-for-edible. I have drunk numerous cups of tea and coffee (decaf only on the coffee front), responded to Moodle postings from my students, been called on a short teleconference about markers for next term. I also railed quietly to myself at my stupid work email which is full and won't let me reply until I can get to work to manually archive emails. It's supposed to do this automatically but mine never does. Annoying. Basically, I was afraid to stray too far from my desk in case I fell asleep which is what always happens when I sit on a comfy chair while working from home. Now I have to do some piano practice on a duet that I'm playing in a concert next Saturday night. It's the 100th anniversary of my high school and they're having a concert. Goodness knows why I agreed to take part. Old school pride or something I suppose. And then I am going to play the viola, have another cup of tea and continue my West Wing marathon with an episode or two. I was going to go to a lovely chamber music concert that is on tonight in the Anglican Church but (1) I don't feel like snuffling through a concert in a draughty church and (2) the pews are the most uncomfortable in the whole world. You have to be feeling really full of strength to cope with them. I'm serious...you would have to go a long way to find more uncomfortable church pews. And that my friends, is Friday.