The busy week.

OK - you'll need to bear with us on the next recap for a couple of days.

As you've been reading, it's been  an exceptionally busy week... and I think it's finally caught up with us.  A pair of tired lads, to be sure.
We had Waimea College open house Monday, Nelson Boys Wed night, and Guys and Dolls last night..
This week has also seen a return to itinerant, menial labour (i.e. paying the bills), and the usual volleyball Thurs, doing a combo on the ever increasing body niggles.
Others have endured "open house week" with; daily training for next week's cross-country meet, walking home from the bus stop (Work those calves!), and playing an absolute blinder of a basketball game last night.  Far and away, the most inspired and focussed game so far.  It was only a bit of rim and some hard luck, that separated him and double digits.  Yeaaaaah Boyyyy!
So we hope you don't mind, while we recover a bit.

For objectivity's sake, I'll withhold any details about Nelson Boys night, and instead mention a few add-ons from the Waimea night that we've recalled, and maybe some other info-bits that have been queried -

• Not only does Waimea have the renowned Nick Sharpe teaching there, the music department has a professional recording studio to boot.  For the year 9 music unit, every student receives a CD of their final 12 bar blues performance.
• Bonus! The boy's first assignment in said class is already done.  We stopped by after the tour to say "Hi" to Nick, checking out the music room in more detail, and happened to be flipping through the course guidebook.  The first page was a series of questions to be answered after a viewing of The Blues Brothers.  Something along the lines of- Which singer, who played the diner owner and sang "You Betta' Think", was known as the queen of soul?    Sorted.
• They've got a ska band.
• Also on staff is Jack Redpath, local volleyball demi-god and coach extra-ordinaire.  No pressure son.   
• Unsubstantiated rumour has it that waimea is 2nd largest high school in NZ!
• Along the BIG school lines... If you remember the story of watching the headmasters' opening address by video link - Keep in mind, that was the first of two sessions that night.  A Huge school.
• Also keep in mind "High school" here lasts for 5 years.  So don't get too freaked out by the numbers.

There is a government agency here in NZ called the Educational Review Office, that does precisely that - regularly reviews all the education providers in the country.  Those of you who would like to do more study about this topic, can do so in your own time - here.

Tip - While you are there you might want to take a look at the review for Upper Moutere School that is hot of the presses.  According to a recent congratulatory Dear Parents letter from one of the board members; the school has just received the best possible review.  (It should probably come as no surprise that this letter writer also happens to be head of the Nelson Chamber of Commerce.)  Such eloquence should do Voltaire proud.

OK -   Spoiler alert!
Just one little leak from Nelson Boys night -

• In the, all important and much anticipated:      "Open House -  Treats " category...          Nelson Boys scored a shocking 0              I know.    Gasp!

One further completely-unrelated thing:
If any of our readers out there are curious as to how a political cartoonist, at a small(ish) town-newspaper, out in the wop-wops;  would view some recent tragic events -

What I don't understand is:   If this pretty regular guy (the cartoonist, not me for god's-sake), half way around the world, can get it.... what's it gonna' take??  I've lived through too many of these "moments of silence" already!
(See the body shape?  It's that elephant again!)

In many regards, I think the best thing we can all do now... is pray Burg takes a long time to decide where to go to school, so that I don't run out of relatively benign subjects to blog about.  Because none of us really want to go in that territory : )

Apologies to anyone who finds my tone excessively facetious.  
A few blogs back, I mentioned something about this blog acting as a, most likely, futile attempt at maintaining a whisker of sanity in an increasingly f___'d up world.  (Sorry, mom)
This author is a firm believer in the therapeutic benefits to be gained by occasionally laughing in the face of madness.

Waimea College recap

Sometimes the simplest way is the best.  It's certainly easier this way!

The mission...

OK - Let's open with a photo,

The Big Three

A reprint of last week's report -

Some of you have been asking about the process of Burg choosing a high school, so thought I would share a little something.   And even it you're not one of those... you still might like the link.  The accent is close enough.

Last night was the first of 4 "Open Houses" (at 3 schools).  You know the drill: speeches by the principal and selected teachers, smiling male and female student representatives, a tour of the grounds... I've even heard rumours of fancy cheese in the French class.  Ooooh-la-la!

Anyway, during a rather captivating speech by the principal about teenagers and their  "special" needs, he suggested that all parents should watch the following...  (see above). 

I think it's safe to say that Larry Ching, at Waimea College, has set the bar VERY high for his peers in the best principal category.

Hopefully more to come,

And then, we'll just jump right in....

It will probably be best to go straight to the report on the Motueka High School open house, and then occasionally interrupt with some background materials, as needed.  OK?

Last Thurs. evening, Mot. High had  the first formal "open house",  out of the total of 3 we'll be attending.  We have decided to attend three different schools' events (he has a total possible choice of 5 diff. schools!).  But it has really always been a two school race, with Mot. High as a distant third.  Any Kiwi readers will be nodding knowingly by now.  Unfortunately, Mot. has long suffered the "poor cousin" stigma.   It was largely pushed as being the smaller school alternative, but also has been receiving a lot of positive local "buzz" recently.  A few of Burg's friends go there, including the talented, and familiar no doubt to our readers - Ella.  I know one of the biology teachers there, quite well... Actually, those of you familiar with my erstwhile tuba dabblings, might recognize Leslie as being a member of the renowned "Dream Team."  All in all, nothing but good things coming out of Mot. High these days.

Now, out of fairness, we have decided to withhold any critical commentary, until all three open houses have been completed.  At which time, it will become a battle to the death. Sorry, guess I've been playing XBox too.  
However, that won't stop me from making a few quick "observations", will it?

• Definite highlight of the evening was the uniform "fashion show" complete with catwalk.  Really clever, fun, and showed off Mot's strength in the arts well.  Now here's Alistair and Kaitlyn modeling the senior sports kit....  Priceless!
• Didn't get to a French class yet, but Food Tech had a selection of yummy bikkies on offer.  Although, a rather embarrassing batch came out during our time there : (
• Burg did mention he was generally pleased with the amount and distribution of lollies and sweets throughout the evening.
• It will be interesting to see how the resourcing of the science labs will compare with the two larger schools.  Enough said there, for now.
• It can be said that Waimea College, still retains the lead in the preferred principal race.

• Notes - 

• When a Kiwi goes to high school - it's referred to as "college".   After which is "Uni".
• And the answer is - Yes.   All 3 of the schools have uniforms! 

Now, one last thing before we go prepare for this afternoon's Open House.... a plea of sorts.
Please:     ask questions, make comments, make (polite) criticisms, subtly lobby your  personal favourite, whatever!
If nothing else, it may help provide some much needed, structure to the next post : )
Thanks!

So the thought did occur to me -  Does every "really-wish-they-could-write" writer at some moment get to the point where they just can't ignore the proverbial elephant in the room, the perfect storm of events, where they just HAVE to sit down and write?  (Even if it is in rambling, run-on sentence structure... Get used to it).  Where there is yet another  good reason to finally sit down and do it properly?
Well the elephant in our case, is the story of young Master Burgess and his journey in choosing a high school. I know... can ya' believe it?  It's quite a different process than some of us remember, our illustrious editor, foremost.  I never really had a choice; you live here -you go there. Not to mention; coed vs. all boys.  Yikes!  The"season" really kicked off last week and the open houses will wind up this coming week, with decisions required by late Aug.  So, it's going to be fast and furious (for me) posting for a bit, or... I'll just chicken out, as it were, and this'll be the last post for another year or so : )
Burg has already agreed to design a new layout. (By putting this in writing, maybe I'll guilt him into doing it).  Which by the way, is also one of the main motivating factors for me to continue writing-  I've told enough people in the past few days "I REALLY need to get this stuff down on the blog... yada-yada"...   OR  Maybe it's a cumulative thing. You can only say that so many times... and it finally just ticks.  Dunno'
But if that's the case... what's that elephant doing in my room?


OK - that may be the perfect intro for a quick disclaimer,  then we'll get everyone up to speed with where we're at in our adventures of the dashing lad (by reprinting the original email that many of you have already seen)... and then...
then I'll have to go upstairs and, in all manner, tear him away from his new XBox game and try and leave enough time for those images to subside so that he can go to bed.  Ah, the joys of parenting in the 21st century.  (And that, ladies and gentleman is the first of no doubt, many, not so subtle, recurring themes we'll be seeing.)


Disclaimer:  I think I'm supposed to say something here about, the thoughts expressed are entirely my own... yada-yada.
But instead,  how about some handy tips for our readers?

• The thoughts expressed... oh, wait.
• Yes, I know the focus of the blog, at least initially, has to do with a getting a proper education.
• Yes, I know that a lot of you readers out there, are/have been teachers.
• Yes, I am very aware that there, are/have been/will be, grammatical and      punctuational(?)  atrocities committed.  Once again... Get used to it. (I guess I should be thankful my Dad's not around to critique this!)
• Oh yes, as we saw earlier... there will be a fair number of really poor jokes, or attempts thereof.  (You there, dad?)  Those with a low pun threshold are advised to read elsewhere.
• Please keep in mind some of these may be written after a long day of parenting in the 21st century (see?), some in the middle of the night when I can't sleep, some, OK - most after a glass of wine.  (OK - two. Geez!)  You get the point - They may not always make sense, or in some cases, even remotely resemble rationality.  But I try.
• Please remember to keep tongue firmly in cheek - at all times.  Mine most certainly is!

As I see it, not only will the blog serve as a hopefully entertaining way to keep you all up to date on some big events in a somewhat foreign system, but also hopefully a fun way for me to blow off some steam into the blogosphere and retain some semblance of sanity when faced with a teenager of the 21st century -  as seen in our first video clip.

See... we're back to that elephant again.

ooops...Bedtime!

aah crap.  Just when all the stars align, and there is the perfect subject with which to restart the blog (i.e. Burg choosing a high school)... I fire up the computer, the muse is with me... and I see that , jesus, how many people, were just killed at a movie theatre in Aurora, Co.!??????

I've been to the movies in Aurora.

 Kia kaha.

Hopefully, I'll find the resolve at some point to come back and just delete this post.

Coming soon...!

Stay tuned...

As soon as things stop spinning, we'll be back with a whole new look.

(Nice form!)

An update! (Albeit, a lame one.)

They say a picture's worth a thousand words...

Unfortunately, we need far more than that right now.