I-Sockey

iSockey

I can safely say that I know a lot about a lot of sports. I could hold a genuine conversation about all the main ones and most of the rest. At some time or another I have watched (or heaven forbid, played) almost every sport there is. But when I was invited to a game of Ice Hockey yesterday, I found my knowledge of sport left me wanting. This was one game I had never watched, and I didn't know the rules! Of course I knew about the Stanley Cup- it's hard to miss, but especially because it featured on an episode of Boston Legal once- but the only teams I had really heard of were the Canucks and the Penguins- what a great name for a sports team! Anyway, I happily accepted the invitation, eager to augment my all-round sorting knowledge! I have a couple of friends who are Ice Hockey buffs, but it's pretty rare here in New Zealand- most of them are ex-pats. My year 8 maths teacher was Candian and loved his Hockey, though I didn't like him and very little of what he said- about Hockey or Maths- rubbed off onto me. So, not wanting to be completely clueless, I actually went and looked up the rules online. Yes, I'm that sort of person. It was complicated by the fact that there are differing playing conditions, but I did get a greater grasp of the way the game was played, which served me well in the end.

The Rink

So Sunday afternoon I headed out to the Paradice rink in Botany, to watch the local boys the Botany Swarm take on the Southern Stampede, from Queenstown. I am very grateful to my girlfriend for inviting me- she had gone to her first game the day before and loved it, so she decided to go back and bring her friends! On her (very sound) advice, I dressed very warmly, with seemingly a million layers, plus scarf and beanie. As soon as I got inside I realised how sound that advice was- it was pretty arctic in there! As soon as you sat down, you felt the cold settle in- right down to your marrows! But it was well worth it to see the game!

Millions Of Pucks

The action is amazingly fast-paced; these guys were pros, some of them imports, so they were very good at what they did. It was impressive seeing how natural skating was to them- even the referees! The players warmed up for a bit before the game, which was a show in itself. Seemingly a million pucks appeared out of nowhere and all at once they started speeding around, passing and shooting at will. During the game you only have 6 guys out there, but everyone was warming up now so the rink was packed! The Swarm goalie was really good though and they hardly got one past him- until they all mobbed him at once!

The Restart

Pretty soon the game proper got under way- at lightning speed. It took a while to get used to following the puck around, it moved so quickly! Some of the passing was incredible, especially the way they used the sides and the back of the rink- I can't think of any other sport that allows that sort of freedom. It certainly was a physical game- sure they had padding, but they needed it. Every time two or more players were heading towards the side of the rink, you could tell someone was going to get smacked into. They didn't seem to mind it too much- all part of the game! There were a couple of nastier moments when guys carried on a bit, and one time a player raised his elbow to another's head- each time they were sent to the naughty boy's corner, the penalty box. 

In The Naughty Corner!

We were lucky enough, as newcomers to the game, to be sitting next to some friends who could explain all the facets of the game- the tactics, the penalties, the signals etc. One of them was actually a Canadian import who plays for the Swarm, but he was currently injured and had retreated to the stands to offer 'support.' He was certainly very vocal- he certainly let the referees know when they were wrong. He even mentioned that one was 'fresh from the zoo' in his black and white stripes, which I thought was rather funny. He was really helpful though and gave some insights into the team and the game.

Face/Off

The game itself was pretty impressive; the Swarm got out to an early 2-0 lead, after dominating much of the early stages. The Stampede worked their way back into the game and were quite effective on the counter-attack. Their first goal came just seconds after the Swarm almost scored again at the opposite end. The Swarm struck back to have the score at 3-1, going into the final period. They scored again right at the start of the third period, which was lucky because they had a bit of a meltdown towards the end. Two late goals saw an anxious last few moments, with the Stampede pushing for an equalising goal. The Swarm held out, however, and registered a well-deserved win.

Transformer Goalie!

The goalies were probably the coolest players out there- they looked like mini-transformers with all their pads on. Despite the huge bulky adornments, they managed to be amazingly flexible. More than once they had to go down on all fours, or do the splits just to save a goal. It was impressive watching  them warming up- which doubled as

Doing The Splits!

a manoeuvre to rough up the ice! Before every period the big zamboni would come out and do wheelies on the rink, but it made it a bit too slippery for the goalies! They tried to avoid having to hit the ball at all really, though they had a really cool oven-glove-like mitt that they could actually catch the puck in- they certainly made some amazing catches! Other times they would dive forward and smother the puck to kill the play!

I really had a fun time at the game- it was fast an exciting and more than made up for the cold and the hard seats! Never before had a hot chocolate tasted so good than when I had one during the break. They must make a killing with those! Anyway after the game we made a speedy exit and went out for a really nice dinner to cap off a pretty exceptional day! Here are some more photos!

The Zamboni

Stuck In The Ice?

Celebrating The Win!

Some Nice Sportsmanship!

March 15th 44 B.C.

This is a rehash of a post I made a long time ago, thinking I would make a whole separate blog of them- that failed quite nicely! Anyway, enjoy my recreation of the assassination of Julius Caesar- if they had had twitter! 


Timeline

JCaesar Gaius Julius Caesar
Just popping down to the forum for another boring day's work.. 
10:00 AM Mar 15, 710 AUC
 
Sooth_Sayer Mr For Sooth
@JCaesar Beware the Ides of March!!! #quotable
11:00 AM Mar 15, 710 AUC
 
JCaesar Gaius Julius Caesar
Crazy people in the streets... what has Rome come to?
11:10 AM Mar 15, 710 AUC
 
JCaesar Gaius Julius Caesar
Why on earth am I going to a theatre named after Pompey? Who won the bloody war anyway?
11:25 AM Mar 15, 710 AUC
 
mAntony Marcus Antonius 
Damn it @JCaesar answer your phone!
11:30 AM Mar 15, 710 AUC
 
JCaesar Gaius Julius Caesar
Why do I have to wait in this damn broom cupboard? OH NO not Cinna.. he has such bad breath! #doyouevenfloss
12:00 PM Mar 15, 710 AUC
 
JCaesar Gaius Julius Caesar
Is this a dagger which I see before me? 
12:15 PM Mar 15, 710 AUC
 
JCaesar Gaius Julius Caesar
ET TU @MJBrutus?!?
12:17 PM Mar 15, 710 AUC 
 
MJBrutus Marcus Junius Brutus  
The wife is going to kill me when she sees the dry-cleaning bill...
12:20 PM Mar 15, 710 AUC
 
GCassius Gaius Cassius Longinus
Caesar is dead, we can all be free!
12:25 PM Mar 15, 710 AUC
 
PSCasca Publius Servilius Casca Longus
Freedom for all now Caesar is dead!
12:25 PM Mar 15, 710 AUC
 
GCassius Gaius Cassius Longinus
Gee @PSCasca that was original!!
12:25 PM Mar 15, 710 AUC

mAntony Marcus Antonius 
Cry havoc and let slip the cats of war!
1:30 PM Mar 15, 710 AUC

mAntony Marcus Antonius 
No, wait- dogs of war. That sounds much better #scratchthat
1:30 PM Mar 15, 710 AUC

Octagon Gaius Octavius Thurinus
Hey guys, what's up? Did I miss something?
2:20 PM Mar 15, 710 AUC

My Babies!!

Our more-complicated-than-Normandy moving house continues; this past weekend we practically emptied out our entire garage and transferred it into a shed which is a tenth the size. I was quite impressed at how easily we achieved that, and especially because it involved throwing out a lot of rubbish! It also meant I got to climb up a ladder and retrieved things stashed away in the roof of the garage, which was an ironic inversion of a few weeks ago when I went under the house.

Enough To Drive You Potty!

Anyway, another part of out move involved shifting our entire collection of pot plants, which was no mean feat. These included huge terracotta monsters, as well as a plethora of pointy sharp cacti ready to eviscerate you at the smallest slip. And there was pot upon pot of bloody half-dead orchids, which we had only a few years before moved the other way. Anyway, amongst these I found an old friend- my very own Cabbage Tree. I had all but forgotten it existed, but there it was sitting in a pot (though not potted, it was still in a plastic bag). 

Bit Of A Lean

Upon seeing this, it reminded me of my two other plants, which are actually planted at the house I am moving to. So I went up to see them and boy had they grown! Cabbage trees obviously grow a lot more slowly, because these other two were pretty much full-blown trees. One was a bushy Coprosma and the other a Kowhai tree, which has developed quite a lean over the years. Seeing these old friends brought back some memories, so I thought I'd share their origins!

Way back when in year 7, my year group made Science Fair projects. No, not your nerdy-American-kid-building-a-rocket science fair project, but actual scientific, research-based projects with a great deal of technicality and insight required. I was lucky enough to have a great deal of help from my Mother, who not only teaches science but runs her school's Science Fair and helps run the main Auckland competition. Since I was in the Manukau one, there was no conflict of interest.

Anyway, I had had an idea once looking through a book of science projects; there was one where you planted a seed and covered it with plastic. The condensation that formed on the plastic would then help water the plant. An interesting idea, which I adapted to my own context. The previous year I had seen my brother win an award at the finals, during which I noted there was a prize for a project with native New Zealand plants. Being the enterprising young person that I was, I decided my project should make use of native seeds!

The Coprosma Bush

So I went about collecting information and seeds; I settled upon Kowhai, Comprosma, Cabbage Tree and Flax seeds. I planted them in ice cream containers, quite closely packed in neat little rows. I would analyse them, measure them and look after them with all the care of a mother hen. The focus was really on assisting germination, and the system worked in some way or another. I can hardly remember the results but there was something of an increase in success rates. So all the information was graphed and presented on a project board; the best part of it was the nice job of painting it I did. Come the awards, I came away with a Highly Commended in my category and I did win that prize I was aiming for. 

Smaller Than The Other Kids

In the aftermath I was left with quite a lot of seedlings, which was something of an issue. I didn't want just to throw away these plants I had raised from seeds, but I couldn't plant them all at home. So eventually when they started to grow too big, we planted the good ones in those black potting bags to give them some more room. Eventually, the opportunity arose to donate them to a planting initiative out East near Whitford. I knew they were going to a good home, but to keep me from missing them too much, we kept three. Two of those we planted when we moved house, the other stayed in it's bag. And to this day they are still going strong. 

So that is the story of my babies- forgive me for neglecting them of late, but they've done gone and growed up all of a sudden, and moved out! At least I can keep a closer eye on them now!

Q.E.D. 

If You Didn't Like Billy Joel Before...

You will after you listen to these awesome live recordings!!! By request, here are couple of the numbers from his album Songs In The Attic, which I recently bought!

Captain Jack- play it loud and hear the crowd surge with the music. It'll make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck!

Say Goodbye To Hollywood- I fell in love with this recording of the song the moment I heard it. Fantastic backing harmonies in the chorus, it's so lively and happy!

  

Miami 2017- Super awesome, post-apocalyptic-themed song! Has some scary resonances with the 9/11 attacks, since it was written 30 years before. Billy sang it as a tribute to the victims at the Concert for NYC.

Those are the three awesome songs from the album. The rest are pretty good too!! Here are a couple more I'll throw in because they're cool and I've also just learned how to embed youtube videos! 

The Stranger- Definitely one of his most underrated songs, this one is awesome and comes from (probably) his best album, of the same name!

 

Stiletto- Another great underrated song, from the awesomely cool jazzy album 52nd Street. 

So there you go- some great Billy Joel songs! But believe me, there are plenty more where that came from. If you can listen to all of them and tell me you don't like him, then you're a brave person indeed!

Q.E.D. 

Love Story

First you love her; she can do anything, and everything she does is amazing. Slowly you get used to her and start to want more out of her. You only want her to do the things you want and when you want to. Then she starts to play up and she doesn't want to do what you want. You get annoyed, frustrated and then angry. You hit her until she does what you want, but the harder you hit her, the more she plays up. Eventually you go too far, so you dump her and move on to a new, better looking one. The cycle continues, and cannot stop because you are as dependant as they are. But that's not how it should be.

It's never, ever, ever ok to hit your computer. 
Even if it jams every second minute.
Prevent computer abuse! 









P.S. In writing this parody, I in no way condone any actions of physical or emotional abuse to women. Neither do I seek to belittle those campaigns seeking to prevent such abuse. In fact I support them wholeheartedly. The above is essentially a reflection of my current situation, in which I have found myself hitting my computer when it jams. Please don't take any offence, because none is intended!

A Finishing Touch And A Touching Finish

I don't like the way my blog posts end; they all tend to trail off from substantive discussion and end up in an overly moralising, didactic tone. And that really bugs me. Often by the time I get to the end of the post, I seem to have lost interest in it and I struggle to find a way to finish it off. I don't want just to stop abruptly. That is too forceful, unless there is a specific effect you are trying to

Anyway, recently I have been signing off my posts with Q.E.D. I think it's a nice touch, referencing the title but also giving it a sense of a signature. That still doesn't help with the content though. The thing I find particularly annoying is that I especially dislike a moralising tone in a piece of writing, yet I seem to slip into it far too easily. Personally, I enjoy things which end in an unexpected way; however if that happened too often it would become rather cliche. I do enjoy a good twist now and then, so watch out!

I've always wanted to write a story like that; for example, I envisage one where you would be drawn towards the main character and his success throughout the book, only to find out in the end he was a 'bad guy.' It would be similar to the way The Godfather develops; however it would be done in a much more subtle way and you wouldn't realise until the very end. I haven't yet though of a way to pull this off, but the idea still remains. Another involved writing a novel with parallel story-lines- you get alternating chapters- and it builds up so you think that they will meet at the heroic climax, but they walk down different streets or something similarly surprising and thought-provokingly unfulfilling.


I my final year of school, my English class read The Guide by R.K.Narayan. This book, set in India, takes you through the life of the bumbling yet lovable main character Raju. The story moves backwards and forwards in time, and eventually culminates in a thrilling climax. The reader is left desperate to know how the story will end. NOTE: if you want to read it, which I do recommend, skip this bit so you can read it yourself. Anyway, the story reaches its absolute climax on the very last page and finishes in one completely ambiguous sentence. You are left without any strong indication of what will happen; it's perfect for English teachers to set essays for but it also an amazingly striking effect. I still remember reading that last chapter, I was physically rushing through it to get to the end, such was the anticipation that had been built up. If I could emulate something like that I would be proud. 

My final idea for a story is not original; it comes from a Douglas Adams novel- so you know it will be rather outlandish. In the fifth Hitchhiker's Guide book, Mostly Harmless, there is a scene where Arthur goes to the planet Bartledan in an effort to find human-like people. The Bartledanians are a lot like humans, except they don't wish for anything. Or breathe for that matter. I find it quite funny, and it is this passage in particular that interests me:

 "He had just read an entire book in which the main character had, over the course of a week, done some work in his garden, played a great deal of netball, helped mend a road, fathered a child on his wife and then unexpectedly died of thirst just before the last chapter. In exasperation Arthur had combed his way back through the book and in the end had found a passing reference to some problem with the plumbing in Chapter 2. And that was it. So the guy dies. It just happens.

"It wasn't even the climax of the book, because there wasn't one. The character died about a third of the way through the penultimate chapter of the book, and the rest of it was just more stuff about road-mending. The book just finished dead at the one hundred thousandth word, because that was how long books were on Bartledan."

I love this passage; for some reason, it speaks to me, in so many ways. I would love to write a book like that. Obviously it wouldn't be fun to read, but the point is it doesn't follow typical dramatic formulae, nor does it try to rework them in a clever way; instead it is striking because it deliberately lacks conflict and climax and all those bits. It just talks about normal stuff; ordinary people with ordinary life problems, and so on. It wouldn't be a great read but it would be very interesting to write. And the literary critics might get off on it too...


That's about all I have to say now.


Goodbye!!





Seriously, I'm not saying anything more.




¡Adiós! 


Q.E.D. 

Songs In The Attic

I did it again.. I went back to Real Groovy. I walked straight in, straight to the LP section, straight to J and dived into the Billy Joel records. It was Friday; it had been a long week, several long nights and a lot of work (for once; I had just had a mock-trial for my Law class which went really well and I was feeling very good about everything. Pretty good for Friday the 13th! In fact, on my way to the store, about 6 girls in black cat costumes ran past me. Not only that, they crossed my path. I didn't even think twice of it till afterwards!

My Existing Collection

Anyway, back to the records. As you may have read before, I already had 6 of them... But there was one in particular that I didn't have that I particularly wanted, Songs In The Attic. This is an incredible album because it is a collection of some of Billy Joel's best early pieces recorded live in 1980.  The venues ranged from a 300 seat club to the enormous reverberations of Madison Square Garden. On this album are two of the most amazing live songs you are likely to hear: Miami 2017 and Captain Jack. Hearing the reactions of the crowds to these amazing songs really makes the hair on your neck stand up. Very cool. I would seriously recommend it to anyone; if you don't like Billy Joel yet, you will after this!

I was very lucky to find a brand new copy of it- still in the original wrapping- which was at a second-hand price! This album more than any other has extensive notes on its production, as well as a number of photos of a Billy from his childhood to present. It was a fantastic buy and a real bargain. I then found another great album of his, An Innocent Man; each song on this album is a tribute to a different artist who influenced Billy in his youth. Ranging from Doo Wop to Motown, to Bob Marley, the album throws up some classics like The Longest Time and Uptown Girl. It also lead to the filming of what is probably the cringe-worthy music video of all time, Keeping The Faith. It's a good song, but that video is just.. *cringe*

So Worth It!

Aaaand while I was at it, I decided to get the only early album of his I hadn't yet got, Streetlife Serenade. While not as good as some of his others, it is still an excellent album and has many of his songs from his balladeer period. Fortunately for my bank account, I stopped at three. There are more there, but for now I have enough. I just don't have enough space for them all at the moment! Hopefully when I move house, I'll have somewhere to display them all. For now I'll just have to rotate them around! 

Stay tuned, I bought a membership card for Real Groovy so this won't be the last of it!

Q.E.D. 

I'm, Like, Famous!

So yeah, I'm pretty much famous now. I won a caption competition which, in my opinion, puts me pretty high up there in the land of stardom. Those of you lowly proles not to have reached such heights may scoff, but when your achievements parallel mine, then I'll talk to you.

In all seriousness though, I did win a weekly caption competition, at Leigh vs. Laundry. Gotta love that legal sounding name, though it's about anything but. Leigh is, as she puts it, "an inept throwback to the 1950′s housewife." One of the highlights of her blog is her 'Freakshow Friday' photo caption competition, which I just can't help but enter. And this week I won the special Mother's Day edition. You can see for yourself just how funny it was. Finally my intricate knowledge and use of sarcasm and scathing wit, as well as my rudimentary knowledge of American slang was useful!

So, for all my hard work and effort I put into it, I can now proudly display the fruits of my labour:

Now you know it for a fact, I am indeed the funniest blogger of them all. To celebrate, here's a deranged penguin! Cos that's how I roll.

Q.E.D.

Essay, Or Not Esse?

I'm not a great fan of University coursework; well no one who has to do it (or mark it for that matter) is a great fan of it, but I especially dislike it in relation to Latin, my Arts major. One of my lecturers agrees and thinks setting a coursework essay for Latin is ridiculous. Instead, since the University forces him to give us some sort of coursework, we have to study different parts of the text we are studying, outside of class. This works much better as far as I'm concerned, but alas other lecturers haven't caught on. So in the second semester last year, I had to write a coursework essay for our course on Cicero' Philippics. 

Lacking in motivation to do this, I put it off for some time. We were given a list of possible topics well in advance, which meant I really didn't look at them until the date was looming on the calendar. Eventually I decided to have a look at them; almost all of them seemed to require a great deal of research, which I really didn't want to do. So, I chose what seemed to be the easiest question. It basically involved a comparison of the two main speeches we had studied so far. One of these was a speech to the people, the other to the senate, so there was a number of ways you could compare the two.

Some Raw Data

When I started looking at the essay, about a week before it was due, I realised that I really had no idea how I was going to go about answering the question. So lacking in motivation to do anything else, I decided I would harness my OCD penchant for statistics and do some statistical analyses of the two texts. It was easy enough to analyse things like word length using a computer programme, but it was not as easy to count the number of times a particular word was used because Latin has many cases, and therefore the endings of many words change frequently depending on the circumstances. So, I decided to go through each one and count the words manually. That was no easy task; their combined length was over 300 words and I was counting several different things at once.

Click To Enlarge!

When eventually I had all the raw data, I tabulated and compared the stats to see what conclusions I could draw. I had gone into the exercise recalling a rather throw-away comment my lecturer had made, that Cicero used more subjunctive verbs when he talked to the senate. And guess what? The numbers added up! For those of you who don't have your BA in Latin, this basically means that the language he used was more complicated when he talked to the more important people. Or looking at it conversely, he dumbed the language down when he talked to the common people. This was further supported by the fact that, as the statistics proved, he used much shorter words for the plebs.

Anyway, I'm not here to bore you with statistics. What I'm getting to is the fact that this gave me the opportunity to do something very few people can say they have done- I put graphs in a Latin essay. Yes, I took the stats I had gathered, graphed them and included them in the essay.  Because of this, it was one of the most entertaining pieces of work I ever had the opportunity to hand in. I was lucky, in fact, to hand it in on time; I left writing the actual text of the essay rather late- a little too much time on graphs! So, the night before it was due, I finally settled down for an 'all-nighter.' Literally. I finished at 6am, which gave me time for a great 1 hour nap before heading off to university. Somehow I managed to survive the day, but I had no idea what the essay was actually like.

By the time the essays had been marked, it was the exam study break. I went in to collect the essay from the office, not particularly worried what the mark would be. I picked up the paper, walked out and flipped through it. To my great surprised I found that my mark was 28.5 out of 30, and my lecturer had specifically noted how he liked the statistics and the graphs. My natural reaction was to burst out laughing, which was slightly awkward because at that same moment, he happened to come walking past. I made a passing comment about the graphs and he reiterated his interest in it. Once he was out of earshot, I cracked up again.

I've Forgotten What Types Of Graphs These Are...

So what was at first a bit of fun became quite an interesting and revealing academic exercise. In the end, I was just stoked to get such a good mark for something I just didn't feel like doing! It just goes to show, sometimes learning can be fun! But only if you're taking the mickey..!

Q.E.D. 

My Other Hobby

If you read my blog, you may get the impression that I'm a sporty sort of person. While it is true that I'm a great lover of sports, I'm not in the least bit athletic- My Life In Sport is testament to that. I do have quite an artistic side to me, though the mind is often far more enthusiastic than it is talented. I have had some success, however, when it comes to singing. That may be surprising if you don't know me well; and even more if you do!! I'm not very good with music theory and I never took it as a subject. I have quite a small range as a singer and can't really sing anything you'd hear on the radio. But I have for several years now been trained in the more 'classical' art of singing, both in choirs and on my own.

My parents always thought I had a great singing voice (aww shucks) and so I had lessons from about year 7. However, I never really got into singing until it got pretty serious. Choir at school was pretty good, and when our school acquired one of the best choral directors going around, things began to move pretty quickly. By my final year of school, I was Head Chorister of the Chapel Choir and was accepted into The Graduate Choir, NZ which was taken by the same director. This was a great honour for me and it really got me thinking seriously about my singing. It also vastly improved my skills, especially sight reading!!


Around that time I also started with my singing teacher, whom I still learn from today. In 2008, my final year of school I took my first tentative steps towards performing, when I entered in the North Shore Vocal Competitions. That was quite an eye-opener; I was 16 in a 16-17 class and the competition was very good that year. I was very nervous and still remember shaking every time I got up to sing. I came away with one Highly Commended, for a song which did turn a few heads, so that was pretty good all things considered. But it was worth much, much more in terms of experience. 

My First Trophy!

When I entered the West Auckland competitions a few months later, I was much better prepared. I was also fortunate to be in a 14-16 years class, so I was the oldest participant. In what was a fairly uneven contest I managed to get three First places out of four songs; for the other, my Song In Costume, I received a lowly 'Commended,' because apparently I only looked at one part of the audience for the whole song, which happened to be where my parents were sitting. So I still learnt a lot that day. It was nice to come away with some prize money and a trophy though!

The next year, 2009, I set my sights on the South Auckland competitions; here I sang three songs, getting a First, a Second and a Third. I really enjoyed singing one song unaccompanied, it is quite an amazing feeling filling an otherwise silent hall with just your own voice. I also got great kudos when I decided at the very last minute that I would march on stage when I sang 'The Policeman's Song' from Pirates- the adjudicator made special note of it! The way they work the overall placings in these things is by allocating 5 points to a First, 3 to Second and 1 to Third. As it turned out, I ended up with the same number as another competitor, the only other male singer there. This meant they then tallied up the marks we received for each song, and with a stroke of luck I came out on top. I was pretty stoked to win but knew I was lucky also! Still, I had a lot to learn from it.

North Shore Winners 2010

2010 was quite an important year for my singing; I entered the North Shore competitions again, coming away with a Third place overall in what was a rather disappointing show. I was assured however, that the judging was very subjective and I could easily have won... but I don't dwell on these things, I always try to learn! Later that year I had the honour of being a soloist in a performance of Handel's Messiah, put on by my school's Old Collegians' Association. I sang the bass aria 'Why do the Nations.' Unfortunately I came away feeling I had done a better job in the rehearsal than the performance, but I was assured it was nevertheless ok. 

They Gave Us Roses!

Later that year I also entered a much more senior vocal competition, The Ron Dellow Memorial comeptition, with entrants from 18-28 years of age. I entered the heats more for the experience than anything else, but to my general amazement I made it through to the last 7 in the final. The finalists comprised almost entirely University music students, with many years experience and learning on their side. On the night, I managed to muck up my first song, but seemingly without anyone else knowing. I instantly thought I had blown my chances, so I decided just to enjoy it; once I stopped thinking about it as a competition, and more as something just to enjoy, it went a lot better. It was rather an uplifting feeling and I quite enjoyed the night. When it came to the results, I was amazingly surprised to be Highly Commended, which was in effect Third equal. That was a huge confidence boost for me!

At The North Shore Comps 2011

Fast forward to this year, and a couple of weeks ago I competed in the last Junior Vocal Competition I would be eligible for, at the North Shore competitions. It was a nice circular feeling, going back to the event where I began performing. My section was split over two nights, which made it quite a different experience. On the first night I had the dubious honour of performing the first piece- which was in fact the first item of the entire Music Festival- and I was placed Third. From there it was a case of close but not quite- I was placed Second in each of my next three songs; I was the only one to place in each category however. Following the point system I mentioned before, I once again tied for first place. But this time, luck wasn't on my side and I was 2 points (out of 400) behind the eventual winner. It was somewhat disappointing, but I had great support and felt happy about how I sang, regardless of the result.

Pearl Broad Memorial Cup

A couple of days later, I woke up to find a message on my phone, informing me that I had won a special award. The festival had an award for the Most Promising Vocalist aged between 16 and 19; because the 16-17 age group competed after mine, they couldn't award it until they had finished. Because I wasn't there the night they announced the winner, they asked me to come the next night so I could personally received the award from the Adjudicator. I was thrilled to do so, and they even asked me to perform one of my piece again. So back I went to the North Shore for the third night in four, but it was well worth it. Again I had great support from family and friends, which made it all the more enjoyable. 

Following on from that confidence boost, I have entered into the Senior sections of the upcoming West and South Auckland competitions. I also recently joined the Auckland Clef Music Club, to gain more performing experience, so I look forward to singing for them. I'm also looking to apply for a Grand Opera Society scholarship, as well as entering the Ron Dellow Memorial competition once more. All in all, it makes for quite an exciting future, which is really why I thought I would share all this with you. I really love singing and it can be so enjoyable! 

For me, singing went from a fleeting fancy to a real passion in my life in quite a short space of time. I remember I used to hear all the news at school about other people winning competitions and performing everywhere, and wonder why I couldn't be them. And the main reason it wasn't me was that I hadn't tried- you've got to be in to win, after all. You don't have to move mountains to do things that you love; you just have to put that love you have into it, and it will come back to you. Granted, with things like competitions, there is a great focus on competing, but it's the singing and doing what you love that is far, far more important. So that's why I'm writing this- not to blow my own trumpet, but to show you how things that seem distant and unattainable look a lot different, and easier, when you give them a go. If I wanted to be the best singer in the world, that wouldn't be easy. But to do what I love, that's something I can do and I am.

Q.E.D.