After arriving there at 6:40amish, we loaded the coaches and made our way off to Jindabyne (although, we did have to wait a couple of minutes for Kapilan to arrive…). On the road, we settled in for the long ride ahead of us, the long ride down to a McDonald’s along the way that is. Stopping for breakfast, we continued on to Coomba where we had lunch, and a rest from the long ride. After lunch, buses 3 & 4 went to the Snowy Hydro centre where we learnt about the scheme, while buses 1 & 2, after having their turn there, went for lunch.

After that stop, we continued onto Jindabyne, where we went to our accommodation and settled in for our stay. Dinner was ok, and the night-time activity was engaging (baulko themed quiz, where the teachers won, again… and bingo). Spent the time before dinner playing Poker with Simon, Lok, Ben and Daniel, where instead of using chips, we bet punches (the winner punched each person depending on the number of bets we placed… Simon’s punches hurt, a lot).

Our cabins were ok. Sleeping with Simon, Ben, Lok and Daniel (Lamp), it was a little while before we actually got to sleep after ‘lights out’ at 10:30pm. Waking up at 5:30am(ish) the next morning, after showering and getting ready for the day of work ahead of us (and waking up my friends, which took a while), we went to breakfast in the chilly morning. After learning from last night, we left early to be at the front of the line.

Breakfast was rather good (at least in my mind, then again, I think all the breakfasts at these camps are good), and the scrambled eggs were weird (I know they were powdered, but these were just tooo edible…). After breakfast, we left for the mountains near us, to begin our day of field research.

Buses 3 & 4 started work at the bottom and moved up. We met up with some National Park Guides who lead us through our research of the alpine environment. The group I was in had Jill, who answered many of our questions (Kapilan had many…), and certainly satisfied my curiosity.

After we completed our work with our guides, we had lunch at Perisher Valley, before Buses 3 & 4 had their Blue Lake Chalet debate. Ended up with Mr Cigana being bribed into letting the development go ahead, but with heaps of compromises (really though, how are you gonna pay for a chalet to be built at 2000m with HELICOPTERS? And prefabricated chalets won’t work if you don’t build the foundations… which need heavy machinery), which ‘pleases everyone’.

After this, we made our way up to Charlotte’s pass, where we got to see a rather great view before finishing off our field research booklets, and then running down towards the Snowy River to have a glimpse of it. Heading back towards town, we stopped off in the shopping centre of Jindabyne to buy some supplies and have an afternoon tea break. That night, my cabin played poker with lollies instead of punches, and Andrew Yap & Don joined us, before we had dinner (once again, we left early). After dinner, the night-time entertainment became stuffed up as they couldn’t get the DVD player to work properly (what a shame… We couldn’t watch a movie over PG anyway), and so we went back to our cabins to prepare for our last night (and frantically check that we’d finished our booklets). Playing Big2 before we went to bed, we all finally settled down to sleep, where Lok, Daniel and I stayed up till past midnight talking about the Halo series, while Ben and Simon actually went to sleep (and I thought that Simon was going to annoy us all night like he did the night before…).

Waking up at 5:30am(ish) again, this time my friends didn’t wake up early, and it wasn’t till after my shower that I managed to get any of them awake (I gave up on Lok and Daniel, and turned on the TV and lights to try to wake them, to which Lok woke, but Daniel needed a blast of music from a phone to wake him…), and then we hurriedly got ready to leave, and rushed off to be at the head of the breakfast line. Enjoying another breakfast, we left to prepare to leave our accommodation for our long trip back to school. Enduring the bus ride, we ended up in Canberra for lunch, where we had photos and Mrs Pigram announced to us her April Fool’s joke (although nearly half the grade had guessed that it was a joke).

Lunch saw many of us lining up in front of McDonald’s again, and as the buses left, we took the last, long, 4 hour leg of our trip home. Arriving back at 4:40pm(ish), bus 3 was the last to arrive. Apparently the bus drivers had made a bet on which way was the quickest back. I wonder how that ended… Finally home, after a long, tiring, enjoyable bus ride, I… immediately started unpacking and had a shower before kicking my brother off the computer to check my emails (I only had 12 unread!! How disappointing…), and then went off and had dinner before enjoying the rest of my night (and neglecting to finish unpacking =] well, I finished before I went to bed…).

So that is my quick, undescriptive view of Yr 10 camp. Oh, and I got 9 for my booklet. Meh. I didn’t put that much effort in it (BTW, it IS out of 10, not 20+) Oh, and I need to remember who’s birthdays it was. Mr Cigana & Bikram on the Monday… and who was on the Tuesday? Oh well… Happy birthday to you peoples!

Anyway, without consulting anyone what so ever, I’ve decided I’m gonna upload the video I completed. Unfortunately for Kevin Zhu and I, I’m uploading a version that I finished just this afternoon. The difference between this version and the one I showed in IST: music!!! Take away all the backing music except for Noots at the end, and that’s the basic original video. Oh, and Kevin, if you read this, I found the background file on my comp’s version, took a bit of digging around =]

I’ll update this post once I’ve uploaded it.
Edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxHiTQvTTU0

Anyhows, DoE Hike was great!!! Time for a recap! Now, for those of you who are EXTREMELY BORED, you can read this. For the rest, don’t bother.

If you’re reading this, you’re extremely bored, or willing to read my post. Thank you!

Thursday: I wake up at 5:40 am. Earlier than a normal Thursday for me (6:30 is a nice time to wake up). Have a shower. Yada yada. I frantically try to make sure I have all the stuff I need, pack the food into my bag, and off I go to school.

We eventually all turn-up at school before 8, and we get checked off and go to our buses. The 3rd bus took the longest to arrive, so some of us had to wait. Eventually, we were all on a bus, and off to Colo and Somerset. The bus trip was good, taking just as long as last time, and with everyone still being as noisy as ever.

Arrive, Unload, Meet up with Leader. Our leader this time was Tully!!  Yayz! Anywhos, we had a group talk, came up with a team name (Team Dandelions FTW!!) which was really random, and there’s a background story to it, but I won’t tell it. Ask Sandra. We packed our bags in ’10′ minutes (more like 20). And we planned our route. We deposited our bags in our bay, and OFF WE WENT…. 1 1/2 days of hiking.

Making our way along the track that runs parallel to the river, Deva and Anthony led us to the site called ‘Peach Tree’. From there, we made our way up the abseiling ‘hill’ and to the Gee’s Arm North Trail, with Stuart and Nicole leading the way. We decided to have lunch when we were just about at the top. Most of us had some sort of flat bread (Peta, Leb, you know) and tuna or ham or something. After that It was an easy walk along a trail till we got to a junction where the Gee’s Arm North Trail really started, and for that leg Jasmin and I ‘lead’ (following a trail, we didn’t have to do much). The next leg of the Gee’s Arm North Trail had us going along almost as fast as we could, with about 4 of us leading (I can’t remember who was SUPPOSED to be leading us for that). Drink breaks were nearly every half an hour.

Eventually we got to the next junction, where we moved onto the Ferrari Track. Going along here, we passed ‘Circumcision point’, down the mountain side again, and began the long trek along the road to the campsite ‘Reserve’ (a public camp site, with toilets….). Finally, by about 5:50, we got to our destination. Earlier, before we had left, Tully had got us to try and guess when we would arrive there, and many of us came up with times around 5:30 to 6 pm. In the end, it turned out that Jasmin was the closest (with 5:46:30). The next closest was 5:45 and 5:55, so she only just got it. The prize for the guess was a lollipop, and a flower Tully had found.

Setting up our tents, we got ready for dinner with group 10. They were extremely impatient with us, as they had left/arrived earlier than us, and were ‘starving’. All of us had our dinners, be it noodles, Continental packs, pasta, or something else.

Now is the point where I stop and give praise to Jasmin and her cooking skills (which neither Kapilan, Stuart or I could possibly ever match). She cooked the spagetti and the sausages in the tiny camping stove (renamed the ‘Trantular’ because none of us could remember it’s actual name), and then let Kappi, Sticky and I eat before her. How kind of her…. and she lived through everyone else bugging her for sausages, which we eventually gave them, cause we couldn’t be bothered eating them all.

Back to the camp… cleaning up was after that, and we feel that we did a pretty good job. Then we had some fun around the camp fire. Once again, Bryan and friends went crazy. Typical. Roasted marshmellows (normally called S’mores in the USA), Snakes and laughter filled the night, till we all had to go to bed. Our time to leave tomorrow morning was decided to be 7:45, so that by the time we actually left, it would be around 8.

Next day, we packed up, had breakfast, got ready, and made our way for Rikki’s gate. Along the road, looking for the certain gully to bush bash along, up the steep slope of the large hill, along the long long ridge with several 2 minute stops to find out where we were, and then, A TRACK!! Yay, slightly easier walking. We had found the fire trail. I have no idea who was, or was supposed to lead us for that leg, because I was at the back of the group with Mr Forsyth who had joined us.

For a while along the trail we went, untill we found the next trail we were looking for. Along this, for approx 20 minutes, and there it was, Rikki’s Gate!! We had made it, and intime for our 11 am pick-up. We talked as a group for a little while, a kind of Debrief, and then played a small game, before we loaded ourselves onto the mini-buses, and off to Somerset we went.

Back at somerset, some of us changed out of our sweaty clothes, and we unpacked our gear, aired out the tents, and cleaned out our rubbish. After that, we had lunch with the remains of our food. Finished at last, we packed our tents and then played games. Eventually our bus arrived, and we were the first group to get on, just as we were about to leave, the other 2 busses turned up. We went on our trip, with a loud game of Mafia going on up the back. Some of us were tired and rested, while others talked.

Stuart, through the trip, was filling up on ‘Cocaine’, which was actually Home Brand Icing Mixture. He thought he’d bring it, and it became a kinda joke in our group. He renamed the bag with ‘Cocaine’ and then added a price tag, ‘$5k / g’, meaning $5000 per gram. As the bag is about 500g, we owe him around…. 2.5 – 3 million for what we took?

Anyways, after that, our bus got to school at around 2:30, and all of us got out, and we had to wait for school to end (and the other buses to arrive). Mafia once again started, with the rest of the people talking or leaving.

Those of us in Concert Band had to stay to accompany Jess (in yr 12, the Tuba player) for one of her HSC pieces. It sounded good. I was tired. Just about all of us had left our school uniform and instrument at school, so we could change when we got back.

And after that, I finally went home.

Oh, and I finally finished the PD Assignment on Saturday! It is exactly 30 seconds long, and a copy of it can be downloaded from:
http://www.pressing-on.net/movies/PD_Drugs_large.avi – 42.8MB
or
http://www.pressing-on.net/movies/PD_Drugs_small.avi – 15.2MB

Hope the people in my group like it, cause that’s what it’s going to be on Monday unless they tell me otherwise.

We arrived outside Laurieton Public School (which we stopped infront of on day 2) and proceded to setup. Besides a small debate between Tim (Graham) and Mark (Barnsley) over where the band should set up, the setting up was relatively uneventful. Two students from the school joined us (they both played clarinet) to play along with us. Druing the performance, spider pig once again made his appearance, this time the kids were really eager to get to him. When Tim (Kerr) came up to talk about his trombone, he and Mark did a little duet. At some point in some holidays, Tim had injured his arm, and so he had to devise a new of practicing his trombone: using his foot!. So both he and Mark got down on the ground and played a small duet together. Another point was when we played ‘The Stripper’ and spider pig got thrown around a bit. Near the end, it got passed to Sam, who later threw it into Jess’s tuba (bell). I really wish I could’ve seen that. Also, spot the Asian came up with 1 kid.

After that wonderful performance (they didn’t cheer as loud as Wirreanda Public School), we packed up and began our journey home. Tim and Anieta presented Mrs Matthews, Dr Croyle, Mark Barnsley and Cambell (the bus driver) with our gifts of appreatiation. They all got chocolate, Mark also got a DVD of ‘Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope’ (as he’s never seen Star Wars *gasp*, and so he joins the list of those very unforunate people), and Cambell also got a sign saying ‘World’s Best Driver’. How nice was that?

On the way home, we watched a few movies, like ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ and ‘History of the World: Part 1′. Classics….

Lunch was back at Heatherbrae, and some of us went shopping for food again. At the shopping centre we spotted another Asian! After that we continued our way back home. After dropping off Mr Barnsley at his stop, we eventually got back to school. We unpacked the tour bus, and slowly made our way off to where we would go. And that was the end of Band Tour 2008.

We arrived around 9:30 after our great breakfast. Originally the plan was for the Stage Band to play for the old folk, and then the Flute ensemble and Clarinet ensemble would play as well, while the others mingle and/or talk with the people. After arriving though, Mark discovered there was enough room for the band to set up in, so he got the whole band to play. We played through a shortened version of our repertoire using pieces which would be more appealing to them. Also Mark got us to play softer, so that we didn’t ‘blow their heads off’. We wouldn’t have been that loud….. =] yeah right. Of cause we would!!

Anyways, after that, as we were packing up, an elderly couple started talking to Mark about their children who went to baulko in its early years (1970′s). I overheard and asked the lady which year her sons went, and wondered if my dad knew one of them…. in the end he doesn’t know any of them, but still, reminds me of how my dad once said you could go anywhere in NSW and still see someone local on your trip.

After that we went off to a Hydro Golf range. For those of you who don’t know hydro golf, it’s a golfing range on a lake, and you hit the golf balls into the lake. Most people decided to do hydro golf, so the smart ones of us chose to do putt putt!! In total 9 of us did putt putt, and we had a great time. I was in a group with Matthew and Ed. Both Matt and I sucked, while Ed was being his pro self and getting 2s and 3s, with the odd 4. Despite that, both Matt and I got a few hole in 1s, while Ed was lamenting that he didn’t get any, but he still beat us…

Lunch was pre-packed chicken rolls and a popper. Filling. After lunch and golf, we went off to our next performance at Bethany Lodge Hostel (a Salvo’s aged care centre). There, because the room was limited, the Stage band was the main performance, with the Flute and Clarinet ensembles doing a few pieces as well. The stage band played several pieces while the ensembles practiced outside, and the other students stayed on the bus. The last piece was ‘The Legend of Danny Boy’ where the Stage band and a few flutes and clarinets made up for the whole concert band. Funny, cause it still sounded really good.

Afterwards we lugged all the equipment back to the bus and went off to Settlement City (shopping centre). While we were driving around, we saw Girraween Place!! All the way out there! Anyhows, we shopped around there for a hour and a bit. The yr 9s went wandered around and went to The Reject Shop, baught up on cheap food, and then wandered off to McDonald’s. After our time was up, the band met up and we learnt that Mark Barnsley had made an ‘investment’ in a $2 self-inflating whoopie chussion. Sandra loved it. While we were waiting for the bus to drive into the bus bay, Martin fell off a pole he was sitting on, and hurt his arm. Poor Martin.

So, we started setting up, and just about all of us had to stand up. We played through many of our pieces. Mark was getting the trombones to play as loud as they could, which didn’t make the people around them happy (and made the Trombone players a bit tired). Although not many people stopped to listen to us, people thought we were good. Which is good to hear. We finished around 5ish.

Being the person that I am, I predicted that when we go outside to pack the bus, it’ll be raining in some way. Low and behold, when we went outside, it was dizzling. How did I manage to predict that… It had nothing to do with the dark clouds in the sky *wink wink nudge nudge*.

After that we went back to our accomd. at Bonny Hills Conference Centre. Dinner was nice again, and it was another night of card games, poker, tv, junk food and loud talking. At midnight, the yr 12s, yr 11s and a few others celebrated Sam’s birthday. I went to sleep early that night. I was tired.

Afterwards we quickly packed up before we moved off to Laurieton to have our lunch. We all walked along the street, some of us stopping off at the first bakery we saw, others moving on to cafes further down the road. Alot of us ended up at a fish and chips cafe. Eventually we got our food and we ate, and by the time we had finished, we were supposed to leave in 1 minute, so we walked really quickly back to the bus where everyone else was.

The bus was parked outside Laurieton Public School, which we would come back to visit on our last day. They even had a welcome to us on their notice board out front already!

Anyways, we left Laurieton late and quickly traveled to Bonny Hills, where we performed for North Haven Public School. This time round we did a shortened version of our performance, but we still got massive cheers from them (still not as loud as Wirreanda Public). Druing the performance, as I was counting bars rest (very noticably!!), Mark thought it would be funny to try and put me off count. Ask him about it if you want. After the performance, the school principal thanked us for playing for them, and told Mark how they have been having trouble convincing their students that music can be a good thing to do in high school. How right those teachers are. =] Druing the day, spot the Asian didn’t do too well… no asians that I know of were spotted.

That night we stayed at Bonny Hills Conference Centre. Before dinner, we got changed and went down to the beach nearby. Most of us played footy or other games, some of us wandered around in the sand and water, while a few of us sat down in the sand talking. Evntually it was time for us to return to make our way back to our accommodation (BTW, the rooms at Bonny Hills Conferene Centre remind me of Elanora Conference Centre). Dinner here was definately better than the dinner at Motto Farms. Spagetti, with bread rolls. And desert was moose…. tasty.

That night the flute and clarinet ensembles rehearsed again before people congregated in the common room to play a big game of poker with Mark (or play Mafia with the yr 10s and 11s). With the poker game Mark was dominating for just about the whole game, untill near the end, Arron in yr 8 decided to join Lawrence (in yr 7) and competed against Mark. Eventually Mark was too tired to continue, so he put all in, and lost (great job Arron!!) =]. Meanwhile, the yr 9s were gathered in the boys room and were playing card games. First was hearts, then Snap-one-up-one-down, then ‘Green Rabbit’. Don’t ask. Eventually the girls were kicked out by Croyle, and so they moved outside to play at a table.

By 11:30 pm, I was in bed and falling off to sleep when everyone was coming back in from their various games. And that was the end of day 2.

Date: Tuesday 26th August, 2008.
As people slowly turn up at school, we milled about waiting for the tour band roll call which happened at 8:30 am. After Dr Cryole marked us all off, we moved all our gear down to the bus bay where we waited for our coach to turn up. 8:55 am, we start loading the coach with our bags and instruments/gear. By 9:30 am, we’re off on the 2008 Band Tour to the Mid-North Coast.

After picking up Mark Barnsley, we head off to our first stop: Heatherbrae. There we had our lunch (which we brought with us) in a park on the river bank. Some of us went off to the nearby shops to buy food and do a little bit of shopping. In the shopping mall there was a $2 shop where Tammy, Tim, Bryan and Mitchell bought themselves foam swords. They had a sword fight in the park before we set off again for our first Performance at Wirreanda Public School. Also, Tim Graham gave Anthea a small bunch of flowers for her birthday that day. How nice of him. She was one of 2 people who had a birthday on Tour.

All through the bus trip there, people were handing around lollies and chips, playing cards and being loud. Eventually we arrived at the school around 1:15 pm. We set up and got ready in the COLA (Covered Outdoor Learning Area) before the (noisy) primary school children filled up the seats that were lined up in front of us. We started our show with ‘The Muppet Show’ theme, and slowly went through our repertoire which included ‘Mama Mia’, ‘Motown Forever’, ‘Eighties Flashback’, ‘Star Wars Saga’, ‘Reach Out, I’ll Be There’, ‘Spider Pig’ and our favourite, ‘The Stripper’. Throughout the show, Mark had one person from each instrument group to give a small talk and demo of the instrument. When the Tenor Sax was being demoed, a kid asked “Can you play tennis with it?”. A gag we did was Spider Pig. Bree had a pillow the shape of a pig which folded up to look like a pig. The kids loved it (and were really loud about it).

At the end of ‘Eighties Flashback’ Mark got two children to come up and conduct the band. That was fun. They sure loved it. For ‘The Stripper’, Mark got the teachers up and we gave them percussion instruments to use while we played. They danced around a bit, and I noticed one teacher stripped off his tie. At the end the kids were cheering really loudly. Some of us agree that they were the loudest school. Some of us were surprised by how few Asians there were around, and so a game for the rest of tour had started: spot the Asian. There was one little asian kid in this school.

Afterwards their canteen provided us all with a small Moove and a piece of a bun. Because Mark had mentioned to the kids that they could ask Eka or Mitchell for autographs since they were in the Millennium Marching Band, heaps of the kids came over to us asking for autographs. That was something I had never experienced before… OH!! And in the boy toilets there on the urinals there were TARGETS!!!!! We were laughing for a while about that =]

By 3:30 pm we had packed up and were leaving for our accommodation at Motto Farm Motel and Conference Centre. By then, Mark had played the Power Thirst video over the microphone twice, and he was (jokingly) expecting us to know it word for word by the end of the tour. A quick band rehearsal before dinner and then Mark got the Stage band to practice while the Flute ensemble and Clarinet ensemble rehearsed their pieces.

Dinner at 7 turned out to be dinner at 7:30 (pm). It was a random choice between beef or chicken, with half a potato and sweet potato and some veges… not the best dinner. Desert was pavlova or chocolate desert cake. Some of us watched a movie after dinner with Mark and Dr Croyle, others played cards in our rooms or watched movies (the yr 9s watched ‘The History Of The World: Part 1′). Soon (at 11 pm) we all went to bed, and the first day of Band Tour was over.