"Purple, Purple Everywhere"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
...but not a drop to drink? Sadly, that's not even the right quote (people who've read the Rime of the Ancient Mariner will know what I'm on about). But the 'purple, purple everywhere' quote was really what was going through my mind at the time. It's Mrs. Mayers and Mrs. Yeates, posing very beautifully with their purple cardigans and accompanyingly coloured permission notes for the 'writing workshop'.

"Yellow Spot"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
I love astronomy. And so I happen to know that Jupiter has a large spot on it - called the Giant Red Spot - which seems to be an almost permanent feature of Jupiter's outward appearance. It is, in fact, a gigantic storm - and guess how big it is? Its diameter is twice the size of the Earth. Well, that's what I thought of when I saw Jono's head on the morning of Daffodil Day... for some reason, I don't think it was a storm, though.

"Yellow Heads"
Multiple Images [ Large Rainbow Version ]
As you've no doubt seen in past photos (and future photos too, I hope!), Prefects tend to go above and beyond the call of duty. One of those calls on Daffodil Day was getting our hair sprayed yellow. We still had to go to the first few periods, though; here are a few of us in ag (with a top-quality shot of Nguyen's hair... which, of course, David Beckham copied from).

"The Piggyback Experiments"
[ Large Rainbow Version ] Multiple Images
This is one that you really must see, in almost the best sense of the word possible. I mean, you won't die if you don't see this set of photos (there are five), but your life won't be ocmpletely if you had the option to see this and passed it by (kind of like Sydney 2000). Now, a few brief descriptions:
1. Nguyen's first (and last) attempt at being... err, the sandwiched one.
2. Ashwin on top of things, and Nguyen lining up for a jump.
3. A few seconds later, Nguyen not quite balanced...
4. Later on the way back to D1.5... our final attempt. Nguyen jumps up, and Hasitha manages to hold on... is it possible?
5. We did it! Hasitha striaghtens up, and a smile grows across his face. The camera goes 'click'.

"Joey & Rolz On Parade"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Daffodil Day happened to coincide with the Cadet Passing Out Parade. For those of you uneducated as to what exactly that is, it's where Year 12 cadets are honourably discharged (with certificates and all), ie. passed out of the Cadet Unit. There's a very long procedure to it. Here is the first stage - Joey and Rolz out on the field, about to begin the parade. That's Daniel behind Joey (he identified himself by the boots). *salutes*

"Flag Party"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
The "Flag Party" is exactly what you'd think it was. It's a name I could have made up: since it's for the party that holds the flag. Them, and a few higher-ranked cadets, get to wear those cool red sashes. Now, those people used to seem very far away, but now Lung is right up there with him - next year, he'll be one of the Unit's two CUOs (Cadet Under Officer - the highest rank achievable in cadets). Pretty neat.

"Passing Out"
Multiple Images [ Large Rainbow Version ]
And this was more formal section of the parade. There's pretty much always a guest speaker there, a member (or former member) of the Australian military. You know that already: what most of you don't know is that the cadets both on stage and down below have to keep perfectly still with their arms straight for the entire ceremony. Very tiring, especially after the actual parade, and especially the front row, who has to hold up their arms for up to ten minutes, again - perfectly still.
Being a cadet is fun...!

"Harry The Artist"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Whenever someone starts talking to me about something Harry has done really well (which for some reason they didn't expect), I always smile and nod with the knowledge of what they are on about. Since all of the top three Prefects and indeed a great proportion of the Prefect body itself all came from 7L/1998, we have inside knowledge. And Harry, unbeknownst to a lot of you, is amazingly skilled in... well, almost everything I can imagine. First, there's the Maths. This is typified by his response to the 2U maths exam: "How'd you guys go? I caned it!" Then, he can sing (Musical) and he can DANCE! (Also Musical.) And he's an expert at every sport imaginable (cricket is the current favourite, and I think it will be for a while). On top of all that, he's an amazing actor (here in Year 11 Drama we're sitting wondering 'where have you been all our lives?!'), and in his role as Senior Prefect he's a brilliant organiser. Here's just another one of his skills: he's an artist! (Sorry, Harry: I know you don't like giving credit, but hey, I like giving it. ;))

"Harry & The Microphone"
Multiple Images [ Large Rainbow Version ]
Chris McHardy arrives on the scene with a microphone hooked into the quadrangle speaker system, and there's only one thing to do: call Harry! So we get him on the microphone, and he delivers a stunning oration to the masses, undoubtably encouraging the school to get into the spirit of things. And indeed they did, as you'll see later in the lunchtime photos...

"When Good Viets Turn Bad"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Do you remember all those shows like 'When Good Pets Turn Bad', or 'When Good Volcanoes Turn Into Bad City-Destroying Infernos'? Well, if there was a show entitled 'When Good Viets Turn Bad', this would be my submission. (It's Nguyen again, assaulting me with his spray can and his 'Property Of James Ruse Agricultural High School' stamp.)

"The Yellow Hordes"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
In World War Two, Australia was in the thick of the war. The Pacific Conflict meant that we were at great risk of a Japanese invasion from the North. Propaganda was being pumped out abotu the imminent invasion of "the yellow hordes"... now, I'm beginning to see what they meant.

"Deliverers"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
The job I had was taking care of the food, and basically wherever anyone pointed me, I went, and picked up stuff, or whatever. People like Becky, Tez and Lung had a much more specific role: delivering daffodils! They did a fantastic job, running this way and that, finding missing people and getting them the daffodils they deserved. The job was made all the more difficult by having the cadets out of class. Great job, guys!

"Off The Top Of My Head"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
I am eternally fascinated by this photo. It's not actually that interesting - it's just the top of my head (taken by Anupam so I could see what my half-yellow-hair-spray-job looked like), but for me it represents all the photos where people look at the picture and say "hey, I remember when I was doing that!". It happens quite often, and what surprises most people is that they've never considered how they actually look like when they are in the midst of things, and seeing a photo where everything is still and things are happening but they can be seen from a different perspective (to be precise, usually mine)... is mesmerising for many people. But anyway, that's all I had to say; I just found that interesting. Photos are funny things. :)

"Waiting Ladies"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
There were lots of ladies helping to sell jelly at recess. Here they are, near to the end - just before the Jelly Auction (see below). I thought it would be a nice time to take a photo... smile!

"Jelly Auction"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
It's almost as good as Demtel. Here are Andrew and Patrick trying to get an auction going for the last cup of jelly (which went phenomenally successful - we made all the jelly yesterday, more than a hundred cups, and it disappeared in about fifteen minutes).
Eventually a junior bought it for a dollar.

"The Drinks Crew"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
I mentioned before that we got lots and lots of supplies from Coles - 9 loaves of bread, 40L of jelly, 60L of soft drink, 200 plastic cups. Well, I'm glad we didn't get the one hundred litres of drink originally intended! Here is the drinks crew working hard to get all the Solo poured out; and we still had plenty of it left over afterward. (20c a cup, anyone?)

"The Sausage Crew"
Multiple Images [ Large Rainbow Version ]
We had people working pseudo-shifts on the sausages because of all the smoke they put out. Here you can see Lung and Joey on the job. Joey was very gracious to have helped us - he had no responsibility or duty, but he helped us anyway. Thanks brother; you're a champion!

"The Punch Crew"
[ Large Rainbow Version ] Picture-In-Picture
Talk about spur of the moment - for some reason, we decided to make punch for lunch (heh!). We got all the Prefects to put any fruit they had into the punch. For my part, I contributed one pear and one strawberry. (Inset photo is of Magee washing out the containers... the one thing we learnt from watching Kath & Kim.)

"Ashish, Nguyen: The MD"
Picture-In-Picture [ Large Rainbow Version ]
Nguyen saved the day by providing his MD with music like... err... 'Yellow' (the band's name escapes me). Here are Ashish and Nguyen looking like they are being very busy, getting the MD hooked into the sound system and getting it playing. The inset photo is of Nguyen's school stamp (I think everyone in our grade had one of these stamps on their hands).

"Sausage Flambe"
[ Large Rainbow Version ] Multiple Images
We had a lot of fun barbecuing the sausages, but as we couldn't get our hands on enough oil, we had to be creative. We used maragarine to cook the onions with, but when the marge fell in the barbecue, it... well, margarine is quite flammable. See for yourself.

"Service Frenzy"
Multiple Images [ Large Rainbow Version ]
I've never seen anything like it in my life: people flooding from every direction, lining up to get sausages... and us, dealing with it! Well, obviously, at the time I was actually taking photos, but I can tell you, I don't think I've ever had that sense of duty and responsibility before. I've been hanging out to do this ever since I was a little boy. Ohhhh yeah. ;)

"Ming Chak's Many Sausages"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Buy in bulk and save! Well, that's the theory. And of course, being Asian, we're always looking to save a buck or two here and there. Between us, me and Ming Chak must have bought six sausages; it was crazy. Here is Ming posing with his first two.

"Mr. Talty Gets Done"
Multiple Images [ Large Rainbow Version ]
All the teachers were in good spirits on the day, and quite a few of them got their hair sprayed yellow. Here is Mr. Talty, one of the more enthusiastic ones, though he cowered back a little when he realised how cold the stuff was. But as you can see, Winston did a sterling job, and all's well that ends well.

"One Dodgy Sausage"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
"Casualties of war"... that's what some people call the sausages that hit the ground. Here is one of them - being offered tentatively by Susie to the sceptical Chris. In hindsight, I'm glad McHardy didn't eat this snag - you can't quite see it in the photo, but it's got grass ("herbs") covering it - but this is how desperate we got for sausages (we ordered 200 - and ran out quite quickly).

"BBQ Banana"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
We had run out of sausages, and so the barbecues were unplugged and cooling down, soon to be cleaned up. It was time for a little recreation: Johnny and Joey were the ones who got the idea of the banana. So we sliced a bit off, and tried to grill the banana, then to just cook it... to no avail. I think it emerged somewhat inedible afterward.

"Flowerbearers"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
This is the flipside of 'Deliverers': Flowerbearers, that is, those who received flowers and got to parade them around. Here are Jules, Mon and Jason, posing very nicely for me, and very pleased with what they received (I would be too! Except I didn't get to keep my daffodils in the end - long story, ask me if you'd like to know).

"Autographed Heads"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
More 'recreational activities'. It's James Bao, Jun Lee, and Johnny Ng facing away from the camera with their last names autographed on the back of their heads. Meanwhile; Stevo, Gaston and Winston look on in... what would you call that? Confusion, flabbergasted, amusement.
It's a scene of beauty.

"Cloudfront"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Looking up and admiring the sky is something I do daily. Occasionally, I catch something extraordinary, and that's when I grab my camera and take a few snaps. Here is an enormous, wide cloudfront - cumulus, maybe cumulonimbus - and that is the lecture theatre in the foreground. It just looks cool.

"Fern Gully"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
You should be familiar with my penchant for thinking up very obvious but descriptive names for photos. (And, similarly, for captions.) The name for this photo is not particularly obvious, but then neither is the subject; it's in my back garden, low in my sister's lavender patch (you may remember me mentioning it briefly before). When I viewed the photos later, though, it didn't look like I had taken a few plants in an area of a couple of metres; it seemed... bigger. And so I imagined myself as a little dude walking in this enormous forest. And that was the topic of a cartoon movie many years ago called Fern Gully... little dudes in an enormous forest. That's all there is to this photo.

"My Big Chilli"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
I am fortunate enough to have a chilli tree in my backyard. Here is me doing what's called "macro photography", where you can manually set focal length (no, not maths, but close to it), brightness, contrast, and all that sort of jazz, to allow you to photograph very small things. It just so happens that this particular chilli - when you open it and have a look - is actually no more than two centimetres long. Mmmmm, chilli.

"Kookaburras"
Picture-In-Picture [ Large Rainbow Version ]
Birds and insects are among the very hardest things to photograph. The reason for that, of course, is that it's very difficult to get close to them before they see you in their excellent peripheral vision and escape. This is as close as I could get to the kookaburras in the garden of the neighbour opposite our house - looking very pretty cool, and characteristically, laughing.

"Empty Sepulchre"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
"Wha...?" is quite possibly what a lot of you are thinking at this moment, again, because of the name I've chosen to bestow on this photo. Well, maybe it will clear the fog a little to understand that a sepulchre is a tomb chamber; somewhere you'd expect to find dead people at rest. Understand it now? Not yet. Alright then. This photo was taken just before the two-hour, four-billion-essays modern history exam. Ahhh... yes, it makes sense now.

"All Smiles"
Multiple Images [ Large Rainbow Version ]
After the 3U maths exam was over, a huge wave of relief swept over the whole of Year 11. After sitting through a paper which felt as if it had been swapped with its little brother, there was special significance forme... I didn't have anymore exams till the end of the week. Most people only had Chem and English left - hence the smiles.

"Insufficient"
[ Large Rainbow Version ] Multiple Images
More confusion! Well, I feel that I've been especially clever in this gallery picking names, but perhaps it's just me picking very obscure concepts to name these photos after. Well, I called this photo 'Insufficient' because - well, it's raining... these photos were taken from the inside of one of the Library study rooms (the one where the girls usually watch Clueless), while it was raining. But I had heard on the news that, sadly, none of this rain had reached the farmers in drought over the Great Dividing Range. (Thankfully, the rain eventually did reach there - thank God!)

"Wet Quadrangle"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
While most of the grade was doing physics, Ching and I were roaming around trying to find a place to study quietly. We caught a small sunshower in the quad - and this was how it looked after the short rain was over.

"Winston On The Drums"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Some more post-maths relaxation - Winston getting to work on the drums! Sadly, we forced Marshall out of our presence because of all our noise. Many sorries, Marshall!

"Shayne On The Guitar"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
We got into the music room and blasted the juniors' ears into high orbit. It was a good move for the school to have so many guitars - players seem to have appeared overnight from all different grades. Very cool. I wonder if any of the guitars are left-handed...

"Jono On The Bass"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
*booumm bouum booouuuuummm* I know a lot of people who like pretty much anything that can make noise. I think Jono is one of them, and our study group was better for it: nothing clears the mind like some rhythmic bass playing and very cool FF8 (Final Fantasy Eight) musical themes. Mmmm, I can feel myself relaxing right now.

"Guitar Boys"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
I told you before that it was a very good move for the school to get lots of guitars. Here are Jono, Shayne and Louis making very good use of the resources on hand. What you don't know is that Louis can't actually play guitar... whoops, did I say that out loud? Uh-oh... *runs*

"Study Room"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
After 2U maths: camped up in one of the tiny rooms in the music room, studying physics and chatting about mathematicians turned to astronomers. Fascinating stuff... and a fitting, very calm way to end the day (for me, at least).