"O Rice Divine"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Rice is unquestionably the ubiquitous Asian food. I thought my family ate a lot of it - five, sometimes six cups in the cooker everyday - but I've been trumped by Anupam, who I believe stands on eight cups of rice every twenty-four hours. Here is my rice, prepared for an early evening dinner, with the sun setting through the venetian blinds in the background.

"Lavender Forest"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
If such a thing is possible, my sister is a lavender fiend. By that, of course, I mean that she is totally consumed by the little purple flowers (occasionally white. I pick up all these useful lavender and dentistry facts by osmosis, apparently). When my sister's lavendar patch in the backyard is in full bloom (probably mid-Spring), I'll get a shot for you - until then, here, enjoy the ones in the front garden.

"English, Out Of Focus"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
After Othello was done and out of the way, we had plenty of time for gallavanting and tomfoolery around the class. Being noisy, taking pictures, and reciting quotes concerning goats and monkeys fall into these categories. Now, while I was taking pictures of my Derwents (they follow me everywhere), unbeknownst to me I managed to capture a funny scene in the background as well. Of course, since it's out of focus, it's completely blurred; but I can describe well enough to you from memory. From the left, we have Dave and Adele working hard and writing something; next across is Pallavi, invariably looking very content but slightly confused in the corner with her big brown eyes hopping slowly around the room. The figure with lots of hair next in line is obviously Jackie, having a bit of a laugh; behind him are Faith (whose right arm is visible) and Bonnie, followed by Angela, and then Ian back up the front. Now, any minute, Mrs. Mayers is going to come in and tell us to shut up. (Is it me or was that a very long description?)

"Pair Of Daisies"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
You may be seeing a trend; I have quite a lot of flowers around my house. You don't even know the half of it yet, but we're getting there... slowly but surely. Anyway, here is a pair of daisies next to the stairs between our front door and my Dad's downstairs office. Strangely enough, the same plants that make the purple daisies seem to make the white ones too. I was never any good at genetics in Year 10...

"Bee"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
The position of my camera when I took this shot is not a good place to be when you are allergic to bee-stings. I guess we should be thankful, then, that I wasn't in the position of my camera (I had to be at least... five centimetres further away). In any case, this is what they clal commitment, but it was very worth it to catch this bee in action. Larger than life.

"Pigfaces"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
I honestly don't know who makes up the names for these flowers. We're stuck with them, though: these wonderful little orange ones are called Pigfaces. The wonderful thing about them is that if you want more, all you have to do is tear off a few leaves (literally, just rip some off) and stick 'em in the ground somewhere with sun. Give them a little water and in a few days time you have fresh flowers. Wondrous.

"Church Service Practice, One"
Multiple Images [ Large Rainbow Version ]
An early Thursday morning found a bunch of us in the Hall, preparing for the church service. It's quite amazing, I think, that people, when faced with a difficult task, can seem to scale mountains as high as the Himalayas without even breaking a sweat - and when they look back, they wonder how they did it. At any rate, being there to watch masters at work - mostly musicians, in this case - was a definite treat for me.

"Church Service Practice, Two"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
On certain occasions, the Hall can appear to look very small. One example is on the ISCF World Cup Social, when we played indoor soccer for half the night waiting for the game to begin; I can tell you, the Hall felt very small at that time. But then, when 824 students pack in there in their seats and all in their green blazers, it can look enormous. It looked even bigger as a Year Seven. Anyway, I'll let you decide which category you think this photo falls into - big or small - since I've gotten a mixed bag of responses from people who seem to think it's both.

"Pianoman"
Multiple Images [ Large Rainbow Version ]
Dennis Ip, a man of so many skills. Here he is exercising just one of those skills: his amazing ability to make music on a piano. The next time you see Dennis, tell him how cool he is - he deserves the encouragement very much - and then, just sit back and watch him. He will surprise you at every turn with how good he is at so many things. For example, give him a hockey stick...

"Projector"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Very cool photos can come from the most unexpected places. Here is a picture of the projector we used to put songs up for the whole Hall to be able to see - lights not editted at all, it just came out like that!

"Chairs"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Here's another which fits into the 'unexpected but cool' category. These are the chairs, completely set up waiting for the school to come in; and with light streaming in from the Hall's Felton Road exit.

"Alistair Burke"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
"Call me Al," he told us. Here's Al Burke, the man who spoke to us on the church service. He hails from Jono's church (Epping Presbyterian) and came all the way to Carlingford to give us a good talk on 'wisdom' (based on the parable of the rich man who stored up hay in barns). Definitely a cool guy; next time you go to Mustardseed (I wonder when the next one's on, Jono?), give him a shout and shake his hand.

"Singing Winston"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
You'd think he was a super-star or something. Here is our favourite male Sports Captain Winston Wong, singing very well just a little after the formal service was over. Jun is jumping up and down over there on the left, with Charm, Stevo and Heather being behind Winston on the other side. Kudos, singers!

"Another Song... From Jun"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
The name for this was kindly inspired by Lung, who MC'd very well for the church service. Just before every song began, Lung said "And now, we're gonna have another song... from Jun". It just sounded a little funny, so that's the name. Hmmm, Jun looks like a super-star too. ;)

"Very Cool Skies"
Multiple Images [ Large Rainbow Version ]
As Mak and I raced from the library to the hall with a fresh transparency hot in our hands, I looked skyward and saw this. Here are three views of what I saw in the Heavens - two layers of clouds, one looking like a turtle's shell, several kilometres above our heads; the other like popcorn, flying quickly past us, a few hundred metres from the ground.
Very, very cool skies.

"Patrick Selling Stuff"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Still on the same day, here is Patrick selling Daffodil Day gear to the masses. This was Thursday, the last day before Friday (Captain Obvious strikes again!), and so this was our last day of properly selling stuff. As it turns out, we sold almost everything that day - with only a very small number of flowers, and a very large number of pens, left behind to be sold on Daffodil Day itself.

"Psycho Mak"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
*cue scary violins* Well, we get up to plenty of things in maths - Mak, Nguyen, Anupam and I all in a row. This is one of Nguyen's first leaps into photography, one I'm sure that Hitchcock would be proud of. Where's that chocolate sauce when you need it...?

"Maths Fun"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
...and then Nguyen turned around to capture Anupam and I in action. There's me, no doubt playing Mr. Squiggle in Anupam's maths book's margin; and Anupam, about to be squished by a giant hand from above. (Hehe... oh, the possiblities.) Incidentally, you can see my lightsabers resting on the table on the left.

"Chairperson Anupam"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Not much comment on this one. The story is... I couldn't understand why Anupam didn't get a Chairperson badge. So I made him one!

"Ag Fun"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Agriculture is probably one of the most... interesting subjects available for study at James Ruse. Here are Wayne and John making good use of some agricultural soil charts - ahhh, yeah, that's it.

"Girls Playing Handball"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Maybe I've just lived a really sheltered life, but until the day I took this photo I'd never really seen girls play handball. It turns out that they were quite good... they got both me and Lung out.
Our hats go off to these ladies.

"Pass The Buck, In Drama"
[ Large Rainbow Version ] Multiple Images
This is what happens when you give drama students an inch... we take a mile. Well, I mean, take this sunny day for example: Mrs. Yeates was away doing... something, and so we were left with some playwork to do. So, what did we do? We launched ourselves headlong into a game of Pass The Buck. We even had a schedule... in the game when I took this photo, Harry and Patrick (predictably) made it to the final two. Andrew (naturally), was Burgo on the occasion.

"Pass The Buck, Boys Vs Girls"
Multiple Images [ Large Rainbow Version ]
Our legs got tired. So we settled into another game of PTB, this time with teams (boys versus girls). It can get pretty serious - it was a very close game at times, though the boys put down a decisive victory (:D), doing something like doubling the girls' score.
(My contribution to that score: 1 name.)

"Family Walk"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
You'd think we'd have gotten over it by now, but football fever is still floating around my house. Brother, sister and I went out to the park to give the soccer ball a few kicks, and as we were about to finish up our session, Dad rocked up to us and invited us for a walk. Here we are on the way up a hill and around the block for a nice, family walk (Mum was asleep at home).

"North Rocks: Very Large Tree"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
One of my family's friends said something to me when I was about six years old, that I'll never forget: "always cherish your trees". Doesn't sound like a very extraordinary comment, but it comes into sharp focus when you realise where that family friend had come from - a district devoid of greenery, a concrete jungle. I went there once, and it was grey as far as the eye could see: on that day, there wasn't even a blue sky to break up the monotony. And so from then on, I've loved trees. Here is a particularly large one, very near my (our) childhood primary school; at the bottom of the tree, you can see my brother and sister for size comparison. Kev is currently levitating the ball... oh, didn't I tell you that he was one of the X-Men, whose mutation allows him to levitate soccer balls, but only in photographs? Oh, well, now you know.

"Is It A Bird?"
[ Large Rainbow Version ] Picture-In-Picture
The whole Woo family is afflicted with bad sight. We all wear glasses - though my sister doesn't usually wear hers, she needs them to drive - and so when we saw a small white object in the distance, we couldn't tell whether it was a bird or not. We squinted as hard as we could, and I even tried to use the zoom on the camera to tell what it was - to no avail. Eventually, we found out it was a Coke bottle.

"Look, It's A Tree"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
You just read about our notoriously bad vision. Well, I won't say much about this photo, except: this is how close we had to get to this tree until we could tell it was a tree. At which, we exclaimed, "Look, it's a tree"... the expression on my sister's face really says it all.

"Bus Fun: Gajan & Andrew"
[ Large Rainbow Version ] Picture-In-Picture
Sometimes compromise is the best option. Here is a great photo of Andrew and Gajan on the bus home, just turning onto North Rocks Road. Why a compromise, you ask? Well, I took the main photo of Andrew, at which Gajan quickly expressed his wish for that photo to be put online, to Andrew's protest. Only a few minutes later, Andrew retaliated with his photo of Gajan (inset), which he wished to be online, and Gajan did not. In the end, we all win, since I put both photos online together. (To Andrew: your teeth are fine, buddy. We see them everyday anyway. ;))

"Coles Adventure"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
The task fell to Becky, Andrew and I to get all the supplies for Yellow Day. It's a bit of unknown heroism for most of you: but let me give you the brief story. These two people - who had the weight of Mrs. Ballantyne on their shoulders because of a Year 11 Drama Production rehearsal - took it upon themselves to get all the food and cups and napkins for Yellow Day from the local Coles (in Carlingford Court). My coming along to help them was a mere coincidence - I was there when they left and had nothing to do, so I followed them - and it turned out that as we drove up to Carlo and got working, we worked flat out for over an hour to get everything, and we were still late for the rehearsal. Got blasted by Mrs. Bal (not to be hard on her - that's her job), but got the job done. Now that's commitment. Next time you see these two, shake their hands: they deserve it! (Err, about those donuts Becky is holding up...
ignore them.)

"Poor Checkout Lady"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Like the storyline of Tess Of The D'urbervilles, the checkout we went to was largely directed by fate. As we pulled our two heavily-laden shopping trolleys into the area of the checkouts, I joked out loud, "I pity the checkout chic who gets to serve us!"... no sooner had I said this, that a lady came and manned a checkout near to us. I don't think she knew what she was in for... well, as you can see, she found out.

"Andrew & His Trolleys"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
A brief, but well-earned breather for Andrew and I as Becky searched for some ribbon. Andrew manned the trolleys while Becky and I chatted with the gift-shop owner, trying to figure out how much ribbon we'd need and what type we'd get. A few minutes later and a couple of phone calls later, we were up and about, moving to get everything in the boot of Becky's car, and heading back to school.

"Ashish & His Jelly"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
As we pulled into Felton Road, I quickly told Becky and Andrew to get into the Hall - they'd be in some hot water for being late for rehearsal. When the car had stopped, I got Ashish, Nguyen and Rolz straight to work unloading everything. When all the gear was inside, we rallied the troops, and started making jelly - yellow jelly, no less! Here is Ashish with his mix. The next step was adding water, pouring the jelly into cups, and then...

"Nguyen & HIS Jelly"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
...getting the cups in the fridge. That was Nguyen's department. It's worth noting that all the Prefects who stayed behind to help were doing it of their own volition - a choice to stay behind and put in the hard yards behind the scenes. This is what Prefects are about; and boy, I can tell you, I've never seen such industrious jellymakers in my entire life.

"Genius"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
Going backwards in time for a little while, here is Harry and Ashwin posing in front of their handiwork - the Daffodil Day posters. We laboured for a whole period colouring, with the assistance of Ching's excellent colour design (you didn't think that guys could have done it all on their own, did you?). Credits for the drawings go to Shanthi and Harry, the former doing the really cool Daffodil and the latter doing the really cool hot dog and lemonade cup.

"A Lot Of Daffodils"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
I didn't count them, but I was told by reputable sources that this was one thousand daffodils. This is them just before we got to work on them, counting the number of people who got what bunches and then splitting them into bunches. Splitting hundreds of daffodils into bunches of twelve, six and three: plenty of fun for the whole family..!

"The Sixes"
[ Large Rainbow Version ]
This was the last thing I saw just before I headed for home. The completion of the bunches of six, sitting in a nice jug - all tied up in ribbon, ready to be delivered. The Year 11 Drama Production was just finishing up its rehearsal, and the hall was quietening down as the last Prefects left school. All in a good day's work.

"Evening Traffic"
Multiple Images [ Large Rainbow Version ]
The sun was already below the horizon as I stepped out onto Felton Road again, then got into a green Corolla Seca. As my brother drove home, we ran into a little bit of traffic (check out the photo to see how far it stretched)... but as Thursday, the Twenty-Second of August drew to a close, I knew that we all had a big day ahead of us.
And at that, I fell asleep in the back seat.