One Foot Out the Door

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I play (and I use that term loosely here) a few instruments.

First: Violin. Played that on and off since I was 9 years old. I can remember my violin teacher smacking my hand holding the violin with her bow whenever it tried to creep up into a more comfortable position. I was in a concert group with that for a while (nearly passed out my first ever performance. I don't remember much, just thinking that everything was going quiet and then someone grabbing me and sitting me down on the steps in front of the stage).

Second: I sing. Love to sing, have been in choirs and stuff like that on and off for most of my life.

Third: The Tin Whistle. I taught myself this one, and I'm not very good at it, I can play a few tunes and am slowly learning how to read music for it, but with Uni I don't get much time to practice (and until recently I didn't have a music stand. Not good to try and play a wind instrument when you're scrunched up into weird positions trying to read the music on your bed).

Fourth: Recorder. Sort of. I can play Mary Had a Little Lamb, and one medieval tune. That's it.

Finally: Fife. I've only been playing this for about 6 months, and I don't get much of a chance to practice at all. I HATE the low D note with a passion. Can really only hit it properly 1/3rd of the time. Shrill instrument is shrill. I'm thinking of investing in some earplugs for when I practice so my ears don't ring when I'm finished practicing. To give you an idea...you could hear these things a good mile away over the sound of cannon and gun fire.

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Sherlock, hands down. It just rocks! Seriously, if you haven't seen it and you like Sherlock Holmes, watch it!!!

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I actually enjoyed middle and high school or, just plain high school as we called it. Good group of friends, relatively decent school...

... it was primary school I was miserable in it. Year 5 was... well, it's pretty much a blank to me. I don't really remember much of it (yay for selective mental blocking!). I was the quiet, shy kid in the back of the classroom that didn't speak much. I also had really bad eyesight and the relief teacher we had (our other teacher was kicked out because of influential parental *cough*rich snobs*cough* manouvering) didn't believe me when I said I couldn't see the board.

I also had absolutely no self-preservation at that age and if I thought someone was being stupid I'd tell them so.

Anyway, I had the teacher victimising me because I had to keep running up to the board to read the problem, run back to my desk to write it down, work it out, and then do the whole process again. This took me a lot of time...and the teacher would hold the entire class back because of it. (I do remember her saying to me "I have the worst eyesight in the world and I can read that board" and refusing to move me further to the front 'cause it would mess up the alphabetical seating) and a group of popular girls decided that they didn't like me.

I got beaten up.

A lot.

I'd go home crying with bruises up my arms and the teacher we had (same one that didn't believe I couldn't read the board) didn't see anything even when I was being beaten up in the back of the room while she was in there!

I don't really remember much else, it's kinda a blank, but I do remember one day that one of my friends dragged me to the office to report it, my parents complaining to the headmaster and he pretty much threw it all back on me 'cause one day I had enough and fought back. When the girls were asked why the picked on me they replied that they just didn't like me.

I got to have a week off school 'cause Mum and Dad pulled me out of the place and enrolled me in one of the other, Catholic schools in the area. This was 3 weeks before the end of the year.

Did it have a lasting effect one me? Yeah, it did. While I was kinda shy before, I went really quiet after that. It took years for me to trust anyone again (The girls that were beating me up, they used to be part of my group of friends).

Nothing ever came of the situation. My parents wrote a letter to the Board of Education, nothing. They sent a copy to the school and, aparently, it got passed around the staffroom and all the teachers had a good laugh at it.

If I ever have children, I'm never sending them to an Australian State School. Never.