House Competition Day

I'm not entirely sure where this week went, but evidently it's already Friday. As a bit of a change I've decided to have a Friday night in on my own, as opposed to a Friday night out on my own, but it's also a chance to make a start on the 250 school reports I have to write in the next few weeks. 


Today was the first "House Competion Day" of the year. I turned up in civvies to the complaints of my year 9 tutor group who were not happy that I was not dressed in the colours of my house (blue, for Le Couteur). Fortunately I was redeemed by having a spare blue jumper in the office. The boys all wore the colours of their house, many dyed their hair and wore facepaint too. There was a great atmosphere around the school, with about 1500 boys decked in their house colours and competing in everything from basketball and touch rugby to chess. My job was to umpire Four Court Tennis, which involves a square court with two nets (in a cross shape) and four team of nine players armed with plastic bats. And a plastic ball. It's sort of like tennis, in a very loose sense - every time a team loses a point that team loses a player. The boys loved it and were fiercely competitive. I also got to jesticulate wildly, and in a slightly camp fashion.


It's now very much autumn here - it arrived at around 6.15pm on Wednesday - quite bizarre! The wind picked up and a front came in - and that was that. The weather is exactly the same - beautiful sunny days and clear evenings  - but top temperature is now 21 ish, not 26 ish and it's much colder at night and early in the morning (10-11 degrees). I like the crispness though, and don't mind wearing a jumper or a coat for my 6.45am trip to Bertoni. I have seen some incredible sunsets on my evening runs - today the low cloud in the east reflected the sunlight down on to the water so it looked like a bright pink and mauve soup, whilst out to the west from the top of the hill at Ballast Point the sun was crimson - I don't think I've ever seen the sun that colour before. Maybe I'll take my camera next time, though it might look a bit weird if I stop to take photos!


Big game tomorrow for my team against The King's School (which is where Kit teaches, they of the 20 odd rugby pitches and home to the All Blacks when they're over here...). We're not expected to win, which may take the pressure off us. Then it's home to write reports.....