It’s 12.48am. It’s New Year’s Eve. I’m typing away on Amy on my bed (probably promoting Carpal Tunnel syndrome). It is possibly the last post I’ll post in a little while, because I, Renee, am going to Hong Kong in about 36 hours. And I really hope I post this post, because I plan to make it my own equivalent of those “2009 – A look over this year’s events” that start popping up in newspapers and television around now. Except they seem to do a lot of “what a decade’s” nowadays. This is the first decade I will pass that I will probably remember significantly. I have so many things I want to share that I think I’ll forget. I can’t contain my thoughts.

Anyway, discovery of the week. My mother was a prefect! And my mother the year before that was vice captain of her sporting house, and my mother was also secretary of a geography club. I never knew that. And I’m pretty sure I’ll never live up to that. Because there is no geography club at my school, and also, you know, I doubt I’ll be anything prefect-y.

So, before I launch into my past year, I guess I should justify why I am typing this on my bed at this late hour. After some deliberation, I made my night time project of today “making a wannabe time turner”. I wouldn’t say it failed, but I wouldn’t say it succeeded either, you wouldn’t know it were a time turner if I didn’t tell you. My sister also stayed up to make a card for a relative’s birthday, and it was the first time she had stayed up over twelve and was with someone.

Something interesting happens when one stays up into the new day. Things that are lame and not funny are suddenly extremely comical. (Eg. “I’m Sirius!” ... “I mean, I’m serious. Ha, Sirius Black.” Extreme silent-not-wake-parents-type-laugh follows). So yes, I donned my weird plastic purple glasses that leave marks on my nose to shove beads into wire. Other night time projects include watching arranging the dream journal, attempting to clean my room, writing lists of to-buy-at-hong-kong and writing really really long diary entries.

So, highlights of my year. I would say the duke of Edinburgh scheme, was really something to me. Though the two camps, seem like a very distant memory, even the childcare service feels a bit hazy (though it was only two months or so ago), I still think it was good for. Character building? I don’t know, I’m not sure how it really benefitted me, but it just makes me feel like it’s contributed a little bit to the person I am today. (That sounded fit for a politician’s speech!)

This year, I’m very thankful for my parent’s health. I’m thankful, because in there were no hospital trips this year, and I didn’t really realize this till after that sermon. In year seven, my mother had keyhole surgery to get a fibroid out, which was weird, because nobody in my family thought it was that big a deal, until my mom told us it was considered major surgery, and some people didn’t drive for months after that. My mother drove about two weeks after. That was expected though, I still remember one Saturday, my dad somehow hurt his back and there was all this complicated stuff with fainting that I don’t want to go into, and then the big ambulance guys a head taller than me coming into our house, my dad going, my mom going with them, my sister going with a family friend, me wiping the floor because ambulance guys like to wear their shoes in our house and it was raining. And then it was only me. For a really long time. (Come on, eight hours is ages when you’re a thirteen year old kid.) That was quite scary, because of the not-knowing-what-was-going-on-at-the-time situation.

Other interesting things that occurred this year include Barack Obama causing a whole wave of hope-among-other-things within this small place called earth, the dare to dream thing where I honestly believed the speaker was trying to turn me to atheism or agnosticism, the dream book, the math seat changes, me not having one English lesson where everybody worked the whole time, Beatrice’s ideas on the math-teacher-ordering-our-math-papers-by-mark conspiracy, Rachel taking my bus every Tuesday on account of her going to my piano teacher, my piano teacher announcing that she would sell her house, a completion of grade three musicianship, grade five for leisure piano, grade four flute.

And the list continues on to EC camp which I quite liked despite me not bringing enough clothes – a habit spawned from duke of ed packing, Morris Iemmer to Brendan Nelson to Nathan Rees to Kristina Keneally, the weird Copenhagen deal, Kari from Mythbuster’s baby, the red scissors club that has yet to have a gathering, me surviving IST and electronics, and pretty nice weather for Christmas!

Electronics and IST. To this day, I have no idea what caused me to choose electronics, but I guess I don’t exactly dislike the fact that I did. There was another girl in the class, but she wasn’t that into the things that ran in my brain, and vice versa, so we only had the normal I-don’t-really-know-you-all-that-well polite talk. So when I wasn’t soldering, I was listening to people talk about scribblenauts, time paradoxes, losing the game and whatnot. And making sure people knew what a catch 22 phrase was. I’m continuing Visual Arts and IST. I tell my mother that I kind of wish I chose Commerce instead of VA and History instead of Electronics. But deep down, I know that would’ve killed me, I’m not entirely happy with knowing I’ll be spending another year making up stuff through VA when I could be learning about stuff that actually mattered to be. But that’s the way it is, and I will coexist with it.

My New Year’s Resolutions. Well, I can’t find any in the diary that goes up to 10th of January, and I can’t be bothered looking up anymore, or looking through for them on my blog tomorrow. This year, I’m writing mine on the plane, as per somebody’s suggestion, I can’t remember who. I like “this term I’m going to” better. A year is a long stretch, when you look at it from the beginning. I can’t say the same for when you look at it from the end. I wonder what looking into the beginning of the year will feel like as a high school graduate. Or as a mother, I always find myself trying to think as if I were my mom and fail. I went grocery shopping today, and my mom asked me if the idea of grocery shopping for me future kids scared me. It doesn’t, and I think I would enjoy it, at least for a little while. After that, it’d probably just be the most tedious thing on this earth. My mother also asked me if I think I will do well in the HSC. I know I have the capability to, I’m pretty sure most of the people in my year group state wide have the capability to. But, I am an extremely un-disciplined person in terms of school, probably because my parents don’t really have much influence of my school work, and I’m not a particularly motivated person. So, the future awaits.

2009 has been a particularly kind year to me, thought 2008 remains one of my most carefree and happy years. 2009 has been a quiet, though kind year, I guess. It hasn’t challenged me too much, and most of the things that have happened have been within my comfort zone. 2010, I don’t know what to expect of it, but I imagine the pace will pick up, as I start my second half of my high school journey. It seems just like yesterday, (okay, more last month), when I was starting year seven. My point is, I remember that day pretty clearly. Every time I think of it, I realize I have actually been quite lucky to have made it home safely on that first day, there could’ve been so many things that could’ve gone wrong.

Anyway, I’ll stop my reflections and thinking here, I just want to say, thank you for reading this, it makes me feel honoured, to reach people’s thoughts with this blog, however few, I’d also like to say
a) I’ll try and post every now and then via email uploader or I’ll burst of too much I want to say
b) It’s 1.49 am. Woot.
c) Today I realized I yell a lot during super Mario playing, and that I have a tendency of blaming anyone in the same room when I die.
d) Everybody is finishing nanowrimo with me next year. Everybody.
e) I haven’t touched it since November. I’m such a bad girl.
f) I’m sorry for the previous statement. I’m still too scared to show anybody, and I wish I hadn’t mentioned it.
g) Dude, pistol grip camcorders or not? (I never say dude. So I mean it. Someone tell me, pros and cons)
h) Please take care, eat your two fruits a day, and stay safe.
And there are eight dollar hard plastic time turners. On amazondotcom, advertised as a sticker kit, though it apparently only has eight stickers. I’m going to scour hong kong bookstores for this and you know it.

And for someone going to Hong Kong tomorrow, I've packed about zero.
Also, anyone interested in doing JM's notebook idea with me, just say.