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Today started early for me. I donned my takkies, shorts and shirt through half-closed eyes and stumbled out of my study to meet the boys from C-Dorm for a run. The dorm cops had decided to take their boys for a run, so I decided to join them. I’m glad I did. The school is always beautiful in the morning and this morning was no exception. A slight mist hung just above the ground and the sun’s rays split through the leaves in the trees. It really makes one appreciate the beauty of our wonderful school.

Breakfast this morning was fried eggs and cereal (boys always eat a lot in the morning), and I enjoyed talking to some friends about their trip to St. Anne’s the night before. They had gone to St Anne’s for Unity which is an event for the Christian Fellowship committees from all over the Maritzburg area to get together and discuss Christianity in their respective schools. I would have gone, but we had our first play practice for “Grease” last night which was most enjoyable anyway.

Boys sitting and listening to the message delivered by Mr Dippennaar at house prayers

The house got together this morning for House Prayers and some Form 2 boys shared a short message with us. Mr Guthrie then delivered some messages and Matt van Asche did the weekly “lamb shank”. Lamb Shank is a tradition in McKenzie whereby a Matric informs the House of stupid things boys have said or done throughout the week. One such example of this week was a boy putting his phone in the microwave to try and dry it. Needless to say he is now without a cell phone for a while!

Mr Ramnarain explaining the intricacies of our set work Breek, during Afrikaans

Classes today were much of the same. A bit of calculus in Maths, some Afrikaans Literature (which I am struggling to understand at the moment!), learning about companies in Accounting and an English comprehension were the highlights of my academic day! My Accounting teacher, Mr Todd, spent some time with us discussing companies in the real world and we went through some examples of companies deciding whether to merge or not, and I found this rather interesting. It wasn’t strictly in the syllabus, but I think it is always important in such a subject as Accounts to have a look at real life situations in the real world.

Our 1st team cricket practice on Hart-Davis oval

This afternoon I went to cricket practice. Unfortunately we just lost our game with a couple of balls to go on the weekend. Mr Richter, justifiably, wasn’t very happy with us as we really let the game slip from our grasp, and should have won – having St Charles 45/6! We worked very hard concentrating on keeping the ball in the channel when bowling and taking each ball one by one. I have really learned to control my mind when playing cricket. I can now focus 100% on what I am doing at every moment and not have any other worries or thoughts as I run in to bowl, and I believe my bowling has improved a lot this year.

The cast rehearsing some songs from the musical “Grease”

We had our second “Grease” rehearsal tonight. I am enjoying my part. It is not serious at all, and I basically get to clown around. I am enjoying the fact that Mrs Lovatt (the director) has given us all a lot of freedom to mould our characters how we would like to. It makes the whole performance more authentic and a lot more fun!

This evening I went into the C-Dorm lights out to try and help the new boys learn for their new boys test. The new boys test is an assessment that every boy does in his first year at Hilton College, whether he be in Form I or older. It is an important test because it lets them get to know people and places around the school. As Mr Lovatt said to the new boys’ parents at his address: one must know a bit about the history of the company that they have been employed to work for and so it is only right that the new boys must know a bit about the history of Hilton. They were a little rusty, and will have to go away and learn their stuff for tomorrow night when we check them again.

The rest of my night was taken up by talking to Form IV’s about keeping their rooms tidy and respecting others by keeping their music to a reasonable level. I don’t enjoy talking to them about things like this, but when 85 boys live together in one house, you need to be able to keep order somehow! Form IV’s get their own rooms at the beginning of every year and they really enjoy this privilege, but sometimes rooms can tend to turn into pigsties!

On to Wednesday