Premier's Awards

Well today was definitely a test of my levels of patience, boredom and hunger.

It was the most boring thing (no offence to the recipients) I have attended since the days of scripture lessons... The problem was that there were some 800 or so names that needed to be read out, handshakes to be had and photos to be taken. It gradually became a long, drawn-out and tedious process that lost its excitement after the A's had finished.

Then it was also a test of surviving hunger. The proceedings took some 4 hours today... 2 hours of rehearsal and 2 hours of actual award ceremony from 12 till 4pm. Afterwards, all of us were hungry. However, Miss Irvine and Miss Haitidis wanted to take a group photo, and so we were outside the auditorium for another 15mins or so (while I was daydreaming about all the food awaiting us downstairs). Luckily enough Andy got an autograph from Bob Carr (who was swamped by just as eager people), and we got a group photo taken with Dr Andrew Refshauge (Minister for Education). That was amongst the tens of other photos the paparazzi (namingly consisting of parents) took in that time.

Bob Carr and Dr Andrew Refshauge both did speeches which centred on the excellence of the NSW public system, and how it was the envy of the world. Then they said how it was the model that governments from all round the world try to emulate, and how the changes to it made it even better. I wasn't surprised that they said this, and applauded it despite comments that they were too politically correct and what not. Some award recipients protested by wearing shirts that said 'free education for all' (in reference to tertiary education I would assume). That was a highlight.

At least the trophy looks nice... it's all glassy. And I'm too buggered to blog anymore.