Moving to Scotch

On October 3, 9 days after I got back from Prussia Cove, we moved to our new house very close to Scotch College, a big private boys' school. From Rosie's bedroom upstairs she has a pretty close view of Scotch. In fact the house belongs to Scotch as do many in the street. Some are used by staff and the new Principal was the previous tenant of ours. It's smaller than our previous abode but still has the required number of rooms and suits us quite nicely. It's not far from the old one and still very convenient for the Glenferrie Rd tram that runs between our 2 schools. Sophie will be joining Rosie at MLC next year so my days of commuting to North Fitzroy every morning are now over! Will popped in on moving day to lend a hand and I popped out to do an MSO concert at 2pm. Peter had very wisely hired 2 angels to unpack boxes and organise and put away stuff. They did 4 hours on moving day and 4 hours 2 days later and that was the best $800 we've ever spent. They did more in 8 hours than we could have done in a week or 2 and it really helped us settle in quickly with much less stress than usual.

Jessye became Mitchell House Captain in the 4th term, taking over from the year 12 girls who are relieved of duties in order to focus on end-of-year external exams. There are 4 houses and each house has 2 captains. The leadership positions on offer are 2 School Captains, the House Captains and a number of Prefects. I went to the special induction assembly at which they were all presented to the school which was followed by morning tea with parents and girls.

About this time we were graced with the presence of Tomson, a very opinionated and vocal dachshund. Tomson's owner is a good friend who was going to Europe for 3 weeks and I rashly volunteered to dog-sit for the duration. The cats were terrorised and we didn't see much of Tiny for the 3 weeks. After he went back home we were much more appreciative of Barney and Fred's passive and sweet, affectionate nature, even though they may not be top of the class.

Sophie has been persistently pushing the advantages of a trampoline for quite a few years, particularly the type we first saw in New Zealand 4 years ago. Somehow moving house seemed to present a logical time to go for it so we bought and installed one of the NZ brand. Unlike the traditional type of trampoline, this design is perfectly safe so I was very happy to see Sophie and Rosie in particular making good use of it.

 

The rowing season started in earnest in term 4 although the most serious racing is yet to come in term 1 next year. Jessye is currently in the 1st Four and the 1st Eight and should stay in those crews on current form although final crew selection doesn't happen until after the January camp. On November 21, Eleanor's birthday, the 4 and the 8 raced in the Melbourne Head, a timed race on the Yarra in which boats are released at intervals rather than side by side and timed over a 4.5 km course. This is 3 times longer than the 1500 m course on the Barwon at Geelong so presented an opportunity for the girls to show how fit they are. Not only did they race the 4's but then the 8 also did the same course. The 1st 4 won their division and the 8 came 2nd, not a bad effort.

Peter rode a bike along the riverside bike path which gave him the opportunity to get some really good close shots with his super-duper lens. He was surprised at how fast they go and found it hard to keep up. The pics of the 8 in which they're smiling for the camera were taken when they were rowing up to the start line - no time or inclination for smiling once the pain sets in!

If they thought the Melbourne Head was exhausting, that apparently was nothing compared to the Head of the Yarra the following Saturday. This is another timed race for 8's only, but this time the course was 8.6 km of the Yarra! It's a very old race that has traditionally been fought out by the top crews from Melbourne and Sydney Universities with Melbourne slightly ahead in the tally. However it's not just for the elite. There were 200 boats racing, from school level to the elite uni crews and from clubs catering for all ages. There was one competitor who was 77 (an MLC mum we met on the riverbank told me because her husband was in the same boat). I certainly wouldn't have picked a 77 yr old in the boat when they went past. We had 2 reasons to watch the race. Jessye's 2nd cousin (son of my 1st cousin, Yvonne Valli nee Woodhouse, in Sydney) was in one of the Sydney Uni boats and he's an Olympic hopeful. He has just returned from doing a Masters at Oxford where he rowed in the famous Oxford/Cambridge race - and won! His claim to a spot on the ustralian team for the next Olympics would seem to be quite realistic since he was in the Australian 4 that won a gold medal in the Under-23 event at the world championships in 2004.

He hopes to be at the world championships in NZ next year - his name's Mike Valli so keep an eye out for him. Anyway, along with a few rellies, we staked out a spot near the finish line which was the bridge over Bridge Rd and watched as Jessye's crew slogged past at about 1:00 then again as Mike's crew also slogged past a few hours later. The race had started in the city and gone upstream into Richmond with boats released to start at 10 second intervals with a five-minute gap every 5 boats. As more and more of the 200 boats finished and went ashore, the crowd grew more and more dense. They had to hang around for the last boats to finish before putting their boats back in the water and rowing all the way back to the boatsheds in the city. The Lauriston girls decided to have a bit of fun on the way home with everybody swapping seats. Jessye lucked out and got the cox seat for which she is vocally if not physically well- suited. She had a ball yelling at her crew through the "cox-box", the electronically amplifying gadget, all the way back. The only opportunity for the rowing cousins to meet was the minute between when Jessye's crew carried their boat down to the landing and when they had to put it in the water. We managed to capture the moment for posterity though. By the way, in a pretty national field, the Lauriston 1st 8 came 8th in the schoolgirl 1st division. They did the course in something like 34 minutes compared with the fastest men's open crews like Mike's who do it in about 25 minutes. Pretty good for 16 and 17-yr-old girls if you ask me.

The last event in Sophie's primary school life was graduation which happened on Dec 16. Unfortunately there was a clash with the ballet megaproduction but the 4 girls who were affected were still able to go to the students' dinner and the first part of the ceremony. They were presented with their gifts near the beginning so they could leave early. The girls had gone shopping together a few weeks earlier and bought dresses of their choice. Goodbye, North Fitzroy Primary. Roll on Christmas!