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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: My Desk Story filed: In the Navy Hey there, I'm going to be heading off to work experience in about a day's time. It will last about a week and it's in Sydney so my mother and I will be going down staying with an Aunty for the first night and then we'll be staying in other accommodation for the rest of the week. I'll be doing my work experience with the Royal Australian Navy Band. The study course consists of me and three other guys, we're the only students doing it. We'll be arriving every day around eight thirty and we'll be rehearsing along with different bands each day; wind orchestra one day and a jazz band the next. I think we might get some sort of tour of a ship as well, maybe the fourth day. I thought our taxpayer dollars might have provided food, and we might eat in the mess hall but no, we gotta bring our own packed lunch! It's like another SYO music camp but instead of hanging out with other kids my age it will be just us students with a bunch of 'adult' musos. I'll probably write about how it went in my next column, so if you're interested in reading how it went then stick around for the next iteration of this column. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: The music room Story filed: Bagpipes Hi there. Last Sunday I was asked to play bagpipes at Abercrombie House for a guest lunch they were doing. The playing went well, it was all over pretty quickly. I walked in and played some tunes then left. I couldn't stick around as I had go back to work straight after the performance. I haven't been to Abercrombie House, Bathurst for some time, and I forget just how amazing that place is. For those of you that don't know about Abercrombie House, but I'm sure most of you do, it's a really big mansion that dates back to the 1870's built by the Stewart family. It has beautiful stone and brick work with an interior decorated with ornate wood work accompanied by lush green gardens around the house. It was built on top of a hill with surrounding paddocks, with the original workshop further down the hill. The wonderful Mr Morgan, the owner of the house, puts on these events like the Scottish Luncheon I played at. He also has a really nice collection of old cars down by the old workshop just to the right of the front drive. There is a mix of lovely vintage 1930s Rolls Royces and Bentleys, all a little bit rusty and probably don't drive but still absolutely gorgeous. I enjoyed the gig, it was good pipe practice and I was happy to see Abercrombie House again after going there (and writing a column about my visit) when I was a kid. Hopefully I will get invited back to play bagpipes again soon. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: my desk Story filed: Not much to do about nothing Hi there, I hope your day is treating you well. For me it's a bit nippy, I'm just a tad bit cold but apart from that I'm doing just fine. I'm about halfway through my school holidays which in a way is a great misfortune as it means school isn't far around the corner. Putting that aside, the holidays have been quite delightful. I haven't done much but there in lies the best bit of it all, I've been able to kick my feet up and relax. Now, I haven't just done nothing all holidays, I have been working shifts at work a fair bit so I'm looking forward to receiving my payslip, and I've done a couple odd jobs here and there. Although, there is a fair bit I am putting off. Like fixing a chair, doing some school work for next term and so on. You could call this me just being lazy but I just can't seem to find the motivation or willpower to do those tasks. Most of them have been started, they just lack actually being finished. I might be able to muster all my strength to finish them and God willing they need to be finished. So, overall it's been a really slow holiday, not a lot has happened, not very interesting. I know, sorry about that, but it's nice not doing anything for a bit. Well reader enjoy the rest of your day I know I will and hopefully you'll be more productive then me. Leo

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: my desk Story filed: No one left Hi there Leo here. Not a lot happening on my end just getting ready for the last week of school, I'm really looking forward to the holidays. I will say, my pipe band and I had a gig this weekend on Sunday, small job just a couple of numbers at the Edgell Jog (maybe some of you were there) but It keeps crossing my mind that a lot of the senior members of the band have practically finished year twelve. The last couple of gigs we've been getting used to not having most of them around, along with that I've moved up into the front rank alongside our new pipe major. It just means I gotta be really on point now and it is exciting being in the front rank, although it is a bit more responsibility. Whatever, it's going to be fun. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: my desk Story filed: Belonging Hi there, dear reader. I have a question; what does belonging mean to you? I only ask you this because I have to do a case study booklet on Belonging as part of my term 3 art assignment. The first part of our art assignment was to create a body of work that fits with the Belonging theme and now we're onto the second part which is to create a case study booklet on Belonging: Family, Faith, and Friends. I think belonging is the sense of being able to feel comfortable in a certain place or around certain people. I also think that there's a couple of factors that lead to a sense of belonging, like belonging to a certain place like a family home, or certain people like your friends, family, or any of your social groups. One of our strongest feelings of belonging must be with our family as they are who we spend most of our time with from the moment we are born. So, to lose that sense of belonging with your family or maybe not have been able to experience it at all would hurt - I could only assume. I didn't dive too deep into it but that's what I think belonging means. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: the bus Story filed: NSW State Band Championships Hi there. Last weekend my school concert band travelled down to Penrith in Sydney for the NSW State Band Championships. We had an early start on Sunday to get down to Sydney in plenty of time for our section. It wasn't a particularly interesting bus ride down, it was just really boring. Eventually we arrived at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre where we waited around for at least half an hour then we moved our stuff inside and shortly after, we warmed up and performed. Personally I don't think we did too bad but as of writing this I don't know what we placed. After we were all done the rest of my band got back on the bus, but my mother (who also came down to watch) and I stayed behind as I had an orthodontist appointment In Sydney the following day. We got a bite to eat in the food court across from the Centre and headed to the train station to get to our accommodation for the evening. The following day we got up to go to the orthodontist, I got my check up and happily my teeth didn't hurt that much afterwards. We then got some food at another food court, sat down for a bit and enjoyed ourselves before heading back to Central to catch a train/bus/bus back to Bathurst. So, lots of eating and sitting in public transport. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: My desk Story filed: Getting a Licence to Drive Hey there folks. I'm getting kinda old, well not that old but old enough that I can now apply for my drivers licence. I haven't actually applied for it yet as I'm still completing the online DKT test, the driver knowledge test. I have to pass that before I can apply for a driver's licence as I'm sure many of you know. I like the online test better than going into a transport office and doing it in person because if you make a mistake you can just try again and again until you get it right plus you only pay for it once when you pass. There's a couple of components to the online test, there are different sections on different topics with different stages in them. Complete all those and their respective quizzes then you can unlock a key. In total there are three sections and three keys you need in order to be able to take the final test and apply for your licence. So far I'm nearly done with the final section and onto the final test. I'm looking forward to being able to apply for a driver's license as I'm kinda sick of walking everywhere. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: My desk Story filed: Holidays, yay Hi folks, nothing special today, only I'm really excited because as some of you may already know, some schools (mine included) are now on holidays otherwise known as a short break in between school terms and I'm loving it. I'm hoping this holiday doesn't just fly by and I'm at school again before I know it, because I've got plans and things to do. I would like to muck around but not do too much however I do have some big events in the holidays. I have some bagpipe practices this week in preparation for going up to the Aberdeen Highland Games pipe competition in the Hunter Valley (not Scotland sadly), I'm very excited for that to say the least. Another thing to add about Aberdeen is that it's an overnight trip as it runs for a couple of days. All I'm saying is it's going to be fun. Apart from Aberdeen, I have another Sydney Youth Orchestra music camp in the last week of the holidays and that's that for events in the holidays. From me to you I hope you enjoy your holiday, break, weekend or days off, I certainly will. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: My desk Story filed: So much for that Hi all, I hope you had a good weekend. Mine was: eventful. Starting off strong with getting up in the cold at 6am to go to school to get on a bus for our First XI soccer away game. We were off to Sydney to play St Pius X but as you might remember, Saturday was a very rainy day. We were just fifteen minutes into the journey when we got the message that the game had been rained out. So we headed home, gameless. I guess on the plus side I had the day to myself, or well almost most of it. Gleely my mum said I could now go and perform in the Orange Youth Orchestras rehearsal and concert - which I hadn't been able to do due to being in Sydney playing soccer. The concert went really well actually. Sunday comes by and I've got nothing but pool lifeguard work from 10:30am to 3:30pm and it's a day shift, so it's going to be a bit quiet. It wasn't though, as there was a Mountain and Plains Swimming Carnival on, so it was quite busy. On a side note our car got ransacked while parked in our carport. We accidentally left the boot slightly open and it also just happened that some shady people walking around that night saw it open, unlatched our back gate, walked into our yard and ransacked our car. They stole a small pair of mini binoculars, a pocket kite, a small bluetooth speaker, my mum's driving license and NRMA roadside assist card and a small pot of newly opened Carmex lip balm plus leaving the car a mess. Kinda weird. We were upset even though it was our fault for leaving the car open like an alluring treasure chest. In our defence we were tired and didn't realise until too late. So, that was my eventful weekend. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: Somewhere in a dark warehouse Story filed: Surplus Hey there, Leo here. I'm probably going to sound like a bit of a nerd.... but I do love some good military surplus. For those of you who may not know what 'surplus' is, surplus or military surplus is old, redundant, decommissioned military gear sold to the public. We're talking old gear from boots, hats, helmets, shirts, tunics to belts and the list goes on and on. Really, it's anything the military of whatever country is willing to sell off. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it, surplus has become more popular over the years and recently started to be seen and traded as trendy, vintage, fashionable fashion items for daily wear and seen less as just old military clothing. If it's old or rare it's still largely sought out for personal collections and the more modern stuff purchased for camping and outdoor activities. Another thing that comes with the rise of surplus becoming fashionable is that it's risen in price. At one point in life (before my time) surplus used to be cheap even items from the second world war and postwar were not as highly sought after like today. However if you know where to look you can get good deals on really good surplus. I recently got some East German and post WW2 Bulgarian surplus for a really good price, both pieces a good addition to my personal collection. This collecting is an addiction, I can't stop, please help. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: The Locker Room Story filed: ISA Soccer, Kinda Hard Hi there folks, Leo here. My soccer season this year is looking much different to last year's season. The difference being that last season my team and I were playing in the local Bathurst Comp which we won in our age group. This year we are playing in the Independent Schools Association (ISA) Division 3 football competition and it's a completely different league. When I mean it's a different league, I mean it's just a lot harder. The teams are much tougher than the Bathurst teams we are used to playing. Our opposition so far has been St Patrick's College Strathfield, St Pius X College Chatswood and coming up is Oxley College Bowral, St Andrew's Cathedral School Sydney and some of these are really good sporting schools. What I'm saying is that we have got to pick up our game, here. So far, my team and I have played against Pius and St Pats, and they were both good and it's a shame we lost both games as we managed to stand our ground pretty well in the first half but we let it slip in the second half both times. The boys on the other teams are incredibly good and have a completely different playing style to what we're used to - some get pretty physical. In all, it's going to be a tough season. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: My Desk Story filed: NSW Pipe Association Competition Hi all, I don't know if you know this but on Sunday my school hosted the NSW Pipe Association Pipes and Drums Competition. The competition was fine overall - there was heaps of food and drinks but the only downside was half the time it was either windy or raining. For my band, we had to get there at 9am to get changed and ready for an 11am start and we finished at 2.30pm. It was super cool to see a lot of different Pipe and Drum bands come from all over the state to compete. It was especially great getting to listen to them play and hearing the professional quality of their playing. We played in section 4B, which is our level of playing. We played in two sections, the marches and the medleys. We came second out of three bands in our section, which made our band very happy. Although, next year we plan on coming first. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: My Desk Story filed: Wet Weather Hi there, Leo here. For this column, I was planning on telling you about my planned trip to Bowral for the Bundanoon Highland Gathering and the solo Pipe and Drums competition that was to be held last weekend but sadly, there was a bucket tonne of rain last weekend as you might recall and as you might also guess pipers, drummers and rain don't mix well as we don't like to stand out in the rain, much like any other sane person And it's also not great for the instruments. Now, just in case any of you had the slightest thought about why it was not simply moved indoors, I'll just put it out there that such a thing is impossible. One bagpipe playing indoors is pretty loud but running 5 separate performance stages for solo's is a sound explosion. I'm sure the question you're dying to ask though is "If you didn't do that on your weekend Leo, then what did you do?" Well thanks for asking and what I did on my weekend instead was go to work, very exciting. There really wasn't much action this weekend. Going to this competition did mean that I would have had to miss out on my soccer team's first game, but it ended up not mattering if I was there or not as that too was canceled due to bad weather. So, overall last weekend was a bit of a wash out. Something that I am looking forward to is the school holidays. I'm very excited for my two week break and I only have three more days of school left, yippy. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: My Desk Story filed: Night of Concerts Hi there folks. I hope you enjoyed your weekend. My weekend was pretty eventful. On Saturday my U15 cricket team and I had our grand final game against the Stannies A Team, unfortunately we didn't win. Which is a shame because we were going really well in the first half. I had a lot of fun batting though and was the last man standing, not out. Later in the afternoon I was playing in the Twilight Strings Concert at the Uniting Church as my ensemble from the Mitchell Conservatorium was playing two pieces in it. Unfortunately I couldn't stick around as I had to then go back to Orange for the All Creatures Great & Small Ensembles Concert. And I say 'back to Orange' as I was there earlier in the afternoon for a final rehearsal for the evening's concert. I'm in the Orange Youth Orchestra and we were the main event. We were performing Carnival of the Animals - even the concert was themed around a carnival of animals. Both concerts went really well. The music sounded great and we played very well. Again, my mother and I were not able to stick around for the end of the concert and I'm sure you would understand that we had to drive back to Bathurst in the dark, with heavy rain. Thankfully, the rain on the return journey was not as heavy as the rain on the way to Orange, that was incredibly heavy. Before we headed back home we stopped at this little take out shop called Mukoko. It's a relatively new food shop that does sushi and fried chicken. What a great combo! And the food wasn't bad, it's quite yummy. I grabbed a donburi bowl and some boneless fried chicken and my mother got a donburi bowl too and then we headed home. On Sunday.....I had work, it was very exciting, it was so incredibly eventful - not. But overall, a great weekend. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: On the Road Story filed: Final concert Hey there, I've been to Orange recently, pretty recently actually, it was last weekend, I went to Orange to perform in the Cultured Youth Orchestra that was part of the Orange Chamber Music Festival. I caught one of the school buses that left for Orange after school on Friday because we had a rehearsal from 4 to 8pm that afternoon. Our rehearsal space was the music building at Kinross Wolaroi school, who also supplied a fair portion of the students to play in the orchestra. As it was a late rehearsal they kindly provided us dinner which was a lot of pizza, which was gone very, very quickly. Instead of having to drive all the way back to Bathurst late at night my mother and I stayed in a motel. It was a very nice motel, very comfy. In the morning I slept in a bit, had some breakfast and went to go get a haircut, The men's barber that I went to was in one of the shopping malls. Bathurst - I have to say Orange's shopping malls are far, far superior to Bathurst's. They're just so much better. Sad that we don't get shopping malls like Orange. When I say they're better I mean they're big, have a nice design and look, have lots of shops, all full - no empty shops, and they have a food mall. In my opinion, just so much better. After the haircut I went to our final rehearsal which was from 10am to 1pm and then our performance was a 3pm final rehearsal for a 4pm performance. This might seem like a short time to prepare and practice but we did have a two day rehearsal sometime in January as well. The performance was good, it went really well. And with that over, I packed my bags and my mother and I headed straight home for Bathurst, only after we stopped, looked at some op shops and got some ice cream. Overall it was a really good weekend. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: A minivan Story filed: Road trip to Canberra Hey there folks. Hope you're well. I'd like to tell you about my trip to Canberra with the Orange Youth Orchestra to play with the Canberra Youth Orchestra. We headed off midday Friday last week, all of us squished into a sardine can on wheels. It was in fact an old minivan, there was actual room for everyone but it was a bit more cramped than usual as we had to fit in our instruments as well. I play cello in the orchestra so we had to fit a full size cello in an already tight bus, along with the other cellist and his cello that were also coming with us. The violins did not take up as much room. What we did was, we laid the two cellos side by side next to the big rolling door on the bus. This all managed to work! We got to Canberra all fine and then to the venue that we would be rehearsing in over the weekend along with the CYO. I stayed with a host family for the weekend from the CYO and I had a great time. They were really nice, and looked after me really well. After very long days rehearsing we had the concert on Sunday afternoon. The concert was really fun and went well, I said thank you and goodbye to my host family and we hit the road once again for a four and a bit hours journey back to Orange. When we got back I had to go another 45 minutes to get home to Bathurst. It was a lot of driving but overall I had a great time. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: Bathurst Story filed: Beginning a new year Hi folks, Leo here. What happened to the school holidays? They are over already. I did some stuff and then didn't do much and now it is back to school. I really want to make this year a good one. During the break, I went to music camp and played in a couple of concerts which was really good fun. I travelled to Sydney too and also ate some good food while I was there like sushi, ramen noodles, spicy chicken and zaatar pizza. I watched a few movies including Saving Private Ryan and Dirty Harry. Holidays are never enough. As of this week, the school treadmill begins, it's not so bad but there are plenty of other things I would rather be doing. I'll let you know all about it. Until next time Leo Roving Reporter

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Leo, Roving Reporter Report from: My desk Story filed: End of a year Hi folks, as you know Christmas is coming and along with it another end of a year, and what a year it's been. I don't particularly remember what happened this year but it's definitely the end of a year. This isn't going to be a very long column as I don't have much to say, all I want to say is thank you to anyone that reads this, frankly I'm surprised you may be reading this at all. In all seriousness, thank you dear reader for sticking around and reading my column, It means alot. Even though I've been a bit on and off with delivering a column, sometimes I was just a bit too busy and couldn't get one out, I'll try better next year. Again thank you dear reader and I wish you a very merry Christmas and a very happy new year. Leo Roving Reporter