KOKODA IS COMING

So welcome back to the first post in ages! As the school term has come to a close there should be some more time for me to get more posts out. I also have to start writing my Kokoda series which will come out while I am over there in just over 10 days!! As Kokoda is drawing ever-closer there has been so much to do which is why this weeks 'the week that was' segment is mostly about Kokoda. However, before I continue with this I am just going to finish the introductory paragraph with something a little less related to Kokoda. Aside from all the Kokoda stuff which has taken up a lot of time recently, I have also had my first 3/4 Methods SAC which for those of you unfamiliar with VCE, counts towards my study score for the subject and, as a result, my ATAR which determines whether or not I get into my desired University Course. I was pretty happy with the result as I received 94% (and A+) which put me at Rank 3 out of the 166 students doing Unit 3/4 Methods at my school. It was quite the surprising (and exhilarating) moment which put me in a positive mindset for the rest of the year (hopefully, I am not from the future so I can not tell). Now, onto the Kokoda stuff.

Source: http://www.kokodatrackfoundation.org/history-of-the-kokoda-track.aspx

Since it has been so long since I have written a post updating you all on my Kokoda journey I am actually not sure where to start so if things are a little out of chronological order or a little random, I am very sorry. Vaccinations were this week. After many weeks of planning the time finally arrived. It was not exactly significant but it was still one of those things that made everything seem so much more real. If you were wondering what vaccinations we were getting for Kokoda, it was Flu, Typhoid, Hepatitis A and Japanese Encephalitis (which was optional). It would have also been tetanus but we got those in Year 10. In the past week Mum and I have also been packing and repacking my pack as well as testing out my sleeping mattress and sleeping mat so I know how to effectively get the sleeping bag and mat back in their respective bags. It has been a lot of hard work trying to get everything all together and fitting it in but it is great to get it ready and sorted this far out from the trek. When we go there, we will be packing our empty packs in suitcases so that the straps do not get damaged in transit but we still need to know how to pack it (and that everything fits and is not too heavy). Still, I am pretty sure that there are some things in my pack that I am going to donate to my Porter so I do not have to carry it after the first day. Aside from this, we were also put in groups and had to make a presentation on a portion of the Kokoda track. I was with two others and our task was to research Efogi to Myola, Myola to Templeton's Crossing and Templeton's Crossing to Eora Creek while making reference to Captain Sam Templeton. We had to show through our presentation how the soldiers who fought in the Kokoda campaign experienced Kokoda. Our presentation was a story which I actually might post as one of the days that I am away in Kokoda. It was actually a very interesting task and how presentations, dare I say it (I do by the way), was one of the best. Also on that night we had a presentation from one of the last surviving members of the 39th Battalion who fought in the Kokoda campaign. He was such a great character and he had some really interesting stories to tell. Plus it was also very interesting that it was the Malaria he contracted that saved him from the fate of many of his comrades who died along with the majority of the 39th Battalion.

Less than two weeks to Kokoda and the excitement and nervous energy is growing! See you tomorrow.

Another Apology and a Hope

Again, I am sorry for the recent spate of short/missing posts. For reasons beyond my control, this blog has sadly been neglected over the past few days. For this I am incredibly sorry. I can not stress how sorry I am that this even occurs. I try hard to bring out daily content for all of you but some days are just too hard to get anything up. This is why I brought in things like Segments and Series so that I could schedule a few posts in advance to give myself some time off to catch up on homework. I am trying to keep this up but sometimes my life gets too busy with all these things going on but I am excited to bring you all new content. For example, I can not wait until April so I can share my Kokoda experience with you all, including the lead-up to the trek. However, there is a slight possibility that there may be a few days after the trek where you receive no posts. For this, I am apologetic but after hiking Kokoda I need a break. I will try to schedule as many posts as I can but there is only so much I can write between now and April. Anyway, all we can do is hope. After everything else is taken from us, we can still have hope. I hope that this blog returns to full-posts as my life returns to its normal school lifestyle.

I am very sorry, see you tomorrow!

Apology and Disclaimer

Hey guys, you are not forgotten. I am incredibly apologetic about the lack of posts recently it is just that things suddenly have become very busy. I have had to move my brother out of this room (hooray) and into the piano room which meant moving the piano into my room along with the desk and computer and moving the book case out of my room. On top of this I started Year 11 on Friday and also bought a new phone. I bought a Telstra Urbane (Prepaid) as my old Galaxy Ace kept crashing and had too little memory (even with max expansion). I am actually writing this post on my new phone which is exciting. I can not promise anything but we should be back to normal tomorrow with a Doctor Who Sunday post. It is a bit of a bummer that I missed out on all those posts because otherwise tonight would have been my 300th post.

I am sorry guys. See you tomorrow.

Random Thought Saturday is Back

That's right, Random Thought Saturday is back after a month-long hiatus. It was so hard to not go in all these weird tangents in some of my posts so far this year and so I am glad that this segment is back to normal. Speaking of segments, have you all seen the two new segments that started this week? Every Wednesday is now "Entertainment Wednesday" with all things entertainment and every Thursday is now "At the Movies with Daily Lukey". I was smart enough to not put the day at the end of Thursday's segment so it is not as noticeable when I post it on a different day. Come to think of it, out of the seven days in the week there are only two days remaining without a segment on them. This will stay like that for a while (or at least until I come up with some new idea) but I think that I will always have at least one day where any type of post is possible. Plus, some of these segments I come up with as I am writing the post. Seriously, "At the Movies with Daily Lukey" started out as just a highly-anticipated films of 2014 series. That is why the Frozen review went on Entertainment Wednesday instead. If I had of known I may have chosen a different topic to write about. Anyway, I can find myself getting off topic now.

Source: http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=4996

Tomorrow is Australia day and I would be writing about it tomorrow but it is Doctor Who Sunday and there is no way I am going to be able to write a whole post about Australia day anyway. Well I could but it would not be any good and who would want to read it? Besides, yesterday's post about the graffiti (and damage) done to Captain Cook's Cottage had a moment where I talked about Australia day. Still, what could I write about Australia day without coming off as weird or phony. Anyway, moving on from Australia day. There is just over two months until we fly out to Kokoda and there is still so much to do. We have started regular Tuesday and Thursday afternoon training sessions alongside our weekend hikes and other training as well as fundraising barbecues and events. It is definitely getting closer and more real by the day. It still has not fully hit me (but trust me, it has hit me a fair bit) what I am about to do. I guess I am just lucky that the others in the group are such a nice bunch of people. It would have been really bad if some of us did not get along. We are already going to do stuff we regret when we are tired, it would be a whole lot worse if there were people we did not like. Myself and the girl from my school who is going to have a joke about the amount of blackmail we are going to have on each other after the trip. Still, it is going to be a great and life-changing experience. Plus, in those surveys with "Your Greatest Achievement" sections I will be able to write about something really different and special. I also have to get on to writing some of the posts that are going to be scheduled to come out as I am away as well as some of the proceeding and preceding days to give myself a bit of a break. I think the majority of the posts are going to be about my experience leading up to Kokoda and then there are probably going to be several posts afterwards about my experience on the track. The annoying part is that I have a Piano exam when I come back from Kokoda. My teacher is going to try and get some of the later dates (the exam period for Grade 6 is April 28 to May 10 and I come back from Kokoda on April 25) so that I have time to rest up and get back into the practicing mode so I do not lose all my hard work right before the exam. You see, it is a bit difficult to practice the piano on the Kokoda track. Who would have thought? Moving on to some of the headlines of the week. Justin Bieber was arrested for driving under the influence and it just annoys me how, after all that he has done and been caught doing, people still stand up for him. I just can not believe all those "Beliebers" who stand up for him after all the things he has done. They even justify and down-play some of the stuff like drag racing. The best part is that they say the media is against him and yet as soon as they start reporting positive things the fans go crazy in support of the media. Seriously, some fan girls are just crazy. I am also excited because the new Hunger Games Mockingjay logo and poster was released. I used it in next week's "At the Movies with Daily Lukey" post about the highly anticipated films of 2014. If you missed it though, here it is again:

Source: https://www.facebook.com/TheHungerGamesMovie

I think that is enough random for one post, see you tomorrow!

Apology, Explanation, Disclaimer

Today's post is going to be an expansion, apology and disclaimer all rolled into one so get excited! Or do not, whatever suits you. First, I am very sorry for the lack of post yesterday but that was due to a busy day finishing with King Kong last night. Again, I am sorry for this but sometimes life gets in the way. Second, I wish to warn and apologise for a likely increase in these short phone-written posts. This is because every year Mum makes a year in review video and for this she uses the computer in the piano room. Since I had to return my school laptop the only other computer in the house is horrible because it is really slow and restarts every five minutes just because it can. This makes it very hard to write posts. However, over the next few days Mum is working so I will try to schedule some posts including a new segment (I was going to say exciting but that could be false advertising) as well as the usual ones. Basically, this post is my apology and explanation/disclaimer for these short post which I have to write on my phone which takes so much longer.

I hope these holidays provide me with some inspiration. See you tomorrow.