SENIOR SCHOOL
Julie’s favourite things
Director of Teaching and Learning, Mrs Julie Harris, has developed a dedicated
following as a result of her insightful and humorous weekly Bulletin articles on
personal excellence. Due to popular demand here are some of Julie’s favourite
things, written in her usual witty style.
It was quite difficult to decide what my favourite things are. I asked myself what
I would be upset to lose if some awful disaster happened to the house, and in an
uncharacteristically contrary way, my mind came up with things I would actually quite
like to lose in a catastrophe (all the different versions of Monopoly I am forced to
play, my appallingly ineffective top-loading washing machine, the piles of computer
games which just get in the way…). I focused hard, however, and made my list. I have
assumed that ‘things’ refers to objects and I’m therefore not supposed to include my
family, but would like to make it clear that I am obviously rather fond of them, too.
Books
I think books are probably my favourite
thing of all. When we moved to WA from
New Zealand, Pickfords were horrified that
although they had quoted for a small volume
of belongings, 50 of the boxes contained
books and only 20 ‘other possessions’, which
made for a very heavy load. Favourites
include Russell’s The Sparrow (science fiction
rather than a book for ornithologists) and
anything by John Irving, Bill Bryson or Annie
Proulx. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have lots
of books about educational things and a
whole shelf of beautiful biology books,
the highlights of which include a recently
published WA orchid book, an old and well
used UK moth book and various volumes of
plant classification. They all bring back lovely
memories of plants and animals hunted
down in different places.
My camera and photographs
Whenever my husband (who takes
photography seriously) invests in a new
camera, I get his old reject. I’m currently
using a Nikon D-80, which is more than
good enough for what I need. I love
looking through my old photographs and
now need to organise the digital ones into
some sort of order.
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Stationery
My piano
I love my piano. I bought it from the Quokka
from a dodgy man who said it was his
girlfriend’s, but assured me that she had left
him and wouldn’t mind that he was selling
it. I can’t imagine a house without a piano
– it was one of the first purchases we made
when we arrived in Perth. After a hard day
at school, there’s nothing like a good bash
on the piano to make everything OK again
and it means I can accompany my children
when they practise t Z\