DIARY ENTRY
Saturday, 6 February
Just read a book called Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence. Rather repetitive and overwrought. I don’t understand why the Lady is spending so much time with the gardener. And what exactly are they doing? It should be made clear.
Mum took us to visit Auntie Veronica today. Anthony brought Sam along. I’m impressed that they’ve managed to stay friends even though we’ve moved several times since we lived next door to him and his pool.
DIARY ENTRY
Thursday, 20 May
Reflections on Velcro
Lately, I’ve been reading the myths of Ancient Greece. I have just finished a story about a hero named Herakles who had to undertake twelve ‘labours’ (which means challenges, like killing many-headed serpents and stealing apples).
As I read, I felt as if pieces of velcro were being torn apart in my chest. For I could not stop the despairing ‘rip’ of this thought: When did he get to take a break? Why, after each of these labours, did Herakles have to do ANOTHER one? When did this poor man get to take a break?
DIARYENTRY
Saturday, 17 July
Reflections on Realists
This morning I overheard Mum and Dad fighting. (I was on the floor behind the couch.)
Dad was going, ‘Cecily, listen to me. You’re not hearing me here. Hello? Am I speaking to a rock?’
Afterwards, I hovered around Dad a bit, in case he wanted me to hear him. We were taking some doors off their hinges, and Dad said something interesting.
This is what he said.
‘Bindy,’ he said. ‘What would you call a person who walks into a takeaway joint and makes her choice by looking at the glossy pictures on the wall above the counter? Rather than at the actual food which is sitting right in front of her? Right there in front of her, underneath the glass? What would you call such a person? Do you hear what I’m saying?’
I assured him that I did.
Hills District Primary School
Half-Yearly Report: BINDY MACKENZIE
General Comments
Bindy is a pleasure to have in the class. I can honestly say I’ve never had a student as bright, conscientious and cheerful as she is. No doubt, she will eventually win over her classmates—she’s a little too advanced for most of them at the moment, but she tries very hard to engage with them.
DIARY ENTRY
Monday, 6 September
I think Toby Mazzerati and I may be drifting apart. We were both in the purple group but today I heard him ask to move to the green group. Why? My only hope is that I did not cause offence this morning, when I tried to tell him about this ‘five food groups float’ that I saw at the Orange Blossom Festival. I suppose I thought he might benefit from some clear nutritional information—his weight and so on.
DIARY ENTRY
Sunday, 5 December
Oh Dear Diary,
I have spent the day reading some books by young people’s authors, including Judy Blume. I found them in a box of Mum’s things that I was unpacking (we moved here just yesterday), and I am now a different person.
It has been a revelation.
I now know exactly what’s going to happen to me, physically, in the next few years. (I also know what is going to happen to boys—things called wet dreams and erections. It seems impressive.)
I think I even get what S-E-X really is!
I feel very odd, but also strangely elated. At last I have learned the facts of life.
7. Bindy Mackenzie: the Surprising Year (Hills District Primary, Year 6, Age 11)
DIARY ENTRY
Sunday, 2 January
Dear Diary,
Today may have been a perfect day.
This morning, Mum was out doing a newspaper interview, because she won Business Woman of the Year again, and when she arrived home Dad had a bouquet of flowers waiting for her! It was so sweet.
I spent some time weeding in the front garden, and helped Dad paint the front fence. The people next door have a boat lying face-down in their front garden. Dad and I made some jokes about the boat. Sulphur-crested cockatoos flew about the eucalyptus trees. Mum came out with some sandwiches and freshly squeezed apple juice, and suggested we take a break. So, I sat on the grass and read An Enquiry Into the Human Mind on the Principles of Common Sense by Thomas Reid.
Hills District Primary School Talent Quest
FIRST PRIZE TO BINDY MACKENZIE
For her valiant rendition of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 23 in F minor
DIARY ENTRY
Tuesday, 7 March
Today, I presented another submission to Dad that we should get pocket money. I pointed out that, if you give a child a limited amount of spending money, you will help him or her to learn sound financial management.
As usual, Dad said that he only pays out his hard-earned cash if there’s something in it for him.
But then he looked at his wrists for a while, and said something amazing. If Anthony or I develop a business proposal—something that might make a profit which we could then share with him—he would consider investing in that business. Our share of the profits would then be our ‘pocket money’.
I am going to work on my first business proposal right now!!!
BUSINESS PROPOSAL
by
BINDY MACKENZIE
To Dad
My proposal is to buy skipping ropes cheaply, and then sell them to the other kids at high prices. So, Dad, I humbly ask you to invest money so that I can buy skipping ropes.
Yours sincerely,
Bindy Mackenzie
Response to Bindy Mackenzie’s Skipping Rope Business Proposal:
APPROVED
Please provide regular reports on the progress of this business.
Paul Mackenzie
DIARY ENTRY
Wednesday, 12 April
Reflections on Transformation
Today I was watching some people play hopscotch, play elastics, chat, and skip with the ropes that I sold them—and somehow the games and the conversations began to blur and transform before my eyes. They seemed to become quavers, crotchets and semibreves (and I was the composer); next they were harpsichords, violins and trombones (and I was the conductor).
DIARY ENTRY
Saturday, 15 July
Today is my birthday!!! I am now 12 years old.
I got The Compleat Workes of William Shakespeare, Beginner French and German CDs (I’m hoping to learn basic French and German before I start at Ashbury next year), and some glitter glue.
Moreover, I’m elated because we’re having Party Pies for dinner, and chocolate mousse for dessert!!
HILLS DISTRICT PRIMARY ‘SMILE AWARD’
Presented to Bindy Mackenzie
‘The Friendliest Girl in Grade 6’
DIARY ENTRY
Monday, 7 August
Anthony did a business proposal today. He proposed that Dad give him $10 million so that he and Sam could make a horror movie.
Dad wrote ‘REJECTED’ in red pen across the page. He said Anthony was welcome to waste his own time but shouldn’t go around wasting others’.
‘Your loss,’ said Anthony.
DIARY ENTRY
Saturday, 16 December
Reflections on Existence
Today I was helping Dad sand back the paint on the kitchen cupboards.
As we worked (and the lightest film of dust settled onto our bare arms), I told Dad about Sartre’s views on nothingness. I said that starting at Ashbury next year made me feel that I was going from existence to non-existence. I would be a nobody at Ashbury.
Dad said something interesting. ‘Bindy,’ he said, ‘that’s not the attitude. Hold on to the idea that you are number one. Those other kids? Nothing. You? Something else. You tell yourself that while you’re sanding there.’
And so I did.
8. Bindy Mackenzie: the Feverish Year (Ashbury High, Year 7, Age 12)
DIARY ENTRY
Wednesday
, 31 January, 3.45 pm
Reflections on Beauty—3.45 pm
Today was my first day at Ashbury!
I was struck, most of all, by the beauty.
Excuse me, I cannot reflect on beauty any further! I would like to get a headstart on my homework.
Bindy’s Reflections on Beauty (Part 2)—11.00 pm
The beauty of my fellow Year 7 students!
It almost made me weep to be one with them! Nervous eyes, polished shoes, and neatly brushed hair! From all four corners of the Hills District we came—yet we were all the same. For we all wore the Ashbury blue, and carried the regulation Ashbury bag, stamped with the Ashbury crest.
There is an especially beautiful ‘group of four’ in my ‘home room’. They obviously come from the same primary school as they are already close friends. They walked into the classroom, a smooth, graceful step, talking and laughing, as if this were just an ordinary day—not the first day of Year 7 at all! Two girls with long dark hair; one skinny boy; one boy with blonde hair past his shoulders. The skinny boy caught me staring, and raised his eyebrows up and down, up and down. I laughed and he turned back to his friends.
Monday, 5 February
To The Principal
Ashbury High
Dear Sir,
Good morning, my name is Bindy Mackenzie and I am in Year 7 at your school.
I would like to congratulate you on the excellence of your school. I know I have been here for only three days, but the academic standards seem rigorous, the lessons begin and end on time, and the teachers seem stern but fair.
I have a small suggestion to make and it is: do we really have to move around so much?
In primary, we used to stay in the same classroom all day. Here, almost every subject is in a different place and Art is right across the oval!! It seems like a waste of time and energy, and I have found myself lost more than once. What if the students stayed in one room and the teachers came to them!?
Just a thought . . .
Yours sincerely,
Bindy Mackenzie
DIARY ENTRY
Dienstag, Februar 2
Heute hatte ich zum ersten mal deutsch studiert! Und von jetzt werde ich EINFACH auf deutsch schreiben, auf deutsch denken, und auf deutsch leben! Von jetzt bin ich einfach deutsch! Ich werde mit meiner Familie auf deutsch sprechen. Ich werde alles auf deutsch machen! Also, gute Nacht! Ich schreibe weiter morgen!
DIARY ENTRY
Wednesday, 14 February
Had to stop speaking and writing only in German. The other teachers didn’t appreciate it.
It had seemed to make sense to me, to immerse myself in German, but my parents refused to pass the pepper even though it was clear what I was asking for—pepper, in German, is Pfeffer.
Anthony was the only good sport. He listened to what I said with an intense expression on his face and then he nodded vigorously and replied in his own nonsense German: ‘Munchen, wonchen, gebrunchen! Ganz begobbleston! Schnell! Ja schnell!’ He made me laugh, despite myself.
Anyway, it’s over now.
I suppose one must make compromises.
MERITAWARD TO Bindy Mackenzie
For Excellence in
English, Mathematics, History, Science and German
DIARY ENTRY
Thursday, 12 April
Lately, I’ve been staring at the Group of Four more than usual. I’ve smiled at the skinny boy a few times, but he hasn’t done his bouncing eyebrows thing again. Actually, he doesn’t seem to notice.
I hope, one day, to make friends with the Group— perhaps even make it into a Group of Five?
The more I stare the more strangely familiar the Four become. As if I had met them somewhere before. Is that just wishful thinking?
Their names do not seem familiar. The prettiest of the two girls is Astrid Bexonville. She wears her hair in a French braid, and I have watched in awe as she reached back to unplait her hair, shake it out—and then casually rebraid it! Now, there is talent.
DIARY ENTRY
Sunday, 22 April
Reflections on Choice
Mum and Dad were fighting this morning. Mum was saying she wants to stay in this house for a few more years now. She said she was waiting at traffic lights behind a moving truck today, and the sight of that truck gave her stomach cramps so bad she had to do a U-turn and pull over.
Afterwards, Dad said something interesting to me. He said, ‘Bindy, when you’re renovating a house, you’re always making choices. The choices aren’t that tough—keep the good and chuck out the bad. Keep the original mouldings, rip out the shagpile carpet. You hearing me?’
I nodded to reassure him, and he went on.
‘And I reckon it’s the same with your genes,’ he said. (I thought he meant jeans at first, and explained that I do not wear these.) ‘Now,’ he said, ignoring me. ‘You’ve got a mother with a good head for business, but a tendency towards hysterics. You might have inherited both, but you’ve gotta make the choice which you keep and which you chuck. My advice, keep that business head but toss aside the hysterics. Okay, kid? It’s your choice.’
I told Dad a little about the Danish philosopher, Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, and what he has to say about choice.
Hills District Oratory Contest
Year 7
Adjudicator’s Notes
Bindy Mackenzie
This girl is dynamite! You can just see that talent crackling! And that noble toss of her head when she makes a point—it just killed me! Wonderful! First place!
DIARY ENTRY
Monday, 30 April
GUESS WHAT? I’ve figured out the Group of Four!! I KNEW they looked familiar!
I’ve been gazing at them, trying to trigger my memory. The skinny boy kind of widened his eyes at me the other day, and I realised it was not meant in the spirit of bouncing eyebrows. It was more: ‘Why do you keep LOOKING at me?
So, I did some research—school administration office, school library, other students, local library etc—and discovered that the Group of Four all attended Kellyville Primary. I flicked through that school’s public archives, and noticed their regular participation in the Twilight Parade at the Orange Blossom Festival.
And bling! bling! bling! went my mind.
Two years ago I had watched the Twilight Parade, and had fallen in love with a Kellyville Primary ‘Food Groups’ float!
Frantically, I flicked through newspaper reports, and there it was: a photograph of the very float. And there they were, the Group of Four, amongst a larger group of children. The four were dressed up as a banana, a cauliflower, a cheese slice, and a lamb chop.
As soon as the time seems right, I mean to congratulate the Group of Four on their marvellous and educational float.
DIARYENTRY
Wednesday, 9 May
Toby Mazzerati was a good friend in primary, but we drifted apart in the last couple of years. However, now, here at Ashbury, he is friendly again. Is it loyalty because we’ve known each other so long? Today he gave me a jewellery box which he had made in woodwork. It has beautiful gold hinges and the lid opens and closes smoothly.
I accepted the box gratefully, and told him how much I loved it, and I lavished praise upon the craftsmanship. His cheeks turned pale pink, and he gave me a big smile.
Then I offered him help with his algebra. I’d heard him talking to himself in Maths the day before. ‘What is x?’ he was murmuring. ‘If x equals x equals x, then what is y equals y equals y? If you were my x would you also be my x, and who would be my y and why is y my y?’ He was saying this in a sort of chant.
‘I’d like to pay you back for this,’ I explained. ‘And I know that Maths is something of a challenge for you.’
He said he’d give that a miss, but thanks for the offer.
B.H. Neumann Certificate
Perfect Score in Australian Mathematics Competition
Westpac Award
DIARY ENTRY
Friday, 15 June
I think I
might have been wrong about Toby being friendly again. He hasn’t really spoken to me since he gave me the wooden jewellery box.
DIARY ENTRY
Saturday, 11 August
Reflections on Humour
Today, Anthony and Sam were watching Raising Arizona— they’re working through the Coen brothers’ films—and I took a break to join them.
The three of us laughed hysterically, and afterwards continued to laugh as we made ourselves sausages and chips for dinner, and recalled the funniest moments from the film.
Now, Anthony and Sam are only in Year 6, but they often make me laugh. So, you would think that the humour of my Year 7 classmates would be even more impressive. And at times, I must admit, I am surprised into laughter by the quick wit around me.
But sometimes that humour bewilders me. The other day, I overheard a conversation between Emily Thompson and her two best friends. The three of them had fallen out about a month ago—I don’t know why but I had been watching with interest. On this day, however, they seemed to make up. They were hugging and crying together—all of them crying! (I don’t believe I have ever cried in front of another human being.)
One of them said, tearily, ‘And I was eating waffles last night, and I couldn’t stop thinking . . .’ Another interrupted in a tragic voice: ‘Waffles?’ ‘Waffles,’ agreed the first. ‘Waffles,’ the third repeated, in her own tragic voice. And before you knew it all three were shouting the word ‘WAFFLES’, laughter exploding around them.
I suppose they just found the word amusing at that moment. But I did not see that it could possibly be.
They are so strange, young people.
Ashbury End of Year Report Card
Bindy Mackenzie
MATHEMATICS
Bindy is an extremely talented student, who has excelled in this class. Most gratifying, however, is her diligence. If she doesn’t understand a problem, she will work and work at it—such ferocity! She’s a delight to teach.
The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie Page 13