Cluster sports are almost at a close and all the teams are getting a taste of finals. On Monday night Green faced Blue in an intense battle. Green was much too strong, however, winning on the night 405 to 260, which included a 3-0 turn around to come up and win 6-3. Blue started the night with two advantages to Green’s one and Green won all the games by considerable margins. Green has performed remarkably well this cluster ‘season’ winning every night excluding one to Red, the top team. With finals fast approaching, all four clusters will be contesting fiercely for the title and you would not want to miss a moment.

The Beckworth team has been working together very well and is a very productive and consistent group of runners. There are some very influential characters in the pack and they help the slower runners get through the tough runs, such as the 7 kilometre pack run we embarked on. The team set out on a 7 km pack run and we got a feel for the track we will be taking to Beckworth. There are many tactics that we can take and this was evident in the run. The group was not as convincing as they have been on previous pack runs with many of our stronger runners stopping. The whole group is still together, however, and we will all be running up Mount Beckworth if there are no injuries or illnesses.

On Tuesday the 1st of September everyone had his or her Challenge by Choice day. There was Physical, Performance, Leadership and Quiet. For Quiet, we went to the yoga Ashram, which was near Creswick. When we first arrived we were told that the environment here was very different, and we had to stay really quiet. We went and took our shoes off and went into a warm room, which was good because it was freezing. We all spread out and started to do some physical yoga. Everyone did really well to stay quiet. We then had a break and had some tea and apples. After morning tea, we went and had our relaxation session. We had to be quiet when we went inside and we could get a blanket and pillows then we lied down. A lady then talked us through the session. A few people fell asleep and someone even snored, which made some try not to laugh. We left that session and talked about it. Lunch was late so everyone went for a walk around where there used to be lake. The lunch bell rung and we went back. Some people were unsure about the lunch, but got it anyway. The food was really good, other than the green moosh. We were all wondering what it was like to live in a place like this, and we had some really good questions we wanted to ask, so we called over the lady who took us for our first session. She told us how long she’s been here and where she was before this Ashram, and what they did every day. There were more good questions then the lady took us for a walk and showing some of the buildings and vegetable garden. It was then time to leave and we waited for the buses and went back to Clunes.

Sunday the 30th of august, five of the houses had Café church. We were told this church is more laid back then the others, and we’d be sitting at little tables with four chairs. Since this church session started at 9:30 am instead of 11 am, everyone who went got a sleep in and the morning meeting was at 9 am on Monday morning instead of 7:45. Any one else who wasn’t already enrolled in church who wanted to go could, and some people did for the sleep in the next day. We sat with some of the usual people that go to church and it started. Food and drinks was given a little way into it and there was poems read, music to listen to from Wesley students and interesting conversations to have with the people at your table. It was a very enjoyable morning and everyone had a good time.

During our stay at Clunes, we have been preparing to run Mount Beckworth. Yesterday, a group of students went with three staff members to Beckworth to strategise for our 12km run. As we were driving there, we were shown our drink stops. The track towards Beckworth is mostly flat, meaning that once we run the initial 10km to Beckworth we will still be pretty fresh. Mount Beckworth is a rocky hill; the runners must watch their footing to prevent injury. The teachers showed us where the flat parts of the mountain are so we could recover. One of the most important pieces of information that we received was where most people stopped because they thought the top was too far away. But, if we kept running for another 50 metres we will see the lollipop tree right in front of us. The opportunity to go see Beckworth before the run was useful to us so we could all strategise our run.

Challenge by Choice is a program that is meant to push our boundaries. There were 4 different subjects that were available and I was assigned to the Performance group. We had to dress up as colourful and crazy as we could and go to Bridge Mall in Ballarat. Part of our act was to do circus tricks on our own even if we had never done it before. Individually afterwards, we had to read something out loud to everyone. Some of us chose to read out recipes, and the braver ones sung a piece of writing. The last and most challenging test was to read a Wesley song. It was embarrassing because the song was not very good. Performance was valuable to all of us because it pushed our boundaries even further.

On Wednesday night during study time a group of around 15 students went into the Jube to practice the acrobatics routine. There were forward rolls, cartwheels, round offs, bridges, a variety of lifts and finally the best one was a human pyramid which at one stage was walking. Throughout the night we began fixing our acrobatics routine into place, the night provided a lot of fun, everyone enjoyed it and I was surprised how quickly we got our routine completed.

Last Friday afternoon as part of my practical for my project I went up to the Clunes primary school, a group of about 10 students participated in my netball clinic. I had pre - prepared four stations and every five minutes the children would rotate to the next station. I had flashcards at every station explaining what to do, these cards were there to help them. After the students had completed all four stations they played a ten minute game of netball. The students got a chance to try something new and have fun.

On Wednesday for Environmental Sustainability focus day all the houses came together to have a harvest feast. Each house was given a recipe to cook for the harvest feast. There were scones, pasties and soup to make. The main focus for the harvest feast was to make people realise that we could still have a yummy and filling meal, with only local ingredients. All the ingredients that we had to use were from or near Clunes, with the furthest away being in NSW. It was a really fun lunch where we listened to musicians and each other.

It was red and yellow facing each other off for Thursdays nights cluster. Yellow was at the Jubilee Hall before Red. This then meant that they got the first advantage point that they could use during the night. Yellow then won the chant again and the next three games after that. The games that we played were rebound ball, around the world and ultimate Frisbee. Each game was pretty close, but yellow managed to get ahead in all of them. It was a fun and competitive night.

On Saturday night we went and had a BBQ dinner at the showgrounds with a few other houses. When we got there people were playing footy. After a while when people were getting hungry we started cooking the sausages on the fire. Some people made baked potatoes as well. When some more houses came up after dinner and it had gotten darker we played capture the flag, forty forty and spotlight. After each game we all gathered back in the big shed to discuss what we would do next. Once we had played each game a few times some houses, who had been there for a while and were getting tired went home while others stayed and ate dessert which was bananas with chocolate chips melted in the fire. After this we all thought that is was time to go home.

Tuesday was challenge by choice day, and everyone had to select a topic that would challenge them. I did physical which was where we had to leave at 8 o’clock to go to a rock climbing place in Bendigo. We paired up with someone who we would work with. First we went up the smaller walls which weren’t that much of a challenge for me because I have done rock climbing before but when we had to go up the higher wall I found it really hard the first time and couldn’t get to the top, but when I went up a second time I made it. When we did the absailing down I was really scared because I have a fear of heights but I still did it like everyone else. When we got the choice to go down headfirst I wanted to try but when I got up there I couldn’t do it but some of the other people did it. On the way home we stopped at Maldon and some got lunch.

Every Sunday night we all gather in the Jube to watch a movie. During the week if we haven’t finished all our work we have to go to the Bluestone Church to complete the work and miss out on some of the movie. This week we watched the movie ‘A Knights Tale’ with Heath Ledger. Everybody had to make sure they ate dinner early because the movie was so long that they had to start it earlier. The house that arrives first to morning meeting the most during the week get special bean bags to sit on during the movie and the comfortable chairs go to whoever gets there first. Everybody spreads out comfortably and watches the movie together.

On Thursday night Houses 2 and 10 decided to have a joint dinner with a theme of Mexican food. House 2 was told to prepare nachos and tacos while House 10 were to prepare burritos and salad. We sat down together in the dining area of House 10 with so much food it was covering the entire table. We had heaps of fun talking and laughing while eating our food with some really cool background music that we often sang along to. House 2 then had to go home to get ready for cluster sports while House 10 had to get ready for ‘making connections’.

For presentation day, students are to make a speech for when they present their Mentor Project. The presentation has to be around 5 minutes long. There is a set of guidelines for the speech, which helps us to make the speech. These guidelines encourage us to reflect on different stages of the project, and what we have learnt about ourselves throughout the project. During the week, we have organized the order of presentations, and the venues where they will be held in.

Throughout Clunes, every student has been looking after a plant. On Sunday, we went to the Birches Creek site to plant these. We were driven out there in our environmental groups, with plants and equipment. Our environmental leaders took us to the site where the group would be planting, and we were instructed on how to plant the trees. The technique was similar to the one used at River Rescue. The students then split off to plant the trees. After we had finished planting, we explored around the area, and we were then driven home.