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This 'friend' of yours wouldn't happen to be Steph would it? It sounds like her. You clearly didn't know what to expect. It basically did come down to sitting around and talking, but with the HSC so close, it's nice to have the pretence of doing something useful.

I wasn't actually. There was an old Greek copy of the Iliad lying on the desk I was sitting at (although, to be fair, I was probably the one who'd put it there the day before). I just picked it up to flick through it and then they decided they wanted a photo of me reading Greek. I guess it was...

Everyone seems to think I'm some sort of zoo exhibit - you, my school friends... I was sitting in the library on the second-last day reading Homer or something, and about five different people wanted photos of me reading, which was okay. Then this guy wanted a photo of me in an Asian tourist /...

Oh dear, that's rather embarrassing. Still, at least I don't look as gay as Harold.

It's not just the Latin greetings. I have a friend who's freaky-good at German, and I greet him in German. 'Guten Morgen', 'guten Tag', 'auf wiedersehen', stuff like that. I too get out of my depth very quickly. So it's not like I think all these wannabe Latin speakers are plebeian fools...

Well, imagine the scene. You're sitting in a maths class, next to someone who's not particularly interesting. You're supposed to be listening to a teacher who's certainly not interesting, talking in a monotone about something that could never be interesting. In a word, you're slightly bored. You...

I assume you're talking about Elizabeth Costello. That's not a novel I would have chosen to read if it had been up to me, but having read it, I think it's a great book. It won a Nobel Prize, so it can't be all that bad. And as for the Latin greetings, I don't ask people to say 'salue' to me. I...

Well, you know what Vergil, Lucretius, the Metamorphoses and the Great Gatsby are about. Actually, the Metamorphoses rates a fairly close second to the Aeneid. The Coetzee text is a novel called Elizabeth Costello, which I had to study for an exam earlier this year. Actually, it's not so much a...

I did try to like To Kill a Mockingbird. It had the right intentions and I'm sympathetic with the 'message', but it was so crudely done. Harper Lee simply isn't a very good writer, and I'm not surprised she didn't publish anything else. I feel I should like it, but I'm afraid I just can't. The...

You did Orfeo ed Euridice? That's such a good opera, although I don't like the sound of performing it in English. The scene with the Furies is excellent, so I was interested to hear you played one, although they don't say much more than 'no! no!' over and over again, do they? A few years ago we...

I'll admit I'm not a great fan of Puccini's operas. I'm not a great fan of the Romantic movement as a whole, actually, in music or literature. But then I am a classicist. Handel and Mozart for me. Which opera did you sing in? I've just had to sit through 40 mins of my friend telling me about the...

Zara, I'm very glad to hear you'll buy socks one day. If I ever needed to buy you a birthday present, I'd know exactly what to get. I know it's usually extremely lame to buy someone socks, but I think in your case it would be perfect. Did Steph think it was a bad idea to speak forherself...

That's a lovely image, Steph. When I log on in the morning, fresh and eager for a new day of school, knowing that you ate your Maccas too fast and now need to puke is exactly what I need. I can now start the day with a smile on my face. [SARCASM! SARCASM! I've decided it's best to be quite...

Hmm: "-Netball -We must force you to watch Shrek. You're deprived. -Kinky Boots, The History Boys, Little Miss Sunshine, The Breakfast Club... -Pan's Labyrinth. This probably isn't so scary. Zaz, you need to watch this too. -Sugar + Queen :D -Graveyard ice-cream outings (okay, outings probably...

You should actually be Basileus Alex V. Alexander the Great was III, and he had a son, Alexander IV. Not that that's going to change anything, I suppose. And please don't talk about protestors. If they're all going to be going through Hyde Park and around Town Hall, it's not going to be pleasant...

English comedies, along with Vergil and Lucretius and Mozart, are one of the few reasons I have for living, although I have to say, your choices err on the side of gay. I'm sorry, I didn't really mean that, but Allo Allo? Dad's Army? You need to watch League of Gentlemen, Ab Fab, Black Books...

Short of forcing you into some sort of classical sport like, say, gladiatorial combat or pankration, I'm really not sure; you've got netball to fall back on, I don't. I translated this Roman play last year - I could make you act it out in Latin, but on second thoughts that's a bit sad, even for...

As tempting as you're making netball sound, I think I might have to pick an activity to force you all into, as payback. Steph, speaking of TV, I see on your profile it says you like Wire in the Blood. You'll be very excited to learn there's going to be a new series on ABC soon. Just as well...

You went to Grammarpalooza? Who invited you? Actually, you had next to no chance of seeing me there. I went last year - all the prefects did, since it was the first event after we were elected, and we thought we should - and I didn't like it. It's not really my sort of music, and I heard last...