The Rumble Volume 3 Issue 1

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PLEASE PUT YOUR FEET TOGETHER...

MAY 2022 VOLUME 3 ISSUE 01

Special thanks to: Cover page: Amy Bai

contents an overview of what's to come

House Concert Reviews Zoe Zhang 7Rosslyn

The Loss of Your Home is a Terrible One Anonymous

The Enigma Code: An Outdated Relic or A Viable Encryption System?

Sarah Lam 12.4

A Tightrope of Risks Anitaa Adaikkappan 7Balmoral

Short Story Yolanda Wang 9M

To the Moon and Back Josephine Nguyen 10L5

Blockbuster Friday With Sachini

Music Recommendations

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Editor's Notes Hello lovely people!

Welcome to the first edition of The Rumble for 2022! The Rumble is a student-led school newsletter founded by PLC girls in 2020 when lockdown hit us all. Now, we are all back to school, things are finally to become normal and we are continuing to Rumble! Clap for all of you for making it through term 1!

Tiff, Aarabi and Claudia, the editors for last year, did an absolutely marvellous job at continuing and spreading the idea of this student-led magazine. Their issue 5 even won a national school magazine prize with the reward of a brand new iPad for each of them! Thank you to you all for leading The Rumble last year and handing over your precious position to us three, which we are super grateful for.

We hope to make the magazine a place full of possibilities where all of you can share your critical opinions, unconstrained thoughts, creative ideas, wonderful artworks, etc. The Rumble is made by students, and is designed for you to express anything and everything.

Editing can be a really long process, however all of these would not be possible without your wonderful submissions. We were flooded with submissions once we sent out the email and we are so grateful for this. We are all thrilled to share these wonderful pieces with you and to ‘expose’ those super talented and gifted people to you. Due to the massive amount of submissions, not all pieces submitted can be fitted into this issue, however, they will slowly appear in the ones coming out later in the year. This is the magazine for you all and we want as many of your voices to be heard as possible, therefore, our submission portal ( https://forms.gle/Yge5ijEJcdGck21t8 ) is always open throughout the year so please feel free to submit whenever you want :-) We are all super excited for this year and we are looking forward to future submissions from you.

Please feel free to contact us with any inquiries.

Finally, we hope you enjoy reading May’s edition~ Much love <3 The Rumble team Kelly Rina and Amy

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PLC House Concerts 2022

House Concerts Review Written by Zoe Zhang from 7 Rosslyn

Exciting, captivating, amusing, vivid, enchanting, sensational, dazzling and enrapturing.

construction of characters, utilising personal experiences to create realistic but enjoyable roles that the audience can relate to, not to mention the glamorous setting, 50s-reminiscent hairstyles and costumes, as well as showing the importance of teamwork, openmindedness and cooperation. Such a dazzling performance and enrapturing experience!

- Glamis house concert review

- Leven house concert review

The first performance of Night 2 — Glamis! The Green House’s exciting and captivating show was the perfect way to start the night, with the Captains giving an attention-grabbing and amusing introduction and the orchestra kicking off their stunning production with an overture that combined pieces that evoked nostalgia, suspense and rapture, a great way to begin what would be a vivid and enchanting concert.

The characters and relationships are the most compelling and evocative part of Leven’s House Concert, their powerful emotions and deep relationships, both heartwarming and occasionally tear-yourhair-out frustrating. Along with this, the performance is very much driven by Coco and Honey’s strong bond and close friendship, which is the catalyst for many of the events in the play. In a sense, you can relate and sympathise with both of the main characters; on one hand, you feel for Coco, who has finally achieved her goals, but is now feeling crushingly guilty and conflicted — do I choose my lifelong friend or my lifelong dream? On the other hand, you also feel immensely for Honey, who is battling with not wanting to get in her friend’s way but also dealing with the terrible fear that she will lose Coco’s friendship, as well as wanting to reach for her own stars, her own dreams, which she had sidelined for making her best friend happy.

Glamis’ story centres around two rival groups of florists given the shared challenge of producing the bouquet for a famous film star’s upcoming nuptials. You can sense the animosity between the two florists in their first meeting, and how contrary their schemes are, how they bump heads and it seems impossible that they will ever manage to cooperate. Of course, it’s not like they have a choice. In a personal and heartfelt scene, the two leaders of the respective floristry companies share their stories, giving the audience an idea of why they are the way they are, allowing the viewers to have an insight into the characters’ personalities and histories, all brought together with sensational acting and skilful direction.

All in all, Glamis’ House Concert was full of fun and fresh dancing, singing and characters, as well as being nuanced and poignant in its writing and careful

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Overall, Leven’s House Concert invoked nostalgia, sentiment and emotions — with a sweet open ending and an emotionally riveting script and acting. The deep and well-explored personalities of each of the characters added to the drama of the performance, all playing an important role in making Leven’s House Concert memorable and entertaining. This was all wrapped up cleanly in the end, demonstrating the message of a powerful friendship, how people and relationships change and develop over time, and how to prioritise your own dreams and reach for the stars no matter the circumstances.

Atholl

A creative and interesting concert, set in a tropical and beachy atmosphere and full of lovable and fun characters, their personalities and ideals clearly expressed through the well written and edited script; the audience could see the characters’ struggles and sympathise with them, as well as relate to certain lines and scenes. This performance was tastefully complemented with skilful direction, a combination of lively and faintly exotic music and an exciting dance number, all coming together into a creative and funny show with an important message of letting loose, and not letting the stress and business of life get in the way of occasionally relaxing and having a good time.

Balmoral

Immediately, Balmoral’s House Concert starts with a bang — the Captains giving an energetic introduction and then cutting to the orchestra’s show-stopping musical performance, incorporated with unique dynamics and rhythms, setting the scene for the upcoming play. Then as soon as they finish and the curtains open, the audience is almost immediately pulled into the fascinating and creative show from Circo de Nestlé — turning the dancing and singing into a performance from the circus, rather than from the actual house. This interesting and eye-catching introduction set up the plot and aesthetics of the performance, and Balmoral certainly delivered with an artistic and capturing storyline interspersed with bright, vibrant characters and dazzling “circus” acts.

Glamis

Glamis put together a dazzling and nuanced concert thrown together with character development, intricate plot structure and breathtaking dance and singing sequences, both lighthearted and hardhitting. The characters’ rivalry and clear animosity is what drove the plot forward, but was resolved through a few satisfying scenes that allowed the audience to understand the message in the story, to work together and be kind to others, no matter how your ideas contrast. All of this was woven together with unique and creative dance and singing numbers, some fun and exciting, others more reflective and meaningful. This glamorous production was well presented and pleasing to watch.

Leven

Such an enjoyable and heartfelt performance, clearly well-rehearsed and carefully practised. The skilful creation of characters and relationships tugged at the audience’s heartstrings and created many laughs, smiles, knowing looks, rounds of applause, not to mention a few “aww”s here and there. Leven certainly made the most of their actors’ talents and had a creative and character-driven script and plot. The dancing, music, singing as well as props, backdrop and costumes all contributed to a well-rounded and impressive performance, ultimately showing the importance of friendship, kindness and compassion.

Stirling

Stirling kicks off with a creative introduction from the Captains, then launches into a phenomenal musical performance, combining sad, energetic and suspenseful into an exceptional overture.

Immediately after, we are introduced to Lloyd: a famous designer, but clearly in a hard position. It is an interesting way to set up the story and one of our main characters so that everyone in the audience can straight away get to know where the plot is going. However, towards the climax, we are struck with a staggering betrayal, and a problem presents itself to be solved. All of this amounts to a heartracing conclusion at a glamorous masked ball, the ending bittersweet in a way that has everyone sympathising with the main character, and happy with the story’s conclusion. Stirling’s House Concert was certainly a worthy watch with well thought-out characters and plotlines.

Rosslyn

Rosslyn begins with a curious introduction from the Captains that has the audience wondering where the upcoming act is going. Then the audience is treated to an overture of contrasting and complementary pieces, all combined to create the perfect soundtrack for the performance. Rosslyn’s House Concert was very much driven by plot, and the underlying message that material objects are ultimately meaningless, and that everyone should hold onto the really important things; love, friendship and family. Overall a well-rounded performance with a powerful message that everyone should always remember.

By ZoeZhang 5

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House concerts were like a petal from a flower. Delicate, but strong in colour. Rich patterns and happy faces. A petal has fallen, but there are still more and more to come.

—Oneli Gunasena

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House Concerts were great!! They were so exhilarating. It was so amazing to see everybody perform despite having to endure the mask regulations. I think that the results were fair. Overall, I loved house concerts 2022 :) —Maithri Fonseka

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I enjoyed it! As it was my first one, everything was so new for me. I was in Open Dance at the beginning and I loved the feeling of excitement behind the wings as we readied ourselves for our performance. I did feel like I was in a circus!

—Anitaa Adaikkappan

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I think that the house concerts were FANTASTIC! All houses put on an amazing show! SO MUCH ENERGY! There was so much fun and chaos (in a good way)! I loved participating in Open Dance and Props. Such a fun way for the whole house to get together! Can't wait for next year! :) —Rich 7Glamisa

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I think house concerts were undoubtedly a marvelous opportunity to start a new school year. Everyone was so involved in the performances and collaborated so well together with our amazing heads. It was especially fun participating in making props as you get to do a lot of fun handcrafts.

—Kelly Du

I think the house concerts this year were really amazing.

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—Lexi Li 7Atholl

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The loss of your home is

A Terrible One ‘Smile, child,’ said she, ‘for your hope will be found.’

And I, in my naivety, did what she told, for she did not know! And know not she must, of how we had already lost, through a lapse in their judgement.

Their appointed leader, sits a throne of distrust, who smiles for the cameras, spins a web of lies,

spreads rumours of his benevolence and goodwill.

His charity, his altruism, but all a disguise, (but the truth will set you free.)

Perhaps he knew, through a past motif, that our loyalties would lie with someone bringing salvation, who wipes out evil, who brings relief— she knew not, about the consequences of the war he waged. The division for conqueror’s sake.

(The division of her once great country.)

She will find out, one day— through her grief.

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Amy Dong

The by Sarah Lam T 12.4 Enigma Code An Outdated Relic

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A Viable Encryption System?

The History of Enigma Let’s dispel a myth to start with: Turing was not the first to crack Enigma. While Turing deserves a lot of praise for his work on Enigma at Bletchley Park, he wasn’t the first to break an Enigma cipher. In fact, Enigma machines existed long before WWII broke out. The first Enigma machine was built in 1918 by German engineer Arthur Scherbius and began being commercially available in 1923. They were used by normal businesses who wanted to secure their correspondence and only later did the Nazis begin using the Enigma machine for military purposes. There were also many ‘variations’ of Enigma machines such as Enigma I (used by the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht) and Enigma G (used by the Abwehr). Each variation was built slightly differently, with differences like more rotors, a different plugboard system, etc. Despite these variations, each Enigma had some fundamental similarities: they had a plugboard, a series of rotors and a reflector. To avoid getting too technical, what this means is that every time you pressed a letter (E.g. A), another letter would come out (E.g. Y), which you would then write down as your ciphertext. What makes Enigma so special is that it isn’t just a regular ‘shift cipher’. If you were to press ‘A’ again, you wouldn’t get ‘Y’ because one of the rotors would have moved, changing the whole system. To decrypt a message, you would need the same starting rotor configuration, plugboard configuration and cipher group. Depending on which Enigma variant was being used, there could be around 1.5×1014 possible configurations!

Cracking the Enigma in WWII The first time Enigma was ‘cracked’ was in December 1932 by the Polish mathematician Marian Rejewski. By January 1933, with the aid of two more Polish mathematicians (Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski), the Polish Cipher Bureau could read Enigma messages. The Poles later coordinated with Britain and France to continue their work after the Invasion of Poland (1939) and it was from this foundation that Turing was able to break the naval Enigma group with his Bombe machine. The Bombe machine was one of the world’s first computers and was able to work through hundreds of possible Enigma combinations much faster than a human could. By having a series of drums to represent each rotor,

he Enigma Code is possibly the most wellknown code in the world. Used by the Nazis in World War II, the legend of the Enigma machine and Alan Turing’s work on overcoming it gained popularity following the release of The Imitation Game (2014), which detailed Turing’s struggle to ‘crack Enigma’ and build what became the framework for modern computers and computer science. Speaking of Turing, in June of last year, a new £50 note was created by the Bank of England, to honour his major contributions to modern computer science. So, to celebrate the first anniversary of this new note, I asked myself the question: Could we easily break Enigma today? But before we get into that, let’s do some history. it would check all the possibilities and then eliminate ones that were impossible (for example, you could never get a ciphered letter being the same as its plaintext letter). It was still a reasonably slow process but thanks to the staff of Bletchley Park who kept the Bombes running all day and the codebreakers who kept making small tweaks to make the process faster, the system was ultimately a viable one that helped the Allies win WWII by allowing them to read German communications.

The Big Question: Can We Break Enigma Today?

The short answer is yes, but it’s not as easy as you think. With modern-day computers, it is technically possible, though very tedious, to ‘brute force’ Enigma by simply going through all possibilities until you get a less garbled message. To break it ‘the better way’, one would have to write a computer program that ‘fitness tests’ possible decryptions against different cryptographic metrics (E.g. Trigraph Analysis or the Index of Coincidence). This would help narrow down which possibilities are most likely to be correct as they would score well on the ‘fitness tests’. Essentially, that’s what the Hut 8 codebreakers did; we’d just be able to do it significantly faster thanks to modern cryptanalysis techniques and faster computers.

So, no, the Enigma code isn’t a viable encryption system as with the speed of modern computers, it would only take ten or so minutes to find the correct solution, once the code has been written.

However, don’t be so quick to dismiss it either— take away our modern computers and it would still be a formidable code to crack.

After all, we are doing pretty much the same thing just with faster machines. It is like comparing hand-sewing with machine sewing: the stitches are the same, it’s just that the machine is faster than a human.

If you are interested in the actual ‘technical’ side of cryptanalysis and Enigma, I highly recommend Dr Mike Pound’s video on Computerphile, which was the main inspiration for this article.

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Short story I sit in front of a blank canvas, my back to an open window. It opens to a world of grey; wind howling across the field as raindrops patter down like broken beads. Everything is colourless on a day like this. I stare into the white canvas, and the pure emptiness of the white draws me in, whispering into my soul.

Go on…

It tempts me.

You’ve changed.

It grabs a hold of me, almost desperately begging me.

Drown me in a sea of paint… make me a reflection of what you truly long for.

The wind growled, jumping over the window as it began to chase piles of paper, scaring them across the room. Pieces of paper scramble across the floor, flying up and down in the unpredic -table storm. The room looks to be the aftermath of a rampage. Dishevelled piles of canvas paintings stacked up in the corner, broken pieces of furniture strewn around me; I know I should do something about it, but I could only sit there, staring blankly at the mess.

My heart had died long ago, underneath the broken sky that we once stood under. It all left me when she last closed her eyes, never to open them again. Those precious final few moments with her that I could never get back… Sometimes I wished I had done more, said something meaningful, but the only words I managed to muster at the time were pitiful, “I’m sorry.”

Lost in thought, I watch as a leaf darts through the window. It flutters playfully and lands on a single canvas, beside an umbrella, barely visible in the dust clouds. I feel something shatter deep in my heart as I carefully walk towards the painting, picking it up and dusting it off. There she is.

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It was a bright summer afternoon. Flowers were hidden throughout the lush grass, whispering to each other while hearing our footsteps as a towering tree stood majestically in the middle, guarding the tranquillity.

She stood in the wind, the clouds drifted across the sky as the sun smiled down on her. The folds of her dress danced to the rhythm of the breeze, casting gentle shadows on the grass. She held the bright green umbrella high above, reaching for the heavens as she held tight onto it. Her eyes were full of the world, and mine was full of her. I sat under the tree, my eyes followed as she twirled around on the grass, spinning the parasol like a child.

If only I could preserve this one moment for eternity.

I muttered to myself as I raised the brush, capturing this moment in an instant. The corner of a green umbrella appeared in my view, she knelt beside me, leaning close to get a peek at the painting. I heard her soft giggles ring into my ears and the corner of my lips curved, unconsciously.

After that, neither of us said a thing. We shared the peaceful silence of the summer afternoon, every second being with her was like drowning in a pool of honey, my soul covered in overwhelming sweetness. However, eventually, the sun got tired and we began tracing our way home. I took one last hopeful glance at the tree.

We will be back again. I made a secret promise to do it. I selfishly wished that next time I would take it a step further and dare to take her hand.

The weather grows angrier. The wind leaps through the open window and scatters itself across the floor; raindrops intrude through the window, spitting, scoffing, stabbing me in the back. I felt something, cold and wet, dripping down my face. Was it the rain or my tears? They intermingled as it concealed my sorrow from the world, everything flooding back to me.

I kept our love safe in my heart, frozen in a painting frame so we could never break apart so that you would never drift away from me. Love wasn't supposed to hurt, it was supposed to be warm and wonderful, but now all that's left is my aching heart yearning for you to come back. I shouldn’t have wished for more, if you were to give me one more chance, I wish time would have frozen that day underneath the evergreen trees. But it is too late now.

After losing everything: her smile, her company... All that remains now is a wisp of a memory, the memory held in that green umbrella.

Yolanda Wang9M

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I focus on placing one foot in front of the other, matching my heartbeat. I hear Ma speaking bossily with the ringmaster. The elephants' trumpeting from backstage. Then I hear a sudden, ominous creak. As swift as an arrow, I swing my arms into the air and lift my left leg. The rope seems to calm in an instant. I sigh in relief and get back to moving further up the tightrope. But then, I hear it again, this time, louder. There is nothing I can do about it and before I know it, I'm falling. Falling. Falling from a twenty-metre high tightrope. I close my eyes and as I hit the mattress below, I let memories flood back to me.

Ma and Pa are screaming at each other, Ma in frustration and Pa in desperation. I fly to my room, grab Mr Cuddles off my bed and snuggle into his worn fur. Tears leak out of my eyes and I bite my lip.

I hear a horrid slap and Ma shrieking. My body trembles and a thunderstorm of despair rages inside of me. Ma starts swearing and I wince. My ears are buzzing and my brain and heart are arguing with each other almost as ferociously as Pa and Ma. I hear Pa grunt and the echoing scribble of him signing the divorce papers. He picks up his suitcase and trudges past my room without even looking at me. My tears stop. My father doesn't even care about me? Happy memories of me and him come back to me in a mini-film in my mind but I push it away. In the end, Ma says that we are joining her brother's circus and that it's a risk we have to take.

Ma shakes me so hard it's like she's trying to roll me off the stage. I snap back to reality. Uncle, the ringmaster, is by her side and he pulls me up and leads me, quite forcefully, to his office which is completely dark.

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He switches on the yellow-green light and gestures for me to sit down. Mould creeps across the floor, making a substitute carpet for the one that is already peeling off. After settling on one of the ragged rolling chairs by his desk, I look up at him, ready to meet my fate. He puts his face close to mine and grins showing me all of his yellowed, crumbling teeth. His gold tooth winks at me in the sunshine, and his dirty stubble almost touches me.

Still grinning as I back away, he pushes a sheet towards me and it's filled with messy handwriting. I can interpret the picture, which is showing a tightrope walker doing flips and cartwheels on a tightrope... Twenty metres in the air? I squint at the writing. No, thirty metres in the air! I gulp. I mumble something about thinking about it and leave in a hurry. Uncle's face turns into thunder.

I can't sleep at night. Nightmares always sneak their way into my thoughts when my head hits the pillow.

I imagine an audience looking at me as I approach the tightrope ready to do the trick that Uncle suggested. In some dreams, the audience has those stick-on googly eyes. In some dreams, they all have cameras, their lenses all pointing at me. In some dreams, I imagine them snickering behind their hands. I approach the tightrope with confidence... But, I fall while doing the last cartwheel. I can't concentrate on home school with Ma either. When I don't, it usually means I have to meet her bamboo cane, which leaves my hands stinging.

I am back at Uncle's office. Drumming his fingers on the desk, he shoots me that sly look. My heart is in my mouth. I can say a NO so frighteningly huge that it would knock over the entire circus. Suddenly, I remember Pa. I remember his warm smile, his comforting arms around me. My veins shiver under my skin. Without thinking, I nod.

I shiver backstage as Ma drums her long, piercing fingernails into the back of my purple leotard. Uncle will call out my name any time now for my performance. I hear the shrill instructions of Ma as she warns me harshly about the consequences if I get this wrong. Before I can explode with worries, my name echoes around the stadium.

I lift my arms gracefully and on tiptoes, approach the tightrope with a smile pasted on my face. The audience doesn't have googly eyes, nor are they snickering. Though, some have cameras. I start to climb up the ladder, which seems to go on forever. I am halfway up when I freeze. Thoughts race around me and the figures in the audience become a blur. I take a shuddering, shaking but deep breath and

continue. I have reached the top and as I am taking my first step, I feel the audience's eyes burning into me. The second step is a cartwheel. I remember my practice and try to look confident. My hands grip the tightrope again, but this time with my body swinging over them. Everything is now a blur but I keep going. I can almost make out that there is one more cartwheel to go until I finish. The final one that always goes wrong in my dreams. Suddenly, I just can't do it. My thoughts start like a train again.

Why am I here? Why did I agree to this? This is a crazy risk! I bring up Pa's smiling face to my mind. I can feel his presence still with me. It's that that does it. I remove any worries and doubts from my mind and jump into a daring triple flip.

I still haven't opened my eyes. When I finally have summoned all my courage, I look down and see that I am standing on the top of the ladder on the other platform. I made it! I look around me and after what seems like hours of silence, roaring applause fills my ears. I look down at Ma, and see, for the first time in my life, she has tears in my eyes and has a proud smile permanently stuck to her face. This risk was worth being taken.

A Ti ghtro pe of n a p R p a k k i a d A a A n i ta IS KS 7Balmoral

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Special thanks to: Cover page: Amy Bai

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