Holly’s Space

Wow! Last Thursday was my very last day at Intermediate. I loved every minute of Intermediate and wish I didn’t have to leave.  It was a great school and I’m going to miss it heaps!! But anyway it was the End of Year Prize Giving. First of all they started of with the class awards. I got a certificate of excellence for overall academic excellence which was quite cool. They then gave out the Tech Arts excellence’s. I got one of the two excellence’s for Soft Materials which is sewing. We got to make things like a bag, a pencil case, a teddy bear and a jersey in our two years there. I was really surprised to get this award. I mean I know I can sew but I never thought that I was one of the two best in the entire school!

They then got started on the main awards. I got one for overall points for the Calf section at Agricultural day. For this I got a trophy as well as a certificate. The music awards began and then they were announced the most improved band member as me! I was really happy about getting this award I thought that it was a great award to win.

They gave out a few more awards, like sports excellence and the Maori awards, then moved onto the Academic Dux. They talked about what the award was for. And then announced the winner… It was me!! They had called my name out as the winner of this award! I was very very happy to get this.  I think that it would have been a very hard decision to make for the winner of this. There must have been many different people very close to getting it. For this, I won a trophy I get to keep until next year, a present which was a book about places of wonder and discovery in the world, a medal that I get to keep and a certificate. I thought it was great to be acknowledged as the most academically sucessful for this award. I was so proud of myself for gaining this award!

The two-year-old labrador was left with a monster of a hangover last week after it drunk its way through four litres of cask wine.

Roxy’s owner Anne went out to the garage last Wednesday night to discover two empty casks and Roxy snoring in the corner. Anne is a sales merchandiser for Independent Liquor and the casks were for a customer.

“When she could finally walk or should I say stagger, the girls took her outside for a walk. Staggering across the car park, she stopped in front of a tree, looked left and right, and promptly walked into it. I am supposing that she was still seeing two trees, and picked the wrong one.”

Anne estimates it took two-year-old Roxy until Monday this week to get back the spring in her paws and she’s probably off alcohol for life. -stuff.co.nz

When I first heard about this I thought it was rather funny. I mean its a dog! Have you ever heard of anything like this happening before? I think it is hilarious. For a dog who isn’t even supposed to drink any alchohol being this drunk and getting hungover!

But then again to know that a dog the same breed and age as mine has drunk two casks of wine was a bit worrying. But I know what my dog is like, she is always after food. Roxy must have thought there was a chance of food so broke into the casks, found the wine and drank it.

Well to me, this is a rather funny and interesting but worrying story. The subject is funny but what happened to the  dog is not. I’m glad that Roxy has turned out fine with no harm done, which is good because Anne the owner did nothing wrong to deserve that.

From now on, I have a bit of a feeling I’ll be keeping alcohol away from my dog…

I am going to try and get better at my English and maths work. I will do this by concentrating on my work and starting it early.

I am going to try and improve on my time management skills. I will try to start any tasks I get as early as possible so I get it done early and to the best of my ability.

I will also try to keep doing my weekly blog posts, I haven’t done them for a while but I will try to get back into the routine of doing them.

I will try and work well with my group for our inquiry so our end product is the best it can be. I will do this by making sure everyone, including me, stays on track, does their part and by making sure we all listen to what each other has to say.

I have made a commitment to help make the school magazine so I will do my part to help make it look its best. I will do this by completing any parts of it I can.

Finally I would like to improve in my tennis and both jazz and hip hop dancing. I will do this by concentrating in the lessons and practicing so I perform the best I can.

Young children are picking up a potentially dangerous message that fat is bad and muscle is good before they have even started school, a study of Australian preschoolers has revealed.

Parents and teachers of preschoolers are making little girls weight conscious and little boys want more muscle, according to the research showing kids form an image of “perfect body” ideals very early in life.

The study of four-year-olds by Melbourne researchers has found adults are unintentionally sending these negative messages in how they talk about their own and the child’s body, said lead researcher Marita McCabe, a professor of psychology at Deakin University.

The study of 53 children across four kindergartens is the first to focus on the socio-cultural influences on body image among preschoolers.

Prof McCabe said the development of eating disorders was one of the dangers of parents and teachers communicating messages about “ideal” bodies to boys and girls.

“They do this by their attitude to their own bodies, and by suggesting to their daughter that they need to exercise more (to lose weight) and to their sons that they need to eat more (to increase their muscles),” she said.

One study found 71 per cent of school children wanted to be smaller than their current size, and only seven per cent wanted to be larger.

I think that this is a plain stupid thing for young children to be worrying about. I mean sure being obese isn’t healthy but being skinny isn’t either. If these young children are getting the idea that they are too fat at this age then what will it be like for them in them in the future. If they think they need to be skinny then they may stay thinking like that for the rest of their lives. If this happens then there could be a possibility of them ending up with bad health issues like anorexia and eating disorders.

The fact that 71 percent of these school children wanted to be smaller than they are now is just awful. People at this age shouldn’t have to worry about their size or shape. They also shouldn’t be being judged by that either. Also to know that only 12 percent are happy the size they are is plain sad.

Overall I think that these preschoolers are silly for worrying about this. They don’t need to so they shouldn’t. It also isn’t very good for these peoples parents to be putting the ideas of this into the kids minds. Altogether I feel that although this may be a small topic I have big feelings about it.

A father mistakenly declared dead after going missing eight years ago has been reunited with his family after his son spotted him on television, police said on Thursday.

The family of John Delaney thought he had died when he disappeared in April 2000. They held a funeral and cremation after police found what they thought was his body three years later.

But Delaney, 71, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, had in fact been admitted to hospital in a confused state 10 days after he was reported missing.

Suffering from amnesia caused by a head injury, he couldn’t give police any clues about his name, address or family.

When further police checks failed to uncover his identity, he was given the new name David Harrison and handed over to social services. They put him in a care home where he stayed for the next eight years.

Meanwhile, a badly decomposed body found in the grounds of Manchester Royal Infirmary in 2003 was mistakenly identified as that of Delaney. His family was informed and they arranged a funeral and cremation later that year.

The truth of what happened to Delaney only emerged earlier this year when he appeared on a daytime television show about missing people.

His son John Renehan, 42, happened to be watching TV after working a night shift. He recognized his father and the pair were reunited after DNA tests confirmed they were related.

Police are trying to establish the identity of the man who was cremated in 2003. The officer who initially dealt with the case has since retired. -nz.news.yahoo.com

I think that this was a bit bit sad but also funny. To know that someone was supposedly dead and cremated but was still alive! This man thought that his dad had died and had had a funeral for him, just to find out that he was still alive. What I don’t get is why they didn’t actually find out who he was when he was found ten days after he dissappeared.

I think this is funny because one person was cremated but wasn’t actually the person they thought it was. I guess a man went missing and then a man was found dead and rotten so it fits together. I don’t understand why the family of the person found in 2003 and named as John Delaney hadn’t reported him as missing and named him as the right person.

This must have been quite sad for the family of John Delaney. For any of you out there that have lost any of your family members you’ll know what I mean. It is very sad to have a family member taken from you. It is almost like a dream come true to have your family member reunited to you after them supposedly dying.

Overall, I think that this may be funny but it is also quite sad . For no one to actually realise that there was any mistake of this until eight years later. This is actually an example of the living dead!!

Grieving relatives yesterday tried to identify charred bodies from the wreckage of a Spanish jet which crashed at Madrid airport on its second attempt at takeoff after mechanical problems.

Airline officials declined to comment on possible causes for Wednesday’s crash in which 153 people were killed, but said Spanair Flight JK5022 had earlier been delayed due to a problem with the air intake heating system before it attempted a second takeoff for its flight to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

“They supposedly fixed the problem which the pilot later said was with the air conditioning and then we took off,” survivor Ligia Palomino told Ser radio.

“The plane was wobbling from one side to another. Then I began to suspect we would crash. I don’t know what happened next. I was in a sort of river and saw people, smoke, explosions which I think woke me up.”

Rescue workers said the only passengers to survive Spain’s worst aviation disaster since 1983 were those who fell into a stream and avoided severe burns.

The government said only 19 people of the 166 passengers and six crew aboard survived the MD-82 jet crash. The airline listed 157 passengers and 10 unnamed crew. A Spanair spokesman could not account for the discrepancy in numbers.

“I took a child into the truck and he thought he was in a film. But he asked ‘When will this film end?’ and ‘Where is my Dad?’. He asked if it was real, if he was in a film, but he wanted the film to end,” Firefighter Francisco Martinez said. -stuff.co.nz

This was quite sad to hear about. To know that 153 people died because of a simple mistake. What I don’t see is why they didn’t realise what the actual problem was and fix it. Especially after supposedly ’fixing’ the ’problem’. The fact that the plane didn’t even leave the runway and it still ended up with only 19 survivors. Imagine if they had gotten up into the air and had to fall the extra length.

The one thing that they were lucky about is that they were next to a river. They have said that the only survivors were those that fell into the stream. So possibly, if there hadn’t been a river then there might not have been any survivors.

To know that a child thought that he was in a movie and just wanted it to end was quite sad. It must have been quite scary for the children, in fact everyone in the plane to not really know what was going on, why or what else was going to happen. I have also heard that one man phoned his wife before the takeoff and told her that the flight was delayed because of a problem with the plane and they decided that he would ask to get off. Which he did, the crew would not let him off because he was already boarded. This man is now dead. To me, I think it is just plain silly. It doesn’t take much to let one person off a plane especially since they all knew that the plane had a problem.

It saddened me to hear about this tragedy. The worst plane crash in Spain since 1983 was definitely a bad one. I am grateful for the river and the fact they were still on the runway. But really it is just quite a sad tragedy for Spanair to have to suffer. In fact all of Spain and anyone who was on that plane and their families.

A 20 year-old man was killed instantly after being hit by a Wellington commuter train last night. The incident occurred at Horokiwi, about 1km south of the Petone overbridge on State Highway 2, about 8.40pm.

Inspector Marty Parker, of police central communications, said it appeared the man had been walking along the track in the dark when he was hit by the southbound train. -stuff.co.nz

I think that for someone to walk along railway tracks is quite ludicrous. I mean it is a railway track it is for trains. It is not a footpath so quite frankly he shouldn’t have been walking on it in the first place. What I don’t understand is why he couldn’t either see or hear the train coming in his direction and simply stepped off the tracks. The only reasons I can think of is that he was either completely drunk or trying to commit suicide. Both of these make it his fault as well, if he was trying to commit suicide then it was obviously his fault as no one else could make that decision. If he was drunk then again it was his fault, he was the one that drank the alcohol, I mean I doubt that someone forced it down his throat.

Although, in saying this it is still quite sad for someone to be instantly killed from simply walking in the wrong place. I mean all he did was walk on a railway line and he ended up dead which is rather sad.

Overall I think that although it is sad that he died from being hit by the train but it was his own fault. He was the one who was walking on the railway tracks, he didn’t get off them and its not like it could be the drivers fault because the 20 year old man was in the wrong. The driver of the train would never have been able to stop in time. So basically it was his own fault and he was the stupid one that walked on the railway track in the first place. In a way he deserved it but perhaps he shouldn’t have died, after all no one deserves to die.

So I definitely advise everyone out there to keep off the railways unless you are going over it on a safe crossing or obviously on an actual train.

Chinese Singers-
Lin Miaoke, 9, the fake singer (Big
picture) and Yang Peiyi, 7, the real
singer (Small picture).

The little girl who shot to fame after singing at the Olympic opening ceremony was miming and only put on stage because the real singer was considered ugly.

Lin Miaoke, 9, the little Chinese girl in the red dress who captured the world’s hearts when she sang solo as the Chinese national flag entered the Bird’s Nest Stadium during the Olympic Opening Ceremony, is the hottest child star on the planet right now.

But it turns out that the voice the world heard singing so sweetly “I Sing for My Motherland” was not Lin’s - but a pre-recording of another child, Yang Peiyi, who was dropped from the opening ceremony at the last minute in the ”national interest”.

Mr Chen said their original choice for the lead was a 10-year-old girl, who was used throughout the rehearsals for Friday’s blockbuster opening extravaganza. But she was dumped after director Zhang Yimou deemed her “a little too old”.

They then shortlisted a group of younger girls including Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi, 7. After recording them Mr Chen’s team unanimously decided that Yang Peiyi’s voice was “flawless” and she would sing the lead.

Mr Chen said Lin Miaoke may not have realised she was not singing as her voice was similar to Yang Peiyi. -stuff.co.nz

 When I heard about this, I thought it was quite sad. To know that the Chinese hadn’t let Yang Peiyi sing because she was “ugly”. Also to know that Lin Miaoke didn’t even know that she wasn’t singing made it even worse. I heard that Lin Miaoke’s Dad only found out that his daughter was singing the lead about 15 minutes before the opening ceremony began. 

For the Chinese to decide that someone can’t do something they are really good at just because they are apparently to ugly, is quite sad. If you heard her singing at the opening ceremony then you’ll know what I mean, she was a really talented singer but she wasn’t allowed to be seen. She had the talent but she just wasn’t cute enough to be the centre of attention. When I saw the photo’s of the two girls, it really made me wonder why they could do such a thing. I didn’t think that Yang Peiyi was ugly, she might not be quite as cute but it wouldn’t have made a difference if it was actually her on stage. The only differences I could see was that her hair wasn’t as long and she was missing a few teeth.

Overall, I plainly thought that this was quite sad. To think that something like this would actually happen is just crazy. I think that people shouldn’t be judged on how they look but, in this case, on how they sing. I know that I’d hate being judged by the way I look. Really when you hear about this and the fake fireworks, it makes you wonder, what else was fake?

Ashley Thomas can do little but wait for his farm to turn from a lake back into pasture.

The sharemilker’s house on Mr Thomas’ Mercer property is almost completely surrounded by water after recent relentless rain. Mr Thomas expected the water to take at least a week to drain away.

He said in places the water was more than 1m deep. But having experienced flood conditions before, he wasn’t too concerned. “It’s all under control now; you can’t do much about it …” As long as the stopbanks held, things would be fine.

Mr Thomas said the water had been pooling for about 10 days and covered about 100ha of his 320ha property. . -stuff.co.nz

To view pictures click here, I tried posting some of them onto my blog but I couldn’t work out how to.

Since I live on a dairy farm, I know how annoying floods can be. They can ruin your pasture or isolate your cows. They can even get really big like this flood. To have been marooned like this mustn’t be very helpful, especially since it is this time of year that baby calves and lambs etc. are born. On our farm, we haven’t had a flood this bad that I know of but we have had some quite bad ones.

Like it has been said earlier, the water was expected to take at least a week to drain away, but even after that week, it’s going to take even longer before his pasture will be ready to graze again. The water is covering about a third of his property which must make it rather hard to make sure he keeps his farm running smoothly. 100ha is a lot of pasture and it will be out of use for quite a while which must make it hard, especially at this time of year. Also having some water reaching depths of more than one metre it isn’t easy to manoeuvre around.

Overall, I would say that Ashley Thomas would be quite annoyed and must have quite a hard job finding enough pasture for all of his stock. He really can only do little but wait!

During the last week, the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team played Australia Wallabies in the Bledisloe Cup. The Waikato (the area I live in)/Bay Of Plenty Magic netball team also played the New South Wales Swifts netball team who are from Australia. Sadly, both of the New Zealand teams lost. The rugby was a 34-19 loss and the Swifts won the netball 65-56.

The rugby game was one of the four games between New Zealand and Australia for the Bledisloe Cup. The Bledisloe Cup is a rugby competition that the two countries Australia and New Zealand compete in. It has been in either Australia or New Zealand for many years and New Zealand hopes to keep it. It is also the start of the Tri-Nations competition which includes the South African Springboks as well as the Wallabies and the All Blacks. The Bledisloe Cup has high standards so there was pressure on both teams to play at there best.

The netball was a final for the trans-Tasman competition. This is a competition where some netball teams from New Zealand and Australia compete against each other for the place of number one. So the two top teams before the final ended up being the Swifts at number one and the Magic at number two. This meant the final was between these two teams at Sydney’s Acer Arena. During this competition, some of the games were New Zealand teams against Australian teams played in some part of Australia. In these games, I found out that not even one New Zealand team won against any Australian teams when they were playing in Australia.

I feel that in both the netball and the rugby, that Australia didn’t win, the New Zealand teams lost. I think that there were many errors from the New Zealand teams and the australians took advantage of that and played quite well to ensure a win. The Magic netball team needed to play their best for the whole game to win against the team who had beaten them twice this season already.

“We weren’t consistent enough for the whole 60 minutes.” Magic captain Amigene Metcalfe said. And I definitely agree. They didn’t play anywhere near as well as I have seen them play before, there were many just plain silly mistakes made. Even some of the really good players had their partners get the better of them.

As with the rugby, there was again just heaps of mistakes. Handling errors that should’ve been controlled. I think that they had a lot of pressure on them to win and they blew it. They didn’t play anywhere near as well as they can play. I’ve seen them play way better than what they did. Up against a strong team like the Wallabies, they needed to play really well and quite plainly they didn’t.

Overall I think that both teams can play heaps better than what they’ve shown in these games. It was quite disappointing to have Australia beat us twice in one week.

BTW, for those of you who don’t know what netball is, here is a link to what it’s all about-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netball

‘The Shoemaker and the Elves’ is all over. The closing night was last Saturday. I had ten people coming that I knew, this is because my cousin and aunty who live in Australia came to visit and so they came and watched along with a few other members of my family. Anyway it was the last night, forever!! I actually thought it was a bit sad. After about four months of practice I think that most of the crew had all become really good friends. Over all the production it has gone from the nerve-wrecking auditions to the after-party. The show seemed to go by as usual, then afterwards came the after-party!

So we each got a couple of free drinks or ice-creams and some supper. After everyone had finished eating we started the skits. Over the last few shows, some people had been practicing some skits. I was in a couple, I only had a minor part in both of them though. There were some really cool ones. One of them was when Barbara, who played the role ‘Silver Sequin’ re-wrote the song ‘Without Her’ and sang it about the backstage crew. Another good skit was when Susanne the director sang the song ‘I’m Rich’ but instead she changed it to ‘I’m Poor’.

We had a lot of fun. But sadly, its all over now. It was a lot of hard work but I’m sure that all the crew had loads of fun. I for sure did and I was proud to be a part of it.

The opening night of ‘The Shoemaker and The Elves’ production was last night! If you want to know about it, see my post ‘Yay!! I’m going to be an elf!!‘ It will tell you about my part as an elf and what the storyline is about. So I arrived at the theatre at around 6.30pm for a 7.30 start. When I went to put my costume on, I found that there was a present in my bucket where I put my costume. It was a photo frame with a picture of me as an elf in it. It was designed around the outside with some really cool things, like a boot made of fabric, some bells and some stars. Each of the elves got one of these and we all thought they were really neat.

Once we had our costumes on and had a sound check, it was time to start. The elves and our leader ‘Slipper’ all headed to the back of the theatre. The toy drums sounded as our signal that the show was about to start. I suddenly began to get butterflies in my stomach. I hadn’t been nervous at all until now. The music began to play and we were off. Marching around the theatre and onto the stage. My butterflies slowly disappeared as the show went on. It was suddenly time for the tap dance. I got nervous again. I couldn’t remember the steps, I turned on the flashing lights on my tap shoes which lit them up so only the shoes could be seen. The music began to play, I started and as the song went on I kept up with all the moves. I was relieved that I had remembered all the steps and didn’t do anything wrong.

Overall the show turned out really great. I had heaps of fun and I’m sure most of the people in it did to. I am really looking forward to the matinee show today. I hope its as fun last nights performance. Well I better go get ready for the second show so that I’m not late!

Academic-

• I will make sure that I keep up with all class work that we do, I will do this by not sitting by or working with anyone that will distract me.
I think I have half completed this goal, I have been a bit behind on some of my work but so far I have always handed my work in on time.

• Since I am in second year French I will make sure that I practice hard to keep up with the other people in the group, I will also make sure that I try saying the words or sentences we are focusing on even if I can’t pronounce them right.
I am getting more confident with my French each lesson. I think that I am keeping up quite well.

• I also want to make sure that I don’t leave my work to the last minute, if I do this I believe that my work will start improving as I will not be rushing it and I will have more time to edit and proof-read it.
I think that this is one goal that still needs improving. I’m not leaving everything till the last minute but some of my work is still rushed.

Cultural-

• In symphonic band I would like to make sure I can play loudly and correctly so that I can be the best trombone player I can be, if I practice hard then hopefully I can do this.
I am getting better with my trombone playing. I think I may need to practice more at home.

• In jazz band I would like to make sure that I can play all songs correctly not just the songs I enjoy, also I want to make sure that I am not afraid to play any of the solos and to practice them so I can play them well.
I am really enjoying jazz band, I can most songs properly and I have a few solos that I can play quite well.

Personal-

• In the production ‘The Shoemaker and The Elves’ (see below) I would like to put in my all and make sure I can do my best, I will make sure I concentrate so that I can remember the dances, the script and the songs.
I have completed this goal, especially since the opening night is this Saturday! It is lots of fun and I think I am playing the part as an elf quite well.

• In all the after-school activities I do I will make sure that I do the best I can especially in the dancing I do which are Jazz, Tap and Hip Hop.
I am really enjoying the out of school activities I do, especially Jazz. I think I have improved in Jazz and Hip Hop heaps since the beginning of this year and I hope to get better.

In the last week of term we have a science fair, which means it is due in next Monday! It is compulsory for our whole school to participate this year so I have been thinking about it and completing it over the past few weeks.

My question is “Does the location of where ice is when it melts, change whether the water level rises or falls?” So in other words, I am going to find out whether changing where ice is when it melts changes whether the water level rises, falls or stays the same. For example, I will have some ice floating on water level, some ice below water level and some ice dripping in from above the water level. This will be my experiment.

My hypothesis is that the water that is below the water will decrease the water level, this is because when water freezes into ice it contains air particles and so when ice melts water fills up these spaces and therefore the water level drops.  I think that the water level will stay the same when the ice floating on the water level melts as weight displaces the water level and since air weighs nothing it will stay the same. For the one that is above water level, I think it will rise because it is just adding to the water level.

I have done a couple of experiments now but I’ll need to do another one to make it a fair test. So far my results of my experiment show that my hypothesis was correct. Yay! Well I better be carrying on with it so I get it done on time!