Being a Billionaire

If I were to be a Billionaire,  I actually don’t think I’d be at school right now.  Well, I wouldn’t have to be because I’d be home schooled by my employed teacher Ben Carson, in my 2 story ensuite bedroom.  Which would include, a 50 inch Plasma screen TV, 2 king size beds, a never ending Zombie chew dispenser, a 5 inch statue of SpongeBob made of diamonds, a huge yellow trampoline, 2 elevators, and a diving board which would allow me to cannonball into my 30 acre pool.

And that’s just my bedroom. My house would be 5 stories high. I’d have 5 guest rooms,and 10 rooms for my when my family are visiting, 3 toilets, 3 bathrooms, an Ice Cream Parlour, a filming studio, and blue & green rooms (for filming purposes). I’ll have bought a nice little house for my parents and brothers down the road.  I’ll have a chauffeur, a personal chef and I’d own five of the Burger Kings around Auckland.

And during the summer, I’d ride down to Wendaholme beach.  I’d have bought that as well, but I’d be kind to people and let them enter with only a $20 dollars fee. (Adults 50)  After a vacation in one of Waiwera’s holiday homes, I’d fly to an Art School in France, buy that and a couple of 30 million dollar paintings and become a great legend and create a masterpiece as great as the Mona Lisa, or maybe even Sunflowers by Van Gogh.

Transport.  I’d own a private jet, a yellow Mercedes Benz, and 5 yellow buses.
But that’s if I was a Billionaire.

My Mihi

Recently in Room 21, we were assigned to create and memorise a mihi. A mihi is a maori spoken speech about who you are, where you come from, and who your family is. After we presented our mihis to the class, we were given the other task of creating a digital mihi, the movie below is the result.

Scone making...with lemonade.

“No we’ll use the raisin one!” Tule pleaded. “But the method’s easier in this one!” Tyla defended. “But that one uses too much flour. The other groups need flour too!” Chanel pointed out. “Lets just use this one.” I said calmly...and loudly.

It was the 1st day of camp, and it was one of those times when you didn’t know if the sun wanted to sleep in or to give the rain the job. Anyway, I was a leader for ‘The Respect Crew.’ Today our first activity was cooking, well in this case baking. Scones that is. There were 5 of us in my cooking group : Oshania, Chanel, Tule, Tyla B, and of course myself.

We were all trying to find the best scone recipe ever (without raisins or sultanas of course.) Tyla found one that had lots of flour. Chanel and Tule had found one with raisins, so obviously we didn’t choose that one. But then Oshania and I, well, we found a recipe involving a can of lemonade. Yes, I said lemonade! (Well, typed anyway.)

Once we decided on the lemonade scones, we got to work and started mixing up the dough. Soon, my hands were white and covered in flour. Then we poured in the can of lemonade and the cream, and Chanel mixed it over and over. Not so long after, Tyla and I were sprinting down to the Hall Kitchen shrieking “OUR SCONES ARE BURNING!! OUR SCONES ARE BURNING!!” just to find that we were screaming lies.

In the end, we ate a scone each and gave the rest to afternoon tea for campers. And, not to be bragging or anything but, I think the lemonade scones were the best.

What am I? No seriously!

Recently we've been learning about careers and occupations. We've had to find out what some of the adults in our family were and wanted to be. So today in extension, we played a little game called 'What am I?', where the whole class got sticky notes slapped on their foreheads. We all had to participate and walk around asking different people what we were. I just found out that I was a Minister of Parliament.

Here's a few things I found out about wanting to be or being a Minister of Parliament.

-You have to be very careful, accidental comments can end up on the front page of the newspaper.

- Everything you say and do if you're in charge counts. You don't want any bad publicity.

-You have to keep studying and working hard so you can become a Member, or Minister of Parliament.

Little Miss Sunshine..

I am currently in the Yr 8 extension. At the moment we're focusing on The Pt England Way. Specifically, Respect. This is very important, as in our school, as we use Respect a lot in our topics and focuses. This year I'm looking forward to doing all sorts of cool things. Especially because it's my last year here at Pt England. Its kind of sad when I think about it, but it's exciting that I get to go out and do heaps of cool things in college. Arts and crafts and things is something I really really enjoy doing. That's why I've drawn a paintbrush and a pencil to represent my love how much art means to me. My culture also means a lot to me. I'm well-known as a Samoan, but I'm also a quarter Croatian. Many people don't know this, but it's true! My grandpa is full Croatian. So that technically makes me Croatian! Then there's food. As much fun eating is, I quite like cooking and making things for my family. I've already mastered the famous Mickey Mouse Pancakes, now I'm working on chocolate mousse. But I doubt that would turn out okay. I quite enjoy working with computers and editing movies and things like that. I like podcasting and posting blogs like the one you're reading right now! Next to the computer, I've drew a set of headphones because I like listening to music. Well not just listening to music, but dancing to it. In fact, me and a couple of friends created a small dance group a year ago. We only just dance around and make up sets to our favourite songs, but it's really fun to do. Now you know a bit about me. I'd love if you'd take the time to click on this link here, which will take you to the Flickr page this is on.

Bye Bye Ala!!

During the 2012 holidays, I received some good news, some bad news, and a really bad sunburn. The good news was that the sunburn didn’t last long. Oh, and the fact that me and my friends were going to go swimming. The bad news well, was bad of course. The reason we were going to Swim-A-Rama, was because our lovely friend Ala was leaving Pt England, and attending Sylvia Park school.

Since my family’s very busy, I was left alone with my vicious cat until I heard the tooting of my friend’s flash car. I quickly ran out and hopped in the car. “Hi Ala!” I said quite happily and fastly. “Hey Reka! she said calmly and smoothly. We started chatting about Sylvia Park, Pt England, my sunburn, and heaps of other things. In between our big blob of chatting we stopped to get Sylvia, checked if Selena was home (found out she wasn’t), checked at her aunty’s (found out she was shopping.) and then sped off to Ala’s house.

When Selena arrived, we drove in the blistering sun to the beloved Swim-A-Rama Lagoon Pools. As soon as we got there, I took a run and cannonballed in to the pool. I couldn’t help but give my friends a big toothy grin. As soon as Selena and Sylvia helped me drag Ala in the pool, we started playing Marco Polo. We spent hours jumping and drowning in our laughter.

When we couldn’t laugh any more, I jumped on Sylvia’s shoulders and Ala on Selena’s. I wrestled Ala and only stopped when I realised Selena couldn't breathe underwater. Since Selena had almost drowned, we got out and had a little snack.

Well, not really a little snack. (Well not in Selena’s case anyway.) She finished half the Doritos, so I decided to generously bring out my sour cream and chives crackers. While she dove in to those, Sylvia was telling us a really funny story. We almost peed our togs when she had finished. I think Selena almost choked!!

Anyway, after that Ala’s little sister Maraina came with her mum, and some hot dogs for us to devour. Since we were full because of laughing so hard, I dived back in to the icy cold pool as they day was closing we said our big grand speeches (“Bye Ala”) and packed up our things.

We miss you Ala.

Cosmology

Favourites

When I stand staring at my great grandmother’s grave, a great feeling of genuine love and warmth flows through me.
I love the aroma of sizzling sausages on the scorching sand of Wendahome.
I like lying on my bed in the pitch black staring out in to the starry sky.
I love the way my grandpa is constantly enthusiastic and makes us laugh by continually changing his favourite league team. He’s inspirational.
Yellow gives me a warm and happy feeling.
I love the taste of melting cheese squashed between warm and crispy bacon strips.
I love how L&P gives you a taste of New Zealand, as it dances on your tastebuds.
I love the bright and warm colours of the soft and gentle petals on a daffidoll.
I like the way netball players firmly pass the ball succeedingly up and down the court.
I love the way Micheal Jackson can motivate the world to change, with only a funky song or a groovy dance move.
Have you ever noticed how persuasive fashion can be. One day its pink and peach, the next its blue and green.

These are a few of my favourite things.

The Test of Fitness

“The beep test will start in 5 seconds.” a computerized voice said. It was the beep test. My very first one to be sure. A beep test is one of the many methods that coaches or teachers use to measure the fitness progress of someone. At first I had absolutely no idea what a beep test was. It’s just like shuttles. 20 metre shuttles to be exact.

“BEEP” The speaker buzzed. We all jogged off to a good start. "Hey! This is pretty easy!" I said enthusiastically. Whoops! Spoke to soon! 5 minutes later, half of us were cheering from the sideline! I put one foot after the other once we got past Level 3. At Level 4, 1 I was exhausted. At Level 4 3 my mouth was dry. At Level 5, I was ready to give up! I slowly made my way to the line just before the beep went off. The next beep signaled for us to go. I couldn't continue. I collapsed on to the grass, trying so hard to catch my breath.
Oh well. I was the fifth girl to keep running. Level 4 - 5.
Hmm. Pretty good for my first beep test!

Flag of France

Now that our new topic for the term is "Keep your eye on the ball.", our intermediate divided all the teams that are participating in the *RWC*, so that our classes each have 4 teams and 4 countries to study. Our class has been given the countries : South Africa, Wales, Japan and Australia. At the moment, Room 20 are finding out all the countries that are involved and drawing their flags in Tux Paint. I have chosen France because, I did not know their flag was Red White and Blue. I know now that : White represents peace and honesty, Red shows hardness, bravery, and strength. Blue represents, vigilance, truth, loyalty, justice and perseverance and justice. Maybe that's why French people are so persistent!



*Rugby World Cup

Going Hard Out For The Hungry!

Right now, at this very moment, 22 people are going hard out for the hungry. Specifically East Timor. I am in the blue team with Ido from Shortland Street. We've just finished watching depressing videos on the 40 hour famine website. This year, New Zealand are aiming to $ 3.15 million for the tribes of East Timor. So right now, we are GOING NUTS FOR MEGABUCKS!

The Eleventh Extravaganza

“Do I really have to?” I groaned. It was the 20th of April and the day I turned eleven had arrived. Also the day I had to wear a bright pink dress my aunty had picked out. “Yes.” she said firmly. There was no way I was wearing this in front of my friends. My reputation would be ruined! Hopefully no one brought any cameras.
“Just kidding!” my aunty laughed. She put down the hideous dress, and pulled out a beautiful pacific patterned dress. “THANK GOODNESS!” I shouted!

My mum barged in and said “ Hurry up. Selena’s already here. Get changed!” Selena, Selena, Selena. She was always there the earliest. “Ok mum.” I said while struggling to put on the dress. “HURRY UP!!” My mum yelled. Well, so much for being kind to the birthday girl! It was the 20th of April. My birthday. I had turned eleven. It had been a looooooong week thinking about today. Finally, the day had come.


“Thank goodness!” I said relieved as I got changed. I heard voices outside my window.Gasp! It was my friend Selena!! She had come early!! “Knock, knock.” she was knocking on the door. “Coming!” I yelled while quickly putting the embarrassing bright pink dress in to hiding. I ran to answer the door to see Selena. “Hi Reka. Happy Birthday.” she said shyly. “Hi Lena!” I practically shouted.

Enthusiastically I jumped outside to help Selena with her bags and went on and on to talk about what we were going to do :”So we’re going to eat first, and then we’re gonna talk about secrets- Oh and don’t worry I didn’t tell anyone-” My blabbering was interrupted by one of Selena’s fake coughs. I looked up and saw Selena’s family standing there giggling then I looked back at Selena and her face was bright red. Quickly I said “ Thank you for letting Selena come! Lena want to come inside?” We both sped in to my bedroom and waved at her family from my window.

“Phew! Nice save Reka.” she said while looking cautiosly at my room as if she’d seen something suspicious! Gasp! What if she had seen my bright pink dress! Oh no! “Umm..” I mumbled trying to think of an explanation. Thankfully, 3 loud beeps came from the long driveway. Yes! Now I didn’t have to make up something.

Selena and I ran out to greet Mubbasshira. Then weirdly 30 seconds later, Ala came. Then Mino. Then, we ate! My dad had made a big pile of sticky ribs and a huge bowl of chicken fried rice. YUM!! And for my dear friend Mubbasshira my dad had bought a Chicken Donner Kebab. After we spent 30 minutes drooling, thinking about the food. It was time to eat. Selena handed me my knife and fork. Politely, I took them and put then down and then dug my teeth in to the glorious sticky ribs.

Tornado Tragedy

At 3pm on May the 3rd, a very violent tornado hit the Central Buisness District in Albany. Ripping through the streets leaving a trail of open roads, damaged cars and even hurt citizens of North Shore. It has caused one fatality and quite a few bad injuries. According to New Zealand’s News Website, it has damaged the West field Shopping Mall and the Albany Mega Centre.

Trampolines and cars being carried up in to the sky and then violently dropped in to the hard ground. With this beast reaching 200 kilometers of speed, it is amazing that SO many people have survived this epic tragedy.

Honesty & Hope

Last week we were assigned to complete a movie showing one of the values of Pt England School. I teamed up with Sylvia and Thora. My group and I couldn't decide whether to do Honesty, or Hope. So we did both. We all agreed that honesty is telling the truth about your own mistakes. And that hope is fighting to believe that we can achieve whatever we choose to.

Thank You Miss Walker!

Dear Miss Walker,
On behalf of my group, I would like to thank you for all the hard work and effort you put in to Camp TC. It was defintely one of the best camps I've been to. I hope you will be able to attend next year's. Your help made a big difference. The hangi was absolutely delicious.
Thank you once again. May God be with you and your family.
Yours Truly, Toreka.