A Night of Many Cultures

It was Thursday night, and the students in the Maori group were getting ready for Cultural Festival by wearing the traditional Maori clothes, the girls wore black skirts and black tops with a piupiu around their waist and the boys wore black shorts and no shirt but they did wear the piupiu.

The Cultural Festival started off with me doing the Karanga for the National Anthem and the rest of the school singing the Pasifica song to welcome and thank the people for attending this special occasion. After the Maori group finish doing the haka, the poi and the haere mai etc, the chinese group started. The girls in the Chinese group wore a red dress and the boys wore black shorts and tops with a vest.

The Chinese group ended and it was time for the Samoan group, the Samoan group had alot of supporters in the audience. The girls in the Samoan group wore pule tasi’s and the boys wore a lavalava with banana leaves around their neck. After the Samoan group it was halftime.

During halftime I was putting my costume on because right after it was the Tongan group. Halftime was up and I was on my way to the stage with Frankie and the rest of the Tongan group, we got up on stage and already had people screaming and supporting us, my brothers were supporting me by making funny faces at me and trying to copy the Tau'olunga (dance) I was doing.  While Frankie and I were doing our Tau’olunga (dance) alot of people came up on stage to put money on us. After us it was the Tongan boys’ turn. They did a dance to the song ‘Toli Lou Siale’  and the girls did a dance to the song ‘Tamaiki ‘O Loto Neiafu’. The boys of the Tongan group wore a skirt (kinda like a grass skirt) called manafao with a white singlet and a kahoa (necklace). The girls in the Tongan group wore the tapa.

After the Tongan group was the Filipino group. The girls wore a flowery skirt.  After the Filipino group ended it was the Hip Hop group the boys and the girls in the Hip Hop group all wore the same clothes but different coloured suspenders. After all the Cultural groups finished, Miss Bullot  announced the winner of the hamper and that was Mrs Oldham.

TROUBLEMAKER!

It was the 19th of July and my family were stressed about what to wear to my little cousin’s birthday, which was to be held on the following day.  This was especially my brothers. I’d expected my brothers’ (I have three), to be excited about the party but instead they were getting all angry because most of the clothes they had, according to them, were old and had been seen by  all the people who were also going to the party.  

“Stop stressing about your clothes”, I told my brothers’ “It’s not like there is gonna be girls there”.” It’s a family thing” I shouted!  Almost immediately after making that comment - simultaneously from the mouth of  my brothers’ came the words... 
“Mind your own business!”
 I turned to face all three of them and gave them the meanest, evil eyes I could make..... and ran out of the room to my parents as fast as I could!   From experience I knew that this was a safe move, they would never and I mean never come after me when I go to mum and dad. 

A short time later while sitting in the lounge with my mum, I strained my ears towards the direction of the conversation. The voices of my brothers was joined in by my cousin. My brothers were asking my cousin if they could wear some of his clothes (because they were new clothes). I told my mum and she growled them in Tongan. Behind the safety of my mother’s back I giggled and smirked silently. 

On the morning of the birthday.  I went up to my brothers and apologised  for being a troublemaker on Friday night.  They said that it was alright, because they were being meanies too.

The party was being held at the Rock Climbing Warehouse.  When we arrived I ran straight to the Adventureland Park.  Unfortunately my brother and I got kicked off the park because we were too old and too big for it. It was only then that I noticed the sign that said ‘Ten years and under only’!

My eyes very quickly noticed boxes of pizza being carried to the eating area. I was so enthusiastic about the climbing that I decided to not eat at that time and shouted to my aunt and uncle, “Save me some food please”! After a while went and got 4 pieces of pizza. Two hawaiian and two meat lovers. But as soon as I’d finished,  I climbed up the skateboarding rock climbing which turned out to be the wrong thing to do.  Moments later I jumped back down I ran to a bin and vomited.

What a day!

New School, New Technicraft and New Teacher!

Frankie admiring my work!

Have you ever wondered what it will feel like when you go to another school? Would you find it  scary? Would  you be shy? Has anyone told you when you go to another school people from that school will bully you?  Well from my own personal experience, those rumours are not necessary true.

Today the Seniors of Saint Patrick’s School went to Pakuranga Intermediate for Technicraft. Once we arrived,  we were split into two groups, the year eights went to the Electronic class where their teacher, Mr Clark introduced himself.  At the same time, the year sevens went to the Materials class and met their teacher Mr Nair.

The first project for the year 8 students was to design and construct a frog.  Initially I had the feeling that this task was like a colouring competition but later when the  electronic things were added, it began to  look like a real science project.   The electronic components we used included LED’s  (Light Emitting Diodes), Copper tape and Memory wire.

When you put the LED into the little hole on the eye of the frog, you had to make sure that the positive wire (long wire) went on the right side of the copper tape and that the negative wire (short wire) went to the left side of the copper tape.   Following this the wire needed to be soldered.  The soldering machine was a bit dangerous, as it was hot!

It looks like a strange metal iron tube and it is used to melt the end of the wire, it kind of acts like glue.  

It was a new and challenging experience for me and I was extremely proud of my effort and the final product.

The Most Exhausting Day Of My Life

It was Wednesday the 4th of July 2012. My grandpa and grandma had to and I mean had to, move out of their house in Hobson Drive to their new house in Caen Road. On that exact same day my grandparents called one of their closest friends and asked him to bring his truck to transport the heavier pieces of furniture to their new house.

My whole family didn’t really like the new house, they were upset because everyone preferred the old house in Hobson Drive.The floor in the new house was  totally bare, no carpets anywhere! This made the house very cold.  Everyone started talking about how the old house had carpet right through (with the exception of the kitchen and bathroom). My grandpa hated it because having no carpet could be bad for my baby cousin and his new born baby sister. But this,  
was not the only problem.

In the morning my aunt Jessica and uncle Paula went to ‘Barfoot and Thompson’ to complain about the toilet not flushing.  That same person from ‘Barfoot and Thompson, called someone (the plumber) to come over to fix the problem. When he came, he also noticed that a new handle was needed and he said he would make arrangements for someone to come and replace it.
                                                                      
Unfortunately, a whole week went by before someone came back!  But the problem didn’t end there because across that week, every time someone in the house (the new house) needed to use the toilet they jumped into the car and came to our house. Boy was I glad when their toilet was fixed.