New Zealand 1

We are now sitting in the airport waiting to fly back to Singapore after spending nearly a month in New Zealand. We have had a great time and I have loads and loads to write about. I will upload several pages over the next few weeks – so stay tuned!

On Friday the 14th of June we left Singapore for New Zealand. We arrived in Changi airport at around 9.00pm; Dad dropped us off then went took the car back to the house. We checked in then looked around the shops while waiting for Dad to return.
When he got back we went to get a quick drink before we got on the plane. After we had finished our drinks, dad looked at the clock and found out the gate to our plane was closing, so we rushed through the airport trying to find our gate, we found it and were just in time before the gate closed.

When we were in the air I put my TV on and watched a movie called ‘Wild Hogs’ the film was really funny and I enjoyed it. As soon as the film finished I fell asleep for the rest of the flight.

10 hours later we arrived in Auckland. When we went outside the airport (to collect the car we rented) it was bitter cold! As soon as I got in the car it started to heat up and I fell asleep again, I was so tired!

We arrived at the apartment we were staying in, it was lovely. The covers on our bed were electric ones which meant they were heated when you plugged them in! When I got in the bed it was so nice and warm that I wanted to stay in it.

The next day we went out to buy some food from the supermarket, my parents brought back a fruit called Rhubarb, they let me try some and it was so delicious I wanted more, so my parents let me have some with some custard and it was delicious!

On Sunday the 17th of June we went to the Vector Arena to listen to the Dalai Lama talk about love and compassion. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibet.
When he talked he often made everyone laugh, he was a very happy man and everyone was so excited to meet him. There were over 10,000 people in the arena!

Vector arena is a huge stadium where lots of different bands play. In a few weeks time Guns and Roses and Gwen Stefani will be playing on that stage and I really want to go, but the tickets are too expensive, so I am really annoyed! Hardly any good bands come to Singapore.

The next day we got on a plane to fly to Nelson, Nelson is at the tip of New Zealand’s South Island.
The plane was very different to any other plane I had been on because it was tiny, it only held 19 passengers! We flew over seas and mountains.
When we arrived at Nelson airport my mum, Lucinda and I explored the airport to find out a bit about where we were, while my dad went to rent a car.

We then went to find a cottage to stay in. We found somewhere to stay but we had to go up a very narrow mountain road to get to it and my mum started to get really scared, so we didn’t stay there. Instead we drove out of Nelson to Golden Bay. The journey was really long and when we arrived there it was pitch black and very late!


We decided to stay in a beautiful cottage on the beach called ‘Adrift’ The man who owned the cottage told us that we might see: Seals, Penguins and maybe if we were lucky Whales. It was very peaceful around the area we were staying at and it was nice to walk up the beach listening to the sound of the waves. On the beach we found lots of animals such as Starfish, Crabs and Sea urchins.
We did see some seals out at sea but sadly we did not see any Penguins, we did see there tracks in the sand though.

Photographs from the top:

• Plane at Nelson airport
• Two of the three cottages at Adrft
• View from our window
• Private beach at Adrift

VESAK DAY - by Lucinda

Today is Thursday 31st of May, we have been given a day off school to celebrate Vesak day.

Vesak day is a celebration of Lord Buddha’s birthday, his enlightenment and his entry into Nirvana. The date changes every year due to the fact that it falls on the 1st full moon of the fourth month after the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Mum and Dad have taken us to one of the many Tibetan Buddhist events in Singapore. It is the one organised by our local FPMT centre (FPMT stands for 'The Foundation for the preservation of the Mahayana Tradition)

Poppy and I took our camera out to take some pictures for her blog.

The event is being held in a huge marquee structure, at the front is a massive alter and all the Monks and Lamas are sitting cross legged and chanting mantras. There are a lot of people here chanting mantras and spinning hand held prayer wheels, whilst others are walking around the stupa surrounded by prayer wheels so big you have to use both hands in order to spin them round. Some people are bathing Buddha statues with blessed water; others are applying pieces of gold leaf to another Buddha statue or lighting huge candles for world peace nearby.

It is Saturday 2nd of June, morning of the Fire Puja.
Poppy is not with us today, she is spending the weekend with her friend Rabeca, me, mum & dad are going back to the Vesak celebrations. Today there is going to be a Fire Puja.

A Fire Puja is an elaborate ritual which lasts for hours!

Today’s fire puja is for Avian Flu. It starts with a group of monks chanting in Tibetan, people all around the temple people are reciting mantras and counting them off on their mala beads. The mood is calm and relaxing, I feel sleepy. Outside, preparations for the ceremony are being made.
A table is filled with plates and dishes full of; Dried Grasses, Clarified Butter, Poppy Seeds, Rice, Chickpeas, Barley and Wheat, a small pile of wood is arranged in front of an alter.

Soon all the monks make their way outside from the main alter area. A small outdoor alter has been set up and the monks sit down to the right of it and continue to chant.

The abbott of Kopan Monastery in Nepal, Khenrinpoche Geshe Lhundrup Rigsel, has come to

Singapore for Vesak, he is going to perform the

Puja. He adds the offerings from the table to the flames. Towards the end of the ceremony everyone took a handful of a mixture of seeds and rice and threw it into the flames.

After the ceremony everybody queued for a blessing from Khenrinpoche. I knelt in front of him to receive a blessing and he shared a few words with me. He picked up a red blessing cord, blew gently onto the knot and placed it over my neck, then touched my head with his Dorje, I really enjoyed myself today.

By Lucinda Angel

The photos above were taken by by mum, if you click the picture you can see it larger.

Me and Poppy will post our pics very soon xx

James Lee

This week I got a new mobile phone. I love my phone so much that I always have it with me, but I am not allowed to take it to school. If you would like my phone number please email me and I'll send it to you.

The other weekend I went to Parkway Parade. Parkway Parade is a shopping mall a short distance from our house.
When I was in parkway parade I was buying some chocolates for my mum for mother’s day. After I had bought her some chocolates I went to the bookshop on the bottom floor to have a look at some books.
There was a big crowd in the bookshop, so we went to see what was going on. All the people were queuing up to see James Lee.
James Lee is an author; he has written a series of books called ‘Mr. Midnight’ which I think are really good!
I bought 5 of his books and got him to sign them. While he was signing them he asked me some questions, such as: “Where are you from?” and “How long have you been living in Singapore?”
After he had signed the books I told him I had a sister called Lucinda and that she had written the first page of a story for him.
In the back page of his books he invites readers to start a book and he then finishes it.

When he had signed my books he gave me a goodie bag, it contained: two magnets, a poster, some bookmarks and some notepads.

After buying my books we went home. When Lucinda saw everything she took it around to her friend Erssy’s house. Erssy and Lucinda then wanted to go to parkway parade, so we all went out again.
When I saw James Lee for the second time, he recognized me and asked “Is this Lucinda?” and I said yes.
Erssy and Lucinda bought some books and went to get them signed. Then James Lee wrote our names on a piece of paper and said “I will keep this with me and put you in danger in the next book I write” We all got excited and started to think of the first page of a story we could write for him.

Next we went to get some ice cream, I had a dark chocolate, Erssy had a Belgium chocolate and Lucinda had the same.
After we had eaten our ice creams we went back home had some dinner then went to bed and that day was very fun!!

Poppy & Lucinda on 'Deviant Art'

My mum is a designer and photographer. She sells some of her photographs on 'istockphoto' so other designers can use them, the money that she gets for these goes to help Tibetan children living in exile in India. She also has her own website of her photography called 'Samsara'

My mum also sends pictures to a website called 'Deviant Art' so that other artists can use them to create digital art pieces. She has uploaded several pictures of me and Lucinda, these are some of my mums photographs of us that other artists have used to make pictures with. We love them, what do you think?

If you click on the title of the picture it will take you to the artists gallery so that you can see more of their work.

Nimue - (Poppy)

Vow - (Lucinda)

Daughter of Dawn - (Poppy)

Little Reds Fairy Godmother - (Lucinda)

Pink Fairy - (Lucinda) by mum

The Enchanted Forest - (Poppy) by mum

Bintan

On the 25th of April I went to camp at Bintan with my class from school.

When I arrived at school I went down stairs to join the stage where choir was being held, so I could sing my songs. When I had finished I went to the classroom and played some games with Esther and Zoe.

At 11.00 clock we left school for Bintan, everyone was excited! When we got on the bus I sat next to my friend Esther and we talked to each other about what fun it was going to be without any parents around.

We arrived at the ferry terminal, got off the bus with our passports in our hands, ready to get through the gates. As soon as we got through the gates we got on the ferry and watched x-men, the journey was two hours long!


When we arrived at the Indonesian ferry terminal we waited half an hour for the people to stamp our passports, it was tedious. After that we left the ferry terminal and got onto a bus which took us to a boat.
After an hours journey we arrived at the boat which took us to ‘Loola adventure camp’ which was where we were staying. The journey was two hours long so we did some boom netting on the way and it was fun! Boom netting is an activity when you jump from a boat into a net which is dragging along the water. You are allowed to jump from the 1st floor the second floor or the 3rd floor which is really high up! When I went boom netting I got 5 goes, I jumped from the second floor 4 times and the 3rd once because it was scary!

When we arrived at Loola it was night time and we had to get in to groups depending on how many people can fit in a cabin, so I stayed with Esther, Zoe, Seung-a, Sophia, Louisa, Isabella and Ananya. Our cabin had two bunk beads next two each other and four mattresses on the floor so we decided 4 people would sleep on the mattresses one night and we swap over the next.

The next morning we woke up got ready then went to breakfast. After breakfast we came back and talked about the cabin, I thought the cabin was nice because it was situated above the water on poles.

Our first activity of the day was rock climbing, it was quite hard because the rocks were quite small, I had three goes and I only managed to reach half way up.

After rock climbing we went to the obstacle course, it was really hard! At the obstacle course we had to climb up a wall about 2 metres high there was nothing to stand on to get up there, so a girl called Tsenyi pushed us from the bottom whilst Ananya pulled us up from the top, it was really fun!

After the obstacle course we had free time so I went out crab hunting with Zoe, Dheina, Hugh and Seung-a and we found lots of crabs even purple ones.

Building a raft was our next activity but it was so difficult so no one managed to do it because when they were put in the sea they fell apart, it was tiring.

After building the rafts we went kayaking, I kept falling out every minute so Esther and Dheina left me in the water to swim back to the shore, but don’t worry the water was shallow and we had life jackets on.

The last activity we did was the flying fox and it was awesome! The flying fox is an activity where you hold onto a bar attached to a long rope, then you slide down the rope into the sea. When it was my turn I said I wasn’t going to go because I was too scared, the drop looked steep. A minute later the man attached me too the harness and said he wouldn’t go too fast so I jumped off the platform and screamed awesome, I was flying in the air, a few minutes later I had landed in the sea and I wanted another go but I wasn’t allowed so I played in the sea with Esther.

After the flying fox everyone got a shower then went too dinner. We were having a BBQ by a huge fire. After we had eaten, a man who worked at Loola put some music on and we all danced around the fire for an hour. After dinner we put our pyjamas on and went to bed.

The next day we woke up at 6:00 a.m. got ready then went to breakfast. Our first activity of the day was archery. When it was my go I didn’t hit the target because it was so hard, Louisa was the only one who hit a bulls eye.

After archery we played badminton with a partner. I played with Esther but she didn’t know how to play so I taught her and she kept getting better until the end of the game.

When badminton had finished we had to pack our stuff then leave, it was sad. Everyone enjoyed Bintan and I wish we can go back there again.

Photos from top:

1. Zoe, Esther, Me and our teacher Miss Foster on the ferry to Bintan
2. Esther, Seung-a, Isabella, Me, Zoe, Ananya, Sophia and Louisa
3. Our Cabin
4. Esther on the boat

Year 5 Camp

Yesterday I got my Padi card! A Padi card is a card that tells people that I have done my scuba diving training, this allows me go scuba diving wherever I want!
When I received my card I was excited because I have been waiting for it for months!

I am now a junior scuba diver; I did my first four dives in Tioman last November. Tioman is one of Malaysia’s islands and it is beautiful.
At first I was a bit scared to go in the water, but the instructor encouraged me to go. I’m so glad I did because it was amazing!
The first dive I did was 5 metres deep, and the deepest 18 metres.
We are going to go back to Tioman later this year when my sister Ziggi and Matt come over. I will be diving there again, hopefully Matt will come too.

In 3 days I am going to Bintan with my class for 3 days, I can’t wait!
Bintan is one of Indonesia’s islands, I went there last year with my family and it was lovely.
I am going to share a cabin with my friends Esther and Zoe; we are going to have lots of fun together snorkelling, rock climbing, boom netting, night fishing and all that fun stuff!
The best thing about camp is there are going to be no parents!!! Mum, Dad and Lucinda are off to Bangkok for a few days.

Below is a picture of the cabins that we are staying in.

Tell you all about it when I get back.

Mr Bean

Last week Lucinda and I went to the cinema to see ‘Mr Beans Holiday’. It was exciting because we went alone. My mum didn’t want to come because she can’t stand Rowan Atkinson!!! It was very strange being in the cinema on our own because this was the first time we had been out with no parents.
We got into the cinema and found our seats. After we had settled in our seats, Lucinda started to freak because she thought we were in the the wrong cinema! I assured her we were in the correct place.




The film was so funny, my favourite part of the film was when Mr Bean was phoning strangers. He phoned this guy, who said to him “Please say you love me” but Mr Bean put the phone down and didn’t say anything. The man thought he had been speaking to his girlfriend, so he threw himself into the river and he drowned!






The cinema that we went to was brand new. It was in a place called ‘Vivo City’. ‘Vivo City’ is a huge new shopping mall in Singapore. It is built on the harbour overlooking the bay and Sentosa island. The view from the top of the mall is great, you can see the cable cars that go over to Sentosa and all the cruise ships that come to dock in the harbour.
Inside Vivo city is a monorail station where you can get a train straight over to Sentosa island.
On the roof top are shallow pools, some of them have huge sculptures in them, at night they are lit up and they are beautiful. In one of the pools you can actually go paddling! There is also a open air auditorium where they have concerts.
These are some pictures my mum took at Vivo, on the top one you can see the Dragon Boat, the dots in the sky above it are the cable cars. The second pic is the mono rail, the train is coming from Sentosa straight into the mall.