Briar’s Blog

“And Bambi and her mother lived happily ever after…” finished Bob. She had been reading Bambi to her little fawn (who by now wasn’t so little) and she had realised that it didn’t have a happy ending, so she wrote her own version where Bambi lives happily ever after with her mother. Bob had named the fawn Bambi so it was quite important that Bambi in the story had a happy life.

As it is quite easy to tell Bob has softened to Bambi, a lot. Now that Bambi is older, she doesn’t cry in the night and doesn’t need as much attention. But soon Bambi will have to be taken back into the woods to live in the wild. Bob dreads this moment as she has grown quite close to Bambi and would hate to be without her, But it is impossable for Bambi to live in the garage all her life, for if she did it would be a short one.

Then the day came. Bambi was at the age when she needed to go into the wild to find a mate and have fawn of her own. Bob was evestated. She cried and cried and cried but Bambi had to go home…

………WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Bob trudged down the stairs to the garage at two in the morning. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! “I’m coming I’m coming!” she yelled. She entered the garage, and there before her was the sight she had been seeing every hour for the past three days. It was a baby fawn bawling it’s eyes out. At first she had thought it was cute, the way it scrunched up its eyes and opened its mouth so wide that you could see the back of its soft palette swinging in rush of air that came screaming out of the little fawns lungs. But now she hated it, getting up every hour to feed the annoying thing, listening to it scream every time you did something wrong, it was worse than her baby brother (who by the way was clinging to her leg and also screaming, just five hours ago) because at least he was cute when he was asleep. ”any self respecting boy would have chucked her (for she had found out that the fawn was a girl) out by now” she grumbled as the fawn started yelling again. But she had a responsability to look after the fawn because witthout her the little fawn would die…………… 

Yesterday was the first day of the Olympic games and New Zealand started off well.

The first event that I saw was the women’s single sculls (one female rowing) and the New Zealander won her heat, the second event that I saw was men’s double sculls (two men rowing) and the New Zealander won, then I saw the women’s double sculls (two women rowing) and our New Zealand team (the Evers-Swindell twins) won!

Today I didn’t see any New Zealander win, but I did see some pretty cool stuff. I saw Chinese and Romanian gymnasts doing amazing barwork (I feel so sorry for the Chinese girl who miss calculated her leap and fell off!) and brilliant floor routines,I saw some fantastic synchronised diving (they were amazingly well coordinated) and I saw a bike race (sadly our leading New Zealander was stuck in the middle and our other New Zealander was in the back few). Right now I am turning around every so often to see if our New Zealand soccer team has scored a goal yet.

I am hoping that by the end of the games we will come out of this with some gold medals (and maybe a few silver ones as well).

This is just a random post that I have to write, so I am just going to write a whole lot of random stuff. I am going to write a random story.

Once upon a time there was a girl called Bob, Bob hated her name (obviously) but strangely enough it suited her perfectly, Bob was a complete tom-boy. Her favourite things to do were go fishing, hunting and duck shooting with her dad.

One day when Bob was doing just that, she saw a deer across the river that was perfect for shooting, so she took aim and had just pulled the trigger when she saw a tiny baby fawn step up beside it. Bob, against all her tom-boy reservations sudenly wanted to jump out and save the mother deer so that that the little fawn wopuld still have a mother, but it was too late the mother deer was dead and now Bob was feeling guilty it was all her fault and now it was up to her to look after the fawn…

That is the end of Chapter one, hang around for more.

This week was the first week of term for my school and last week and the week before were our holidays.

In the first week of the holidays this is what I did:

Saturday: Played netball and lost. Sunday: Read my book and lazed around all day. Monday: Same as Sunday. Tuesday: Went to my best friends house and stayed the night. Wedensday: Came back from Best friends house. Thursday: Read my book and lazed around. Friday: Ditto and stayed up late. Saturday: Rode mybike around the house in the rain, finished my book and lazed around. Sunday: Started packing my bags to leave for Whangamata, Started a new book and lazed around. Monday morning: finished packing my bags and left for Whangamata (stopping in Ohaupo to get something to eat. Monday afternoon: Arived in Whangamata, found the bach we were staying in, got unloaded, helped mum make the beds, listened to my older sister throwing a hissy-fit because she didnt want to be there and went for a walk on the beach. Monday night: stayed up real late and then couldn’t get to sleep till one in the morning. Tuesday: slept in till late morning, played table tennis and darts with my sister, read my book, ate lunch sitting on the balcony in the sun and walked to a delicious (but expensive) Italian restuarant for dinner. Wednesday: Slept in, went out on the boat with rest of the family and saw the world famous in New Zealand, hole in the rock, packed up and went home. Thursday: read my book and lazed around. Friday: Ditto and stayed up late to watch the final of project runway(sad, Christian won). Saturday: got woken up at seven, read my book and lazed around. Sunday last day of holidays: slept in, read my book lazed around.

I had such exciting holidays didn’t I!!! Ha ha ha (being sarcastic)

My goals last term were:

1. Manage my workload now that I am challenged in my work.
2. Work hard in choir and learn all my songs.
3. Be organised and try to remember important things.
4. Work hard in French.
5. Write lots on my blog and try to get visitors from other countries.

What I have achieved with my goals:

1. I think I am starting to manage my workload reasonably well even though some of my work is still a bit last minute.
2. I have worked really hard on all my songs and know most of them by heart.
3. I don’t think I have done very well in this area as I am still always forgetting things.
4. I did work hard in french but now that I am in Jazz band I don’t do french.
5. I think I could do better in this area and write atleast one post a week and comment more on other peoples blogs.

At school we have been watching short videos and documentaries about what is happening between Tibet and China. The people in these documentaries and clips have been saying all sorts of things, some of them true and some of them complete and utter lies. The problem is that no one knows which is which. The free Tibet supporters have been saying that the Chinese have been doing many ghastly things, some of the things they mentioned are so disgusting, horrific and such a breach of the human rights laws that they make my blood run cold. But then there are the Chinese who are saying that none of these things are true and that the Dalai Lama is a war-mongering man who wants China to be defeated and Tibet to be a country raised to serve him.

 I think that the Tibetans are telling the truth. Why else would there be riots in Lhasa (Tibet’s capital)? And why else would people be making an extremely dangerous journey through the Himalayas to get to India away from China’s rule and close to the Dalai Lama ?

If you have an opinion on this please tell me as I would like to see what other people think.

Elephants are endangered. Both African and Asian elephants are being hunted down and killed for their tusks. This is because their tusks are made of ivory, and ivory is an extremely valuable material 

Elephants are the largest and mammals in the world. They are the second tallest at 2 – 4 meters tall and they weigh around 7,500kg. They are fully grown at 25 years old and can live to be up to 65. 

African elephants are the biggest and both the male and the female have tusks. Asian elephants are smaller and only the male has tusks. 

The basic features of elephants are mostly the same; their eyes are small and brown with long lashes to keep out the dust. Their trunk is actually a very long nose that they often use to pick up food and small light objects. Their tusks are really teeth, but unlike the elephants other teeth they are made of ivory and are continually growing. At the elephants death the tusks are usually around 1.5m long and weigh around 45 kg. Elephants use their tusks to dig, fight and lift. Elephants all have individual ears like human fingerprints and have very good hearing.  The skin of an elephant is2 – 4 centimetres thick, it is grey, sensitive, and wrinkly and plays an important part in keeping an elephant cool. The wrinkles trap water and the water evaporates slowly, keeping the elephant cool and damp. 

Elephants are herbivores; in the wild they have a diet of grasses, roots, leaves and shoots. In captivity they eat hay, oats and potatoes. They are eating for 20 hours of every day and they consume 250 – 330kg of food in that time.They sleep in short naps taking up only 2 – 4 hours a day and they spend most of their time grazing in their homes in the mountains, deserts and tropical forests of
India,
Africa and
Southern Asia. 

Elephants live in large family groups of almost all females as the bull elephants are cast out to find their own way as soon as they reach puberty. The young calves are looked after and kept safe by the whole group. To communicate, the elephants trumpet, bellow, cry and snort and they use their trunks to perform a sort of sign language. 

There are many groups who do a lot of things to protect elephants from ivory poachers. These are great, honourable people that should be recognised as leaders and people who take action instead of just standing around thinking of all the reasons that they shouldn’t do something but not thinking of the reasons why they should.

Last Saturday we played netball* now I know what you’re thinking, it’s just another game of boring middle grade netball, but not this time, this time was special, this time we were playing a team that has not once lost a game of competition netball this year, we were playing Georgia(a girl in my class), and her Soldier’s(I’m not kidding, that was the name of their team).

During warm-ups, I gazed over at them wondering how we could beat a team as strong as them. I had never actually seen them play, which might have given us the upper hand, but I had heard the stories.

We made our way down to the court that we would be playing on, and stood on the lineup mark to await the starting buzzer. The buzzer rang and we each headed to our starting positions, and guess who my partner was! Georgia, probably the best player in her team! The whistle went, and I dashed out to defend Georgia. But the ball whizzed straight over my head and into her hands. She passed to the GS and the GS shoot scored!

 The game went on like this for most of the first quarter, with a few exceptions when we got the ball. By the second half the score was 8-11 to the other team, and our best defence available for the GD position(me) was injured but I bravely kept in the game. We desperately needed a boost, and Holly, perhaps our best player, was not there!

We fought and fought to get some more goals, but the soldiers were standing strong. By the third quarter we were losing badly and my ankle was hurting so badly that I could hardly walk(I had sprained it really badly the week before). I watched in dismay as my replacement jogged about, hardly defending her partner at all.

We lost our game 11-21 to the soldiers. Georgia is never going to let me live it down.
*Netball is a game played with a round ball that is covered in grip. The aim of the game is to get more goals than the other team, you do this by getting the ball to your goal hoop and shooting a goal into the hoop, this is a lot like a basketball hoop but it doesn’t have a backboard. Players pass the ball to other people in thier team to bring it to their goal circle at one end of the court while the other team tries to make an intercept. Players are not allowed to step with the ball, they are not allowed to bounce the ball or throw it up and catch it unless it touches somebody else or if you were trying to shoot a goal it has to bounce first if it hasn’t touched the hoop, netball is a non-contact sport, so players have to be three feet (1 metre ) from the player that has the ball and cannot put their arm across another player to obstruct their ability to move or catch. There are two teams of 7 players (often with one or two reserves) each with a different position, GD (Goal Defence), GK (Goal Keep), WD (Wing Defence), GA (Goal Attack), GS (Goal Shoot), WA (Wing Attack) and C (Center). They all have a job to do. GS and GA are shooters, they need to get into the goal circle to shoot goals, GK’s job is to defend GS and get the ball away from the other teams GS, GD does the same but is defending the other teams GA instead, WD defends the other teams WA and helps get the ball to her teams goal circle. WA gets the ball to the goal circle, C defends the other teams C and get the ball from the other teams goal circle to her teams goal circle, C also does the centre pass off, this is when the C takes the ball, goes to the centre circle and passes the ball to another of the players in her team(who go to their positions at the same time as the C), but she must pass to someone in the center third.

Below is a diagram of a netball court showing each players position. It also shows who is partnered  with who in each team. One team is blue, the other is red. (click it to see it in full size).

Science Fair is coming up, and I am so excited! I have had an idea for what I am going to do but I am not sure if I am allowed to do it.

This is it: How does the volume of air in your lungs affect your voice?

I think that this is science but my teacher might not.

What do you  think?

Do you do Science Fair?

Do you have any ideas for me?

What is science in your eyes?

Thanks for coming to my blog, please leave a comment!