My new School blog will be located at iainm3.edublogs.org, I will no longer be putting anything on this blog.

I just watched “Sunday” and the second story I found quite disturbing. They found on several occasions that aeroplane oil was leaking into the engine and evaporating and on its own it doesn’t seem much but this toxic oil fumes get into the bleed air supply and getting into cabins and the cockpit. All the fumes were people sick, some for the rest of there lives. The symptoms included breathing problems, throwing up and even temporary paralysis. It wouldn’t have meant much to me other that in my previous post I explained how we flew down to the South Island and the fact that that might just of happened to me was scary.

 I think there should be some sort of system to stop this happening to people who travel a lot. I heard of one that Boeing is going to release soon and it is the simplest of ways of stopping the fumes getting in. The plane simply gets the air from other places rather that through the engines so it will make flying a lot safer since it is such a great risk.

On the 16th of may we, my family and I set off for Auckland. I know it may have been the wrong direction but we were flying out of there after picking up my sister. We arrived at the Air New Zealand terminal but all flights had been delayed or canceled, fortunately our flight had only been delayed. as soon as the weather fined up planes were in a mad rush as it was now 1 o’clock and flights had been delayed since 5:30 that morning. Because we were in such a mad rush to head off our flight wasn’t catered for. It took us an hour or so to fly to Christchurch. On the flight it gave me a new perspective on how small New Zealand was. However we had a great view of the southern alps:n

When we landed in Christchurch we set of for Dunedin in a rental van. Since it was a four hour drive, I got my laptop out and started to watch a movie. It was an old film called the Guns of Navarone, dad said it was a classic. The next day my sister who was graduating, got all her colours and regailia and got ready. Before long we were all seated in the graduation hall. Karlyn was one of the last people called up so at first the cerimony was a little boring. After we all celebrated it was time for dinner. Karlyn took us to a Asian restaurant. Most of us had a little trouble using chop sticks. However the food was good so we all enjoyed it. On the final day we all got up early and set off for Christchurch, Karlyn stayed behind so she could stay and say goodbye to all her friends. Again it was a long trip so I got out my MP3 and listened  to music while reading my new book: Aggressor by Andy McNab. On the flight I knew how long it would take so I decided to watch a movie. Miriam my eldist sister offered to by me a drink and something to eat. I had a packet of pringles and a coke. When we landed, it didn’t take long to drop my sister back at her hall, I was really tired so I don’t remember much about traveling back home other than stopping at Mcdonalds for dinner. By the time we were home, we were all pooped and all had a early night. Overall, it was a great experiance to see the South Island again.

On the 12th of may 2008 the Te Awamutu Intermediate Symphonic Band, Junior Band and Choir joined forces with Matamata Intermediate and went to Totara Springs for band camp. For two days symphonic band, junior band, Jazz band and choir practised for up to Four and a half hours. We were all sick of playing our instruments and singing by the time the we had the final rehearsal for the concert that night. Nerves were high as we tuned, I had to make sure that my trumpet was in top condition as I was playing a solo in the song “Bluesville.” Just as the concert was about to start the fire alarm was set off, someone in one of the girls cabins had left a towel on a heater. But the risk passed. We continued on the concert, it eventually came to my song. I was so nervous, I thought I would stuff up. Some how I was less nervous than when I won speeches last year. I managed to play the solo perfectly, and with my confidence raised I played the other solo in the same song perfectly. I was over whelmed with happiness. The following day was laid back we cleaned our cabins and relaxed. We did archery, slug gun shooting and a three wire bridge. Our final and main event before heading home was the heated water slide. It was extremely fun, however we had to head home. Back at School we unpacked and waited for parents. Over all we all enjoyed the Totara Springs band camp and were all very tired afterwards.

Soccer for the Te Awamutu Football Club started on Saturday. We didn’t know soccer had even started until I found out from a friend that our soccer team had been practising for five weeks. My  parents thought this was bad communication on behalf on the TFC. Fortunately my team won the match, five-one to us. I played goalkeeper and saved about five shots on goal. As I said we were disappointed in the TFC’s communication especially as we had called them seven times to find out what was going on. I would like to find out what others opinions are and if they agree with me that it was poor communication.

The holidays have been and gone and I’m tired because I had many late nights hanging out with friends. My holidays consisted of helping my sister at work at her work as my parents were in the UK and having friends over. However overall the holidays have been jam packed with fun events and I’m looking forward to school again.

Last friday I was helping my sister at a conference for the waiLite ICT cluster and Mrs Dyet, the ICT facilitator for the Rose-town cluster saw me and asked me to speak about blogs at her breakout. She asked me what i used blogs for and the pros and cons of blogging. I showed them Hamish’s blog. Hamish is an ex-student from TAI. You can access his blog from our class blog.

Sure Fire

Grow Up Fast or Die

Author: Jack Higgins

Year published: 2006

Publisher: Harper Collins

Pages: 304

ISBN:

All is well until Jade and …………’s mother dies in a car crash and they get left with their father, that they never knew existed until now. Mysterious happenings are going on with their father until they decide to find out what’s going on and follow their father to find out, only to see him get kidnapped. The race to find him takes them all around the world and meet many dangerous people. All this begun when a fuel enhancing formula gets stolen and three different agencies are looking for it. John Chance, Jade and ………….’s dad is the only person who knows where it is, but the people who have it don’t even know they do.

I really enjoyed this book because of the intense story line, it was full of action, adventure and you could never predict what was going to happen next. The characters in this book are well described, you could invision clearly in your head what they looked like and what their personality was like. Also I enjoyed the fact the it was in our time now not say; a fantasy book or a sci-fi book. However it is a bit unbelievable that two or three people can fend off hundreds of soldiers and win easily. Another reason is that Jade and ………… Get help from many people but some aren’t true friends and because of the good descriptive writing you felt like the only people you could trust were the ones that they trusted.

Over all I would really highly recommend this book to any one who loves action and adventure. I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading other Jack Higgins books. I would rate this book 9/10.

Iain

Sure Fire

Grow Up Fast or Die

Author: Jack Higgins

Year published: 2006

Publisher: Harper Collins

Pages: 304

ISBN:

All is well until Jade and …………’s mother dies in a car crash and they get left with their father, that they never knew existed until now. Mysterious happenings are going on with their father until they decide to find out what’s going on and follow their father to find out, only to see him get kidnapped. The race to find him takes them all around the world and meet many dangerous people. All this begun when a fuel enhancing formula gets stolen and three different agencies are looking for it. John Chance, Jade and ………….’s dad is the only person who knows where it is, but the people who have it don’t even know they do.

I really enjoyed this book because of the intense story line, it was full of action, adventure and you could never predict what was going to happen next. The characters in this book are well described, you could invision clearly in your head what they looked like and what their personality was like. Also I enjoyed the fact the it was in our time now not say; a fantasy book or a sci-fi book. However it is a bit unbelievable that two or three people can fend off hundreds of soldiers and win easily. Another reason is that Jade and ………… Get help from many people but some aren’t true friends and because of the good descriptive writing you felt like the only people you could trust were the ones that they trusted.

Over all I would really highly recommend this book to any one who loves action and adventure. I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading other Jack Higgins books. I would rate this book 9/10.

Iain

On the 8th of April 2008 Room Three and Room Seven went on camp. We all arrived at school by nine o’clock. By ten we had all packed into the cars and set off to Ohope. On the way there we stopped at Lake Okataina and ate lunch there. We set off again on our final approach to Ohope. 

When we got there we set up our gear and went down to the beach for about half an hour.  Then it was off to the pools.  We went on the hydroslide and played games in the pool.  When we got back to camp we had dinner, spaghetti and meatballs.  After dinner we played cards and then we settled down for the night.

On the second day Room Three headed to the high ropes whilst Room Seven did other activities around Ohope.  When we arrived at the high ropes we put sunscreen on and then settled down to listen to the instructor.  After that we played some trust games and cat and mouse.  To start us off on the ropes we played some games on the low ropes.  We then proceeded to the high ropes.  They were exciting.  A little bit frightening at first but adrenaline soon kicked in!

Once we had finished at the high ropes we headed to the Amazing Maze ‘n Maize.  At the Amazing Maze ‘n Maize we headed off with clues and a scavenger hunt to find various things within the maize maze.  We worked in groups and at one point my group lost Johannes.  When our group came out of the maize maze first we played around in the games that were at the end of the maze until all the other groups had finished. 

We headed back to camp for dinner and a well earned sleep.

On the third day our groups were broken up into different activities.  My group headed off with Mrs Flay’s to fishing.  The girls got the good spot and caught lots of fish.  But Darcy and I helped the girls to take the fish hooks out of the fish caught by the girls and to kill them as necessary.  

Following fishing we headed off to kayaking in the harbour.  We had sit-on kayaks and Ivan and I were the fastest kayakers in the group.  We had to do the limbo in our kayaks and we had to step over a pole still on the kayak and we had to play stuck-in-the-mud also.  

After kayaking our groups walked over the hill to Shelly Bay.  It was a bush walk over the hill, but it didn’t take very long.  We explored the rock pools and saw mussels, cat’s eyes, starfish and some small fish.  I tried to catch a small fish with my hand.  

We followed our walk by heading out to the hot pools outside of Whakatane.  When we got there we had a BBQ tea and we went swimming.  It was at this point on camp that my shorts got ripped!  When we got back to camp everyone was exhausted and went to sleep.

After a refreshing sleep, we all packed up our cabins.  We put up the mattresses and vacuumed the floors.  We packed up into our cars and headed to Te Puke for lunch.  Some of us had a brilliant idea of buying fish and chips for lunch.  After that, the boys all decided to play league in a local park and we had a great time before heading off to the reality of home.

When we got back to school, we unloaded the cars and people’s parents started to come to pick them up!  But not my parents!  They’re in the UK so I had to wait for my sister.  However I was glad to be home in my own bed for the night!