Trip to Australia( Part 1 )

On the 23rd of March ,my family and I took flight SQ255 to Brisbane, Gold Coast, Australia. The flight there was 7 hours. We enjoyed the flight to Brisbane. WF was at the window seat, Mum was in the middle seat, I was in the isle seat and my father was the lone ranger. We took off at 23o3. I recalled that the flight had a couple of turbulence, which made the flight bumpy.

When we reached Brisbane, our tour group took a coach to Paradise Country. At Paradise Country, we saw many animals such as emus, kangaroos, koalas, farm animals etc. We also saw sheep shearing, circus acts and we even got to sample billy bread and billy tea. These tea leaves are special. Unlike Chinese tea, the tea leaves sink into the water when you swing the billy tin round and round! We had chicken chop and fish fillet for lunch that day. We also learnt that the whip is made of a very strong fiber. It can cut up a small stick midair! The last part was the funniest. A volunteer was asked up to hold the stick in his mouth blindfolded! They broke the stick before cracking the whip on the floor!

After spending almost the whole day there, we went to a Chinese restraunt at the foot of the hotel. We shared the table with another family. Well, we all had a great time talking to each other there (definitely not between mouthfuls...) and Wen Feng just took a few bowls of rice and a few morsels of veg. I whispered to Mum : I don't know when WF will learn to eat other stuff instead of rice, veg, rice,veg...

When we finished, we went to the different places near the hotel to get used to the place. Of course, we had our map along.

We visited some shopping centres and the neighbouring places. When it was nearly time to go back to the hotel, we just followed the path and back to the hotel. We all took turns to use the bathroom. Mum and Dad had used the towels on the rack to 'carpet' the bathroom floor. When I turned the water on, all my hair stood on their end.

"COOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!" I nearly shouted. It was as if someone had dumped the bathtub into the freezer. 'Ice cubes' were starting to appear before my eyes. Worst of all, I DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO TURN THE HEATER ON!!! So, I just went on...











I stepped out of the shower, feeling quite relieved. After WF had taken his bath, he and I went to turn the TV on. We both watched 'Nickelodeon' till the sky went very dark. Mum then told us to stop and sleep. So, the TV went black and lights were out.* At first, I rolled in the bed, tossing myself over and over. Soon I fell fast asleep ... Zzz

to be continued...

Mooncake Festival

On the 25th of September, my family and I celebrated the Moon cake festival. That day, the moon was as round as a ball and as bright as though it was daylight. our family gathered at the dining table, chomping down our dinner and relaxing from a hard day at work.

Even though it was the moon cake festival, I had to practise for my oral exams which were around the corner. my mother and I flipped through some books and letting me practise.

After all that practising, we set up a table out in the cooling balcony. We put 4 chairs around the square table and laid it with cutlery, dishes, different flavoured moon cakes and hung a lantern near the table. While slowly sampling the delicious moon cakes, we discussed about how the moon cake festival came about. There are many different legends behind the moon cake festival. The most popular is the legend about the goddess of the moon, Chang-e. She was once the wife of the emperor, Hou-Yi. She ate an elixir of life herself which will make her float. She decided to float to the moon. Another legend is about Mongols invading China. They stationed a soldier in every household so they can't communicate with each other. The villagers made circular cakes and gave them out to every household. Inside the cake, there is a note, telling them to kill the soldier at the 3rd watch that night. So, the Mongols were defeated.

Dear readers, I hope you celebrated the moon cake festival too!

Shows I watched yesterday

On Tuesday, I suddenly had a high fever and had to see a doctor. That was a miserable day for me. I had to stay at home for the next 2 days. sigh...

My mother decided to pacify me with letting me watch some shows on television. The shows I watched were very interesting and captivating and I would like to show you what I watched.
The first show I watched was 'Flight 175' . It was about a plane being hijacked and the terrorists crashed the plane into the World Trade Centre, causing the South tower to collapse. The hijack happened on September 11, 2001.
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The 2nd show was 'Cheng Ho, the emperor of the sea'. He set sail with a fleet of 200 ships the length of 56m each to other countries to help the emperor to trade in 1409.
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The last show was about the mysterious crash of Helios 522 in August 14, 2005. The crash was caused by the depressurised plane and the engines ran out of fuel when nearly every passenger was having hypoxia. All the 121 passengers on board died.I hope my fever goes down by the next week of school!

Student Leader Camp (Part 2)

When we got back, we all took a shower and changed into our home clothes and skipped off to the canteen with our cutlery set in our hand. We ate our dinner and had our song session. We then went for the 'Night Walk'. All along the way, teammates screamed, "Ghost! It's the man in white!"

After we brushed our teeth, we rolled out our sleeping bags and rested. I could not fall asleep because it was very hot and the floor was so hard. I was awake all the way from 2315 to 0450!

The next day, we all woke up and did the morning exercise and jogged around the schools neighbourhood. We then had breakfast and started on our games.While waiting for group 4 to finish the obstacle race, we designed how to built the tallest newspaper building ever. After group 4 came back, my group went for the obstacle race. First, we had to take out our shoes and give them to Mr Low. He will put them into a rubbish bin and 'rojak' the shoes, tossing them over and over again. When the race started, we dug out the bin's contents and put on our shoes. We then ran through the science garden and come to a wall. We all had to go across the wall and run to 2 trees. We had to go through bundles of string tied messily through the trees. We then ran to the last stop. We had to walk on several benches, tables and several branches. After all those were done, we had to take off our shoes and dive into a pool. We got ourselves wet like crazy. We then ran to the canteen and the time stopped! We had beaten group 4's record by 2 min 4o sec.

We then changed out of our wet clothes and ran to the canteen to finish up our newspaper building. By that time, I had seen many group's buildings were already as tall as 3 m already! In the end, group 3's building was the best.

We then went to our cooking stations and started to cook. We all cooked instant noodles, an egg and a sausage. When it was done, I slurped up the noodles in hunger. "Yum!" We then packed our luggage and settled down to wait for our parents. I hope next time Mr Low will organise other camps for us.

Farm Outing

My student care centre had organised an outing to 3 farms on the 6th of September; Hay Dairies goat farm, Qian Hu fish Farm and Farmart.That day,we were grouped into 2s and we set off to the coach to start our journey.

The trip to Hay Dairies was what seemed like eternity. After about 1 hr, we finally reached Hay Dairies. our guide, Mr Leong , showed us around the farm. We could actually feed the goats and each of us was given a bottle of chocolate goat milk! Chocolate goat milk?

After the trip, we went on to Qian Hu Fish Farm to take a look at the different types of fish. There was salmon, eels, toads,frogs,tomato fish etc.We learnt how to know which is a male frog and which is a female frog.

We were famished by the time we went to Farmart after looking at the water plants. so, the teachers let us settle down at the cafeteria at Farmart and eat some food. We all devoured a hamburger, quail eggs and chicken pieces. most of us went to the stalls to buy drinks since we had run out of water. After the sumptuous meal, the small kids went back while we stayed and explored around. Each of us was then given a piece of sugar cane to try. WOW! It was like chewing gum, only sweeter.

When we went back to the childcare centre, each of us was given a bag of items. There was a brochure, a packet of quail eggs, two water lettuce etc.

Student Leaders' Camp (Part 1)

On the 4th-5th September, I went for a student leaders' camp. It was a 2 day 1 night camp. On the 1st day, all the student leaders gathered in the canteen. After all the allocation of rooms, we then set off to Temasek Secondary School.

When we got there, we were divided to different groups and settled down . There were 15 groups in total and some of the pupils were from Temasek Primary School, which was just next door.

We started off with a game called 'concentration'. We were supposed to say our own name and then say another person's name. After the game, we heard somebody tell ghost stories before going to the canteen to eat lunch.

Group 7, 8 and 9 went to play a game called," Save the egg". Each team was given an egg, some newspaper and bundles of straw and the prefects told us that we must make sure the egg must not break when dropped from the 2nd floor. Our team first wrapped our egg with masking tape all over, then we cushioned the egg with some straw and lastly, we wrapped it up with a pad of newspaper. When all our teams were ready, we watched as the eggs went flying down from the 2nd floor . When they landed onto the hard ground, we all rushed to the crash scene to see whether our eggs broke. My team's egg was the only one that didn't break!

We then went up to the 3rd floor to play a game called ,' mouse pads' . There were 3 marked out squares, 1 square for each team. In each square, there were 50 mouse pads labeled 1 to 50 and scattered around. Each time, 1 teammate from 1 team had to jump on mouse pad no. 1. After stepping onto the mouse pad, he or she had to jump out of the box. The next teammate had to jump on mouse pad no.2 and jump out again and the cycle goes on and on. The first team to finish jumping onto all the mouse pads wins the game! My team came in the last!{:(

We then went all the way back to the canteen to have our break, which was egg sandwich or sausage roll and a cup of Milo. We then headed back to the hall to play another game called 'organise'. Each team had to plan a June holiday. Each team was given $200 to rent a location, buy food and facilities. Once we had finished, we had to draw a brochure to invite some people to come to the party.The group which successfully invited the most people to come, wins.

After the game, we took the coach back to our own school. I was sad to leave Temasek Secondary School, but it was good that I had learnt some new things and made new friends.

Birthday Party

On the 1st of September, I celebrated my birthday at the URA Centre at 45 Maxwell Road. It is where my mother works. We had arranged a birthday party at the Singapore City Gallery.

Even though I was going to have my birthday party that day, I still had to go to enrichment class first! sigh......

After the enrichment class, my Dad drove me straight to the URA centre, where everyone was waiting. I scrambled all the way to the 2nd floor and found my friends in the theatrette room. There was Yan Shen, Zhi Yuan, Xue Tian, Bernice, Kai Ying, Yu xuan etc. Some of my friends even came with their parents!

After the gathering, Aunt Asmah, our guide, let us watch a show on how URA plans how Singapore develops. The workers such as my Mom, have to work together to plan how Singapore would look in the future. We then went to the Singapore model to watch a Light & Sound show. Aunty Asthma then gave out some quiz papers and we started the quiz almost immediately. I came in the 1st as I was the fastest. The 2nd was John, the 3rd was Yan Shen and so on... After everyone had gotten their gifts, we went on with a Gurmit Singh quiz called 'Know Your Singapore'. After that, we took a group picture at the Singapore Model. That time, Yan Shen and I had 'bunny ears'in the photo.

After the photo-taking, we went to the cafeteria to have my party. A music-notes cake appeared before my eyes. After the song, we all helped ourselves to the buffet given. There were olive rice, curry, fish balls, carrot cakes, oat-fish fillet, cocktail and Ribena. I was so hungry, I ate 3 helpings of food!

I then gave out the goodies bags, which was a combination of a bowl, a pack of biscuits, a pack of raisins and a pack of candies. I even gave a Teacher's Day present to my form teacher and another to my Chinese teacher. After giving out the presents, I took out the balloons on the wall and started to give them to my friends. The balloons bounced all over the place and some even popped!

I was wishing this day would never end. It was the most wonderful day I ever had.

Teacher's Day

Teacher's Day is here! Today, we had a few visitors from Canossa Convent Primary School. They were joining us for the Teacher's Day celebration.

The head prefects were organising a school celebration at the hall. Every Primary 3 and 4 students were supposed to gather at the school hall. The show started off with a dance from the Primary 5 prefects. Then it went of with a game called, 'I Guess, I Guess, I Guess Guess Guess'. We had to guess which teacher matches with which description. Then it went to the Aces Day dance. It was named "Slapping Leather".

We then watched the prizes being given out to our choices for Ms or Mr Charming, Ms or Mr Sporty, Ms or Ms Approachable, Ms or Mr Smiley, Ms or Mr Humorous and Mr or Ms Fashion. we then watched the prizes and certificates given out to the winners of " Portrait of Teacher".

The teacher's day cake was then cut with the pride of all our teachers. Everyone was then given a funny video to watch. There was one of them where the chimpanzee and bulldog doing sit-ups. The chimpanzee did 12 sit-ups and the dog did none. When the chimpanzee saw the dog was failing, it pulled the dog's cuckoo!!!!Then there was another one where Godzilla was attacking Tokyo, burning everything in its path. But it soon ran out of its flame. Even a little girl could blow it out. So, Godzilla stormed off to a petrol station, pulled out a gas tank and drank its contents. So, he started to blow his 99999 degree fire at the road, instantly melting it. But he blew so hard that the became a T-Rex shaped rocket! UP, UP, AND AWAY!!!!!! The people looked at him fly with shocked faces.

I think I had talked enough about the shows. I will say, " Miss Lee, 陈老师，and all teachers, a happy teacher's day to You!"

Act 20

I joined a drama school a few years ago. It was named, "文化艺术团". There, I learned how to speak loudly, how to dance and how to alert others. I go to the school every Sunday, 0930 hours to 1315 hours.
One day, the drama school decided to celebrate their 20th anniversary at the Singapore Victoria Theatre. We were going to perform 4 times, once on 24 August at 1800 hours, twice on 25 August at 1300 hours and 1800 hours and on 26 August at 1300 hours. We were shocked to death.
We spent many lessons practising for the show. There were always students playing around, acting like clowns and turning the whole school upside-down. The teachers had a hard time gathering them together.
On the day of the performance, we gathered at the seats and heard the brief from the teacher-in-charge. Then we went to our rooms to play and rest. The show was about to start and they programmed through a Morse code system. We heard : "deng deng deng deng deng deng deng......" When it was our turn, we went down and hid at the backstage curtains. We then moved out. We performed ' Small wooden horse' , '童谣', '烧粽子' and '快乐真快乐' . We ended the performance by a cloud of steam and lots of bubbles!
Dear readers, I hope you will come and watch our 21st anniversary!

guitar course

I have decided to learn a new instrument, which is the guitar. The guitar is a wooden instrument with 6 strings. To play the notes, you need to press the strings at different frets( small little spaces) and strum, pluck or choke (play then stop playing immediately and putting the palm on the strings).
I learned these things at a school called Cristofori.
It was named after the inventor of the harpsichord. The teacher at the school is Mr. Frankie Shi. He teaches my mother and I how we should hold the guitar, which fret to press on to make what note, methods of strumming etc.

I hope to play one of my favourite guitar songs by Eric Clapton, 'Tears in Heaven' on the guitar.

Dear readers, would you like to play the guitar too?

NDP

NDP was on the 9th of August. That day, we went for the NDP parade. We brought our video camcorder, our camera and our binoculars.

We set off once we were ready. We had to buy some tape from the shop, so we decided to park at Suntec City. We went to a shop selling video tapes and bought three. My brother also went to Watsons to buy Mentos sweets.

When we found our seats, we watched a short performance by the 4 best bike stunt artists. They flipped around in circles, did somersaults in the air, jumped around like monkeys like the tossing of scrambled eggs flipping in the air. The crowd was thrilled and cheered like crazy!!!



The NDP started some 3hrs later. By that time, we were sweating like we had jogged 10 rounds around Bishan park. The show was super fascinating! I like the part where the divers jumped into the waters of Marina Bay from the Chinook helicopter. I also liked the 3D displays and the colourful and eye-catching fireworks.



By the time we ended, we were as sleepy as a sloth. We decided to go home and sleep. ZZZZZZ....(0zzzzzz........

Hope you readers enjoyed the National Day too! :) :) :) :)

Company of Heroes (Part 2)

When your teammates have left the camp, you will have to issue commands. Right-click on a location to move your army there. There will be enemies around you (shown in a red circle(at left)) ,so you have to command your men to take cover and fire. You can also capture strategic points to increase your score.

Dawn of war (Part 2)

I will tell you how Dawn of War is played. First, there will be lots of enemy troops coming in from all directions. you will have to move your troops to a suitable area so they can fire off the enemy. You can also create new bases, new troops and new vehicles.

There is also another game called "Company of Heroes". The game is also a real time strategy game, but the game is about the D-Day war between America and Germany. The game is a little different. I will tell you how it is played the next blog!!

Dawn of War ( Part 1)

My dad has borrowed a game from the library called Dawn of War. My dad said it was a all time stradegy game. He had just started playing it. So the next blog, I will tell you how it is played.

The trip to Victoria JC

We went to VJC on the 18th of July.We were told to meet at the canteen at 1.30pm. Once everyone was ready, the coach came and we started to hit the road!

VJC was organising a Science and Maths Fair. We got there and went to different stations. First, there was a game which needed lots of strategy and hard work. We had to get a ring from one end of a bent metal pole to another. There was electricity in the ring and if the light bulb at one end of a side of the metal pole lights, it is counted a touch. We were supposed not to let the light bulb light up for 5 times. I let it light up for only 3 times, and I won the game! I got a free chocolate bar!

I tried the other games and got a chocolate bar for all of them.I was so proud of myself!

The next topic was Maths. This was the tricky one. I nearly earned no chocolate bars. We went on to other exhibits. The most amazing one was the one about baby diapers. I learnt that there was actually salt in the diapers. When water was added to it, it became so squishy! I was impressed! Salt actually absorbs water.

We went back to school after waiting for "ten years". Though I was sad to depart, I am glad I had gained some knowledge!

SYF art and craft exhibition

We went to the SYF art and craft exhibition on the day our school celebrated Racial Harmony. We had to wear our school uniform instead of our ethnic costume. When the coach arrived, we headed for the South of Singapore.

The exhibition was held at the MICA building. We had to look around to answer a worksheet. My favourite painting was called' No Music, No Life'. I liked it because the painting was about music, one of my favourite subjects. There was also another piece of artwork which made me very confused. It was called'Birds'. The artist added the paint by dotting it on. I was very confused which piece of wood (It was a piece of artwork of adding paint to pieces of wood) represented the head of a bird and which piece represented the tail. Another piece of artwork was made with very strange materials. The title was' Rings, Rings'. It was made by nuts, bolts, rope, styrofoam etc.

When it was time to hit the road again, Ms Lee said that it was raining outside. We all took out our umbrellas and clipboards to shelter ourselves from the rain. But when we went out, it was not raining a single drop!ALAMAK!!Wasted time!

So I will end this sharing with " We went home pleasantly."

Piano exam

My piano exam is coming soon. I have to practise the piano pieces and scales at home and in the studio. I hope that I can score 'distinction' in my exam.

There is a saying that 'a good carpenter never blames his tools'. Similarly, 'a good pianist never blames the piano'. That is a new saying I have learnt today. The saying means that practice makes perfect.

Science centre

On Thursday, my Chinese teacher brought us to the Science centre to look at an exhibition to look at different inventions of the past by China. China has made different things such as paper, sundial, gunpowder, seismograph etc.

When we reached there, we were very fascinated at the clever ways inventors used to make their inventions. Their products were of different shapes and sizes.

After seeing all the different machines, the teacher let us go for a break at the cafeteria.there was something I did not like about the food. It was the price of the food. the cost of just a hamburger can raise the price to 6.90! That expensive!

We then had to gather at the entrance. We ran all the way to the entrance like mad !some one said that we came the wrong way, so we turned back.Then, we ended up at the same place! We had wasted our time! ALAMAK!

We rushed to the gathering site 15 minutes late! Luckily, they were still there.Phew!

We ended the trip by taking the bus home.

SAFRA camp

On the 6th to 7th of June, I went for a camp at SAFRA Toa Payoh.

It was held at Whitey Room. When the camp started, the instructor let us try out some eye-popping experiments. We had two containers; one filled with cold water, and the other with hot water. We dyed them blue and red to identify the changes clearly. We then put them into a big pail fiiled with water. We found out that water and air are almost the same(hot water rises, and cold water sinks).

Eventually, we started trying out another experiment on water tension. We had two glasses. One was filled with water, but the other was empty. Madam Lu, our instructor, distributed plastic straws to everyone. We were instructed to bend the straw and insert the smaller end into the glass filled with water. We then lifted up the water-filled glass and we started sucking the other end of the straw. When the water nearly reached our mouths, we stopped sucking and let the water flow out into the empty cup. Everyone dashed for their water bottles! Mdm Lu explained that the water molecules were "holding hands" and pulling each other into the empty cup.

The following day, we went on a trip to the NEWater plant.The tour guide told us how much water was used by Singaporeans. Can you guess? Yep, you said it!THE SIZE OF 600 OLYMPIC SWIMMING POOLS!!! We viewed how the water from sewage pipes were disalinised and cleared. We observed how the bigger and the smaller particles in the 'sky juice' were cleaned using the reverse osmosis method.

When we got back, Mdm Lu gave us a little souvinier to remind us of the camp. She gave each of us a dropper.

She said in the Semtember holidays, they will have more camps. I'll love to go there again! Would you?

Sleepover at aunt's house

Last Saturday, I went to my aunt's house for a sleepover. We started off in the evening and reached there at night. It was nearly midnight then, so Aunt and I went to sleep...

The next day, we went to have our breakfast, we bought ingredients for dinner and we went home. My aunt and I have discussed about her cooking lessons. We bought corn, carrots, fish, onions, ginger, garlic, tomatoes, melon and many more. I was cooking fish , corn soup and bean curd with barley and ginko nuts.

After the dinner was settled I went to play some computer games for half an hour and have lunch. I was bored, so I went to watch some TV shows. I watched 日本沉没. It was about Japan, which had many earthquakes and was splitting Japan into half.It was being weighed down by a clump of rock 600 meters under the Japan Sea. The Japanese are making a sumbersible that can put an explosive that will blow the clump of rock like dropping a ballast from a sumbersible.

When my parents came, we ate dinner and said bye to aunt. I heard that my mum is planning another trip to my aunts house!

Exams

Phew! Exams are over! But after the exams, you may not be very happy...

When I first got my exam paper, my EYES nearly POPPED OUT! My marks were so near to band 3!! I remember the excuse I had. That day, I was sick and had a fever. So that day after the exam, Ms Lee told me the work for the day and my mother sent me home.She then sent me to see a doctor.

It was a sickening experience. I hope in the SA2, this won't happen again.

Shrek the third

On the 31st of May, I went to watch the movie called,'Shrek the third'. This is the summary of the movie...

Shrek the third is a movie about a male ogre, Shrek, and a female ogre, Fiona that lived happily in the castle of Far Far Away.The king was dying and ordered Shrek and Fiona next in line for the throne.

Shrek didn't want to be a king, so he went on a voyage to look for Arthur, a student that studied in a high school. When he found Arthur, they sailed back to Far Far Away. In their trip, their ship crashed into some rocks and they were left stranded on a deserted island.

They met a magician on the way back and the magician agreed to magic them back to Far Far Away. When the group got back, they saw it's new name' Go Go Away.' Shrek's friend Pinocchio was imprisoned as a coin operated puppet.Pinocchio told Shrek that an evil king had invaded Far Far Away when they were on the voyage. He had imprisoned all the fairy tale creatures and the princesses

Meanwhile, Fiona and her friends, Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and the queen were imprisoned in the prison outside the castle. The queen HEADBUTTED a huge hole in the prison wall. The princesses escaped and defeated the evil king's bodyguards and stormed into the king's lair.Shrek had been captured and the king was going to kill Shrek in front of the whole kingdom.Then Shrek's sidekicks, Puss, Donkey, The three pigs, Wolf ,Gingerbread Man and Arthur broke into the lair. The king's body guards ran into the room as well. The king was then defeated by the sentence,"Even though people call you a villain, it does not mean you really are one."

I think this sentence has a very good meaning. We cannot judge a book by it's cover. We must look on the inside.

Little India

Little India is a busy place where Indians lived. It was given to the early Indian settlers that came to Singapore.

On the 16th of May, the five classes lined up in the canteen and settled down. The teacher in charge told us about the history of Singapore. It was once said that the Sumatran prince Sang Nila Utama sailed to Singapore . When he reached , he saw a creature, which his men told him it was a singa or lion. I learned something while waiting for the bus. The animal Sang Utama saw was not a lion, it was a tiger.

When the bus arrived, we scrambled up the bus. During the bus ride, the facilitator told us the different types of gods that the Indians believed in. Examples were Shiva,Krishna etc.when we arrived, we glanced around. We were at the Tekka Centre, one of Little India's shopping malls.

We went to a shop selling saris. The shopkeeper greeted us and showed us how the 6 metre sari was worn and all about the Bindi. She also showed us how her husband did the Henna design. She told us that the paste was grounded from henna leaves and put onto the hands of a person to form a tattoo.

We went to a shop selling Indian snacks. Yummy! Those snacks are making me hungry. Unfortunately, we were only here to do a study trail.sigh...We found out that the cheapest snack was the Jabli, which was 50 cents.The most expensive was the Rajajoli, which cost a dollar.

After all the work, we went to look at the shop houses in between Campbell lane and Dunlop street. Now, the facilitator showed us a magic trick. He asked us to add the numbers of the shop houses and divide it by seven. This was our answer:68+66+64+62+60+58+56=534. 534 divide by 7=62??! Impossible...

Lastly, we went to Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple. We noticed the devotees ring bells when the prayers enter.Our facilitator told us that it was a gesture of asking their gods to grant their requests.We then entered the temple. We saw the goddess Shiva. She looked kind of GROSS.Blech! She was stepping on a man, holding a woman, holding onto a baby and the yuckiest part was the mother's intestines were dangling from her mouth!EWW..

After the trip, we went to wait for the bus in the car park. It was invested with flocks of pigeons!We waited for ten miniutes before the bus arrived. After we boarded the bus, the bus' horn sounded, and we saw the feathers fly! We handed in our booklets and relaxed as the bus took us back to school.

We Want Silton, Geronimo Silton!

Do you know my best writer? Geronimo Stilton! He is the HOTTEST writer in town! Or should I say... Almost the hottest in town.I love his stories! They are very interesting, expressive and captivating and sometimes... a little funny. I have nearly all these mice stories, all the way from
1st to the latest.

One of the funniest stories is the book called ' Shipwreck On The Pirate Islands'. In the story, the four mice, Geronimo, Thea, Trap and Benjamin go to the Pirate Islands on a vacation. They took a hydroplane to Thump Flop island, but the plane crashed into the ocean due to a tornado. The mice said that there was treasure on the island, and what the mice said was true! The treasure was a ship made of gold! On board the ship, the manual of the pirate 'Silverpaw' said that Geronimo's great-great-great-great-grandfather was the cousin of 'Silverpaw' ! That meant Geronimo and his family had pirate blood!

The story was very captivating and very interesting. I hope that you will like to read these books!

BICEP - BiCultural Education Programme

My BICEP class is one of my favourite classes in school. We learn about China's history, its people and their language. We sometimes learn about their places and clothes their people wear.

Our BICEP lesson starts at 1.30pm to 3.30pm. We would go to our classroom, take out our file and pencil case. Then, we would settle down and start our lessons. Sometimes, our classes can be different in time to come. We might sometimes go to the Science Lab, the computer lab or even the AVA room.

One of my favourite topics in the BICEP class is about the places in China. There are many places in China such as Mongolia, Hong Kong, Macau and many more!

I like this BICEP class because I can go to China to visit the places I want if I go to the best class next year! How exciting! Exciting with the capital 'E'!

Selecting plants for class

After going to the dentist for check-up, my mother and I went to the plant nursery to select plants for my classroom. In the nursery, we went to the racks were the plants were kept and taken care of. My mother then saw the 'Jade' plant that had caught her sight. I then spotted a sign that said, 'Crasaula plants. Buy one get one free.' Both of our eyes lit up upon seeing it. We selected the best ones and headed into the storehouse.

In the storehouse, we chose a epipremnum pinnatum and a chrysal idocarpus to add to the Crasaula plants. In a corner of the storehouse, there was a tank filled with water and hydroponic plants. I got to see closely what a water hyacinth's roots look like now! We then went on to the next two nurseries and found many more interesting plants like the ixora and the water lily.

After the nurseries, we went to the pasar malam a few blocks away from our block and chose few more plants. We discovered that the Crasaula plants over there are greener than those at the nurseries.

I love plants. Do you like it too?

NAPFA test

Today was the NAPFA test. Usually, every P4 to P6 has a NAPFA test. Today, it was the P4's turn! Goodness me! Why today? I was not totally trained yet!

Before the test, the teacher-in-charge will divide the class to 5 groups. Each different group will go to different stations to perform their tasks and teachers will grade them. There are five stations, the stations are 'sit-up', 'SBJ( standing broad jump)', 'sit and reach', 'chin- up' and 'shuttle run'. I had to start with SBJ. I then went on to shuttle run, sit and reach, chin up and sit up. I finally completed the test and passed the card( teachers gave out cards for marks and grades to be written down) to Ms Lee, our form teacher.

Even though it was tough in the stations, I was best at shuttle running. I remembered my PE( physical education) teacher said," When doing shuttle run, you must stretch your leg muscles to reach the shuttle-cork and save a leg span's running, or you will slow down when you do a 'rabbit run'."

After the test, my teacher brought me back to my grandma's house by cab. How grateful l was! My teacher brought me back because my parents were working and Grandma was looking after my brother at homa as his school is closed today.

I hope to do better in the next NAPFA test! :>

Qing Ming Festival (清明）

On the 8th of April, we went to the temple to pray to my great-grandfather. He has already passed away and his spirit lies in the temple in Upper East Coast road. My grandmother came along too, bringing hell notes and paper models with her. She bundled them up in three bags and brought them to the temple to 'give' them to her father.

When we got there, it was nearly going to rain. We parked our car and headed to the 2nd floor where the holy tablets were placed. We offered him fruits, drinks, as well as tea leaves. We then went in front of his tablet and prayed to him. We then went down to burn the offerings. At first, dad lit up three matchsticks at a time and put them near the first bag. The bag started to crackle and crumple. Then he lit the other two bags by using four matchsticks each and throwing them into the bag. When you observe closely, you can see grey smoke steaming out of the bags. Then, it turned to a wild inferno. The flames were burning every paper offering in its way.

After a few minutes, the bags reduced to burnt and black ashes. The whole furnace turned black due to the extreme heat. When the process was taking place, my father devoured some wild fruits from a plant near the furnace. I was wondering," You Don't Know What It Is And You Are Eating It?!" My grandma said that the spirit of great-grandpa had by now 'enjoyed' the food and we can go back and collect it back.

We went to the temple to pray to the holy gods of Heaven. But when we got there, there was no one around to sell the coils! So we prayed bare-handed and put some money for donations to the temple. There was a container of sweets. We helped ourselves to some sweets for blessings.

I would like to go to the temple again to pray to him.




清明时节雨纷纷， 路上行人欲断魂。
借问酒家何处有？ 牧童遥指杏花村。

--（塘）杜牧

Speacial Moments

I love my trip to the trip to Sentosa. I remembered that the last time to Sentosa was on a wet day with my uncle who lived in Switzerland...

He had comed to Singapore to stay for the whole week. One day, he decided to go to Sentosa since his son wanted to see the fish, especially the 'clown fish'. Do you know the 'Nemo' in the 'Finding Nemo', I'm talking about that type of fish.

When we got there, it was raining,or maybe just a light shower. We got off the cable car and went to the bus stop. Now that Sentosa was under renovation, I really missed my trip last time around Sentosa in the old monorail...sigh!

We reached the stop and walked towards the 'water' world. We could reach out to feed the rays.At first, I was a little scared when I dipped my hand in. When the ray came along, I dropped the fish!

We say many more interesting types of fishes and exhibits. One of the strangest of all was the snow angel.It lives in the Arctic and has a body shape like an angel.How interesting!

Even though the trip was short, I would remember it for life.It's because I was with my favourite uncle!

Mr Bean's Holiday

We all know, Mr Bean is a comedian, acting like a clown in the streets of town. I remember watching Mr Bean in the cinema, on his trip to France.

It was a Sunday when we went to watch the movie. In the movie, he had won a trip to France and a video camera. Mr Bean's ticket was 616. But when he turned it over, it was 919, the wining number!

I remembered there was a part when Bean was trapped in a small little town. He was then forced to join the army show. Bean was dressed like an infantry soldier and marching around the tent like a nerd. His boot then got stuck on a dressing rack and he slipped and fell to the ground. "You're fired!" shouted the video man when Bean was marching in the 'Battlefield', filming everything he saw. He was shocked and slipped to the dirt ground.

It was one of the funniest shows I had ever watched and I laughed like mad in the show.I hope you would like to watch it too!

clown fish

On the 16 March, I went to another show in the Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel. The show I watched was Opereta Prima.There were four clowns in the show who were singing, dancing, juggling balls and tennis rackets, riding on uni- and tricycles, making music and clowning around as well!

In the show, I also remembered there was a clown who fell from a unicycle and lay on the floor as dead as a doornail. Another clown took a few cones and pushed them on the fainted clown's chest. Nothing happened. The other clown

rushed away, got a balloon pump and pumped the air into the other clown's clothes! How funny! The clown got up in a flash, took off his helmet and bashed the helmet on the clown's (the one which was holding the pump,of course) head!

They bounced some balls on drums, not play the drums with sticks! One clown would stand on the left, and another would stand on the right. Clown A would drop a ball on a drum and Clown B would catch it and throw it back to Clown A.The cycle would repeat, faster and faster than before.

Near the ending, the clowns actually did something very interesting. They turned off their lights, put on dark jumpsuits and juggled glow sticks and swung glow balls on rubber threads! Wow! What a colourful sight!

It was like it was the funniest show I had ever seen. It looked like they were born that way.I would like to go to a show like this again. I will laugh my eyes out again like I just did!:0

Stringy performance

I went to the Asian Civilisations Museum auditorium today to watch a string quartet perform on stage. The band was made out of people from London and Ireland who met together and formed a band. They played two violins, a viola and a double bass. They were singing songs on stage, playing their instruments and clowning around as well!

There was also once, the double bass player invited one of the audience to come on stage to play the double bass. He selected a small boy from the crowd and invited him. The boy did not know how to handle the bow, so he did a sawing action on the light wood and horse tail hair bow! The audience giggled and squealed in delight. After the boy got tired of 'sawing' the bow on the strings, he dropped it and ran back to his parents.

There was another part of the show that the double bass player took out a toy bird with flapping wings. He kicked it towards the violin player. They must be having football with the bird. The violin player then accidentally kicked the bird to the foot of the steps. The audience giggled again. The troubled usher had to pick the bird up and put it back.

I had learned something today that would be useful in the future. The violin player taught us that the bow was made out of the horse's tail hair and light wood from Brazil. The hair, when looked under the microscope, the user can see many little spikes on it, and that is the spikes that play the violin, viola and the double bass. Interesting, isn't it?

My trip on plane

I had sat on an airplane twice before. One trip to Switzerland, one to HongKong. The trips were okay, but some of the food tastes like something scrapped off from the bottom of the boots! Yuck! The toilet flush sound was always very ear-piercing and the ... Forget it...

Just let me tell you what my trips were all about...

My Switzerland trip was in the June holidays. l was overwhelmed with excitement and pictures of my uncle's home flashed through my mind. lt was only at midnight that we were able to check in. My brother and l were then very tired and were yawning away while we staggered into the plane and searched for our seats. We then slumped down into our seats and fell fast asleep. The next morning, we woke and ate our 'late' breakfast and peered out of our wet window. There was a very naturalized piece of land. It was Switzerland! I was the 1st to get out of the plane and rush to the airport. We stayed in Switzerland for 3 weeks and then we went back to Singapore.

My HongKong trip was in the December holidays. By then, the streets of HongKong were overwhelmed with colourful lights that dazzled like stars in the night sky.We checked into the hotel and stayed for five days. Our days at HongKong were extraordinarily exciting and the scenes were breathtaking.

I hope I can go and sit on the plane again...

Best Friends Forever!

My best friend is my schoolmate John Chui. We go to the same childcare centre in the same bus. Every recess, I will meet him in the canteen and then we would go to the library together to read up more about dinosaurs, usually. Sometimes, he buries me under an avalanche of questions, for example,"Are you coming today? How much work do you have? Can you play computer games?"

The most prominent feature is the frame of his face. The frame resembles the face of a monkey. John is a South Paw and there is a reason behind it. In his younger days, he lost a quarter of his right middle finger in an accident. Therefore, John had to use his left hand as his dominant hand.

This best friend has a keen sense of humour and acts effeminately.He is very enthusiastic about the 'National Geographic Channel' and keeps on telling me about the shows that are shown on television.

I share the same interest about the 'National Geographic Channel' with John. We were so fascinated to learn about nature, geography and the top ten topics. We are always very anxious to exchange information.

Unlike my classmates, John and I get to meet each other almost every day, even during school holidays, at our childcare centre.

Esplenade presents: A Touch of Zen

I had a wonderful time watching the martial arts show on the 14th of Febuary. This is how it started...

My mother and I were rushing hurriedly to the Esplanade,Theaters on the Bay. That night, there was a show called 'A Touch of Zen' My mother and I hurried into the theater and slumped down into our seats.We then waited for another five miniutes and the show started.

The show was about the Ao family. They were running away from the vicious militiamen. Along the way, the father was killed and the mother left their infant son, Ao Xiang, outside the temple. Ao Xiang was then rescued by the Zen master and the Zen master took him as one of his diciples.

I loved the story, especialy the accident in the show. Ao Xiang was sweeping the courtyard with the master. However, when Ao Xiang waved the broom, the broomhead fell off ! Everyone giggled and squealed with laughter, and watched as the diciple continued sweeping the floor with his broomstick!

To correct such mistakes, it is important and essential to check all props before the comencement of a show. The next time Ao Xiang used the broom, he took the broom that the Zen master was holding.

Chinese New Year holidays

Chinese New Year was an interesting holiday. This is what I did...

On the first day of CNY, I had to say all the NY greetings to my grandma and grandpa and present the gift to them. The gift was a pair of oranges and an ornament . At 3:15, my cousins, our fathers and I went to watch the 'Ghost Rider' show at the Plaza Singapura.

On the second day, I went to my aunt's house to give her the oranges as well. My aunt was giving an extra hong bao to the children if they guessed the order of her dui lian correctly. Everybody tried and got an extra hong bao. I was nervous and didn't know the order until my mum gave me a clue. I then tried my luck and said it out to my aunt loudly, and guessed what, ... she gave me an extra hong bao for guessing it right!

On the third day, I went to my cousins' house to give their mum the oranges as well. My cousins' room is I say, kind of 'cool'! They have a lot of stuff that are sometimes violent! better not get hooked to it... anyway, I had a good day at my cousin's. My mum told me I had been too antisocial.

It was a very good CNY I had this holidays. And best of all, I could rest for two weeks of school because I had chickenpox!

Lucky I could still celebrate CNY...phew!

New Year Resolutions

My New Year resolutions for this year are:

• to get a 'distinction' in my music theory exam
• to reduce my weight by six kg by June holidays
• to run faster in P.E. lessons
• to get rid of all of my (chicken) poxies and pimples

I have been learning music for about two years and I have to go for exams to test my skills.I got a 'distinction' last year, so I think I should keep up the good work.; I am some kind of overweight and I need to slim down a bit. I hope to slim down by the June holidays and be out of the TAF list.; I actually run quite slow in the training for running one thousand and sixty m run around the school carpark. I would like to run faster so that I can keep up with the rest.;I had came up with the chicken pox and lots of pimples were emerging as well! I wish I can get rid of them as quickly as possible.

Looks like I have to work very hard to make these resolutions happen...