Lemon Meringue Pie !! Yumm

I love all sorts of desserts, cakes, pies, squares, slices and muffins. Sweets = d e l i s c i o u s ! One of my favourite desserts is lemon meringue pie! It triggers all of your taste buds, the sweet base and meringue and the sour of the lemon. Here is a recipie of this absolutely scrumptious treat (try it!!) :

Lemon Filling:
4 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1 (9-inch) pre-baked pie shell
1 recipe Meringue, recipe follows

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Whisk egg yolks in medium size mixing bowl and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine cornstarch, water, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine. Turn heat on medium and, stirring frequently, bring mixture to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and gradually, 1 whisk-full at a time, add hot mixture to egg yolks and stir until you have added at least half of the mixture.

Return egg mixture to saucepan, turn heat down to low and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and gently stir in butter, lemon juice, and zest until well combined. Pour mixture into pie shell and top with meringue while filling is still hot. Make sure meringue completely covers filling and that it goes right up to the edge of the crust. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until meringue is golden. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Make sure pie is cooled completely before slicing.

Meringue Topping:
4 egg whites
1 pinch cream of tartar
2 tablespoons sugar
Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and then gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Use to top lemon filling.
Yield: topping for 1 (9-inch) pie

Winter

Winter gives me the blues. There is almost nothing good about winter. I h a t e it. I think that we should just skip winter and have summer all the time. Here are the bad things about winter :

1. Rain - it rains all the time in New Zealand, during the winter period. When we are at school and are wet, it is not very plesant to be walking around soaked through. When you are standing outside in the rain, there is just something about it that makes me insane. When I am in the mood to play around in the rain and get wet (which is only fun if there is a change of clothes waiting for me afterwards!) then it is good, but it is not very often that I am in this mood. One time when I was, i really regreted it afterwards when i was sitting in English and having to lift my cold skirt off my bare legs. It is absolutely horrible and makes me feel yuk, and gets me sick!! If it is winter, then it should snow, not just rain! It is pathetic!!

2. Cold - with winter, obviously comes the cold. When the wind is blowing, and you are at school, there is nothing you can do apart from hudle up and complain about how cold it is! When it is cold, the heater is good, but there is nothing worse than when you have to pull yourself away from the wonderful device. Getting out of my warm bed (heated by my electric blanket!) is also horrible, the cold hits me like a slap in the face! And similar to this, is when stepping out of the shower..

3. No sun = no tan - in the winter, it is almost always grey and the clouds are covering the sun. This also makes it very cold, and just having a grey sky seems to keep everyone down. Nobody is happy. With no sun, that means there is no tan. As summer fades into winter, so do our G L O R I U S summer tans. I almost cried when I noticed my tan fading. It's almost a crime.

So to sum up winter is bad because there is bad weather, which means bad mood. Everything is just bad bad bad. (ESPECIALLY if you're at school!)

Kim Possible

Kim Possible is a great show on Disney Channel, made in America (and is set there, in Middleton). It is so great, and loved by many, that it is an Emmy awward winning American animated television series. It stars Kim Possible who is a teenager that fights crime. Every day she faces challenges of saving the world, with family and normal school issues. Kim Possible is always on the go, so it is of the action genre (and is suitable for kids =]).

Kimberly Ann Possible is an adventurer, and deals with supervillians every day. The main supervillans that she deals with is a monkey man, a scottish man, a crazy trucker dude and Draken and Sheego (who are her main enemies). The main characters in the show are Ron, Mom, Dad, Tim and Jim, Wade, Roofus and Bonnie. Ron is her best friend, who is a boy that is a complete dork. He never does anything right, and is a wimp. Kim's Mom is your typical Mom, who is a doctor and her Dad is a scientist. Tim and Jim are her younger twin brothers who are always inventing things and get on Kim's nerves. Then there's Wade who is a super genius and tells Kim what to do, where her missions are and gives her the equipment. Wade does this all without leaving his room, and contacts Kim Possible with a comunicator. Roofus is a naked mole rat, who sits in Ron's pocket all the time (because he is his pet). Roofus is quite smart, even though he is a little rodent, and is one of Kim's sidekicks and goes everywhere on her missions. Bonnie is not that much of a main character on the show, but she is the mean popular girl who is on Kim's cheerleading squad.

There have been four seasons of Kim Possible, and six DVDs are available to be purchased, there are also six Kim Possible video games. Kim Possible is now very popular all around the world. It has been aired in China, in mandarin, in Dubai, in arabic and in France, in French.

They have a catchy theme song!!

Me and Emelia's India Presentation!

In Social Studies our class is studying Brazil, all about the country, but it is mainly focusing on it being a developing Country. Mr V. wanted us to extend this even further, by getting us to choose our own developing country and make a presentation on it. There was no major outline, only one rule, that the presentation HAD to include one multimedia aspect. For this project we had to get into groups of two, and I went with Emelia. We chose.. India!!

The first period that we were given time to work on our presentation in class, me and Emelia decided to categorize and figure out what we were going to research and talk about. We made five big headings, which was 'Culture', 'The People', 'The Land', and 'Way of life'. Under these categores we talked about the following things, food, clothing, religion, population, government, geography, India as a developing country, economy, plants, animals and the weather.

We weren't given very much time at all to do this! (less than a week!). Due to this fact, me and Emelia decided that it would be a good idea if Emelia came to my house on Saturday and do some work on it. We thought that we would be able to get this over with in a couple hours, max. But boy were we in for a wake up call! We were no way NEAR close to finishing after working cold flat the whole time. She ended up coming to my house on another Tuseday (after I had spent.. L O A D S of time on it) and we finished most of it up.

We had so many pictures to print, I had three inches of paper filled with pictures! I was cutting for hours on end and organising when we had to show the next picture or hold up the next title.

On the day we weren't nervous at all, but we had NEVER practiced it, and Emelia didn't know how it worked, it would be a complete gamble. When we started, it was all going well (we played Indian music when we were showing the titles). It went really smoothly and I think it looked like we knew what we were doing. We had a lot of different things that we passed around the class. The only thing was that we went WAYYYY over time, because we had SOO MUCH WORK! We ended up having to speed through the end, but I must say, it all went quite well. =]

Poetry

Today we have started a new unit in English, at School. It is poetry, which pretty much falls underneath the creative writing and writing category. Ms Wilson says that she doesn't like it very much, but some people say it is the most intellegant way of writing. There are so many different ways for people to interperate a poem, they can take from it what they like, which is a main reason why lots of people like poetry.

When we were little, poetry was just a bunch of rhyming sentences crammed together on different lines (which are actually stanzas). Then it was so easy to write them, so simple. Now, poems can be one of the most difficult things to read and understand in the whole world! (I think at least..) Depends on the type of poem, they can let you make it into what you want it to be. Lots of times there is not really any right or wrong answer. It really depends on the personality of the person, and their intrests, to see what they will take from it. For some people it is really light thinking, and they just think black and white, the obvious answer of what it is. Other people go into really deep thinking, and come up with COMPLETELY different answers of what things mean. But like I said before, there really is no right or wrong answer.

I personally don't really like poetry that much, I don't understand the things that some people can get from it. Although I prefer writing it much more over creative writing. I can never finish my creative writing stories, because they will be too long, and I think that a good piece of creative writing has to be of reasonable length.

Rainbow's End

On Sunday, Me, Tash, Bree and Cerise went to Rainbow's End for the day. The day started off when Tash and Cerise (Tash's mum) picked me up from my house at 9 am. Then we went to Bree's house and picked her up. Now we were on our way down to Rainbow's End. The weather was and looked really bad, it was grey and spitting and windy. This would probably cut down a lot of the rides that we would be able to ride on. But Tash had texted her Dad in the morning, and he lives near to Rainbow's End (on that side of town at least) and he said that it was clearing up there. This lifted our hopes! We were all so excited to go to Rainbow's End, even though it is really small and lame and very kidish. But it still seemed like we weren't actually going, it's one of those things that we all plan and say we are going to do, but never actually do it.

At the entrance we didn't know what to say, 'Can I have a ticket?', 'Can I have a pass?', 'I'm fourteen..'. None of us wanted to go first because after that first person we could all just say oh I'll have the same please. Bree ended up going first and she just said blankly 'I'm fourteen..'. It was so funny, then we all did just say same afterwards. Then Bree did something stupid to her pass and the lady couldn't put it on right. She BIT it (the lady did!) off Bree's wrist and got her a new one. (This is just one of the very Breeish things that happened to Bree on the day).

When we entered we got a picture with Rain and Bow, the picture is DISGUSTING! I hate it. The first thing that we did was go to the rollercoaster, and sat in the very back. We ended up going 11 times in a row, but went more times throughout the day. My head really hurt, because at this one part your head just gets tossled around and bangs into the sides. I can't remember the order now of the rides we went in. But we ended up going on the power surge a lot of times as well (Me and Cerise went on it two more times than Tash and Bree, cause they felt sick and went on the log flume).

We all sat on the log flume together three times, I think, and we did stupid faces when they take the picture at the end. Me and Tash rocked the log and Cerise got all scared and annoyed, it was funny. Then Tash kept throwing leaves on Cerise and she was like 'woah leaves actually keep falling on me' and I'd go 'yea I keep seeing them fly across my face!'. She only realised at the end it was Tash. Bree and Tash ended up going on the Log flume more than Me and Cerise because it was too boring for us, but they loved it. Haha joking, we just went on the power surge instead.

We weren't going to go on the Fear Fall, because we were all quite scared of it the first time. But I definately wanted to go on it the whole time! I forced Cerise to go on it with me, and once we were up there it seemed a lot smaller then it was last time. It was so fun that we ran around and went on it again, and again, and again. We met this funny as asian instructor person, called Duncan! He let us just stay on it at times in a row. Then we forced Tash and Bree (Bree we had to LITERALLY, she was holding onto Duncan!) to go on the Fear Fall. But once they had done it they wanted to go on again, and again, and again. So it ended up at Me and Cerise went on it 14 times, and Tash and Bree went on it 6 times. Duncan was really really pro and hardout at dancing by the way, he showed us some of his moves!

Then we went on a lot of more rides.. a lot more.

We left at 3.30 and were so tired on the way home! I was dreading the fact that it would be school the next day.. We went to Burger King and carried on home. It was a great day, but every time I stayed still for a while it felt like I was on the Power Surge. I slept really well that night. =]

Ball season!

Whangaparaoa College is having their first senior ball this year, for the year twelves. It is gonna be really exciting for everyone, to see how it turns out. Because there will not be any year thirteens stomping their parade, they will be the oldest and the first to experience it.

I love the ball season (which I have learnt so far) because I have Hayley who can tell me all the latest news with everyone in year twelve. This includes who is going with who, who is wearing what and who has asked (or is going to ask) who, and if that person wants to go with that other person. I'm not going to say what's going on with Hayley and the ball because she probably wouldn't want me saying.. =] but I think she's quite happy. She is on the ball comittee for the school and is helping to design and organise it. The theme is New York, of which I have no idea how they are going to portray that with their decorations. It is going to be held at the North Harbour Stadium (which is a rugby feild in Albany). She said the sight is really cool, and I can't wait till she comes home on the night (although I probably won't be awake) because she said she will tell me.. things.

On Saturday I went ball dress shopping with Hayley, because my soccer game was down at three kings so we decided to go shopping since we were down there. We ended up going to Takapuna, Silverdale, New Market, St. Lukes, and I can't remember what else. The dresses at New Market were by far the most expensive! To start off I knew that this would be a hard find because Hayley is quite picky with her clothing, and it is hard to find something for her that she really likes. But she knew that she wanted a short one, either blue or black (the long ones are disgusting and make people look very short). At all the different shops I was the errand girl, I would run back and forth between the shop and the changing rooms. I basically found new dresses and got different sizes, or asked the shop clerk where there were different sizes. It doesn't really sound like that much, but it was. I didn't relly mind though because it was fun looking at all of the different dresses. In the end Hayley didn't get any dreses, but the search has been narrowed down to two dresses (of which one I found!). My highlight of the day was forcing Hayley to try on the most disgusting pink dress in New Market. It was completely covered in frills, complete with a little overcoat. Haha =p !

Deal or no Deal !

Deal or no Deal is a popular game show, made in the United States (originating in Los Angeles). Deal or no Deal has travelled to many different countries (25 countries!), and then adapted by them, adding some of their own ideas. Countries including Australia and New Zealand have taken Deal or no Deal, but it is not as big as the American one, with the highest amount of money much smaller.

The American Deal or no Deal is hosted by Howie Mandel. On the show contestants play and deal for a top prize of o n e m i l l i o n dollars (USD). The show makes people risk it all, at pure random guess. One contestant, from the audience, picks one out of 26 breif cases, which one they think has the big money. They can keep their breif case at the end, or dealing it for another amount, as they eliminate amounts, unfolding breifcases during the show. The contestant has to eliminate the remaining 25 breifcases by choosing people on the stand to unfold them, reveiling the amount of money that he does not have in his breifcase. If the high numbers still stay up on the board, the banker will offer higher and higher amounts, because they do not know if there is a high amount of money in the contestant's chosen breifcase. As long as a large amount of cash hasn't been opened, the banker's offer will go higher and higher.

Here is the credits from the American show :

Host: Howie Mandel
Executivve Producer: Scott St. John
Creator: Dick Derijick
Co-executive Producer: Mashawan Nix
Director: Alan Carter
Executive in Charge of Production: Jack Martin
Set designers: Anton Goss and John Ivo Gilles
Lighting designer: John conti
Wardrobe designer: Dina Cerchione
Music: Groove addicts
Graphics: Fish Eggs
Origination: Los Angeles
From: Endemol USA

Straightening your hair, it's a no no =[

People have been straightening their hair since way back when. In those days, people used to iron their hair, of which some people still do today if they don't have the right eqquipment. Both boys and girls do it to straighten their curly locks or even quite straight hair. I know, it is the most frustrating thing even to have a slight wave in your hair. It should either be dead straight, or curly, definately not in between. Nobody is ever satisfied with the hair they have!

But why do people straighten their hair? Not only for the dead straightness of their hair, but theres something about straightened hair that makes it look shiny and perfect. The thing that really triggers us to want to straighten our hair is what we see in magazines and on T.v. Everyone seems to have perfect hair, unless they are the bad guy or something. Seeing this on T.v, then we want that. And this goes for everything else we see on T.v, it's why girls want makeup and boys want muscles.

There are quite a few different straighteners available for people to buy, but the most people are the ceramic hair straighteners. These straighteners don't get too hot and so are better for your hair. GHD's are the best on the market, and are probably the best for your hair. There are ways to permanently straighten your hair as well, by putting chemicals in it at hair salons. This is incredibly bad for your hair and permanently damages it.

The truth about straightening is that, eventually it will make your hair fall out. By putting direct heat on your hair like that, it is really damaging your hair and will cause split ends. Depending on how far up your hair you straighten till, all of that will get split ends and your hair will break off. This can give the illusion that you have cut your hair, but really your hair just keeps breaking off because it is so unhealthy. Using hair treatments does definately help, if you are straightening your hair every day you really need to use good hair products. Overall it is just better to not straighten your hair, who cares if its not perfect! Magazines are fake, nobody's hair is naturallly p e r f e c t.

Toybox - Tarzan and Jane

Toybox is a Danish pop group (similar to Aqua), who formed in the 1990's. The band consists of only two members, Anila Mirza and Amir El-Falaki. Toybox's first album was called 'FanTastic' and included the songs, The Sailior Song, Super Duper man, Best friend, Teddy bear and Tarzan and Jane.

Today the band is not together, Amir is a dance teacher, music video choreographer and trains F.C Copenhagen's cheerleading team. Anila has changed her name to Aneela, and tried to go solo but was not successful.

In India I used to love the band Aqua, and some of Toybox's songs. Their style is very unusual, almost techno. My favourite toybox song was called Tarzan and Jane, it has a really funny music video. Here are the lyrics to Tarzan and Jane..

Deep in the jungle,
in The Land Of Adventure, lives Tarzan

Oo-ee-oo-ee...
I am Jane, and I love to ride an elephant

My name is Tarzan, I am Jungle-man
The tree-top swinger from jungle-land
Coke, baby come
I will take you for a swing
Let's go, honey, I'm tinkeling

Tarzan is handsome, Tarzan is strong
He's really cute, and his hair is long
Tarzan is handsome, Tarzan is strong
So listen to the jungle-song:

Oo-ee-oo-ee...
I am Tarzan from jungle, you can be my friend
Oo-ee-oo-ee...
I am Jane, and I love to ride an elephant

When you touch me, I feel funny
I feel it too, when you're touching me
Come to my tree-house to my party
Yes, I'll go if you carry me

Tarzan is handsome, full of surprise.
He's really cute, and his hair is nice
Tarzan is handsome, Tarzan is trong
So listen to the Jungle-song:

Oo-ee-oo-ee...
I am Tarzan from jungle, you can be my friend
Oo-ee-oo-ee...
I am Jane, and I love to ride an elephant

Go Cheetah, get banana
Hey monkey, get funky
When I am dancing, I feel funky

Why do tyou keep ignoring me?
Tarzan is here, come, kiss me, baby
Oochie coochie kiss me tenderly

Tarzan is handsome, Tarzan is strong
He's really cute, and his hair is long
Tarzan is handsome, Tarzan is strong
So listen to the jungle-song:

Oo-ee-oo-ee...
I am Tarzan from jungle, you can be my friend
Oo-ee-oo-ee...
I am Jane, and I love to ride an elephant

And so they got funky,
but will Tarzan have Jane?
Stay tuned to find out

Trumpet! (The Ice cream)

The good old kiwi trumpet (ice cream!) you gotta love it! They are absolutely delisimo!! =]

The trumpet™ is a kiwi icon, and has been able to be purchased from all over the country since 1964! The ice cream was extremely popular when it first launched and since then, all New Zealanders love it. It still remains one of the top ice cream brands in New Zealand. O N E M I L L I O N trumpets are sold every year. That's enough to line them up from the bottom of the South island to the tip of the North island twice!!

There are three classic trumpet flavours, chocolate, boysenberry and VANILLA! But recently a new flavour has been added to the classic trumpet flavours, which is also a kiwi icon.. the jelly tip trumpet! These are all regular trumpets, but there is also something a whole lot bigger called the COLOSSAL cone! These trumpets are t w e n t y - f i v e percent bigger than the regular trumpet!! The colossal cone comes in the following flavours, butterscotch caramel crunch, creamy chocolate almond, and cookies and cream. Trumpets also come in mini sizes, but can only be purchased in sets in boxes.

I just ate one, which is why I felt the need / was inspired to write a blog about the fantastic ice cream.

Here's how I eat my trumpet :

1. Take off wraper
2. Lick off chocolate off wraper (don't want to waste any!)
3. Eat nuts and chocolate off top of trumpet (have ice cream with it, otherwise chocolate is too overpowering)
4. Lick way to cone, pushing the ice cream down, so that you have ice cream throughout your whole cone.
5. Eat some cone, then ice cream, then cone, then ice cream. Repeat this until at bottom.
6. When comes to the bottom chocolate tip of cone, eat very slowly its the last you're gonna get. Make it last!

Cleaning.. depends on how I feel

Cleaning. Why do we do it? Because it leaves us feeling.. well clean. Feeling clean, and being in a clean enviornment gives a person the feeling of being fresh, pure and crisp. To me, when I am in a clean place (aka my room has been cleaned) a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, because it is one less thing that I have to do and I just feel good overall. The thing is that it has a price, and its very big.

Time.

Cleaning costs time, alot of time and it is just a real pain in the butt having to clean. It is one of the most boring things in the whole world, picking up things, scrubing things, soaking things, washing things it is all incredibly boring. The smell of cleaning products and detergents do not appeal to me at all, they have very strong smells and they make my hands feel all weird and give a weird texture. Also it is not nice when my hands get all the dirt on them, because if you are cleaning up mess and dirt you are bound to get it on you somewhere.

90% of the time I absolutely hate cleaning and think it is the most boring thing in the world, but sometimes when I have my ipod and I am in the mood, it actually isn't THAT bad!! For example last Saturday (And it was after soccer!!!) and I was cleaning my bedroom, of which I didn't find too bad. I had my ipod playing and I was just gernally quite happy. I ended up cleaning the bathroom upstairs as well, because I seriously just felt like it! It was absolutely crazy, when I get in that mood of cleaning I really get into it. The same happens with organising and sorting things out, normally I HATE it and can't be bothered, but that one time that I can be bothered I'm really on a roll.

So to sum up cleaning.. it depends on how I feel.

Baywatch

Baywatch is a famous T.v show about some lifegaurds who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles. It's genre is considered drama and action. The American series aired from 1989 to 2001. During this period, it was loved by so many veiwers, that the Guiness Book of World Records named it the most watched show of all time, with 1.1 B I L L I O N veiwers.

Baywatch first started up as a lifegaurd motion picture project, created by Gregory J. Bonnan (who was a lifegaurd himself). It aired on NBC in 1989. Unfortunately at this first attempt, the show stopped after one season for the reasons of high cost in producing and low ratings. David Hasselhoff later thought this show had potential and tried it again in 1991, investing his own money. He became the executive producer and starred as one of the (or THE) main lifegaurds on the show, Mitch. The show became so successful nationally and internationally that two movies were created off the series including 'Baywatch Nights' and 'Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding'.

In 1999, Baywatch casts travelled to Sydney to create another Baywatch, 'Baywatch: Downunder'. In season ten of Baywatch, the setting was again changed to Hawaii and the show was changed to 'Baywatch: Hawaii'.

Baywatch casts many people including David Hasselhoff, Pamela Anderrson, Yasmine Bleeth, Alexandra Paul, Parker Stevenson, Michael Newmen, Jeremy Jackson, David Chokachi, Gena Lee Nolin, Traci Bingham, Erika Elinak, Billy Warlock, Carmen Electra, Donna D'Errico, David Charvet, Nicole Eggert, Brande Nicole Brodderick, Michael Bergin, Jose Solano and Mitzi Kapture.

The show has become a trademark, and is mocked in many shows and movies. Everyone knows about baywatch, and the two main stars who were created from it, David Hasselhoff, Carmen Elektra and the famous Pamela Anderson. I personally love watching the show because it is incredibly hilarious watching how cheesy it is. Watching the very early episodes I can see they are extremely old and the acting is so bad. Good old Baywatch =]

I'm in a magazine!

One Sunday, after my whole family was up and had gotten dressed my Dad told us that he wanted to take some pictures and get some quotes from us for World Vision. We later found out that it was about telling your family, and keeping your family in touch with sponsering a child from World Vision.

Firstly I could not be bothered doing this, and seeing the pictures because, as lame as it sounds, I was having a really bad hair day. The last thing that I wanted, was to be reminded of what it looked like with twenty seven thousand pictures. He set the four of us (Mum, me, Hayley and Curtis) around the end of our dining tables and gave us some World Vision booklets and letters from a sponsor child to "pose" with. We all had absolutely no idea what to do, to smile looking at it or what? What could we actually do, it was meant to be like a parent was showing the family about sponsoring a child. If in real life Mum or Dad was showing me something, I would just be thinking in my head things and have a blank face with no emotion. You could tell that Dad was getting frustrated with our 'modeling', it was hopeless.

Then he got into it, and when he did, you could tell that it was alot harder than he thought. There was really nothing to do! In the end we all did fake smiles looking at a silly little booklet. I looked through all of the photos with horror, not one looked remotely good. But nobody i knew would be looking at these pictures.. hopefully.

Then Dad asked us about what it has helped us with, and we did the usual thing, telling him what he would probably want to her. And tell him the material he would want to have in the magazine, that didn't take too long. But Curtis, Hayley and I pretty much all had the same thing to say. =s.

Today we got the magazine and HAHA it looks so horrible but OH WELL! And my quote has been altered. haha

Sneezing with your eyes open pops your eyes out!

If you sneeze with your eyes open your eyes will pop out! True?

False!!

When you sneeze, your body is getting rid of bad things in your nose, things like bateria and germs, and other things your body does not agree with. For example, when you smell small black peper, you will sneeze because your body (nose) does not agree with it.

When a person sees a bright light, for example turning on the light or looking at the sun, sometimes you will feel like you need to sneeze. One out of three people sneeze at the sight of bright light. That one person is called a 'photic sneezer', seeing as photic means light. This trait is passed down from a side of the family, so you could inherit it from your Mum or Dad.

Naturally, nobody sneezes with their eyes open, because it is a reflex to close your eyes as you sneeze. But some people do have the ability to, and some people just don't. You have no control over the fact if you can open your eyes while sneezing or not. It is not known exactly why we shut our eyes when we sneeze, everyone has their own theories. Most doctors agree on the simple fact that it is a reflex and we have no control over it. Some evidence that could add to say as to why we do is that the nerves serving our eyes and nose are closely intertwined, and so one triggers a response to the other. It is still not really known though.

So, the big answer is no! No your eyes do not pop out when you sneeze with your eyes open. There are muscles (that control the movement of your eye mainly) and the optic move that hold your eye in place. Just because your eye lids are open, it doesn't mean that your eyes will pop out. The eye lids do not even do that much for the eye. It is known that your eyes do buldge out a bit, but it is also known for one hundred percent certainty that your eyes do not pop out when you sneeze with your eyes open.

It's annoying being ignored

It's annoying being ignored! It is probably one of the most annoying things in the whole world. Everybody has been ignored during their life, and I'm sure everyone knows it's not a very nice position to be in. Being ignored leaves people feeling worthless, unimportant, not cared for and invisible. If you were feeling down and everyone ignored you, how would you feel? If you were at a new school and are ignored, how would you feel? If you got an incredibly good looking hair cut or wore a new shirt and was ignored, how would you feel? The answer is bad, you would feel pretty bad.

The simple way that we can stop this from happening is take notice, take notice in change of people. If someone is not talking as much as usual, ask them if theres anything wrong. If someone wears their hair in a different way, tell them it looks nice. If someone works hard on a project, praise them for their work. If someone slightly overweight and is looking 'trimmer', tell them they are looking nice and skinny. (note: you might not one to tell someone if they have gained weight, or are looking a bit bigger). It's amazing what the simple word of a person can make someone feel.

When I think this, one person especially comes to mind.. my Dad. He c o m p l e t e l y ignores me half the time when I am talking to him. If the golf is on the T.v or he's reading the newspaper, or thinking aloud (which is practically all the time) he is off in another world. When I ask him a question, there is no reply, then again no reply. By the fifth time I have asked he is quite annoyed that I have asked him so many times and he replies with 'I heard you the first time!'. This doesn't make me feel hurt because it is only my Dad, it is just frustrating that he doesn't reply when i want to know something (or whatever the case is).

Birthday anticipation!

It's my birthday soon!! Coming in just under three weeks, June the 28th is going to be the second most fantastic day of the year (after christmas). The only thing is that it is going to be on a Saturday, and birthdays on the weekend are quite boring because it is not gauranteed that you will be seeing all of your friends.

Last year my birthday was on cross country, and it was super fun because i got chocolate =]. Every year I have spent at Whangaparaoa College, something out of the norm has happened on my birthday. There was something in year seven, I'm sure! But its slipped my mind.. In year eight we all went to snow planet and went skiing! It was so much fun, i went down from the top. And as I said, last year (year nine) was cross country on my birthday. Most people would think that would be a stupid birthday, but it was really fun because when you think about it all you have to do is run for about thirty minutes and then you get practically the whole day off. There was a big blue house poster hung up by the blue house tent, and on the back of it said happy birthday Courtney! Loads of people ended up seeing it, and a ton of people wished me a happy birthday, it was great.

I think that the counting down to my birthday is better than the actual day. When you are waiting for the day to come, you always think it will be wonderful and exciting and absolutely amazing. I play the birthday in my head so many times, waking up, opening the presents, getting birthday girl privaleges and all. By the time it is my actual birthday, I have had the equivalent to around thirty birthdays.

The best thing about my birthday, being on June the 28th, is that it is in perfect unison with christmas. Six months presents, six months presents, six months presents, six months presents. When I feel like I haven't been given presents for quite a while, it comes time again that i will get some. It is absolutely fantastic!! I wouldn't have it any other way.

I LOVE my birthday!! =]

The Best Releiver

I chewed down on the half consumed brunch bar in my mouth. It was morning tea nad everyone was happy, talking to eachother or mingling in the handball line. As it normally went, one by one people started heading to their next class. i always left when the place started to look empty, or huge stampedes of people passed by.

You can almost tell what class they have or what type of person they are by the expression on their faces. If they were happy or annoyed, longing or dreading for their next subject. As for me, I was annoyed and dreading my next class. It was science, with Mr. L. Nobody knows his full name, its impossible to pronounce. I heard rumors that it was Licksaphakau.

Mr. L is the worst possible teacher you could imagine, I don't think I have learnt one this this year. Or at least one important thing, all the time he rambles on about back in 'the day' when he was a hero. And it's not what you're thinking, he wasn't in the war, he was the rubbish boy in his village, in Guam. I know he must have something up there, in his brain, if he worked his way up from that job to this, being a secondary teacher in Australia. i'll give him credit for that, but thats about it.

Normally teachers help you, because thats their job, to teach you, but not Mr. L. If an arm shoots up in the air.. well you wish you hadn't.

These thoughts flooded my mind as I trudged to the old building at the back of school. Coming closer and closer to the place I would be inmprisoned for the next one and a half hours, I wondered what we would learn today. Not about science, about his village. Walking into the old classroom with my head hanging low, my friend nudged me and excitedly said "look!". I lifted my head, of which felt like 1000 pounds, and a smile crept across my face...

Creative writing - Bull picture

I looked down at the hot concrete beneath my bare feet. It felt as though I was walking on a stove. The blisters forming on my feet were being tortured with every step I took. The walk to the small shop took so long, it was a journey I had to take twice every day.

Up before dawn, I had been walking for two long hours. The sun was now high in the sky and beading down on my dark hair. I looked in the window of fancy pastry shops and bakerys. The cakes and deserts frosted and moist, a mirage, something I could see but would never experience, never taste. I was hungry.

Thinking back to my small meal this morning, I realised how drained of energy I was.

a bullfighter lead his bull across the road from where I was standing. Probably for publicity, the big bullfighting competition was to be held in a couple days. The whole city gathering there, watching in anticipation, amaezment and awe. But not I, I would be going to the shop. i would be working. I wish I could see just one bullfight before i died.

At this moment I heard a lady scream, followed by many others. then I realised, the bull had gotten loose. Charging everywhere the bull was a free spirt, an animal not meant for a place like this. Not to be in captivity.

I met eyes with the creature and it stopped in its tracks. Studying the bulls enormous black frame and sharp horns I strangely didn't feel indimidated. This was soon to change. The animal seemed to change its feelings toward me because it was comming right for me. My reflexes never felt so quick in my life, I had turned around and was running the other way.

Looking around, I was frantically looking for a place to run ...