My Only Happiness

It was my birthday... and I was not excited. I was never a happy kid. I never felt like I fitted in. All my  "friends" are running around, enjoying without me, the birthday girl! It's supposed to be MY special day. Not theirs! I hated celebrating my birthday. It's not that I would get horrible gifts... I wasn't used to the feeling of being loved. The only person who ever loved was probably my dad. My mum left my dad when I was born. My dad then got re-married to a sweet lady called Sienna. She gave me unconditional love but she has to frequently go out of town for long periods of time because of business. 

"Daisy! my sweet little child, here come's your butterscotch cake!" my mother said proudly. 
I admired the cake in glee, but I could only admire it only for a few seconds before happiness was taken from me once again.
One of my "dearest friends" blew out the candles that I was supposed to blow. I was heartbroken. I wiped a single tear thinking "Oh god, this is going to get worse..."

My parents came out with my gift. This part I get a teeny bit happier, no one can take happiness away from me. Not even my friends.

Both of my parents come beside me on each side and kneel down. They give me "A box?" I thought to myself once again. Things are getting weird.
I open the box, a yellow bow. "Huh?" 
That small bow would not be able to fit me! I look up to my dad and he gives me a cheeky grin. He goes into his room and grabs something.

I was shocked. No way they got me a Golden Retriever puppy! I could feel warm, this was a feeling I had never experienced before. I wave to my new friend... I couldn't believe it! 

My dad hands me over my puppy. Her silk like fur touched my skin smoothly. I noticed her collar, it was yellow. I knew what I was going to name her!

"Do you like the name Mello?" I questioned my puppy.

She wagged her tail furiously. 

"Mello it is then!" I said laughing.

Mello started licking my face, I started to giggle. This was a new chapter in my life.

My dad stood up and got his camera. I grinned like I was the happiest person on Earth, which I was. I got the bow from the box and put it on the front of Mello's collar so it would look like a bowtie. Mello looked so adorable!

My mum later put that picture on the shelf where all of mum's Chinese antique stuff was kept. The picture must be pretty dear to her if she put the picture on HER special shelf. I'm glad she likes Mello.

Every month on the same date (the 19th) just before my birthday party we would mark mine and Mello's height on the wall. On the 19th (my birthday) we got Mello. So it would make sense for it to be the 19th. 

Mello was growing fairly quickly. I didn't like the thought of her leaving one day, I would usually try and focus on the bright side. We would get her a new bed nearly every year. Mello would chew all her toys to the point they were cracked/broken.

Our annual height marking day kept on going until I was nearly a young adult and Mello an adult! I had Mello learn new tricks every now and then, although I wasn't a professional dog trainer I considered myself pretty good.

School. I hated school. I was trying new clubs out nearly every day. I decided to join the Soccer/Football club. I always get practice because of Mello and I sometimes find myself watching soccer/football tricks. It's quite entertaining.

I recently had joined the "X's". A cheerleading team in my school every girl was dying to be a part of. It was the selection day. All the girls went out in the field and sat on the bleachers. The captains (Brittany and Maddie) started picking who they wanted to be on their team. I just smiled at the people who got picked. I knew I would be last. I always am. I ended up getting chosen but only for a trial. Really?

When it was time for the group photo I kneeled down in the centre, but this girl pushed me away. I tried staying as far as I could from those girls but the photographer noticed and told me to join them and smile. I did as I was instructed. I smiled, my teeth showing. They all made fun of my braces. They're just braces... I don't know why it's a big deal. 

I went home upset. I plumped right onto the sofa. Mello was trying to get in, I opened the door for her. I just smiled at her but after a while it got awkward, I started to giggle. Nothing would cheer me up more than Mello and her tricks. I got up and grabbed her toy and did my thing. Sunny wasn't happy. I started rubbing her tummy hoping she'd at least wag her tail. She didn't.

8 months had gone by, It was now late August of 1984. We started noticing that Mello had been under the cloud recently. We took her to the vet to discover Mello had "Parvovirus". A highly contagious infection that can kill dogs. We swiftly took Mello to the vet... she was vomiting so much I couldn't even look at her.

4 months had passed, it was now Christmas Eve. I went back home today and slumped myself onto the couch once again. Mello came up to me and licked my face, it didn't feel the same. She looked and felt dehydrated. I gave Mello some water and hoped she would feel better.

Later that evening I went back to check on Mello, she was laying down, staring at me breathlessly. A wave of panic passed over me, is Mello alright? I screamed for dad hoping he could hear me. My dad grabbed Mello and took her to the car.

We laid Mello down and waited for the nurse to show up. I knew this day was coming. I had to be sent out because dad had to talk to the nurse. I was in invited back inside as he told me the devastating news. I had been dreading this moment since the day I got her. But I knew this would be the best for Mello. She'd be much happier. 

We had to put Mello down. She looked at me with her light brown eyes... she looked so tired. I was happy for her, her pain would end. I took the yellow bow off her collar as she was being taken down. I was left in the room crying. 

-----

Years later - Daisy is now a grown up

It was now Poppy's (my daughter) birthday. I had gotten her a Ruby bracelet. Her grandpa (my dad) got her a surprise. I was just as excited as her, my dad was full of surprises! He went into my room and got a Golden Labrador! My story was full of Yellow but Poppy's is going to be full of Red!

Kiwi Kaha!

Hey guys! Have you heard about Kiwi Kaha? Maybe if you're in Year 7 to 8. Kiwi Kaha was originally called Kiwi Can. It's taken some time to get used, I'm slowly getting the hang of it.

Kiwi Can/Kaha is basically where you can do activities. Build your confidence and build your leadership skills and much, much more! It can be even more fun in larger spaces.

Throughout the whole term, we would visit Kiwi Kaha every Wednesday. We would get points depending on how we came into class, how well we listened to our instructors and so on. All our points would go in our class bucket. And at the end of the term, there would be a year 7 - 8 celebration! All the year 7 - 8 classes would get together to play games.

And today was the day! We went into the new gym which is quite big and blasted music while our peers from our class competed against other people from other classes. 

From my class (J5 - 7/8Tz) here are the people who competed!

Tamani - Cone flip - 3rd

Jesse - Keeping balloons off the ground - 3rd

Jayden - Eating cookies no hands - Blowing paper - (Score unknown)

Rarotonga and Sharnarnia - Balloon transporters - (Score unknown)

Zack - Yes/No water gun - (Score unknown)

Hamid and Tevita - Bubbles - (Score unknown)

Hans - Spaghetti loading penne pasta - (Score unknown)

Conclusion

Even though I wasn't there for all of it because of some other things at Hornby Primary I enjoyed seeing everyone laugh! My favourite part was when Jayden was doing the "Cookie no hand" challenge, his reactions were priceless! Since Kiwi Kaha does end of term little parties every time, I wonder what will happen next term? I'm excited!

Statistics

On Monday's we have Maths with Mrs Hastie. I don't think she ever told us but, I think we have been focusing on Statistics. 

Statistics is all about graphs and data. It is an easy way to collect information for either fun or just work! Here is an example.

Want to find out the most common favourite colour in your class? Ask your peers! Collect that data on Google Sheets or whatever you wish to collect it on. Then with the help of some basic math, you should be able to tell the most common favourite colour in your class.

Anyways, on Monday this week, we learnt about Mean, Median and Mode.

Mean

The mean of a set of numbers is their average. You find the average of a set of numbers by adding them up and dividing by the number of numbers you have.

Median

To find the Median, place the numbers in value order and find the middle number. Example: find the Median of {13, 23, 11, 16, 15, 10, 26}. Put them in order: {10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 23, 26} The middle number is 15, so the median is 15. (When there are two middle numbers we average them.)

Mode

The mode of a set of numbers is the one that occurs most often. So, in the set {1,5,7,5,9}, the mode is 5 because there are 2 fives and only one of each of the others.

Conclusion

I liked learning about Mean, Median and Mode but it was a bit confusing. I would forget what they mean and switch up the meaning for Median and Mode. I guess I have a little bit of an idea about what they are, but I don't consider myself an expert just yet!

P.E! New Hurumanu!!

Hey guys, last Tuesday we started our new Hurumanu, P.E!  Most of our class was said about P.E but after the first game we all enjoyed it. The game was called "Bench Ball." And now I'm going to teach you.  

How you play "Bench Ball" is you get into teams of 5 and separate into different courts. There should be 2 teams per court. You have 1 ball between both teams. 

There will be a person on a bench and they will be the goalie. Whoever throws the ball at the goal from the same team they can go on the bench with the goalie. When you have your whole team on the bench you have won! Good luck!                                                                   

Music Hurumanu!

Hi Guys! Today for Music Hurumanu we had to make simple sentences awesome. I enjoy doing this type of work, and I hope to do more of it in the future. So here are my sentences.

Sentence: He was singing

Aim: Make it awesome!

1. He was singing peacefully. - Adjective

2. Last night he was singing peacefully. - When

3. Last night he was singing under the stars. - Where

4. The other day he had heard his father singing the same song. - When

5. Last night he was singing under the stars while gazing at the moon because the moon reminded him of his mother. -Why

Conclusion

I really started to stress at the end because I couldn't figure out what to do for "Who". I guess I'm pretty happy with the work I've done but I could've definitely done better!

Kerry Du Pont!

Today Kerry Du Pont came to visit the Media Team! Kerry is a director for mainly TV 2. He directs shows like, Fanimals, What Now and many more shows featured on Hei Hei. 

'Hei Hei' is a website and app that you can find by searching up 'Hei Hei' of course. 'Hei Hei' features kid shows. Usually, the new episodes come out on 'Hei Hei' first and not the TV.

Kerry talked about many things including the types of filming techniques he uses during filming. From using an office to new technology for filming he told us all the things we needed to know. And I'm going to tell you everything!

But first, here are a few things about Kerry Du Pont.

Kerry Du Pont is the Director of What Now, a live two-hour variety show on TV2 in New Zealand. 
He produces an audio podcast for teenagers called 'Action Teen', and is a keen promoter for his hometown Invercargill.

I loved meeting someone quite famous, to be honest. 
What Now has actually came to my old school (Linwood Avenue School). We did sporty activities, like doing push-ups, running around and much more.

I hope we have a little Media Team trip to visit What Now and Kerry Du Pont! Listening to Kerry makes me want to get into the TV career.

My Passion!

Every Wednesdays we have CIP...but I already told you guys that in another blog post. On a Wednesday we also have our 'Passion Projects'. We get to pick if we want to do Singing, Rugby Academy, Dance, Kapa Haka, Basketball Coaching or Eco Warriors. You could pick as many as you want or you didn't have to pick one at all.

In period 3 we have Singing! I enjoy singing because it's just a simple way for me to relax. Listening to music can also help me relax. 

Around November or December, the Singing group will be performing for 'Kids for Kids'! I'm really excited about performing even though I'm not the most confident person. Performing will help my confidence grow.

Singing in front of a crowd? Dream come true!
Anyways, during singing, we have a few songs we always play. Some of these songs are, "Te Wai Tuku Kiri" which is a waiata. "Little Do You Know" by Alex & Sierra, "You Are The Reason" by Callum Scott and "Lovely" by Billie Eilish are usually played the most. But, today, we play "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten, we sang it better than I expected to be honest! Sometimes we're out of beat, not in the right tune, it just gets quite complicated.