Calf Club 2015

On 21st October 2015, I attended Calf Club with my cute jersey calf Taffy. She is really cute and tiny.
The first event of the day was Obstacle Course. The judge got the way of how you did obstacle course wrong - he said you were meant to go around the peg, but you weren't meant to. It was only revealed that he judged it like that after I had my turn, which made me really disappointed. I would have done really well if it weren't for that, because for once, Taffy led. I received a ribbon for merit.

The second event was leading. Taffy led perfectly, and was put up to first place. Unfortunately, they were using progressive leading, and I finished at fifth.

After leading was the mad rush to get your calf clean and ready for rearing. When it was finally time for rearing, I got second.

Next was dairy type. There is nothing you can do to win this, just hope that you calf will be a good milker! I finished at second for this as well.

I was really pleased with my day and how it went.

iDrive PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting)

My plus for iDrive is the opportunity to do or make something collaboratively. You can make a piece of art, make up a play, or even build something. What I love is that nothing is limited, and no matter what there is always something fun to do, and an endless amount of people you can work with.

One of my favourite activities so far is Creative Playground. You can build lots of different things; obstacle courses, or even make a show. Once, I made a circus with some friends, and that was really fun. We all had our own acts, and then we cooperated so we could merge our acts together and make one big circus!

I also enjoy Cards, because you can learn lots of new games from other people. My personal favourite is most likely

I like how after we finish iDrive, we get a time to present what we have made to the class, so they can give us feedback, and they can also get ideas from what we have done. It’s so cool how our ideas can add to other ideas; sort of like making a tree of ideas.

My minus is that eventually, we might run out of things to do in iDrive, and we might go back to doing the same old things every week. But other than that, iDrive is the highlight of my week!

What I found interesting was the fact that we are always true to ourselves during iDrive time. They don’t have a really cool idea in a play and then think “Hang on, it might be really embarrassing to do this in front of fifty people, I’m not doing it any more,” they actually keep on going, even if people are going to laugh at them, they still make a difference by staying themselves, and not thinking about what other people will think.

Without iDrive my Thursdays would be pretty dull. I love how iDrive is unlimited; there is absolutely nothing you can’t do, and nobody thinks twice

I really enjoy iDrive, and I hope I will still be able to do it for the rest of my time in Whetu.

Labour Day

Labour Day is a day to remember the struggle for an eight hour working day. New Zealand workers were some of the first in the world to gain this right when in 1840, Samuel Parnell won an eight hour day in Wellington.

Labour Day was first celebrated in New Zealand on 28th of October 1890, when thousands of trade union members and supporters attended parades in the main centers. Government employees got the day off to attend the parades and many businesses closed for at least part of the day.

The date, 28 October was the first anniversary of the Maritime Council, a company of transport and mining unions. The new union was destroyed and put out of business in the trans-Tasman Maritime Strike; but despite this, Labour Day was a huge success. In Wellington, the highlight was a visit from the elderly Parnell, who died just a few weeks later.

These parades also had a political purpose. Although some workers in industries enjoyed the eight hour working day, it was not their legal entitlement. Other workers, like restaurant and shop employees still worked longer hours. Several also went through unpleasant and dangerous working conditions.
Unionists wanted the government to make it an eight hour working day for all workers, but they were reluctant to change the business community.

What the government did do was make Labour Day a holiday. The Labour Day Act of 1899 started a compulsory holiday on the second Wednesday in October. The holiday was "Mondayised" in 1910, and since then Labour Day has been held on the fourth Monday in October.

Parades were held on Labour Day, and there were many floats; but some floats just advertised businesses, and weren't showing what Labour Day was all about.
Soon, to most New Zealanders, Labour Day was just another holiday.

iDrive Term 4 Week 1

Today we had iDrive. I did Creative Playground with Ashling, Olivia, Sophie, Emma, Lara, and Kate S. We decided to make a circus!
Ashling was the host. She introduced all the acts. She made each sentence hilarious. My favourite was: "Ladies, and gentlemen, children and unicorns"
Sophie and Olivia were the clowns. They had a really hilarious performance.
I was the acrobat. I had two barrels and I was doing random tricks and jumps on them.
Emma, Lara and Kate S were the tightrope walkers. They had a really cool performance; I loved how Lara was small enough to fit between Emma's legs!
Sophie and Olivia also did a puppet show. It was a bit nonsense, but still funny.

We showed the learning power Connecting, because we had to collaborate and work together really well so we knew who was doing what. We had to be able to decide who was going to be what, and who needed what pieces for their act.
We used Aroha because when somebody hurt themselves doing their act we helped each other up and made sure we were okay.
I really enjoyed making this clown performance and I would definitely do it again.


​

My Great Grandmother's 100th Birthday

My Great Grandmother's 100th Birthday

On Saturday the 3rd of October, my great grandmother turned one hundred.
I think that one hundred is a really great age to achieve because that means you have been around for a century! You can watch generation upon generation; and witness the world changing around you. It would be a great thrill for someone to have the opportunity to see the world gain new possibilities; and turn possibilities into reality.

My great grandmother received cards from people like John Key, Governor General, The Queen, Hillary Barry, Peter Dunne, and Scott Simpson. Another great reason to live so long!

The party was awesome. There were many of my relatives that I didn't know; but they all introduced themselves to me. Nearly everybody commented on how tall I was getting; I replied that I was wearing heels! :)
There were family trees hung up on the walls and I enjoyed looking at them. They had at least ten generations on them. I saw how far my family goes back and I was amazed.

During most of the party my cousin chased and pestered me. She acted like my shadow; always following me. She was really excited to see me - this really showed because of the way she chased me around the party; it was almost as if she were magnetized to me. My shadow was so irritating, I just had to find a way to get rid of her. I decided to pretend to play hide and seek with her. I counted, and made it seem like I couldn't find her.

My great grandmother was very confused; because of her age, she didn't know who many of us were. Many people asked her the same question: How old are you today? She almost always said "100", so she can't have lost her memory that badly!
She was very tired, and slept through most of the party.

Sadly, just over a week after the party, my great grandmother died.
I like to think about how lucky my great grandmother was to live up to such an outstanding age: 100!