The race started off good for me. I was up with the front  person for the start of  first lap. But as we came up to one of the first big hills the girl gave up and started walking, obviously she hadn’t paced herself. I slipped over at one point but got straight back up. The second lap almost seemed longer than the first. Finally I only had the home straight to go, I could hear my dad yelling at me to sprint, I looked behind me but luckily no on was that close, but I still speed up and sprinted the last 100m down the track and across the line. 

I really enjoyed the Inter-Intermediate race I felt as though I ran really well and was really happy that I won.  It was really fun I enjoyed it more than my school one, mainly because it was really slushy so we all got covered in mud. But also because it was almost all on grass, unlike the school one which was basically a road race instead of a cross country race, as it was  mainly on the footpaths around my school.

For example a couple of days ago a few of my friends were going round asking people what they thought the right way to say ‘pasta’ was. There was a mixed response; about half the people thought that it was pronounced pasta and the rest thought it was paasta. Then there is also the pronouciation of place names in New Zealand one what springs to mine is Whakatane, for anyone new to the Mouri language it could easily be mistaken as Waka-tane. There is also Taupo, which could even be mistaken for tap-po. And then of course there is the traditional ‘potato patarto, tamarto tomato dispute.

To be quite honest I have no idea what the ‘right’ way to say things is. Like I said there are debates and deliberations going on around us all the time. Please comment and tell me what you think the ‘right’ way to say things is

But to be honest think this term is going to be, just as, if not busier than last term. A few of the main points for me this term are cross country, speeches, ski trip(which I went on last year and it was awesome,) and sports camp, and there is probably somethings that I have forgotten. On top of this there is still the usual school work and the extra curricular activities that I am involved in.

I like this quote I find it pretty funny but it’s also very true, because  being motivated once wont last long, you have to be motivated frequently more than once for it to last. Also something that might motivate you one day could make you miserable the next.  Whats happening in your life changes so what motivates you will too.

For example, a while ago I had this song I used to listen to while I was getting ready for school. To be quite honest I can’t remember what the song was, but I just remember it  making me smile. I listened to it every morning for about a month but then one day it didn’t motivate me any more, it was just another song. I think I just got sick of the song, I had used it as my daily motivation and I was just sick of it.

Do you agree?

The race was held this morning, so at 10:30 I was standing in the freezing cold waiting for the hooter which signaled the race was starting. I had been told many times not to rush but just to start off slowly but if I was feeling good at the halfway point, to speed up a bit.

To start with everyone was in a tight group and it was almost impossible to go faster than a walk, but slowly everybody thinned out. It was quite interesting running in such a big race I had never done anything like it. I wasn’t sure how far 8km was, because like I said I had never run that far before. I tried to pace myself, and run with people who were going quite slow. 

It seemed to take a long time to get to the 4km sign which meant that I was allowed to turn round but at last I did. The way back seemed easier, and it also seemed to go quicker. I realised that I had started way to slow as I still had a lot of energy left at the finish, enough so I could sprint the last 100m to the finishing line.

Every competitor was given a medal, a friut pie, and a drink of either juice or water. I ended up doing a  time of 45.52min, which I was pretty happy with, although I knew I could have gone faster. There were also spot prizes, these were given out at 1:00pm so we had a while to wait, unluckily my mum or I didn’t win anything.

I enjoyed running the longer distance and I would like to do something like that again as it was fun and I would like to try and improve my time.

To me, the most dangerous question would be “do you feel the same?” or “do you agree?” There are many different situations that this question can be asked and many could have disastrous consequences.

For example imagine you are standing in front of a person that you have secretly loved for ages and thought that they liked you back. You have a weird impulse and start explaining your love for them, the look on their face goes from panic to sympathy, they then start backing away. You ask, “do you feel the same?”

Or another example would be if you were a scientist and and a group of you have spent years trying to working out a way to do something important. Then one night you  finally think of a way. You are over confident in yourself as you cannot see how it could fail. But then when at last it is time to share your discovery, the rest of  the group stare at you blankly with looks of uncertainty on their faces. You stammer “do you agree?”

I don’t know what it is about these questions that makes them so dangerous, probably because in both these examples if the answer is ‘no’ the person’s heart is crushed and their confidence gone. Even though, this question could also have a positive answer. I think this is what makes it so dangerous, it could go either way, you could be really happy, or horribly heartbroken.

I am playing in the band, but I am also doing one of those ‘bad’ additions. You know those ones that you see on T.V -where people really suck. Well I’m one of those people, and to make it even more embarrassing I am playing the recorder, Badly!

This weekend there was an over night stay for the whole cast, it was held at our school. We spent most of the first day organising our beds and practising. It was the bands first time playing with the singers but I think we did a pretty good job.

We slept in the A.L.C (our school gym) on mattresses. And before we had to go to sleep a movie was played, it was pretty good although, it was something to do with the centre of the earth, I can’t remember what it was called. Our lights were out at about 10:30 and we were supposed to go straight to sleep, although it took us a while to settle down so mostpeople weren’t asleep till round midnight!

We also spent most of the next day practising . The band was with the singers almost the whole day and this time we were even better!

I think that it was a great sleep over and I know for a fact that most people benefited from it, the band for example has improved heaps, before the sleep over most of us could only play a few songs correctly, now there is only a couple that we still are having trouble with. And even though we spent most of our time practising, it was still a lot of fun

I think that it would be pretty cool to see how someone else lives and I would like to be given that chance. For example it might be someone who lives in another country, someone who inspires you or someone who has a completely different life style to you. In some aspects this could be really fun, but others it would not. Like living with no legs or not being able to talk would be horrible to me, although it would probably make me thankful for my life.

If I could chose someone else’s ‘shoes’ to wear for a while, it would be either some one who lives in another country, like Japan, India or Italy. As I think it would be cool to experience what daily life is like in other countries. Or maybe someone who is really high up in what they do, like the President of America or something similar. I think it would be cool feel so important and be in charge of so much, although I would be worried I would do something wrong. Or maybe just someone who lives in the same town as me but has a completely different life style and experiences that I am not exposed to.

So, would you walk a mile in another man’s shoes?

But as the Famine organizers say, “its your weekend, their life” that is really true. A lot of kids (me included) don’t know how got we’ve got it, we have a pretty peaceful life; a warm house, a good education, good food, clean water, medical treatment,  no war going on in our back yard and basically what we need we usually able to get it.  When I look at it that way 40 hours seem like nothing!

I think the 40 hour Famine is a really good cause; it’s a fun way to raise money for people living in poverty around the world. There are heaps of different famines you can do; my friend is doing one where she has to sleep in a cardboard box for 20 hours living on only rice and water. You can also do a no talking one, a sport one and of course the typical food one.

If you want to know more about the Famine go to http://www.famine.org.nz/

Now all I need to do is get some more sponsors…..