First time cooking noodles.

Tonight was a cool night, I got to cook my first batch of noodles on my own, and they tasted great! I managed to boil them on the stove without burning myself, and I even got to cook up a batch for Xander, but he still kicked up a fuss as usual. Dad's having to tell Xander to eat his noodles as I'm typing this blog post, and now he's just filled up the cup holder on his highchair with them. Lol. I asked Mum if I could cook my own noodles from now on and she said yes, and the thing is, this is the first meal that I've cooked on my own. I think I'm going to cook noodles for lunch/dinner regularly now that I've done this.

A trip up north

Yesterday was really exciting. First we went up to Auckland to sample some Giapo ice-cream, which was absolutely delicious. There was a wide range of flavours like pineapple, cherry, plum, even avocado! My Two top favourites are the pineapple and cherry for the fact that the cherry was simply pure heaven, and the pineapple is one of my favourite tropical fruits. In the Giapo place there was also a live you-tube channel that locked up when Dad was interacting with it, his face was frozen on the screen for all the other customers to see. After being pulled away from the ice-cream we headed out of Auckland to the Gannet colony at Muriwai beach, when we got there I saw lots of Gannets, some on the cliff sides, and some in flight. This was all very exciting for me because I had never seen Gannets before, so for the next couple of hours of so we took lots of photos, some of which I'll put down at the bottom of this blog along with some photos from Auckland. Unfortunately my little brother started getting ratty and we were all getting rather hot so we headed back to the car were we saw a couple of para-gliders. On the way home I so wanted to go back when it was cooler and take more photos of Gannets, but that was a very interesting day, can't wait 'till next time!

The other day was rather sad, we had just come home from watching the practice for the speedboat race when Mum told me that my pet rat, Coal, had passed away. I was very sad and went into tears, but I tried my hardest to let him go, and I will never forget him. Dad did something that warmed my heart a little bit, he buried Coal in the garden outside the playroom, and Mum said that as something special we could buy a plant and put it on top of Coal's grave, so that calms me down enough to put me out of tears. Even though my rat is dead, I will always carry him in my heart for as long as I live.

farm visit

Today I went out on a trip to a farm, and boy was it fun. There were lots of cows and calves, we even got to pat them! I learned that when newborn calves are brought in, they need to use a sort of plastic container with fake teats on them to get the newborns to learn how to feed, and for the older calves there was a big mechanical version of the plastic feeder used on newborns that was attached to a big tractor. We also went into this milking shed where the cows went onto a circular conveyor belt and were hooked up to small tubes that connected to the teats on the udders that squeezed out the milk, the cows then get off the belt and go into a feeding area, the milk is then processed and filtered into the milk that we drink now. After the tour of the farm me and a friend of mine that lived there stayed a little bit and he showed me some other bits that we weren't shown before, like he showed me this big tank of stuff that was a bit like maple syrup and this little tube that showed how much stuff is in it, a bit like the gauge on the side of a kettle. Near the end of the visit me and the farm boy were over by the calve sheds when a guy came in with a new calve and a dead one on the hood of his vehicle, the poor little thing. I think this visit was quite cool, and if I get another chance, I think I'm going to try some of that processed milk.

As an extra bonus, here's some photos I took:

Woodworking suprise

The other day my mum and I went to out to the Ideal Home Show, which was really cool. The main reason we went there was because I needed to hand in a colouring competition from property brokers. My favourite stall was a place called HRV, a heat installation place, because I loved their helium balloons as the make me talk in a really funny voice that makes me sound like Alvin and the chipmunks. But the cool thing happened near the end of our visit, I was watching a man making a spinning top for me when a lady came and asked my mum and I about my interests in woodworking. Then she let me have a go on a cool woodworking machine called a scroll saw, which is a bit like a sewing machine, only instead of a sewing needle it had a small saw that cuts wood. I tried to cut out a rabbit shape out of a piece of wood and the results were good, except instead of a rabbit I got a rabbit with a beard! AND.... soon I'm going to be able to practice it more often because I'll be able to practise it at the lady's house. If I get into it, Mum might even give me one for Christmas! I think scroll sawing is something that I want to get into, and so long as I keep my fingers away from the blade, I'll be fine.

My 10th Birthday

Yesterday was an absolute blast, and you know why? IT WAS MY 10TH BIRTHDAY! However, instead of having the actual party on my birthday, we moved it back one day. It was really fun. We went to a cool indoor go-kart racing place called Daytona, then we went to the lido and I finally encouraged myself to spend $15 to allow me and my party guests, J and K, to go down the hydroslides. When the slides opened and I was about to go down, I was so scared that I thought I was going to wet my togs, but I beat my fear and went down. I even went down the fastest one! After that we went to Video Ezy to rent some movies, then we went home and it was then I realised that J and K were having a sleepover with me in the lounge, we even got to stay up until 10:30 watching the movies we rented. The next morning was a bit more interesting, while we were still waking up, K went to get dressed, and when he came back my supposed-to-be-in-bed baby brother came in after him and I had a slight hint of worry since K had let him out! So I took him back to his bedroom (which was a bit of a hassle since he didn't want to go back into bed), then Mum came out, so I explained to her what happened. Luckily, she showed no signs that I was in trouble (phew!). For the rest of the morning we sat there watching movies and playing an awesome playstation snowboarding game called SSX Tricky. I was a bit disappointed when J & K left because I enjoyed having them over, but at least I had it while it lasted, and their present was great. It was a game called Rummy-o. Speaking of presents, I got a cool present from my Oma... a crystal mining kit that I am really looking forward to using, and then there was a not-so-cool present from my uncle... a book about poo >__<. On my actual birthday, my Mum gave me her own point-and-shoot camera, complete with all the stuff it came with, and my Dad gave me some cool new Ben 10 bedding. I think that yesterday was the best birthday ever, only 364 days til my next one!

Castlepoint Cub Scout Sleepover

At Castlepoint last weekend I went to a sleepover with the cub scouts. It was very cool, there were lots of kids (but I was the only one from the West End group), and what was even cooler was that we stayed in a bunk house near the beach. Ever since I heard about the sleepover I was bouncing with excitement, and when we got there I was delighted to hear that we were going down to the beach to go sliding down a giant sand dune, and I got a good view of the lighthouse.

However, while trying to take some photos some sand got stuck in the camera so it started to play up, in fact Dad is still trying to fix it, so I hope it gets fixed soon so I can keep taking more photos. While on the beach I learned that the ocean I was seeing was the Pacific Ocean, as a matter of fact I was quite excited for I had never seen it before.

When I saw the lighthouse I was really quite amazed by its looks, and immediately a voice in my head said “Wow, that thing is awesome!”

That night we had a delicious meal of fish and chips with boiled vegetables, and for dessert we had ice-cream, and I had three servings of hokey-pokey, then we all played some games, which is when I got to play some Lego Starwars on someone’s Nintendo DS. After that the leaders decided to take us for a night walk down to a place with lots of big boats around, and there we saw something funny. It was a pole covered in sandals and it had a plank on it that read “The Home Of Lost Soles.” When we went back I was quite disappointed because I had had so much fun, and the only thing comforting me was my lunch (which was a bread roll, a brunch bar, a coconut slice and two packets of chips). I hope that there is another cub sleepover in the future because it was awesome (despite having to come home early due to bad weather)!!!!!!
A video I took (warning: no sound) of the sand dune sliding: