The Diary of Alonso Jimenez: Entry 3

Journal Entry #3:  November 8, 1519

The past days have been dreadful, it often rained down on us, soaking us to our bones, but Cortes and the others were having none of it, pushing on. I assume that the hard work has paid off, as we had finally arrived at the city of Tenochtitlan.

All of us, including Cortes, had been cautious about entering the city of the most feared tribe, but a tall man with a headdress of the most beautiful and vibrant shade of green who called himself Montezuma, the leader of the Aztecs, had welcomed us. Moctezuma had seemed prepared; he had been willing to let us enter their city without any hesitation, I however certainly did, wondering if he had even heard of the trouble we had been making on our path to the Aztecs. I had suspected that he did not since he gave us words of encouragement to enjoy the luxuries offered to us. I would have been even more apprehensive if we did not have a translator to interpret the meaning of his words. This is all thanks to Malinche, who was a part of a tribe we had conquered, she is very talented with languages, and so Cortes believed her a valuable ally. She has not only acted as our translator, yet also as our spies, telling Cortes of what she hears others whisper amongst themselves. According to her, Moctezuma is willing to give up the land to us along with all the goods and people. We have Moctezuma under guard now, as our prisoner, and will most likely use him to persuade his people onto our side.

I couldn’t see how someone could give up a city as luxurious and ethereal as this jewel of a city. Even though I hate to admit this, the moment I had entered the walls of Tenochtitlan I was amazed, they had many buildings, a market full of people, bridges, and architecture that was like our aqueducts, bringing them drinking water. The beauty of the city is not all to the enchantment of this area, the clothes they wear are even more impressive, boldly coloured, with beautiful feathers of exotic birds, their necks covered with exquisite jewelry and gold. However, even their clothing cannot hide the atrocity of their crimes; part of the city is riddled with may temple soaring, almost touching the sky, but they are not as magnificent as it seems. I had walked towards one, once, the temple had been littered with rotting bodies, and fresh blood, dripping onto the floor. After looking around, I had heard that this was a part of their beliefs, they would kill many people in horrendous ways to please their multiple gods. The Aztecs were as brutal in war and very strategic in their alliances, which is something I must respect them for. The Aztecs had many bizarre weapons, including a barbaric looking club they used to knock out their opponents, and even a spear, which was made of woods, and against our muskets, metal armour, and horses, they did not have a chance.

Many of us realize that the impending war against the Aztecs, which they do not know of, will destroy the city, and the beauty it holds. So consequently, we spend much of our time, getting to immerse ourselves into the riches that this city can provide. This war is alleged to bring us glory, fame, and gold for our country, Cortes promised us that we will soon be the richest men who would ever cross the seas, and I, along with many of us agree.

Diary of Alonso Jimenez: Entry 2

Journal Entry #2: March 4, 1519

I cannot tell how long we have been sailing, the first few weeks I had counted, but the seasickness and the mysterious illness I had caught had taken a toll on me, but we finally reached the new world. Lucky for me, one of the men on the boat named Alvaro had been a doctor a while ago back in Spain but had come in hopes of gold. Alvaro knew of my disease and miraculously had the medicine I had been needing; I had pocketed some extra in case this was the medicine that my Hermanita would need.

Before all of this, however, after weeks of seasickness, due to my lack of experience on the seas, we had arrived in Cuba, to find Hernan Cortes all ready with the plans. Although, the basic strategy is the routine that many voyagers and conquistadors perform to take over other tribes and areas, and it seems to be working remarkably. We are to exchange words in a show of a cordial and pleasant nature, and eventually work up to the goal of capturing the leader, therefore, taking control of the tribe. This was not the only plan Cortes had, as I learned from Alvaro, apparently, he devised that the best way to defeat the ancient and powerful tribe residing in the heart of this area, is to first make allies with other neighbouring tribes. Cortes believes that we have a chance at this and seems very eager to start. So, a few weeks later, we were back on the sea, heading towards the new world.

 Now, I am standing on the soil of the mostly unexplored land, with many unknown tribes. The landscape here is very flat, filled, with many ponds and swaps. If you look far enough, you can see mountains lying proudly in the background. We have been here for a few weeks now, and during these weeks, Cortes had been brazened enough to go against Governor Velazquez’s orders even though he had been ordered to stop a while ago. Hernan Cortes declared the area of land that we were on, Veracruz, as an independent government. So now, this mission was not in the hands of the Governor, and Cortes can do as he pleases, so long as it does not harm the rule or beliefs of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

The journey to Tenochtitlan, as many tribes call it, has been very harrowing, we have already made many allies, multiple tribes seemed very willing to help. It appears that the Aztecs are very brutal, yet efficient in their ways since many of the tribes have not hesitated in taking the hand of strangers. Nonetheless, there still have been some tribes that have been reluctant to help us, but eventually, they have bowed to our graciousness, which is to help or be killed, and other tribes have decided to choose the latter. Anyhow, I will report my findings and adventures later, considering that we have packed up and are ready to move again.

Diary of Alonso Jimenez- Entry 1

Journal Entry #1: January 12, 1519

Right now, my suitcase, full of clothes for a few days, is being pulled onto the beautiful deck of our Spanish ship. Today is the day that I will sail as a part of Hernan Cortes’s men to the new world. My Madre and Hermanita even on her deathbed tried to stop me from leaving, believing that I would never make it back. To help her, I told her that I would make her a necklace of the things that I would find on my journey, and she was immediately overjoyed and said she was fine with me leaving. However, the thing is I don’t have much of choice, I have to get the money for my Hermanita, as she is sick, and with our plummeting economy, there is no way that we can afford any medicine for her. Although, I cannot blame our monarchs for the terrible amount of money, as they are only trying to create a Spain that is religiously unified due to their expanding fear that the Muslims would take over. They had started to kill anyone that was suspected of having faith in another religion than Catholicism, I had only attended one of these, although there are many more. The Spanish Inquisition would be the judge of the person rumoured to be of another religion when I had attended I knew that the consequences would be brutal, but I had not expected the execution sentenced to the man. All of this is because the Muslims came and conquered a significant portion of Spain and Portugal, and their religion started spreading and taking over the rest of Spain. They started to create large universities in the cities they had taken over and began to settle into their stolen land, but unlike us, they allowed other religions to live amongst them, which I believe is a huge mistake, and eventually, we had defeated them. However because of the executions, it started to cause a dip in our economy, as the Jews, and many others had held up the base of our economy. Now, it has plummeted, but the others who have land, had money, the nobles, and are not affected as much like me and many others, and many didn’t have to join any wars or go on expeditions. However, the other nobles that did not own any land had to join the fight, to gain money. Unlike them, I did not have a choice, and my money has decreased, which is why I believe that the condition of America may be the best way for me to support my family.

Cortes believes that the Americas will hold all the gold and resources that we need, and that we will get all the fame for it. Even though I am very skeptical about it, I still intend to follow, so that I may have a chance of getting land or gold to bring home. The journey to the new world had revealed that there was a tribe that was very powerful, and so once we convert them to Catholicism, we are also helping our duty to our God. There are some on this mission who are very afraid of the so-called ‘strong,’ indigenous tribe, but as Cortes had said, they are inferior, and they can readily be righted and changed into our pristine ways.

Now, as I watch the ship bobbing on the ocean, I have just realized that the frequent dizziness and sickness was not due to my anticipation of our trip ahead of us, rather, the early symptoms of disease. I don’t believe that it’s very powerful, as I am sure I have had it for the few days I have gone without washing. Although, I must find some way to get medicine in case it happens to be a much deadlier illness. However, I sincerely doubt that I will be affected as much, since many fatal diseases have been passing through our family for generations, and yet many survived. This must be the conclusion of the day, as the men have started to board the ship, and I am being urged to board the ship soon as well.

A world of color and beauty

Many of us are familiar with listening to music, reading, and talking, it seems that it is a normal part of our lives. However, for some people, it is much different, Synesthesia is a condition in which a person is able to smell colours, see flavours, or taste sound. We all have a type of synesthesia, such as when we smell a fruit and know it is going to be sweet, this is most likely because the pathways for taste and smell are so close, but synesthesia is a more prominent version of what many people have.This condition varies in all of the people who have it, for example, one person with synesthesia might see the number 5 as red while the other sees it as blue, it all varies depending on the person. 

Animals are not our test subjects

Imagine being captured, taken away from what you have known your entire life. You have been put in a small room, so small you can’t move. The next day, someone takes you outside, but they inject you with something that causes crippling pain, and puts you back in the room, paying no mind to the state and pain you are in. However, imagine this ten times worse and for the rest of your life. Now, as you are a human, this would be considered unlawful, and the person doing that would be jailed, but this is the reality for many animals that are tested on for experiments and products. Animal testing must be banned everywhere because it is unethical, unnecessary, and is dangerous to the environment. Expanding on this, many of the times, during experiments, animals are hurt to find out if the product is safe for humans, which is unacceptable.

The Way Home (short story based on The Giver by Lois Lowry)

Prologue 

Jonas struggled to his feet, he looked down at Gabe, bundled up in his arms. Gabe had stopped shivering, and showing any signs that he was awake. The cabin up ahead was decorated with lights that used to work. One more step, Jonas thought as he struggled to move his stiff, unfeeling legs. Jonas caught a glimpse of something dark blooming against his hands, frostbite, he thought as he remembered the countless winters he had in the memories. Gabe stirred against his arms as Jonas entered the cabin surrounded by tall pine trees. 

Hung Vu's Story(inspired by Ambush by Tim O'Brien)

Hùng Vu, they called me, it means brave and heroic, but they didn’t realize how wrong of a name that was for me, but they will, eventually.

Baking Blue Berry Muffins !!

Hey!!

So, on Friday, right after school, my mom  and I went shopping to get some ingredients for the delicious muffins we were going to make. Here's what we needed...

1/2 cup of flour
3/4 cup of sugar
2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup of milk
2 tsp of vanilla extract
Blue berries!!

Here is what we bought...

Eggs
Fruit
Whipped Cream
2 Cake Mix Packets
And some other stuff I don't remember... :D

Now, you must be wondering why we bought the fruit and other stuff right? Well, I wasn't the only one on a mission. My sister was determined to make truffles all by her self. If I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure she is writing a post about her truffles too. Oh yeah here's the link if you want to check that out ww.cyberslk.net/2016/03/how-to-make-truffles.html

Anyhow, the recipe I mentioned above only made 8 muffins so we tripled the recipe ;D. I would finish 8 muffins in 2 seconds! :D

So, I got right down to business. I first washed my hands, very VERY thoroughly. I mean, I'm not a germaphobe or anything, but my mom INSISTED, so I complied.

Anyway, then I preheated out oven to 400 degrees.

Next, I mixed all of the dry ingredients (the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt) with a hand mixer, or basically anything you can mix things with :D.

Then, I mixed all of the wet ingredients in a SEPARATE bowl. Notice the emphasis on SEPARATE. I actually don't know what would happen if you mixed the wet ingredients into the dry, but the recipe said to separate them at first, so that's what I did.

After mixing all of the wet ingredients thoroughly, I added them to the dry ingredients. I guess separating the two would probably help mix the ingredients properly.

 When you mix the dry and the wet ingredients DO NOT over mix. This will make your muffins SUPER hard and crunchy; definitely not what you want in a muffin!

So, after mixing the wet and the dry, you can add the blue berries into the batter. Make sure you don't squish the poor blue berries while you are mixing them in!

After you think the blue berries are mixed into the batter properly, take a muffin tray and lay out the muffin cups. leave a few of the muffin holder thingies empty so you can pour water into it, to make the muffins nice and moist.

Then, pour equal amounts of batter into the muffin cups, and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until they are thoroughly cooked.

The muffins won't taste the best when they are hot, since the blue berries will taste like lava. So be patient and let it cool! I was too eager to eat them and found that it tasted horrid! I was honestly thinking of throwing them out, but I left it for Saturday, in case I was really desperate for a snack.

It turned out after it was cooled, it tasted AMAZING!!

Do try this recipe, the batter is absolutely DELICIOUS!

I ate three whole muffins today! I better go and work of all of the calories I gained!

Wait for my next post!
Dinithi

PS. I'm so so so so sorry about not writing for a few days! I had two exams this week so I had to STUDY,STUDY,STUDY!! Actually I didn't study all day, but I also had a piano recital and was practising for that too!

PPS. Did you notice how many times I said "thoroughly"? I sound very professional :D...not!

PPPS. Sorry about all of these post scripts :D, but if you ave nay questions about the recipe or just feel like commenting, please leave a comment below!

How to make Truffles

    Ingredients:

• 2 packets of strawberry Jello
• 2 Packets of Lime Jello
• 2 packets of Vanilla pudding
• Whip Cream
• 3 cups of mixed fruits
• lemon cake
• 1 cup of fruit syrup (you can use the syrup from a can of fruits)

Directions:

1.)  Put the two packet of Strawberry jello into a bowl and then, add 1 and a 1/2 cup of hot water. Mix it well. Let it cool for for about 10 minutes. 

2.)  Once the jello has cooled, add 1 and a 1/2 cup of fruit into the jello. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, then place this in the fridge for 4 hours.

3.)  When the Jello is done, place a thin layer of lemon cake on top. Add about one cup of fruit syrup over the lemon cake.

4.) Make the vanilla pudding, pour this on top over top of the cake. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.

5.) Make the Lime jello, and then put in fridge from 15-20 minutes. 

6.)After 15-20 minutes take the jello out and add 1 and a 1/2 cup of mixed fruit.

7.) Add the Lime Jello on top of the Vanilla Pudding. Place this in the fridge to set.

8.) After the Lime Jello has set add some whip cream on top of the truffle, and decorate with fresh strawberries.

             

This is how it looked after I finished making it

Here is a side view of my Truffle 

       
    
   Enjoy!

                                                              
                                                                 -Mithili                      

Long Time, No Posts!!

Hey,

I'm really sorry about not writing for this week! I had a lot of things to do!

Since I posted on Monday, I won't describe that day :D but in this post, I will cover most of the things I did throughout this week.

Okay so lets start with Tuesday. On Tuesday, I spent the WHOLE day preparing for the Math Contest that was coming up. It was fun and stressful, since I wan't a 100 percent sure of all the question that would be on the test. So I prepared for every possibility. Well, probably not EVERY possibility...but still! I slept at around 11 o clock that day...I think ;D.

My Pool Family!!

Then, on Wednesday, I had the Math Contest on period 3.  I was very VERY stressed! I think that probably messed me up a bit. There were about 8 people writing the test. Once the clock started, the time literally flew by! There were a few questions I didn't understand so, I skipped them. Then when the time was up, I handed my paper in. Only, after handing it in, did I realize that I FORGOT to answer the questions I skipped!!! So I spent the rest of the day stressing about the test. And I also, decided to get a few more volunteer hours.I volunteered to help out at the curling rink. There was a big game going that day! I was very excited!! I already have 180 hours, from volunteering at the community pool for the WHOLE summer! It was VERY fun!!!

On Thursday, I worked on the science project I was talking about a few posts ago. One of my very best friends and I were partners for this project. There are 23 people in my class so, there were two people that chose to be by themselves, since it was a choice of individual or two people group. My partner and I wanted to make something that didn't use syringes, because it was very inconvenient and we also wanted to beat these two other people, that stole our first idea. After a lot of trial and error, we managed to get the engine of our boat to work! It was A LOT of work, i tell you! A LOT!!! We were so happy!! After that, my friend stayed at our house for a few more minute, by which time, we had played three songs on Just Dance 2014. It was fun, but VERY exhausting!!

Only after noon did I realize that I had a piano recital, just a few minutes before I agreed to volunteer at the curling rink. So, right after school, I sprinted my way home, grabbed an apple and my mom quickly drove me to the church. I was hoping since I was in a hurry, that I will be done soon, but it took longer than I hoped it would. So, by the time I was home, I had to meet my friend at the rink, because we were both volunteering, since they needed two people. I was hoping the apple would last until 7:30, but fortunately, my mom gave me some money, so I could buy some food from the rink. \

We were a bit early, well...I mean, we were a few seconds early...but still!! They people doing their shift before us got up as soon as were came through the doors, but we went straight to the rink to watch and cheer on our team. After about 60, seconds, our shift begun. When, my ELA, Health and Phys. Ed teacher ( who asked me about volunteering) came out, she bought us two cookies and told us what to do. She is so sweet! And the cookies were AMAZING! I decided to buy 2 more of those DELICIOUS cookies and some poutine (which is fries with gravy) . In the end, I felt like puking because there was WAY too much gravy on my fries. So, I ended up throwing away some of the poutine.

After our shift was done, I sent my dad a message saying I was done, and went into watch the game. They had lost their first game BY 1!!! They are AMAZING, but I guess today wasn't their day. Halfway through the second game, my dad said he was outside. So I told, my friend to keep me updated on the game and I went home with my dad. In the end, THEY WON!!!! This meant that they were going to PROVINCIALS!! I was so excited for them!! So I congratulated them! They were very happy! So was I!! After all of that, when I got, home, we decided to watch a movie. It was a very exhausting day!!

Then on Saturday. I mainly slept, because on Thursday, I stayed up until 12:30 trying to fix up the engine and then I had stayed up a little past 12 on Friday night as well. So I slept until about 10 am. After I woke up, I made breakfast for my sister and I and begun to work on some homework. I had to study for the science test, finish my CAD assignment, finish my french assignment, study for social and finish my health newspaper article. I know that sounds like a lot, but I managed to finish studying almost halfway through the day, so I finished my newspaper article and then my french. I decided to leave the CAD and the social for Monday.

On Sunday, my friend came over to my house to finish up our project. We took a long time deciding on the color that we wanted to paint the boat. Then, once we finally decided, it didn't look too pleasing to the eye, so we covered it up with tin foil, which seemed to work....until we put it in water! As soon as the boat made contact with the water, it began to leak, so we fixed that up and left it to dry.

Then today, nothing out of the ordinary happened. The most exciting this that happened was that we began the badminton until in Phys. Ed. It was fun, but we only got to play badminton for a few minutes, since people kept talking and the teacher had to stop and explain everything OVER and Over gain. I was very frustrated with those people!!!

After Phys. Ed, I walked home with my other best friend.  It was quite cold out today; -29. I was hoping it would be warm today since it was warm on Friday and Saturday; +6. But my hopes were crushed. Anyway, I ate rice and a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Then I went downstairs to work out for a few minutes. i ended up watching this TV show called Forensic Files and burning 410 calories. It was fun.

Then I started to work on my CAD, which I just finished a few minutes ago. I left the social for tomorrow

Right now, my back is Burning from sitting in this position for a VERY long time. So I think I'm going to finish this post up and go to sleep.

Catch you later!
Dinithi

Weekend Recap and Monday

Hey,

First of all I want you to know I won't usually write on Saturdays and Sundays.

So here's what happened :

Almost the entire day was burned up from me researching for an idea for my science project. I had to make a toy that only uses Pneumatic and/or Hydraulic systems. I also wanted to get a really high mark on it. So, I needed a really complex machine.

First I looked at at steam engines. Well, the very first thing I did was stare at my computer without a clue :D. Then, I started to look at steam engines. After looking at various models of the steam engine, I finally admitted that this was just a bit too complex. So, then I looked through the Internet for about 3 hours searching for another idea.

It took me about 3 and a half hours to finally find an idea. I found this boat that worked with the power of steam. 

Then, once I was done searching for ideas, (by the way my dad was helping me find and idea as well :D) I had to clean all of upstairs. My sister didn't do any of it because she was "studying".

Anyway, once I was done, my dad told us to prepare some songs that we could sing to the seniors. We've done this once before, in December. So we decided to do that.

We practised the song called Falling in Love by Elvis Presley.  Then, we recorded it. The bad thing was that we had to get into our "formal" clothes to make the video portion. This took us about half an hour, by which time, my mom was making supper. I really wanted to help. So, as soon as I was done getting ready, I went downstairs to help. Then, my dad said that we could do it tomorrow instead, because we had to watch a movie after.

So, once we had supper, we showered and went down stairs to watch this movie called Snowtime.

It began pretty good, but then slowly decreased interest. It was basically about a group of little kids having a snowball fight.  I recalled watching a movie similar to this in French class, back in Ontario. Although that movie had a way better plot line that this movie.

It was around 2 when we were finished watching the movie. I had started a bit of the post before the movie but never got to finish. So here I am writing to you guys after a WHOLE day!

I'm so so so sorry about delaying the post, but I don't think I could have written a proper post yesterday, or today morning I guess :D.

Okay so I think I'm going to combine the post for today and yesterday because today is almost done.

So today, my dad forced us out of bed to talk to our grad parents and aunt. They spoke in our language, which, to be honest I find difficult to pronounce. Anyway, we had a decent conversation, with the basics; how are you, when are you coming back to visit, what did you eat, how's school and are you studying. After this conversation, I sat down on the sofa and napped for a bit.

Then, my dad said I HAD to eat. He made milk rice. It's usually a favourite of mine, but I really didn't feel like eating right at the moment. But since my dad insisted, I ate. It was pretty good.

Then, I got right to work. I had a math contest in a few days. You would know this if you read m earlier posts. But anyway, I started to study for it, doing a couple of the practice math tests. I fully regret not studying a bit earlier because I keep getting the same kind of questions wrong. So I kept practising.

When I finally stopped, I went over to my mom. As soon as I did, she told me to talk to my other aunt. She was very nice and gave me some tips to keep acne off my face, the she phoned again, when I wasn't at home. So my mom said to call and thank her. So I did. She is VERY nice! After I was done talking to her, I sat on the sofa and read.

The day practically flew by! After I read, I practised my Piano and sax pieces. By the way, I have a red saxophone. I just wanted to tell you that because all of my friends think it's cool. B)

Then, I took a shower and ate a hot dog and a full bowl of ice cream. I really need to cut down on the food I'm eating! Anyhow, now here I am writing a recap post.

I happy and sad to inform that Sunday was the last day of winter break. Yes. I was on break. I wasn't skipping school, or anything, to write to you guys :D. Even though, I will still wrote to you guys every day (except weekends).

And today was a normal school day. We had Band for first period; Math for second; English, for third; Health, Science and Phys. Ed followed after lunch.

I have to go and study for that Math Contest that's coming up really quick! 

So catch you later!
Dinithi

Math Contest and Camping Plans

Hey,

Today's time was burned up from reading, playing piano, napping, practising math problems, and booking hotels for the Spring  Break.

I guess today was a pretty good day. I'm pretty sure my awesome Grade 5 teacher would hate this post because I said today was "good" and she HATES that, because it doesn't describe or give any information about the day! Anyway, I started the day with checking the blog, as usual (it's turned into a routine now :D).

Then I refreshed and got right to business. I had a ton of things to get done today (Well probably not a ton.  But still!) I had to study and practice extra math problems, read (I really didn't HAVE to do this but I did anyway :D), practice my saxophone and piano pieces for Music Festival and nap ;). So, I started with math problems because those were the most important, because the math contest was coming up in a few days. My principal arranged this math contest. There were about 40 questions and you have to get as many as possible done ASAP. So, I began my brain training. I did multiple of those practice tests, that my awesome principal gave me. This was very helpful! He is really awesome!!  After doing a ton of these, my brain needed a break, so I decided to read. I read for a few minutes and my head started to hurt. So I took a mini nap.

After my mini nap, my mom said we could go and watch a movie. It took us about an hour to choose a movie, after browsing through all of the movies on Netflix. We finally decided to watch this movie called The Song of the Sea. It was a movie for ages 8-10 :D but I didn't have any other good recommendations and my sister was BEGGING me to watch it. (She had already watched this movie with my mom and she wanted me to watch it as well) In the end, it was an okay movie. It wasn't the BEST but it also want the WORST. It was about this cute little girl Saoirse and Ben, her brother, going to venture the sea and free fairies, which were trapped on Earth. She is a child who is the last of the selkies, women who transform into seals, when they come into contact with water and turns into people when they are on land. 

After this, my dad and mom began to look at hotels that we could go to over the Spring Break. Then, since I thought this was cool, I came to give out my opinion. And this dragged my sister into it as well. In fact, they are still looking at hotels right now; I think :D. But I came to write to you guys! 

The Calgary Flames!!

AND I just checked the score for the Calgary Flames game ( they are a Canadian Ice Hockey team. They are my favourite!!) Anyway, they are currently winning 5 to 2 against the Vancouver Canucks!! 

My mom just told me to go to bed and I'm feeling a bit sleepy myself so, I think I'm going to bed now :D.

Stay tuned for more!!
Dinithi

PS:

Here's an audio track of the post. I made a few changes in the audio compare to the post, see if you can spot those and comment!! Lets see who can spot the most!! And if you were wondering, the background music is Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud, if you haven't already listened to it, you should!! 

The White Abyss, Gastritis and the Clinic

Hey,

Today, I was feeling nauseous all day...almost. When I woke up, I found my dad left to get his SUV checked up (there is a post on that in the post Shopping, Haircuts and Snowstorms). Instead of waking up right away, I decided to check the blog to see how it was doing and if there were any comments. To my surprise, there was one comment! I quickly replied to it and almost as soon as I was finished, I heard  my mom call us. So I ran upstairs to meet her! As soon as I made it upstairs, she told us to get ready. I knew why; we had a check up with our family doctor.

So we refreshed, did our hair and made our way downstairs. I was a bit slow today, because I kept feeling queasy. When I told my mom this, she gave me some medicine that should have helped; only it didn't...at least not to the extent that I noticed a change.  So she told me it must be Gastritis, when the stomach acids splash into the esophagus... I think (if you want to learn more about Gastritis, then I'm pretty sure my dad has a post on it. His blog is http://www.nursinglk.com/). Anyway, the best cure for this was to eat. And the worst part was, when you have it the last thing you want to do is eat. So, I forced myself to eat something. I'm pretty certain it helped, because the queasiness vanished, in mere minutes.

Then, my dad arrived. So we made him eat an early lunch. Then, we made our way to the SUV and got on the road. It was a warm day out; 0 degrees. The air felt nice too, not too humid; not too dry. Once we were on the road, I was getting ready for a normal 45 minute drive. Only, almost 15 minutes after we got on the road, a very thick blanket fog blinds us. The worst part is that the snow on the ground, which is also white, makes it seem like we were entering a white abyss. It was a very weird and cool feeling. Although, I admit, driving will be a whole other story, considering you could only see a few meters ahead.

Once we safely arrived at the clinic, we had to wait almost a full hour until the doctor arrived. I guess it was a busy day. Once she finally arrived, we got our check up and we were out of the clinic in less than 30 minutes. She is a very nice and smart doctor though.

Then, on the way back the same fog had settled around us. It was only after about 30 minutes that the fog lifted and we could see clearly. At this point, I had been getting bits of queasiness, so I decided to stare at the horizon, which is supposed to stop the queasiness feeling. I guess it helped a little, but my nauseousness did not completely disappear.

When we made it home, I decided to limit all physical activity, because that seem to make my nauseousness worse. So I draped myself over the couch and read my book for about 2 hours. I'm pretty sure the most I'm supposed to read is 30 minutes, but I made an exception today. What's one day of extreme reading going to do to my eyes anyway?

About 30 minutes ago, we ate supper. About 10 minutes ago, my mom insisted I sleep, but I had to write to you guys. Now my nauseousness is coming back. I think I'm going to sleep and see if that helps.

Catch you later!
Dinithi

A World without Direction

                A World Without Direction

                                                                        Author: Mithili

                                                                        Editor: Dinithi

She was the queen of Cloud Castle , her horses were roaming around feeding on the leafy floor- “Amelie!, Amelie!” she woke up in a startle it was her little brother Jake. “ It’s Sunday! We get to cook something for papa and mama!”, Amelie didn’t move. “Amelie wake up!” Jake screamed, Amelie groaned as she got to her feet. “ Okay I’m coming!”, she sounded annoyed,but to say the truth she loved Sundays.

Jake was already in the kitchen with his hat on top of his black hair, a pot , and some tomatoes. Amelie already guessing they were going to make tomato soup, went straight for the salt,bay leaves,butter, and water. Amelie diced up some tomatoes and put the tomatoes and some bay leaves in a pot and turned the heat up. Then, she added 1 cup of water,2 pinches of salt and a table spoon of butter, and put it in a blender for a minute. She took out four bowls and put the soup and some bay leaves in, while Jake quickly did the table. Jake then ran into their parent’s room and woke them up.

Good Food and Boring Hours

Hey,

I'm doing a very early post today because I'm feeling very bored today.

For some odd reason, I decided to wake up at around 8:50 in the morning even though it was the break. Then I had breakfast, which was extremely unhealthy, a hot dog. My mom was very displeased but she let me have it anyway as a one time thing. So I did. It was pretty good,  although to be honest, I didn't fully taste it. I guess my senses were still asleep.

Then, I refreshed and began the day. First thing I did was play piano. In March there is a major recital called the Music Festival that I am a part of, for both piano and saxophone. So, I decided to practice my pieces. I played the piano for about an hour, drilling sections of the music to get it perfect. Then, I practised my saxophone pieces. My solo was pretty difficult because it has very high notes, which needs a lot of air. I played saxophone for another half hour and then I began my daily ritual of looking for food. Even if I'm not hungry, I NEED something to munch on! It's a terrible habit! I'm trying my best to slow and eventually stop it :) That may take time...

Anyhow, after looking around, I didn't find anything I wanted. (This is also a problem because I have so many cravings that I can't find one thing that I want!) So I decided to bother my mom and ask her to make something to eat. She agreed. We ended up making Mango Bubble Tea. It was AMAZING! If you want the recipe, just ask in the comments!

After that , I was very full! Let me tell you those drinks fill you right up! I honestly thought I wouldn't be able to eat supper, never mind lunch! In any case, I dragged myself to the study room to work on some homework. And by the way I think my computer will survive!! I only found this out after 5:30, so I didn't get a chance to work on CAD or French. So I just gaze aimlessly at my wall trying to think of something to do. When my mom finally told me to do some math. Yeah I was doing math over the break. It actually gets your brain working. This was good because now I had something to do for at least another hour.

When I finished with the math, I decided to fill out the badminton forms. It took me only about 10 minutes and I was done. I was hoping I would take a little longer than that! Sadly for me, it didn't. 

So now I had to find something to do.

I went over to my mom who was looking through Facebook. Then we somehow ended up looking at different cool hairstyle videos. That burned up time until it was time my dad came home. After he came home, he told me my  computer was ok and he really like the Bubble Tea. I was very happy.

Then I began to read this book called Shopaholic to the Rescue. I know the title sounds really cheesy and kid like, but the book had nothing that kids would read. It was about this girl, loosing her dad and her best friends husband at the same time. They end up going on a road trip trying to track down the two men. The story has way more to it than that, but it's too much for my sore thumbs to type. So just comment below if you want me to tell you more. 

I read the book until right now, or when I started this post, I guess. I think this actually took me about half an hour to type up! Wow! I type slow!

Oh well...my thumbs are still numb. I'm going to try to put a heat pad on them to see if that works.

Talk to you later!

Dinithi

Nail Polish Remover and Computers

Hey,

Since it was break, I woke up at around 9:15. First things I did was check the blog to make sure people were still coming! And I was not disappointed! Thanks for those of you visiting almost every day!

Anyway, after waking up, I ate a piece of toast with peanut butter and honey. I t was delicious! You should try it sometime if you get the chance! So after eating, I went upstairs to refresh. After that, I changed my clothes and put my hair up. It was quite a time consuming process since, I couldn't get my bang to work with me! I was extremely frustrated! But fortunately, I eventually got it together and found a hairstyle that worked...at least temporarily.

Now you must be wondering where the nail polish and Computers part comes into this post. Well, it started like this...

After we refreshed and were ready, we decided to paint our nails; we being my sister and I. I found this gorgeous dark blue polish that I've never used before, so I decided to give it a try. It turned out pretty well if I should say. It was a whole other story for my sister. She was trying this beautiful dark red colour, but wasn't quite painting on the nail, if you know what I mean. To be honest I'm not much better. The trick is to leave it until it dries and then take off all of the polish that you smeared on your finger. Anyhow, since she definitely wouldn't be able to do her right hand (she's right handed by the way) she asked me to help her. Since I was feeling very generous and kind today, I agreed. Only after I started, she started to complain that the paint was just a bit off the nail. I explained to her that she could fix it after I was done doing her nails. Sadly for me, a few seconds after I finished painting, I watched as all of my hard work got wiped on a tissue paper. It was almost heart breaking! After seeing that, I was very frustrated and angry with her that I told her to do it by herself and stomped my way down the stairs and into our study room to get some homework done. I started with CAD 20, and then went to French. I'm not going to explain why I do this course on this post because it is irrelevant to the story I'm telling you. If you are curious, just post a comment and I will be happy to explain.

Anyway, after a few minutes, my sister comes down stairs and into the study room with her nail polish and nail polish remover. I regret not playing attention to this at the time. She started to blame me that she wasn't going to get all if her work done because I didn't help her with her nail polish. By the way, she does that same thing I do for courses. Anyway, I was so confused how her nails were related to getting her homework done, that I kind of felt bad. So I decided I was going to help her after all. Since I was too lazy to go over to her table, I asked her to come over to mine, which had my very expensive laptop on it. If you can't imagine what happened next, I'm going to tell you. The nail polish tipped over, somehow, and landed right on my computer keyboard!! I saw all of it slow motion. I tried so hard to stop it from spilling, but I was too slow!

After the spill, I quickly cleaned my keyboard up, making sure to get under the keys. Then I yelled at my sister, although it want quite all her fault. Then I went back to work thinking that the acetone will evaporate  before it could do any damage to my computer.

Guess what? I was wrong! After a few minutes of working, I had to type numbers, for some reason that I can't quite recall. When I types the number 5, it kept repeating itself without my doing anything. This got my heart beating. I could literally feel it beating, like it was trying to beat it's way out. So, I tried everything that seemed logical. I turned off my computer and turned it back on, blew hot air into the key slot, tried to stick a bit of Kleenex into the slot; but nothing seemed to work. So I decided to ask the Internet for help. I watched a video and I said to turn off the computer immediately after the spill...well too late for that! But I shut it down and unplugged the charger. Then it said to flip the computer upside down or to the side. Which  I did. The next step involved a lot of patience. It
said to wait as long as possible having that computer upside down. If you know me, you will know I'm not always the most patient person in the world. So I decided to finally break the bad news to my dad. This is how the conversation went...

Then he told me how to clean it. He was pretty mad. I could understand this because he had paid for the computer and let me tell you, it was very expensive. Over a thousand dollars! I felt very guilty! But I couldn't do anything to make it better. So when my dad came, he quickly did the same things I had done. He yelled at me for a bit, but I guess I deserved that! 

The sentence that he said that finally calmed my very loud heart was "...it should be fine. I think the acetone will evaporate with the heat." Then he went on to saying something about being more careful around things, but I didn't hear most of it because I was doing my happy dance in my head.

Then the sentence "...but it might not be okay if the acetone settled in between the two layers.", killed my happy mood. Then my heart literally skipped a beat.

So now here I am writing to you guys through the Blogger app on my phone. That's not very unusual since I always write through my phone, but the fact that it was the only major thing that happened today is weird.

That was a very long post. My fingers are getting very tired. So I think I'm going to stop now.

I'll keep you posted on the state of my poor computer!

Stay tuned for my next post tomorrow!

Dinithi

Family Day Fun

Hey,

Happy family day to everyone!!

Today, I woke up at around 9:15 in the morning. When I looked through my blog posts, I realized that one of them was missing! I had a mini heart attack right there on the spot! So I quickly revised and republished the post! If you were wondering it was the Shopping, Snowstorms and Haircuts. I received my first comment after about a year!! You know who you are!! Thank you so much!

Anyway, after that, I got up , ate a blue berry muffin, and began to clean the house. I was assigned the top floor. The WHOLE top floor, while my sister only had to clean the study room! Life is so unfair! It took me about an hour to clean! To make it a better experience, I played some really good music!

After cleaning, we had to eat lunch. It was rice, Brussels sprouts and fried fish. To be honest, I did not like it very much. Especially because of he Brussels sprouts. I hate Brussels sprouts!! But, after lunch, I had another one of those delicious Kent mangoes. I could say I had a pretty well rounded meal.

When my mom came home from work, we decided to bake. So we made cookies and Ginger/ Honey pudding. Both were very tasty in the end.

After those delicious treats, my dad decided it was time we did a video for our YouTube channel called the Raindrops. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/user/THERaindropsChannel. You should definitely check it out! If there is a song or dance that you think we should do, just comment to this post and we will see what we can do!!

Anyway, we decided to dance. I hadn't danced, without pre planned moves, for a very long time that I almost forgot how to do it! But fortunately for me, after a few practice sessions, I got the hang of it again! I think we're going to publish those videos tomorrow.

After the exhausting dance session, we had to eat supper. I was looking forward to eating supper because it was supposed to be salad. I came running up the stairs in my giddy mood; to find my mom serving rice. I was so mad that I asked her why we weren't eating salad in a very angry tone. She simply said we were going to have salad tomorrow for lunch. I was overwhelmed with anger I couldn't speak any more! Instead of replying to her statement, a stomped my way to the couch and sat down. My anger eventually fuelled out and I was eating yet another plate of Brussels sprouts and rice. I hated this meal!!

To make this day a little bit better, my mom said we're going to watch a movie together. This lifted my spirits quite a bit. Even thought we had two movie nights straight over the weekend, I wanted more. We decided on watching the movie Savior. It's a very old movie that didn't seem interesting  at first but once I saw a bit of it, I was awestruck! I honestly didn't think that a movie that old could possibly be that amazing. It almost made me cry and have a heart attack and stroke and an asthma attack all at the same time. And let me tell you that does not happen very often!

We just finished the movie a few minutes ago. It was true a master piece. If you get a chance to watch this movie; do it! It is a very worthwhile movie.

It's 10:55 right now. I think I'm going to bed.

Thanks for reading this! Look for my next post tomorrow! I will be doing a post everyday around the same time. So visit frequently!

Thanks! And happy holidays!

Dinithi

Moose Jaw Madness

Hey,

I just want to thank the people who are reading this right now. I'm hoping to do at least one post per day. So visit frequently!

Anyhow, today,  I was awake at about 9 am. We were originally supposed to have today as a relaxation day, but as soon as my dad woke up, the only thing he wanted to do was go somewhere. 

So, we agreed. After looking at some of the places, we decided to go to Moose Jaw. It was about 3 hours away. So we got ready for the long ride.

Throughout the whole ride, the sun was shining directly in my eyes. It was so painful, but I managed to block it out by using my mom's scarf. To be honest, the ride was without any problems or fun. I was bored by the first hour. For most of the ride, we just talked amongst each other, and ate food. My favourite part was the food.  If you can't tell already, I love food.

Anyway, once we finally got to our destination, we saw lots of people riding their trucks and cars on the frozen lake. I thought it was very cool! We drove around the area, looking for anything interesting enough to stop and look at. Finally, we found a place, with a lot of trees and a playground that was quite close to the river. My sister and I immediately ran for the swings. We LOVE the swings! While we were swinging our hearts out, my dad was taking beautiful pictures of the frozen landscape.

Once I got tired of swinging, I started to inspect the trees to find the most suitable one to climb. I decided a tree close to where my mom was sitting was the best. I'm skilled at climbing, with running shoes, but with boots, it's a whole other story! I almost slipped off the trunk of the tree that I was standing on for support! After that ordeal, I gave up on climbing trees.

Almost at the same time, my sister got of the swings. We needed something to do. So we decided to try walking across the frozen lake. I was the first to go! I'm pretty proud of myself! Beside me, once they caught up, was my dad and sister. My mom didn't like the idea of walking across the ice that could break at any time and stayed behind. She could be the lifesaver if one of us happen to break through the ice. My dad and I made it safely to the middle area of the river, but my sister went back to grab her snow pants and her beloved stick. She loves sticks. Sadly for her, we decided it was a waste of time to go  back to our car to get her snow pants.  So, she grabbed her stick and carefully made her way towards us. When she finally made it, she stuck the stick where we were standing as a flag. After that, my mom snapped some pictures of us and we made our way back to solid ground.

Then, we drank some of my mom's delicious lemonade and drove to the Moose Jaw city, where we shopped around for a few minutes. Sadly, there was nothing to buy. So, we set our GPS to our house and got ready for yet another long and boring ride. On the way back, I slept. When I woke up, we had about 45 more minutes until we were home, so I decided to play on my phone. My mom showed me this game called Solitaire that I was addicted to for almost half the ride.  When I was bored with the game, I went on to the one of other games I have on my phone. I played that and listened and sang along with the radio.

Finally, when we arrived at home, my mom quickly made us supper. It was rice with fish. It was pretty good. For dessert, we had mangoes. Let me tell you, those fruits are one of the best. If you haven't tried Kent mangoes, you should definitely try them!

After eating, my sister and I went downstairs and played Just Dance until my mom told us to go to bed. I told her that I had to write to you guys, so she made an exception.

I have to go to bed now.

Check for my next post tomorrow!

Dinithi

Shopping, Haircuts and Snowstorms

Hi,

First of all, I want to apologize for postponing this post! Yesterday was a very busy day.

At around 10:30, my sister and I woke up. As soon as we were in the living room, my mom said to quickly eat breakfast and get ready. I was extremely confused, because, it seems my brain was not quite awake yet! So, I asked her why. Her reply was that we had to go to the city. Now, my brain suddenly awakens and commands me to be excited. I was quite excited, to be honest! This was because, I was getting my haircut today!! I had been counting down the days until this day!

After eating breakfast, I quickly got dressed, while yelling at my sister to pick up the pace. She is very slow, when it comes to doing anything in the mornings, because she always jokes around. When we were finally dressed and ready to go, I ran (probably not the best idea, since there was a lot of ice), to the car, calling shotgun, to get the front passenger seat.  I did, if you were wondering.  Since, everyone else was still putting their shoes on, I had to wait in the cold SUV. I was half frozen, when they came to my rescue. Well that may be an over exaggeration! 

Anyway, once we got moving, it was a nice day out. As I do, very often,  I spoke too soon. A blizzard blinded us. To make matters worse, our car kept showing an error. This got my heart beating, because I, for one, did not want to blow up in my favourite car. As soon as the error code appeared, my dad pulled over to check the Owner's Manuel. In the end, I was the one searching through that very confusing book. After I found what I was looking for, I was hit with relief. This is because it said that this error was not fatal and will clear itself out as soon as the road conditions get better. Even so, we drove to the place we bought our car to ask them if it was okay to drive. They said it was fine to drive. But my dad insisted they do a check up ASAP. So he got a date to get the SUV checked up.

After all of that drama, we finally went shopping! Although, I did  not enjoy this kind of shopping, where most of what we buy were greens, fruit and meat. Fortunately, I convinced my mom to buy me a pair of shoes, which I got! They were good running shoes, that I will need for Track.

After shopping, we finally went to the salon. I was so excited that I forgot we needed an appointment with my stylist and my sister's to have our hair cut. So we got an appointment for mine and my sister's  hair to be cut. Sadly the appointment was an hour and 45 minutes from the time we made the appointment. So we had to wait. Fortunately, my mom still had some more shopping to do. So we went to the store and bought 400 dollars worth of food and drinks. When we were finally done shopping for food, it was time!!

Once we made it to the hair dressers, my hair stylist was already there. So, the hair cutting process started with a massaging shampooing. This is usually my favourite part of the whole process. After the shampooing, I told her I wanted to get a trim for my layers and side parted bangs. She did a good job of the layers but I'm not sure about the bangs. It seemed like she cut a bit of my hair wrong. Who knows, maybe it's the style! I definitely didn't know so I let it go.

Finally we were done. On our way back home, nothing interesting  happened. I listened to some really good music and scanned outside to make sure there were no deer or other animals that may cross the road. Fortunately for me, there were none. The day was done.

For supper I got to make salad and salmon fillet. It was delicious!!

All in all, yesterday was a very good but tiring day!

If you were wondering how my ankle was doing, it getting better.

Catch you later,
Dinithi

Valentine's Day Drama

Hi,

Today was Valentine's Day for school, since it is a Friday before our week long-break. I'm looking forward to a week of resting, reading, watching TV and sleeping.

Today in school, we had a special activity for Valentine's Day in period 4. I was looking forward to this activity, and I wasn't disappointed. The first activity was called Bachelor and Bachelorette. This was a very fun activity, where three Bachelors or Bachelorette will be lined up behind a cover and we're a asked questions that the Bachelor or Bachelorette, on the other side of the cover, created. In the end, the single person acting as the Bachelor will have to choose the one he or she thinks best suits them. I found it really funny when our vice principal was one of the Bachelors and was chosen. This was a very fun activity.

Next we watched a video that the SRC put together. It showed clips that asked people about their "true loves" and clips where people pretending to be Cupid would play matchmaker.

After the video, we had to return to our normal classes, which for me was Computers. Sadly for me, I was finished all of the assignments. For most of the class, I watched people work on their assignments and helped them when they needed help. For the rest of class, I played a game called Free Rice, where it would ask questions, and for every correct answer, there would be a certain amount of rice grains donated. To be honest, I don't know how answering questions about chemistry or anatomy would produce rice, but it was a good game that got my brain working.

After computers, we had Phys. Ed. I was dreading this class mostly be use of my ankle. I didn't know if I should play or not. I was going to ask my Phys. Ed teacher if I should or not, but she wasn't there until the bell rang, by which time I convinced myself to suck it up and play. Today was a games day, so we chose to play the games Dodge Ball, Doctor Doctor, Swamp-ball and Mayhem. In the end, we only had a chance to play one of the games. The game was very fun, except for the few people goofing around, but we also got them to play in the end. Sadly, my team lost!

After Phys. Ed, my three friends and I walked home, when I rolled my already - rolled ankle for the second time today! If you were wondering, I rolled it once in Computers. It was very painful!

I'm hoping my ankle will heal before badminton try-outs. I had the experience of deja vu when I rolled my ankle, yesterday because I had rolled my ankle last year, nearing the badminton season. I'm feeling  very angry at my ankle right now, even though I know it's my fault in the first place!

The good thing is that my ankle feels much better now than it did the day that I rolled it ,  which... should happen! So I'm really hoping that the week of rest will pay off and my ankle will be healed!

Wish me luck! 

Dinithi

PS. I'm trying this method of diary entry type posts. Comment below and tell me if you like this better!