Holly’s Space

Totara Springs is a band camp, which is pretty self explanatory. It is a camp where most of the band students go, it is combined with the choir. Matamata Intermediate band and choir also participate in it. We are there for two nights and on the last night we have a big concert where all our parents and friends are able to come along and watch. I play the trombone as part of the TAI (Te Awamutu Intermediate) Senior Band.

I definitely enjoyed Totara Springs. It was really fun but a lot of practice! So it was all practice practice practice on the first couple of days. But during each break we all relaxed, hung out with our friends and played on the playground. Many people also went on the lullaby, which is pretty much a long wooden swing that you can fit ten people on. Although with four boys pushing it and only a few others on, it can get really high and scary! (Trust me, I’ve tried it). There was a heap of music practice but each session had a good break in between them so I didn’t really mind.

Tuesday night came and we had the concert. All of the bands were tuning up our instruments and chatting to our friends in the lecture theatre. Everyone was so loud that we barely even heard the fire alarm going off. We all evacuated onto the field wondering what was happening and why it was going off. Mrs Germann, one of the music teachers, had to stand on the picnic table and call the roll, in her high heels! Luckily she had only called a few names when the camp caretaker came and told us it was only a towel on the heater. A sign of relief came over her face as she shouted out “Phew, at least I don’t have to stand on the table in my heels anymore!”

We all slowly moved back into the lecture theatre and carried on tuning up. Finally the time came to go into the auditorium for the concert, as I walked in I noticed how many people had come to watch, there were heaps. We played a few songs, some of them being- ‘Latin Fire’, ‘Mack the Knife’, ‘What a Wonderful World’ and ‘Surfin’ USA’. The junior band played and the choir sung a few songs. It was lots of fun. Also the ‘Salvation Army Band’ came and played a few songs. They were really good and after they played their songs we had a final song that the Senior Band and the Salvation Army Band played. This song was ‘Eye of the Tiger’. So overall I had lots of fun and would definitely go again if I had the chance.

I went to a writing workshop last Thursday. Phyllis Johnston, a New Zealand author, came to talk to us about how she became succesful and give us some tips about writing. Phyllis Johnston is quite a successful author having twelve books of hers published. One of the things Phyllis Johnston talked about was her ‘Recipe’ for a story. It has five ingredients. The first one being a ’scene’ or the place where it happens. A scene can be any where, from outer-space to a hole in the ground! The second ingredient is the ‘characters’, the main people in the story. Within the first few pages of introducing a character the reader should be able to picture the character in their own mind. Also Phyllis Johnston made us realise that a character has to have feelings, not just one feeling but a range of feelings. In other words a character can’t always be excited or surprised, their feelings should change. Like Phyllis Johnston said “a story without feelings isn’t a story at all”. Another ingredient, the third one is the ‘action’. The action is the part where somethings happens to build up to the big problem. While writing this part of a story you should be asking yourself questions like ‘What would they do in this situation?’ and ‘What will happen if they do this?’. The next part is the ‘crisis or tension’, I also like to call this the big problem! This part should always be the most important and exciting peice of the story. Last but not least is the fifth ingredient ‘the end’. One of the tips Phyllis Johnston gave us was to use a few words from the first sentence in the last one. This gives it a good effect, it is as though the whole story has formed a circle and come back to the start again. So as you have seen, I have learnt heaps and will use these tips in my future writing.

Our class has just been on a camp at a little place called Ohope, I could barely wait for it. But finally last Tuesday it came, our class and room seven were all packed, and left for Ohope. On the way we stopped for lunch at Lake Okataina, it was really windy there but luckily at Ohope the weather was warm and sunny the whole time. We stayed at Ohope Christian Camp for three nights, from the 8th until the 11th of March

We went to the Whakatane Pools two nights and to the Awakeri Hot Springs the other! So we went to the Pools each night! We also went to a High Ropes place called Adventure Solutions. It was kind of scary but really fun!!! They were about 5-10m or so off the ground. One of the ones I did was like floating platforms, there were 5 of them (I think) and they were wooden platforms. You had to jump to each one except the hard part was that some of the platforms were on angles and the last jump was uphill! But I enjoyed that one the most! There was also a Trapeze one I went on, I had to climb up a pole and then stand on a platform at the top that was really wobbly and try to jump onto the trapeze!! I tried but I missed the trapeze! :( But it was still fun

Another thing we did was an Amazing Maze of Maize, which is a maze made out of Maize! We had to find which number the post was that had 24 out of the 90 questions on. Also we had to find which post about 12 pictures were on. That was alright but I enjoyed the High Ropes more.

Then the day after that we went wharf fishing for two hours then Kayaking for another couple of hours and then we went for a LONG walk down to Shelly Bay! The Fishing was fun but a bit gross (the bait especially)!! I caught 5 or 6 fish though! Yay! Shelly Bay was really cool as well. It had a few rock pools and a walk down to it had about 352 steps altogether!! I counted them but I may have counted wrong!! The kayaking was alright although it did get very tiring!

I would have to say that my favourite part of the whole camp was probably the High Ropes and my least favourite was coming home! Altogether though, I really enjoyed it and would grab for the chance to go to it again!

At the moment our school is putting on a production called the Pirate Queen. I play the trombone in the band along with 1 other trombone player. We have been practising for the last term on Sunday and Thursday. The production is about Grace O’Malley an Irish Pirate who must try to go  and save her husband Donal O’Flaherty from an English Dungeon. This has been a great opportunity for me.