Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
Taa -daa!! Trying saying that all in one breath. What does it mean?? Aghm (clearing throat) according to the dictionary it is a lung disease which is caused by breathing in very fine silica dust. There was another "word" that also popped up when I was searching the topic but i do have doubts about it. I'd LOVE to hear someone saying it , snicker, but try mutter it under your breath here anyway. I shall include it here for laughing sake .
Methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamylserylleucylphen-
ylalanylalanylglutaminylleucyllysylglutamylarginyllysylgluta-
mylglysylalanylphenylalanylvalylprolylphenylalanylyalylthre-
onylleucylglcycylaspartylprolylglicylisoleucyglutamylgluta-
minlserylleucyllysylisoleucylaspartylthreonylleucylisoleu-
cylglutamylalanylglyclyalanylaspartylalanylleucyglutamylle-
ucylgluycylisoleucylproluylphenylalanyserylaspartyprolylleu-
celalanylaspartylglycylprolylthreonylisolleucyglutaminylaspa-
raginylalanythreonylleucylarginylalanylphenylalanylalanylal-
anylglycylvalylthreonylprolylalanylglutaminylcysteinylphen-
ylalanylglglutamylmethionylleucyalanylleucylisoleucylarginyl-
glutaminyllysylhistidylprolyuthreonylisoleucylprolylisoleuc-
ylglycylleucylleucylmethionyltyrosylalanylasbaraginylleucyl-
valylphenylalanylsparaginyyllysylglycylisoleucylaspartylglut-
amylphenylalanylyltyrosylalanylglutaminylcysteinylglutamyll-
ysylvalylglycylvalylspartylserylvalylleucylvallalanylaspart-
ylvalylprolylvalvlglutaminylglutamylserylalanylprolylpheny-
lalalrginylglutaminylalanylalanylleucylarginylhistidylasp-
araginylvalylalalprolylisoleucylphenylalanylisoleucylcystei-
nylprolyprolylaspartylalanylaspartylaspartyspartyleucylle-
ucylarginylglutaminylisoleucylalanylseryltyroslglycylargin-
ylglycyltyrosylthreonyltyrosylleucylleucylserylarginlalanyl-
glycylvalylthreonylglycylalanylglutamylasparaginylarginyla-
nylalanylleucylprolylleucylaspaaginylhistidylleucylvalylalan-
yllysylleucyllysylglutamyltyrosylasparagimylalanylalanypro-
lylprolylleucylglutaminylglycylphenlalanylglycylisoleyucyls-
erylalanylprolylaspartylglutaminylvalyllysylalanylalanylisol-
eucylalspartylalanylglycylalanylalanylglycylalanylasoleucylse-
rylglycylserylalanylisoleucylbalyllysylisoleucylisoleucylgluta-
mylglutaminylhistidylasparaginylisoleucylglutamylpronylglu-0
tamyllysylmethionylluecylalanylalanyoeucyllysylvalylpheny-
lalanylvalylglutamilylprolylmethionyllysylalanylalanylthreo-
nylarginylserine.
Mwahahahaahaaaaaaaa!!
Monday 12 December 2011
Saturday 10 December 2011
A visit to the moon
A beautiful, astounding lunar eclipse took place last night and,finally, we were in a country that would get a glimpse of the moon. Mother and i planned to stay up until the moon was completely covered, which happened to be at 11:30. I have no trouble staying up for all hours, that's just what kids do, but dad was already snoring on the couch and my eyes were feeling very droopy . Suddenly mom let out a little sigh of excitement and I rushed to the window sticking my face out into the freezing cold blustery winter night. There is was, the moon at it's fullest 1/4 of it was already taken over by a creeping shadow making it look very mystical. I had a sudden desire to rush in to a space ship and go and visit the moon my own self. I couldn't take my eyes of it, I wished it was bigger so I could see it clearer. My glasses aren't fitted for maximum zoomige. Mother wanted to take a few pictures, so did i with my new birthday camera might i add, to post on this blog. So, the coats were shoved on, fluffy hats, itchy scarves, duvet pants, gloves and any other warm materials we had in our cupboards. When i say it's cold, i mean it's cold. Maybe not Arctic cold but cold enough to make your face go numb as soon as to step out of the warmth of the heated house. At that moment, i was quite glad for Korean floor heating. We looked like a couple of weird, weirdos, and we were already strange enough to the Koreans but now we were probably the funniest things they had seen all day. The view of the moon was a little better outside but it was still to far away to marvell at it's complete beauty. I took out the binoculars dad had bought, how convenient, and tried to find the moon. After a full 7 minutes of trying to find the moon through the oversize zooming apparatus, I was ready to give up... but wait there it was, almost completely covered by the waning shadow of the sun. I did not know that much about eclipses, only the information from the websites I had read earlier to get a better understanding of them. I felt quite sad in knowing that this was to be the last elcipse until 2014, thankfully, I will still be alive ( wiping sweat).
At precisely 11:30 I rushed ,once again, to the window to see the moon covered in a faint red, I sighed and really wished I was an astronaut. But even people wishing to be astronauts have to get some sleep so i wished the moon a good night and settled in the warmth of my sleeping bag.
At precisely 11:30 I rushed ,once again, to the window to see the moon covered in a faint red, I sighed and really wished I was an astronaut. But even people wishing to be astronauts have to get some sleep so i wished the moon a good night and settled in the warmth of my sleeping bag.
Friday 2 December 2011
A poem about a cat
The incredibly fat orange cat,
sat on the lumo pink mat,
he wore a large blue top hat,
and did nothing except catch the occasional rat.
The incredibly fat orange cat,
never has time for idle chit-chat,
and don't even think about giving him a pat,
or you'll soon feel the fat cats wrath.
The incredibly fat orange cat ,
was actually quite lonely in fact,
because having a chat,
about a rat,
while you sit on a scratchy lumo pink mat,
with a fat orange cat,
cab be quite a bore you see
why don't look at me!
You are the one who has to pat,
the incredibly fat orange cat .
sat on the lumo pink mat,
he wore a large blue top hat,
and did nothing except catch the occasional rat.
The incredibly fat orange cat,
never has time for idle chit-chat,
and don't even think about giving him a pat,
or you'll soon feel the fat cats wrath.
The incredibly fat orange cat ,
was actually quite lonely in fact,
because having a chat,
about a rat,
while you sit on a scratchy lumo pink mat,
with a fat orange cat,
cab be quite a bore you see
why don't look at me!
You are the one who has to pat,
the incredibly fat orange cat .
Tuesday 29 November 2011
Post number the Nestle
I decided to make this post on Nestle, for those of you who have no idea whats behind that Kit-Kat you're eating.
Nestle is responsible for 50% of the worlds breast milk substitute, they encourage mothers to stop breastfeeding and start bottle feeding. There are numerous studies that show children whose mother's breastfeed them are smarter and much healthier than those who were bottle fed. Being breastfed helps the baby to fight diseases better, results also show that premature babies grow faster if they are breastfed.
Nestle also owns Neastea. Nestea does many horrible, inhumane, unethical, tests on animals.According to PETA ( peta.org) these animals are decapitated, poisoned, electrically shocked, surgically mutilated and so much more. Normally these tests are carried out on rats and mice. Many people don't really care because, who likes rats anyway. WRONG! What has an innocent, small white rat ever done to harm you? Surely they did not stuff you in a dark room and force-feed you tea leaves to see your reaction. If you ask me, these test are pointless and it's unbelievably unfair to conduct them on animals that have never done anything harmful to any of us.
Then you've got the candy section of Nestle. Until recently, I didn't know half of the products manufactured by Nestle, but let me tell you, there are a LOT. And you probably don't believe me so I am going to list them for you right here. (Note, these are not just their candy products)
Aero, ALPO, Baby Ruth, BabyNes Baker’s Complete Dog Food (UK), Beneful Dog Food, Boost, Buitoni, Butterfinger, Cailler Chocolate,California Pizza Kitchen, Carnation, Cat Chow, Cerelac, Chef, Chef Michaels, Chef Mate, Cheerios Cereal, Chocapic, Chips A’Hoy, Cini Minis, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Coffee-Mate, Cookie Crisp, Crunch, Digiorno Pizza, Dog Chow, Dryers Ice Cream Family (Grand, Slow Churned, Dibs and Fruit Bars), Edy’s Ice Cream, Enviga, Estrelitas, Extreme Ice Cream, Fancy Feast, Felix, Fitness, Friskies, Gerber, Gerber Graduates, Goobers, GoodStart, Gourmet Cat Food, Häagen-Dazs , Herta, Hot Pockets, IceBreakers, Jenny Craig, Juicy Juice, Kit Kat, La Laitière , Lean Cuisine, Libby’s Juice, Maggi, Milky Bar, Milo, Minor’s, Mövenpick Ice Cream, NaturNes, Nescafe, Nespresso, Nesquik, Nestea, Nestle Ice Cream, Nestle Pure Life Water, Nestrum, Nido, Nutren Junior, Oh Henry, Orion Chocolate, Papa Guiseppi, Peptamen, Perrier, Poland Spring, Power Bar, Purina, Purina Pro Plan, Purina One, Raisenets, Resource, S.Pellegrino, Shredded Wheat Cereal, Skinny Cow, Sjora, Smarties, Stouffers, Trix Cereal, Tollhouse Brands, Tombstone Pizza, Thomy, Turtles, Wonka Candy.
Beauty Products: Biotherm, Cosmence, Garnier,Georgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Diesel, Helena Rubenstein. Innéov ,La Roche-Posay, Kielhl, Cacharel, Softsheen, Lancome, L'Oreal, Matrix, Maybelline, Metamorphosis, Plénitude, Redken, Viktor & Rolf, YSL beauty products, Maison Martin Margiela, and The Body Shop
I don't even think that's all of it. Now look at that list. Now look at it again. Think about how many of those things you may eat every single day. So now you know all of the things Nestle produces, you may start to think what is wrong with them. Why can't you enjoy your Kit-Kat in your morning break? Or drink your Milo? Well, while you are munchy munchy on that Kit-Kat of yours, thousands of orangutans in Indonesia and other countries are being killed as their trees are being ripped down for the valuable palm oil that is used in all of Nestle's chocolates. If you have a very (and i mean very) strong stomach take a look at this video
http://vimeo.com/10236827
Please don't blame me if you have nightmares for ages after you watch that, i warned you,but it is the truth. Harsh yes, but the truth. So many of you out there may have read this but still think (dramatic voice) " I can't live without my Rolo and what about the Kit-Kat! Where would we be without those?! WHERE WOULD WE BE?!" (dramatic sigh) . Well, have I got news for you! We have lived for thousands of years without Nestle's chocolates and if we have become so dependent on those petty things that if you don't consume them we may perish,that's just very very sad.
So now you know the truth, next time you bite into a Bar One, think about the small, baby orangutan you just killed.
Nestle is responsible for 50% of the worlds breast milk substitute, they encourage mothers to stop breastfeeding and start bottle feeding. There are numerous studies that show children whose mother's breastfeed them are smarter and much healthier than those who were bottle fed. Being breastfed helps the baby to fight diseases better, results also show that premature babies grow faster if they are breastfed.
Nestle also owns Neastea. Nestea does many horrible, inhumane, unethical, tests on animals.According to PETA ( peta.org) these animals are decapitated, poisoned, electrically shocked, surgically mutilated and so much more. Normally these tests are carried out on rats and mice. Many people don't really care because, who likes rats anyway. WRONG! What has an innocent, small white rat ever done to harm you? Surely they did not stuff you in a dark room and force-feed you tea leaves to see your reaction. If you ask me, these test are pointless and it's unbelievably unfair to conduct them on animals that have never done anything harmful to any of us.
Then you've got the candy section of Nestle. Until recently, I didn't know half of the products manufactured by Nestle, but let me tell you, there are a LOT. And you probably don't believe me so I am going to list them for you right here. (Note, these are not just their candy products)
Aero, ALPO, Baby Ruth, BabyNes Baker’s Complete Dog Food (UK), Beneful Dog Food, Boost, Buitoni, Butterfinger, Cailler Chocolate,California Pizza Kitchen, Carnation, Cat Chow, Cerelac, Chef, Chef Michaels, Chef Mate, Cheerios Cereal, Chocapic, Chips A’Hoy, Cini Minis, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Coffee-Mate, Cookie Crisp, Crunch, Digiorno Pizza, Dog Chow, Dryers Ice Cream Family (Grand, Slow Churned, Dibs and Fruit Bars), Edy’s Ice Cream, Enviga, Estrelitas, Extreme Ice Cream, Fancy Feast, Felix, Fitness, Friskies, Gerber, Gerber Graduates, Goobers, GoodStart, Gourmet Cat Food, Häagen-Dazs , Herta, Hot Pockets, IceBreakers, Jenny Craig, Juicy Juice, Kit Kat, La Laitière , Lean Cuisine, Libby’s Juice, Maggi, Milky Bar, Milo, Minor’s, Mövenpick Ice Cream, NaturNes, Nescafe, Nespresso, Nesquik, Nestea, Nestle Ice Cream, Nestle Pure Life Water, Nestrum, Nido, Nutren Junior, Oh Henry, Orion Chocolate, Papa Guiseppi, Peptamen, Perrier, Poland Spring, Power Bar, Purina, Purina Pro Plan, Purina One, Raisenets, Resource, S.Pellegrino, Shredded Wheat Cereal, Skinny Cow, Sjora, Smarties, Stouffers, Trix Cereal, Tollhouse Brands, Tombstone Pizza, Thomy, Turtles, Wonka Candy.
Beauty Products: Biotherm, Cosmence, Garnier,Georgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Diesel, Helena Rubenstein. Innéov ,La Roche-Posay, Kielhl, Cacharel, Softsheen, Lancome, L'Oreal, Matrix, Maybelline, Metamorphosis, Plénitude, Redken, Viktor & Rolf, YSL beauty products, Maison Martin Margiela, and The Body Shop
I don't even think that's all of it. Now look at that list. Now look at it again. Think about how many of those things you may eat every single day. So now you know all of the things Nestle produces, you may start to think what is wrong with them. Why can't you enjoy your Kit-Kat in your morning break? Or drink your Milo? Well, while you are munchy munchy on that Kit-Kat of yours, thousands of orangutans in Indonesia and other countries are being killed as their trees are being ripped down for the valuable palm oil that is used in all of Nestle's chocolates. If you have a very (and i mean very) strong stomach take a look at this video
http://vimeo.com/10236827
Please don't blame me if you have nightmares for ages after you watch that, i warned you,but it is the truth. Harsh yes, but the truth. So many of you out there may have read this but still think (dramatic voice) " I can't live without my Rolo and what about the Kit-Kat! Where would we be without those?! WHERE WOULD WE BE?!" (dramatic sigh) . Well, have I got news for you! We have lived for thousands of years without Nestle's chocolates and if we have become so dependent on those petty things that if you don't consume them we may perish,that's just very very sad.
So now you know the truth, next time you bite into a Bar One, think about the small, baby orangutan you just killed.
Friday 25 November 2011
Unproductivenessly
Ok so is it just me or does everyone else get a warm tingly feeling whenever they open their blog and see that more people have had a looksie on it?? Well, I just got one now and I thank everyone that has looked at my blog and read a paragraph from the bottom of my heart, you inspire me to keep blogging.I had one of my brainstorms today and came up with a good post so... enjoy.
How to have a completely unproductive day
Step number the one: When your morning alarm goes off, think about getting up but don't.
Step number the two: Make a looonnnggg list of all the things you are supposed to do today, example, fix the leaky pipe under the sink, Wash the floors etc.
Step number the three: Stare at your long list for a while and think about which one not to do first.
Step number the four: Get up, walk to each room of the house, turning on the light switch in each room,then turning it off again.
Take a well earned nap
Step number the six:Make a bowl of cereal and leave it to go soggy.
Step number the seven: Go to the phone and start punching in the numbers of your friends phone numbers, decide to meet them at the movies, as soon as they answer, hang up.
Step number the eight: Mope around the house aimlessly
Step number the nine: Go and get some beauty sleep
Well done! You have now had a miserable, unproductive, unsuccessful day.
You win the grand prize
How to have a completely unproductive day
Step number the one: When your morning alarm goes off, think about getting up but don't.
Step number the two: Make a looonnnggg list of all the things you are supposed to do today, example, fix the leaky pipe under the sink, Wash the floors etc.
Step number the three: Stare at your long list for a while and think about which one not to do first.
Step number the four: Get up, walk to each room of the house, turning on the light switch in each room,then turning it off again.
Take a well earned nap
Step number the six:Make a bowl of cereal and leave it to go soggy.
Step number the seven: Go to the phone and start punching in the numbers of your friends phone numbers, decide to meet them at the movies, as soon as they answer, hang up.
Step number the eight: Mope around the house aimlessly
Step number the nine: Go and get some beauty sleep
Well done! You have now had a miserable, unproductive, unsuccessful day.
You win the grand prize
Monday 21 November 2011
WeEkEnD!
It's 8:30 am and all five of us are strapped up and ready to go. We push our destination into the GPS while trying to get the heating to work (it had suddenly dropped from the beautiful, sunny 24 degrees to a freezing 9). The GPS doesn't know that a whole new bridge has been built to Busan, reducing the 2 hour drive to a mere 45 mins, or so we were told. So we just decided to drive on the new bridge and follow the GPS when we got to Busan. The sun was glittering on the sea, and the trees blowing in the cold wind. I wish that I could be sitting by the window dreaming instead of being squashed between two little mokeys singing 'soft kitty warm kitty'. The new bridge takes you over the sea and under an island, the gps was freaking out and screaming "Route Recalculation". Soon it just shut up and shows our little orange-happy-days-bus driving over the ocean. We finally get off the bridge and arrive near Busan, we buy some warm chestnuts off a very energetic guy and , after ruby, river and i decide that we dislike them, mom and dad eat them all. The GPS came back to it's senses and we began following it, assuming it knew the way. We assumed wrong. The GPS took us through a wide range of district roads, tollgates and u-turns. It took us another two hours to get to our destination. And where did we land up? In an old derelict part of town with no sign of life anywhere around.Big. Fat.DOH! so we ate our sandwhiches and try to figure out the spelling of Haeundae , a beach near where we wanted to go. Of course it wasn't how we spelt it at all and when w eventually arrived at the shopping mall it was already 12 o'clock. We drove down the spiral road and into the parking lot, where the first floor was reserved for handicapped people. so we take the nearest road up, thinking it will take us to the next floor. Wong again! It just took us straight out and we had to try explain to the tollgate lady that we hadn't spent long enough in the parking lot to pay. We park and head into the shopping mall where we then go aallll the way up to the top floor and then alllllll the way down because we discover that we are actually in the wrong building altogether.
The ice-skating rink isn't sardine-packed but packed enough to make you a bit nervous. There are kids falling left right and center. Kids swimming against the flow, kids fighting , kids on their phone while ice-skating and kids trying to take pictures of themselves in the middle of the way. Ruby gets the hang of it quickly and river spaghetti legs could finally get off the side (with the help of mother).
After 3 hours of full on ice-skating we stumble off the ice and gulp down cups of water and slip on our shoes. We wonder around the shop and mom drags us into a apple store where we browse through all the high tec, super computers. Mom is looking at a particular computer when she pressed a certain thingy ma bop and taa daa!! Up pops a little camera that does all those funny facial morphs. One makes your eyes ginormous, another your forehead. We could have spent HOURS in front of that computer, pulling faces , and we almost did, but then an angry Korean huffed and we shuffled out of there A.S.A.P.
We strolled past all the other shops selling shoes, handbags and ice-cream!! We sat licking our cones, and walking towards the food hall, where we devoured two bowls of Korean bibimbap( a hot bowl of rice topped with assorted vegetables and a spicy tomato paste.) It was scrumptious and with a full tummy we started to head home.
The ice-skating rink isn't sardine-packed but packed enough to make you a bit nervous. There are kids falling left right and center. Kids swimming against the flow, kids fighting , kids on their phone while ice-skating and kids trying to take pictures of themselves in the middle of the way. Ruby gets the hang of it quickly and river spaghetti legs could finally get off the side (with the help of mother).
After 3 hours of full on ice-skating we stumble off the ice and gulp down cups of water and slip on our shoes. We wonder around the shop and mom drags us into a apple store where we browse through all the high tec, super computers. Mom is looking at a particular computer when she pressed a certain thingy ma bop and taa daa!! Up pops a little camera that does all those funny facial morphs. One makes your eyes ginormous, another your forehead. We could have spent HOURS in front of that computer, pulling faces , and we almost did, but then an angry Korean huffed and we shuffled out of there A.S.A.P.
We strolled past all the other shops selling shoes, handbags and ice-cream!! We sat licking our cones, and walking towards the food hall, where we devoured two bowls of Korean bibimbap( a hot bowl of rice topped with assorted vegetables and a spicy tomato paste.) It was scrumptious and with a full tummy we started to head home.
Friday 18 November 2011
Uhm.....?
Aaahhh..... The joys of being able to get up at whatever time you like, read, knit, relax. I think Saturday has to be my favourite day. I am uber excited because we have decided to go up to Busan tomorrow for Sunday, and the only thing we really go up there for is ice-skating!!!! I adore ice-skating, I'm not brilliant but I don't have to hold on the bar and I can go backwards. Mwahahaa. I guess rollerskating does help. Ice-skating feels so much smoother though, and a bit easier.
I' m hoping to get a unicycle form mother and father for my birthday in only 12 days (!!!!) but it is quite hard to convince them. I love unicycles and how they are so odd. Behind our house we have a long strip of tar, which is covered in holes that are invisible from far away so you'll be riding along, talking to your buddy and the next thing you know you'll be on the ground face first. I think that i will be good enough before we go home that I can ride there. Anyway... I'm rambling on. Well, I'm going to get back to my do nothing, relaxing, magnificent, day :)
I' m hoping to get a unicycle form mother and father for my birthday in only 12 days (!!!!) but it is quite hard to convince them. I love unicycles and how they are so odd. Behind our house we have a long strip of tar, which is covered in holes that are invisible from far away so you'll be riding along, talking to your buddy and the next thing you know you'll be on the ground face first. I think that i will be good enough before we go home that I can ride there. Anyway... I'm rambling on. Well, I'm going to get back to my do nothing, relaxing, magnificent, day :)
Monday 14 November 2011
The big 1-0
Work, Work, Work. Grammar, multiplying polynomials, chloroplasts and photons. My head just feels like one big... big.. explosion. The weekend was pretty fantastical (wink) and I wish it hadn't gone by so fast! The weeks seem to fly by here which is both a good and bad thing.The days themselves so by at normal speed but one day it will be Monday and then before you know it it's Thursday again! I wish days were a bit longer, I never get enough time to do all the things I want to do. Ok so maybe i am complaining a bit... I confess
I am also finding that words are not on my side at this time of my not- long- lived life. I am struggling to think of the words for this post. I guess I may have writers block but how inconvenient, i am in the middle of a writing one of my first complete stories. The problem is that I have a tendency to write a good first and second chapter but then my words fail me and it turns into a giant, boring mess. I want to become a journalist when I am older and write about anything and everything i can. That's why I adore having a blog because i can post whatever i like and if someone doesn't read it it doesn't matter because at least I will have put it out there.I don't know who looked at it and if they didn't like it (unless they put a nasty remark which in which I highly advise against). However, if anyone has any writing advice for a learner writer like me then I will be happy to take it.
I am also finding that words are not on my side at this time of my not- long- lived life. I am struggling to think of the words for this post. I guess I may have writers block but how inconvenient, i am in the middle of a writing one of my first complete stories. The problem is that I have a tendency to write a good first and second chapter but then my words fail me and it turns into a giant, boring mess. I want to become a journalist when I am older and write about anything and everything i can. That's why I adore having a blog because i can post whatever i like and if someone doesn't read it it doesn't matter because at least I will have put it out there.I don't know who looked at it and if they didn't like it (unless they put a nasty remark which in which I highly advise against). However, if anyone has any writing advice for a learner writer like me then I will be happy to take it.
Saturday 12 November 2011
Eureka!
I finally finished the slippers, this time the right size.
 |
| I didn't have enough wool for the last flap so I resorted to pink wool. It wasn't the right size but it didn't do any harm to the slipper. |
Mother chose her favourite buttons and I sewed them on to make them quite funky.
Wednesday 9 November 2011
Woman of the Future
Woman of the future
I am a child
I am a book of memories
I am my mothers eyes as blue as the ocean
I am my fathers energy
Never able to sit down
I am all I see
People struggling for their lives
The ocean waves crashing on the shore
The fresh pages of a new book
Children skipping to school
Animals fascinating and unique
I am all I hear
Parents praising me
Parents shouting at others
Stories from the past
Stories about the future
Wind and rain in winter
Shouts of joy and ice cream bells in summer
I am all I feel and taste
My mothers cookies and bread
The sand between my toes
Soft but rough, wet and squishy
And all I remember
Long roads to no where
The clouds from airplane windows
Forming castles fluffy and white
The sounds of laughter
I am all I've been taught
'Change the y into I'
'Always be responsible'
'Don't drink and drive'
I am all I think
Dreams and nightmares
Crawling inside my head
Inspiring and terrifying
I am all these things
Just like a cycle
Soon I'll be free
I'm the woman of the future
Thursday 3 November 2011
Giant Slippers and broken springs.
'Rain rain go away, come again another day', was being muttered around the house here as it poured for the second weekend in a row. Three rabid monkeys jumped around the house, 3 days of energy stored and waiting to be used. I was sitting at the computer, knitting in one hand and a needle in the other. I was going to sew up my very first slipper, although I had a few doubts about the size i thought it was going to be perfect for mother. WRONG. My slipper didn't even fit on dads foot it was so big, plus i had knitting the squares so long that they had turned into rectangles and so I had a whole rectangle extra which i couldn't really do anything with but use as an ankle strap. Tears welled in my eyes, I had so wanted that slipper to fit perfectly on mom and had spent a lot of time knitting it. So I moped all the way to mom and shoved it in her hands, looking for some sympathy or reassurance but came up with none. Instead she just laughed, I burst into tears which only made her laugh all the more. Why?? She then remarks that it is the best laugh she has had all week. How humiliating.( See picture for details)
Sunday is an overcast yet rain free day. We lounge around waiting for dad to come home because it is hard to go anywhere without a car. Dad is soon home and in the car we go. When we are asked what we would like to do i instantly think of bouncing on a huge trampoline, practicing somesaults and cartwheels. In Korea they have little arcade type areas which have trampolines, a few arcade machines and a baseball area where a basballe is shot out of a machine and you have to try hit it. None of this is free of course or kids would be in there 24/7 but it isn't much to pay for half an hours bounce on one of their 3 trampolines. There are a few Korean kids on the trampolines but as soon as we get on one, they all shoot off and we have a whole trampoling to ourselves. Bounce, bounce, sit, bounce, I could have done that all day. Ruby and River certainly enjoyed it too , they didn't really do much jumping as everytime I tried to go higher than half a meter there legs buckled and they fall an their bums. Priceless. So they sat in the middle while I pulled a few muscles trying to get them higher than a metre of the trampoline. Around 20 minutes into our time, i am trying to beat my ultimate jumping hieght when there is a sudden thud, and I topple down. No one glances at us except for our mom and dad who are sitting on the bench, I panic and look around for the problem. Turns out I had been jumping just a liiitle to hard and 2 of the springs had bounced off. I whistle and turn away, hoping no one has noticed
 |
| Ugly slipper's hugeness |
 |
| THE Ugly slipper |
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| Ugly slipper on my foot |
Sunday is an overcast yet rain free day. We lounge around waiting for dad to come home because it is hard to go anywhere without a car. Dad is soon home and in the car we go. When we are asked what we would like to do i instantly think of bouncing on a huge trampoline, practicing somesaults and cartwheels. In Korea they have little arcade type areas which have trampolines, a few arcade machines and a baseball area where a basballe is shot out of a machine and you have to try hit it. None of this is free of course or kids would be in there 24/7 but it isn't much to pay for half an hours bounce on one of their 3 trampolines. There are a few Korean kids on the trampolines but as soon as we get on one, they all shoot off and we have a whole trampoling to ourselves. Bounce, bounce, sit, bounce, I could have done that all day. Ruby and River certainly enjoyed it too , they didn't really do much jumping as everytime I tried to go higher than half a meter there legs buckled and they fall an their bums. Priceless. So they sat in the middle while I pulled a few muscles trying to get them higher than a metre of the trampoline. Around 20 minutes into our time, i am trying to beat my ultimate jumping hieght when there is a sudden thud, and I topple down. No one glances at us except for our mom and dad who are sitting on the bench, I panic and look around for the problem. Turns out I had been jumping just a liiitle to hard and 2 of the springs had bounced off. I whistle and turn away, hoping no one has noticed
Thursday 27 October 2011
Post number the 6
I am so glad that tomorrow is Friday. What's after Friday? 2 days of doing whatever I like without a single thought towards school work. Phew. I simply can't wait to sit around, knit, read, and just lounge about without a care. But first, Friday. Commas, Tense Consistency, Golgi Apparatus, 1895, Jameson Raid. All these things are floating around my head and making it burst. I quite like school and learning new things but I hardly ever get time to do the things I enjoy. "You have a test tomorrow on why tests are important" or " You have an assignment on the origin of soap". Boring with a capital B. Anyway...something on the more interesting side.
A phase is going round in our family which is called 'Tickley under the armpit' . No explanation needed. But for those with no idea what I am talking about: When mom are dad are sitting at the table having an intense and important conversation about some world crisis,you sneak behind them and when the stretch or if they are relaxing with their arms stretched out you go up tickle them under the armpits screaming "tickleyunderthearmpits!". We just love it because they always get such a fright and vow to get you back. So no one stretches while the two little ones are on the prowl. The days are gone where you can relax on the couch with your arms above your head because you are bound to get "Tickled under the armpit". Kids these days.
Otherwise, days here have been long and inactive. Nothing exciting happening here. Nope.
Sigh.......
A phase is going round in our family which is called 'Tickley under the armpit' . No explanation needed. But for those with no idea what I am talking about: When mom are dad are sitting at the table having an intense and important conversation about some world crisis,you sneak behind them and when the stretch or if they are relaxing with their arms stretched out you go up tickle them under the armpits screaming "tickleyunderthearmpits!". We just love it because they always get such a fright and vow to get you back. So no one stretches while the two little ones are on the prowl. The days are gone where you can relax on the couch with your arms above your head because you are bound to get "Tickled under the armpit". Kids these days.
Otherwise, days here have been long and inactive. Nothing exciting happening here. Nope.
Sigh.......
Sunday 23 October 2011
Post number the 5
I can't believe that one week has gone past already ! Well it seems as though it has gone by lightnening fast which is definetely a good thing. I think. The weekend has been full of laughs, sleeping in, lounging about and merry moments so I was not looking forward to the waking up before the sun is up
and starting school today. Saturday has rainy, wet, miserable and cold. Everyone tried to sleep in but for some reason your brain only wants to sleep in on the week days, the days you have to get up early. But when it is confronted with the oppertunity of sleeping in on the weekends it decides to get up at the crack of dawn and will not reason with you. So at some point we all get up and crawl to the couch, curl up in our sleeping bags and switch on T.V, hopes high for something good to watch. As it's Saturday, we are treated to a breakfast which is not the usual cereal-soymilk but delicious, warm, milky oats.
Once Dad arrives home for lunch and laughs at us because we are still in our pijamas, we go on about how we watched silly, random youtube videos of talking cats ( HILARIOUS) lay on the couch and just did nothing. He then convinced us all to get off our buts and go to Okpo ( a little town just 30mis from our apartment) and browse around the shops. I have been meaning to make some slippers for my mom and so i convinced everyone into the fish market where the lady sells fake wool for exorbitant prices. The fish markets are quite sad but very interseting at the same time. There's lot of culture in a fish market. Local people bustling about, trying to get the best price for a bag of squid or a large octopus. There's people shouting into microphones, people pushing others out the way to get there first. It's all very amusing to watch but also fascinating . I mean, what meal can you make with a fish head and an octopus?The sad thing is all of sea creatures that the old woman sell in their red buckets. There's squid and octopus and 50 million types of fish and sea urchins and clams and mussels. There is also a Korean sea squirt that is orange and people here love it. Don't ask me what they use it for because I really don't know.
We are walking past all these stores, fish, fish, fish socks!! There will be about 5 different fish shops and then a shop selling only socks, socks that you have to wash at least 4 times before you get the fish smell out of them. But finally we come to the shop we are here for, I chose my wool carefully and take Dad with me when I ask how much they cost to show I mean business. It still costs an arm and a leg but I am happy and skip away carrying my bag of goodies.For dinner it was spaghetti while watching Gnomeo and Juliet. Life's good.
On Sunday we went out to Teong -Yeong to go up the cable car. Last time we went up, it was pouring and our cable car was making a weird 'beep, beep' sound which we had no idea what it meant. It was extremely busy and we we at the back of the line trying to get our tickets. Suddenly a big group of Koreans came up and stood so close to us we could fell them breathing on us. It's those awkward moments when you can't move forwards or backwards without smooshing the people surrounding you. We finally bought our tickets and then moved to another extraordinary long line which was right next to the stage and it seemed to be an open mic, so people were just coming up and singing. It wouldn't be so bad if we weren't standing right next to the speakers which must have been on ' high' because it felt like we were at a rock concert. A Korean singer comes up and starts screaming into the microphone and we are very glad when the cable car security man comes and calls us up the get in our car. The ride up the mountain is about 7-8 minutes long but seems longer to those who have a fear of it crashing down 7 kilometers to the ground. Thankfully I only have a very acute fear of heights but my mom was not impressed. ' I want to get off now' 'This can't be over soon enough' ' Stop wiggling around!! Your make the car sway'. The rest of us were having the time of our lives, laughing and pretending to sway the car side to side, and making jokes about how high we are above ground.
At the top of the mountain, there is a bunch of food and drink stalls and then a trail of stairs leading to the summit of the mountain. We try to walk up quickly but are caught behind a group of old people struggling up the stairs. With no way to squeeze around them we are forced to follow behind at their slow pace, stopping every now and then while they take 50 pictures in front of a particular flower. The top finally came , with a beautiful view of all the mountains, and little islands around us. We tried to found our home but it was too far around the corner for us to see. Dodging many Koreans trying to take pictures we were able to spot the route we took to came here. After looking around for a while we made our way back to the cable cars. We arrived at the shops and were allowed to get a Churro ( dough covered in cinnamon sugar) each. Munching on those and waiting for the cable car we discussed how lucky we were it didn't rain and how beautiful it was.
and starting school today. Saturday has rainy, wet, miserable and cold. Everyone tried to sleep in but for some reason your brain only wants to sleep in on the week days, the days you have to get up early. But when it is confronted with the oppertunity of sleeping in on the weekends it decides to get up at the crack of dawn and will not reason with you. So at some point we all get up and crawl to the couch, curl up in our sleeping bags and switch on T.V, hopes high for something good to watch. As it's Saturday, we are treated to a breakfast which is not the usual cereal-soymilk but delicious, warm, milky oats.
Once Dad arrives home for lunch and laughs at us because we are still in our pijamas, we go on about how we watched silly, random youtube videos of talking cats ( HILARIOUS) lay on the couch and just did nothing. He then convinced us all to get off our buts and go to Okpo ( a little town just 30mis from our apartment) and browse around the shops. I have been meaning to make some slippers for my mom and so i convinced everyone into the fish market where the lady sells fake wool for exorbitant prices. The fish markets are quite sad but very interseting at the same time. There's lot of culture in a fish market. Local people bustling about, trying to get the best price for a bag of squid or a large octopus. There's people shouting into microphones, people pushing others out the way to get there first. It's all very amusing to watch but also fascinating . I mean, what meal can you make with a fish head and an octopus?The sad thing is all of sea creatures that the old woman sell in their red buckets. There's squid and octopus and 50 million types of fish and sea urchins and clams and mussels. There is also a Korean sea squirt that is orange and people here love it. Don't ask me what they use it for because I really don't know.
We are walking past all these stores, fish, fish, fish socks!! There will be about 5 different fish shops and then a shop selling only socks, socks that you have to wash at least 4 times before you get the fish smell out of them. But finally we come to the shop we are here for, I chose my wool carefully and take Dad with me when I ask how much they cost to show I mean business. It still costs an arm and a leg but I am happy and skip away carrying my bag of goodies.For dinner it was spaghetti while watching Gnomeo and Juliet. Life's good.
On Sunday we went out to Teong -Yeong to go up the cable car. Last time we went up, it was pouring and our cable car was making a weird 'beep, beep' sound which we had no idea what it meant. It was extremely busy and we we at the back of the line trying to get our tickets. Suddenly a big group of Koreans came up and stood so close to us we could fell them breathing on us. It's those awkward moments when you can't move forwards or backwards without smooshing the people surrounding you. We finally bought our tickets and then moved to another extraordinary long line which was right next to the stage and it seemed to be an open mic, so people were just coming up and singing. It wouldn't be so bad if we weren't standing right next to the speakers which must have been on ' high' because it felt like we were at a rock concert. A Korean singer comes up and starts screaming into the microphone and we are very glad when the cable car security man comes and calls us up the get in our car. The ride up the mountain is about 7-8 minutes long but seems longer to those who have a fear of it crashing down 7 kilometers to the ground. Thankfully I only have a very acute fear of heights but my mom was not impressed. ' I want to get off now' 'This can't be over soon enough' ' Stop wiggling around!! Your make the car sway'. The rest of us were having the time of our lives, laughing and pretending to sway the car side to side, and making jokes about how high we are above ground.
At the top of the mountain, there is a bunch of food and drink stalls and then a trail of stairs leading to the summit of the mountain. We try to walk up quickly but are caught behind a group of old people struggling up the stairs. With no way to squeeze around them we are forced to follow behind at their slow pace, stopping every now and then while they take 50 pictures in front of a particular flower. The top finally came , with a beautiful view of all the mountains, and little islands around us. We tried to found our home but it was too far around the corner for us to see. Dodging many Koreans trying to take pictures we were able to spot the route we took to came here. After looking around for a while we made our way back to the cable cars. We arrived at the shops and were allowed to get a Churro ( dough covered in cinnamon sugar) each. Munching on those and waiting for the cable car we discussed how lucky we were it didn't rain and how beautiful it was.
Thursday 20 October 2011
The soilders
The soilders stand on the hot red sand
And wait for their final orders
Knowing they will not survive this attack
Never again see their wives, sons or daughters
Never see the brilliant sun
Nor see the silver moon
Never bump into an old friend and then
Have tea until the afternoon.
These soilders know their going to die
Yet they fight for something with no value
You just simply cannot deny
That these soilders can't be thinking straight!
To see your friend crumpling to the ground
Like a piece of dampened paper
Simply cannot be mentally sound
For these men who cannot have hearts.
Are they simply toofull of pride?
To say " Mom look I've killed these men and have not died '
What are they trying to prove?
I have a bigger gun than you so I cannot lose?
Whenever I try to figure these things out
My head and stomach starts to hurt
To picture a boy in a shiny green uniform and a gun full of sadness and doubt
That he will never see his mom again
The blood and screaming, cries of pain
Is enough to make anyone go insane
But this one only seems to be me
Can no one else really see?
How pointless war can be?
How made up victory really sounds?
And this is just one of the tall mounds
The soliders will have to face
It really is a big disgrace
Of what mankind has become.
Monday 17 October 2011
The Days Finds
The Days Finds
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| This is what you get if you search in a 1000 won store. Horror movie in its self. |
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| NOOOO!! It has an evil, ugly looking brother too!! We all had a laugh when Ruby (my sister) said that they we actually quite cute. |
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| One think I love about South Korea is the socks. You get whole vans bursting with them, they are pretty cheap and have the coolest and funniest designs. |
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| Just a little slogan that I though was cute.Nothing says love more than a slogan which makes no sense. |
Saturday 15 October 2011
Weekend!
Aaaaahhhh.... Nothing beats just lounging on the couch, reading a really fantastic book, still in your P.Js. This is why I love Saturdays and Sundays. There is no rush to get dressed and shove down food only to be greeted with a science test and 50 algebra worksheets. But, Saturdays are my favourite because you still get the pleasure of knowing that tomorrow shall be the same. On Saturday I only woke up at 8 and then just lay on the couch reading until creature 1 and creature 2 got up and demanded that the T.V be on. The T.V here is all in korean apart from the Cebeebies and the Kids-Talk-Talk which is teaching korean children how to speak english. The Disney Channel is also in korean so all you can do is mute it and try to make out what they are saying by the way they talk. Not that fun. So I am stuck watching little people in odd costumes flying and singing songs that always get stuck in your head for the next two weeks. At least the creatures aren't annoying me.
Once mom gets up we have a leisurely breakfast and then make plans for the day. There are not that many things to do on the small island of Geojie, especially without a car, so our choices are narrowed down to the park (3.5 kms away), or we could wait until dad got here and he could take us somewhere but this was hard because he only got a tiny amount of lunch break so as soon as you arrive at the chosen destination and unpacked everything you have to repack everything and go home.
We decide to walk to the park and bring along the scooter and my "new" bike to make it all the more fun.So we pack our bags and get ready for the expedition.It's quite a drama to get the little ones ready because they never want to listen and are always forgetting everything but soon we are outside the apartment and setting off. Down the round, past the homplus and we walk by the waters edge, I am ahead riding my bike but suddenly my mother screams and when i turn around to see what has hapened I see my sister tumbling onto the floor and a korean man on a scooter riding past her. My mother again screams and so do I, tears already falling even though I hardly know what has happened. I push down my bike and sprint towards the scene where mother already has my sister in her lap and the korean man is saying something we really can't understand. I feel like hitting him and even though I don't get along with my sister that well sometimes I was not impressed. Fortunatley she got by with only a few scrapes but iff she was permanently damadged i don't think any of us would have forgiven ourselves.We soon had a whole crowd gatheres around us, all on the their phones and talking to each other. It's times like these when I wish I had some sort of button that I could push that would allow me to instantly understand what they are saying. The police arrive and try to question us but hand actions don't really get the point across. All we know is that this same dude will probably wake up tomorrow, get on his scotter and ride down the same pavement again, not al all worried about hitting some poor child again. We call dad and he takes us home where we all pamper my sister and try to forget about the days adventures.
Once mom gets up we have a leisurely breakfast and then make plans for the day. There are not that many things to do on the small island of Geojie, especially without a car, so our choices are narrowed down to the park (3.5 kms away), or we could wait until dad got here and he could take us somewhere but this was hard because he only got a tiny amount of lunch break so as soon as you arrive at the chosen destination and unpacked everything you have to repack everything and go home.
We decide to walk to the park and bring along the scooter and my "new" bike to make it all the more fun.So we pack our bags and get ready for the expedition.It's quite a drama to get the little ones ready because they never want to listen and are always forgetting everything but soon we are outside the apartment and setting off. Down the round, past the homplus and we walk by the waters edge, I am ahead riding my bike but suddenly my mother screams and when i turn around to see what has hapened I see my sister tumbling onto the floor and a korean man on a scooter riding past her. My mother again screams and so do I, tears already falling even though I hardly know what has happened. I push down my bike and sprint towards the scene where mother already has my sister in her lap and the korean man is saying something we really can't understand. I feel like hitting him and even though I don't get along with my sister that well sometimes I was not impressed. Fortunatley she got by with only a few scrapes but iff she was permanently damadged i don't think any of us would have forgiven ourselves.We soon had a whole crowd gatheres around us, all on the their phones and talking to each other. It's times like these when I wish I had some sort of button that I could push that would allow me to instantly understand what they are saying. The police arrive and try to question us but hand actions don't really get the point across. All we know is that this same dude will probably wake up tomorrow, get on his scotter and ride down the same pavement again, not al all worried about hitting some poor child again. We call dad and he takes us home where we all pamper my sister and try to forget about the days adventures.
Friday 14 October 2011
Post number the one
How come, whenever you are in the midst of the best, most exciting, dream you can ever have, you are woken up by some little creature who has decided to get up early instead of the usual 7:30?? Well this seems to be happening more than usual and happend just last night when I was in the middle of what I thought was my favourite dream yet. The worst part is, all the creatures want to do is watch the kids channel on T.V before mom comes home and starts the long 5 hours of "tough", "grueling" school ( notice my apostropheres here). This is , of course, not my favourite way to start any day. Especially a Friday. Cereal and milk alternative for breakfast followed by my math project and severeal other subjects. Then, what we excitment starved people think, the best part of the day. Shopping at the big store. I actually enjoy looking at all the notebooks, stationary and little odd and random things. The things that make you laugh the most here in South Korea are the english translations and the little splurbs they put on the front of notenooks and shops. Like the bakery shop across from my dentist, on the front where they put the name it says "don't bite me or you will love me" I thought it was hilarious at first and couldn't make sense of it at all. I shall post some more quotes and funny little doodads that you get in the little side shops here later on. There are the 1000 won shops which sell pretty much everything you could possibly need. Toothbrush? Aisle 3. Instant noodles? Right over there. Restraunt signs? Round the corner. Each 1000 won shop has a different combanation of things. It is quite a blast exploring each one and making a mental note to save up your money to buy the really cool clip with dots on next time.
Today however we were here to get the weekly shopping. This is a task of enormous proportion. As a family of five we usually get a whole shopping trolley full of food, juice, milk,bread and all of that and it only lasts 4 or 5 days. Then we have to carry about 6-7 bags full of heavy food all the way up the hill, around the corner and up the stairs. We try to drag all the food out as long as possible so we don't have to go back for at least a week. It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't the blasting music, usually some sort of popular k-pop, and korean people shouting at the top of their voices '"Try this sausage!" "Try the cheese!! Buy one get one free!". And then every half an hour there is the one Homplus theme song in which all the Homeplus employees have to dance to this song. If you ask me this is the best part of the whole trip. Some really get into it, maybe they are the newbies so they aren't tired of it. Yet. Thankfully we don't have to lug all the shopping home today because we have a ride. Who is late. So we stand there in the rain, staring longingly at all the people eating warm noodles and chatting inside.We don't wait long fortunatley and we are soon back home, preparing dinner, well I am trying to help but spilling oil everywhere and alomost chopping my finger off while trying to chop the carrots, isn't what I call a success. it tasted great though and watching a movie while eating was also a bonus. Then bed time, try to get back to that dream.........
Today however we were here to get the weekly shopping. This is a task of enormous proportion. As a family of five we usually get a whole shopping trolley full of food, juice, milk,bread and all of that and it only lasts 4 or 5 days. Then we have to carry about 6-7 bags full of heavy food all the way up the hill, around the corner and up the stairs. We try to drag all the food out as long as possible so we don't have to go back for at least a week. It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't the blasting music, usually some sort of popular k-pop, and korean people shouting at the top of their voices '"Try this sausage!" "Try the cheese!! Buy one get one free!". And then every half an hour there is the one Homplus theme song in which all the Homeplus employees have to dance to this song. If you ask me this is the best part of the whole trip. Some really get into it, maybe they are the newbies so they aren't tired of it. Yet. Thankfully we don't have to lug all the shopping home today because we have a ride. Who is late. So we stand there in the rain, staring longingly at all the people eating warm noodles and chatting inside.We don't wait long fortunatley and we are soon back home, preparing dinner, well I am trying to help but spilling oil everywhere and alomost chopping my finger off while trying to chop the carrots, isn't what I call a success. it tasted great though and watching a movie while eating was also a bonus. Then bed time, try to get back to that dream.........
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