The Holidays

The recent lot of holidays haven't been the greatest holidays ever. The weather for the first three weeks especially was most atrocious. Constant torrential rain. Good thing that my brother and I bought a PlayStation 3 or otherwise those weeks would have been saturated with boredom as well as rain (not to mention that I wasn't all that well). At least I was away from school!

During the fifth week of the holidays, my family and I went off to a small settlement of beach houses thirty minutes north west of Whitianga in the Coromandel Peninsula called Opito Bay. It's about a three hour drive from Manurewa. Packing was a nightmare! We took two cars, my brother's quad-bike, and a third of our house contents with us.

We left on the Saturday at 11:00am. Our original goal was to leave at 10:00am but as per usual in our family, we are always 30 - 60 minutes late of our deadline. Any way, it was good to finally get down there to begin the daunting task of unpacking and putting things away. That was kind of difficult because the bach we were staying at was about the size of our lounge and kitchen (FYI, the bach is for sale).

The first night I had the best sleep in three years. Since the beach was about thirty yards from our bach, you can guess where we spent 50% of our time. As well as that, we did heaps of relaxing, and my brother did what he did best: terrorise the sea birds on his quad.

On our fourth day there, we went to the main town of Whitianga to do some shopping. The nice thing about Whitianga is that there are no traffic lights! And that 85% of the gift and nic-nac shops sold locally made stuff. Not all made in China as is often the case. For dinner, we were to indulge in some fish and chips on the beach. But it was most disappointing. For a start, the fish and chips were literally swimming in oil. Added to that, we had an onslaught of gnats and mosquitoes.

When the day came to go home, we were all sad. The thought of going back to the regular routines of our normal lives wasn't too promising. Once again, we had to pack which, just like last time, took ages. But we eventually got there. Three hours of negotiating  mountainous terrain and winding roads later, we were home. And you can guess what we did first. Unpack - which took forever. At least we could all sleep in our own beds!

To survive high school

For those of you who are year 8 and starting high school next year, it will be a big leap. In a sense, at primary school you are the big fish in the small pond, but next year in year 9 you will be the small fish in the ocean. High school in New Zealand is different to those you may have seen in cartoons.

Because there's no school bully who does wedgies noggies or swirlies. And there are no nerds. Unless that's how some dumb people see you as. At AC, not many use a locker to keep their stuff safe. most of us (including me) carry our stuff round in our bags. Don't worry, high school isn't really any different from primary school, except for the fact that every body will seem allot taller. (And rounder in some cases).

At AC, they are embracive of the Maori culture. That would explain the Marae. That also explains the Whanau house arrangement. In primary school, you may have had red house, yellow house etc. The same thing applies in AC. Except, the house are called Whanau. In AC there are 5 Whanaus: Kaitaataki (yellow), Whaianga (red, and the best because I'm in it), Tirohanga (blue), Kaitoro (green) and Auaha (purple). They all have there own meanings but I don't know them.

On your first day at AC, don't make the silly mistake that me and a few others did and bring every one of your books. Because you won't be doing anything with them for a week. Instead, just brig a refill pad and a pen. Of all your items of stationary, there is one book in particular that you just simply can't lose: your diary. It's basically a record of your learning and passport around the school. No diary, no trip to the toilet!

Apart from that, life at AC is usually pretty strait forward. Just do what you are told and you'll be fine.

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Thankyou letter to Miss Gutschlag

18th November 2011,

505 Alfriston Road

Manurewa

Auckland

Dear Miss Gutschlag,

                                    I wish to thank you for being such a great Social Studies teacher this year. I found you really approachable when I first met you and you seemed to be laid back and relaxed. Though the work was easy and I didn't learn a great deal, what I did learn, I enjoyed.  It was interesting learning about Malawi and the poverty topic. The poverty vortex and the 'rich north poor south devide' was all new to me.

I also liked the fact that you didn't blow a gasket each lesson, even though you were by my standards entitled to. Being able to put up with the  shenanigans of certain people over and over again took some feat! I don't know why you just didn't kick them out.

Anyway, I hope that you stay at AC next year. I'm sure that those crack-pots would have calmed down  by then and will not be disruptive - and some learning to take place for a change. Hopefully I will learn something more. I'm sure I will.

Yours sincerely,

Jacob Benniks

The Memorial

" Keep doing this in remembrance of me." (Luke 22:19)

The Memorial is a commemoration of Jesus Christ's death, celebrated by Jehovah's Witnesses between mid March and the beginning of April each year. It is the only event that the Bible commands Christians to celebrate. Worldwide attendance for 2010 was 18.7 million in 236 countries!  

The date of celebration varies from year to year because at the time of Jesus' death, the Jewish lunar calendar was used - not the Gregorian calendar in use today. The actual date of his death on the Jewish calendar was Nisan 14th which this year was 17th April (in 2012 it will be April 5th). The date is determined by the day in that month nearest the full moon.

A month prior to the Memorial, we begin a public invitation campaign to invite as many people as possible to attend (everybody is welcome to attend.)

The Memorial always begins after sundown, which coincides with the Jewish calendar (their day began at sundown). The venue is usually a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses (church), where each individual congregation gathers to celebrate the Memorial. (Congregations located relatively close together share Kingdom Halls, but for the Memorial celebration to accommodate the larger attendance, sometimes a community hall is hired.)

While it is a celebration with wine, the  Memorial isn't celebrated with partying like is so often seen in other celebrations. Rather, it is celebrated in a calm, respectful way, following the same pattern set by Jesus. First, a relevant song is sung and an opening prayer is offered. Second, a Bible-based talk is given about  when and why Jesus held the first Memorial with his disciples on the night before his death. (This is commonly known as the Lord's Supper.) Third, a prayer is given. Fourth, the bread representing Jesus' body is passed around the entire congregation. Similar to passover bread, this is no ordinary bread. It is made without any leaven or yeast because the  Bible often uses the term leaven as a symbol of sin or corruption - certainly not appropriate for a celebration of God's own son! Fifth, another prayer is given. Sixth, the wine symbolising Jesus' blood. But just not any wine will do. The  red wine must be pure and not fortified (Port or sherry, etc) wine representing Jesus' sinless blood. The wine is also passed around the entire congregation. Finally, a song is sung and a prayer is offered to conclude.

Lots do wonder though: Why are we celebrating a death? Because in doing so, Jesus paid with his life for what Adam had lost in the Garden of Eden. What this means for us is that it gives each and everyone of us the prospect of gaining everlasting life here on earth, as was God's original purpose for mankind.    

So if next April you get a knock on the door and someone hands you an invitation to the Memorial celebration in your area, why not come along and check it out?

A Memorial Celebration.

Free Rice screan - shot

Le gâteau au chocolat dix mille calories

In English that reads: 'The ten thousand calorie chocolate cake' - and it's easy to see why. My reason for this sugar-laden monstrosity is that next January, my grand parents will be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and I wanted to do something special. I've had that idea in mind for a while now and thought that today would be the day that I make this cake. It consists of  two chocolate cakes, lots of cream, dark cooking chocolate and my special chocolate mousse. However, the cake you see below is just a prototype. I'll most likely make another, revised version.   It didn't exactly take me all day because we went out for about three hours; but, around 2-4 hours. And yes, the process was extremely messy.

If I Could Change School

If I could change school, I'd want better discipline. Why?  There was a lot more respect in schools back in the day when teachers were able to properly discipline students. The students knew that if they disobeyed a school rule, there would be real consequences. Since being taken away from schools due to not being politically correct and fear of mistreatment, the level of respect around has dropped. All the students have to fear is a talking to, which they can easily shrug off, and re-offend.

Bringing proper discipline back to at least high school would help to restore the amount of respect in and out of class. I hope that I don't sound like an evil ogre that wants to inflict pain on people, I'm just trying to emphasise that, if you take away firm discipline (not that there isn't some discipline already there), the students have a lot less to worry about if they break a school rule. However, if firmer discipline was to be brought back, the students who do offend will face punishment, not just verbal. But the question is, what type of firm discipline should be brought back? Well, that's another whole topic in itself.

Anther thing I would change in school would be to have every class attend swimming lessons at a public pool. My reason being that so many young ones in New Zealand drown because they get out of their depth zone and are unable to swim to safety. Also, if lessons are arranged, the school could start up different aqua sporting teams like: Competitive swimming, underwater hockey, water polo, synchronised swimming, and high diving. They could all earn the school prestige and maybe unlock some students' hidden talents! The school wouldn't even have to have a swimming pool built on school property! Really, what school can afford to maintain a pool these days?

One more thing I would change in school would be to have zero tolerance for cell phones and portable music players in class. I hope that I don't sound like a killjoy, but a classroom is for learning and working. Not for texting and listening to music. They are a huge distraction for those possessing them in class, to be focused on their phones, rather than paying attention in class time. By doing that, they're, in the long term, missing out on their education; which leads to unemployment, and the Government having to spend more on unemployment benefits.