Couchsurfing in Berkshire

We've just come back from Couchsurfing in Berkshire. In case you don't know what Couchsurfing is, I'll explain. It is a website that many people around the world have joined. You may be wondering why I said that, but the funny thing is that if all the people on Couchsurfing are all from the same city, then there will be no point in the website existing because the aim is to be able to stay at someone's house in another part of the world and to learn something from them and maybe teach them something or cook with them. Everyone has a profile saying things about themselves and the rules in their house. They can type in where they want to go or if they want to stay with a family and the website will come up with  a page so that you can click on different people's profiles to see who you want to stay with. You can then write to someone to ask if you can stay with them. After you've stayed with someone, you write them a reference about your stay.

Most of the time we host, but recently I went Couchsurfing with my family in Berkshire, we stayed with a woman called Anne and a man called Pete. They had a yurt in their garden, an apple tree that I picked apples with, and a grape vine with tiny grapes to make grape jelly with. I also pricked sloes for sloe gin which I didn't drink of course :D Anne taught us circle dancing and they have a very nice dog called Taffy. We took him for a walk and went for a few ourselves. The place we stayed in  in  Berkshire was called Binfield. That is such a weird name. We only stayed in Binfield for two nights but I still had a fun time there. I got to climb trees. My sister and I also had a pumpkin to carve together. I've got a lot of math to catch up with though.

What I've learned from our family's experiences with Couchsurfing:
1) People have strange surnames and names, eg Bum;
2) Some people just want to get free accommodation and don't really want to meet and spend time with other people;
3) Couchsurfing doesnt mean going into the sea and floating around on a sofa;
4) It has the word 'couch' in it because if you don't have a spare bed, your guests sleep on the couch; and it has the word 'surfing' in it because 'Couchsurfing' is a website and people talk about surfing when they're looking for something using a computer;
5) For some people, washing dishes mean distributing dirt and grease from one plate to another by putting them all in mucky suapy water and then taking the plates out again without rinsing them;
6) Some people think that in Britain people have no phones, TVs or know what football is;
7) Some people don't make an effort to talk to their hosts and instead go on their computer while they are in your living room;
8) There are delicious chocolates from around the world that I didn't know about;
9) It's not uncommon for people to eat seal meat;
10) Some countries have disgusting cheese that taste like condensed milk.

I have also learned how I be a good guest when I visit or surf by giving people good gifts in return for their hospitality and how to be considerate: don't consume too much of other people's resources whether time, energy, food, water or electricity. It is always good to replace what you use and show thanks by cooking or doing something for them and with them.

Short Story

It was the sort of evening when the stars danced across the sky and the moon shone a beautiful white light with more grace than ever.  It was also the sort of evening when crickets and owls remained silent and the great black cloak of night seemed more sinister than ever before.

The trees, no longer whispering with the wind, cast long shadows over the Palace of West Hårtordar; as a prisoner, barely visible in the dark autumn evening, was led out of it. The man leading him was dressed in a dark hooded cloak, his features invisible to any passing animal. The two men were silent as they walked into the woods. More men followed behind them. One of the people following was holding an axe. He handed it to the one in front. It was now night and the sky had blackened to the colour of burnt ebony. The men stood still.
"Alas, 'tis a shame I must die on this day," lamented the prisoner.
The man in front remained silent.
"I always thought I would die of old age. I was wrong," the prisoner exclaimed.
The man with the axe showed no pity or remorse; neither did the other men.
"I must tell you this now" said the prisoner. "I know you will not believe me, but I must say what I feel I must say."
The man with the axe spoke for the first time:
"Very well, then, but make it quick," he said.
The prisoner spoke again.
"I shall begin: it was not me who killed her, nor was it was the butler. I woke when I heard a rustling downstairs. When I looked it was not Marigold, as I had thought. When I reached the stairs, the door slammed. Every part of my mind shrunk back in terror. I walked down the stairs and saw that the urn and the money box were gone. I then saw her body on the ground. You know I loved her. I wouldn't kill her. I don't know who did, I swear."

At the end of his speech, the prisoner looked into each and every of the other men's eyes. They had been trained for most of their lives not to listen to these stories. All of their eyes remained hard and cold. All except for one: the one with the axe. No emotion could be detected in his face. He put down his axe.
"Go then," he said.
And the man who was no longer prisoner disappeared into the night.

I won't get out of bed (Short story)

I woke to the sound of church bells ringing. "Funny," I thought to myself, seeing that there were no church bells nearby.Then I remembered the new alarm setting: church bells. I sat up and switched the iPod off. Then I slunk back under the covers, willing myself to go back to sleep.

My thoughts would not obey me. "There is washing up to do, come on, before you're even more tired," they told me.
"Washing up," I thought. "I won't bother getting up for that."

My thoughts tugged me into a sitting positing and tried to pull me, like a magnet, out of bed. Almost immediately my stronger thoughts pulled me in the other direction though: towards bed. Those thoughts were my friends. I slunk back under the soft covers into the warm and inviting bed. I closed my eyes, ready to fall into the arms of sleep.

My other thoughts tugged at me again.

Swimming

In the past few weeks of Year 6 we've been doing swimming every Tuesday and the teachers are HORRIBLE. I shouldn't need to actually say that because all swimming teachers are horrible. They're always telling people off, even if people have just misheard them. They force us to open our eyes under water and I struggled with that.  My dad took us swimming so I'd get used to it. This Tuesday the teacher told us to swim with our eyes open instead of using our goggles. They are grumpy and unfair and make children hate swimming.

Math Books

Recently I started doing lots more Maths than I used to do. It's really difficult because I have 30 minutes to do a paper and I find it hard to do the questions in that time. Mum just tells me to do what I can and then I do the rest and we mark the ones that I did after the time runs out. At school Maths is difficult too because we are learning a new way to do division which is harder. I think it's because some people might find the old way hard and this will make them understand the questions easier, but for me it's the other round, and I get bored and frustrated because it seems to be a more complicated way with more steps.


As I have been doing more Maths at home, I am finding it slightly easier overall. We used "Maths Curse" and "The Adventures of Penrose" and they make things more interesting because there is a story  and as you read on, you learn a little bit about how numbers work in a certain way, and some theories that we don't normally know about. We've also got a book called Secrets of Mental Maths that has got tricks to impress. We don't use this book very much it's hidden on the bookshelf but I think it's quite cool.

There is also this book on our shelf for 11-14 year-olds and I've been scared if it for the past few years of my life because the stuff at the back of the books look really hard about formulae. A few days ago, I started it and I am finding it easier than I thought.


My dad told me about a famous puzzle called The Seven Bridges of Königsberg  that no one can work out the answer to because I think there is no answer to it. But it's fun working it out or trying to work it out.

Short Story

On Saturday I was given two prompts, One, a sentence: "What I heard that afternoon completely took me by surprise." The other one, a picture from The Guardian of people about to swim in a pond:

I was told not to stop writing, even when I wanted to think of a new sentence, so what I wrote, kinda sounded a bit weird. All through my writing, my mom kept giving me new prompts that I had to include in some way and that really stressed me out.


The story I came up with is in the following blog: http://taletree.blogspot.com/

London Streetfood Bank

I always knew that there were hundreds of homeless and hungry people around the world and when we found a website that told us that we could help, I didn't want to miss the opportunity, so I asked my mother to write to the head of London StreetFood Bank and we immediately got a reply telling us that our help would be appreciated.

I was looking forward to helping all week. We arrived at Pret to see a journalist arguing with the Manager of the shop about coming in to take photos. My mum and I were allowed in, but had to wait till they finished arguing before we could take the sandwiches.

Only when I got to Pret did I realise how much food from shops gets wasted. So many delicious desserts, sumptuous sandwiches and briliant breads get put in the bin when they don't even have the tiniest bit of mould on them and aren't stale in the slightest.


Packing the sandwiches into the suitcase and rucksack that we brought was pretty fun. I worried that I wouldn't be able to have enough space in the bags so I had to pack the sandwiches really carefully in square shapes with one triangle on top of another. I worried about crushing the food, especially the hot wraps. I put them together in the side pockets of the rucksack to keep them warm. 


About five minutes after we got to Charing Cross, we started handing out pastries, salads, desserts and sandwiches. It was really hard calling out the sandwich flavours because most of them were not labelled. When I handed out desserts, everyone was really keen on getting one asking for large ones and sometimes even taking from our suitcase. 


When all the sandwiches were finished, I felt really happy because I knew I'd done a good thing.  I felt really sorry for the homeless people though. Because I knew that there weren't many people handing out sandwiches and the hungry people looked forward to getting the sandwiches all day. I felt bad I couldn't be there every day. And I hoped that there would be more people volunteering to help the homeless and hungry who cannot ever be sure when or where they will get their next meal.


When people mentioned homeless and hungry people I always used to imagine people in Africa or other far-off places like that, who don't have enough porridge or water to keep them alive, but until this week I did not ever think of there being homeless people so near to me here in London. And when people talked about how much food was wasted, I always thought about mouldy apples and three day-old boiled pasta being thrown away by households. But now when people mention food wastage and/ or hunger I will know how real and close to me it is.

Nearly Soup

I got back from school feeling tired, cold and hungry. There was no food ready, and to make it worse, I had just come from swimming and my hair was wet. I felt a bit tired of school today; it's always the same. I don't like singing assembly, the structure of the day, the teaching assistant from another class. Sometimes it feels like a different world and I am the same as everyone else there, and no-one cares about what I really want to do.


Today when I came back from school I saw my mum taking a tray out of the oven. It had an onion, cut in half, sweet potatoes, half a chilli two halves of a butternut, one of them containing a garlic bulb in the hollow where the seeds had been scooped out. My mum said she was going to make soup. I ate some sweet potato slices and offered to help her make the soup.

I remember the way her hands...

I remember the way her hands trembled before my eyes
I remember the way her hands trembled as she picked up a mug
I remember the way her hands waved to me, the day I left
I remember the way her hands shook with excitement on the day of the dance
I remember the way her hands clapped after the performance
I remember the way her hands were, wrinkled yet beautiful
I remember the way her hands shook, as she got ready nervously for her part in the performance
I remember the way her hands were, they were dark and wrinkled and they made her look wise
I remember the way her hands looked, as she trailed them behind her in the dark clear water
I remember the way her hands looked, so soft and beautiful

It would be nice if ...

... clothes folded themselves
... I had a pink car
... M had a talk with Will
... asephoetida smelt nice
... our house had a secret door
... clothespegs could wash cars
... Belinda was told that no-one wanted to be in her circle
... all watches were good quality
... I had a sweet apple (the eating type)
... I had a sweet apple (the electric type)
... all watermelons weren't floury
... R realised that it wasn't good to boast
... "Emma" was easy to read
... carpets weren't so dusty
... it wasn't tiring to write
... my handwriting was neat
... Maths was easy
... flowers bloomed from carrots
... midnight stopped miaowing constantly
... cats could fly
... I had a pet monkey
... the world was cleaner
... Crissy woke up at five in the evening most days

Epping Forest Again

We were on our way to Box Hill but traffic was bad. So we went to Epping Forest the day after I came back from Epping Forest!  I got to walk around the forest that I didn't get a chance to do when I went with my class, and I got to climb a tree. Climbing the tree was not as difficult as I thought it would be, especially wit my mum there telling me the good places  to hold on to and put my feet on. 


I thought that I would find at least one swing in the forest, but much to my disappointment, there were none. We found lots of spider webs and I saw one there that was completely white. Once, a Couchsurfer told me that the white spider webs were the ones with lots of tiny eggs in them, and that they were white because spiders laid hundreds of tiny white eggs in them.

How to climb a tree

First get off the sofa. Let Dad know that you really don't want to climb a tree. Pretend

you're really annoyed that he thinks you need exercise before you work. Walk slowly

through the living room and the kitchen and step out into the garden. Then stroke the

cat and tell her that you won't be able to stroke her for long because you need to climb

the tree. Then end up stroking her for longer than you want to. Next, get up and tell her

you're really sorry that you can't stroke her any longer because you need to climb the

tree.

Then see a cat in the neighbour's garden walk and wonder who it is. Wonder why you

came into the garden. Remember it was to climb a tree.

Walk over to the tree and put your hand on one of the wooden blocks. The wooden

blocks nailed onto it by your father. Rest your foot between the two trees, and with

your free hand hold on to a higher branch. Take your other hand off the block and put

it on the same branch. Then put one foot on the wooden block you had your hand on

and your other foot on any other block you can see. One at a time put your hand onto

an even higher branch. Hold on tightly. Wish that you could have apple pie. And swing

yourself into the thicker higher branches of the tree.

Pull yourself up to a standing position and look down. Brush the aphids off your shirt

and wait for the ant to walk away before you can stretch into the next branch. Wish you

can have cream with your apple pie. Wonder why Paula doesn't put enough sugar in

her apple pies. Make sure the ant has gone. 

Stretch your arm up to hold on to the branch. Realise that it's too weak to hold your weight and hold on to a different branch around the same level. Look for another branch to put your arm on. Put your other arm on it. Swing both your feet quickly into the even higher branches of the tree. Look down to make sure your Mum can't see how high you are. Plan to ask your Mum to make apple pie (with cream). You are now high in the tree.

Camping with my class

This week I went to school every day, even on my work-at-home-days because on Thursday and Friday I had a camping trip to Debden House in Epping. From the beginning of the week, most of the girls were already deciding who they were going to share the tent with. I didn't. I knew it would just lead to arguments and it did.

Even though it's autumn, we were lucky to have amazing weather. We were told that the walk from the tube station to the forest was 20 minutes. It felt like 40 to me, because we carried heavy rucksacks in the sweltering sun. My friend A helped me carry my lunch box. My teacher B was really good at encouraging us to keep moving (he must have a lot of experience with people complaning;D


When we there I ended up sharing a tent with A, T, M and P. I did enjoy being with them but there were many small things that M did to upset me and A. We sorted one of the main things out without any grown-ups involved but M carried on not being nice in lots of little ways throughout the trip, and I would definitely not like to share a tent with her again.


People in my tent complained about the tent size and mold on the roof, but it seemed ok to me. People were not enthusiastic about the trip, like people at Scouts normally are. Maybe they were forced to come because it was a school trip, unlike at Scouts where we choose to camp so we all really want to be there.


My teacher was really cruel about not letting us go to the toilets. My friends needed it badly but he wouldn't allow it. Luckily he let them go later. Unfortunately my friends needed it again but they managed to hold it until the teachers had gone to sleep and we all did it behind the tents.


The highlight for me was the game where we had to look for little pieces of paper with numbers and symbols on them. I had camped at Epping before and it was frustrating for me that I couldn't go off for walks in the woods whenever I wanted. I understand why though. If I was in charge of 60 kids I wouldn't allow them to go into the woods.


We kept waking up and falling asleep during the night. I fell asleep on the train on the way back and a friend had to wake me up. I was exhausted and still went to Book Club, but I was pleased I went to the Book Club (and also to the camp). I think I have come down with cold and my friend A did too.