It's the holidays now, but because I'm in year six, I won't be going to Bounds Green School anymore when they're over because Bounds Green is a primary school. Most of the people in year six are going to a secondary school called A.P.S. I've chosen to homeschool.
The last day of school was sad, but I didn't cry. We each got these little autograph books and got our friends and some teachers to sign them for us so that we could remember them. Most of us brought white T-shirts as well to get people to sign and write messages on.
The teachers gave everyone in year six a mini dictionary to take with them to secondary school.
One of the staff in the school is called Tess. She used to give me Tic-Tacs when I was in year five. Because I had some sweets in my bag, I gave her one of them. She seemed really pleased, and said that you could only get them in Ireland, so I gave her three more. When I asked her whether she was from Ireland, she said yes. I'd always wondered where she was from because she didn't sound English. She was one of the people who signed my autograph book.
Anne was another person who signed my autograph book. She also works at the school, and I used to chat with me a lot, often about books because she often saw me reading. Once she gave me a book called, "The Pirates In An Adventure With Scientists." I asked her where she was from, and she also said Ireland!
There is a girl in my school who really likes apples, and she signed my shirt with a picture of an apple.
At the end of the day my teacher gave us all medals made out of chocolate. Then, we went downstairs and said a last goodbye to everyone before leaving.
I'm quite pleased I decided to go to school for the last two years, but I'm looking forward to homeschooling as well.
Tuesday 31 July 2012
Tuesday 10 July 2012
Henrietta Branford Prize giving ceremony
In an earlier post, I mentioned that I was going to receive my prize for a writing competition that I'd entered. I went for the Henrietta Branford prize-giving party yesterday. It was in the same place as the Branford Boase Awards ceremony. The Branford Boase competition is a writing competition for first time authors of young-adult books, and the Henrietta Branford competition is run alongside it.
We were in a real hurry before we left the house. I wanted to wear nail polish, but there wasn't time to put any on, so I decided to take the bottle of nail polish on the tube with me. On the tube, my mum tried to put the nail polish on me. She managed my first and second finger, but the nail polish got all smudged because the train was moving. She had to stop applying the nail polish. I was really worried that everybody would see, and I hadn't brought along any nail polish remover, so I had to borrow a tissue from my dad to try get it off. I couldn't get it all off properly, so I just went to the Awards with it on. I must've looked pretty weird going round with only two fingers with black nail polish on them
As we walked in to the hall where the ceremony was taking place, we were greeted by Anne Marley, the person who organised the competition. She told me briefly about what was going to be happening, and introduced me to Jacqueline Wilson.
For the first few minutes, we all walked around, chatting and eating tasty canapes, and drinking Coke. There were people who walked round with trays, offering us fancy snacks. One of the snacks we had was little pieces of haloumi (my favourite) dipped in tomato salsa. We also had chicken with a sticky sauce, and duck pancakes. As well as that, we were offered these little fairy cakes with rainbow icing and sugar butterflies. Everything was delicious. We managed to get a few books signed by Jacqueline Wilson, too. She was really nice, and we had our photographs taken with her.
Later on, I was called up to the front of a platform with the other winners to receive the books that I had won, and to have my photo taken with Jacqueline Wilson. I was so nervous when my name was called out, but I remembered to smile. The books that I had won had all been shortlisted for the Branford Boase award, and the authors of those books were at the ceremony.
After I had received my prize, the winner of the adult competition was announced. Her name is Annabel Pitcher. Her book is called,"My Sister Lives On The Mantlepiece. I've read her book already, when I was going to a book club at my local library and I did a review of it, but I'm going to read it again, because it was really good. I got the book signed by the author, and chatted with her briefly, and then my mum and I went to look for the other authors because I wanted them to sign my books too! They were all friendly and kind, and most of them chatted to me and encouraged me to keep writing. I'm looking forward to reading their books.
Some of the adults did speeches. They weren't at all boring, and I quite enjoyed listening to them.
When we were leaving, Jacqueline Wilson said,"Good bye, Jamila. Well done. I was so excited that she remembered my name.
We were in a real hurry before we left the house. I wanted to wear nail polish, but there wasn't time to put any on, so I decided to take the bottle of nail polish on the tube with me. On the tube, my mum tried to put the nail polish on me. She managed my first and second finger, but the nail polish got all smudged because the train was moving. She had to stop applying the nail polish. I was really worried that everybody would see, and I hadn't brought along any nail polish remover, so I had to borrow a tissue from my dad to try get it off. I couldn't get it all off properly, so I just went to the Awards with it on. I must've looked pretty weird going round with only two fingers with black nail polish on them
As we walked in to the hall where the ceremony was taking place, we were greeted by Anne Marley, the person who organised the competition. She told me briefly about what was going to be happening, and introduced me to Jacqueline Wilson.
For the first few minutes, we all walked around, chatting and eating tasty canapes, and drinking Coke. There were people who walked round with trays, offering us fancy snacks. One of the snacks we had was little pieces of haloumi (my favourite) dipped in tomato salsa. We also had chicken with a sticky sauce, and duck pancakes. As well as that, we were offered these little fairy cakes with rainbow icing and sugar butterflies. Everything was delicious. We managed to get a few books signed by Jacqueline Wilson, too. She was really nice, and we had our photographs taken with her.
Later on, I was called up to the front of a platform with the other winners to receive the books that I had won, and to have my photo taken with Jacqueline Wilson. I was so nervous when my name was called out, but I remembered to smile. The books that I had won had all been shortlisted for the Branford Boase award, and the authors of those books were at the ceremony.
After I had received my prize, the winner of the adult competition was announced. Her name is Annabel Pitcher. Her book is called,"My Sister Lives On The Mantlepiece. I've read her book already, when I was going to a book club at my local library and I did a review of it, but I'm going to read it again, because it was really good. I got the book signed by the author, and chatted with her briefly, and then my mum and I went to look for the other authors because I wanted them to sign my books too! They were all friendly and kind, and most of them chatted to me and encouraged me to keep writing. I'm looking forward to reading their books.
Some of the adults did speeches. They weren't at all boring, and I quite enjoyed listening to them.
When we were leaving, Jacqueline Wilson said,"Good bye, Jamila. Well done. I was so excited that she remembered my name.
Me with the other winners and Jacqueline Wilson
Getting an autographed copy of Jacqueline's book
Taking a cup-cake while Phil Earle signs a copy of his book for me.
Friday 6 July 2012
Borough market
On Friday we went to Borough Market. There were so many stalls, and a lot of them had a string of bulbs hanging across them.
The market seemed bigger than I remembered it to be. Some of the stalls were indoors, and some were outdoors. We bought some raclette from one of the outdoor stalls. Raclette is a Swiss dish. It's made up of potato, melted cheese and pickle. I like the way the cheese is melted. A round of cheese is cut in half. One half is stored away, and the other is put on the counter to be used. The part of the one on the counter that doesn't have any cheese, is melted and then scraped onto a plate of potato and pickles.
We bought some ice-cream too. It wasn't normal, boring ice-cream; it was real Italian gelato. It was really creamy. As well as ice-cream, we bought the juciest cherries. They were bright red, and very sweet. Another dish we bought was Thai curry. It was less spicy than usual, but still spicy, so I could manage eating it, a little bit of it at a time. There were prawns, squid and pieces of chicken in the curry, and loads of coconut milk. We also bought felafel. The felafel balls were very crispy, so I liked them more than usual. There was some ice tea at one stall, too. I bought some, because it wasn't very expensive. The tea wasn't as sweet as I'd expected, and to be honest, I was a little disappointed. I told my dad, and he said that there was some sugar at the iced tea stall. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed the sugar, but I was also relieved that there was sugar. I put some into the tea, and squirted some into my sister's mouth. The only reason that I squirted some, and not a lot, was because I was worried about the shopkeepers seeing us. Then, my sister decided that she wanted our mum to take a photograph of us with the sugar. After the photograph had been taken, we went back to our dad, who was looking at another stall. as we were walking to our dad, I saw the shopkeepers talking about the sugar-squirting incident. Luckily, they didn't seem angry about it; they seemed like they found it funny.
Here are some photos taken at Borough Market:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)