Art and Stew

We went to a boring talk at the British Museum about an artist called Grayson Perry. We found a programme about it on BBC iPlayer which was much better. The programme was interesting and funny. The artist said that cuddly toys were similar to god and that his teddy bear Alan Measles was a god that he worshipped. I thought that crazy!


This week we went to a few exhibitions. The first one was a rude one that I didn't understand. The artist had a model of himself on a stage and pews for the public to sit on and look at him and he called it "The King."


Then we went nearby to a market. There were some some really cool stalls, one of which had a fossilised bear claw, lots of fish fossils, thousands of years old, and many different crystals from around the world. Another stall sold old coins and one sold unusual flavours of tea. I enjoy walking around market stalls because a lot of the time there are a lot of cool things you don't see in other places and I like to see the things to see what I can come back to get with my birthday money.


The next exhibition was about five minutes' walk away. It was made up of various pieces of furniture, all the same style. The exhibition was called "Steam" and I think it's because of the shape of the furniture which was beautiful and curvy and made from the walnut tree. I sat to draw one of the chairs. My mum only had one pen with her for me to draw with; luckily it was brown, the same colour as the chair.

We went upstairs to see some paintings and sculptures. I liked the sculptures more than the paintings. They were more unusual.
The name of the artist was Frank Stella.

On our way back to the station, we walked past Godiva's and offered a free sample of Christmas white chocolate. I was surprised when I bit into it because it had some milk chocolate inside it. It was delicious. I saved a piece for my sister.


I got hungry. I had the most delicious burger in Carnaby Street, and then we went to sniff some perfumes. The woman there told us the price of the larger bottles of perfume. I wasn't sure if she said £19 or £90 but I decided to believe that it was £19. My favourite scent was "Figue" and my least favourite was "Rose." One of them was called "Cedar" and it reminded me of a cottage in the woods. The lady sprayed some samples on thin pieces of card and I am using them as bookmarks. I actually found out they were £90. That must be why we didn't buy any!


Stew is delicious.

London Streetfood Bank Part 2

I have carried on with my project to help distribute sandwiches to the homeless once a week. On World Food Day at my school I gave a presentation to two classes.

Here is me practising my speech:

When I gave my talk to a Year 5 class, I was really nervous. I thought that only people in books 'shook' when they were nervous, but I was shaking and I lost my place in the notes I was holding so I had to try to remember what I had written down. It was difficult but things went well, and no one noticed that there was a chunk missing.  Things went better in the Year 6 class that I did the talk.

One week I didn't go and Mum went without me. I'll tell you what I remember about the story she told me when she came back. She said that she was asked to help this man who brought lots of little packages of lamb. Each one was carefully wrapped.  He was Moslem  and it is part of his obligation to pay for the sacrifice of a sheep/ lamb and distribute it. The man and his wife cooked the meat and tried to find out who they can donate it to; and then he found London Streetfood Bank online, spoke to Jon, and came on the day.

My mum told me that he and his relatives were shocked that there were people going hungry on the streets in London. There weren't any homeless people where lived (which was in London too in Harrow) and he found it hard to believe that people lived on the streets. He said he could have given it to his relatives but that would just make them fatter than they already were! :D

When I heard about him, my first thought was, "Wow, what a kind person." I thought it was amazing that he went through all that effort to donate food.

I felt proud of the work I was doing too.

However, a few days after World Food Day, a girl in my class who is always bullying and snapping at me and my friend said to me that it was illegal for me to do what I was doing and that she knew because she looked it up on the Internet. She said that it was actually my mum who did the sandwiches and I just helped her. Obviously I know that it was a load of lies because this girl lies a lot and who would actually take the time to look it up on the Internet? I told her I knew it wasn't true and a boy sitting at our table backed me up and said that he would go home and check to prove that this girl was wrong. I didn't tell my parents till later because I just wanted to shrug it off.

The last time I went to collect sandwiches from Pret, the sandwiches had already been put in a black bin bag but luckily not in a proper bin. We packed them way in different bags according to fillings and went to distribute them. It was lucky we got there; there were a lot of sandwiches that day, and also some salads and yoghurts as well as pastries. I felt extra good because many people got food from us that day.

Helping the hungry is my project.

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.

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.