Last Post of TY

Well this is a memorable moment...my last post of TY! I'm officially on summer holidays but I thought I'd write one last post of TY to draw my blog to a close :) (cheesy or wha'?!)
We finished up yesterday through tears, laughter and a bundle of the most amazing memories! On Monday night we had our "Graduation" night...it was amazing! We spent the past few weeks getting projects from the whole year together, planning costumes, practising our dances and doing loads more in preparation for the night.
On Monday we spent the whole day in the hall putting posters up on the walls, displaying things on tables and going over each of the acts again and again. Finally at 4 o'clock everything was ready to go.
When we came around 7 o'clock on Monday evening the hall looked great - there were colours everywhere from all the projects and the atmosphere was buzzing! The show started at 8 o'clock and by then our parents had all taken their seats. Our MC's for the night started off the show followed by Ms L starting our "roll call"...(shabooya :L) After that Amina did their dances and we did ours. Other acts included sean nós dancing, an Irish song (Connemara), Mama Said, ballet (classical & modern) and our graduation song; "Count On Me" by Bruno Mars. The night was so much fun and a great success! At the end we got our awards, certs and gave presents to various peopel and then there was tea and coffee for our parents & teachers.
Before we left we got our TY hoodies (which look really nice and are super comfy!) Then most of us headedd to McDonalds in Maynooth to celebrate. It was nearly twelve when we left but we had such a ball!
Yesterday was our last day of TY. When we went in in the morning we cleaned up the hall and took down all our posters. The paper bin was full to the brim of unwanted projects! (I kept all of mine!) At 11.30 we got on the bus for our last trip of TY - bowling in Newbridge! It was really good fun...I did pretty ok...better than I thought I would anyway ;) After bowling we played some of the video game things in the place before getting back on the bus to go back to the school...where we said one final goodbye to Eileen (who's moving school) and to each other until September.
TY was an amazing year and I'm really going to miss it! I learned so mucha dn made loads of new friends. My favourite bits were a mixture of Carlingford & the Gaisce hike! I have so many memories and it was definitely a year to remember...the best school year ever!
Thanks so much to everyone who madde the year as amazing as it was...especially Ms L and all our teachers!
On a side note, this blog was the first I've ever done but I really enjoyed it and maybe I'll do another one in the future!
I think everyone should do TY...I'd really recommend it to everyone! :)
Byeeeeeee! :)

Geography Project Update

I didn't realise we had to link our map to geography so here's the stuff I added...
Mumbai is the fifth most populated city in the world and is also known as Bombay.
Chicago City faces both extremities in weather throughout the year...from very, very hot to very, very cold.
South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world and has a population of almost 50 million.
Hawaii is the newest of America's 50 states and is made up of 8 islands (including one called Hawai'i).
Dublin is a primate city and the largest city in Ireland.

Our School Website & TY Blog

Here's a link to our school website...it's updated regularly about events in the school. Also, here's a link to our TY blog, run by our year-head Ms L. She gives regular snippets from our blogs and information about whats going on in our year. :)

Scifest

After several months of preparation (!) we went to the Scifest competition on Tuesday to display our projects and take part in the competition. It was an early start - we had to be at the school at around five to eight in the morning! When we arrived we had to register and then we hung up our poster. Judging started at 10am. We had two judges, a man and a woman. They were really nice and Ciara and I felt it went well overall. After lunch (chips...mmmmm....) there were loads of talks on. We could pick two to go to. Hayley and I went to one on "fun chemistry". The guy was blowing up stuff, making oxygen, freezing stuff with dry-ice and doing loads of other cool stuff. The we went to a talk on forensic science...it was fascinating seeing how forensics are used to figure out who committed a crime etc etc. There are sooo many types of forensics too - I found it really interesting.
After that we took down our posters and then the awards ceremony was on. Ciara and I didn't win anything (we were devastated! :L) but other groups in my year won prizes, including the overall winning prize! I was so proud of everyone!
It was a really good day :D

Sports Day

Yesterday was sports day in school. Everyone came in in their tracksuits and t-shirts. We had the first two classes, then break, then another class, then lunch and at 12 o'clock sports day started. It was a bit touch-and-go at first because the weather wasn't too good - there were really dark clouds and in typical Irish fashion it began to rain a bit. But it kinda stopped and sports day went on :)
There were loads of different events throughout the day - relays, shot-put, high jump, long jump, and sprint races in the more "sporty" end of things. Novelty races included wheelbarrow, 3-legged race, slow bike race, skip-a-thon and at the end there was a huge game of rounders between the 6th-years and the teachers. The teachers claim they won but I'm not so sure... :)
The slow bike race was basically exactly what it says on the tin - 50 people brought in their bikes and the race was to see who could reach the finish line fastest...but you weren't allowed stop or put your foot on the ground or you were disqualified!
There were sweets, drink and ice-creams & ice-pops on sale too throughout the day which was cool!
I'm not that sporty so I didn't really take part in much of the stuff but a few of us had fun doing unofficial "jacky-back races" and rolling down the backs...a few times it rained but the atmosphere was still great and there was loads of good music playing too :) Oh and there were hula-hoops and skipping ropes too...I must say I'm not that bad when it comes to hula-hooping!
It was such a fun day...I'll try and upload pictures soon!

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult - Book Review

DON'T READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BOOK!!! :)

I read "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult as part of our English class book report project.

The book focuses on the struggles of the Fitzgerald family as a result of their daughter Kate’s illness – she suffers from APL, a form of Leukaemia. She was diagnosed when she was two, and at sixteen she has undergone many surgeries, transplants and tests.  Her sister Anna is three years younger than her and was a designer baby – she was born specifically to act as spare parts for Kate, and has spent her whole life donating bone marrow, promyelocytes, tissue and more to her sister. Kate needs a kidney and Anna will have to give Kate hers, but she decides that she has had enough and looks for medical emancipation by suing her parents for the rights to her own body. This tears her already-fragile family apart at the seams.

In the novel, each family member is highlighted through their own words, as too are other key characters involved in the case, such as Anna's lawyer Campell Alexander and her guardian ad-litem Julia Romano. The book was written in a format that enabled the reader to get a deep insight into each charaters mind; I could clearly see what each character was thinking, how they felt, their reaction to the case and also their reactions to Kate's illness. Despite the main story of the novel being centred around Kate, none of the story was told from her perspective, except the final chapter, which is written after the case ends and the devastating events that follow have occured. Each chapter was written in the first person from the point of one of the characters, almost like a diary.

My favourite character was Jesse; Anna & Kates' brother. Jesse is the eldest in the family and describes himself in the novel as being "the lost cause". He is a disruptive child and his parents, especially his mother (Sara) seem to have given up on him. Jesse is a pyromaniac and regularly sets fire to vacant buildings around area where he lives. This is symbolic in many ways. Firstly, his father, Brain is a fireman, and it is he who has the job of putting out the fires that Jesse starts. It is made known in the novel that Jesse has suffered from lack of attention since Kate was diagnosed when he was four, and this could be his way of secretly looking for attention from his dad, even though Brian is oblivious to his son's actions. Also, fire also plays an important part in the novel and could be considered a key theme. At the start of each new section, there are quotes or poems based on fire, as the dysfunctional family are described as "burning themselves out". Jesse lives in an apartment above the family's garage, another indication of his parents lack of consideration for their son. In the same way that his family have given up on Jesse, he seems to have given up on his family. He has accepted in his mind that his family has no time for him; Kate gets attention because he is sick and Anna does because she can save Kate so Jesse feels inadequate. Jesse has tried to ammend this by donating blood at the hospital every three days, unbeknownst to his parents. After Sara noticed injection marks on his arm, she questioned him, believing that he was doing drugs. His reply was; "...Didn't you wonder who else was keeping Kate in platelets?" Another very symbloic quote from Jesse is "Darkness, you know, is relative." Jesse knew he had problems, and to him this was important, but he understood that Kate's problems were even more important. His philosophical views & attitude, along with his nobility made him my favourite character.

My Sister’s Keeper deals with many topical and controversial topics, such as designer babies and using one child to save another.  On the front cover of the book it posed the question; “If you use one of your children to save the life of another, are you being a good mother or a very bad one?” I found while reading the book that this question regularly ran through my mind. It certainly is a very difficult question to answer and a very debatable subject. This makes the novel very interesting and made me want to keep reading. During the court case Sara makes the point very clear that she loves both of her daughters equally. I think Sara's character is probably the most hard to understand as a teenage reader but in the end it was clear that Sara loved her children and was just doing what she believed was in her sick daughter's best interests.

I really enjoyed reading this book because it opened my eyes to some of the most touching, poignant and thought-provoking subjects written about. I thought that it was very inspiring, especially as the novel was partly inspired by a true story. It made me think a lot about what real problems are. I thought the book was very philosophical and I found that the many twists in it (especially the ending!) made it a very interesting, enjoyable and emotional read. Definitely a book I'd recommend; I'd give it 10/10! :)

Back At School Again :)

Well this week we came back after two weeks off for Easter holidays. We had Monday off because it was a bank holiday but even still the week seemed to go by really slowly!

On Tueday in Art we started painting colour wheels. We had to draw a circle with twelve segments. Every fourth segment had to contain one of the three primary colours; red, yellow o
and blue. The middle segments between each of the primary colours had to contain one of the three secondary colours; green, purple and orange. The other segments were one of the tertiary colours. (mixture of the primary and secondary colours...eg. blue-purple). Today we started painting colour list things where we focused on shading. We had to do tints and shades...tints are where you get the primary colour and add white paint and shades are where you add black paint. I added white to red and black to blue (which was very hard because the blue was already reeeally dark!).

In PE we've did tennis this week...Hayley and I were partners and we were really.....eh awful! The amount of times we had to run after the ball when we missed it was crazy!

Next Tuesday we're going to Tallaght IT for the Scifest Competition...everyone in the year who entered got in and we're going to show our projects at the exhibition and see how we do in the competition! (Honestly, I don't hold up much hope for Ciara and I!) :D

Yesterday in Home Ec we cooked again. Everyone in the class made soda bread, a traditional Irish bread. Also, each pair got to pick one other thing to make...Laura and I made vegetable soup...well actually Laura made the soup while I made the bread. In the end they both turned out really well and it was definitely nice having freshly-made soup and bread for lunch! Yuuum! :)

Yesterday in religion we started watching a documetary about NBA players from Yugoslavia who had to face civil strife and the loss of friendship as a result. It's called Once Brothers and so far, its really interesting. It's so sad to see how a good friendship could be torn apart by politics! I'm looking forward to seeing the rest next week.

In Music on Wednesday our class chose a "gradutaion son" to sing on TY night on the 30th May! It's called Count on Me by Bruno Mars and it's sooo sweet...all about friendship (but not too cheesy!). So far everyone in Emnet has enjoyed singing it in music class and for Ms L.

In Tech today we started working on a new project...mobile phone holders! We drew them out on paper and then cut them out to make a prototype! It'll be cool seeing them when they're finished...if we get them done on time!

Meanwhile in every class we've been busy focusing on our plans for TY night. Everyone in the year has a job now and we're really looking forward to it...Ms L & Amina even came up with a cool Bring-It-On-inspired intro! It should be good fun! :)

This week we started making our "documentary" (eh...video) on TY...so far the interviews with girls from our year have gone pretty well and we're looking forward to seeing the finished production!

Well that's all the news from this week...I'm glad it's Friday because I have lots of projects to work on over the weekend that I want to get done! :)

Tag 5: Mumbai, India

I placed a tag in India because I always found Indian music very interesting...it has a haunting sound to it but at the same time its quites soothing in a different sort of way.. :)

Music in India is very varied...folk, pop, classical, R&B etc. Hindustani is a type of music that originated over 3000 years ago! (Around 1000BC). It's a type of Indian classical music and has religious links. Here's a Hindustani (eh...ignore the video...!)

Some popular instruments in India include the Sitar, the Tabla and the Shehnai.

I placed the tag in Mumbai because it was here that the film "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008) was set and filmed. It featured the song "Jai-Ho" by the Pussycat Dolls...check it out here.

Tag 4: Hawaii

I've always loved Hawaiin music (I know that's wierd). I watch the first scene of "Lilo & Stitch" on repeat all the time because the music mixed with the dancing is so nice :D By the way, Hawaii is technically part of America, but I'm treating it as part of Oceania.

An interesting fact about Hawaii is that in their language, there is no word that actually means "music".

They use chanting and hulu dance to express themselves. In Hulu dance, all the movements mean something different and are very specific. A lot of the more traditional Hawaiin music has become less popular as music from the American mainland has become part of their lives.

Here's the song from Lilo & Stitch that I love...It's called He Mele No Lilo which means "A Song For Lilo". You can look up what the lyrics mean on the internet...they mention mountains and flowers but the translations can be kinda cryptic :)

Here's another Hawaiin song, which sounds pretty cool. It's called He'eia.

Tag 3: Chicago, Illinois, N. America

American music has a HUGE influence on what we listen to, especially in Ireland and Britain. So many of our favourite musical acts are Americans (Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Chris Brown etc etc). We are literally surrounded by it, so instead I've decided to focus on an American musical - Grease - rather than popular American music.

I put the tag in Chicago because Rydell High School (in Grease) is supposedly based on an actual high school in Chicago.

The score for Grease is largely rock & roll, with the music and lyrics composed by Jim Jacobs & Warren Casey. The original score consisted of a piano, two tenor saxophones, bass guitar, percussion and two standard guitars. "You're The One That I Want" is the most popular song from the musical...see it here.

America has also brought to the world a lot of other musical-based productions, such as Chicago, Guys & Dolls, various Disney TY programmes & movies and...Glee :/

It also gave us American Idol and various other shows like it...no wonder the USA has the largest music market in the world!

Tag 2: Ladysmith, South Africa

I chose South Africa, and more importantly, Ladysmith, because this is where Joseph Shabalala, founder of the male choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo if from. I studied this group for my Junior Cert music course and I like their music.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a world-famous group (they're performing in the National Concert Hall in Dublin in June) who sing in the style of Iscathamiya and Mbube. They were founded in 1960. The have had fantastic success with their album "Graceland", and were even banned from entering Iscathamiya competitions because of their excellence. They have won Grammy's and Academy Awards, among many others.

Click here for their song "Homeless".

Tag 1: Ireland, Europe (The Irish Traditional Music Archive - 73 Merrion Square, Dublin 2)

Here, various items such as books, sheet music, photos and recordings are made to preserve the tradition of old Irish music. It was founded in 1987, has the largest collection of its kind, and is free & open to the public.

Irish Tarditional Music has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. It was often used in the past to tell stories, to mourn, or just for entertainment. Some traditional Irish instruments include the fiddle (like a violin), the tin whitle and the bodhrán (a type of drum). Sharon Shannon & Seán Ó Riada are two well-known singers in Irish Traditional Music. Click here for a clip of Sharon Shannon playing "The Neck Belly Reels" on accordian.

Also, many famouse musicians and bands (such as U2, Enya & Aslan) come from Ireland. Click here for a clip of U2 (With or Without You) or here for one of Aslan (Crazy World).

Geog Project - My Music Map

About a month ago we were given a project from Ms L that involved travelling around the world via Google maps to find out more about our interests all over the globe. I chose music as my interest...I loooove music! I play piano but I love every type of music and listening to music is how I chillax! For the project we had to make a map and place five tags on it from different places relating to our interest. We were supposed to connect them but I did it kinda wrong so they're not really connected but anyway...then we had to make five blog posts on the tags...this post is the intro. I'll post the rest in a while :)

The Intro:
I love music so I'm going to travel around the world and look at different types of music from various different countries across all the continents :)

F1 In Schools National Finals

Wow! I haven't blogged in sooo long....I was so busy recently!

Thursday 7th April was the National finals of the F1 In Schools Competition. We had spent a busy few days getting ready for it and the last-minute pressure was really on...we all had to work hard to get everything done on time and to ensure that our posters, porfolio, presentation...but most improtantly...OUR CAR were ready for the competition.

I was relieved when, on Wednesday, the box arrived back from Cork with our car in it...I was a bit worried, though, when we opened it up and saw that our aerofoil had been broken, however all was resolved when Michelle & Mia got together to make a new one out of pink plastic. Still, there was so much to do...Sarah volunteered to collect our posters from a guy in Newbridge and Hayley's mam (who pretty much came to the rescue all the time throughout the project) organised for the portfolio to be printed and then collected it for us. Most of the team spent extra time in the Tech room on Wednesday getting ready for the competition, along with Mr W who gave up loooads of time to help us. I worked on our Powerpoint for the Verbal Presentation. Hayley & Mia sanded the car, Sarah varnished it, Mia & Michelle built the aerofoil and the last-minute work was getting done pretty rapidliy...until the bell rang and we had to go home with our car still not ready. Mia took the car and offered to paint it, but she didn't have a vice to finish the aerofoil, so Michelle said she'd do it and drop it to Mia's house later. Hayley's mam had bought the spray-paint, so she had to go to Mia's house after school too to drop it off...and I had the glue to stick the aerofoil on so everyone was going to Mia's house in dribs and drabs when school was over just so the car would get done! :L

The next morning, we had to be at school at 7.45am! We left soon after...and I saw the finished car for the first time...I must admit I was kinda scared! It looked great though...Mia & Michelle had done a fab job! When we arrived there, we could see the competition was fierce...most of the other schools had big fancy displays and impressive-looking uniforms, but we set up our stand and it looked really good (and not OTT like some of the others)!

First thing we had was our verbal presentation in front of 5 judges. It went really well - they seemed to like us and they were all very nice. Our "speech" could be no more than 5 minutes and we sort of ran out of time but we got in all we wanted to say when the asked us questions afterwards. Then we had our display judging. Two judges did that one. We thought it went good aswell and they really liked our logo too which was a bonus! This is the logo here..

By the way...Éalú is the Irish for escape!

Last but not least was our race...probably the worst bit of the day for us! Our "driver" Sarah was fantastic....her reaction times were brilliant and much faster than the other team, but unfortunately the way the car was manufactured this time meant that it was a lot slower and sadly, it didn't perform at all how we would have liked...oh well!

We had a great day, despite only winning in our hearts :D Thanks Mr. W for all your help! :)

Gáisce Hike :)

Yesterday 14 of us + 2 teachers set out for Wicklow for our Gaisce hike...it was definitely a weekend to remember!

We came into school in our hiking gear (ie. tracksuit bottoms etc). We left after lunch, at 2 o'clock. When we arrived at Knockree hostel in Wicklow, lots of us recognised it from our ecology trip in 3rd year...

We checked in and got our rooms...I was with Aoife, Siobhán and Ashling N (Aoife & Ashling are from 5th year). We put our food that could go off in the fridge, packed our bags and then set off for the first leg of our hike at about 4 o'clock At first when our guide (I can't remember his name) showed us the mountain we'd be climbing, I got a bit of a shock...it looked huuuuge, but as we got going I realised it wasn't too bad. This is the mountain we climbed...we went to the end of the trees near the top;

We stopped for a few breaks along the way to regain our strength which was good because they were needed (for me anyway). The wind on the mountain was so strong...we could nearly lie back and be held up! The views were lovely along the way...we could see so much. When we got near the top our guide decided to go back down because the wind was too strong to go any further. We got up and down in record timing...we arrived back at the hostel at ten to seven! Our guide said we had walked almost 20km!

After that we went to our rooms for showers and stuff...the shower I went into was fuh-reez-ing! And there was a big spider too!! eeshk :/

Then we went down to the kitchen to make dinner...I had to get help 'coz cooking isn't my strong point...who knew pasta could be so easy! ;) After we cleaned up we got into our pj's and went to the tv room to watch 50 first dates...such an awful movie :D We were getting kinda freaked out by girls from another school who kept watching us through the window...but it was all part of the fun :L

"Quiet time" in the hostel was after 11pm and the movie finished at 10.59...perfect timing! Then we went to bed...ish...we finally got to sleep at around ten to twelve after some wall-feeling, talking, and eh....forcing into bed ;)

We were woken this morning at 8.00...according to Siobhán I was a sight for sore eyes when Ms. H came to wake us...I quote "You looked like someone who had been asleep and didn't want to be woken!" hehe :D you got it in a nutshell Siobhán!

We packed up our stuff and went for breakfast....just a side note: Kellogs mini-packs are in no way filling! We brought all our stuff downstairs and gave back our keys...but we weren't finished yet!

We had two new guides today...Mick and Andrei. We started off with orienteering. Team Andrei (the one I was on) lost :( actually we let then win! jk :P Then we did archery...I was surprised coz I was ok at it and I thought I'd be awful! The final score was 1400 to us and 1320 to the other team...I scored two bullseyes which was really cool! Here's us behind the targets afterwards...

After archery we went to use the low ropes...there were tight-ropey things that we had to walk across and that sort of thing; easier said than done because we were blindfolded when we were going across! Everyone had a go...even the teachers! Here's me going across blindfolded with Aoife ready to catch me if I fell...I made it though!

Speaking of falling...there was another rope thing after that and there was a metal wire that you had to walk across with the help of these two blue ropes that were in a criss-cross kionda shape (worst description ever!). When Aoife was going across I was standing behind her (supposedly) ready to catch her...but she fell back and I wasn't looking and I missed her...nevertheless she landed on top of me and the two of us went flying onto the ground...sorry Aoife! Siobhán caught the moment on camera....

And afterwards...

Afterwards we did some team games like making a square out of different shapes, making numbers add up to 15, moving a ball using drain pipes and "skis". I think Team Mick won most of the stuff :( :D

And that was it! We grabbed our bags, waved goodbye and got back on the bus. We stopped in Enniskerry to get ice-creams. We got back to Esso (where we were being collected) at 2.20. I had such a good time...the weather stayed gorgeous for most of the trip...I was really hot anyway! (I used my suncream too :D) ...so many funny memories (Siobhán feeling the wall for me...taking pictures of bananas....loads of funny conversations and mis-interpreted sentences!! :L) Fortunately I'm not in much pain at all...I'll upload more photos from the trip later. Thanks to the teachers who brought us! :)

Everyone who went ^^

Challenge 4: Finding My Way

I've added a blogroll to my blog as part of Challenge 4 of the blog challenge. I've added a few blogs to it...I already had the blog challenge blog. I added my Transition Year blog, which my Year-Head Ms L posts on. I also added my friend Hayley's blog and the Blogger Cafe blog. I'll add more as I find more blogs that interest me. I haven't added any categories yet because I don't have enough blogs but I'll do that soon. :)

French Pen-Pals

After coming back after Chrismas we were told that we'd be getting pen-pals. We found out that they come from Brittany. Last week we got our first letters from them. My pen-pal is called Kevin...he's 16. He told me a bit about himself, his family and his interests...I wrote another letter back and our teacher is going to send all our letters together soon...I can't wait to hear more about him...at the moment we're doing a short project on Ireland and the area we live in to send over to them. It's really testing my French skills! I hope Kevin can make sense of what I'm saying... :)

English Trip

Last Thursday we went on an English trip to the National Museum of Ireland, the National Library & the National Gallery (in Dublin). In the National Museum we saw artefacts from pre-historic history (?) like rocks and bog-boats. We then got to see some "bog-bodies". They were dead people who's bodies were preserved in the bog for thousands of years. They were really life-like looking (but knida disgusting.) One guy had only his torso -no head or legs. Another had no legs but had a torso and a head. The last guy has a full body. It was so interesting! At the national library we saw a W.B. Yeats exhibition - we were told all about his life and about his poetry. I honestly didn't like him after the exhibition -he's really really really wierd! Then we went for lunch...Mai, Hayley, Clara, Emma & I went to Eddie Rocket's...it was great craic! We got burgers and chips and milkshakes...which Mia spilled all over herself! After lunch we went to the Natinoal Gallery to look at paintings done by W.B. Yeats' father, John Yeats (I think that's his name...). It was a really good day! Thanks to Ms. B for organising it and to Ms. B & Ms G for bringing us! :)

Earth Hour

As part of challenge 3 we had to blog about a global issue we took part in...I decided to take part in earth hour on Saturday night from 8.30 to 9.30. Everyone in Ireland (and around the world as far as I know) was encouraged to turn off all the lights in their houses for one hour. I turned of my bedroom light and other lights around my house - I also encouraged my family to do the same (my dad let me dim the lights in the tv room!). It really made me realise how much we rely on light and therefore electricity to get by...I don't know what I'd do without my laptop, phone, ipod or the the tv...(I'm that sad!). In the houses around me, a lot of lights seemed to be off...I don't know whether that was just coincidence or if others were taking part too, but even still, it was very interesting...I wouldn't have been able to survive longer than an hour though! :L

Percussion Workshop

I had no internet last week so I have a lot to catch up on with my blog :/ On Tuesday last week we had a percussion workshop with a guy called Dave from Jabba Jabba Jembe (see his website here). We had it from 9.45am until 2.40pm, so we got to do loads of stuff. When Dave arrived we helped him to bring in his drums from his van...he had really cool colourful bags that they drums were in. Then he showed us how to play the drum properly. You use the palms of your hands with your four fingers together and your thumbs sticking out. There were loads of different types of drums, all different sizes. One was called the jembe and it was the main drum. There were bass drums too and other drums I didn't know the name of. He also had loads of hand percussion instruments. Some were made out of gourds. We played loads of rhythms and we all had the chance to try out every drum - it was really cool. At the end we watched a video called Foli on Youtube..you can see it here. It's about jembe druming in Africa. We also watched a video on Stomp...a grup of people who use every-day items (like sweeping brushes and basketballs) to make percussive sounds...it was sooo cool! It was a really good day...when all of us were playing together the sound was amazing (and really loud!). I'd love to learn how to play the jembe drums properly some day. :)