Tuesday 24 June 2014


Tornado  

The wind has been blowing for days now. I wonder when it will stop. Maybe never. This afternoon, all the power in the house went off. It was really scary for my family and I. For dinner we had ham and cream cheese sandwiches because it was too dark to cook on the stove. We heard a few days ago that there might be a tornado heading our direction. If there is, it’s probably because of the ring. I know I shouldn’t have trusted that guy! But it is unlikely that we will get a tornado down here. We never have in the past. While I have been writing, mum and dad have been looking for signs of a tornado. Suddenly, they are at my door. They are franticly waving and shouting at me to get out!   

Volcano

The volcano has been rumbling for a full 5 days. I wonder when it will stop. Suddenly I see a small red smudge above the volcano. I see it again. This time it’s bigger. I’ve seen enough to know that the volcano is about to explode. I turn and run to the garage, fumbling with my keys as I go. I jump into the car and start the engine. But I have forgotten to open the garage door! I leap out of the car and race to the door. I throw it open. But it has taken too long.  The volcano explodes once more. This time I know I can’t escape. But I decide to try anyway. I will go down fighting, or I will not go down at all. I dive in, and the car takes off. I head away from the volcano, but every now and then I see a sea of lava rolling down the hill towards me. Suddenly the lava is on me. I feel the burning hot lava on my skin. I scream once. There is nothing.    

The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages was a very interesting time. Well, maybe not for everybody, but I find it very interesting. I researched a lot about the middle ages. This is the information that I collected.

                                                                                                       

In the Middle Ages, there was a big problem with feudalism.  Feudalism was when the lower ranking people rebelled against the higher ranking people. Here are some of the rankings in order: Emperor rules an empire, King, rules a country, prince/princess, son or daughter of the ruler, peasant, anyone one not a noble, serf, bound to land, virtually a slave to the land owner.

 

A knight is someone who has been knighted by the king or queen. To be a knight, you had to go through the knighthood ceremony. The knight has to kneel/stand at an alter for ten hours in silent prayer. They were joined by others for mass and their sponsor takes possession of the sword and shield. The knights had to take vows. Some of them are: never traffic with traitors. Never give evil counsel to a lady, married or not. Every day hear mass and make an effort to make an offering in church.

 

Knights had to go through knight school before they could become a knight. Here is some information about knight school. Boys start at knight school at the age of seven. They become a squire at the age of fourteen. After knight school, when the squires became knights, they got horses. The rich knights got three horses. The heaviest was used for tournaments. The quickest was for long journeys, and the last carried the bags. A knight dressed for battle had a padded jacket under a chainmail vest. Over the chainmail, they had a tunic with their coat of arms embroided on it. They usually had a helmet and greaves on. They also metal gloves called gauntlets.

 

In the Middle Ages, there were a lot of castles. Castles were originally made of wood, but later on were made of stone to protect the castle from fire. Inside the castle there was a big courtyard and smaller buildings. There was also a keep. A keep was a tall building that was very strong. The keep is the safest place in the castle. That is why the  Lord of the castle and his family live in it. The walls of a castle were at least 3.5 metres thick.

 

In the Middle Ages there are were a lot of competitions when they were not in the middle of a war. One of the competitions was jousting.  Jousting is when two knights face each other on a different side of a fence. They charge at each other and try to knock their opponent of their horse while trying to keep themselves on their own horse. They also do practise wars. In the practise wars, they separate into two groups. The two groups fought each other until one group surrenders or they can’t fight any more.

 

 The Middle Ages were from 1066-the reign of King William the Conqueror, to 1485- the death of King Richard the third. There were three different times during the middle ages. The first was from 1066-1154. The second was from 1154-1377. The third was from 1377-1485. Each of the different times had a separate name. They were: timeline of the Norman kings, timeline of the Plantagenet Kings of England, and timeline of the Royal houses of Lancaster and York Kings.

 

There were many famous/well known kings in the Middle Ages. One of them was King Richard the third. King Richard the third was English and he lived from 1452- 1485. He was killed in the middle of a battle and his army was defeated. He is the son of Richard, Duke of York. He was succeeded to the throne 26th June, 1485. King Richard was found gashed, bleeding and stripped on the battle field, and was thrown across a horse and carried into Leicester.

 

In the Middle Ages, there were many crusades. A crusade is when an army goes to retake a city/castle that has been taken off them. One of the crusades started from a tribe taking over Jerusalem. They refused to let Jewish and Christian pilgrims enter the city. 30000 knights and other fighting men left to retake Jerusalem, and recaptured it. 50 years later, the Arabs came and conquered Jerusalem. There were many more crusades, but none were successful. One of these crusades was the children’s crusade. Thousands of children died of cold and sickness before they even got to Jerusalem. When they arrived, the children could not find a way in, and they went home in disappointment.

 

A lot of wars in the Middle Ages were called sieges. A siege is when an army attacks a castle, but cannot conquer it immediately. Many of the sieges took over a year to be completed. There were many weapons used specially for sieges. Here are some of them. The siege tower. The siege tower was a tall building with a ladder up each side and a platform coming out of the other side. They were used for getting into the castle over the walls. Scaling ladders did the same thing. The battering ram. a battering ram was a big log that was attached to a triangular cover. They were used for knocking down the walls of the castle. Catapults. Catapults were a big machine that had a pole with a bucket on the end to put stones in. they were used for throwing boulders at the walls of the castle. The turtle. The turtle was a massive curved piece of wood that the soldiers held over their head to protect them from arrows and boulders while they were going towards the walls.

 

In the Middle Ages, the women were dominated by the males. That means that the males told the women what to do and they had to obey. The unruly girls were beaten into submission, and disobedience was seen as a crime against religion. Some women were lucky though. They got to marry rich or high ranking men.

 

So there is the information that I could find. I hope you learnt something from it. I know I did.

 

Timothy Jorgensen     

Wednesday 11 June 2014


Who am I?

Christmas is in winter here. I am in the continent of Europe. In my country, we honour the cow at Christmas because it is thought that when Mary gave birth to Jesus the cow in the stable breathed on baby Jesus to keep him warm. On Christmas eve, as the stars come out, tiny oil lamps are lit in every house, and after, midnight mass and Christmas dinner, streets fill with dancers and onlookers. People eat fried cod in barbeque sauce, roast goat and other food. People go to church, exchange presents and play on swing sets set up especially for the occasion.

Who am I?   

Spain! In Spain it is a very festive time at Christmas. On Christmas Eve, as the stars come out, tiny oil lamps are lit in every house, and after Midnight Mass and Christmas Dinner, streets fill with dancers and onlookers. There is a special Christmas dance called the Jota and the words and music have been handed down for hundreds of years. They dance to the sound of guitars and castanets.

 

The Spanish especially honour the cow at Christmas because it is thought that when Mary gave birth to Jesus the cow in the stable breathed on the Baby Jesus to keep him warm.

Christmas is a deeply religious holiday in Spain. The country's patron saint is the Virgin Mary and the Christmas season officially begins December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. It is celebrated each year in front of the great Gothic cathedral in Seville with a ceremony called los Seises or the "dance of six." Oddly, the elaborate ritual dance is now performed by not six but ten elaborately costumed boys. It is a series of precise movements and gestures and is said to be quite moving and beautiful.

Christmas Eve is known as Nochebuena or "the Good Night." It is a time for family members to gather together to rejoice and feast around the Nativity scenes that are present in nearly every home. A traditional Christmas treat is turron, a kind of almond candy.

December 28 is the feast of the Holy Innocents. Young boys of a town or village light bonfires and one of them acts as the mayor who orders townspeople to perform civic chores such as sweeping the streets. Refusal to comply results in fines which are used to pay for the celebration.

The children of Spain receive gifts on the feast of the Epiphany. The Magi are particularly revered in Spain. It is believed that they travel through the countryside re-enacting their journey to Bethlehem every year at this time. Children leave their shoes on the windowsills and fill them with straw, carrots, and barley or the horses of the Wise Men. Their favourite is Balthazar who rides a donkey and is the one believed to leave the gifts.

 

By Timothy Jorgensen                                                                                                                    

Choco Zacs

 

Ingredients                               


1 cup rolled oats

1 cup plain flour, sifted

1 cup caster sugar

1 cup desiccated coconut

125g butter, chopped

2 tablespoons golden syrup

2 tablespoons boiling water

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ cup dried fruit [sultanas, apricots]

200g chocolate, melted

 

1 preheat oven to 160/140 degrees Celsius fan-forced. Grease three oven trays.

2 chop dried fruit.

3 combine oats, flour, sugar and coconut in medium bowl.

4 Stir butter and golden syrup in small saucepan over low heat 2-3 minutes or until melted.

5 combine water and baking soda in small jug; stir into butter mixture. Pour into dry ingredients; mix well.

6 add dried fruit.

7 roll walnut size pieces of mixture into balls. Place on trays 4cm apart; press lightly to flatten.

8 bake biscuits 15-20min or until golden. Allow to stand 5 minutes; transfer to wire rack to cool.

9 when cool, melt chocolate and use to join two biscuits and decorate top.
  
           
 
 
 
Moa war
 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

 
It was the night of the moa. A sad night for the Vikings of Denmark. They lost so many troops that day. Here is a story of how the moa got extinct, or so the Danish thought.
It was a clear stary night in Oamaru. The moa tribe was lazing around in the hills on the outskirts of town. There were hundreds of moa.  Even so, people rarely saw them in the wild.
“Hawoo!” it was hunting time for wolves. The sleek grey wolves were incredibly fast. They hunted in packs of about fifty and never went out of the den alone.
Boom! The crashing of waves on the hull of the ship woke Captain Valdemar from his sleep. Valdemar was Captain of the Viking ship Wolfden.                                                                                                                                                                                 “Svengal! Why didn’t you wake me? We’re in the middle of a storm!” shouted Valdemar.                                                 “I was busy with the crew!” replied Svengal.                                                                                                             “Very ragged bunch they are. We’ll never make it to land on time!” that’s it thought Valdemar.                                                                                                                                “If you don’t find land by tomorrow, I’ll chuck you overboard!”
The next day, just as Captain Valdemar was about to through svengal overboard, the lookout saw land.                                                                                                                                                                                   “Land ho!” he shouted.                                                                                                                                                    “Phew” said Svengal, moping his brow.                                                                                                               “Lucky guy,” Valdemar muttered angrily, “I’ll teach him a lesson someday.”
“Sail ahoy!” yelled a moa.                                                                                                                                               “Oh no” said another.                                                                                                                                                        Viking raiders they immediately thought. It was bad enough with the wolves attacking them, but to have Vikings as well, they were certainly going to die.
At that same moment the wolves were thinking the same thing. But they were happy.                                  “There will be more food this year, for the vikings are attacking!” shouted the alpha wolf.                 “Yay!” the wolf pack replied.
“Oh no! Wolves!” exclaimed a sailor. There were packs and packs of wolves surrounding the ship! There were so many of them, that they couldn’t land the ship!                                                                  “Everybody take your weapons! This is war!” rumbled captain Valdemar. They jumped overboard into the swarms of wolves with their razor sharp swords and axes. “This ain’t going well! If get through this lot, we’ll have some yummy moa meat to feast on tonight!” coaxed Valdemar.                                                                                                                                                              The Vikings left then fought with a renewed effort and finally managed to get through. But the fight had killed and wounded many men. There were bodies of men and wolves littering the ground around the ship. “Come on! We have to get out of here before the wolves regroup and attack us. Come on!”
While the Vikings were running south the moa were running north. They were both running up the same hill, but they didn’t know that. Bang! Captain Valdemar crashed into the lead moa with so much force, that they both went flying back down the hill!                                                                                                         “Stupid moa! I’ll skin you alive for that!” Valdemar shouted at the moa, sprinting back up the hill. “Attack! It’s the moa!”                                                                                                                                                      The Vikings charged. It was another bloody battle. It wasn’t as long as the last one’ but it was just as violent.
Soon there was no living thing in sight for three miles in every direction. The only survivors were a male and female moa and Svengal.                                                                                                                  “D-don’t k-kill m-me! T-this w-wasn’t m-my i-idea!” stammered Svengal.                                            Unfortunately for him, the moa couldn’t understand humans. They charged and pecked him so much, he fell to the ground bleeding so heavily that he died after a few minutes.                                                                            The two moa raised a huge family and then, after   about five centuries, the moa tribe got back to its former glory. In the 1700’s, it happened again. But this time, instead of the Vikings, it was an army of birds sent down by Ra the king of the gods. This time the attack did not fail. It demolished the whole lot of moa tribe’s all around the world.
                                                                                                                       So that is how the moa got extinct!  
           
 
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday 10 June 2014

I am writing a report on the middle ages at school. Here is a little taster of the woman in the middle ages. The rest will be coming soon.


In the middle ages, the woman were dominated by the males. That means that the males told the woman what to do and they had to obey. The unruly girls were beaten into submission, and disobedience was seen as a crime against religion. Some woman were lucky though. They got to marry rich or high ranking men.
On Saturday 7th of June, my soccer team, the strikers, lost to Awamoa rangers 5-4. We all played really well so we all got player of the day. For our reward, we got to go to Mcdonalds for an              ice-cream.

I am David- book review

 

The book I chose to do my review on is I am David. The author of I am David is Anne Holm. The genre is fiction/historical novel. I am David is a lot better than it looks.

This is what I am David is about. David escapes from a concentration camp at the end of World War 2. David travels through a few countries, meeting new people and making new friends and “enemies”. One of his friends was a dog. His aim was to get to Denmark, where his mother lived.

What I liked about I am David is how he thinks. An example is: (page 61) “God of green pastures and still waters,” he said softly, “I’m David. And I’m frightened . . . not just ordinary fear that you always have-worse than that. I want to beg a lift so that I can get quickly to another country, but I daren’t. If you’re strong enough to do something about what people think and feel right inside themselves, then will you please take this fear away, just long enough for me to wave to a lorry? And if it isn’t greedy to ask for two things at once, will you let it be a good man that comes in the next one? I haven’t yet found anything I can do for you. I am David. Amen.”                                                                                                           

What I don’t like about I am David is the sudden ending. I don’t like sudden endings because it seems that there is more of the book to read but there isn’t. Reading a book with a sudden ending is like reading the second last book of a series but you can’t find the last one to read it. 

I think the author was trying to tell us that a belief in God is good, and it will eventually led you to where you want to go. David’s belief in God led him to where he wanted to go, which was to someone that loved him. An example is: (page 153) then David said in French, “Madame, I’m David. I’m…”                                                                                                                               he could say no more. The woman looked into his face and said clearly and distinctly, “David… my son David…”  (That’s what I mean by a sudden ending).

I would recommend this book for people that like exciting books without much violence. I would also recommend this book because it is a good example of good writing. It also shows us how believing in God can get us to where we want to go.

 

 

By Timothy Jorgensen

Who am I?

 

I won the points competition for last years tour de france. My team is liquigas cannondale. Who am I? my nickname is the terminator. I am 23 years old. Who am i? my birthdate is January the 26th 1990. I come from Slovakia. Who am i? I have very good stamina. I have been cycling in races since I was about ten.

Who am I?


Bradley Wiggins

 

 
What sport does he do, and for what team?

 
Bradley Wiggins is a cyclist, and he races for the sky team.

 
How long has he been cycling?

 
Bradley Wiggins has been cycling for round 29 years.

 
Why is he my favourite sportsman?

 

Bradley Wiggins is my favourite sportsman because he inspires me into continuing biking when I don't want to.
 

 
What skills does he have to make him good at cycling?

 
He has good stamina. He has strong legs.

 
Other interesting information.

 
Sir Bradley Wiggins suggests he may never ride Tour de France again.

Bradley Wiggins is actually called Sir Bradley Wiggins. 

Full name
Bradley Marc Wiggins
 
Nickname
Wiggo
 
Born
(1980-04-28) 28 April 1980 (age 33)
Ghent, Belgium
 
Height
1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
 
Weight
69 kg (150 lb; 10.9 st)
 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 


 

Sorry, I forgot to tell you, my name is Tim and I'm from the planet Tam.

Monday 9 June 2014


Welcome to all you earthlings visiting my blog.