Recent Room Renovations

Within the last two months I have been doing work on my bedroom. I decided that the holidays were a good time to do work.
I started by sandpapering down my cupboard doors, and that was in the middle of November. This was over a period of a couple of weeks, because I would sand the doors, put them in my study, and then forget about them for a few days, or I would just not feel like working on them. My sister then started to do her cupboard doors, and she made better speed than I did.
After that, I started to paint. I could have made the work go faster, but I only worked on one door at a time, and this made slower progress. I don’t want this to sound like I went at a snail’s pace, but everything I did took me the whole holidays. But I still went on.
Another thing that I did was that in the holidays I was working on three aeroplanes. No joking. And they were fighter jets. I had to go to the airbase twice a week. But the cool thing was, the airbase was my study, and they were model jets. (Oh, and I worked on them nearly every day, and going twice a week was part of the joke. Ha-ha.)
After my cupboard doors were finished, I emptied, vacuumed and painted the inside of my cupboard. I did this in about four or five days. But then the one day, I had just given a thin coat to the bottom of the inside, and I came and found this:

And the paint was wet, and it stayed. Maybe Jordan (That’s my little brother) just wanted to help, or to make the job interesting. (Sigh) If I can’t wash it off, it will have to stay there, or I will have to do more painting. Oh well, it’s not that bad, but I just don’t want to have to paint again.
Another new thing in my room was that I had two new additions to my air fleet that I want to build. Here is a picture of it:

The jet on the left is an F15E Strike Eagle, the small one in the middle is a Eurofighter Typhoon, and the one the right is an F111E bomber.

'Jack and the Beanstalk' by Roald Dahl.

This poem is Roald Dahl’s version of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk.’

Jack’s mother said, “We’re stony broke!
Go out and find some wealthy bloke
Who’ll buy our cow, just say she’s sound
And worth at least a hundred pound.
But don’t you dare to let him know
That she’s as old as billy-o.”
Jack led the old brown cow away,
And came back later in the day,
And said, “Oh mumsie dear, guess what
Your clever little boy has got.
I got, I really don’t know how,
A super trade-in for our cow.”
The mother said, “You little creep,
I’ll bet you sold her much too cheap.”
When Jack produced one lousy beam,
His started mother, turning green,
Leaped up high in the air and cried,
“I’m absolutely stupefied!
You crazy boy! D’you really mean
You sold our daisy for a bean?”
She snatched the bean. She yelled, “You chump!”
And flung it on the rubbish dump.
Then summoning up all her power,
She beat the boy for half an hour,
Using (and nothing could be meaner)
The handle of a vacuum cleaner.
At ten p.m. or thereabout,
The little bean began to sprout.
By morning it had grown so tall
You couldn’t see the top at all.
Young Jack cried, “Mum, admit it now!
It’s better than a rotten cow!”
The mother said, “You lunatic!
Where are the beans I can pick?
There’s not one bean! It’s bare as bare!”
“No no!” cried jack. “You look up there!
Look very high and you’ll behold
Each single leaf is solid gold!”
By gollikins, the boy was right!
Now glistening in the morning light,
The mother actually perceives
A mass of lovely golden leaves!
She yells out loud, “My sainted souls!
I’ll sell the Mini, buy a Rolls!
Don’t stand and gape, you little clot!
Get up there quick and grab the lot!”
Jack was nimble, Jack was keen.
He scrambled up the mighty bean.
Up up he went without a stop,
But just as he was near the top,
A ghastly frightening thing occurred-
Not far above his head he heard
A big deep voice, a rumbling thing
That made the very heavens ring.
It shouted loud, “FE FI FO FUM
I SMELL THE BLOOD OF AN ENGLISHMAN!”
Jack was frightened, Jack was quick,
And down he climbed in half a tick.
“Oh Mum!” he gasped. “Believe you me
There’s something nasty up our tree!
I saw him, Mum! My gizzard froze!
A Giant with a clever nose!”
“A clever nose!” his mother hissed.
“You must be going round the twist!”
“He smelled me out, I swear it, Mum!
He said he smelled an Englishman!”
The mother said, “And well he might
I’ve told you every single night
To take a bath because you smell,
But would you do it! Would you hell!
You even make your mother shrink
Because of your unholy stink!”
Jack answered, “Well, if you’re so clean
Why don’t you climb the crazy bean.”
The mother cried, “By Jove, I will!
There’s life within the old dog still!”
She hitched her skirts above the knee
And disappeared right up the tree.
Now would the Giant smell his mum?
Jack listened for the fee-fo-fum.
He gazed aloft. He wondered when
The dreaded words would come… And then…
From somewhere high above the ground
There came a frightful crunching sound.
Jack heard the Giant mutter twice,
“By gosh, that tasted very nice.
Although” (and this in grumpy tones)
“I wish there weren’t so many bones.”
“By Christopher!” Jack cried. “By gum!
The Giant’s eaten up my mum!
He smelled her out! She’s in his belly!
I had a hunch that she was smelly.”
Jack stood there gazing longingly
Upon the huge and golden tree.
He murmured softly, “Golly-gosh,
I guess I’ll have to take a wash
If I am going to climb this tree,
Without the Giant smelling me.
In fact, a bath’s my only hope…”
He rushed indoors and grabbed the soap
He scrubbed his body everywhere.
He even washed and rinsed his hair.
He did his teeth, he blew his nose
And went out smelling like a rose.
Once more he climbed the mighty bean.
The Giant sat there, gross, obscene,
Muttering through his vicious teeth
(While Jack sat tensely just beneath)
Muttering loud, “FEE FI FO FUM,
RIGHT NOW I CAN’T SMELL ANYONE.”
Jack waited till the Giant slept,
Then out along the boughs he crept
And gathered so much gold, I swear
He was an instant millionaire.
“A bath,” he said, “does seem to pay.
I’m going to have one every day.”

Sadly, I could't get any of the illustrations from the Internet. I hope you had a good laugh.

Roald Dahl, A writer of childrens books.

 Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in Llandaff, South Wales. His parents were Norwegian, but lived in Britain. His parents were Harold and Sofie Dahl. His father died shortly after his one sister, Astri, when Roald was only three. He went to school at Llandaff Cathedral School for two years only, and then his mother sent him to St. Peters School.

  It was during this time that Roald had the car accident. After his first year at St. Peters School, during the December holidays, his family bought a motor-car (as it was referred to then) which his ancient half-sister would drive. During the drive, they had an accident, and Roald’s nose was cut almost right off his face. The doctor sewed it on again, though.
  Roald Dahl went to high school at Repton High School. Here he was good at games and he took up photography. After school he went on an exploring trip to Newfoundland. After this, he got a job in the Shell Oil Company which sent him to Africa. During this adventure, in 1939, World War II broke out, and Roald went to Nairobi to join the RAF. While in the Air Force, he got shot down and was rescued by six soldiers.
  Later in his life, Roald began his career writing for adults, but then became interested in writing children’s books by making up bedtimes stories for his daughters. His first children’s novel was James and the Giant peach, published in 1961.His other books include: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Matilda, The Twits, The Enormous Crocodile, Danny the Champion of the World, The Witches, George’s Marvelous Medicine, The Magic Finger, The BFG, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Esio Trot, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, The Wonderful story of Henry Sugar, Revolting Rhymes, Dirty Beasts, The Minpins, Rhyme Stew, and the three books about his life, Boy, Going Solo and My Year. The books Dirty Beasts and Revolting Rhymes are made up of rhymes. He took a lot of stories and rewrote them in a humorous way, but he also changes the story a bit.
  We like his books, and have read most of them. I will post one of his poems soon.
  Here is a photo of him.

A snatch of my day.

• Lately I have been working and studying for exams.

• I am looking forward to going to stay with some friends after my exams are finished.

• I want to get back into archery practice, as there is the year-end competition in a couple of weeks.

• I am practicing for a trumpet exam in two weeks.

• I have to clean my hamster’s cage sometime.

• I am thankful to God for all He has done for me.

• I am remembering the play we did by William Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice, which we will be doing again sometime soon.

• I am wishing I was at the Drakensburg Mountains….. They are so beautiful, and the weather there is very nice.

 The following photos are of the Drakensburg Mountains, a stream there with mist over it, and Me and my sister washing dishes there at the camping resort.

For several years, the whole of South Africa has been looking forward to the Soccer World Cup, which is being hosted by us. Since the beginning of this year, the country has been in a state of excitement, with everyone waiting for the games to start. In 2004, South Africa won the bid to host the Fifa World Cup. Since then, many people have been waiting for this year.
MTN, (a cell phone company,) Fifa’s main sponsor, has been advertising a lot about the World Cup, and using their favorite motto, ‘Ayoba!’ Also, the Cup has created a bigger income for flag sellers, who sell 2010 flags, vuvuzelas and t-shirts at street corners. The flags come in different sizes, ranging from small ones, about the size of an A6 sheet of paper, to larger ones about one metre in length, and also wing mirror socks that are made to look like flags. Fifa t-shirts are usually yellow, MTN’s colour.

I am sorry that the picture is blurred, but it is the only one I could get.And there are flags everywhere! In the shops, on cars, on buses and taxis, even on shirts. And the vuvuzelas are the worst!! They have a horrible noise, and are blown the WHOLE way through the soccer match. The other day I went past a restaurant where a soccer match was being shown live on TV, and there were speakers outside, and with average 10 000 vuvuzelas being blown, it sounded like a swarm of bees!

This is a vuvuzela, for those who don,t know what they are. As we don’t watch soccer, we aren’t interested in the Cup. Some of our friends are, though. Last week, on either one of the first matches, or one of the warm-ups days, Nigeria scored a goal, and suddenly very large crowds pushed open the gates and stampeded into the stadium. 15 people were injured, but I don’t think anyone was killed.
Sometime last year or the year before, construction was started a new train system called the Gautrain, named after the province of Gauteng. It is meant to take passengers from the airport to Pretoria, going through Sandton and Midrand (several cities in our country, for those who don’t know what I am talking about). One or two sections have been finished, and are even running, but not all of it.
The games are finishing on Sunday. It seems like just yesterday the games started. The final game is between Holland and Spain. I think Spain will win, but I am not sure.