work experience

So for 10 weeks during TY i was doing my work experience in wallaby woods which is basically an activity center for kids. I was working in the coffee shop, and i was surprised to learn that i love making coffees!

                                                     

At the start i was really nervous and i didn't really what to do but as the weeks went on i started to enjoy it more. All the staff were lovely and i felt that i got on really well with everyone. The only downside was that when it was quiet it got boring because there wasn't really anything to do.

My favourite thing was making coffees! When i started i knew absoloutely nothing about coffee because i personally cant stand coffee. So i had to learn quickly and i now know how to make lattes, cappichinos, americanos, espressos and other fancy ones like flat whites. when i first learned i was  making coffees and teas for everyone.

One of the funny experiences i had was on my last day trying to get a frog out of the coffee shop. I never knew i was scared of frogs until i tried to pick it up. it felt disgusting and slimy and i felt bad cause i kept dropping it. one of the days i was also attacked by a spider and i thought i was going to die. I was just cleaning the tables and one landed on my leg and usually i would scream but since i was working with people around i kind of just did a dance around trying to get it off.

Overall i actually really enjoyed my work experience although there were times it got boring. 

                 Kings Hospital Charity Ball

Last Friday the 27th of November there was a charity ball on in the Glenroyal hotel in Maynooth. I was so excited to go. when we arrived there was a red carpet and the venue was really nice. Our photos were taken when we walked in like we were celebrities. someone said there was free chocolate fountain, candyfloss and sweets. I was straight over and it was amazing. There was also a photo booth that cost 2 euro and that was really fun. Me and my friend Megan went and got one done. 

                                                             Apart from all the sweets and photos the actual night wasn't that great. The music was mostly terrible apart from the odd Beyonce song thrown in. There were some funny moments though, like the people that got thrown out and climbed back into the room through the window and then were chased by security gaurds around the room. I also enjoyed talking to new people that i never met before. Overall it was an alright night.

                          Amber Flag Day

Last Friday the 4th of December the TY year had a day dedicated to amber flag. The amber flag is a reward schools get if they spread good mental health around in the school. so it is our TY religion class mission to receive one for the school.

So for the past few weeks we had been preparing for the day, and splitting into groups to complete tasks. I was in the event group and it was our job to organize the bake sale along with other things like making amber bracelets and posters. 

On the actual day we all dressed in orange and made cakes for the bake sale. We had a fun day where there were no classes and we stayed in the library singing and chatting. When it came to lunch time the events group went down and started to sell the cakes. The bake sale was a hit and we raised 400 euro in aid of Pieta house and suicide prevention. It was a very successful day overall and we were all thrilled at the result.

                    Spinning (aka torture)

so instead of doing normal P.E in TY we go to places and try out new sports that we might never have done before. loads of people were so excited for spinning and i couldn't understand this cause i'd seen it on TV before. it did not look like fun.

so when we arrived at the mill i was not impressed because of the walk/climb to get to the gym. there were 5 flights of stairs so i was hoping that was it, the warm up finished. nope, i was wrong. 

we finally got up and there was these 2 extremely fit looking guy and girl. we got straight into it, no messing around. the woman who had insane muscles took 15 girls to do the bikes while the rest of us were stuck with this guy who made us run and run and run.

we were doing lots of strengthening to our muscles as well. we all quickly discovered that i was right, spinning was horrible.

i didn't think it could get much worse until it was my groups turn to do the bikes. i can honestly say that i have never sweated so much in my life. it was disgusting.

Mr Lawlor the PE teacher said we would feel great when we finished. he was wrong, i felt sweaty and smelly and tired. i couldn't wait for a shower.

So we had to do another 2 weeks of spinning for PE but thankfully i was injured for the second and absent for the third. i would not recommend spinning unless you wanted to loose loads of weight.

        expectation                     reality                                 

                          Christmas cake

                                                so for the past 2 weeks in home ec we have been making "Christmas cake". well it was supposed to be Christmas cake but everyone in our class hates Christmas cake so we made chocolate biscuit cake instead and just decorated it like a Christmas cake. 

                                                last week we made the cake and then went through a week of torture because we weren't allowed to eat it. then today we decorated it and it looks so cute. i'm going to cry when i have to cut it in half at the end of the day. my home ec partner Linda and i came up with the design of a gingerbread house on top of the cake with a fondant Santa and penguin figures and we were both really happy with how it turned out. we just hope it tastes good now! 

                            mini company

                                 before i begin could you please support our new mini company page on facebook. its called sockafellas. please note they still they are not complete as we still need noses! i'll explain more as i go on.

                                 mini company has to be one of the most stressful things about TY. you either love mini company or hate it and personally i hate it! at the start i couldn't understand why my sister said that it was the worst thing about TY because we were just watching the apprentice and talking about all our ideas and stuff. it was great! then we were put into our groups and that's when the trouble started

                                  my group has 4 of my friends and me. our first idea was to sell fluffy socks filled with sweets and we were all set about it. we made our social media accounts and even bought the sweets we were going to use. then we made our first prototype. it looked terrible and suddenly we all started to panic about what we were going to do! we needed an idea and quickly because we were now so far behind everyone else. 

                                 then when i was in spain during midterm i came up with an idea that i thought might work. i saw a video on facebook on how to make snowmen christmas decorations just using socks and rice! it looked so simple and i was so excited to show everyone.

                                 when i came home i showed the girls the video and we all agreed that this is our new idea. some girls needed more convincing than others but in the end we all gave it a go and we made our first prototype. it looked pretty good but we needed to do some alterations to make it look better and be safer for kids. 

                                last weekend we started our production and were just about to get started. we only have small issues left like what socks to use for hats and scarfs. but we are almost ready to go full on and start selling! 

                               so as i said please like our sockafellas facebook page or even follow us on instagram @sockafellasmc. thank you xo.sockafellas facebook

                                   Kilkenny art trip

So for our art trip we took a visit to kilkenny castle and went to the cinema to see song of the sea. we had to get up really early because the bus left at 8.15 am. i was asleep for the 1 and a half hour bus journey. 

we arrived at the cinema and got a private screening to the irish animation movie called song of the sea. it was a lot better than i expected but a bit weird. but all the animation in it was really pretty and i can see why it was nominated for an oscar. 

when the movie was over we walked over to kilkenny castle and had our lunch. we had a look at the exhibition of song of the sea that was in the castle. it was really interesting and it confirmed that i never want to go into animation industry when i leave school. do you know that there is 24 pictures drawn per second? i wouldn't have the patience for it.

so overall it was a really good day apart from being kicked out of the playground by a security gaurd in kilkenny castle.