Pets- many love them, or have them. Only the rare few despise them. But some with good reason, take for example my dad. I have a pet cat named Billee, a fat two- year -old with a liking to scratching furniture, so you can see why my dad’s got a problem with him. You see, we also have a 6ft tropical fish tank, treasured by my Dad. So whenever Billee goes off doing something wrong he always makes a point by saying that his fish never do anything wrong. But of course they can’t anyway, since they live in water!

I love my cat to bits but I’ve always wanted a puppy. He’s clean white with dark brown patches, and I must say quite anti social. Ha-ha and absolutely terrified of the Vacuum cleaner! Whenever we turn it on, the sound sends him sprinting upstairs and under my brother’s bed. Even seeing it turned off and stored under the stairs gets him shaken. Last year he was in an awful fight and I ended up seeing him on the couch with a blood seeping eye. I cried at the sight of it- and by that I’m sure you can tell I’m quite an animal lover. It ended very well thankfully; he got surgery and his eye is great now.

But some people are just naturally nice to animals as well, like the woman who saw a cat get run over and she picked it up and ran to the vet without a second thought. So yeah, pets are good fun and can be used for other things than just company. Such as getting rid of the mice and being there every morning to go around your legs to get your school trousers all furry. Or to trip you whilst coming down the stairs! You cat owners must know how they are unable to walk ahead until you are right next to them. Quite annoying really.

Arrivederci.

2011 went off with a bang when Big Ben chimed midnight on the 1^st of January and a huge firework display took place along the River Thames! The Bridges were packed out to watch the amazing view and I think everyone had a sense of being just one year away from the London Olympics!!

After a loud night I finally managed to get some sleep and the next day was my Dad’s birthday too, so to celebrate a new start and his fifty-first, my family and I decided to go on London’s famous wheel- the London Eye. Wisely my sister booked our tickets the night before so that we skipped most of the long queue and I found out they actually call them ‘flights’ for each time one of the round shuttles starts to go around.

We were finally on and managed to get the best spot right next to the windows but when we were just a quarter of the way round a passenger had turned green and was asking to be let off. Luckily they had little phones to the people back on the ground and the wheel suddenly stopped and started going the opposite direction much faster! It made me think that they should actually leave it at that speed and strap us in- turning it into a ride!

He was let off and we were soon back on our ‘flight’ where we saw so many sites including the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Canary Wharf, London Bridge, the Gherkin and all of Southbank’s galleries and theatres- lucky my brother brought his binoculars! We did have a go at trying to spot our house too but it was harder than it seemed. And we were told by friends that on a good day you could see all the way to the Coast, unfortunately we had awful London weather the day we went whereas the night before people had actually been on the Eye whilst millions of fireworks were shot from it!

It lasted only half an hour but afterwards we got to enjoy the 4D experience where we would see the London eye in different weathers and life on the bank. It was shown on a huge screen whilst we actually felt the materials in real life- I managed to get a face full of snow and leaves before they showed fireworks and a man blowing flames and I along with most of the audience turned our backs in fright. Thankfully that would be a safety hazard to blow flames at us so I was safe (:

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed New Year’s and are starting to follow their New Years resolutions- however I still haven’t managed to go to bed early enough!

(Photo from tripadvisor.it)

Bye for now,

Aaliya

Every year the Year 10’s and 11’s at my school are given the chance to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh event. I just started Year10 and nearly 50 people have signed up but only 20 students get chosen! All you have to do is be taking part in a sport, learning a skill and volunteering somewhere once a week for 3-6months. Then in summer and Year 11 we get the chance to win a Bronze, Silver or Gold award when we go on a weekend camping trip. I’m not completely sure where that would be at the moment but surely somewhere wet and cold unfortunately. The whole way through we will be learning new skills, getting fit, making new friends and building up our self confidence and our leadership skills.

I’m really excited about the trips because the second time around the teachers let us go on our own and only occasionally meet up with us during the trip. However the only thing ruining it are the jobs I have to do every week. As if I’m not busy enough! Now I have to go swimming and football club every Saturday and volunteer at a Youth club on Mondays but luckily I’m already learning a skill- Spanish after school. These things show that I’m responsible and can continue with a task for a long time. Basically my whole week’s packed up but in the end it’s worth it because I’ll have achieved alot and now I’ll have to see how long I’ll stick to it. And in the meantime hope I get chosen after all I’m doing!

(Picture source http://www.pyb.co.uk/courses/duke-of-edinburgh-award.php)

As you probably already know I have two brothers, Omar and Adam, and a sister Mariam along with my amazing parents. Not forgetting my beautiful three year old cat Billee, two baby turtles- Dalila and Zoolander and my Dad’s fish. I’m lucky enough to have my own bedroom and have been raised surrounded by boy cousins; turning me into a total tomboy.

I am a big animal lover and enjoy taking part in any sports- being in my schools football and basketball team. I have the best bunch of friends and am quite different to my older sister. I can rollerblade, ice skate, do gymnastics and I am also MAD about books; my favourites being Harry Potter, TWILIGHT, Darren Shan and Spooks. All magical related, however I also enjoy films like Lord Of The Rings, Pride and Prejudice and Batman!

My favourite colour is green/ turquoise or purple. I am a big fan of American TV shows like Friends, Prison Break, Heroes, Ugly Betty and Lost.

I am ALWAYS wearing converse trainers and skinny jeans, I am known by everyone as the crazy chocoholic, I love the smell of freshly baked bread and toast with butter, the taste of strawberries and cream, listening to music, being outside and warm chocolate croissants for breakfast. I love Mexican and Thai food.

I am very competitive; always entering competitions and being voted as my class representative for two years now! I hope to be a professional journalist or Author- since I have a huge imagination. Or even a vet because of my love for animals, although I dont think I would be able to stand the blood and needles! I think I should own a big chocolate factory too, well actually I dream I have those things!

By Aaliya

This year on the 31^st of October I went to my cousin’s house to dress up and have a scary film marathon. I wore a dark, long hooded gown that only showed my nose and mouth with a white wolf mask! I wanted to colour my hair purple too but chickened out because I was scared it would stay that way!

I managed to scare quite a few people while I was out – including my neighbours when I got back home! I think they might now be planning ways to get me back next year!! We  lit sparklers in the garden and I got a whole bag of sweets (which didn’t last long)!

I saw one BOY was dressed as Cinderella and had to laugh out loud, it was really funny but as soon as I saw he was carrying a carton of eggs I stayed out of his way – I didn’t want any eggy ‘tricks’ from this trick or treater thanks!! Most people who actually dressed up stuck to easy costumes like wrapping up in toilet paper and wearing buckets of makeup. It was freeeezing here that night  so no one left home without a coat too.

We only managed to watch two films that night since I had school early the next morning so my mum stopped our second film ‘drag me to hell’ halfway through (thanks mum!!). I was getting more and more scared every second- shaken from watching our first film Paranormal activity and was completely exhausted anyway. So after brushing my teeth thoroughly TWICE I collapsed in to my bed- after wiping off the fake blood from my nose and forehead first.

Everyone seemed to take part this year including all the X-factor contestants who had a scary theme to every song they sang.

Anyway I hope you all had a great Halloween and collected a lot of candy!

 Bye for now, Aaliya

(Picture from halloween.2009.com)

It was hilarious and exciting just like all the Toy Story films – but this surprised me a little, because it had scary and emotional scenes too.

I always loved the idea of toys coming to life but after seeing this one I’m not so sure as it actually had a few  toys I would hate to have in my room! Especially the creepy one eyed baby (those who have seen the film will understand!). The way it would turn it’s head in one full circle really freaked me out!

I have to admit I was quite dissapointed when I realised some of my favourtie toys weren’t going to make an appearance in this film – like the tiny green army men who were incredible in Toystory 1 and of course Woody’s girlfriend little Bo peep and her cute little sheep.

This was the last film of the series and so I expected it to end on a happy note and I’m so glad it did. The movie had sentimental bits too which reminded me of numbers 1 and 2 – like when the 3 green aliens save everyone using ‘the claw’!! which is what they have always been obsessed with since the first movie.

This film was a great way of tying up everything that had ever happened and saying goodbye to some amazing characters. It was sad that the main boy Andy had to grow up but it was lovely that other kids would benefit from the toys he loved – it’s made me think about whether I could ever get rid of some of my own favourite toys!!

Bye for now, Aaliya Deen   
 

This Summer my family and I went on our yearly weekend trip to Camber Sands; a beautiful sandy beach near Hastings, in the South of the UK. We stayed at a Holiday Park where my little brother was competing in a chess tournament- giving us plenty of time to play at the beach, compete for arcade tickets, rock climb, play tennis and race quad bikes! Obviously I won!!

The best part about this beach has to be the huge sand dunes which offered awesome hiding places for games like hide and seek. We even took a Frisbee to play with but soon gave up using it as it kept landing in the water and getting swept off in the waves! By that time we had to swim to reach it.

 Luckily for us the weather was great that weekend so we could spend lots of time on the sandy beach. It was almost like being in another country!The sand was so warm at times that it was hard to walk around barefoot in the day but when it was cooler in the evenings I would have fun half burying some of my younger cousins in the sand!

We even came across a few jellyfish whilst going for a salty afternoon swim and made some friends to play volleyball with when their ball accidently hit me as I walked past. Overall it was a fantastic weekend and we took some cool pictures while we were there. Unfortunately though, the sand got absolutely everywhere including into our new camera which doesn’t work too well anymore! Still, the trip was worth it and I’m sure we’ll end up spending another day there again soon- maybe without the camera!

By Aaliya Deen