Christmas kayaking

My friend Oscar's mum got a kayak for Christmas. This is me testing it out on the water. It's a special kayak which has foot pedals, which makes it easy to power along in the water. You can also use the traditional paddle. I wasn't afraid of going out on the harbour by myself.

Christmas lights

I didn't get to go see many Christmas lights this year, but the ones I did see were really good. These were all houses next door to one another!

Christmas decorations

This year, I decorated my rooftop garden with a 'sleigh' that I constructed with chairs and crates. The blue, green and white chairs are the reindeer. I am sitting in the black chair driving the sleigh.

The crates at the back are where you can store presents, and the sleigh is held together with tinsel.

Cockatoo Island 2009

Me and mum went camping at Cockatoo Island for a night. We do this every year with the Mother's Group, except we might go to a different island next year. It was a bit different to last year. They changed the tents. There's a house you can stay in if you want. And more people know about it now.

The most awesomest thing this year was that we didn't have to catch a ferry to the island. Instead, my friend Jaya picked me and mum up in her speed boat from near where we live! We went so fast across Sydney Harbour, it was really bumpy because we were flying across the waves and wakes of other boats.

We had Christmas dinner in the outdoor dining room, a treasure hunt with a pinata at the end. This is me bashing the pinata.

When we woke up the next morning, we saw a whole heap of people swimming around the island...weird!

My tennis trophy

This is my first trophy.

I play in a tennis comp on Friday afternoons after school. It goes all term. I have a doubles partner and we play other pairs in 4-game sets.

After playing all the other pairs in the comp, the scores are tallied. Me and my doubles partner Christopher got the most points and we got a trophy each.

My friend Izzy's birthday

For her 9th birthday, my friend Izzy got to take 6 of her friends (me being one of them) out for the day. We got to go ice skating, bungee jumping and tightrope walking.


Then we went back to her place and ate cakes and lollies. All up a top day out.

Making catapults

I went to a workshop on medieval warfare where we got to make catapults.

We made catapults out of rubber bands and plastic spoons. We used rubber balls as ammunition. We got to wear helmets and goggles and fire the catapults at each other. The aim was to destroy castle walls.

Rubber balls flew everywhere. We got to make a mess and later burn stuff with magnifying glasses.

Crazy hair day

My school had a crazy hair day to raise money for charity.

Do you think my hair looks crazy?

I have silver hair like my grandad!

Piano concert

This is the first time I have performed solo at my music school's annual piano concert.

Indoor climbing

For my friend Oscar's birthday, we went to an indoor climbing centre. It was the first time I had ever been.

I got to the top of some of the walls. But others were too high and scary.

I used a bag with chalk powder which you can rub on your hands so they don't get sweaty.

Zac Power

Zac Power is a character in a book. He is a boy spy and comes from a family of spies. For Book Week Parade at school, I dressed up as him.

Athletics carnival

I competed in my school athletics carnival for the first time this year as you have to be at least 8 years old to race. I came 1st in my heat for both 100m and 200m, and overall 3rd against all other 8 year olds in my school according to times.


This is me in the 800m, which was very exhausting, but I came in the top 10 out of about 30 boys!


This is me in the 4 x 100m relay in the green shirt (my house colour).

Scamp and me

In Tamworth, I made friends with a dog called Scamp. He let me carry him everywhere.

He was very happy not to use his legs, except when playing football as you can see in this video:

Owl spotting

I saw a real-life owl on the farm in Tamworth. Here is a video of it.

Tamworth

When we got to Tamworth, we stayed at Lachie's cousins' farm. Each of his cousins had their own horse!

Every day, Lachie and I would walk up to the barn to get some feed and carry it over to the horses.

The horses have to be brushed each day to get the dirt off their coats.

And best of all, we got to lead and ride the horses.

Tamworth is also Australia's country music capital. It has a big country music festival every year, which is why it has a big golden guitar that you can visit. This is us standing underneath it.

Road trip

Me and my mum went on a roadtrip to Tamworth, which is Australia's country music capital. On the way. we passed through a lot of country towns:

My friend Lachie and his mum also did the roadtrip, but drove their own car. Lachie brought his walkie talkies and gave me one, so we could talk to each other while our mums were driving. It was really fun saying 'over' (each time you finish saying something) and 'over and out' (when you want to finish the conversation).

In one of the towns, there was a cafe called Harvey's. We went and had a hot chocolate in there.

Winter in the Blue Mountains

This winter, they have set up an ice rink up in the Carrington Hotel in Katoomba. This is me trying to stay on my feet!

My friend Martin and his mum and brother came up and had a skate too. We also went for a bushwalk and on the Skyway, Scenic Railway AND the Cableway on the same day.

WWE Raw

We went to see WWE Raw at Acer Arena at Sydney Olympic Park. It had some of my most favourite wrestling stars like John Cena and Triple H and Hornswoggle.

A big monster truck was parked outside. But I think it would be heaps better to see the Crusty Demons (dirt bike riders).

Just outside the arena is this cool fountain.

Before the show, we went to the Armory to see an exhibition and climb on top of the bunkers!

Illuminate

We went back and saw some of the things we missed last weekend at the Vivid Sydney festival. At the Sydney Opera House, there was a light graffiti installation called Illuminate.

It's not graffiti on the wall. You take a torch and stand in front of a camera, and wave the torch about while a picture is taken very slowly.

The torch makes light shapes. You can spell out words in the photo or just make scribbles. Or you can make a light saber.

Vivid Sydney

Vivid Sydney is a big light festival on at the moment, with lots of different art works that use light.

Mum and I walked around the Rocks and the Circular Quay looking at them all. It was lots of fun.

One of the artworks projects light onto the Sydney Opera House and makes it look like reptile skin. Mum says one of the artists is actually a famous musician called Brian Eno who was in a band called Pink Floyd.

At the end of the night, we caught a bicycle taxi back to where we parked the car. It's better for the environment but lots of people were staring at us!

Here is a video of some of the stuff in the exhibition.

School band

I am in the junior band at school. We only formed at last term and I am in the percussion section. That means I can play any instrument from the keyboard to drums to glockenspiel. We had our first public performance and I played the big bass drum. Here I am standing at the back.

Buddha's Birthday

Just like Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas, Buddhists honour the Buddha's birthday.

There was a big festival in Darling Harbour. All the food was vegetarian.

And there was dragon dancing too (of course).

A lazy Sunday

My mum and I had a lazy Sunday going to the open day at the local fire station.

I got to see inside the station and slide down the pole the firefighters use when they're called to an emergency.

I got to sit in the driver's seat of the fire truck.

I even got to play with the oxygen masks.

I played with the two-way radio and the sirens.

Then we scootered over to Darling Harbour, where we watched some street performers. One was a guy who could make gigantic bubbles. They were so big you could put your head in them. And he could make them float off into the air.