Beyond the veil

It’s been 3 months since my cousin died.

He lived a normal life, he was a grocer, he had a girlfriend, a dog, his own flat; everything every 21 year old aspires to. He never drank, or took drugs… He had a clean record. But for some reason, out of nowhere… He killed someone.

We were cleaning out his flat, all his belongings, everything. The police had been through to find anything that could link to just why he went so insane as he did, but they never did find anything…

But I found something. I had been going through the belongings under this bed when I found an old, brown tattered journal. The leather binding resembled that of a man who had been in the sun far, far too long, and its pages were just starting to yellow.

I had seen him with this before… Back when we stayed at our grandmothers around the time we were six or seven… He would take it everywhere with him. I started to wonder if he still wrote in it, whether there were things in there that might explain just why he caused all this trouble for himself.

I flicked ravenously through the pages, hungry for an answer. Then, my eyes fell upon a certain paragraph…

“October 2^nd, 2014:

This is the first night I’m spending away from home. It’s a little strange without Mum and Dad, but at least I have my flat-mates, right?

 I keep hearing whispering, and I swear I see things moving in the dark. Then again, I might be seeing things. It’ll probably go away, I hope.”

I bit the inside of my cheek and frowned. He was always such a nervous person… I felt a pang of guilt slap me in the face; I should have called him that night. I shook my head and continued to read…

“October 5^th, 2014:

It’s been three days… The whispering I’ve been hearing? Yeah, they’re not full blown voices. They keep repeating ‘Beyond the Veil’ ‘Come Beyond the Veil’ and ‘Please’… I’m going to see a psychiatrist in the morning.”

This was starting to get strange; the police did say he mentioned something about ‘The Veil’ when they interviewed him, just before he got sent into Bedlam; an insane asylum, in which he committed suicide a week later after being admitted.

The next date was a jumbled mess, and everything was written in some sort of strange language, like a mix between English and Arabic… I suddenly got a feeling of dread, like the floor was going to collapse. I put the book down and caught my breath before reading again.

The next few paragraphs were like the last, but a few words were visible.

 ‘Help me’, ‘Please’ and ‘Please save me.’ It was unsettling, but things started to thin out on the next page, with an entry saying this…

“October 8^th, 2014:

It’s done. I displayed how to transcend beyond The Veil… The public aren’t happy. They’re coming for me… The Veil will protect me. The voices said it would.”

I put the book down and shuddered, tears clawing at my dry eyes. I looked out the window and realised it was now dusk which seemed to have been dropped upon the city landscape outside like a 10 tonne weight.

I sat on his bed and rubbed my eyes, I figured I should go and see how Mum and my Aunt were getting on with clearing out the lounge. I was about to get up from the bed when a hand fell upon my shoulder…

I froze. I felt a wet hot breath behind my ear… I smelt something familiar; A smell similar to that of soap and almonds… I only knew one person that smelt like that- and that was my dead cousin.

A cold hard object was pressed upon my neck… A blade, just barely cutting through my fragile skin, like a man holding a hammer and nail to fine china…

“Hello… Cousin” A male voice mused. I started to scream and thrash my weight around, the blade was now pressing even harder against my neck, just breaking the skin, causing small droplets of salty, hot blood to dribble down my cold neck. I writhed against him, using all the energy in my tired body to try and get away.

“I’m lonely… Why don’t you come visit me? ... In fact, why not come live with me? Come with me… Beyond The Veil.”

Bees are Important (Winning Yr8 speech 2014)

I’m here to tell you some facts SO amazing, they’ll make you forget what you had for dinner two years ago today.

Does anyone remember?...

See? I haven’t even started and you’re already amazed.

Here’s the deal. Bees, the so called ‘terrors of the sky’. But are they really as scary as you think? And could their species be in danger? Here are some things you may want to pay attention to about our little buzzing friends.

First, let’s start by taking a look at a bee.

As you can see,  Bee’s are 100% cute passiveness. They’re fluffy; which not only makes them even cuter, but actually aids in pollenating flowers. The pollen gets stuck to the Bee’s fluff, and when it goes from flower to flower, it leaves the other flower’s pollen behind and takes up the new flowers pollen. Pollen will sometimes be taken back to the hive to make honey, which is better for you than sugar, but that’s another topic.

Now, let’s face it. This stinger isn’t too cute, is it? But bee’s don’t use it unless they absolutely have to! Under normal circumstances, a bee would sting you only if you were A. Too close to it’s hive or B. You’ve sat on it, touched it, swatted at it… Somewhere along those lines.

Here is something that WILL shock you, it certainly shocked me when I read it but… Did you know that 37 MILLION Bees dies last year! That is more than 20 million times the population of Cambridge.

But what is making our Bees disappear so quickly? Well, one of the causes is the Verroa Destructor, or Verroa Mite. These little nasties attach to Bees and suck the life from them. And according to Wikipedia, the Verroa mite has only been introduced to New Zealand within the last 14 years.

You may be thinking ‘Bees and wasps are pretty much the same thing, right? They both fly and they’re yellow… Gotta be the same thing!’ But let me tell you, Bees and Wasps are two very different species.

 Wasps are clearly skinnier and not fluffy. They are extremely scary-looking and menacing, bee-eating voids of aggravated death. They are in no way shape or from similar to a bee. Wasps attack everything in sight without provocitation. They are not peaceful, nor should they be reckoned with.

What do you think you should do?

Well, if leaving it alone isn’t your best option, call a Beekeeper! They’ll come collect your little garden visitors in a safe, humane way so they can be used to boost the Bee population. Think of all the jobs you’d save! You’d be helping the Florists, farmers, herbalists, candlemakers and of course, beekeepers!

Today you have learned that bees are non-aggressive, that their numbers are in danger, that Bees are not the same as Wasps and who you’ll be helping simply by calling a Beekeeper instead of an Exterminator. So next time a Bee lands beside you or on you, don’t scream and swat at it! Keep calm, carry on and think of th work it’s doing for all of us.

Duchess Character Sketch

Duchess

Duchess is a petite black cat with a long, thin tail. Her nose is a tad longer than most cats (Established by my sister, a cat expert She has 4 cats in one apartment) and her eyes are a bright yellowish green.

Because of how small she is and how smooth her fur is Duchess often gets comments on how she resembles a porcelain cat.

Currently, Duchess has a patch of fur missing on her stomach and left, front leg due to a gash she needed stitches for.

PS: She doesn't looks dainty now, because she had gingivitis and it resulted in a lot of her teeth being removed. This has caused her to walk around with her mouth hanging open.

Duchess was a stray that we rescued near the end of 2010-2011 as a kitten. She somehow developed a dislike towards other cats, people she doesn't know, deodorant lids, feet and yelling.

But despite her fears, a motherly instinct is extant in this cat, if you're the right person. If she sees you're upset she'll be right there, sniffing your face and eyes. (Probably not entirely helpful, but at least she thinks she's helping.)

Even if she came from a bad beginning, Duchess is the most quirky, strange and wonderful cat and I have no idea what I'd do without her. :^)

(Drawn picture of Duchess)

                                                  -Ellie xx

The Kitten

I placed a hand upon my aching back and stood up. All day I had been dusting shelves, and it was nowhere near as fun as the last time I had been working at the World of Pets, where I had washed a small puppy and handled kittens and all other fun things. Now I was achy, cold and miserable, much like the weather outside and man, was I bored too.

Just as I was about to start a new job, somebody walked into the shop holding one of those white, plastic storage tubs... and it was meowing! I stood, watching by the wooden box in which they contained the rabbits and watched from a distance. The lid was pulled off by the woman carrying the tub, and out came a small, fluffy, tabby kitten! Why would someone bring a cat in like that?

After listening for a good few minutes, I found out that somebody had bought the cat and abandoned it after complaining it was too much hassle to care for. I was mortified, and as angry as a thunderstorm. I certainly wouldn't hold my tongue if I ever came across the person who had done this.

I walked over to the counter, my shoes squeaking upon the recently- mopped concrete and asked exactly what happened, but I was just ignored as they searched the internet for the picture of the cat they had posted on Facebook. Eventually the kitten was handed to me to hold for a while.

Now that I had a closer look at the cat, I could see every single stripe and hair upon its tiny form. It's eyes were as blue as a tropical ocean and their nose was black like a little button. It was an absolutely gorgeous, friendly little cat.

Jodie (My employer) took the cat from me and said, "if we can't contact her previous owner, or she doesn't want her, we'll have to keep her here and sell her... ( Although, I don't really want to give her back if she does want her back.)"
I frowned and nodded in agreement, "I wouldn't either" I mumbled, looking at the small kitten in her arms...

Who would do this to such a cute, little kitten?

By Ellie Marsden.

Hi Room 6!

Recently I have been playing a game known as Animal Crossing!
You're the mayor of a town filled with little, colourful animals that are your citizens!

It's actually a really edcucational game that teaches you money skills, because you often have to limit yourself to a budget as well as having to pay off a morgage on your house, patience, because you often have to wait for shops and services to open, and lastly, how to listen to others, because as a mayor you have to listen to your villagers needs, such as; if they get sick, you bring them medicine, if they want you to build a windmill, you build it or else your villagers will become very unhappy and they will move away from your town.

I highly reccomend you play Animal Crossing because it's a very calming game, as well as that, it teaches you certain values such as patience and kindness. (Also, thanks to this game I can quickly subtract any number above 5,000 down to 5,000.)

Here is a picture of one of my villagers, Enjoy!

- Ellie! :)

Hi Room 6! :D

Hi guys, Ellie here!!

I managed to find the blog!

I hope you all have a happy Waitangi day :)

I'm going to start putting crazy little facts at the end of my posts, just so you guys can get your daily dose of weird:

Since we're focusing on swimming in school at the moment, here is a little fact about a man hitting his head on the bottom of a swimming pool!

After hitting his head in the shallow end of a swimming pool, a man awoke with the condition known as acquired musical savant syndrome. He had become a great pianist without ever learning to play.

Have a good night, guys!

See you all on friday,

- Ellie.M :)