The George Nkencho situation

Okay I actually have had it. George Floyd died in June, and recently another unfortunate black soul lost his life to police brutality. In Dublin on the 30th of December 2020 George Nkencho was shot dead by Irish police ( Gardai ), in Hartstown. The 27 year old had experienced racist bulling as he had a Nigerian back round. Basically, he was threatening people with a knife, the police arrived, he was going home, the police followed convincing him to drop the weapon, and then they shot him in the back as he was at his house. This is terrible!. Many agree and are protesting. We demand justice for George Nkencho!!!!.

An extended Christmas/new year mid-term?

Yes yes Christmas is over, believe me I know. However, in Ireland our new years celebration will be in two days. The government has urged us to keep our numbers reasonable  for Christmas and new year celebrations, but things are not looking so good. For starters, many people ignored this protocol and met with friends and family all over the country and some even abroad. Secondly, yesterday we got 1,718 new confirmed cases. Key word: confirmed. So, at this rate, of course the government had to take action.

We are on a full level five lockdown.

Primary and secondary school students mid-term break for Christmas/new years is being extended for a week.

Thank you for reading this, if you would like to view additional blog posts from Kayla's Blog, click here.

Hand washing video:

What is Covid-19?

How to social distance:

IRISH VACCINE FOUND

 It's official- we have a vaccine!

After a long tiresome wait, we (the republic of Ireland) have discovered a vaccination!. The test results were said to be 'promising'. 

Two Irish scientists, who were involved with the development of a coronavirus vaccine at Oxford university, have said the results from phase three of the trials are 'fantastic' and 'promising'                                                           - RTE news

See the article

So who created said vaccination?.

British drugs group, AstraZeneca and the two Irish scientists from the University of Oxford.

The first Pfizer vaccine was given out to a 79 year old woman from Dublin. Her name was Annie Lynch. Annie said; "I feel very privileged to be the first person in Ireland to receive the vaccine. Like everyone else I have been waiting for the vaccine and I feel like there is a bit of hope there now. It's brilliant that it's here. Everything was explained clearly to me beforehand".

The first dose was short and sweet- extra.ie

Where can I get the vaccine?.

Four hospitals will be the settings for the first 2,000 vaccinations: Saint James Hospital and Beaumont in Dublin and the Cork and Galway university hospitals.

We are beginning the first 10,000 doses, starting today ( 29th December 2020). 

Today is a ray of light after what has been a trying year in our country- Stephen Donnelly Minister of health

Facts:

• Around 10,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in Ireland on St Stephens day.
• Bernie Waterhouse was the first healthcare worker to get the vaccine
• The roll-out of the vaccine to nursing home residents and staff is expected to start next week. 

How the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine contracts:

Vaccine is part of the Covid-19 genetic code/RNA, that tells cells what to produce.

stay safe

Kayla xx

A little thank you

Hello!. I hope you are all safe and healthy ❤️. Your almost through this demotic year!. 2020 has not been friendly!. 

But we ain't talking about the new year!. It is Christmas Eve ( at least where I live ). And I just wanted to thank you all. As you know, I started this blog on May the 1st 2020, eight months ago!. It feels like yesterday thank I was writing my first blog post. Thanks to all the people who read my blog posts with a smile. 2020 was my first year blogging, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!!. Thank you everyone!. And additionally, merry Christmas!!. 

A new strain of Covid-19?. A new lockdown??.

Coronavirus. It killed millions. And it's still around!, So keep sanatizing and social distancing. I understand you are all sick and tired of hearing this, however we must follow protocol!. Save lives!!. Protect yourself and loved ones!!. Wear a mask!.

In late February my primary school went on our one week mid term, not because of Covid, but it got extended immensely due to the virus. We stayed on lockdown until late August, when I went to secondary school under strict restrictions. And when a wave of Covid-19 came before Halloween midterm ( up to 1000  new cases a DAY! ), another lockdown was issued. Schools and workplaces remained open however. 

Then we just kept fazing into level 5, level 3,2...e.t.c, for a long duration. I live in Ireland and we are doing these levels, with each level more strict, kinda like the idea of the richer scale. 

Now, with cases rising yet again, there has been hushed talk of another lockdown. We are already on  our Christmas holidays for 2020, but may be in another sinister lockdown, like our six-month shutdown. 

My mother and I were flicking through her Facebook feed the other day, and noticed a video of a guy informing people of a new strain of Covid-19. It was additionally on the RTE news!. This new strain spreads vastly, and immensely in speed rates. 

So will we be in another lockdown?. We'll soon see!.

The Christmas lights

Every year at Christmas time my towns gorgeous Christmas lights come on display. I live in main Street, so I get an upright view witch is so magnificent and cultural. It is a tradition of my towns every year on December 8th ( today!) , to do a countdown and turn on the lights. 

It is something fun to look forward to besides the bug whopper Christmas!. And I love it!!!.

The hot seat

Back in 2016-2017, I faced the worst thing ever, the doomed hot seat. The basic idea of the hot seat was that the students and teacher would ask you questions, about times tables, witch were my worst enemy practically!!. Nobody, wanted to be picked, due to the cunning fact that you only had twenty seconds to respond. I rarely was picked, as I was initially quiet and people barley noticed me!, some described me as a 'mouse'. 

However, once day I was picked, and I possess/contain a vivid recalling of the event. I was petrified, I kept holding on to the hot seat, praying for it to be over soon. We began with simple equations, however that quickly escalated. A student in my class asked me a twleve times table, witch was difficult enough, but the student made it thirteen times twelve, witch was extremely and utterly difficult. 

Now, I don't know about you, but my first primary school, only went up to the twelves. So I did not know the solution this this inquiry. I looked at my teacher expectantly, thinking she would tell the student to change their table, but her expection was that I knew it, so the replied with "go on". 

I failed. 

However failure is a part of life, and I'm glad I went through the experience and it left me with some decent content for my blog!.

Rugby fun. The three programme

Hello again!. Hopefully you have been keeping up with this blog because we are at the last part of the three programme, the rugby training ⭐. Unfortunately, 'Kia' wasn't in again, as she was ill, however that day I was a pro and told myself not to worry about not having a partner, and that it would work itself out. Now, if your sitting there thinking, "does this girl not have any other friends?", the fact of the matter is that I do, but some were in other classes, and my two pals, 'Shasha' and 'Luke' were going to be partners, so there was no partner left for me.

Finally, after a couple of classes, the art/pastrol care teacher came to collect us, although this time around, we'd be going up to my school's main building to use the vast pitch. A famous rugby players father would be teaching us. He was not a complete stranger although, as he had thought us for a few weeks back in fifth class, two years ago. 

I walked with Shasha and Luke ( not their real names ), into the felid. The sun was shining and it felt heavingly, well apart from the stinging sensation it provoked on our eyes. There was a great greeting, and then the sounded the purge alarm. ( Not literally, he just told us to pick partners, and it felt as bad as it would feel if the purge alarm actually occured, a comparison if you may ). 

We had to choose a partner. "Get into pairs" was the exact sentence. I was so nervous but luckily a girl called ' Grace' ( not her real name, it's a fake name for her for privacy ), rang out the bells of heaven with a sentence "Does anyone not have a partner". And then she noticed me. And long, story short, we became partners. 

The first excersise was to pass the rugby ball to your partner without it falling, and see how many times you could do that for. 

Then, we had to stay in a square, ( it was roomy not cramped) marked by cones and pass the rugby ball to random people. But here's the catch, we had to call out the person's name, and do a random excersise before passing the ball to someone. This went on for a while and the excerisses were changed every once in a while.

Next we played ' bulldog'. Where three people would be the 'bulldogs' and have to catch the others who would be running to get behind the other cones on the other part of the pitch. We played a few rounds and I totally enjoyed it!. 

Then we played someone I hated, there would be a separation of two teams. Your partner was on the other team. You would face each other. Each pair were assigned a number. Me and ' Grace' were number eight, the last number. 

If he called your number, you'd have to run to a fine then to another cone, whilst your partner ran to their cones. There would be a Tema that had to prevent the other player from scoring by taping them three times with their rugby ball, I was usually on that team.

When the day wrapped up, I spoke with 'Shasha', 'Luke', and another guy I'm friendly with, let's call him "Mark" for privacy reasons. They all had their individual parts to say about the experience. Personally I got hit in the face with a rugby ball and was swearing madly, but I loved the activity, and he might be back in April!.

The three programme was amazing!. 

Circuit training. The three programme

Hi again!, I hope you are all having a wonderful winter!!. Christmas is just around the corner!, what are you asking for this year?, and what will you be giving??. 

Anyways, let's get started with today's blog post 😁. 

If you haven't already, I would peculiarly advise for you to read my blog post, ' my marcial arts class, the three programme ' as there might be a few slight spoilers.

I did not mention in the previously mentioned blog post, however these random one-class activities, were part of a three-part programme. Basically, the art teacher in my school was leaving soon, and as a kind result, she contacted my countys ' county council '. It was a voluntary thing, as far as I know and understand. Every Wednesday instead of doing pastrol care, (  the art teacher was also the pastrol care teacher ), we would do an excersise/activity. The last week, it was marcial arts and that week it was circuit training. 

We pilled back into the homely hall with a spring of confidence, and a wave of familiarity. This time unfortunately, 'Kia' was absent. So, when assigned to form small groups of three, I was delighted when let's call him 'Luke' ( not his real name), and 'Shasha' (not her real name) offered me a chance to join their group. I had spoken a few times with them, and they were very friendly and caring.

There were six stages, each entertaining. My group started at a stage with heavy sports balls and orange cones. We already possessed a clear understanding of the stages, as we were given a quick demonstration. 

We lifted up the balls over our heads and dropped them down abruptly, as instructed, they landed with a huge thud!!.

The next stage was frantic!!!. We had to do pull ups!. It was not my favourite point, however I was decent at the excersise, so pride made me relax a tiny bit, a good outcome.

Eventually we wounded up at the third stage witch was to rather complicated. There was a mar with feet marks and a thing on the middle of the mat. Basically, we had to jump over to the other side on the foot marks 👣. I enjoyed this, but it was rather tiring!!. 

Moving forward, we moved to the next stage, witch is kind of difficult to explain. We had to get on our hands ( basically a push up pose ), and walk in to our stomach, then jump up. This was again another tiring activity.

Finally we got to my favourite stage, the 'mountain walkers'. There were yoga mats, and we would basically do the same thing as the previous stage, bar the jumping. 

The last stage was simple, just a few jumping jacks. 

I loved the day's work, even though I was burned out afterwards!!. 

What to get a smart girl for Christmas.

Christmas is a time of happy spirts, but for many people a time for gifts too 😉. Here are my top picks for what to get a smart girl for Christmas. 

And you don't have to be smart to ask for some of these!!. Let's get it on!.

1. Typewriter

 Is your teen dreaming of becoming a future BESTSELLING author??. Well kickstar their dreams by investing in the succesed purchase of a typewriter!!. These fab machines can generate words onto paper real time without a printer or laptop 💚. They trace back years!, But of course ours are more advanced now 😂. 

2. Phone

They need to research all those queries bustling in their creative minds!. A phone may seem like a negative choice ( in some cases it may be so ), but your child will eventually grow up and will need independence. What are your thoughts on phones?.

3. 3d printer

Oohhhh 😃 we're getting techy!. 😝 Is your teen a total tech junkie?. If so a totally cool and up to date option would be an awesome 3d printer 👍😁. I am positive they will be estatic with established joy come Christmas morning 🌷.

4. iMac

Do you know what would be fab to go with the clever printer?. An iMac to speak the least!. This intelligent computer is tots what the nerdy teens are after ⭐.

I hope you all enjoyed this blog post as much as you will enjoy your Christmas 🎄. Have a great year and make sure to keep up to date with this blog because a little birdie told me that there will be a need blog post soon 😁.

Merry Christmas!. 

My martial arts class. The three programme.

It was a gloomy, yet estatic Wednesday. The 10th of November 2020. My class, out if first year, in my secondary school, were going to have a self defense lesson. It was just a one-time thing and we wouldn't be having any more lessons after that. 

I strolled along the pathway with a friend, ( let's call her 'kia' for privacy reasons). " I'm so excited!" I exclaimed.  We were heading to the local community centre. It was basically a room that schools and classes could borrow. 

I had done karate when I was five and it was like a redemption/comeback of my beloved childhood. 

We pulled into the square hall, witch seemed relaxed, with cream walls, and wooden floorboards. This was a voluntary thing by my countys county council, so thank you!. 

There were instructors, a blonde haired woman and a small man, although the man did most of the communication. He opened up with, " has anyone done marcial arts before?". I instantly said that I had done karate. 

We were then asked to form pairs. I chose Kia, the girl I had walked up with. Thirdly, he ordered for one partner from each pair to grab a single boxing glove. My natural instinct was that we would get to do some punching, but that was not the case. He instructed that one partner drops the glove into the space between the two partners and the other partner does 'small steps' in to retrieve it and pass it back to the other partner. Witch actually was tons of fun!.

Somewhere in between we did a mini workout l, then it was onto the extremely and utterly fun part of things. 'Kia' and other partners from other pairs, got a pad-like-thing ( i don't know the name sorry! ). They had to put their arm through it and hold the handle with their hand. The other partner would proceed to kick the pad in a specific sidewards way. I adored this specific and certain excersise!. Then it was 'kias' turn!. She was good, and had a wave of confidence plastered over initial dim fear. 

Eventually, another mini workout occured. And then lots of stretching. However, for days me and 'kias' legs were killin' us!. 

I was disappointed when it was time to go, but at least we had fun!. We got a groovy photograph, and that was that.