I-pad Rules

1. Do not take pictures of other people
2. Do not run around with it.
3. Treat them with care.
4. Do not take anybody else's I pad.

Mc Donalds Bean Coffee

I found this advert on you tube it is a mc Donald’s advert from 2012 about their full bean coffee. This is a very biased video and that this is to be expected from an advert. They are advertising their coffee, they are doing this by saying that there is always a moment for their coffee this makes you think that you say anything over their coffee therefore making you spend more money. Another tactic they have used is the theme tune at the end they used to have “I’m lovin’ it” with a very catchy jingle and now they have removed it and this makes many people fill it in themselves.

Ghost Story

In early 1982 my Mother died. Our family was spread throughout England, so I volunteered to collect my sister from her home in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear and drive her to the funeral in Bolton, Lancashire. Later, after the funeral, I drove my sister back home, maybe a distance of 200 miles, stayed just long enough to have a cup of tea, and then set off on the journey home to Bolton.

It was only when the low-petrol warning light and buzzer came on in my car that I realised I was very low on petrol. My car, a SAAB, had a very reliable and accurate petrol gauge, so I knew I had probably less than twenty miles of fuel left. That is when I discovered in horror that I had left my wallet, watch and other personal items on my sister's coffee table, because they were uncomfortable to have in my pockets whilst sitting down.
I had a choice; park up and either try and beg a few pounds off a passing motorist or keep driving until I ran out of petrol and hope a motorway police car would stop and help. I was on the long, often unlit stretch of the M62 motorwar joining Yorkshire and Lancashire, and notoriously known as 'the place in the middle of nowhere'!
I decided on the second option and continued, treating the accelerator pedal as if it was lead crystal, trying to eek out every drop of petrol, as I still had over 60 or 70 miles to go to my home. After a few minutes of nerve-wracking driving, I suddenly heard a voice behind me, coming from the seat where my Mother always sat, as she had never learnt to drive herself.
It was my Mother's voice, and all she said was, "keep going, twin, (her favourtie name for me and my twin brother), just keep going". I saw many things then, my home, my Mum, so many images flashing in front of me.
For the next hour and a half, I just kept going, the car refusing to stop, despite the petrol warning buzzer doing its' best to get my attention! As I reached my home, my car ground to a dead stop, right outside my dorr. Then the last thing I heard was, "goodnight son".
I went into my home, shaking and unbelieving what had just happened. I told my Father a few days later, and he said he believed that Mum would never leave us.
As a bye the way, a garage had to take my car away and fill all the tank, lines, engine etc. with petrol before it would start again. They said they had never seen a car so dry before.
This event has stayed with me until today, but I will never forget those words. Incidentally, much later, my young daughter refused to sit in that particular seat, because she said someone was already sitting there!


- Sorry I know that this is not 100 words (this is a real life account)

5 card Flickr

5 Card Flickr

“Do you like your pasta?” my shrivelled old great aunt asked poking her long crooked nose in my face, inwardly I groaned was she ever going to leave me alone? She had been asking me things all night and to be honest I was fed up of answering her endless questions I swear if I didn’t stop talking soon I would lose my voice “Kim, KIM!” her frail old voice snapped me out of my inner dialogue “yyes its lovely thanks” I stuttered startled. Don’t get me wrong I was glad that she had let me stay with her for the weekend while my parents were in Paris, they had gotten a discount for going on Halloween- this meant however that they could not be there for my birthday,(31^st October) I didn’t blame them though they deserved  a break, “do you want to go out with your friends now?” my great aunt asked “you don’t mind?” I asked startled “no ,no you’re probably fed up of being cooped up with an old codger like me on your birthday” she joked “no of course not  and you’re not an old codger” I replied “but I do want to see Christie though” “ok be safe” my aunt called after me. I huddled down in my rain coat hiding from the cold rain as I left my aunts tall, black apartment building it was an amazing sight on Halloween as it had been decorated perfectly with the scariest pumpkins I had ever seen and one person had even put a picture of a lizard in their window a lizard! Why would someone put a lizard in their window I wondered as I walked along.

Ding dong I heard Christie’s bell from outside her house, I waited for what seemed like ages and just when I was turning to walk back down her cobble stone path I heard her big heavy door creak open “Kim” I heard a chorus of voices squeal I turned and was almost instantly jumped on/hugged by Christies 3 little brothers “Sam ,Max ,Jacob leave Kim alone” I heard Christies exasperated mum shout just as Christie came running along the path sweeping me along with her “keep close and don’t look back or you’ll never escape the monsters” Christie whispered “you should really give your brothers a break as far as I can see there nothing like you make out” I whispered back “that’s because when your around they act like little angels” she retorted finally talking at full volume “so what’s on the agenda birthday girl?” she questioned “that’s what I was about to ask you” I answered “well we could always go and see thatnew boy band playing at the theatre” she suggested “yeah that would be fun except that you need tickets” I pouted “well it a good job I’ve got two and backstage passes” she said as she whipped them out of her bag and waved them in my face “OMG how did you get those” I half screamed “I bought them as your birthday present surprise!” she explained “thank you, thank you, thank you!” I chanted “let’s go” we went to the concert and i danced all night it was the best birthday ever !

K2 the Savage Mountain

K2

 

·         The name K2 was given in 1852 by British surveyor T.G. Montgomerie with "K" designating the Karakoram Range and "2" since it was the 2nd peak listed. During his survey, Montgomerie, standing on Mt. Haramukh 125 miles to the south, noted two prominent peaks to the north, calling them K1 and K2. While he kept native names, he found that K2 did not have a known name. Later the peak was named Mount Godwin-Austen for an early explorer but it was never recognized.

·         K2 is nicknamed the "Savage Mountain" for its severe weather. It is typically climbed in June, July, or August. K2 has never been climbed in winter.

·         British climbers Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), led an expedition of six climbers that made the first attempt to climb K2, from March to June, 1902. The party spent 68 days on the mountain, with only 8 clear days, attempting the northeast ridge. Spending two months at high altitude, the party made 5 summit attempts. The last one began on June 8 but 8 days of bad weather defeated them and they retreated after a high point of 21,407 feet (6,525 meters).

·         Italian climber Prince Luigi Amedeo (1873-1933), the Duke of Abruzzi, led an expedition to K2 in 1909. His party attempted the southeast ridge, the Abruzzi Spur, reaching an elevation of 20,505 feet (6,250 meters) before deciding that the climb was too difficult. The ridge is now the usual way that most climbers ascend K2. Before departing, the Duke said that the mountain would never be climbed.

·         Fritz Wiessner, a great German climber , led a 1939 American expedition that set a new world altitude record by reaching 27,500 feet on the Abruzzi Spur. The party was 656 feet from the summit before turning around. Four team members were killed.

·         The peaks' 2nd ascent came on August 9, 1977, 23 years after K2's first ascent, by a Japanese team led by Ichiro Yoshizawa. The team also included Ashraf Aman, the first Pakistani climber to summit K2.

·         The first American ascent was in 1978. A strong team led by James Whittaker ascended a new route up the peak's Northeast Ridge.

·         K2 is one of the most difficult 8,000's with technical climbing, severe weather conditions, and high avalanche danger. As of early 2009, 305 climbers have reached K2's summit, while at least 76 have died.

·         1986 was a tragic year on K2 with 13 climbers dying. Five climbers died in a severe storm between August 6 and August 10. Eight other climbers died in the preceding 6 weeks. Deaths were caused by avalanche, falling, and rockfall. The climbers killed by the storm were part of a group put together from several failed expeditions. Three of the climbers reached the top on August 4. During the descent they met up with 4 other climbers and stayed at 26,000 feet where they were trapped in a storm. Five climbers died while only two survived.

·         As of 2009, 11 women have summitted K2, but four died on the descent.

·         In August 2008, 11 climbers died on the upper slopes of K2 after an avalanche caused by a fallen ice serac either killed them outright or isolated them above The Bottleneck, a steep ice couloir.

·         The fatality rate on K2 is 27%. If you attempt K2 you have a 1 in 4 chance of dying. Prior to the 2008 tragedy, of the 198 climbers who summitted the peak, 53 died on K2. That is three times the 9% fatality rate on Mount Everest. K2 is, next to Annapurna, the second most dangerous 8,000-meter peak.

·         At the base of K2 stands the Gilkey Memorial, a cairn with the names of those climbers who lost their lives on K2. The memorial was put up in 1953 to mark the death of Art Gilkey, a member of the 1953 American expedition to K2. K2 the Savage Mountain tells the story of that expedition, Gilkey's death, and the famous attempt to save him.

1953

One of the most famous events in American climbing history occurred during a 1953 expedition led by Charles Houston. A 10-day storm trapped the team at 25,592 feet. Abandoning a summit attempt, the climbers attempted to save 27-year-old Art Gilkey, who had developed altitude sickness, by descending to a lower altitude. At one point during their desperate descent, Pete Schoening saved five falling climbers by arresting their fall with the rope and his ice axe plunged behind a boulder. The axe is displayed at the Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum in Golden, Colorado.

 

Forced later to stop to set up a camp as night fell, Gilkey’s makeshift stretcher was anchored to the slope with two ice axes, and the other members of the group set about the diffuclt  task of chopping tent platforms into the hard ice. When they finished and returned for Gilkey, they found that he was gone.

It has never been established whether an avalanche swept Gilkey away, or whether he decided to sacrifice himself to give his companions a chance to survive. Even after this, the survival of the remaining climbers was not guaranteed, and they had to fight dire conditions to get down the mountain. Two of the members' toes were so frostbitten that they had to be carried from the base of the mountain to civilization on.

Two of the climbers later wrote a book about their experience called: K2 the Savage Mountain: The Classic True Story of Disaster and Survival on the World's Second Highest Mountain.

 

£1.74

£1.74

I would spend £1.74 on a multi-pack of drink (£0.87) and £0.87 on biscuits.

Homeless Statistics

·       1.4 million children in England live in bad housing.

·       In 2008/2009, 654,000 households in England were overcrowded.

·       61,000 households (excluding the intentionally homeless) in England were officially recognised as newly homeless by their local authorities in 2010.

·       In 2009 the number of repossessions rose to 48,000 from 25,900 in 2007, and it is predicted that repossessions will remain high in the coming years.

·       The most common reason for becoming homeless is loss of accommodation provided by relatives or friends (a third of those deemed 'in priority need'), with a further fifth being due to relationship breakdown.

·       7.4 million homes in England fail to meet the Government's Decent Homes Standard.

·       In 2009/10, more than 62,000 households were found to be homeless by local authorities.

·       At the end of September 2010, 49,000 households were living in temporary accommodation arranged by local authorities. Just over 38,000 of these households had dependent children.

·       The number of newly homeless households has fallen sharply each year since 2003 and the 2010 figure of 61,000 households is only a third of the 2003 number (202,000).

·       Just over half of the households officially recognised as newly homeless do not contain dependent children. The distinction between with, and without children, is important because many of the latter do not qualify for accommodation (i.e. they are considered 'not to be in priority need').

Touching the Void Homework

In the extract from “touching the void” the writer does an excellent job of creating tension, one way that he does this is getting across the way he feels in the opening paragraph, he does this in many ways, such as “an awful weariness washed through me, and with it a fervent hope that this endless hanging would soon be over.” this causes tension through alliteration and makes the reader think that he has given up all hope and doesn’t care what happens to him. This is especially shown with his use of the word fervent meaning “Having or showing great emotion or zeal” witch is well chosen and direct language.

Another way that the writer creates tension is by sharing his thoughts and fears with the reader he does this in a multitude of ways one of which is by using similes as time reminders this is shown when he thinks “Wire tight it told me the truth better than any phone call” this is effective because it reminds the reader that he could fall any minute but makes it that you can relate to it.

But in my opinion the best build-up of tension was the way the passage ends it leaves you wanting to know more and shocks you at how sudden it is the way the writer does this is by varying the length of the sentences for example “the stars went out, and I fell. Like something come alive, the rope lashed violently against my face and I fell silently, endlessly into nothingness, as if dreaming of falling.” The first part was short but the second was long.

VARK Questionnaire Results

Hi everyone, I have just completed the VARK Questionnaire here are my results; I have found that I learn best from reading and writing however I also enjoy visual aspects in learning.

·      Visual: 8

·      Aural: 7

·      Read/Write: 9

·      Kinesthetic: 5

  

I am a 

 Katie JJ