Reuben's Blog

An Unexpected Visitor

2009-07-26T00:04:00.000-07:00

"Creak!" The sudden sound of the back door opening woke me up. I peered out of the window but saw no sign of our car. My parents went out for a wedding dinner. Apparently, my parents had not returned from their wedding dinner yet.

Quietly, I got my racket and tiptoed to the kitchen. I opened the door. What I saw took my breath away. There, bending over the kitchen counter, almost the size of a double-door wardrobe, was a furry brown bear. It was hovering over the big pot of honey that I had neglected to wipe clean when I last scooped from it to make my favourite honey and blueberry sandwich. For a moment, I was stunned. This was the first time I had ever seen a real-life bear. I knew that it would not be wise for me to feed the bear. Although I knew that bears were unlikely to attack humans unless they were provoked, I was not ready to go out and meet the bear. I thought quickly and decided to scare it off instead.

Running to my toy cupboard, I found my old horn. I grabbed it and ran to the kitchen. Silently, I opened the door till it was wode enough for my horn to poke through. Finally, I said a quick prayer, took a deep breath, and blew through the horn with all my might. The sudden blaring of the horn frightened the animal so much that it dropped its search for food and scuttled out though the back door.

Relieved, I sank to my knees. My parents hurried in and gathered me into their arms. They had seen the bear running off and were fearful that the worst had happened. They were both relieved that I was unharmed. That fateful night, my parents promised never to leave me alone again. Once bitten, twice shy.

In-Place Protection (IPP) Exercise

2009-03-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

Today, my school did an In-Place Protection (IPP) Exercise. I am now going to tell you what happened.

My classmates and I were having English lesson when the IPP alarm went off. My classmates and I were very excited and started screaming and shouting. However, our teacher told us to stay calm. She chose some pupils to help her. I was chosen to seal the window with masking tape and trash bags. Some other pupils were chosen to close the windows and doors, switch off the lights and fans, seal the doors with masking tape and stuff towels under the door. Sealing the windows wasn't easy, luckily another teacher and my friend helped. After a while, we finished sealing the window. When everyone finished what they were told to do, we all went back to our desks and sat down.

My teacher then took out a big sheet of paper. She pasted it on the white board and asked us what we learned today. Each time we told her a learning point, she would write it on the paper. After several learning points, the whole paper was filled. After a while, the "all clear" alarm went off. We unsealed everything, switched on the lights and fans and opened the door for fresh air.

From this experience, I now know what to do when poisonous gas escapes into our air.

A Christmas Party

2008-12-31T20:12:00.000-08:00

One windy afternoon, my brother, father, mother and I went to Uncle Niel's house for a Christmas party. When we reached Uncle Niel's house, Uncle Niel told my brother and I that we could go swimming.

My brother said it was too cold to swim. I didn't care what my brother said, so I just jumped into the water. Right at that moment, I realised that my brother was right, the water was freezing cold. I quickly jumped out of the pool. Everyone laughed. Uncle Niel brought my brother and I to the jacuzzi. He turned it on and my brother and I jumped in and oh, how warm it felt compared to the freezing cold water in the pool! We played with our toy boats in the jacuzzi. After playing for an hour we came up, showered and changed.

After that, we went to Uncle Niel's home. Everyone was there. We has our dinner. After that, we played the white elephant game. When it was my turn, I opened the present and it was a bomerang. I loved it. Everyone started teasing me by wanting my bomerang. I kept it close to me so that no one would snatch it away. After that, we went home. That day was an enjoyable day.