Dear Diary: 20 July 2017

Dear diary,

I’m finally here in Suchindrum! We landed in Trivandrum on Saturday evening, and took a car to Suchindrum. It was a LONG flight from Singapore, and the three of us were exhausted. When we reached Suchindrum, I immediately rushed inside to say hello to my cousin Karina. She was playing with her dolls and I built a fort for them out of pillows and blankets. My other cousin, Rita, said hello to me and gave me a new notebook, gel pens and a vanity kit. 😊

After that, we had dinner. We had eaten a few snacks on the plane, but that was it, so we were STARVING. But guess what was for dinner? Stew!!! Sloppy, green, disgusting stew, which was filled with strange veggies like drumsticks. Ugh! When I made a face, Aunt Keisha said, “Stop scowling, Tanya! You’re lucky to be eating this…see…. Nice hot stew!”

The most annoying part was that she pronounced my name wrong AGAIN by saying Thaan-yaa, instead of Tan-ya. I corrected her thrice last year but she still doesn’t get it!

Aunt Keisha isn’t exactly the nicest aunt. When I was seven, I bought some cat food for the cats who live in Suchindrum, and Aunt Keisha threw it away because she thought it “smelled bad”. When I was eight, she said electronics “ruined children’s imaginations” and didn’t let me use my iPad for half the trip! Then when I was nine, she shut down the TV so Rita and I got so bored the whole time! Well, let’s hope she doesn’t do anything crazy THIS year.

Yesterday (Sunday), I woke up extra early to play with the cat here, Skulls. I love him. Even though he is so evil. Take last year, for example. He scratched dad so badly that dad had to wear a HUGE bandage for a week. Well, it was fun bringing Skulls into the house and watching dad hurry away.

Skulls is very playful, and his favourite thing to do is push the chess pieces around the house. Mom says he would be awesome at soccer if he were a human.

After everyone work up, Karina asked me to play Snakes and Ladders with her. At first, I was impressed that Karina knew how to play Snakes and Ladders, because she is only four. Well, five seconds into the game I realised that all she wanted to do was randomly move the counters around the board. I obviously told her that I didn’t want to play with her anymore, and she just crossed her arms and glared at me.

Next was lunch. I told mom I wasn’t hungry and begged her repeatedly to let me skip lunch, but she wasn’t gonna fall for it.

I ended up giving my lunch to Stray Doggie, this poor dog with a broken leg who lives in our yard. I would be nicer to him, but I’m scared he’s gonna give me some disease.

In the evening, Gran, mom, Rita, dad, Uncle Karthik, Aunt Keisha and I went to the beach. We left Karina behind with Rita’s mom, Aunt Tara.

I loved the beach. It was windy and it was fun to climb the huge, black rocks with Rita. Uncle Karthik tried to push me off one of the rocks, but I climbed down just in time. The best part was the sea, which was cool and clear.

Book Review: Once & Then

The books ‘Once’ and ‘Then’ by Morris Gleitzman are delightful reads, full of horror and suspense. The books, set during World War II, are for ages nine and above.

The story of ‘Once’ begins with Felix, a young Jew who escapes from a Catholic orphanage to find his biological parents. Carrying some food and a notebook with him, he reaches the town where he used to live. But soon he realises that things have changed, and nowhere is safe for Jews anymore.  Everywhere, Jews are being sent out of their homes and taken to work in labour camps.

After saving a girl named Zelda from a burning house, Felix realises that he has to find a way to keep himself and Zelda safe.

The sequel to this book, ‘Then’, is just as exciting and equally full of horror. The story continues on from when Zelda and Felix escape from a train heading to a death camp. Wounded but alive, they begin to look for shelter when they meet Genia, a kind woman who hates the Nazis. Genia takes them home and disguises them as her niece and nephew. But soon people in the town start to get suspicious. Will Zelda, Felix and Genia manage to stay safe? Or will be they be killed by the Nazis?

Once and Then are amazing books about how terrible life was during World War II for so many young children. Luckily, Morris Gleitzman has written two more books to continue the thrilling story- After and Now. 

I can personally recommend these reads for bookworms all around the world.  

My Impression of Impressionism

A few days ago, I visited the Colours of Impressionism exhibition in Singapore. It had numerous paintings by Monet, Renoir and Manet, from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Impressionism is a style of painting that depicts scenes from everyday life using short, quick strokes and different angles of light. It uses bold blends of colour and is a way for the artist to show his impression of the scene in front of him. Impressionism originated in Europe during the 19^th century. The exhibition was held in the National Gallery of Singapore.

Here’s what my experience was like!

When I entered the first room, I was struck by so many different paintings…all in black, white and grey. But as I went closer, I realised that the paintings weren’t done in smooth black paint. The artists had mixed different primary and secondary colours to form black, white and grey shades. That’s why no two shades of black looked exactly the same! I learnt that when Impressionism had just started, paintings were done in very dark colours.

Two of these paintings that I particularly liked are Le Bain by Alfred Stevens, and Clair de Lune sur le Port de Boulogne by Edouard Manet.

Le Bain (The Bath), Alfred Stevens

Clair de Lune sur le Port de Boulogne (Moonlight over the Port of Boulogne), Edouard Manet

Then we went into the next room. The paintings in this one were blue and green. I read that Impressionism had started with black shades, moved on to blues and greens, and finally evolved into pinks and purples.

In the second room, I saw a stunning painting – La Seine à Port-Villez. I immediately wanted to know who the artist was. Of course, it was by Claude Monet, one of the most famous and talented Impressionists. 

La Seine à Port-Villez (The Seine at Port-Villez), Claude Monet

Once we saw the paintings with blues and greens, we moved on to the next section. I think that one was my favourite.

Here, we saw loads of paintings by Paul Signac. The speciality about them was that the whole painting was created by dots. When you look at the paintings from a distance, they seem….like any other. But when you go closer, you see the individual dots clearly! Blue and white dots for the sky and clouds, orange dots for the sun and green dots for the trees and bushes. 

La bouée rouge (The Red Buoy), Paul Signac

I really loved this painting of a castle. It looks like it’s from a fairytale!

The Château des Papes in Avignon (The Pope’s Palace in Avignon), Paul Signac

I liked the bright and bold blending of so many different colours and shades. You could actually see the artists’ brush strokes in the paintings. That was unique because most paintings I have seen look smooth – in these, you can actually imagine the artist painting them!

I think I’m very lucky to be able to see original artwork by wonderful artists like Monet – the exhibition even had one of his most famous works: The Water Lily Pond Pink Harmony – and I hope that one day I can see Van Goghs and Picassos too!

Water Lily Pond: Pink Harmony, Claude Monet

La Pie (The Magpie), Claude Monet

This blog originally appeared on Singapore for Kids.

The Disappearing Watch

Here is another short story from me. Hope you like it.

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“Viola!” mum called from the hall. “It’s time for school!”

“I’m coming! I just can’t seem to find my favourite blue watch anywhere!’’

“Hurry up! Your bus is already here!’’

“But I need my watch!’’ I yelled. “It’s my favourite one!’’

I frantically searched my room for my watch, but I couldn’t find it. Mum rushed into my room. 

“Viola!’’ she said. “Your bus has left! You’re going to get detention again just because you were looking for that silly watch!’’

I packed my bag and went downstairs miserably; that was my favourite watch! I couldn’t believe that I had lost it!

I went outside. I unlocked my cycle and took it out of the yard. I slowly cycled to school.

When I reached school, the playground was empty. I wondered what the time was. Out of habit, I looked down at my wrist, forgetting that my watch was lost. But there it was, gleaming brightly in the sunlight!

My watch had been on my wrist all along.