nz adventures [the christchurch brick show]

Hi! Harry here.

On our second last day in New Zealand we attended the Christchurch Brickshow. The show was held in a newly built hangar at the New Zealand Air Force museum. The whole spaced was filled with all things LEGO! Surrounding the models were lots of stalls including several "shops", but also peoples own original creations, including a LEGO generating Spirograph and an enormous free-standing LEGO Technics tower. Some of the models were amazing. It was difficult for Mum to take photos because there were so many people!!!! Mine and Dad's favourite model was the Tudor style curved roof house as some of the angles were incredible, especially considering it was constructed solely out of LEGO! Some of the models on display were just themed sets of a particular type of LEGO put together to make a large scene. My favourite models though were the MOC (My Own Creation) models which people had designed and built all by themselves. Matilda's favourite was the Castle scene with a Princess kissing a frog and Mum really liked a super colourful underwater reef scene. Hopefully next year I might have my own MOC to take to a LEGO show! Overall it was really cool to see the original ways people used their LEGO and I came away with great ideas for my own designs!

Abracadabra!

I was given a magic kit for Christmas a few years ago. It contains everything you need to make a magic show. It came with an instruction book that teaches you how to do certain tricks. My Dangerous Book For Boys also has a chapter on magic tricks. I've been practicing these magic tricks a lot lately. 

Last Monday Ellie & Abbie came to play at our house. We rehearsed and performed a magic show for our mums. Some of the tricks were: The Disappearing Act (I made Till disappear without a trace), The Coin Trick (I made a coin disappear AND reappear in an audience members hair!), The Colour Dice Trick, (I chose a member of the audience to place a colored dice in a box without me seeing the color that faced the top and then I told them which colour they had chosen - without looking). Ellie and Abbi also performed a number of magic tricks such as The Floating Magic Wand and The Magic Ball Trick. The best trick of all was when we made Abbie fly. The audience was SO IMPRESSED! Making a magic show is great fun.  Written by Harry

Backyard geyser

Hello, my name is Harry and I am nine years old. Today Mum, Till (my sister) and I went to the shops. I asked if I could buy the equipment needed for an experiment that I got given for Christmas. The experiment was making a soda geyser, in which you put Mentos in with Coca-Cola or any soda and it becomes a soda geyser!

First, you need a "Steve Spangler's Geyser Tube", soda (we used Coke) and Mentos. You screw the Geyser Tube onto the part where the lid screws on. Then, you stick the "pin" into the tube. You unscrew the rim of the Geyser Tube and place the mentos in the tube. Next you screw the rim back on and tell everyone to STAND BACK! The next step takes two people. The first person holds the bottle steady. The second person pulls the "pin" out (like a grenade). This part happens very quickly. You and your partner run away from the bottle and at the same time the soda erupts (like a volcano!). That is how it worked with us!

FACT: Don't waste the mentos. They are still edible, although a bit tougher than usual. Also, if there is any soda left you can drink it. (It isn't toxic :) even though Mum would say it is!)

By Harry :)

NB. Harry's mother here....Yes soda is VERY toxic. I did however let Harry and Till drink a small glass of coke when the experiment was over - in the big scheme of things they'd be lucky to have a drink of coke once a year!!!!!!