Swim a Mile

6/5/2015
On the 6th of May 2015, the TYs from St. Wolstan's made our way to the National Aquatic Centre in Blanchardstown in hopes of swimming a mile with a smile in support of the Ian Daly Foundation. We arrived at the NAC at around 10am and were straight into the dressing room. Some girls decided to swim the mile (which is the equivalent of laps of the pool) in groups of 4 or 5 and some very brave girls decided to swim the whole mile alone!!

Since I am a beginner at swimming, to say the least, I swam in a group of 4 people which included myself, Sadhbh, Eimhear and Chloe. This meant we only had to swim 16 laps each. At about the 10 lap marker, I had just about given up but with some brilliant coercing from Sadhbh I managed to not only finish my 16 laps but I completed 40 laps by the end of the day!!


Overall it was a great day. We got the opportunity to do something fun and challenging for a good cause and afterwords we were brought down to the Blanchardstown shopping centre for food and some shopping!

Thanks for reading,
                 Anita xx

Driving

So we went driving on Monday!! #hideyokids No there were no fatal collisions. Nobody was killed in the process. Much to our surprise we were all pretty good at driving (granted we were going at 20km/hr but still!!)

We left the school at 9:05am and boarded the bus to the Leinster school of driving. We arrived there at 9:30 and were split into two groups. The first group (the group I was in) got to go driving for the first two hours while the other group did a fun exercise with the theory test. We were put into cars with three people and an instructor. Each person got to drive for twenty minutes at a time before we rotated. I was first up to drive in my car and I didn't cut out once might I add.

After we had gotten two twenty minute turns of driving each, we went to lunch and then switched with the second group. The theory test also much to our surprise was a lot of fun. In our group, we had to answer the 40 questions and the group to get 40/40 received a free lesson worth 40 euro. Unfortunately, nobody got the free lesson but we got the opportunity to earn points when we were shown a picture and the group with the funniest caption received an extra point

After the theory test, we were then taken outside to try on a pair of beer goggles. Yes, you read that right. Beer goggles.

They were goggles that simulated the loss of depth perception that comes along with excessive drinking. We had to complete simple tasks such as stacking cones or giving the instructor a high five but these were easier said than done! In the end we managed to convince our teacher to take part in the beer goggles challenge as well.

Overall it was a brilliant day. One of the highlights of TY and it's encouraged me to start studying for my theory test which I will sit during the summer and hopefully collect my learner's permit in May 2016 when I turn 17.

Thanks for reading,

xoxo AO

Easter Break!

Can we all please get it into our heads that we're off for the Easter midterm break in less than 6 hours?! That's 2 weeks or 332 hours or 20160 minutes or 1,263,600 seconds of no school!! 

Here's a little look at what my midterm itinerary looks like so far

Monday 30th- Sleep all day

Tuesday 31st- Sleep all day

Wednesday 1st- Sleep all day

Thursday 2nd- Sleep till noon, maybe order takeout, sleep for the rest of the day.

Friday 3rd- Stick head out the window, get some fresh air, and then... sleep all day

Well I think you  get the picture of how my midterm break is going to pan out. Now here comes the even better part... After midterm, there's only 7 weeks of school left until summer and then  we're off for three months!!

Counting down the days now!!!

Thanks for reading,

Anita x

Third Work Placement

Haven't posted in a while what with all the different trips, competitions and Fridays away that come with TY, we haven't had IT class in over a month. Anyway, I finished my work experience placement at Peamount Hospital about 5 weeks ago (I know, crazy how time flies right?) and I began my new placement at St. James's on the 25th February 2015. I guess there is somewhat of a pattern in the placments I have chosen this year (The Irish Red Cross, Peamound & James's Hoisptal
). They are all somewhat medical, whichof course is an area I hope to enter in the future.

I started at half nine on the 23rd and I was slightly nervous as I didn't know my way to the hospital as I'd never been there before (smart move, I know *sigh*) but I managed to find it  easily enough. I arrived into town an hour early just to be on the safe side and when I stopped to ask for directions (something I am absolutely terrified of doing, might I add), the person I had asked was a 1st year midwifery student at the hospital and so led the way.

When I arrived at the hospital, that slight nervousness escalated to a bone crushingly terrifying a freak out. The hospital was absolutely nothing like Peamount. It was about 10x the size of Peamount to begin with, everybody was rushing around in a calm manner (If that makes any sense whatsoever). I felt absolutely miniscule to say the least.

My first day was't as exciting as I'd expected it to be. I didn't get to do any workl around the hospital as unfortunately my supervisor had nothing planned for me as she was in a meeting (bummer). So I folded letters and adressed envelopes for 6 hours until I went home at 3:30.

Work Experience

I started my second work experience at Peamount Hospital in Newcastle. I started work at 9.30 am on the morning of Wednesday 7th January 2015. This was a completely different experience to that of my first placement at the Irish Red Cross head office. For one thing there were other transition year students also on placements at Peamount which was a huge relief!

As soon as I arrived I was introduced to a nursing student and two other Transition Years from St. Joseph's secondary school in Lucan who are also doing their work placements. We were then asked to go on a tea/coffee break until 10am (I found this really strange considering the fact that I had arrived at the hospital only three minutes earlier but oh well yay tea!)

After our much deserved break after that gruesome three WHOLE minutes of work,  I was put through some basic wheelchair training, health and safety guidelines and given a talk about what I am and am not allowed to do while on placement.

At 10:30 am, I was given my first task which was to bring two of the patients to Wednesday morning mass which lasted half an hour. After the mass, we then brought some of the patients to the computer room for 45 minutes. This was one of my favourite parts of the day becasuse we got a chance to see the kinds of music the people listened to and very often, it was music from their time which I would never have heard before that day.
The rest of my day consisted of lunch, reading to the patients, having one on one talks with them about their families and lives and giving the ladies hand care which consisted of hand massages, nail filing, painting and pampering and I was finished at 3:30pm

My first day wasn't what I imagined it to be, it was even better. In a short period of time I had gotten to know the people I work with, heard stories about the lives of some very interesting people.

Thanks for reading,
Anita x

Fashion Show!

The St. Wolstan's 2014 Fashion Extravaganza took place this past Tuesday and Wednesday the 25th and 26th November in the Celbridge Manor Hotel hosted by Miss Leonard. After weeks of preparation and excitement, the two days of the fashion show flew by in a breeze! The show consisted of a mix of students and teachers modelling designs from over 14 high street and local retailers such as Next, Vero Moda, Bennetton, New Look, Born, Catch etc. The show showcased the talents of the students in the school through the glee club, singing groups and various dance performances from ballet, Irish and modern dancers. The show also featured some male models from the local Selesians boy's school modelling the evening/debs wear.

We were lucky enough to witness the talents of the teachers as they performed a rather interesting (to say the least) dance piece.

The show began at 8pm on Tuesday night. With lots of excitement backstage with students rushing to get dressed in order for them not to lose their slot in the show. The opening act of the show were the modern dancers. I wasn't due to go on until after the interval so I had plenty of time to wander around and look at the mini companies who were selling their products in the lobby. I was modelling clothes from Next and a design from a former pupil turned designer Ruth Doyle's collection. It was so much fun getting to play model for the night and having our make-up and hair done by a make up artist brought in by Ruth. My first look was from next. It consisted of a sparkly  silver three quarter length top, a black furry waistcoat and a pair of jeans.

The second design I wore in the show was a favourite of mine. It was a beautiful piece from Ruth Doyle's collection. The collection consists of a series of unique hand-made pieces using hair and various other fabrics.

Here are a few of the other pieces from Ruth's collection modelled by Isabelle Connolly,  Eilis O'Brien and Lauren.

The day after the show, the school halls were buzzing with talk of the first show and the students just couldn't wait to do it again for the second night which went just as well. Overall it was a fun  experience for the students and teachers and hopefully we will get the opportunity to do it again some time.

Vanishing Art

This week, the TYs went on a trip to Carton House, Maynooth where a sculpture exhibition was being held. We left the school for Carton after lunch at 2 o'clock on Wednesday. The exhibition features sculptures which were scattered around Carton premises, on the grass, in the water and hanging from trees.The rest of the pieces were on display in a showroom. The concept of the exhibition was bringing back the art of sculpture which is a "vanishing art" as other forms of art are now emerging.

This was one of my favourite pieces. It was titled "L'Archiere" by David O'Brien and it is a bronze sculpture of a female archer with her bow drawn, ready to fire. Another favourite of mine was an untitled piece of a man and a woman standing on opposite sides of a pillar peeking around the corner at each other but both are too scared to meet the other and so they never meet because they are unaware of the other's affection.

We were focused on the art for a while until we received the news that the Irish Rugby team were training at Carton! It's no surprise that the attention of teenagers was turned from the art to the rugby players. A few lucky girls even got autographs and pictures with Johnny Sexton and Tommy Bowe!! Overall the trip consisted of about 15 minutes of art appreciation, an hour of waiting outside the gym as the players trained, some screaming, tears and even a lost shoe! Thanks for reading, Anita (: