Geography 2 - Colin Farrell

Colin Farrell is a well known Irish actor. He was born 31st of May , 1976 in Dublin.
Colin's father, Eamon Farrell, was a football player who played for Shamrock Rovers FC, which is the most successful football club in Irish history. They have a stadium in Tallaght, in Dublin. His father was also owned a company that imported and exported canned goods in Dublin City.

Colin had small parts in television shows and films, including the BBC drama "Ballykissangel" in 1998, and his film debut in Tim Roth's "The War Zone". Although Colin has a strong Irish accent, he uses an American accent in some of his films including "American Outlaws" and his breakthrough role, "Tigerland".
In 2003, Colin starred as a criminal who plots a bank heist with other Irish actor, Cillian Murphy in "Intermission", which held the record as highest-grossing Irish independent film in Irish box office history until 2006.

Colin has a son, James Padraig Farrell, born on 12 September 2003, in Los Angeles. In October 2007, Farrell revealed that his son James has Angelman Syndrome, which is a rare genetic disorder characterized by intellectual and developmental delay, speech impediment, sleep disturbance, seizures, hand flapping movements, and frequent laughter/smiling.

Colin had reportedly grown very close to Elizabeth Taylor, recently before her death and was one of the few non-family members to attend her private funeral.

In 2007, Colin was joined by other celebrities such as, Bruce Willis, Eva Mendes, Muhammad Ali, Vanessa Williams and Arnold Schwarzenegger, to be an official spokesperson for the Special Olympics, in Shanghai, China.

S.W.A.T (2003) - Nominated for Irish Film & Television Award for Best Actor
Miami Vice (2006) - Nominated for Irish Film & Television Award for Best Actor
In Bruges (2008) - Won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor
Nominated — British Independent Film Award for Best Actor
Nominated — Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor


Geography: Ireland is the home to the famous Cliffs Of Moher, which are one of the most visited sights in Ireland. They are located in the parish of Liscannor, near the Burren area. The cliffs are over 214 meters high and attract over one million tourists each year. On a clear day, the Aran Islands are visible in Galway Bay, and so are the valleys and hills of Connemara. The cliffs are mainly formed out of sandstone, the oldest rocks laying at the bottom of the cliffs. It is possible to see 300 million year old river channels cutting through, forming unconformities at the base of the cliffs. The Cliffs of Moher have featured in many films including "Leap Year", "Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince" and many episodes of Father Ted.

Geography 1 - Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier was an actor, director, author and a diplomat. He was one of the first black actors in Hollywood. He is a Bahamian actor, and made his success by starting out in Broadway and this lead him to big Hollywood films. . His best known Broadway peformances are in "The Bedford Incident" and "A Patch Of Blue".
Sidney Poitier was the first male black person to get nominated for an Acadamy Award, for this performance in "The Defiant Ones" in 1958. He was also the first black person to win an Acadamy Award for Best Actor in "Lilies of The Field" in 1963.
In 1967, he was the most successful year at the box office, the commercial peak of his career, with three successful films, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; To Sir," "With Love" and "In the Heat of the Night".
Poitier directed several films. His most successful direction was in "Stir Crazy" which for years was the highest grossing film directed by a person of African descent. In 1998, to 2003, Sidney Poitier served as a Member of the Board of Directors in The Walt Disney Company. In April 1997, he was appointed as ambassador of the Bahamas to Japan and he is also the ambassador of the Bahamas to UNESCO.

Geography:
The Bahamas has a subtropical/ tropical climate and is moderated by the waters of The Gulf Stream, especially in winter time. This can be very dangerous around summer and autumn months, as this is when hurricanes pass through Bahamas and the surrounding islands, which include: San Salvador Island, Crooked Island, Cat Island and Long Island. There has never been a freeze recorded in the Bahamas, but the temperature can fall between 2-3 degrees during Artic outbreaks, which also affected Florida. The last record of sleet in the Bahamas, was in 1977. July and August are the hottest months of the year in the Bahamas, usually reaching a high of about 32/33 degrees. Winter months, unlike Ireland, are usually 25/26 degrees, sometimes hotter. It usually only rains 140 days out of the year in the Bahamas.

My Sisters Keeper: Book Review

I have read the novel My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I found this book extremely moving, as it covers a sensitive topic, and i throughly enjoyed it.

My Sisters Keeper is a book about a normal family, until their daughter Kate gets diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia at the age of two, when her mother notices shes developed something that looks like "a line of small blue jewels" down her spine, and her mother knows immediately that she is not seeing normal bruises. Their life is soon turned upside down. Neither parents are a right match to be a donor for their daughter they turned to their son Jesse. He wasnt a correct match either. To ensure that their daughter would have a higher chance of survival, they decided they would have another child that would be genetically designed to be a perfect match for Kate. At 13, when her sister now needs a kidney, Anna has had enough. She hires an attorney and sues her parents for the rights to her own body.

There are a huge amount of themes throughout the novel, but the theme of love and friendship play a special role in the book.

The strongest themes in the novel are friendship and love. These two themes slightly overlap throughout the novel, but is definitely most visible and told through the characters, Anna and Kate. They share such a strong bond towards each other, as both sisters and as best friends. Because Kate has been hospitalized her whole life, she never really got the chance to make a long term friend, so Anna acts as both a sister and as the best friend that Kate never got to have. Anna has been the only person who could save Kate, and their friendship is told through flashbacks from Anna's memory.

We see the theme of love represented in the Fitzgerald family and this is recognizable but we also see a new love form in the novel. Taylor, is also a cancer patient at the hospital, and meets Kate when he's there for chemo. He stays by Kates side as she undergoes chemo herself, and other treatments. In their relationship, we see hope for them both, as cancer patients, and as a couple.
We see this theme, strongly represented by Sara Fitzgerald, as the mother of Kate and Anna. We see the love for her two daughters, but people may only see her focused love and attention on Kate, because of her medical situation. In parts of the novel we do see a certain amount of favoritism towards Kate. The love that Sara has for all her children is often overshadowed when Kate is falling very ill. The moment we see Sara's true love for Anna, is during the court case, when we see that she loves both her daughters equal amounts, but when one is on deaths door step, wouldnt you do anything to keep her alive?

The novel is set in the present time, so its very easy to relate to, as it is an issue alot of people have had to deal with. The novel is written from the point of view from six different characters, Anna, Sara, Brian, Campbell, Julia and Jesse. Each chapter is told by a different person, in the present day, bar Sara. Until the very end, Sara's chapters are told from memories in past, whether about Kate, Anna or Jesse. I liked the way each chapter was told from a different person's point of view, as it gives readers a deeper insight into each of the characters life, and it also gives readers the chance to developed their own opinions of each of the characters.

My favourite character throughout the novel was Jesse. I found him so interesting and quirky, and i always looked forward to reading his chapters. Jesse gives you the impression that hes this big macho teenager who sets buildings on fire and one who drinks and smokes, but as you read his point of view, you really see that hes so heartbroken over Kates cancer and we see that he actually feels very isolated from the rest of the family. He lives above the garage in the Fitzgerald house hold, alone.

There were a number of subplots in the novel, but my favourite was between the attorney Anna hired, Alexander Campbell, and Anna's Guardian Ad Litem, Julia Romano. We learn that they once went to school together, and fell very much in love, but Campbell left Julia heart broken. As we read on, we find that each of them still have feelings towards each other. It was really interesting to read, and i liked Alexander Campbell as a character, i felt he brought some humor into the novel, where it was needed.

I throughly enjoyed reading this novel, and would definitely recommend it. I found it a very touching and powerful topic and Jodi Picoult's writing is very poignant. Im definitely going to read some of her other novels.

Ballet :)

Yesterday, class Amina held an Easter Feaster for class Emnet. It was so yummy :o we all brought in sweets or baked and there was a huuuuge table full of food P:
Afterwards, we headed into town to see the ballet. Hayley from TY was taking part in the shows, so we went to support her.
We all waited for Hayley's appearance on stage, and when she came on, she was mind-blowingly amazing :O She was in the background for the first dance, and then she came on for her solo; WOW :o she was amaaaaaaaaazing, and was so graceful :)
The first show was "The Ugly Duckling" and omg all the little girls were sooo cute x)
The shows were all so good and there was no speaking, the story was told through the ballet, and it was amazing how you could understand exactly what was going on.
It was suuuch a good day out and we got to go to Mickey D's which is always a good end to the day P;

Hotel Rwanda

Over the last couple of weeks in religion, we were watching "Hotel Rwanda", a movie about the Rwandan Genocide, which was the conflict between the Hutu and the Tutsi tribes. The UN tried to intervene but they to be honest, they didnt do very much. This all took place in 1994. The movie follows a man, Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, who takes in over a thousand Hutu and Tutsi people, sheltering them from the rebels who were killing millions in the outside world. He protected these people by keeping them in his Hotel "Milles Collins Hotel" in Kigali.
The movie shows the horrors of the Rwandan Genocide, and the bravery and kindness of Paul Rusesabagina.
Millions Tutsi and even Hutu people were killed during this tragic time and its crazy to think it was very recent. Only 16 years ago.
It was interesting to compare the other movie we watched, "Sometimes In April" with "Hotel Rwanda." I found that it was much easier to understand Hotel Rwanda after seeing Sometimes In April, as we already knew what was going on. I thought that Hotel Rwanda was easier to watch as it wasnt as violent as Sometimes In April. While watching Hotel Rwanda, you didnt see the people being shot like in Sometimes In April, but you got the jist that millions were being massacred.
I found Hotel Rwanda was an extremely good movie as it showed a happy ending for most of the remaining Hutu's and Tutsi's. Sometimes In April wasnt happy in the end, as Augstin's wife had died, but there was still hope for him and Martine. I really enjoyed both movies, and was shocked to see that people just sat back and let the Rwandan Genocide happen.

My Sister's Keeper

In English, we were given a list of books that are on the Leaving Cert. Mrs B, told us to choose one (or two or three) books that we wanted to read off this, and to start reading. I chose "My Sisters Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. Its a story about a young girl, Kate who is diagnosed with Leukemia when she is just two years old. No one in her family is a match, so there is no one to give her blood, cells, or a kidney if she needs it. This is where Anna is created. Anna is a "test tube baby". This means she was created to be the perfect match to her sister Kate. Anna is now 13, and is sick of being poked and proded at by doctors, so she takes action.

Ive only started to read the first couple of chapters but Im really enjoying the book so far. I have seen the movie loads of times before and I am interested to compare the two, movie and book. Already I can see how things are so much different from the movie and it kind of gets confusing, as i always relate back to the movie. The book is very emotional as it deals with such a sensitive issue and I find that the book is told so nicely, and even though it is a sad story, it also has some funny one liners to lighten the mood. The way the book was written by Jodi Picoult, is very easy to read, and you do read it like its a movie, as the characters are so life- like and everything is so vividly described. Some of the language is a bit difficult though, because it deals with the Leukemia theres alot of medical words that i dont know so i have to ask my mam occasionally x)

Glendalough

On Tuesday the 5th of April, Class Amina and some of Class Emnet went to Glennalough for a retreat, with Mr C, and Mrs KB :) The bus journey down was long and warm. No windows on the bus D:
When we arrived, there were alot of other people, including some Spanish students. We were talking to their teacher person and he said he was French and German but he sounded American? Twas crazy :o
We started off with a dance type thing where we praised the earth, and touched the ground? Afterwards we did a walk through a labyrinth, which we each walked in silence. It was nice and relaxing as you didnt really have to think about anything, you just followed the path.
We then went into the museum centre and watched a short film about St Kevin and the monastary that was built at Glenndalough. Then we went for a walk up a hill/ mountain, which was actually so tiring. Here we saw St Kevin's Well and we went to The Lake, where we cupped water in our hands and the water represented our troubles/ regrets and we had to let the water flow softly out of our hands, which was represting letting go of our troubles.
We then hiked up fairly high and passed an amazing waterfall. The walk was done in silence, so we could reflect and have time to ourself and our thoughts. On our way back down, we saw where St Kevin slept while he was at Glenndalough, and we also visited the round tower.
It was an interesting day out but was extremely tiring.