Collecting for the ISPCC

On Wednesday the 9th of December we went to town to go collecting for the ISPCC.  ISPCC stands for the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.  It is Ireland's oldest and most well-known children's charity.  

The ISPCC is the only organisation in Ireland providing unique 24 hour support services for children and young people through our Child-line service.  Child-line receives the majority of its 2,300 calls and messages per day after 6pm each evening, when most other support services are closed.  Child-line receives just 10% Government funding which means that 90% of its costs have to raised through the generosity of individual donors and corporate supporters.

We started off the day by getting the bus from the school at 9:05, It took about an hour to get to the ISPCC office and so we started at 10:30 going out and collecting.  Orla, Ali, Anna and I all went together even though we were supposed to go in two's but we made more money together.  We were on Nassau street just outside Costa coffee.  We spent the day singing Christmas songs, such as jingle bells and Santa Claus is coming to town.  We got a good few weird looks and rude comments thrown at us but it was all worth it because we were doing something good for charity.  At around 1:30 we headed back to the offices and waited outside for someone to come and let us in.  Eventually we were let in and we handed in our boxes.

Orla and I went to McDonalds for lunch and it was delicious.  We didn't have that much time to have lunch so we had to rush and once we were finished we went into Easons for me to buy a book for religion but they didn't even have it so it was a pointless trip into a very busy bookstore.  After Easons we walked to Leinster house because it was where we were getting the bus from and waited for it until it came up.

When we got on the bus I was wonderfully surprised by Eilis with a Kris Kindle present and it was the best present I have ever received.  It was lush products, a candy ring and a CD with lots of songs we have discussed, ones I love and ones I'm growing to love. such as Grilled cheese and yung lean.<3

Hockey Match No.1

On Friday the 13th of November at 12 p.m we set sail to Arklow to play our first league hockey match.  We were all very nervous as it was the unluckiest day of the year FRIDAY THE 13TH!!  But a silly date wasn't gonna stop us from trying our best, and so we did. It was an hour bus journey down to Arklow and everyone was tired so most people were quiet and sleepy but towards the end people got nervous and restless.

We arrived in the school after a VERY long bus journey and off we went to warm up. I was on the sideline and the usual people were playing.  Our coach told us that the team was missing a few good players and there goalie wasn't very experienced so we had to take it easy on them.  Half way through the first half we were up 5-0 and so Catherine knew we had to do something so we gave the other team our wonderful goalie Rowen and one of our best players, Kate.

I was put on instead of Kate, at this stage it was raining and freezing and I was just glad to be up and running. after half time we switched 3 or 4 more players between the two teams so that the teams were mixed.  This was possibly the worst thing we could have done because not only did everyone treat the match as a joke now it was basically a match against ourselves.  I  felt very bad for the other team who barely even got to touch the ball as it was all our players playing for them, I would have gladly sat on the sideline for the whole match if it meant that everyone on the other team would get a fair game.

After the match we packed up our stuff and got back on our bus, we were all very excited because we were going into McDonalds so we went to McDonalds and sat there for a good while.  One everyone was finished we got up for an even longer bus journey than before.  We set off at around 3:20 and we didn't reach home until at least 6 since we were stuck in a lot of traffic during rush hour on a Friday. IT was a fun game after all and I really enjoyed my day.