Root-bound Friendship

Now in its 12th year, Sculpture by the Sea is very popular. My favourite piece from this year's exhibition is the one on the left:

Root-bound Friendship by Serena Horton

This sculpture is made of steel, aluminium, cotton, wool, porcelain and sandstone. It is a multi-coloured piece which is about 2-3 metres long and is exhibited sheltered under a sandstone cliff niche. It looks like what animals or people would do to protect themselves from the harsh environment of the coast.

The artist used multi-coloured rope which was tied together to represent different people. The artist stated:" It's bound by the tied of profound relationship and love, our family tree continues to grow while spreading its roots far wide." It reminds me of keeping relationships closely with friends.

The type of this sculpture is abstract. I think the artist wants to say that we come from different countries and we have different cultures, but we still can be friends and tolerate each other.

The artist placed this piece in a spot where people can touch it and look at it very closely. There are no barriers, like between close relationships.
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Moon festival

Hi, Rosa

Yesterday it was the Chinese Moon Festival.Traditionally we eat moon cake. So I went to a Chinese shop to buy a box of cake which I don't like very much, because they are too sweet and too oily. In the evening we went out for dinner. All the Chinese restaurants were full. Finally, we had to go to Sizzler (not very Chinese, I know!) to celebrete the Chinese Moon Festival. Isn't ironic?




by Helen






















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Chopsticks

Chopsticks

Do you like Chinese food? Do you often go to the Chinese restaurants? If yes, you certainly know the chopsticks. Chopsticks were developed about 5,000 years ago in China. The earliest chopsticks used for eating looked like tweezers; they were made from one piece of bamboo that was joined at the top. By the 10th Century, chopsticks were being produced in two separate pieces.
Traditionally, chopsticks have been made from a variety of materials. Bamboo has been the most popular because it is inexpensive, readily available, easy to split, resistant to heat, and has no perceptible odour or taste. Cedar, sandalwood, teak, pine, and bone have also been used. The wealthy, however, often had chopsticks made from jade, gold, bronze, and silver. In fact, during dynastic times it was thought that silver chopsticks would turn black if they came into contact with poisoned food. It is now known that silver has no reaction to arsenic or cyanide, but if rotten eggs, onion, or garlic are used, the hydrogen sulphide they release might cause these chopsticks to change colour.

The city of Perth

The city of Perth

Perth is the capital of Western Australia. It is one of the sunniest cities in the world. Most of the cities are flat. There are also several museums and art galleries, cultural centre of Western Australia.
Perth is located in the south-west corner of Australia. The climate is warm to hot in summer (the average temperature is 29⁰C daytime, 17⁰Cnight). Nit cool and wet in winter (the average temperature is 18⁰C daytime, 9⁰C night). The average is 8 hours sunshine per day.
The population in Perth is 1,340,000. People are friendly, relaxed, love outdoors, sun and water. There are many kilometres of cycle track. Many people cycle around city on the weekends. There are many attractions in Perth, such as many clean, beautiful beaches, including excellent swimming, surfing, boating and fishing.
There are 4 major universities in Perth. There is large student population. There are many industries in Perth which include tourism, grape growing and mining.

Clothes

Andrew’s Clothes
Andrew is my English teacher who likes to wear black and white. He always wears black leather shoes, black socks and white shirts. In winter, he wears hounds tooth black and white coat which has 2 buttons and no zippers. Sometimes he wears a denim jacket instead of his coat. Andrew only wears plastic watches, because he looked ostentatious. He has a bad record of losing watches. He used to wear jewellery but his wife removed it, because he worries about people ripping them off his wrist. Another reason is that he jumped into the water and damaged the watch.


Alison’s woollen jumper
Alison wears black woollen oping jumper which has buttons. She has a pair of old shoes which she has worn for 9 years are very comfortable .She likes to wear long-sleeve T-shirt which is made by cotton and needs to hand-wash. She has 2 packs of earring which include diamond studs and studs. She likes to wear a scarf to match her T-shirt.

China

China is located in the east of Asia. It’s surrounded by the Pacific Ocean in the east. China is the largest country in the world, after Canada and Russia. It has an area of 9.6 million square kilometres. China has 6,536 islands larger than 500 square metres. The largest one is Taiwan which has about 36,000 square kilometres.
The population of China is approximately 1.3 billion. There is only 10% of minorities, such as the Tibetans, xin jiang and the Yunnan. There are more 50 dialects. But the official language is Mandarin.
Chinese wildlife is one of the most diverse in the world. There are more than 4400 species of vertebrates which represents more than 10% of the world’s total. There are some animals peculiar to China only found including the panda, golden-haired monkey and the South China tiger.
The most famous is the giant panda.

My hometown

Tianjin is a large city made up of 10,240,000 people in northern coastal China. It's urban area is the third largest in China, ranked only after Shanghai and Beijing.

Tianjin's urban area is located along the Hai He River. It's also a big port.

Tianjin's climate is a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate characterized by hot, humid summers, and dry, cold winters. Spring is windy but dry. Tianjin also experiences occasional spring sandstorms which blow in from the Gobi Desert and may last for several days.

Tianjin cuisine is famous for its seafood,because it is close to the sea. Tianjin is also the respected home base of Beijing opera.

Paifang is a traditional Chinese architectural form like an archway (see the picture on the left ). Outside of China, the Paifang has long been the symbol of Chinatowns.

Bubbleshare

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My first day in Australia

My first day in Australia was exciting and exhausting. It took me about 13 hours from China to Sydney. When I arrived at Sydney airport, my husband was already waiting for me with a bunch of flowers. We had been seprated for 3 years. My husband drove me from the airport to a very tidy and clean flat which my husband rented me.
After I got home, my husband let me have a rest. But I was so excited. I wanted to go outside to have a look. So my husband drove me to the Brighten beach and Botany Bay were near my house. I loved the nice views, blue sky and fresh air. I also met the people all with the smiling face. From that time, I made a decision. I want to be Australian. On the night time,my friend and her husband visited me. we went to a Chinese restanrant for dinner. We were so happy to meet in Australia.

Harmony Day

Harmony Day began in 1999,occurs on 21 March each year. Australia is a nation built on immigration. We have aproud history of welcoming people from around the would.

Welcome to my blog!

My name's Helen. I come from Tianjin, China.