Column 272

Leo, Roving Reporter
Report from: Dubbo
Story filed: Taikoz

Hi people, it's Leo here. Last weekend I went to Dobbo for a Taikoz workshop. Are you wondering what Taikoz is? Well let me explain. Taikoz is a music group who play taiko drums. Taiko is the playing of these big or small Japanese drums made out of cow skin and wood and I spent two days playing those things. It was exhausting. Why? Because there were a bunch of postures you need to hold and also a lot of standing up and whacking the drum with wooden mallets.... so your hands get really sore after a while too. This musical instrument requires all of your body. In spite of all that pain, it was really fun. I learned so much about the origin of the taiko and what they're used for in Japan. I can't wait for the next lesson.

Until next time 

Leo Roving Reporter

Column 271

Leo, Roving Reporter
Story filed: The Adventures of Herge
Report from: the corner of the living room

Hi people, it's Leo here. Today I will be talking about two books I got for my birthday last week. One the books is of the animated film Tintin and the lake of sharks and the other is The Adventures of Herge. Maybe you already know that Herge, the Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, was the world famous author of Tintin? This book tells the story of Herge and his journey of creating Tintin. Also it is drawn in the style of Herge so it actually looks like a Tintin story. It's interesting to know what happened behind the scenes of the writing of Tintin. For instance it wasn't easy for Herge to write Tintin; he suffered from depression and more at times in his life. But, I did learn that Tintin started off in a Catholic newspaper on 10 January 1929, called Le Petit Vingtième (The Little Twentieth), which was a supplement to the newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle (The Twentieth Century).That I didn't know. The other book Tintin and the lake of sharks is based on the script of an animation movie based on the character of Tintin and is just another great Tintin book. Both books are really good.

Until next time 

Leo Roving Reporter

Column 270

Leo, Roving Reporter
Report from: my bedroom
Story filed: Very good dogs

Hi people it's Leo here. Today I will be talking about two dogs and their owner whose funny videos went viral on the internet during lockdown last year. Maybe you've heard of them, they go by the name Olive and Mabel. Then there's their owner Mr Andrew Cotter who is a professional sports commentator who lost his job from all the sports being cancelled due to Covid. After that Andrew started to commentate his dogs (Olive and Mabel) activities. First it was an eating competition then it continued from there and soon enough Andrew released a book titled 'Olive, Mabel and Me which I am now reading and it's a very good book. The best thing is the way Mr Cotter talks to and about his dogs - it is funny! All on Twitter and Youtube now. Well that's it from me and now to go back to my book.

Until next time 

Leo Roving Reporter

Column 269

Leo, Roving Reporter
Report from: The living room floor
Story filed: Suzuki cello camp

Hi people it's Leo here. Hope you all had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. This week I just got back from a Suzuki cello camp. A Suzuki cello camp is where you go along with other musicians and play Suzuki cello music all day. This camp lasted for three day and two nights. The camp was held at Galstone Gorge Crusaders CRU camp which is overlooking a beautiful gorge full of gum trees. It was super fun, my mum and I got to sleep in bunk beds and have our own cabin. The food was really good. They did a very good job of making sure the whole thing was covid safe and everyone was wearing masks all the time we were inside. The best bit about the camp was playing Suzuki cello music all day, with breaks in between of course. I'm glad to be back home but I'm super excited for the next cello camp.

Until next time 

Leo Roving Reporter

Column 268

Leo, Roving Reporter
Report from: My Desk
Story filed: Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year

Hi people. It's finally that time of year, Christmas. And that means Christmas holidays and boy does it feel great to finally relax after a really long year. The Christmas holidays are the best because they're the longest holiday of the year and give me the opportunity to get a lot done. Throughout the year, school takes up most of my time, leaving me with little free time on my hands. Have you ever had a ''White Christmas'' ? I know I haven't. I've always had a hot Christmas. It hasn't been very hot so far this year and we haven't had any bush fires so a massive improvement from last year. I hope you all have a great Christmas and an amazing new year.

Until next time 

Leo Roving Reporter

Column 267

Leo Roving Reporter
Report from: Bermagui
Story filed: not drowning, waving

Hi people, it’s Leo here. Well, I am finally on school holidays. Sorry I missed last week’s  column. I was just a bit busy with my social life but I am back now and I am in Bermagui- chilling and playing on the beach. Each year we come here, we always go down to the Blue Pool and most years we see seals floating in the water. They are not just sitting around on the rocks they are floating around in the water like a bunch of lost buoys. All you can see of these seals is their flippers sticking out of the water as they float on their sides. Sometimes you can also see a little seal nose come up for air and then go back under the water.  I think they are resting from the long swim home.  The first time we saw a seal doing this we thought he was dying but we were wrong. The seals are just doing whatever seals do. 

Until next time

Leo Roving Reporter

Column 266

Leo, Roving Reporter
Report from: The Island
Story filed: Dharma Initiative

Hi people. It's Leo here. Today I will be talking about this really cool tv show that my mum and I have been watching for the last couple of weeks. It was really popular when it first came out and maybe you have heard of it. It's called Lost. It's a complicated storyline but I will give you the short version: plane crashes, survivors find themselves on a mysterious island with a monster, hidden bunker from the dharma initiative (I will be talking more about that in a second), 'other' people, a traitor that murders two survivors to get his son back from 'other' people, a button in a hatch that has to be pushed every 108 minutes or something bad happens (like in the end of Season 2 where the computer that has to have the code 4 8 15 16 23 24  typed in it, but the guy that was already in the hatch sacrifices himself by going down to the keyhole (where you can blow the whole place up) to try and stop the magnetic 'something' from happening). It is really complicated. The thing is, I really like the food packaging that's in the hatch. I want to print out lots of the food packaging labels onto stickers and put them on the jars and tins in our pantry. It would look so cool.

Until next time 

Leo Roving Reporter