Never Let me Go!

As part of our Ty English Summer exam, our class was given the assignment of reading a book and writing a review. the book was to be chosen from the list of novels on the 2013 Leaving Cert course so there were a lot of books to choose from! I chose the novel "Never Let me Go" written by Kazuo Ishiguro. There wasn't a particular reason for me choosing this other than the recommendations from friends!

The novel is told from the viewpoint of Kathy H, a thirty one year old who looks back at her days in Hailsham, the school she attended with her best friends Tommy and Ruth.

The book begins with Kathy telling us about her early days at Hailsham but from the opening few pages, it is clear there is something different about the school. She calls the teachers "guardians" and not once does she refer to family or life outside Hailsham. I thought this was a good way for Ishiguro to start the novel. It immediately draws the reader into an mysterious, unknown world, you want to keep reading to find out as much as possible about the 55555 created in our imagination.

As the pages turn, Kathy introduces us to terms such as 'donations' and 'completions', terms constantly used in the dialogue between students. I'm sure many others who have read this book guessed, just as I did, what this meant. The students however, didn't understand what would be donated and why, and when a question was asked of this to a guardian, the guardian acts completely evasive. This is until a character introduced, a Guardian named Miss Lucy.Miss Lucy explains to the students that they are not ordinary pupils they read about in books, they are "special" who students who are created to donate their vital organs until they complete. This comes as a shock to the students, as Hailsham is a place where they are protected from straight talking people such as Miss Lucy.

This information is shared before even the halfway point in the novel. To me, it is an interesting decision made by Ishiguro. He tells the plot very early on in the novel and is probably where I struggled the most. I thought to myself why should I keep reading if I know the characters will die in the end anyway? Ishiguro however, creates such strong characters and relationships that there had to be more to their lives than just donating and completing.

The relationship between Kathy and Tommy at the beginning is nothing of a love relationship, it is two children who are best friends, whereas Kathy's other friend Ruth, develops feelings for Tommy and the two are a couple for the majority of the book. The friendship between the three characters is followed until they leave Hailsham and move into cottages. They are still wrapped up in their protected lives far from society and the friends are separated when Kathy becomes a carer for donors.

Even though Kathy and Tommy are nothing more than friends, it only took common sense to know that the had deeper feelings for each other. They pursue their love after Ruth's blessings when all three are reunited near the end of the story. It was somewhat expected and didn't come in anyway as a surprise. Kathy becomes Tommy's carer until he completes and they had a very lovely relationship but I can't help but wonder why Ishiguro left it so late for them to become partners. If he had introduced this storyline earlier, he could have added something to make the heart race, perhaps a twist and letting them grow an old couple together or even introduce the pregnancy of Kathy, have a scandal within the boring, monotonous lifestyle the donors live.

Ishiguro walks us through Kathy's life the way she lived it, slowly. I felt as a reader, a bit frustrated that more questions of the purpose of Hailsham were not raised and answered and the end revealed a disappointing outcome for the climax of the story. (Which I'm not going to tell, I have spoiled the story too much already!)

The whole novel is written in an enigmatic style which kept me interested for the majority of the book and the writing style is one of it's strongest points but it is also, for another reason one of the most annoying points. Nearly every paragraph ends with "which leads me to.." or "which brings me to my next point..." or "which reminds me of the day.." I think Ishiguro uses this stlye a bit too often and caused me to feel irritated.

The descriptive language and detailed accounts of the surroundings of Hailsham sends you to a place that can only be imagined. This creates Hailsham itself, a tool for the guardians to distract the innocent, clueless students from asking more about their fate. The novel, although it is fictional, brings you into an idyllic place that you could only dream of. 'Never Let Me Go' is a good book to read but I did feel disappointed when I was finished. I expected more from the story and felt it could have been extended with more questions raised and some more exciting anecdotes.

Fire Brigade!

I was on Work Experience in the Dublin Fire Brigade Training Centre last week. It wasn't that good because we didn't get to do much. They weren't training in any new recruits that week so I don't think they had anything planned for us to do. There were three other Ty's, Heather, Andy and Amy. I got lost on my way there the first day because on the bus timetable it said the bus was leaving from Westmoreland St. but then when I went there, not a no.128 bus top in sight! I was waling around town for ages, I walked up O' Connell St. then back over O'Connel Bridge and it was just stressfull. Then, the 128 appeared what seemed to be out of nowhere so I ran after it and found the bus stop. I left Celbride really early though so I wasn't late. We got to go into a shed type of place where rooms are set out and it's pitch black, it's there to train firemen for going into a house or a building to rescue people.. Myself, Andy and Heather said we'd do it and it was so much fun, we had to find a dummie and carry it back out. For the rest of the week we sat in on first aid lectures and the were interesting at start but ten they got a bit boring because it was the same one three days in a row. Every fireperson has to be a paramedic, which I didn't know and I found that quite interesting. We got free dinner everyday and the food was so beautiful! The last day we got to go in a fire engine and get water from a hydrant to spray through the hose, that was good fun too. Paul, our supervisor, brought us to his station and it was deadly. We say everything a fireman does everyday and how the station works. Overall it was a good placement but I don't know if I'd like to be a firewoman, maybe a paramedic though!

Glendalough

Tuesday, 5th of April Amina went on a retreat to Glendalough. I was expecting it to be different... All the othr retreats we did in previous years were spent inside singing songs and thinking about our past but this year we were outdoors and we got to walk around for the duration. We walked around a labyrinth, it was a design found on the bottom of the stone. It's hard to describe but it's a design that swirls, sort of like a maze but it's a path of stones, rather than not being able to see your way out. It symbolised your life. Sometimes you feel lost and you think you're at the centre of your life but then a few steps away you don't know where you are. There were some others things like that to symbolise different aspects of everyone's life. The tour guide was so nice and she used a lot of metophors to help us reflect rather than sing songs or sitting down to concentrate. For example she said to think of the round tower as a " tower of your life" , you have so many stages in your life, the same way the tower has lots of floors. Also, she said when you're older you will have a better view of the world, the same way you would from the top of the tower. When I thought about it, it made a lot of sense! We went on a walk uphill and everyone thought it'd be a nice little stroll but the hill seemed to just get steeper and steeper. It actually wasn't that bad looking back but at the time everyone thought it would never end. It was a good day and a nice change to the usual retreats we have!

Minco comes to an end!

After being shortlisted from the Regional Finals, The Spoover qualified for the County Finals in The Osprey Hotel which took place yesterday, 14Th March.
Four minicompany's qualified; The Just Deserts, Baby Cakes, Knot a Problem and Utensilise. We set off to for Naas after break and the other TY Mini Companies took part in The Get UP and Go Competition in the Red Cow.
There was loads of competition in the Osprey. There was one girl who ended up winning the County Final who has created, produced and sold stickers for the soles of high heels so the heels look like designer Louis Vuitton shoes. It is such a simple idea and is one of those things you wished you have thought of doing! The franchise Fran and Jane are even selling her product and the 16 year old has made over a whoppping €50,000! She deserved to win and I wish h er all the best with her company!
St. Wolstans didn't come home empty handed though, The Just Deserts won The Judge's Prize and Knot a Problem were the Runner Up's!! Out of 120 Minicompanies only 18 made it to the County Final so I'm so proud of TY for having four minicompanies competing and out of just six prizes, two of them were awarded to Wolstan's Girls!
Sadly Utensile didn't win anything but it was such a fun day, we even got lunch and the poato salad was amazing, and minicompany was such a good experience and many thanks to Ms. E and Mrs. L for all of there hard work and motivation. Also to Utensilise, we may not have won a trophy but we still did so well considering our product, The Spoover isn't even manufactured!

Well Done to Everyone!

The girls came home from the Drama Competition in Cork with two prizes! Noughts and Crosses won Best Original Screenplay and Best Newcomer! Well done to all who participated and I'm sorry I couldn't go :(
We didn't win anything in Wesley but if I'm honest, I think we should have! I thought it went really well and Ms. O'R, Mrs. G and Ms. W said we sang beautifully! Hopefully we will go back next year and blow everyone away with our song! Leah in third year won the u16 solo competition so fair play to her :)
Congratulations to all who participated in the two competitions!

Wesley Competition!

Today, 4th March the choir are going to Wesley Secondary School in Ballinteer to compete in the Inter- Schools Music Competition. I'm excited to go because I have heard from students who have gone in previous years that some of the choirs are amazing! Our song sounds so good when all the parts come together. I'm an alto which means I sing low notes and our last three notes are so hard, we've been having some problems but all of us are confident we can hit them and blow everyone away! Maybe we'll even come home with a prize :)

Drama!

The girls from Noughts and Crosses are going to Cork tomorrow, 5th March to compete in the All Ireland Transition Year Drama Competetion.. and I can't go! Róisín P. is filling in the part of Kamal for me and I really hope the group do well. So much work has gone into the play from all the girls and our teachers.. The teachers have given up classes for practices and everything! I have told the girls to contact me as soon as it's over and let me know how it went.. Good Luck girls!!