Determined to Cure

I am now writing at 'Determined to Cure', a network raising awareness about cancer and cancer research. I created 'Determined to Cure' after three close family friends died of cancer within four months. It is my way of honouring there memories and helping fight the battle against cancer.

I hope to equip people with the knowledge and power to take action to reduce their risk of developing cancer and support people around them, and the families of those people, who are suffering from this awful disease. I also want to educate people that cancer research centers lack funding as a majority of donations are spent on advertising and the like. Money must be donated directly to these centers in order to cure cancer, which is something I aim to ensure.

Currently, one in three males and one in four females will be diagnosed with cancer before 75. We must take action to reduce this statistic. I am determined to cure the incurable; determined to help find a cure for cancer. Please support 'Determined to Cure' by following this site and our Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest accounts to receive frequent updates.

I appreciate your support of 'Determined to Cure'.

Take care,

The Media and You… A toxic combination.

Hello! Thank you for visiting me today!


As you may have noticed, I haven't posted in a very long time... Sorry! I have been inundated with school work recently, but among my hoards of assignments was a Health and Physical Education one. We had to make a health magazine for this and, whilst writing the articles for my magazine, I came up with some great things to blog about. Today's post is all about the media.

In today’s society, many magazines and television shows are geared towards the susceptible, vulnerable and ignorant girls of today. The media is portraying to teens the image that weight and appearance is everything. Magazine covers constantly feature celebrities and models that ‘have’ perfectly sculpted, fat-free bodies. But, in reality, these celebrities have all been digitally manipulated to appear to teens as ‘perfect’ and ‘flawless’.

Look at the changes made to Cate Blanchett’s skin and hair colouring - 

The media is one of the main reasons so many young girls are now obsessed with their weight and looks, and especially with what they don't like about themselves. The media is putting too much emphasis on how girls ‘should’ look – stick thin and flawless –  and this pressure to look ‘good’ is the reason why so many girls have mental illnesses. In Australia alone, one in five people will experience a mental illness at some stage in their lives, and many experience more than one mental illness at a time (Mindframe – Mental Health, 2010).

Often, not looking like ‘the girls on the magazine covers’ is the trigger of low self-esteem and anxiety, which then can trigger a need for dieting. A Harvard study (Fat Talk, Harvard University Press) published in 2000 revealed that 86% of teenage girls are on a diet or believe they should be on one. Approximately 366 050 people or 2-3% of young Australian females suffer from anorexia or bulimia in Australia alone. 

In recent times, people are becoming more aware of how the media is distorting our image of beauty. Dove is one of the main activists in promoting what they call 'real beauty', and has set up the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. They have produced many videos promoting their campaign, but this one typifies their point about our perspective of beauty being manipulated.

For my health magazine, I created the following advertisement for real beauty, using Dove's campaign and the video as my inspiration. 

Well, hopefully I have showed you that images in the media can be fake and can cause mental illness.

I hope your day is sweet,

Sugar Sugar

Hello! 


I haven't posted in a long time as I have been REALLY busy with assignments and school work. Now I am counting down to our Spring holidays - only one week to go!


This weekend my family and I went to the city to do some shopping. We got a little sidetracked and decided to go and have an ice-cream! Naturally, I had to photograph the moment as it was perfect for the latest Kids Click theme, 'Delicious'.

A Delicious Ice-Cream

Image taken by me, Maddy, aged 13.

Thank you for having me, Simoney!

Big Al certainly enjoyed his ice-cream, which was caramel flavoured. I loved mine too, which was chocolate and caramel.

All this sugar eating got me inspired to post a song about sugary sweets, and the song Sugar Sugar by The Archies was the perfect choice. I originally didn't know of a song about sugar or ice-cream, so my Mum suggested this song. Upon playing it, I recognised it from the Bee Movie.

The Archies are virtual garage band formed by Archie Andrews, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones, a group of fictional characters from the animated TV series, The Archie Show. Ron Dante, Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge performed the vocals for the characters.

Sugar Sugar was the 'group's' most successful song, becoming one of the biggest hits of the bubblegum pop genre of 1968 to 1972. It reached number one on the pop charts in 1969, sold over six million copies and was awarded a gold disc. It was ranked in Billboard's Hot 100 as the number one song of 1969, the only time a fictional band has ever claimed this spot. I can see why the song was so popular, because the beat and words are very catchy.

I hope you like Sugar Sugar as much as I do, and that all the adults out there enjoy reminiscing about the days of The Archies as much as my mum did...





Linking with my Mum's Sunday Song linky party.

Thank you for having me, Mum!

Well, thank you for visiting my blog! Please come back soon! 

I hope your day is sweet,

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Hello! Thank you for visiting my blog!


As you may have read in some of my other posts, I have been snowed under with assignments. At one point, I had eleven due in the same week! I thought this was rather silly, so I took a photo of all my homework and assignments to share for the latest Kids Click theme 'Silly'.

A Silly Amount of Schoolwork

Image taken by me, Maddy, aged 13.

Thank you for having me, Simoney!

I had Science, English, Chinese, German, Christian Education (CE), Music, Health and Physical Education (HPE) and Art homework and assessment, and cello and piano practice. That's a LOT, don't you think!? At least I had a 350g block of Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate to get me through my assessment!

Well, this hectic assessment period is basically over for a while (thankfully!) and I am in a very good mood. In fact, I am in a somewhat silly mood! And what better way to celebrate a silly mood than a silly song!


Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is the world-famous song from the Disney musical film Mary Poppins. 

The song was written by the Sherman Brothers and sung by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. According to Richard Sherman, co-writer of the song with his brother, Robert, the word 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' was created by them in two weeks, mostly out of double-talk. The roots of the word have been defined as: super- 'above', cali- 'beauty', fragilistic- 'delicate', expiali- 'to atone', and docious- 'educable', roughly equaling 'atoning for educability through delicate beauty'. It has been defined more simply in the movie, with 'something to say when you have nothing to say'. 


I hope you enjoy this super-silly classic!





Participating in my Mum's Sunday Song linky party.

Thank you for having me, Mum!

Well, I am off to relax after my stressful assessment period. I hope you have a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious day!


I hope your day is sweet,

Another Sunday Song

Hello! I am sorry I haven't posted in a while - I have been very busy with school work and assignments.

As you may already know, I play the cello and I love classical music. The string ensemble I belong to at school has recently started rehearsing an amazing piece by Karl Jenkins called Palladio. Both Mum and I love Karl Jenkins and Mum has even done a Sunday Song with his song Adiemus.

Karl Jenkins is a Welsh musician and composer, born and raised in Gower village of Penclawdd in Wales. He was giving initial music lessons by his father, who was a local schoolteacher, organist and choirmaster, and began his music career as an oboist in the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. He later studied music at University College, Cardiff, and went on to post-graduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Alun Hoddinott and met his wife and musical collaborator Carol Barratt.

Jenkins has gone on to compose multiple songs, the most popular being Adiemus. My favourite, though, would have to be Palladio. I just love this piece, especially the cello accompaniment... listen out for it in the background! I have put in a clip of the original version and also one played by one of my favourite string groups Bond.

This is the original version of Palladio. I absolutely love the image used in this clip - it goes perfectly with the song!



This is Bond's version of Palladio, only it is called Allegretto.



I would love to know which version you like best. I would have to say I like the original version, but the Bond one is fantastic as well.

Linking with Sunday Song.

Thank you for having me, Mum!

Well, I am off to do some more homework. Thank you for visiting my blog!

I hope your day is sweet,

Thinking of the Holidays

Hello! Thank you for visiting my blog!


Just a quick post today. Lately I've been thinking about all the lovely holidays I have been on with my family, so I went looking at all the photos we have of these great trips. One of my favourite holidays was when we went Europe for the Christmas holidays a couple of years ago. One of the places we visited was Paris and, naturally, we went to the Eiffel Tower. Although we didn't venture to the top, we had a great time looking up at the giant tower from the ground and taking photos. You can tell how cold we were, despite the beautiful blue sky!

On Holiday in Paris  

Image taken by me, Maddy, aged 13.

Linking with the latest Kids Click them 'On Holiday'.

Thank you for having me, Simoney!

I also thought I'd share a Sunday Song with you, and when I came across this song by Madeleine Peyroux called J'ai Deux Amours I thought it would go perfectly with my picture of the Eiffel Tower. I hope you enjoy it!



Linking with my Mum's Sunday Song linky party.

Thank you for having me, Mum!

Well, I am off to do some more school work and get ready for school. Please come back soon!


I hope your day is sweet,

A Sunday Song from The Karate Kid

Hello and welcome to my blog!


It's the last day of the holidays today. We have done so many fun and exciting things over the last three weeks. Most recently we went to see The Karate Kid starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. 

It was a fantastic movie, about a boy named Dre Parker, played by Jaden Smith, and his mother who move from Detroit to China. Dre is bullied by a tough and nasty group of kids, and the janitor, Mr Han, who is played by Jackie Chan, teaches Dre kung fu in order to restore peace through a kung fu competition. If Dre wins, the boys promise that they will leave him alone. Along the way, Dre befriends a Chinese girl named Mei Ying, played by Wenwen Han, who is an amazing violinist and also Dre's crush. Throughout the movie, Mei is rehearsing for an audition and the piece she is playing is absolutely beautiful. I went home that night and discovered that it is called Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor. I then found a clip of Joshua Bell playing this beautiful piece and thought I'd share it with you for my Mum's Sunday Song linky party.

Joshua Bell is an American classical violinist, born and raised in Indiana. At four years old Bell began violin lessons after his mother discovered that he had stretched rubber bands across the handles of his dresser draw to pluck out music he had heard his mother play on the piano. He took to the instrument and at fourteen Bell appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti. He studied the violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and received an Artist Diploma in Violin Performance. He has been named an “Indiana Living Legend” and received the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award.

Bell has now performed with almost all of the world's major orchestras and conductors and performed the solo part on John Corigliano's soundtrack for the film The Red Violin. He was also featured in Ladies in Lavender and made an appearance in a movie about the power of music, Music of the Heart, with other notable violinists. I hope you enjoy Joshua Bell playing this song as much as I do!




Well, I had better get ready for school tomorrow. I hope you get a chance to see The Karate Kid - make sure you listen out for this song if you do!


I hope your day is sweet,