Hansel & Gretel – A Twisted Tale!

 

You’ve probably heard of the tale of Hansel and Gretel. They sound like really nice people who help around and save people from witches – but they aren’t. They are actually horrid witch hunters practicing the Dark Arts.

My sister, Alexis, was a good witch who wanted to save people from the Dark witches and wizards. But then she died and I watched it all from a window. From then on, I hid in the forest and tried to find a way to get revenge on Hansel and Gretel. Of course, I knew that it was virtually impossible, but something deep inside me, something that raged fiercely like a fire, pushed me more and more.

It all started on a cool spring day. The sparrows were tweeting away happily in the havens of leaves above. Sunshine illuminated every part of the forest. Everything seemed perfect. Me and Alexis had finally finished building the candy house for children and adults who were lost in the woods. It had shiny windows made of sugar, scrumptious gingerbread walls and a door created with the finest chocolate in the world. A fence of candy canes and strawberry string acted as a border around the dwelling. There was a small space left for a gate built of marzipan. All of it was finished off with a shortbread door knocker and a single cookie stepping stone.

“The people will absolutely love this!” said Alexis excitedly, a huge smile on her face.

 

Later on in the day, I went to collect some food from the forest whilst Alexis stayed at the house. With me, I took my satchel and dark blue travelling cloak. I managed to gather enough mushrooms and wild berries for both of us. When I came back, I heard several voices inside, Alexis’, a man’s and woman’s. Suddenly, there was a loud smash. I looked through one of the windows and saw the owners of the other voices inside. The woman, who was dressed head to toe in dark-coloured clothes, was rushing to to get a broom and clean up a pile of shattered glass. Meanwhile, the man was apologising to Alexis for his sister’s ‘foolish actions’. He was clad in a checkered shirt, with colours of green and red blending together, and baggy, patched trousers. Then, I realised that a brown stick was sticking out of a pouch in each of their trousers. They had ancient runes and symbols carved on them. I couldn’t believe it! Could they be Hansel and Gretel? But if they were, why were they being so friendly?

 

Alexis went over to turn the oven on. As she twisted a knob, orangey-blue flames blazed behind the glass pane. She opened the oven door and walked over to a two-tiered cake sitting on the worktop. Just as she turned around, Hansel and Gretel immediately leapt to their feet, got their wands out and pointed them at Alexis, who suddenly started screaming. I wanted to go and help her, but my foot was being held captive by a gnarled vine snaking out of the ground. I pulled and tugged but it was no use. An impenetrable plant. Inside, the treacherous witch hunters waved their wands over to a spot in front of the open oven. Alexis was dragged to the same location.

“Ha! You thought you could hide from us? You were wrong!” yelled Gretel.

“W-W-What do y-you- want?” Alexis spluttered.

“You know what,” replied Hansel, evil drifting around in his voice. “We want to rid the world of all the good witches and wizards.”

Then, without warning, they stuck their wands out even further and shouted in unison, “TIMORIOS ET MORTEMIS!!!”

A strong wind blew through the house and splintered the window, making my cloak billow out behind me. I nearly fell back but managed to regain balance. Alexis jerked and choked. Then she staggered back and fell into the oven. Her screams were most unpleasant. It lasted for about half a minute and then there was only silence. The vine holding my foot released. Smash! A long object crashed through another of the sugar windows, shattering the peace that had once deluged the woods. I ran deep into the forest and went into hiding. One might say that I went crazy after spending such a long time in the woods, but they don’t know the truth. And as for Hansel and Gretel, well, I’ve heard they’re going to twist the tale again.

 

CHOC-A-LOT!!!

What is chocolate?

In this piece of writing, I can help you learn a choc-a-lot more about the history of chocolate. Chocolate is a type of sweet dessert that is normally brown, white or black. It is made out of the seeds of the cocoa tree, cocoa butter, sugar, lecithin and vegetable fat. It’s a great, yummy treat for everyone to enjoy. Read on to find out more about how chocolate shaped it’s way to today.

Who invented chocolate?

The first people to discover chocolate were a tribe called the Aztecs. I’m sure that you’ve heard about them before. The Aztecs were a wandering tribe that lived in Northen Mexico. They believed in human sacrifice and that it would keep the sun god alive. As I mentioned earlier, the Aztecs were the ones who invented chocolate. But, their chocolate was in a different form. It wasn’t a block, it was a drink, kinda like hot chocolate. The drink was made out of various seasonings and was mixed with ground cacao seeds to make the finishing product, a spicy, frothy drink which they called chocolatl. I think that we should thank the Aztecs for bringing chocolate into our lives. Without it, we would have died!

Choc-a-lot!

Chocolate comes in many flavours, shapes and sizes. You might have some which are as big as a human, or one that looks like a ball or even mushroom flavoured chocolate! The most common types of chocolate are:

1. Milk chocolate
2. White chocolate
3. Dark chocolate

Some other types are:

1. Chocolate orange
2. Strawberry chocolate
3. Bittersweet chocolate
4. Sweet chocolate

And many more…

One type of chocolate that I have tasted before had an edible wrapper! How PAWSOME is that!

Famous brands

Like all the chocolate flavours, there is a variety of chocolate brands that are around the world. Some of the leading brands are:

1. Kit Kat
2. Mars
3. Galaxy
4. Twix
5. Snickers
6. Aero

And the one we all know and love…Cadbury! To be honest, I think that Cadbury makes the most astounding chocolate in the world. They make caramel, dark chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate and heaven knows what else.

There are many other chocolate brands too like:

1. Mast Brothers

2. Antidote Chocolate

3. TCHO Chocolate

4. Fine and Raw

5. Rogue Chocolatiers

6. Raaka Chocolate

And lots more hidden chocolate brands that are waiting to be found…

Remember when Hazel had a chocolate themed day and we came up with our own brands? Here are some of the great ones!

Shoaib named his chocolate ‘Finito’. A nice Spanish name, wouldn’t you say?

Another friend of mine, Norbert, called his chocolate ‘Blue Chooc’. I’m sure that it’s great for watching videos without any buffering so you can eat it straight away!

And Shreya had a company called ‘Saturn’. It’s so good that it’ll lift you off your feet!

Finally, the star of the show, ABUBAR!!! Abubar was made by the CHOCOSOME Abubakar. At first, when I looked at it, I thought that he had missed out the ‘K’ and the ‘A’ in his name. But, then I looked at it for a while and then I was like “Oh!!!” because I finally understood what he meant. It was a very great name though. In fact, it was the best!!!

Roald Dahl and his Chocolate Factory

As you all know, there is a movie about chocolate that is called ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. This movie is based on a book written by the famous author, Roald Dahl. He is my favourite! The movie is about a poor boy that gets to go on a trip to a marvellous chocolate factory. The owner of the factory was a crazy yet wonderful man called Mr Willy Wonka. He could make any type of chocolate in the world! Easter eggs, gummy bears, chocolate balls, you name it! One day, Mr Wonka decided to let five children into his factory but those five children had to find one of the five Golden Tickets that were hidden in five of Wonka’s chocolate bars. Luckily, Charlie, who thought that he would never find one, worked hard to find the last Golden Ticket and in the end, he actually did! The other four children were:

1. Veruca Salt
2. Violet Beauregarde
3. Augustus Gloop
4. Mike Teavee

The movie is always featuring different types of chocolate and naughty Oompa Loompas are popping out of nowhere at any time. Sometimes, it kind of annoys me too! If I was Willy Wonka, then I would invent a type of chocolate flavoured chewing gum and if you ate it, then it would make bubble the same size as your tummy inside you and you would float up into the air! It’s perfect for astronaut training on Earth! (laughs like Willy Wonka)

I personally think that the book is better than the movie because it has more detail and you can already picture the story in your head. Another reason is because I have always been a fan of books too. I guess that you can say that I’m a bookworm!

Chocolate & kids

How much chocolate should children be eating? What are the affects of too much sugar and chocolate? Well, I have the answers for you right here. The average amount of chocolate that children should be eating is approximately 1 mini sized bar a day. But why is it so important to make sure that you don’t eat too much sugar? It’s because that kids can get illnesses if they do eat too much. The symptoms may include:

• Headaches
• Cause swelling
• Reduces overall brain function
• Cause obesity

This is why it is important that your child is on the right diet and is eating the right food. Making sure that you are healthy can keep you away from any illnesses.

Heaven on Earth…

There are plenty of landmarks that you can visit around the world where you can find out about the history of chocolate. One of the most famous is Cadbury World, which is in Birmingham, UK. I like to call Cadbury World ‘heaven on earth’. This magnificent place has an adventure playground for kids, a 4D cinema, the world’s biggest Cadbury shop, an Aztec jungle, a chocolate making zone and at the end of your visit, you get free chocolate! So, I’ve got plenty of reasons to call Cadbury World ‘heaven on Earth’. It’s not even heaven on Earth, it’s SIX heavens on Earth!!! I’ve been there myself for more than 5 times and I still can’t get enough of it. They should really appoint me to be the ‘mascot’ of Cadbury World! If any of you pawsome peeps get the chance, go and visit Cadbury World and experience it for yourself!

This is not the choco-end…

If I was a chocolate, then I would be a bar of milk chocolate with a strawberry and caramel filling. On the top of me, I would have a layer of white chocolate sauce with sprinkles in it. There would also be some popping candy and jelly inserted here and there. I would also have a protective shield made out of transparent jelly so that no one could eat me (except me of course)!

I love chocolate, you love chocolate, we love chocolate! Who doesn’t? Kids love it and adults too!! Chocolate has always had a special place in everyone’s heart. Even on Halloween, if we go out Trick or Treating, we always prefer chocolate than candy. When the door opens and the bowl is held out, we always start digging for chocolate first. But, the worst would be using chocolate as a bribe! How can we possibly resist that delicious, smooth, silky chocolate when our parents try to bribe us to do something? There’s no way that we could say no to that. Not fair! Parents should be fined for misusing chocolate against us. At the end of the day, we are just poor, innocent creatures that are always vulnerable to the sight of chocolate!!!

Now, there’s no other way for me to end this article than to repost the song which I recently wrote about my own chocolate brand: Laffy Taffy!

LAFFY TAFFY

(lyrics by The Pawsome Lion)

Laffy Taffy, it’s really yuffy,

It’ll make you laugh all day long.

Laffy Taffy,

Sold it to my mate named Miffy, Gave it to her Grandma Jaffy.

Laffy Taffy, it’s so good,

Some people hide it under their hood.

It’s divine, it’s delicious,

It’s scrumptious not vicious.

It’s twisty, it’s turny,

It’s bendy and curvy.

It’s the Laffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy all day long!

Laffy Laffy, Taffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy…

I may not be Wonka but I can dance to Conga,

Coz J.O’s my brotha from anotha motha.

I may not have Loompas but I do have Toompas.

Try and close my factory down, I’ll make yours tumble to the ground.

I might not be toughy but I’m always laughy.

My Uncle Fun won’t believe it but I needed to achieve it,

Coz it’s Laffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy all night long!

Laffy Laffy, Taffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy…

When Harry met Sally, Choccy met Taffy.

This is no black or white, this is coco loves pinky.

When Barbie hugged Ken, Choccy hugged Taffy.

Let’s not get too warm or else we will melt,

Then all that is left, just a messy puddle,

So it’s Laffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy till it’s dawn!

Laffy Laffy, Taffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy Laffy Taffy…

APPENDIX

Cadbury World (click to watch video)

Chocolate Making (click to watch video)

Reference:

1. http://www.cadbury.co.uk
2. http://www.chocolate-history.co.uk
3. http://www.selectism.com
4. http://www.calypso.co.uk
5. wikipedia
6. Youtube
7. Google Images

Word Count: 1,590

AAATCHOO!!!!!

 

Hey guys…aah…aah…TCHOO!!!!! Oops, sorry! I have a little cold which has been bothering me for the last couple of days. Anyway-cough, cough-today was not a very normal school day and that is because of a lot of things. One, I was sneezing and coughing a lot and two, the lessons weren’t like the lessons that we usually have. I’ll tell you all about it. Oh, sorry, wait a minute please! Aah…aah…TCHOO!!!!!

Ahem, now, the first thing that we did was do the register. Then, we went off to our Maths classes. Maths today had a little twist to it. Our topic for Maths was data. Most people already knew about data. They knew the basics like bar charts, line graphs, pictograms and tally charts. But, as I said, the lesson had a little twist. We were going to…EAT CHOCOLATE!!! Aah…TCHOO!!!!! Sniffle, sniffle-sorry! Still can’t stop sneezing! Back to the point now, although we were tasting chocolate, we still had to do some work. But, the work was just filling out a table. The chocolate flavours were:

1. Milk chocolate
2. White chocolate
3. Milk creations (milk chocolate, jelly beans and popping candy)
4. Aero (mint)

And the worst of all…dark chocolate! Aah…aah…aah…TCHOO!!!!!

My favourite chocolate was the Milk Creations.

After Maths, we had our Literacy lesson and we were looking at newspapers. We were particularly focusing on articles. Hah, I’ve done about 3 or 4 articles already! Today, we were identifying the features of an article such as the headline, the by-line, the main body and so on. All of us had a little table to fill in. We also had to stick the article on an A3 piece of paper so that we could label it. Then, we went out for a break. Unfortunately, me and another boy called Krish couldn’t go out because we had a cold. That meant that we couldn’t play with our friends and to top that, we couldn’t play football with everyone else! 😦

When everyone came back in, we carried on with our Literacy lesson. Then, it was time for lunch.

For my lunch, I had:

1. A veggie burger
2. Peas
3. Salad
4. A flapjack
5. Juice

When lunch was over, we had a Learning Together lesson. In our lesson, we were designing our own Aztec Gods! These gods would then be transformed into masks like the Aztecs would wear except this time, we were going to wear it. Aah…aah…TCHOO!!!!! Ugh, sorry again. As I was saying, the Aztec God that I chose was the God of Fire. His name was Falalcholshcoaly (Fa-lal-col-shkol-lee). He had a Fire crown, a Fire cloth wrapped around his body, a Fire snake in one hand and a fireball in the other. The other Gods and Goddesses were pretty good. Some of them had 4 arms, others had long hair and others with unusual faces. After Learning Together was finished, it was home time.

p/s: AAH…AAH…AAH…TCHOOOOOOO!!!!!!

*Media Source: Google Images*

 

Laffy Taffy!

In the last few posts, you’ve only seen my casual and serious style of writing. But, you haven’t seen my creative side yet! Other than writing, music has always been my passion. Even when I’m writing, I listen to Mozart at the same time. Mozart helps to stimulate my brain more. But not only Mozart, I do love various types of music.

When I was in Moseley (old school), I used to have a band called “The Five Diamonds”. As the name clearly says, there were five of us (best friends) in the band. There was a girl named Ellie, who played the drums, another girl called Natalia, who was a dancer and twins called Antony and Alex. Alex played the fife and Antony sang with me. I have also written a few songs in the past. One of them was for my Dream T-Shirt Boutique and the rest were mostly for the band.

Anyway, remember the post about chocolate mayhem? Well, Uncle Fun has sort of ‘challenged’ me to write a song about Laffy Taffy. For some of you who can’t remember, Laffy Taffy was the brand for my chocolate. Today, I was thinking of what to post when all of a sudden, this idea hit me! I accepted Uncle Fun’s challenge and have a complete song waiting for you!!! 😉

This will also show you my creative side as well as entertaining you.

LAFFY TAFFY

(lyrics by The Pawsome Lion)

Laffy Taffy, it’s really yuffy,

It’ll make you laugh all day long.

Laffy Taffy,

Sold it to my mate named Miffy,

Gave it to her Grandma Jaffy.

Laffy Taffy, it’s so good,

Some people hide it under their hood.

It’s divine, it’s delicious,

It’s scrumptious not vicious.

It’s twisty, it’s turny,

It’s bendy and curvy.

It’s the Laffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy all day long!

Laffy Laffy, Taffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy…

I may not be Wonka but I can dance to Conga,

Coz J.O’s my brotha from anotha motha.

I may not have Loompas but I do have Toompas.

Try and close my factory down, I’ll make yours tumble to the ground.

I might not be toughy but I’m always laughy.

My Uncle Fun won’t believe it but I needed to achieve it,

Coz it’s Laffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy all night long!

Laffy Laffy, Taffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy…

When Harry met Sally, Choccy met Taffy.

This is no black or white, this is coco loves pinky.

When Barbie hugged Ken, Choccy hugged Taffy.

Let’s not get too warm or else we will melt,

Then all that is left, just a messy puddle,

So it’s Laffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy till it’s dawn!

Laffy Laffy, Taffy Taffy, Laffy Taffy Laffy Taffy…

 

Here’s a video of me singing it! Excuse me and my croaky voice. I had a sore throat! 😦

p/s: Wrote by The Pawsome Lion while babysitting Baby ‘A’ and Little Miss Diva screaming in the background!

(Copyright: TPL, wrote on Monday 9th November 2015 at 6.24pm and finished at 7.35pm)

Chocolate Mayhem!

A foggy morning welcomed me back to school after a week of leisure. It was extremely cold. Luckily, I had a thick coat and gloves with me!

After the register, my classmates and I were surprised when Miss Javed, our class teacher, told us that the day would be a chocolate themed day! There would be no other subjects like Maths, Literacy or Science. Our day would be filled with designing a brand for our own chocolate. Then, in the afternoon we would be sampling seven different types of chocolate. What more could anyone ask for if they had a day filled with chocolate, chocolate and chocolate?

When we were designing our chocolate brands, there were all sorts of names and ideas coming into our heads. The brand that I chose for my chocolate was called “Laffy Taffy”. I personally think that it is catchy and the chocolate that I would be selling was Taffy chocolate from America. Taffy chocolate is pink and chewy like bubblegum. The Laffy part means that this Taffy will make you laugh. It was very easy to think of the brand name, but when it came to tag lines, characters and designing the chocolate, it got really complex.  As I said earlier on, we would be tasting different types of chocolate in the afternoon. This was the part of the day that everyone look forward to. The first piece of chocolate that I put in my mouth sent me on a chocolatey dream. The flavours of the chocolate were:

• Fruit and Nuts
• Dark Chocolate
• Rice Krispies covered Milk Chocolate
• White Chocolate and Smarties
• White Chocolate
• Milk Chocolate
• Cookies and Cream

What is more perfect than to end the day by walking home with a piece of chocolate in your mouth? Today was really exhilarating. It’s probably a once in a lifetime experience!

p/s: Look out for Laffy Taffy when you go chocolate shopping next time! :))

Adios,

TPL.

*All images are taken from Google Image*