Written By You

The Adventures of Cha Cha the Dragon – Part 2

Following on from Iona’s wonderful story of Cha Cha the Dragon, here is Part 2

 

Once upon a time, in deepest China, there lived a man named Li-Wang. Li- Wang was getting on in years. His wife and son had both died in childbirth, and he had only his beautiful daughter to comfort him and to keep him company. It was widely said that the daughter of Li-Wang could be no mortal being, but was an angel, sent straight from the Gods as a token of their grace and kindness. However, Li-Wang, poor man rarely ever got to see his beautiful daughter, for Li-Wang was a builder, and his latest line of employment was on The Great Wall of China Teapots.

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Home, Health & Style

Second Hand – Or Vintage Clothing?

“Euuuuw, that is second hand!”  – if you have ever said this, then you could be missing out. Vintage clothing is popular at the moment, because they’re well made, different to the things on sale in the shops and pretty cool!
Sally Anne tells you how to find and look after vintage clothing and how to accessories them.

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Science, Nature and Tech

What Causes Motion Sickness?

Motion sickness is also known as travel sickness, sea sickness or air sickness. It can happen in a number of situations, not all of which involve movement, and is a very unpleasant sensation. As part of our Have You Ever Wondered series, our Science Editor Sam finds out what causes motion sickness, and if there is anything you can do to prevent it.

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Language & Literature

Talking in Text

Text speak is very confusing for a lot of people, but it is one area in which children and teenagers are far more advanced than adults.  Mobile phones and the internet are recent inventions.
Imagine what it was like for your parents as children.  If your parents are 30 years old, the internet did not exist for them!  Mobile phones were only invented in 1973 but did not become common for 15 or 20 years.  The first ones cost thousands of pounds and were the size of house bricks!

 

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Toys and Games

What is Geocaching?

 

What is Geocaching?  It’s like a real-life treasure hunt and is a great way to make a walk in the woods just a bit more interesting!

Julianne Robertson explains what it is and how to do it. 

 

What is it?

Players use a handheld GPS device or a smartphone to look for a set of co-ordinates near to wherever they are and find the geocache (or treasure!) hidden at that location.  These are usually a small container of some kind with a logbook and ‘treasure’ inside – this can be anything, like a little toy, some stickers, a badge, a pretty stone – basically anything small enough to fit inside and be worth finding!

 

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Sounds good!  How do I get started?

Go to the website www.geocaching.com and register – it’s free to sign up.  Then you put in your postcode and you should see a list of all the geocaches near to where you live.  Choose one and you’ll get the co-ordinates you need to put into the GPS, as well as a description of the area and clues about how to find the cache.

 

Are geocaches always hidden in the woods?

No – there are geocaches all over the world and they are usually put in places which are important to the person hiding them.  Some are hidden in forest areas, others are in local parks, or city streets – even underwater!  There are also different sizes of geocache and a range of difficulty – you should probably start with one that’s easy, at least to begin with!

 

What do I do when I find one – can I keep the treasure?!

Yes, but you should replace anything you keep with something of equal or greater value.  You should also write about your find in the logbook and when you get home log your experience on the website too, so that others know the cache is still active.

 

 

 

Can I hide my own cache for others to find?

Yes, once you’ve found a few caches you’ll know what makes a good geocache and hiding place, and you might want to create your own!  There are lots of guidelines on the website about how to do it.

 

Now you know about geocaching – go and try it!  It’s a great activity to do with your family or a group of friends.  Once you’ve found one, you’ll want to find more!

 

 

 

Julianne Robertson is a freelance journalist, based in Dundee. Her background is radio news, and she now writes features and reviews, specialising in parenting, faith and religion, events and lifestyle issues.

 

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