Tuesday

Another day with Auntie christine and Darcey.

A trip to the cinema to watch Peppa Pig.

Not our usual choice really, but we love going anywhere with Darcey.

It was rather good though.

Afterwards we saw the pancake races in the marketplace.

And then we walked back towards auntie Christines house via Burger King.

We carried on, re-fuelled for a play on stroud green park before eventually arriving back.

Under strict orders from Mum we did some baking.

We did, cup cakes with some 'surprise' fillings.

Gymnastics was still on, which was good, even if I was full of cng and cupcakes.

I left a bit of room for when we got home, it was pancake night after all.

Yeah, even i've come round to them this year, sugar and lemon, keeping it simple.

Dad kept a good production line going.

Wednesday

Now a couple of days with Mum.

First up a trip to Shaw House who were having a civil war day.  I've been doing this at school so it was a pretty topical idea.

It was really good, there was a trail to follow as well as some helmets to try on.

We stayed for lunch as Mum was amazed at how cheap it all was.

Yeah, even if the maltesers did turn out to be out of date.

We also got to make our own little soldiers:

We stopped off at Sainsbury to stock up on jelly for my layers of the earth school project homework.

And then it was Tilly's birthday disco.  I decided shorts and a nice shirt was a good look.  I though I looked just like Dad actually.

We had a great time:

I really enjoyed it:

Especially the chocolate fountain.  We tried all sorts, the most extreme being pickled onion monster munch dipped in chocolate.  Miss Knowles and I actually rather liked them.

I didn't have to go to Team Kennet, so enjoyed some Ned free time at home.

Thursday

Day two with Mum and the one thing on our wish list for the week was the Shaun the Sheep film.

So, off to the cinema again.

It was brilliant.

Then it was home for some Xbox.

Some Ipad. Some telly.

And some packing and fever pitch levels of excitement for tomorrow....

Friday

We hung about the house a bit on Friday as Mum had another day off.

Yeah, I added the final touches to my school project, adding the last few layers to my layers of the earth model, in jelly form.  What a genius idea.  We made it especially thick though so it won't be very good to eat I don't think.

Other than that we didn't do much really.

We watched Kung Fu Panda.

I packed my bag with a few essential items for our weekend away (feather boa) at Butlins.

We waited patiently for Dad to get home from work and we set off.

A bit earlier this year so that was good.

We got there in the daylight as well, cool.

We were staying in the same hotel as last year, and it was just as cool.  We had an elephant made out of towels on our bed this time.

We had tried to save a few quid and skimped on the premium for a room with a balcony and a partial sea view.

Yeah, the car park wasn't nearly so nice to look at.

Still, we weren't in the room long so it didn't really matter.

I helped mum and Dad unpack.

While I made a swift exit and headed for the computer games room.

Once we were all sorted we took our lovingly prepared (by Mum) picnic on the mezzanine over the hotel lobby.  The chairs were lovely and big, and spinny!

But it was rather warm....so after we finished we headed out into the cool night air for a walk around to see what was about.

Fortunately we stumbled upon the arcade:

We managed to make a few quid disappear.

We carried on and found some scooters to sit on:

And I found this Postman Pat ride, I thought his nose looked like a 'Sausage', ahem.....

We made our way back to the hotel and watched the Bear Grylls survivor programme on telly.

We survived more of it than Dad who fell asleep before it finished.

We eventually went to bed, but having our own tellys in our rooms we weren't ready for sleeping.

It was quite late by the time we finally nodded off.....

Saturday

Hence we weren't up that early in the morning.

There was no rush though, nothing opened until 10 anyway.

We had breakfast in our room (mini cereal multipacks, what luxury).

Then headed for the pool.  It was pretty busy so we didn't get on much in the way of the slides and what have you.

Although the pool itself was cool with all the waterfalls, small slides and wave machine.

Lunchtime refuelling was a room picnic with some nice fresh bread from the Spar then it was back out to the show bar.

For Mister Maker live! I was dead excited, I love Mister Maker even if we might be a little bit older than his usual fanbase.

There was singing, dancing, making...

.....and some grown ups on stage making silly animal noises.

We had a bit of a session on the fair next, the bumper cars were going this year and there were even a few new rides.

We hired pedal carts and bombed around the site on them, they even went down small flights of steps surprisingly well:

That gave us quite an appetite so the Beachcomber Inn was a welcome pitstop.

We got a cool booth for four to sit in and had a nice snuggle up waiting for the food to arrive:

It was a lovely meal, topped off with an epic pudding:

Yeah, grapes and apples, lush:

It was dark by now, the fair was open and the lights were flashing, it looked too good to ignore.

Even if it was seriously freezing cold.

We went on everything, several times over.

Although the bumper cars were a bit disappointing as a strict no bumping rule was being enforced for some reason.

Sunday

Another lovely lay in.

And hotel room breakfast.

With a quick trip to the games room for me.

While I hung out with Mum and Dad for a bit.

They made us go put for a walk along the beach.

Yeah, obviously we didn't want to go at all.

Of course we loved it when we got there.

Even if it was windy and rather cold.

The warmth beckoned and we wrung out our last few quid in the arcade in a mad last minute dash for prize tickets.

The 2p falls machine with a built in fruit machine type ticket winning add on was the clear winner for me.

I was less easily pleased and ended up spending my allowance and some supplimentary pocket money....those crane machines for cuddly toys are a right con, but I was surprisingly good at the basketball machine.

We eventually called time and settled on our winning tickets total before visiting the shop where you could cash them in.

After a reasonably quick decision process, aided by the lovely helpful people behind the counter I settled on a cute bear rubber, a keyring, a sticker and some sweets.

And I went for a polystyrene glider and a lot more sweets.

We'd worked up an appetite and went to the pizza place for buffet.

We got another cool booth style table to sit at, which just so happened to have a great view of the buffet tables.  Very handy for spotting when a freshly cooked pepperoni pizza had been put out.

I think both Ned and I ate more than Mum.

So we considered that we'd done very well out of the deal having to only pay kids rates compared to her full price adults tarrif.

We had a quick meeting to decide on what we wanted to do for the rest of the day.

We settled on swimming and dodgems.

So, with it raining pretty hard and still blowing we made our way accross the largely deserted fairground to the dodgems.

There wasn't a queue and we waited for the current session to end during which the young lad running the ride tried to catch me out with the old 'whats that on your jacket' routine as well as an attempt at telling me my laces were undone.  

He was great fun.

As we were at the front of the queue, I was desperate to get car number 7 which looked by far the fastest.  The ride operator agreed with me and I made sure I got first dibs by telling a blatant fib, telling him I was a Tottenham fan.  The deal was done and I got the car all to myself.

I bagsied Dad as my co-driver which left Mum to her own devices in a car of her own.

The ride operator man did a quick pre ride speech where he said there was to be no bumping...and then  laughed to himself before he flicked the on switch and quickly got himself into a spare car.

Then the carnage began.

It was total chaos, endless bumping, driving round the wrong the lot.  Every rule broken and everyone driving or riding in the cars loving every second of it.

The man running the ride was obviously a big target but he was lapping it up.

Mum was a complete nightmare, hunting us down and bumping us endlessly.

Yep, she was seemingly everywhere.

At the end of the ride we got asked if we wanted to stay on for another session, of course we did!

And another.

And another.

It was brilliant.  We only got off in the end when the entire fair got closed down because of the weather being so grim.

I think it was for the best, we'd laughed ourselves silly and the olds were worried about their backs and whiplash injuries.

So that left us with the final item on our agenda, swimming.

Yep, back to the pool for another dip.

And then back to the room to pack and have a bath before we left so we'd be sparkly and clean for school tomorrow.

Monday

Back to school then.

Yeah, it wasn't so bad though.

Nah, i'm riding my scooter in now, so its coo playing about on that before we go in to class.

We did a 'Strictly' themed routine at dance this week which was a lot of fun.

And I managed to return home from cross country remarkably mud free this week....

Tuesday

Gymnastics, badge week, I was a little nervous.  I didn't know what was next after my bronze floor award.  Turns out we were doing the gold fitness award this week.  Apparently the most impressive thing was doing a headstand against the wall and pushing yourself up into a handstand.  I found it quite easy though, badge and certificate for me!

Wednesday

And while we're on the subject of good news, Miss Stubbs anounced that viola lessons were cancelled.  The whole class might have cheered.  A little bit.

Thursday

Amie came round for tea, we did some dressing up, a bit of make up, the usual stuff.

Then she played Xbox with me.

Which I wasn't all that happy about really.  It all turned out okay though, especially when mum drove her home and we listened to radio 3 and sang opera all the way accross town.

Friday

Netball has got pretty serious since we qualified for the league finals.  Golden time has been cancelled for the team on friday afternoons so we can have extra training!
It was the last day at school for a week, what with it being half term and all that.

We did have a trip to Pizza Hut to look forward to as well!

Yep, obviously parents evening went well enough last week.  I so love pizza hut.

I loved it even more once the extremely noisy kids birthday party on the table next to us was finished.

I almost felt guilty when I ran the ice cream factory dry of ice cream.

Yeah, I had to wait ages for it to be replenished.

Saturday

A sneaky trip to the cinema on a wet and grey saturday morning.
We watched the Penguins of Madagascar.
And it was very enjoyable indeed.
We did some shopping for a new dress for Auntie Christines upcoming birthday party.
I love shopping, so that was okay.....

We did get handed a competition entry to win a diamond worth a thousand pounds though.
We're convinced we wer going to win, so the debate started as to what we would spend the money on.
I wanted a horse.
I wanted a dog.
A compromise was reached though, a fish or two each!
As well as a tank full of brightly coloured gravels, castles and god knows what else we could find to lob in there.

We got to Northcroft to find that roller skating wasn't on this week, or indeed next week.
How disappointing, Mum had come along to watch as well.

Sunday

So Ned chose pizza hut, I chose JJ's and after last time I went and claimed i'd gone form the highest drop slide, Dad bet me a £1 that I wouldn't do it as soon as we got there.
In the interest of fairness I got in on the deal too, even though i've been off it hundreds of times.
It was the easiest quid i'd ever made.  Straight down, no messing.
We stayed for ages, it was really cool.
Yeah, I loved it, especially doing gymnastics in the ball battle zone.
When we got home we played the Hotel game, I wiped the floor with them for a crushing victory.

Monday

First day of the holidays proper and it was time for Auntie Christine's.
With Darcey, how exciting.
The weather wasn't up to much  so we played plenty of silly games that she had aquired.
And did some cool creative stuff with little polystyrene chips that you could stick together if you get them a little bit wet.

 

Tuesday

It snowed, at last.

It looked pretty exciting when we got up too, it had settled at least.

Although it didn't look like it was going to hang around for long.

There was still plenty left at break time and lunchtime at school though.  We made some massive snowballs and rolled them accross the field.

I had to sneakily wear mums fluffy cuffed gloves.  I was worried I wouldn't be allowed out to play without any and id lost my own ones in Rhos.

Swimming was a massive inconvenience, i'd much rather have played in the snow some more.

We had a netball match scheduled away at Marlston house, a posh school.  It wasn't cancelled because of the snow so that was a result.  I only got to play for one quarter of the match though, which was a shame.  Having said that, we got beat 9 - 7.  The netball 'tea' after the game was quite spectacular, hot pasties, crisps, penguins, fruit......the grown ups got tea, coffe, freshly made sandwiches and cup cakes!.

I got well looked after too, even though we arrived after the match had finished.

It was really interesting talking to the girls on the other team, they had some cool stuff, like their own horses!

But some of them boarded there and their school days are a lot longer than ours and even include saturday classes.

We're doing a lot more on the trampoline at gymnastics at the moment, for which ypu need to wear socks.  This is of course deeply problematic for me as I hardly ever wear any.

Wednesday

I had my first after school Football club session this week after endless cancellations.  I loved it, even though it was a bit of a mad rush to get home in time to have tea and get ready for Team Kennet.

I mastered the tricky art of the triple jump this week!

And I 'enjoyed' Alistairs company for a second week.

Thursday

We had another 'away' netball match against Speenhamland.  This time I played three quarters of the match and we won by a rather convincing scoreline 18 - 4.  We were pretty awesome, in fact it caused a little bit of bad feeling with the opposition who decided to make some accusations about some of our team cheating.  What nonsense, as if we needed to do that?  Anyway, the upshot of our latest win was that we had qualified for the league finals to be played at St Gabriels in the near future.  On a monday afternoon, bonus, more school missed!

We got there in time to watch the most of the match too, I loved watching our school do so well, although the provisions after the game were a little disappointing after tuesdays efforts.

It was also parents evening......

Yeah, they seem to come around rather too quickly for my liking.

Mine went very well by all accounts and i'm getting on rather well it would seem.

Yeah, me too on the whole, although I could do better with my written work and reading. Standard stuff then.

Friday

We had a special Rhos assembly.  Mum came along which was rather nice.  I suspect she was lured with the promise of all the leftover tuck that would be on offer afterwards back at the classroom.

It was cool to see her in assembly, I gave her a nice wave.

As well as the Rhos stuff Mrs Watkins also proudly told the whole schoool about our Netball victory the previous day.

I chattered all the way out back to class and didn't give Mum any sort of acknowledgement as I left the hall.

I headed back to class and ate my own weight in biscuits.

And we headed out on a walk accross the fields with a school visitor who knew all about the Civil War and the battles thathappened on the fields near the school.  We all know Ned is the history buff but I was utterly captivated by it all too.  I lapped it up, especially the musket balls found in the mud.  I also got to wear my lovely new wellies which were proper nice.

Saturday

Up early today and off to London zoo.
Yeah, same arrangement as last time, drive to Turnham Green, load up on picnic supplies in the M&S and then head on into town on the underground.   There was no one about really so I had great fun using the rails in the train as monkey bars and climbing apparatus.
We eventually surfaced in Camnden Town, which was pretty weird.
Yeah, there were loads of stalls setting up and loads of shoe shops, most of them with massive, oversized trainers attached to the buildings above them which were pretty cool. 
It didn't look at all like an area that might have a zoo.  But after a short walk we were in much more zoo like surroundings:

We hadn't been to a zoo for ages so we were pretty up for it, despite it being a pretty cold and bleak day:

The gorilla's were awesome, especially the big male, he was very powerful looking and pretty scary when he walloped the glass and ran off at a rate.

The tigers were seriously cute, cuddling up with each other:

But every now and again they gave you a sublte reminder they were in fact scary beasts by having a little snarl and baring their teeth at us.

The reptile house was pretty epic.

And so was the Kimodo dragon, I hope he didn't mind us having our picnic in the relative warm of his viewing gallery.

It closed pretty early being winter and all that, so we had to rush visit the petting zoo.

Which was a shame as the goats were super cute and loved a fuss.

And we just about managed to squeeze in a visit to the aquarium, which turned out to be much bigger than we first thought.

We made our way back to the car on the underground.

Which was much busier than in the morning, but quite an eye opener. There were grown ups in cow print onesies and others with a full face paint on....

Sunday

A lazy day today after yestrerdays many miles of walking.

So what did we eventually get dragged out on.....a Walk!!!!!

We retraced some of the route of my school mapp reading jaunt and ended up down the river on Northcroft Marsh.

I almost ended up going in!

Luckily I saved him.

We did some skimmers and headed back home.

Through lots and lots of sloppy, muddy puddles.

Monday

Big news today, I finally passed my five times table at school.  I know, everyone kept telling me it was easy, but for some reason I seemed to struggle with this particular one.  I was super pleased to finally get it done!

Tuesday

Swimming again, it's pretty cool on the double decker coach, we even get to go on the fast road.

The new gym is still getting me hyped up and super excited for gymnastics every week.

Netball was back on, hooray.  Loved it of course even though it was pretty cold and the corner of our court is still lost to the building compound.  At least the daylight is lasting a bit longer in the evenings now though, we can play on until 4:30 and actually see what we're doing which is nice.

Wednesday

We're struggling to pad this weeks entry out really.  Everything has gone back to normal I suppose.  It's a grim time of year weather wise and there just isn't much going on.

Nope, we've been getting on with school work, doing home work....booooring.

At least Team Kennet was a fun distraction.

Alastair came this week after weeks of saying he was going to.  It was cool to have him there.

Thursday

Yeah, well, still nothing to report really.

Nope, nothing to see here, move along.

Friday

At least it was Friday.

Yeah, the end of the week.

And in a move sure to make your weekend go with a bang, we got given a SATS revision book on the subject of Maths, Grammar and Spelling.  Oh, deep joy!!! (i quite like the maths one though).

Saturday

We had a lazy morning, played a couple of games of Hotel Tycoon, neither of which ended in any form of argument which made a pleasant change.
Then Mum had the idea of going to the pub for lunch and seeing if she could round up any of the gang to come along too.
We ended up with quite a few of us in the end, Andy, Abi, Faye, Nick, Carol, Alan, Hayley and her bump.
Yeah, so we had to try and aquire tables as best we could as we hadn't booked.  I was so excited to see Hayley, i'm at fever pitch about the baby already.
It was really nice to see everyone and have a good old laugh.
We went home and watched some ridiculous game shows from the 80's on telly, Take Your Pick with some bloke called Des O'Connor and old Episodes of Catchphrase. 
Then we had another game of Hotel Tycoon with Andy, again, no strops!
Mum went out to a quiz and we snuggled up with Dad to watch a bit of The Voice and Take me out.

Sunday

Yet again, we had nothing to do really.  
We slouched about for a bit and then after lunch decided it looked windy enough to get my new kite out.
It was freezing out, but I made sure I did some excellent 'launching' for Ned.
Yeah, Ellis was awesome, I got it flying staraight away with no problems.  The winds was a bit gusty though, so the kite did fall out of the sky now and again.
I had a go too, and I could fly it as well!  I was made up, but still cold. 

Monday
Back to school then, ho hum.
Yeah, at least cross country was on, I did 9 consecutive full laps of the long course.
Dance was cool this week, Blame it on the Boogie, one of Mum's favourites.  Shame I got to dance to it and not her eh?

Tuesday

We muddled on quite nicely without Ned really, easy mornings.

I had swimming again this week and we got stuck in a bit more which was good.

But the main excitement of the day was our first chance to try out the foam pit at gymnastics club.  It lived up to it's potential thats for sure and it was epic jumping into it.

The good times continued with a shepherds pie for tea, accompanied with some lovely mange tout.  Not having Ned to appease at meal times is very refreshing.

We also got an update Email from North Wales (Ned was in group C):

Dear Parents,
Beech class are having a great time here at Rhos-y-Gwaliau.
Monday
Group A (Miss Buxey's group) went to the beach at Borth y Gest for some rock scrambling fun. We overcame all sorts of challenges and learnt how to traverse along rocks, abseil, clamber through caves and use ropes and harnesses to climb up a cliff . It was lovely and sunny and everyone succeeded in all challenges.
Group B (Mr Heath's group) went mountain climbing up Moel-yr- Hydd. Everyone worked as a team and made it to the top . There was some great ice for sliding down and some good rock climbing challenges. the children supported each other and felt great about their achievements.
Group C ( Mr Gillham's group) also climbed a mountain - called Arenig and reached a height of 850m rising through the clouds to conquer the summit it was really tough at times ( even mr Gilham had to admit) but with good teamwork success was achieved and everyone felt proud.
Lots of love to all at home from Beech Class xxxxxxx 

And we also got this one:

Second update:

Hi all Tuesday night here at Rhos, and the children are having a lovely time in the local swimming pool at Bala.  Group A went canoeing on Bala lake this morning and had a fantastic time rowed all the way across and toasted  marshmallows on a campfire then clambered up the rocky gorge this afternoon - challenging but fulfilling.  Group B and Group C went rock scrambling on the beach and also had a great day.  Black Jack's cave was the days greatest challenge and everyone loved climbing up the matrix rock.  Much fun was had by all - even if everyone did arrive home with water in their wellies .  lots of love to everyone back home - 6 Beech Miss Buxey

Wednesday

I didn't have a great day at school today, infact Miss Stubbs came out after school and had a word with Dad.  I just hadn't been into it at all, couldn't settle into anything.  Oops.

Continuing with the no Ned dinners we had a whinge free spaghetti, lovely.  Team Kennet was a solo affair for me tonight but it was cool never the less.

We got another update regarding our boy in Wales:

Another great day had by all here.  It was Group A's turn to conquer the nmount Moel  Hydd and it was really hard work  but well worth it  Really cold at the top and lots of fun in the snow ! group B went exploring Rwybach mine where they spent the day inside a mountain, experienced true darkness and came out into the snow on the way back . group C went canoeing on Bala lake and then for a gorge walk where they really used good team work skills to make it through the chilly water.  Lots of Love to all from Beech class and Miss Buxey and Mr Gilham 

Thursday

I sorted my act out and had a great day at school.  Really focussed and on the case, it helped that I moved myself off to another table on my own.

After school I embraced yet more no Ned fuss activities, brownie making.  I had to step up the plate and take on all Ned's usual activities, most notably the mixing.  I already crack eggs better than Dad.

But best of all, I got to lick out the bowl all on my own...best thing ever.

I pestered Mum for some sums in the evening, I was in the mood for maths.

We got another update from my estranged brother:

Everyone is having a fantastic time and succeeding in every challenge!  It was rather hard to wake the children up this morning though.  Today Group A went on our mine exploration.  We climbed up a steep incline and through a mossy forest to enter the mine through a hidden gateway, inside it was really dark but we had helmets on and our head torches.  We saw lots of lold artefacts left behind from when the mine was working, rowed across an underground pool and walked up a waterfall to emerge on a mountain top.  Group B went canoeing in the sunshine on Bala Lake, rowed across the lake for lunch then lashed their canoes together to make rafts and had a race back.  Later they went up the gorge walking and most of them took the plunge on the way back, then hurried quickly back for hot showers.  Group C really put their newly gained map reading skills to use and found their own way back to the centre after being deserted in a field (LOL don't worry they were being watched from a safe distance) they made it back quickly without needing to use the emergency phone.  After lunch they had a go on the rope course and zip wire.  Love to All from Beech Class - Quiz Night tonight 

We also got a postcard from him today, as you might suspect it was pretty light on detail and the writing was minimal at best.  He justified it in a couple of sentences saying that he wanted to tell us all the cool stuff they'd been doing in person rather than write it all down and spoil it for us...yeah, right!

Friday

Months in the planning stages and timed to coincide with Ned being away, it was finally time for Amie to come round for a sleepover.  Dad picked us up from school and helped us carry our bagfulls of stuff.

Once we were home we got dressed up in sone fancy dresses, did our make up a bit, did some singng and dancing and played Just Dance on Ned's xbox.  I'm sure he wouldn't mind.

We'd worked up a bit of an appetite so it was pizza and dough balls for tea followed by the brownie we'd made for pud.

We had to have a bit of a tidy up in my room so we could get the airbed in.  Once it was comissioned and looking cozy we watched the first DVD of the evening, the Pudsey movie which was brilliant fun.

Next up was a few sweets and the Lego Movie.

By this point, Amie was fast asleep, and as she had already warned us, she was a little bit snorey.  I crept downstairs and had a cuddle with Mum for a bit which was lovely.

There was no update from Rhos today, but we deduced that it must have been group C's trip to the mine we reasoned.

Saturday

We didn't wake up too early, but then we'd had a bit of a late night.  As I got to choose what we'd do, I obviously picked swimmimg.  We went to the Coral Reef, we hadn't been there for ages and I think it was a new one on Amie.  We loved it, we disappeared off to our own changing room and hit the water.  We had a great time, Amie had quite an appetite for the flume slides even though it was pretty cold queing up for them.

We dropped her off at home afterwards then went home for some lunch.  So I reckon my first sleepover had gone really rather well.  Mum and Dad were pleased with us too which was a bonus.

And while all this was going on, I was on my way back from Rhos.  Rather unbelievably, even though I live closest to school I was almost the last one to be collected by their parents as they somehow managed to miss the massive coach driving down the road?  Unbelievable.  Ellis couldn't even be bothered to come and stayed at home watching telly!

All this was forogtten about as soon as I saw them though, I ran at them for a massive cuddle.  It turns out I did miss them a little bit at least.  I might even have become a little overwhelmed and had a few quiet tears.  This was rather a shock to Miss Buxey who said i'd had an amazing week.  She was right, I had, but it was still good to be back.

He soon burst through the door and gave me a massive 'pinned to the floor cuddle'

Yeah, I forgave her for not bothering to come and pick me up.

We had a brilliant week, it was amazing.  The weather was great, in fact, Mum reckoned I looked like i'd caught the sun.  The only day we had rain was friday, when we went down the mine anyway (it was seriously dark in there).

Being in Mr. Gilham's group was ace, our instructor from the centre, Rob was awesome, as was Jamie.  I picked up a few new names while we were away, 'The Guinea Pig' as I was always first to try something, 'The Machine' for my endless energy while mountain climbing and the like and also 'The Heavy Artillery' for me and Chokoon when it was time for pudding in the evenings.  The food was brilliant and I learned I liked several things I would ordinarliy have dismissed (rice pudding for one and tinned peaches with ice cream for another.  They were amazing, who knew??)  We could have extra helpings if we wanted too, I got up to fifths on the pud one night.

The only negative thing was the first night when certain individuals in the dorm decided to stay up rather late mucking about.  I think 1:30 am is pretty late the night before a mountain climbing trip?

Anyway, Mum and Dad were particularly looking forward to seeing the state of my gear in the suitcase.  We cracked it open rather nervously.......to reveal a pretty well packed bag, with only a few grubby items.  The real highlight was this one sock:

I'd been very 'efficient' with my stuff while away and maintained a very disciplined drying routine for my stuff.  They were impressed, even if I had bought home someone else's towel and a couplke of pairs of pants.

It was good to have him back even I had to agree.  And because he is an epic brother he even wanted to go rollerskating, even after he'd only just got home from a weeks high energy activities and sleep deprivation.
Yeah, i'm good like that.
Mum came along to see our improvement since we first went, and Laura also showed up to have a sneaky go on her own with a view to bringing Darcey sometime (which would be the coolest thing ever). 
Auntie Christine tagged along to watch as well, I got to tell her all about Rhos in between zooming around.
On the way home we got a Burger king for tea, this pleased me greatly, firstly because I love Burger King and secondly because we had money off coupons!

Sunday

I had what turned out to be the last meeting of the winter sports hall season on sunday.  It wasn't supposed to be according to the plan but the fourth round got cancelled for some reason or another.    Anyway, we were sitting in second place so we were in contention for a podium finish.  My events were the sitting throw, the standing long jump, speed bounce and a grand prix relay.  This involved hurdles and tunnels and I really, really went for it, our team manager Cheryl was rather impressed with my effort levels.  The scores were quickly collated and the sums were done....we came second in the league out of 12 teams from all over Berkshire.  I was so pleased, especially when we got presented with our medals:

So that was the season over and done with, I loved it!

Rather than spend the day bored witless in the sports hall in Eton, I got to spend thr day with Auntie Christine.  We did shopping, baking and just hanging out.  How nice.

Monday

Should have been all back to normal, but both Dad and myself woke up with the lurgy so it was a day off poorly for both of us.

Good job Mum and I kept things running isn't it?