Nedster's World now featuring Ellis!

Tuesday

Play rehearsals have ramped up a notch, we had to do it in front of year five.  As dad pointed out there was no pont being nervous in front of them as we'd be doing it front of the whole school and then the parents soon enough.  With that sort of perspective on the matter I threw myself into it and really enjoyed myself.

It was watching week at gymnastics, shame I was doing floor drills again like last time.

Wednesday

Big news today, Mum had got herself a job.

And it looks very much like she'll be home in time to still pick us up from school, perfect!

It was also a big day on the sporting front, the Team Kennet club championships.

I was pretty nervous about it really, my first proper competition and all that.

I wasn't, although my 40 metre target in the vortex to secure a trip to Pizza Hut was playing on my mind.

We were doing a sprint, a middle distance run, long jump and of course Vortex throwing.

I was in the under nines.

And I was in the under thirteens.

We got there really early so set up on the grass bank at then end for a lovely picnic before signing in and attaching our numbers to our shirts.

We got into our groups and it was much like an ordinary week really and I really started to enjoy myself.

Me too, I had Ali and my other mates with me so it was good fun.

Dad took a few wafty pictures, but to be fair to him it is pretty difficult to get a good shot because of the layout of the track and the infield.

There were some better ones on the Team Kennet facebook page though:

So the results then.

I did pretty well, 4th in long jump and 2nd in the vortex.  A couple of average results on the running races put me in 6th overall, not too shabby.

I smashed my main target for the evening with a pretty epic 43.9 metre vortex throw.  I was so chuffed even though it was only good enough for second place in my caregory.  I too had fairly average runs and a long jump, but just like Ellis I claimed a sixth place overall.

Panda loved it too:

Thursday

Darcey had a visit to our school ahead of her starting in September and decided she would come and pay us a visit after tea.

Dad and I were just about to leave for a night on the bikes at Tidworth. I really fancied staying and playing....but the lure of the woods were too strong.

Never mind Ned, us girls had a lovely time, I hope she drops in more often once she starts school. We even got the cars out:

Tidworth was brilliant again. I'm loving it, and riding faster and jumping further every time I go.  I drew quite lot of glances from others up there as I flew down the track.

Friday

As if the club championships weren't enough this week it was school sports day!

And with Mum off, she could come for the whole thing.

My last one at junior school and it was business as usual with our house Craven, coming well and truly last.  I'm quite used to this by now.

I'm not, I didn't like it one bit.

Still, the events were a good mixed bag, netball shooting:

Full commitment standing long jump:

Obstacle course race:

A sweet victory in the hurdles:

Vortex throwing:

I enjoyed the netball shooting more than Ellis, bagging 14 of our teams 16 goals:

The parents event was an egg and spoon this year.

Mrs Watkins was on a mission to banish cheating too.

I got all my gang to cheer Mum on, we were very, very vocal:

She did okay as well, coming second or third or thereabouts.

As if that wasn't enough sport for one day the quadkids team spent all afternoon practicing for the upcoming regional compeition.  Then I went off to Roberts for tea and some football before going on to Louise's birthday disco......pretty tiring day then.

So we were Ned free for the evening, hot dogs for tea then a trip to my favourite shop, Pets At Home.  Where we saw Abi and Faye fetting Faye's birthday present.....a hamster!  I want one sooooooo bad.

Saturday

We had a bike ride planned, the Two Tunnels Greenway route down in Bath.

The highlight of the route (on a a disused railway line) was two tunnels, one of which was over a mile long!

We set off full of excitement....

.....welll, I was a bit more dubious in all honesty.

We passed through the first tunnel, it was pretty cool.

It was certainly pretty dark, although there was decent lighting in there.

It was a good warm up for the main event still to come.

It was a lovely day and we soon found somewhere nice for a picnic stop:

Just outside the long tunnel entrance:

Once we were refreshed we headed into the gloom:

It was brilliant, lovely smooth tarmac, just enough light to see who was coming the other way and a great oppurtunity to get the head down and spin a big gear.

There were lights playing short snatches of classical music half way along which were proper smart and also distracted you from just how coldit had got in there!

Yeah, it was freezing.

It kept going and going and going until we finally saw the light up ahead:

We burst out into the sunshine and it felt so hot outside it was like getting off the plane in Spain or something.

We carried on, over a high viaduct where things took a turn for the worse, Dads saddle bolt snapped.  

Oops, we stifled giggles as he tried to fix it with a temporary repair,in the process ruining his shorts with oil and grease.

Oh dear.

We carried on the trail until we got to the pub, where the silly man decided to wrap himself up in brambles, shredding the back of his ankle.  This also had the side affect of shoving his bike sufficiently strongly to once again dislodge his saddle.  He was not happy.

We locked the bikes up, found a nice table in the sunshine and had a lovely cold drink while dad tended to his wound.

Time for the return leg then, we knew what we in for this time so made sure we donned pur cardies before entering the long tunnel:

We had spotted a park on the way down so stopped there for a good old play before we made it back to the car to finish our trip, with poor old Dad standing up the whole way.

We had a bit of a slouch about at home until everyone was sufficiently hungry to claim my reward for the vortex throw, a trip to Pizza Hut:

It was well lush.
And I got a free, additional pizza as they bought me a ham one when we ordered pepperoni, thats tomorrows breakfast sorted then!

Sunday

Mum had booked us tickets for the Cinema for the morning, to see the film Home that we'd wanted to see for a while.
So we were a bit disappointed when the film started that it was in actual fact Two by Two instead.
Dad went to find out what was going on, turns out there were technical difficulties with Home so we got this instead.  Nice of them to tell us in advance?
Anyway, the film was good and we really rather enjoyed it.
I had a haircut afterwards.
And I crusied the Kennet Centre on my Heely's as I didn't fancy a haircut.
We spent the rest of the day in a homework nightmare, as usual we have been putting it off until the last minute.

In the evening it was the last ever episode of Top Gear, I loved it but was pretty sad it won't be on anymore....although the repeats on Dave will go on for all eternity i'm sure.

Monday

We're having international week at school.
To kick things off we were allowed to wear our holiday clothes to school.
 Which caused widespread panic as we weren't 100% certain that it was actually today and we might actually have to wear uniform after all.

We had a one off Quad kids practice after school, just for the team of year 5 and 6's that are going to the regional competion next week.  Mr Gilham has set us all the target of beating our scores from the last competition so we were out working hard at achieving that.  We were measuring and timing and everything.  There was still time to lark about with the girls though.....
After tea we went to Donnington castle for a bit of a walk and to see if the rope swings were still there.
Rubbish, I didn't want to go, booooooring.  I got accused of being a teenager.
He soon changed his tune though, a game of hide and seek and then a go on the swing changed his tune.
Yeah, it was pretty cool actually....