Nedster's World now featuring Ellis!

Tuesday
It was badge week at gymnastics, but there must have been some sort of mix up so I got tested for a badge that i'd already got.  I was rather displeased about that as you can imagine.  Mum set it all straight hopefully by emailing them a full list of my achievements...... 

Wednesday
It was the first Team Kennet indoor session of the season, I prefer the indoor sports hall stuff as there's no 600 metres!  It was pretty cool doing it all in Ned's proper school hall as well, moreso for him than me I think?

Thursday
We had sonething to look forward to after school, a trip to the dentist!  I think for tye first time ever neither one of us got any sort of negative comment regarding our brushing skills this time.

Friday
I was at fever pitch levels of excitement today, our trip to France was finally upon us.  We'd seen a CBBC show called All over the place where they had ridden on a massive mechanical elephant someplace in France.  It looked epic, and because Mum is a little bit epic too she had managed to sort us out a trip there (with a bit of help from Dad).

All I had to do was get through my school day first.....

As soon as we were finished with school we bundled in the car and set off for Gatwick, hoping the traffic woukdn't be too bad.  It wasn't and we were actually early.  Just as well we were too as the fancy meet and greet parking that Dad had stumped up for in an effort to streamline the whole operation and save us time didn't quite work out like that as it took a while to sort out.

Seeing as we had no baggage to check in or anything we just went through security and had time to have a meal in the pub, Ned certainly approved of his Eton Mess!

So after a nice leisurely meal we thought we'd see if the plane was boarding...it wasn't, there was a two hour delay.....not good.  Especially as France is an hour ahead and we weren't going to land until 11pm local time.

Anyway, once we did take off the flight went very quickly and we were soon touching down in France.  We had no baggage to collect so it was straight to a taxi and into Nantes.  We were dropped off by the taxi driver in the vague location of our flat (which was in a pedestrianised area as it turns out). We wandered around for a bit trying to find it, called the lady that was supposed to be meeting us there but the phone didn't work......it was pushing on for midnight by this point and things weren't looking too good really.  Then, out of nowhere a rather stylish french lady appeared asking us if we looked lost!  She studied our paperwork and tried to work out where we should be headed.  She said that if she couldn't get us to the flat we could stay with her as she had plenty of room at her place!  She tried to ring the number on our paperwork and she got through, result.  They waffled on in French for a bit and she gesticulated to follow her up the square where we could see a waving figure two floors up, she'd found it!  It was a place we'd already consideed but with about twenty doorbells on the keypad were unsure of which one to press.  We thanked her wholeheartedly for her assistance and she assured us we'd have a lovely time in Nantes, even if she was a bit unsure of sending us down a pretty grim looking alleyway to the rear steps up to the flat:

As grim as the alleyway may have been, the flat more than made up for it, it was well smart. Late as it was we were still pretty excited about it and more thsn a bit relieved to get to bed at last.

Saturday
So our beds, they were so epic!  I took this rather smart 'pod' type thing, complete with lighting, shelves and a fully enclosed curtain:

I loved it, I thought it was the coolest thing ever and had a lovely sleep.

Ned took the sofa bed, right by the window overlooking the sqaure down below:

While Mum and Dad had this upstairs one, like some sort of castle rampart:

We had to be up relatively early as we had a 10 am appointment with the reason for the entire trip.  France looked to be just waking up as we made our way through the squares, a busy market and along the banks of the Loire:

It wasn't far to walk and we were soon waiting for the elephant to appear.
We didn't have to wait long, I think Ned's worried it was going to creep up on him:

There wasn't much chance of that, it wasn't exactly fast!  It was however truly massive:

He parked up and made himself ready for his trip:

We couldn't wait to get on board and Ned made sure we were right at the front of the queue so we got prime spot at the front of his upper deck.  He's really good at that sort of thing, working out what he wants to do and then carrying it out in a subtle sort of way without being too pushy.  

Here he is, in all his glory, you can see us, tiny against his front leg:

It was really cool plodding around, there were so many people taking pictures from the ground it was like being famous!

As well as the upstairs deck there was a inside bit down below, you could see all his workings and controls as well as down to his legs and feet clomping on the ground.

It took him nearly half an hour to make his way over to the carousel where we got off.  So that was the main part of the trip mission accomplished.
We hadn't thought much about the Carousel to be honest, but it turned out to be even better than the elephant!  Spread over three levels it was quite simply amazing.  The top layer had all sorts of weird creatures on it with varying attributes.

The second layer was suspended vehicles of various mechanical properties and the bottom layer was a member mixture of creatures and machines.  We had two goes each on any layer we wanted.  We decided on the top floor where Ned and I teamed up on a rather splendid dragon creature where i got to control the smoke coming out of his mouth.  Mum and Dad chose a pair of galloping horse-fish things with wobbly heads.  Quite quite mad.

We gave the middle layer a miss and headed to the bottom floor.  I chose a crab, it had at least five levers that you could control his pincers and legs and goodness knows what else.  The ride attendants were brilliant as well, they fully explained every lever and told me what everything did before the ride started.

The others opted for a fish diving bell, lured in no small part by the fact it actually went completely down underneath the floor and then the trap door it went through closed up over the top again:

Ned said you could control his eyes, his mouth, his fins and his tail.

Here's my epic crab:

I loved it so much, it was way better than a diving fish.

So, the carousel was completely brilliant:

The branch was next on the explore list, a weird metal tree with plants all along it.

It was a lovely thing to explore:

The gift shop didn't seem to have much in it at first glance but I eventually found this rather lovely tin carousel:

It went round at a hell of a speed, we all decided we wouldn't like to ride on it very much.
We wandered back across the island, played on the park for a bit and then got invited to shoot some hoops with a French bloke who was playing on his own.

We wandered back to the aprtment via the supermarket (bit of a jaunt, Dad's map was pretty wafty). to pick up some lunch supplies.

We sat in the apartment eating cheese and baugettes like proper french people.

I pottered around the appartment for the afternoon, hiding in my cool bed, fiddling with batheoom fixtures and fittings that sort of thing.  Ned Ipadded himself into oblivion while Mum and Dad had a snooze I think.

We went for a wander around the town in the afternoon, browsing shoe shops, listening  to buskers and watching a vaguely unsettling protest march.

We made a stop for pizza at a funny little place in a side street.  They had no tables left inside so outdoors it was.  It wasn't actually as cold as i'm making it look here:

It was a funntpy setup, the waiters wandered around with plates full of fresh, hot pizzas with various toppings.  If you liked the look of them, you could have a slice:

My favourite was the carbonara, white sauce and little bacon bits...lovely.

There was even pudding pizzas, weird or what? Chocolate, pineaple, smarties and tiramisu!

We had our fill and then retired back to the flat where I was still really excitedto get into my fantastic sleeping quarters.

Sunday
A little vely lay in in my epic bed.  Followed by a nice shower and a lovely blow dry, all set.

We were going home today so 

I helped pack and sort things out while Ned tended to his Ipad......

We nipped across the square to get a McDonalds breakfast to take back to the flat.  We were mortified to find that they only did bacon and egg mcmuffins or pancakes.....so no flat sausages. Boo.  We made do with pancakes and maple syrup instead.

Our flight wasn't until 6 in the afternoon so we had the best part of the day to enjoy still.  We made our way past a rather splendid looking chateau before arriving at the Jardin de Plantes.

We ween't sure what this was all about but Dad had seen it on trip advisor.  Turned out to be pretty cool:

There were some cute goats to fuss and feed:

and loads of weird plant sculptures:

There was a rather cool oversized bench to try out for size:

And an even bigger one:

There was a little park to play in as well:

Complete with a really funny little french lad who loved bossing us about in French.  We couldn't understand him and he couldn't understand us, but we had a laugh all the same.
We went back to the airport on the bus, we got there a bit early so sat inthe warm sunshine outside clearing up the last of our food provisions before heading for home.

The flight wasn't delayed which was a bonus and we were soo home.  Sadly the valet parking wasn't any better on the way home and we had to wait ages for our car to be returned, Mum was not happy.

One quick pitstop for a McDonalds on the way home and we were all done.  What a weekend!

Monday

I was pretty excited about school today, we had our first Sports council meeting.

Then after school Maddie and I continued our dance partnership which continues to be a lit of fun.  I think this is showing in the standards of the performance too.

Skylanders got a revival after tea as well, I forgot how cool it was.