Right, been a bit slack on the update front again, sorry.

It's been largely business as usual though, with the exception of our weekends being a lot less interesting than usual due to Ned's football commitments.  Anyway, lets get stuck in to the higligts of the last couoke of weeks shall we?

October 6th friday

Film night at school.....boss baby this time, as ever, it doesn't matter what the film is does it?

What was far more exciting though was our house guest that the others had found wandering the streets of Highclere on the way home from Ned's football training:

How cute is he? No collar so we didn't know who he belonged to, all the vets were closed for the night and Mum had a long running phone debate between Berkshire and Hampshire councils as to whose responsibility he was (as we found him just over the border in Hampshire).  The upshot of all this was simple, he'd have to stay the night!  We set about sorting out a bed for him while Dad was sent to Tesco for some dog food and a collar so we could take him outside to do his business.

He was such a good boy, loved a cuddle and a fuss and was quite happy to snuggle up on the blanket we got for him.  He wolfed his supper down when dad got home with his grub and then had a lovley game of catch with me in the lounge.....he only destroyed two tennis balls.

I went to bed as excited as I would be on christmas eve,excited to get up and make more of a fuss over our guest.

October 7th saturday

I got up nice and early to see how Kevin (as mum had taken to calling him) was......thrilled to see me was the answer.

It was still stupid early so we thought we'd take him out for a walk before taking him to the vets when it opened to see if he was chipped.

He loved it, 

We found a ball down the park, he loved chasing it and bringing it back, he was such a good lad we thought he'd be fine off the lead to give him a proper run.....he loved it.  Once he was puffed out and started slowing down a bit we bought him home, with Ned throwing the ball it wasn't a surprise he flagged eventually:

We took him up to Falkland vets and the lady on the counter said straight away that he'd been reported missing.....hus real name was Baxter!  And he had a sister called Peaches that had already been found and bought in.  I got to go out to the back room where she was to watch them get re-united.....they were so pleased to see each other it was lovely wo watch.

Just as we were leaving Baxters owner arrived, she looked like she'd had a sleepless night and said she'd been wandering around the woods until 11pm looking for him.  Apparently he likes to take off and chase deer.....

She gave Mum and cuddle and thanked her and me for looking after him....she was so happy andwe all felt good that we'd made sure he got home to his family safety.

It feels silly to say it, but I really missed him once he'd gone.....

We went round Alan and Hayley's in the evening for pizza, board games, cuddles with Joel and a lot of larking about with Nate.

October 8th Sunday

Football for Ned again....yawn.

The park is still quite good fun for his home games then.

Anne and Mike saved the day though with an invite to go over for a barbecue.  They had set up a gazebo and a lovely table and chairs set in the garden so we couod enjoy the autumn sunshine.  We had a lovely meal and a goid old catch up and Dad was ecstatic that he'd got another barbecue in before the onset of winter.

October 10thTuesday 

School photo day today, cue much preening before school!

October 13th Friday

We an open afternnon to show off what we'd done for our maths themed week.

I was especially proud of our plans for the proposed installation of a food tech kitchen for school.

We had a price list of all the kit we might like to use, measurements of the room and the items to go in it to help us devise our plans.  I took the lead within our team and really went to town, putting together a mood board with a plan view, patterns for the floor and wall tiles and a cost breakdown.

October 14th Saturday

Up early for Alton Towers, in convoy woth Andy, Nick and Abi.

It was Scarefest weekend like last year, only a bit busier so we didn't get on quite as many rides as last time, especially after we waited an hour for Rita which promptly broke down.

Having said that though, we had a great time:

We picked the pace up and got on plenty of rides before heading back to the accmodation we had booked in the enchanted village for a bit of pitstop.  

We had our evening meal in the splash landings hotel, pizza and pasta buffet...lovely, especially with thre self service mr whippy ice cream machine for pudding.

Suitably refreshed we hit the park again in the dark until 9 o'clock.

We can certainly add Galactica to our list of rides that are brilliant in the dark!

Sunday 15th October

Up early for breakfast in the Crooked Spoon, highlight being the conveyor toasting machine...loved it.

Then back to our room to freshen up:

Pack up and check out, along with a bit of a play out the front:

Before heasing back to the park for round two!

Straight to Rita.....closed again! Give that up as a bad lot and went for thirteen instead.  Despite knowing about the 'surprise' it was still vrilliant fun.

Time to get wet in the pirate galeons next:

Such fun, even if we nearly capsized wirh Dad and Andy on board providing some extra firepower.

Thought we may as well get on the rapids while we were still soggy:

But the sun soon came out and dried us off nicely:

The park as much quieter today so we got on loads of rides.....but it was soon time to go and head home.....it had been brilliant fun with the others, thanks Abi, Nick and Andy for all the laughs.

Monday 16th October

First match of the year for school football team today, away at the Willows.  

I had a bit of pep talk from mum and dad before kick off, not sure of it was that or not but I was on form today and really got stuck in.  This paid off with me scoring the first goal of the game!  An absolute howler from the half way line (smallish pitch) swerving the defenders and  finding the top corner of the goal.

My goal celebration? Total surprise actually.

We went on to win 4 - 0!

Throwback pic to my hair the day after Lily's sleepover:

Thursday 7th

Trish babysat tonight so Mum and Dad could go and see a comedian called James Acaster.  We had a lovley night, watching a documentary about ambulance drivers.  It was really interesting and there was some rather colourful language too which I obviously loved.  I got to stay up late too of course....on a school night too.

Friday

Ned's football training has changed location, Burghclere sports ground. A bit further to go but the playground is much better:

There was also a hopscotch pitch, so once Mum had gone through the rules we had a game...it was great fun too.  The hopscotch revival starts here!

Saturday

Football boot shopping for Ned......again.  His indecision meant that the 30% discount in the Nike store had ended and he would have to cough up his own hard earned money to top up what Mum and Dad were prepeared to pay.  He wasn't keen on that deal so it was back to a stalemate situation after another trip to Sports Direct turned up nothing either.  He was forced to scour the internet on the way home on his phone to try and find some.

In the afternoon we went to the Newbury Real Ale festival, for Owen's birthday.

He'd taken his inflatable pillow thing, we struggled to sufficiently inflate it as you can see:

We'd come very ill prepared, no chairs, no blanket, no real wet weather contingency equipment.  Most unlike us.

There was a few of us there, including Nate and Joel:

It did rain very briefly:

We got to hang out with Uncle Slim and Auntie Trace a bit, when they could tear themselves away from the VIP tent they'd obviously been invited too. 

And even though AC/DC tribute bands aren't really my thing, I enjoyed rocking out with the birthday boy:

It's the most we've ever seen Mum drink, she tried all of the various beers the group sampled during the day, albeit only a sip.  Re-assuringly she didn't like any of them!  We rode home, along the footpath, in the dark with only a couple of bike lights we managed to borrow from Andy.  Very poor planning on our part.

Sunday

Dad can now finally shut up and stop whingeing as he managed to ebay himself a new bike. he went off to collect it leaving the rest of us slumped around the house for the day watching catchup TV.

Monday

Team kennet for Ned again, and a wander around the common for the rest of us.  It was al lovely evening for a walk and even better one for a chat.  A quite one sided chat.....

Wednesday

Well after a full week back to school, I have only just been told off.  That's very good going by my standards.  So far so good with year 6 and Mrs Rance I reckon.

Friday

We've been very much enjoying the Crystal Maze on a Friday evening recently.  It's about the only thing Ned will sit and watch with us too so that's actually quite nice (but don't tell him I said that).  This week provided pure comedy gold when the chap taking on the 'swinging planets' had a shocker and eventually ended up on the floor, or the infinite void of space as it was referred to.  This was compounded by the same poor unfortunate tripping up some stairs between zones.  We were in tears...then uncle Alan rang up just to see if we were watching it and found it as funny as he did!

Saturday

Waitrose lunch run while Ned was playing rugby for the school (he said he wasn't going to play but they pleaded with him apparently)
I went to Lola's with Evie as well in the afternoon.  We played down the park, ate pizza and then all went rollerskating.  Brilliant.

Sunday

Ned had his first football match on sunday afternoon so we didn't do a great deal in the morning.  The match was at home so there was the good playground and the hopscotch which was a bonus.
Ned's team lost, which was a bit of a shame but he played okay by all accounts.  Mum, Dad and I did struggle to supress our laughter though at the sheer nonsensical (and very frequent) outbursts from the football dad's who were watching.......
We finished the weekend off with a meal at the 'Spoons....lovely.

Monday

Spelling's practice in full effect for this weeks spelling test.  Sometimes I even surprise myself with the words I get right.

We had a pretty wet walk around the common while Ned did even wetter sprinting.  It was pretty dark and thundery, but not a patch on the day we left Italy!

Tuesday
St Barts open evening tonight, and despite having been a number of times over the years we still went.  It was good to have afinal walk around before making my final decision next month.  We saw loads of familiar faces and sampled the delights of the food tech department.

Thursday
With open eveing season in full swing it was Park House tonight.  Again, we'd been to a whole heap of these in the last few years but we are, if nothing else, thorough!  It was really a crossing of the I's dotting of the T's exercise as i'd really already made my mind up.........

Friday
Essential friday night viewing, the crystal maze was a bit of an anti climax this week after last weeks  hilarity.

Saturday
Dad and Ned went off for a days mountain biking at some bike park or another.  Apparently the lazy gits were on an uplift day, meaning they didn't even have to ride or push their bikes to the top of the hill or anything.  Mum and I started with a delicious Mcdonalds breakfast before heading into town by bike for a bit of shopping.....lovely.

We had a nice restful afternoon waiting for the boys to return, In Ned!s case battered and grazed from a bit of an off.

It was a rapid turnaround before we headed for Pewsey carnival, with Owen, Kirsty, Laura, Darcey, Alan, Hayley, Nate and Joel, meeting up with Andy there.

It was great fun as ever, even if the procession was a little short.

We threw coins, ate candy floss and had a dance at some ofthe louder floats.

Sunday
After a bit of a late one last night, we weren't up early.  We decidd on a hearty brunch before Ned's football match, away in Andover.  I think it's fair to say the rest of the family aren't the most enthusiastic football fans but we like to support him in his endeavours.  It was a nice warm afternoon though, we took my ball and goalie gloves and did some goalkeeping practice.
We went looking for potential new mattresses for me afterwards.  My old once is seriously uncomfortable and I'm in desperate need of a new one.  We didn't find anything that was quite right so that's another few nights with the springs poking me through the night then.....
When we got home we had a very high level strategy meeting regarding putting myself forward for the house captain position.

Monday
After last nights efforts, I felt nicely relaxed and in control of the presentation I had to give to my entire house in my bid to be house captain.  I did a good job of it I thought so all I could do was wait until the votes were counted and the winner announced.....it was a very long week!


Tuesday
Finally got some movement going on the new mattress front with a visit to Mum's old shop Camps.  Bit weird going back in there after a long time but they had just the mattress for me....sadly not in stock at the shop and Mum needed to re-apply for a discount card.  So yet another few nights on the springs. 

Thursday
Well the great day was finally here, we could go and collect my new mattress.  It was rolled up really tightly in a shrink wrapped plastic bag so it was easy to get in the car, and even better to cut the bag open and free it from it's constraints and let it ping into shape:

Once it had reached it's full potential and I'd conducted a number of tests on it, most of which involved bouncing in various forms it was installed on my bed and made up.  It was the keenest I'd been to go to bed for some time.....

Friday

How about getting star of the week award in class at school this week?  And for efforts on the maths front too, I was seriously pleased about that.
I was also very happy to be voted as vice house captain, so not quite the top job but I get to wear my badge to school everyday anyway.  Job done, well done team!

Saturday

A trip to the Golfing Hole in Swindon this morning which was really good fun, despite Ned being an annoying pain in the bum on occasions:

I had Maddie's birthday party at the Pineapple Palace, for tea, cake and printing our own t-shirts.  It was great fun too, I did a horse design, adapted from a unicorn with the omission of it's horn which was great, but everyone kept thinking that I had accidentally missed it out when it was in actual fact an intentional decision.
Auntie Christine came round to babysit in the evening, it's been ages since she's been on duty so it was really nice to catch up.  She's still getting through the Cornwall sweetie bag leftovers so it was only fair we helped out with those.....


Sunday
Not much going on today, Ned played football again, boring.
Things improved considerably though when dad and I decided to make profiteroles...not bad for a first attempt and they tasted fantastic:

Monday

We had a meet the teacher evening for year 6, the usual unremarkable sort of thing but with the added bonus of the first meeting about our Rhos trip.  It sounded great and I think I'm really looking forward to it....