Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday

Ufton court then, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  The details are all a bit jumbled in tems of chronology but heres goes anyway.....

First off, I got a disapproving nod for turning up with wheelie bag....we were told not to bring them.  Still not sure why, I found dragging it around a lot easier than others seemed to humping and dumping massive holdalls around.

I was in Bouvoir room with Maddie, Betsy, Ellie and Lola.  Making our own beds was a lot of fun and not as hard as I first feared.  We stayed up chatting rather late on the first night of course.....

The highlight of the trip was the banquet I suppose, we got dressed up:

I got a lovely purple dress to wear, I looked the part but it was pretty itchy:

No one seemed to want to eat the chicken legs on the banquet table, suited me fine as I got stuck in, I finished off two easily before starting on the cabbage that no one else seemed to be interested in either.  It wasn't as good as sprouts though....

After the food it was time for dancing, Daniel was the lucky chap that got to dance with me.

In terms of the activities, I think my favourite was the wattling (willow stick weaving), closely followed by the archery.  My fagranced posy bag was also a real triumph and smelt genuinely pleasant, like a fresh pine forest.

We got picked up on Wednesday, just after lunch.  Fun as it had been I was very pleased to see Mum and Dad arrive to collect me, I had a bit of a headache and was starting to miss home just a little bit.  Mum sat in the back with me on the way home at my request....

Thursday

Ned's Rugby was cancelled thank god, it meant we could stay in, in the warm and binge watch all the episodes of I'm a celebrity I had missed while I was away.

Mum went out for a curry with the quiz team to spend some of their winnings so it was left for me to help Dad put the food order away.  He does need help with it......

Friday

Back to our full on regime after a day laying low to get over Ufton, after school football, on to gymnastics (complete with seriously bad traffic due to the races being on) and then pick up Sasha for a sleepover!  Seriously exciting, we did each others hair, we played, we did some fashion design drawings and we worked on our play we are still hoping to put on some time in the future (script and costumes mostly).  We retired to my room to watch Kung Fu Panda 3 and finally fell quiet, i'm informed at 12:20.......

Saturday

Unsurprisingly Sasha and I had a bit of a lie in.  We took a late breakfast and spent the entire morning doing make up and nail painting:

We dropped Sasha off at home and the headed into town for a late lunch at the Spons (cheese and ham panin) and a bit of shopping.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening waiting for Alan and Nate to not turn up.

Sunday

So this one had been on the backburner for a while, a day trip to London.  By the time we'd got out of bed and got ourselves together and made our way East we decided to kick things off with a picnic in Regents Park:

So yeah, picnic not just for the summer.  It was a little bit cold but pretty nice all the same.

We were over this side of town to visit Madame Tussauds, a strange idea of a place if you ask me, a load of dummies of famous people?  First up Bieber:

Their were a whole load of film stars I hadn't heard of or didn't recognise as well.

I knew who this chap was though:

Ned seemed to abandon his strong republican views pretty quickly for this one:

And 1D gained a couple of extra members:

And we got to hang out with this guy:

The visit was completed by a Marvel Superhero film in the 4D cinema, which everyone else seemed to love but I wasn't so sure....

The initial plan was to go on the London Eye though, so we made our way across London, taking in the sights and the sounds as we went, before ending up on the Southbank.  There was a Christmas market on, but more importantly there was the highest chair-o-planes we had ever seen (just visible in the background):

I was desperate to have a go, so we went to investigate.  Dad was secretly hoping it would be prohibitively expensive I think so he wouldn't have to go on it without losing face.  Mum and I were dead keen though and with Ned wavering 50/50 (probably because he's so stingy) it was a done deal we were going on.  I was so excited and couldn't wait to get 55 metres up for a swing round.  We made our ascent high above the market, we could see out right over the London roof tops as we whizzed round and round.  I sat with Mum and she loved it as much as me, not sure about the boys though?  It was cold up there though, and pretty windy.  We were buzzing when we got back down to earth.

So next up the London Eye, we'd timed it to perfection as the sun had just gone down and the skyline was lit up.  There was also no queue to speak of and we pretty much walked straight on.

The view of the ride we had just been on was pretty cool:

As was the houses of parliament:

It was pretty slow compared to the chair-o-planes, but we did get to take in the view and spot the famous landmarks.

Once we were off Mum decided that she wanted to see some Christmas lights so we haphazardly made our way to Regents Street, via McDonalds and a quick size testing mission for the bikes:

Quite honestly I was flagging quite badly and could have done without it.  Having said that it was probably worth the effort.  There was a huge projector onto the side of building with a video of Santa climbing up the side and hanging on to the window ledges and some amazing angels hanging over the street:

So Mum was happy with that and we could finally go home....

Monday

Back to school, and Mum got asked to accompany us on yet another school trip as a parent helper.......it's starting to grate a little bit, she's cramping my style!

Wednesday

This weeks big academic news, I finally passed the last of my times tables when I passed my 12's.  All the practice with Mum has paid off, she was particularly pleased as she really thinks I finally understand the mechanics of numbers at long last rather than just reciting it parrot fashion.  I suppose we shall see soon enough as bow I have to move on to mixed tables, scattergunned around all of them.

Rugby was rained off half way through after school, we toughed it out for a long time in the rain before heading in to watch some Rugby on the internet on the big screen in the classroom until it was time to be collected.

Friday

Well it was one of lifes more difficult days on Friday as we said our goodbyes to Auntie Gail.  Some of my finest dress/bag combo's are down to her and her shopping skills.  Although we didn't see her all that often, everytime we did she was always loved to hear what we'd been up to and find out where she might have been lately (she had even more holidays than us I reckon).

Saturday

Mum was keen to get outside and do something, after a few false starts and minor sulks about various ideas we settled on a bike ride.  We did a route down to the canal and then around the back via some pretty muddy paths eventually ending up in Northcroft.
It was pretty interesting on the way, we loved exploring the old disused railway line route:

We went home and had a nice hot chocolate before heading out to Roller-skating for the first time in months.  It was a shame none of my friends were there....

Sunday

We had our first Sportshall athletics meeting today, we missed the one back in October as we were on holiday.
We had a good day and enjoyed ourselves, but it's fair to say our performances didn't exactly set the world on fire.
When we got home it was time for me to get packing:

I had the small matter of my first school residential trip, a couple of nights away at Ufton Court.  There was a flurry of activity to get my clothes sorted, named and packed....I was so excited!


Monday

The big day had finally arrived, Ufton Court trip!  We were taking Sasha and Lilly over with us in the car so we all congregated at home before we set off......i'll fill you in next time!

Tuesday

Today was parents evening, my first one with Mr Toal.  It went extremely well, apart from the usual issues...too much talking and too long to settle. Other than that though it was all good.  I've shown an improvement in all areas of work as well as being more forthcoming during class discussions which is earning me a stack of house-points.

Thursday

I had to go and watch Ned play Rugby again, not fair, I hate it.

Having said that, it was good to see his team give Trinity an absoloute thrashing in their first league game of the season.

We had a quick dash to Sports Direct straight after to get me a nice undergarment for my football kit to get me through the winter.

We played a card game called Newmarket after tea, apparently its a bit of a classic? Anyway, we loved it and I won a small fortune in coppers!  Well over a quid infact, I was thrilled.

Friday

We had an after school football match against St. Gabriels......they are brilliant at netball so we were expecting a tough game.  It's fair to say it was a bit of a one sided affair......we won 7-2!  I only played the second half, and although I might not be the most confident player on the ball my positioning was good, I marked well and even had a very good shot on goal saved.  It was a great game and we really enjoyed it.  I was buzzing for some time actually...

Andy came round in the evening to watch the England vs Scotland game which was good as he could answer all of Ned's football questions.  The game wasn't as good as ours was earlier though!

Saturday

It was a right old bake off in the morning, Dad made a loaf of bread (we had it for lunch, it was pretty good actually) and Ned decided he would make a marble cake (which was fantastic).

I went off to Sasha's in the afternoon, we did hair and make up and worked on our play thats currently in the planning/pre-production stages.

Nate came for a visit in the evening, he had some tea with us too whch was lovely.  He's getting on really well and knows loads of words now!

Sunday

After a bit of a 'discussion' we settled on Swimming for todays activity.  With the Coral Reef still being closed it was a no brainer to go to the Oasis.  It was really good fun and really quiet too so we got loads of goes on the slides.

We dropped into Marlbrough on the way home to purchase advent calendars!  Yes it's coming round to that time of year again already.

Bit more Newmarket, Ned took the majority of the spoils this time so that helped even things out a bit!

Monday

Football skills session after school with coach Ned in the garden.  The ball only went over the fence once so I must be getting better.....

Then it was a homework marathon, before we got to watch the repeat of the opening show of I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, which of course we loved it, even though the proper trials haven't even really kicked in yet.  

Tuesday

Back to school after our holidays, always sort if exciting to catch up with everyone again.

The really prominent area of excitement this term is of course our upcoming residential trip to Ufton Court.

Wednesday

We managed to get mum and dad to not take us to Team Kennet tonight, we were still really tired from holiday.  We had pizza that Ned made in food tech for tea, and it was seriously impressve, proper delicious!  We then caught up on a few episodes of that Hunted show that's been on channel 4, including the final.  We were so pleased that two people won the money.  I've never seen Ned so excitable about a tv show!

Thursday

Darcey came home with us after school, we hd a lovely time with the Zooblies until Laura came to pick her up......she wasn't that keen to leave!

Friday

After school football, and I had a renewed sense of purpose about me this week, amazing what a difference it makes when the next match team is about to be picked.

We had a quick change then off the gmnastics before rushng home again as it was school fireworks night:

It had been raining hard all day so Mr Jones had a real job on his hands to get the bonfire lit. As you can see he didn't let us down!

The hot dogs from the bbq were great, the fireworks themselves were great, so an all round top evening!

Saturday

Early morning on a saturday, Ned in school uniform? Can only mean Ned's rugby season is back in full swing.  At least it was a home game I suppose.  I wrapped up warm and took a fold up camping chair with me, prepared or what!

They were playing a posh school from Reading and to be honest it was a bit one sided in favour of the visitors.  Until Ned scored a great try, we were as thrilled as he was! It started a mini revival, albeit shortlived.  The post match catering was very good and I got to sample the delights of malted milk biscuits for the first time.

We had lunch (I decided to try a pot noodle, only managed half of it, shant have another one) then set off for Kingston to get Ned some new school shoes.  We visited the shop we got them from last time, they had the exact same shoes but he wasn't sure he wanted another pair.  We trawled around every shoe shop in the town before, you guessed it, we went back to the first shop and got another pair exactly the same as his old ones....

I won't complain though, I got to bolster my wardrobe a bit too. When we went back to the car which was parked on the top floor of the multi storey carpark, it was dark, and as it was Guy Fawkes night there were fireworks going off all over the London skyline.  We also saw plenty on the drive home which livened up another potentially dull old drive.

Sunday

For some unknown reason Dad had signed up for a downhill race at the Tidworth Bikepark. So he set off early doors to get a bit of practice in leaving us lot in bed.  I didn't escape the whole debacle though as Mum and Ned were quite keen to go along, it turned out Andy did too so he dropped by and picked us up.  It as a cold, bright day so we had to wrap up warm, Mum criticised my choice of socks to be worm in conjunction with my wellies.....I called her 'Miss perfect pants' as she's always right and knows best.

Anyway, we got there in time for the race runs to start and met up with Dad who had survived practice intact.

We made our way to the steepest part of the course where quite a big crown had gathered with a range of noise making devices from cow bells to revving chainless chainsaws.  It was a right old racket.

Unlike everyone else, I didnt particularly relish the thought of watching anyone come a crooper though.

It was ages before Dad came down, to be fair he looked like he was having a fair crack at it and managed to escape any major heckling by staying upright.

I thought that would be it and we could get off home now....no such luck he had a second run and we had to stay for that.....urghh.  Even the extensive selection of dogs wasn't enough to keep me interested.  Having said that, we did enjoy Dad's second run and he really did seem to be enjoying himself.

Ned decided to share his pizza making secrets with me when we got home and we made tea between us.  It was a great sucess too, another round of delicious, homemade pizza!

Monday

I had a surprise when I got home from school:

Ned home from school early and poorly on the sofa: 

Tuesday 18th
Bread making for homework this week, proper last minute of course as always.  Here's my rolls, pre-rise:

There aren't any post rise or indeed baked pictures as it was eaten pretty swiftly.

Wednesday 19th
Tag rugby went well this week, we did a bit more structured practice stuff and I outdid the boys on many occasions which has helped my confidence no end.

Friday 21st
Last day of term, yay, how exciting.  Gave gymnastics a miss and used my time more wisely, getting ready for tomorrow....

Saturday 22nd
Holiday time!

A return trip to Fuerteventura, and rather weirdly the flight was at a civilsed time (midday) and on a  Saturday.  Unprecedented scenes.

We met up with Kimi, Marny, Abi and Faye and their associated adults at Andy's and headed for Gatwick.  It was Abi and Fayes first flight and they were pretty excited, I made sure Faye was looked after:

Things got off to a great start when the lady on security waved us through the 'Premium' lane, dodging the worst of the queues:

We got through quickly and had time for a meal at the Wetherspoons as it was very nearly lunchtime.

Then it was time to wait for a bit:

We soon saw the plane taxi down the runway and dock at our boarding gate and very soon after it was time to board.

The flight seemed to pass really quickly this time and we were soon flying over the parched, dry looking landscape, littered with enticing looking swimming pools from above.  We had a longer than usual wait to pick up our hire car before we could get on our way to the villa and by the time we got there it was already dark.  Didn't stop us from having our now customary dip in the pool of course efore heading to bed.

Sunday 23rd
What better way to kick off our holiday than a sunny day by the pool, Ned seemed to feel at home rather quickly:

Faye and I did too:

It was hard work though:

We took a drive out to the beach in our super cool hire car:

A Fiat Doblo no less, maybe even brown depending on how the light caught it!

We went for a brief dip in the sea, well it would have rude not o after all.  We didn't see much in the way of fish when we were snorkelling, probably because the sea was pretty rough and the sand got swirled up.

You do see the strangest things in car parks though....

The weather closed in a bit in the late afternoon and it got a bit wet.  We thought it had eased off and started walking down to the village for a meal out.  It started lashing it down though, so we decided to hot foot it back to the villa until it eased off enough to make another trip a bit later on.

We sat out the back, andthere was enough rain still coming down off the roof that it wasdripping through the awning and onto the floor.

Monday 24th
The rain carried on and off through the night, come morning time we had a few new interior water features:

The rest of the day was sunny and warm thugh, we hung out bythe pool and enjoyed the sunshine.

Tuesday 25th
It was pretty overcast but still lovely and warm, we went to the beach to try another spot of snorkelling but despite finding a lovely calm cove, out to sea was seriously wild.  The waves were truly massive which meant the visibilty in the water wasn't great.  We had a nice splash about and then, under foreman Ned's guidance built a lovely volcanic rock wall/windbreak/footings of a hut.  We employed Dad, Nick and Ben to shift the really heavy slabs and Faye kept them all busy by finding partially submerged rocks that need ped a lot of excavation. 

We took a trip out to the furthest point at the lighthouse and enjoyed the sight of the epic waves.  Ned and Abi decided they would add their effort to the landscape, litterd with similar constructions:

Wednesday 26th
We 'd managed to wear the grown ups down eventually, today was to be early Halloween!

Art club was in full effect, getting as many extra dcorations ready as we could manage with our supplies:

While the boys enjoyed the pool, Ned no doubt saving his energy for the main event later on our 2 euro lilo's:

We took a trip out to the East coast across the dunes looking for waves.  Ned, Dad and Andy went for a surf, while Mum and I stayed in the car, I was tired and it looked a bit grey overhead.  We made the right call, it soon went from grey to almost black as the clouds gathered and the rain came down.  They didn't seem to mind in the sea as they were wet anyway.  The lightning and thunder that soon followed was a different kettle of fish and they were soon back at the car trying desperatley hard to get dryand get dressed in a serious downpour which stopped as quickly as it stared.

It had all blown over by the time we got back to the villa and we were treated to a lovely sunset:

Then the most anticipated event of the week, the great halloween sweet hunt.  Being such a big villa there were a lot of hiding places to search, we left very few stones keft unturned!

We were 'contained' in a bedroom until it was time for us to be unleashed:

We amassed quite a haul:

And there were even a few left overs that had to be divvied up:

It was rather tiring work:

Thursday 27th
I felt a bit ropey overnight (not down to overindulgence on halloween sweets I might add) so it was touch and go as to whether or not I wanted to go to the waterpark as planned.  In the end I decided I would go for it.  Although I wasn't on top form I enjoyed myself and took it much easier than I normally would and enjoyed some serious sun bed time.  The others seemed to really love it and get stuck in though which was good.

I really ought to mention my holiday romance at this point.  Charlie, the local cat.  She was so cute, so loving and so friendly that by Thursday she really felt like part of the furniture. 

 I spent hours with her, fussing her, making her beds, giving her iced water and cat treats and even making impromptu toys using a nice stick with a feather toed to the end that she loved:

Very best of all though, she didn't make me sneeze or wheeze or turn my eyes bright red!
We went out for an evening meal on the Corralejo main strip, after a few false starts we settled on a nice looking place that actually had real linen table cloths (Nick's top criteria).  So we had a proper civilised meal all together followed by a bit of late night shooping on the way back.

Friday 28th
Dad's birthday today, and only a small amount of squabbling giving him his cards and holiday present.

Then it was out for our second most hotly anticipated event of the week, Kayaking with Jorge!

After he had to cancel our trip three years ago due to thunder we were glad to have a glorious daythis time round.  We spent a while kitting up, getting a few tips on efficient paddling and then we were in the water.  I went with Dad and Ned went with Mum.  Our styles were quite a contrast, Mum and Ned opting for a strictly regimented synchronised stroke (started well, soon descended into arguments before really getting it together eventually) whereas Dad and I opted for a more telepathic and wholly more laid back approach.  Jorge complimented me on my paddling and said it was rare for a youngster like me to kick out such horsepower and not just sit back for the ride, he was very impressed with my determination.  The thing was, it was really easy to get going and glide along  the sea and I loved it.  We finished up on a tiny beach between the volcanic rocks for some snorkelling over the reef, it was teeming with fish.

A special mention to Faye for this one, she isn't that confident in the water yet but she did brilliantly on the kayak.  At one point she was so brave she even swapped boats with me while out at sea.

As it was Dad's birthday we decided it would be a good idea to get a takeaway curry.  So after he had actually ordered it himself (truly remarkable, he never uses the phone) and then gone to collect it in the car we decorated the table with the best materials we had to hand:

I think he was genuinely impressed with our efforts.

Saturday 29th
Another lazy day by the pool today, plenty of loving for Charlie the cat and time for silly selfies with Faye:

We went snorkelling down at the El Cotillo lagoons in the late afternoon. The wind was almost still and the water was crystal clear, perfect conditions.  I decided to stay on the beach and do some long jump practice instead though.  The others seemed to love it, with tales of all sorts of exotic fish and even a reasonably big ray that Mum claimed to have accidentally trodden on.

Once it got dark it was moonlight swimming, at the request of Faye who had been on about it most of the week on and off.  It was great fun, but with no outside lighting, very, very dark indeed.

Sunday 30th
The weather was seriously hot and sunny by now, Charlie was certainyl takng it easy:

We had a game of spot the Ellis in the garden:

Mum tried to hide from the relentless sun:

The pool attendant was on duty:

We headed off to the dunes in the late afternoon, it's great to run across them in the sand towards the beach.

This time we actually made it to the water and had a lovely swim on our last day.  

It'll be a while before we're back in the sea again without a wetsuit!

Some herberts had got to the sandstone though:

We had an early start to tomorrow for our journey home, so we had a mellow night:

Monday 31st
So we were up at stupid o'clock to drive to the ferry port, to catch the catamaran to Lanzarote (lovely out on the rear deck) before our minibus transfer to the airport and a super quick ( 3.5 hours) flight home to a surprisingly bright and sunny England.  We were even home int ime for Ned to go Trick or Treating with his friends, he was thrilled.