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....

Monday

Mum off not much doing, first day back from Cornwall and all...lots of sleep and laundry really.

Tuesday

Auntie christines for the day, we baked cookies (lovely) and watched some films, another nicely low key day. We had lunch out of course, which is always nice, this week the Flowerpot Cafe.

Wednesday

Mum off again today, cinema trip to see the new Diary of a wimpy kid film, The Long Haul.  The cast has changed from what we would call the classic line up (no doubt as they are all grown ups now).  So it wasn't quite as good as the previous films but there were still plenty of funny bits and we enjoyed it.  Lunch was a McDonalds, and of course I had to have a mcflurry now i've been made aware of their existance.  We sent Ned off home and carried on around town a bit doing a bit of girls shopping.

Thursday

KD gym camp day today, which means a lie in and then lots of cool activities.  We had a lot of races and obstacle course based stuff which I had great success at with a good lot of wins in the bag. 

Friday

Today it was Anne and Mike for company.  We went to see an outdoor theatre production of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.  We took a picnic and had a lovely day outside.  I think we all agreed ot wasn't the best production ever but we certainly enjoyed it. 

Early night needed tonight.....

Saturday

As it was a travel day.  Up early and off to Stansted Airport, ultimate destination....Lake Garda.

It was a bit later in the year than normal for our European jaunt, all Ned;'s fault with his school trip to France back in the May half term.

We were also slumming it by flying Ryanair, very unusual indeed:

But despite Mum and Dad's reservations it was really good.  Nice new plane, comfy seats and it wasn't delayed or anything.  We also had great fun mocking the seat back safety diagrams, that depicted no washing machines being allowed on board and no burgers on the emergency escape slide amongst other things.
It was one of those times when you reach the plane door and the warmth hits you....lovely.
We were soon on the road in our hire car (rather disappointingly a Nissan Qashqai, with a number of 'remodelled' features) making our way along an Italian motorway and scoffing a picnic.  It didn't take long to reach our camp site and we waited to check in with a cold drink...it was very warm.
Time to check out our accommodation and begin negotiations about the top bunk, always a tense time.
Then off to the pool complex....the slides were fantastic and it was lovely to cool off.
The only problem was we had no supplies, so a supermarket trip was called for.  Italian supermarkets shut later than those at home on a Saturday night so it was a pretty fruitless task.  We ended up in what must have been the most brightly lit out of town shopping centre that I suspect may well have been visible from space eating McDonalds.....oh dear.
Still, there was some entertainment to be had watching the locals having an al fresco line dancing event in the car park:

Sunday

Shopping trip take two, much more successful.  With our fridge full we were free to explore a bit, there were vineyards everywhere:

Then back to the pool, complete with inflatable Unicorn that had miraculously made it's way from England with us:

We found this rather amusingly named beer in the supermarket:

Ned drank most of it, but I had a couple of sips....there'll be video evidence of my reaction to it later on I'm sure....
We rounded out the day with a good few games of cards on the deck.

Monday

We'd been here a day and a half and not even set eyes on the Lake, time to remedy that with a lake tour.
We packed up a picnic and made our way up the East side, past the theme parks and campsites and traffic until it all got a bit calmer and the natural beauty took over.  It was lovely with the still water and the mountains jutting up.  It was so wide you could barely see to the other side and it looked more like the sea.  We found a place to park up and broke the supplies out for a spot of lunch:

It would have been rude not to go for a dip wouldn't it?  The water was lovely, not too cold, not too warm and we splashed about for a while, Mum stayed in for ages.

There was plenty to explore and poke at with my pokey stick I came across:

We eventually decided to dry off and get dressed and continue North, with the mountains getting higher and the lake itself getting narrower.  The town at the top of the lake, Riva Del Garda was seemingly a rather upmarket sort of place, crawling with mountainbikers, Dad's eyes were out on stalks eyeing up their bikes.

The weather was closing in a bit, with rain and cloud billowing over the looming mountains so we carried on, beginning the journey back down the East side.

There were masses of tunnels we had to go through, cutting through the mountains, some of them were really long too.  I loved it, although Ned was disappointed that revving the Nissan in such a confined space didn't produce a Top-Gear-esque roar he might have hoped for.

I needed a toilet stop, so we happened to pull in at Limone.  We knew it must have been Limone as there were ceramic lemons adorning most of the towns doorways.  Once we had seen to our business it was time to sample another ice cream:

Before surveying the inflatables on offer for use in the campsite pool.  One Lilo purchased to compliment the Unicorn and a large ring....quite the quiver of equipment to cover all eventualities.

We wandered about, admiring the speedboats moored up:

Here we are, revelling in the unity of Europe, prior to brexit:

Then made our way back to the car and headed southwards again to complete our loop of the lake.
We made it back in time for a quick bite to eat before heading out for the campsite Foam party.  None of us had to been to such an event before......I loved it!  Massive foam cannon shooting over the poolside area and music playing...brilliant.  I stayed until the bitter end, when most people had started to drift off, leaving masses of foam for Dad and I to hide in. Video to follow.....

Tuessday

We decided to explore the river Minicio by bike, ultimate destination Peschiera Del Garda, at the southern most tip of the lake.  Ned had an ulterior motive, he'd spotted an inflatable surfboard at one of the shops we'd seen on the way through in the car earlier in the week.  We hired bikes, got over the shock of how shoddy they were compared to our bikes at home and set off along the eastern bank of the river.  It was lovely in the sunshine making our way along the path enjoying the river setting.  There were a lot of fishermen who didn't seem over friendly.  We made our way the 6  km's until we got to a a rather busy looking dual carriageway, full of on oncoming traffic.  It didn't look great for cycling.  We had no choice but to backtrack past all the fisherman, back to the campsite to cross the river and ride back up the other side.  This is when we noticed the 'No cycling during fishing season' signs.....oops, no wonder they weren't exactly pleased to see us.  Especially for the second time.

We cycled the 6km's back to the campsite, then on a little bit before crossing to the western bank and riding 6km's back again to Peschiera.  It was much nicer on the other side of the river, shaded under the trees and without the nasty dual carriageway at the end.  In fact it turned into a bit of a moat, around a walled part of the town.  We rode through the gatehouse, parked up the bikes and had some well earned lunch:

We had a wander around, taking in the sights:

Vaguely heading towards where we hoped Ned's inflatable shop would be.  We were lucky and found it quite easily, bought the surfboard and returned to the bikes:

And here we are with our fresh whips (as Ned would say):

We arrived back at the campsite in great need of a post ride cool down ice cream:

And then a trip to the pool, the inflatable surfboard was great.....as long as the splashdown area was clear.....it carried some serious momentum:

Wednesday

The supermarket on site had brilliant kids shopping trolleys, despite me maybe being a little bit too old for them, I couldn't resist using one for the breakfast stuff:

We had a lazy day by the pool today, why not? The weather was lovely, the pool was fun and we had a load of inflatables to utilise.

We did take a trip up the lake again in the evening.  We'd seen a pontoon on our day trip earlier in the week and wanted to go and have a dive off it:

It was fantastic, I loved it, there will be some video later i'm sure.

We stayed ntil the sun went down behind the mountains:

Thursday
We took a drive down to Sirmionie in the morning.  In all honesty we had left it a bit late and the traffic police were stopping anyone else drive very far down as all the carparks were full.  We found the closest carpark we could and then used our one hour to walk as far as we could down the spit of land.  We never made it to the castle itself:

But we did enjoy creating some rather dubious rear window art on the Nissan:

We headed back to camp and had a go at their go-ape course:

It looked so cool with zip lines across the pool and everything.  We'd been watching it all week and it looked great fun as everyone in the pool soaked the zip wirers as they zoomed over the water.

Unfortunately though we were behind a rather fearful Italian boy......he took ages to be convinced to take on the first zipwire and seeing as we were all clipped to the safety wire we had no choice vpbut to follow him.

He was painfully slow and it turns out he was called Mario which we gleaned from his parents helpful 'encouragement' from the ground.

Ned decided to take a rest:

We we were certainly getting our moneys worth in terms of time taken!

The course itself went over the tops of the poolside sun loungers and parasols:

Mario wasn't getting any better at it and the man that ran the course had to rescue him and abseil him down from the tree to the ground.....oh dear.

Still, we cracked on:

But by the time we took on the final zipwire it had been so long since anyone had gone on it due to super Mario's slow progress that the water pistol brigade had given up and we didn't get a sniff of a soaking!
Our drinking continued:

That stuff as horrible.  Even worse than the DAB.

Ned and Dad had noticed people emptying the box that you were supposed to return your clubs and balls to once you'd finished crazy golf (after the hut had closed in the evening).

So once it was all closed up we helped ourselves and had a round:

It was okay, but the course wasn't the best and Dad totally ruined it by getting far too many hole in ones.

Friday

Our last full day, and despite the forecast saying it wasn't going to be that nice....it was!

A day at the pool where Ned finally cracked stand up surfing the long two lane slide on a lilo, top to bottom to a round of thunderous applause and whistles.  He'd also made friends with an Italian boy called Samuel and they got on like a house on fire despite the language barrier.

This left mum and dad at my disposal, I loved having time with Mum in the pool and Dad and I cracked me standing on his shoulders no handed.  The Lifeguards only seemed bothered about people trying to walk up the slides and keeping the sun beds nicely in line leaving us free to lark about as much as we liked.

We ordered pizza for tea and had it delivered by a man on his golf cart:

Saturday

Time to go home, bags packed and car loaded up:

As we drove along the motorway the bright morning sunshine began to get pushed out by ever darkening clouds...it got dark, like proper dark.  I mean, us English are used to heavy rain filled skies but this was next level, like when you see a total eclipse on the news.

The sky was lit with lightning streaking across the sky but it took a while for the rain to kick in.  Once it did, it was unbelievably heavy.  So heavy there was a good six inches of standing water on the motorway and the cars were creating a wake.  A lot of the locals parked up under bridges to take refuge but we carried on at a snails pace, wipers going as fast as they could go, still getting overtaken by lunatic German's in the outside lanes.  It didn't let up for ages and Mum warned us the flight would be seriously delayed.

We thought it was all great fun though, whooping with delight from the back seats.

It did finally ease up, just as we pulled off the motorway at the airport turning, even the dual carriageway in was flooded:

I think Dad was very relieved we had made it back to drop the car off safe and well.

We got checked in, and despite the departure lounge being flooded with rain that had obviously run off the runways the plane departed only half an hour late.

When we landed back in Stansted it was lovely and warm and sunny, a marked improvement over Italy, temporarily at least.

Sunday

A nice lay in, followed by a visit from Nate, Joel and Alan, hadn't seen them for a while so that was nice.....except for the Nerf bullet in the eye, thanks to Nate.

It was Lilly's birthday sleepover in the afternoon....a full on return from holiday.  She had ladies in to do hair and make up and we had a great time.  Lily and I managed to stay up the latest......