Shopping trip

Another quick break in London for the girls earlier this week. These seem to be happening on a regular basis now, I quite like it. The real reason we went was for Adrienne and her friend Brodie to go to a concert at the HMV forum (which used to be the Town and Country Club in my day). An obscure American band called Switchfoot were playing. Adrienne's favourite band, and she insisted on going. I didn't think letting 16 and 17 year old girls travel round London on thier own was a terribly good idea so I went too. Not to the concert of course!

I left them at the venue and me, Caitlin and Ellie went into the West End to see 'Sister Act'. When we got there we found our seats had been upgraded, which was nice. We were in the Royal Circle instead of the Upper Circle, so a much better view. It was a good show, but not as good as 'Wicked'. We arrived back in Kentish Town just as the concert finished so that worked out brillantly. We all walked back to the B&B together. B&B was a bit of a dive but the less said about that the better.

The following day was when we did our shopping. We all went into Oxford Street. Adrienne and Brodie went off and I took the others. We found the big Primark and they bought a few things. Then I bought myself a few dresses in a shop called Uniqlo. I like that shop, reasonable prices and clothes that no one else in Barnstaple will have. Our last stop was Hamleys where I managed to restrict them to only two floors and a price range of £10.

We had a late lunch (Subway) in Trafalgar Square then it was time to come home.

Sunny Weekend

Here are the highlights of our weekend in the sun!

Caitlin and I took Willow for a walk on Saturday afternoon.

Then we had a barbeque tea.

Ihad to publish this photo - rare evidence of my children actually getting on!

Today Ellie and I took Willow to the beach. She loved it but had to be restrained from abandoning us in favour of a couple with a golden retriever.

She has also had fun this morning with Ian and his dog Truffle. I didn't get my camera out but should have done cos they spent ages jumping on each other and rolling around.

Carl has spent some of the weekend digging up the patio. I wonder how long it will be before he finishes laying the decking? Anyone want to give me odds on sometime next year?

Willow goes walkies!

After weeks of waiting the puppy was finally allowed out today! And the poor little thing got dragged out three times. After the kids had gone to school I thought I'd experiment while there was peace and quiet so I walked her to the post box and back again. After some initial reservations she ambled along nicely at her own pace, but didn't want to come back. I had to practically drag her.

Then at 3.00 I decided to take her to pick Ellie up from school. I drove to the car park and walked her up the road to school. This took nearly ten minutes, but she was fussed over by everyone who met her. We waited outside the school gates for Ellie and she was fussed over some more by adults going into school and children coming out. Great! Socialisation and then some! She loved it.

After tea it was back out again for a quick walk round the block. She's getting the hang of this now. Just look at her go in the photos above. If only she would realise that she's supposed to do her business whilst out on the walk instead of waiting til she gets home.

We got a puppy!

Yes, we have a new addition to our household. And after much deliberation about a name (I wanted Dax, Adrienne liked Spock) we eventually decided on Willow.

I saw her advertised on Saturday. We went to visit in the afternoon and by the evening she was home! I must emphasize that this was not a spur of the moment decision. We've been wanting a dog for ages, had looked at a few others, but knew when we saw her that she was the one.

Appolgies for the second photo being a bit blurry. At the moment she'd either asleep, running around so fast you can't take a good photo, or we're too busy with carpet cleaner and a hot cloth to worry about taking photos!

I've heard about ten different ways to toilet train your dog in the last 48 hours, but feel free to leave me a comment about your best way. All advice gratefully received.

Things We've Been Doing

We have had a fairly relaxed Easter holiday, but have managed to do a few things as well. This is Ellie cycling down the cycle track to Fremington Quay. Caitlin came too while Adrienne entertained her friends at home with pizza and Wii.

We went to Saunton Sands one afternoon earlier this week. There was a cold wind, but they didn't mind. Caitlin tried digging to Australia, Ellie did her best to interfere, and I tried revising some Psychology - funnily enough I was reading the chapter on 'Stress'. The book could only suggest drugs or therapy as a solution, so when I got home I opted for the cheaper, quicker option and opened a bottle of beer.

Yesterday me and Ellie made a cake. It was lovely with chocolate custard.

We have also been to The Big Sheep for Francis' birthday party, and spent a day in Exeter shopping. We travelled down on the train, which I thought would be nice for a change, but it was packed and we had to stand all the way. Ellie obviously needs serious shopping training as she spent most of the time in the shops looking for somewhere to sit down. She did manage to spend a fair bit of my money though, one of her purchases being the dress she's wearing in the photo above.

We had a small bit of drama today, when a dog suddenly turned up in the garden and chased the rabbit and guinea pigs around their run for a while. The kids befriended him and attached him to a rope to try and find his owners. They eventually turned up about 45 minutes later. Caitlin was disappointed, she thought we might be able to keep him!

Easter Sunday

We've been out visiting family today. We took the kids out for some fresh air and exercise first, then stopped at Appledore for Hockings ice cream and a quick visit to see Grandad, once we'd persuade him to unlock is door and let us in!

We had a chat about computers and Ellie gave us three reditions of 'Mary had a Little Lamb' on the keyboard, then it was off to see Aunty Beth. The kids played in the garden and the grown ups discussed Dr Who over a cup of tea. It was all going well until Ellie fell off the slide. She's OK now, just a few bruises.

It's all good fun, and it stopped them OD-ing on chocolate. I wonder what I can find for them to do tomorrow. Housework perhaps?

Norway

Following on from Turkey last May, I have now visited Norway - the third leg of our project to promote international links with other schools. The last leg will be when they visit us in June. Our first stop was Tromso, inside the Artic circle. I was a bit disappointed to arrive and find hardly any snow, but didn't have to worry for too long as it came down heavily the day after we arrived. By Saturday there was loads of it. Enough so that we could go Dog Sledding. A fabulous but scary experience. We went at night, in the hopes of seeing the Northern Lights (we didn't). It was a bit of a shock to learn that after three minutes of instruction we were expected to drive the dogs ourselves. One in the sled, one on the back. It was OK until you came to a hill and had to push. It was fairly magical though - until the snow storm came. When it was my turn to drive it was almost blizzard conditions. I had to take my glasses off because they steamed up, the light on my head was failing and getting clogged up with snow, so I just had to hope that the dogs knew where they were going! I did nearly kill one when the people in front of me stopped suddenly and I didn't, but fortunately it was OK after it had been run over.

This is the view of the lake across the road from my hotel in Hamar, the second town we stayed in further to the south.

We visited an ice hotel. Caroline said "I wouldn't want to stay here - it would be cold" Duh!

And this is me on one of the rare occassions that I was upright on my ski's! I don't think I'll be booking a ski holiday any time soon, but I would love to go back to Norway - it was beautiful and the people are beautiful also!!