Harrods Take II

Harrods rivals Winter Wonderland when it comes to entertaining the kids.  The food displays had them in raptures and Steve diving into his wallet.  We sampled Belgian chocolates (very very high quality!) and sushi, not that the two go together that well.

Cheese, pies, sushi and marzipan fruit!

After the food halls it was up three floors to the toy department, where many of the staff demonstrate the very-latest (but very overpriced) best-selling toys on the market.  There were a lot of "Can I have......" which we fixed with the timely purchase of some sticky rock sweeties that lock the jaw for a couple of minutes at a time.

After toys it was up to the pet department, where we saw a big big dog shopping for a collar with his (presumably very wealthy) owner.  He was gorgeous, but wet and therefore a bit on the nose.  Funnily enough it was raining outside.  Have I mentioned it rains quite a bit over here?  Anyway, there he was - one gorgeous smelly dog shopping in Harrods. Love it!

Pooch shopping in Harrods, £2m diamond necklace, fine dining

We also saw a diamond necklace that I've put on order for when I win lotto.  It was a steal at £2 million pounds. The photo I took of it is rubbish - I was too busy watching out for security guards who might have thought I was being literal with the "steal" bit.  And that lovely restaurant room is one of many dining options in Harrods, others being little cafes and stands nestled within the food halls, many of which surround a "kitchen" so that guests can view the food being freshly prepared.  One stand was exclusively for oysters and champagne.  Carmel would have been in heaven!

After Harrods we had lunch with the gorgeous Miss Margot and then it was home James!  And so ended 24 fun, busy hours in London.

Winter Wonderland

Friday 23 November was a big day.  Up at 6:20am, at school by 8:00am, 5 lessons on, home by 3:40pm, packed and out of the house by 4:25pm, on the train to London at 4:57pm!  Non-stop.  Phew!

We were heading to Hyde Park to check out Winter Wonderland with Kelly and her husband Nick.  We dumped our stuff at Hotel Simeon in South Kensington and caught the tube over to the park.  Winter Wonderland has mulled wine. I was happy.

It also has rides, German sausages, a large talking tree, an outdoor ice skating rink and loads of market style stalls.  We wandered around wide-eyed, just soaking up the atmosphere.

Little M started to fade at about 8:00pm and I wasn't faring too much better, so back to the hotel and straight to bed!

What to do when the inevitable happens...

Last week, just as I was about to perform a demonstration of a precipitate reaction, the inevitable happened.  The kids had gathered around the front bench, I had finally got them quiet and then in that initial moment of silence Harry let off a loud trump (English for let rip, busted his guts, baked an air biscuit - get my drift?).

The class snickered.

Not batting an eye-lid I fixed Harry with a Bronwyn Bishop inspired death stare, put my hands on my hips, deepened my (permanent) frown lines and began a lengthy tirade into the dangers of trumping in the lab, including mention of....

noxious fumes, naked flames, possible explosion, high level of recklessness, putting classmates at risk etc etc etc.

There was silence.  They weren't quite sure how to take it, was I serious, was I not?

Inside I was killing myself.  This was a good trick and about time I got one back.

Harry lost his triumphant look, the class remained silent and without further ado I slipped neatly back into demonstration mode as though the trump had never existed.

Miss Price one, class none!  J

Jammie Dodgers - they're jamtastic!

How's that for the name of a biscuit?  And not just any biscuit, apparently Jammie Dodgers are the most popular children's sweet biscuit brand in the UK and are bought by around 30% of its households.

Jamtastic Jammies!

Jammies are made from shortbread and raspberry flavoured jam and have been produced exclusively by Burton's Biscuit Company in South Wales for the last 50 years.  I've tried to find out the history behind the name but had no luck.  They have been featured on Dr Who as one of the Dr's favourite snacks and the kids have given them the big thumbs up.

I haven't tried one yet, I think I'd rather use up my 83 calories on cheese or chocolate or perhaps on some of the mulled wine that has just starting appearing on the shelves for Christmas J.

A little gem

Here is the response I got from a Yr 8 boy who I gave a lunch time detention to.  His task was to think about his behaviour, why he had a detention and how he might improve in future.  Reading it, I marvel at his left of field thought processes, his honesty, his spelling, but most of all his "Sorry Miss, won't happen again" conclusion J.

Up for air

Ok.  My nose is only just above the water line.  I am one small step ahead of the kids and the workload required to stay there is relentless.  The classes just keep on rolling and to make matters worse some of the behaviour this week has been less than inspiring.

On Thursday I brought out the big guns, seating plans and detentions.  Not popular, but they're making my life that little bit easier.

Highlight of the week included me performing (in my opinion) a very skilful demonstration of a heart dissection.  In preparation I watched a 5 minute "How to perform a very skilful demonstration of a heart dissection" clip on youtube and then watched it again and I am now a dab hand with the surgical scissors (far preferable to a scalpel if you're planning on doing one).  Not only could I point out the 4 chambers, the thicker walls of the left ventricle, the aorta, pulmonary artery, pulmonary vein and vena cava, but yay me, also managed to find a valve (well at least something that I called a valve J).

Lowlight of the week - a stool throwing incident in my dysfunctional year 11 class.  Only 9 students, but with a Mr Steroids, a Mr Painful and a Miss Violence, the class is a bit of a nightmare.  Unfortunately after provocation (that I didn't see) Miss Violence decided to retaliate by throwing a stool at Mr Steroids.

"No, no, No, NO, NO!" I said, which was about as effective as wet toilet paper. 

Thud went the stool.

Luckily there were no injuries, as far as stool throws go it was actually quite gentle, more of a light toss.  The incident has since been reported and perhaps Mr Roids and Miss Violence will get another talking to from the Deputy Head about what is and isn't appropriate behaviour in class.

And would you believe it but I am now 33.33% of my way through my 6 week stint at St Joseph's, each additional day is another 3.33%, not that I'm keeping tabs of course J.

Guy Fawkes night

No sooner had we arrived back at Billericay, we were out the door again.  This time to the Billericay Bonfire Night, one of thousands of bonfires held throughout the country to commemorate Guy Fawkes and the failed Gunpowder Plot way back on November 5 1605.

As background.....

After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, English Catholics who had been persecuted under her rule had hoped that her successor, James I, would be more tolerant of their religion. James I had, after all, had a Catholic mother. Unfortunately, James did not turn out to be more tolerant than Elizabeth and a number of young men, 13 to be exact, decided that strong action was called for.

A small group took shape, under the leadership of Robert Catesby, who formulated a plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament. In doing so, they would kill the King, maybe even the Prince of Wales, and the Members of Parliament who were making life difficult for the Catholics.

To carry out their plan, the conspirators got hold of 36 barrels of gunpowder - and stored them in a cellar, just under the House of Lords.

But as the group worked on the plot, it became clear that innocent people would be hurt or killed in the attack, including some people who even fought for more rights for Catholics. Some of the plotters started having second thoughts. One of the group members felt so strongly he sent an anonymous letter warning his friend, Lord Monteagle, to stay away from the Parliament on November 5th.

The warning letter reached the King, and the King's forces made plans to stop the conspirators.

Guy Fawkes, who was in the cellar of the parliament with the 36 barrels of gunpowder when the authorities stormed it in the early hours of November 5th, was caught, tortured and executed.

It's unclear if the conspirators would ever have been able to pull off their plan to blow up the Parliament even if they had not been betrayed. Some have suggested that the gunpowder itself was so old as to be useless.

Even for the period which was notoriously unstable, the Gunpowder Plot struck a very profound chord for the people of England. In fact, even today, the reigning monarch only enters the Parliament once a year, on what is called "the State Opening of Parliament". Prior to the Opening, and according to custom, the Yeomen of the Guard search the cellars of the Palace of Westminster.

On the very night that the Gunpowder Plot was foiled, on November 5th, 1605, bonfires were set alight to celebrate the safety of the King. Since then, November 5th has become known as Bonfire Night and is traditionally celebrated with fireworks and burning effigies of Guy Fawkes.

Billericay Bonfire Night 3 Nov.  L-R Burning the effigy, lighting the bonfire, Emily's light-up hair
spectacular fireworks, the massive bonfire flame that looks a bit like a dancing chicken.

I loved learning about the history of this night.  Plus I now want to watch the movie V for Vendetta, which apparently is all about Guy Fawkes and the events leading to the failed Gunpowder Plot.

The magnificent Lake District

This post is all about the scenery.  The pictures were as we travelled between Keswick and Kendal, and via the towns of Grasmere, Windermere, Ambleside and Conniston.  Most were taken after stopping on the side of the road, or doing a u-turn and then stopping on the side of the road!  Stunning scenery like this demands u-turns and random stops and I'm hoping the pictures will speak for themselves....

And my favourite photo of all, taken just after leaving Windermere and heading towards Conniston..

Halloween Part 2

And then it was on to part 2 of the Halloween adventure, made all the more special and memorable by the remarkable Ena, owner of the hotel we were staying at.  Ena, and her husband Steve, made our stay at Lynbank one that we will all remember. Firstly Steve is an ex chef and the two dinners we had at the hotel were exceptional.  Ena is Dutch and was welcoming and friendly from the moment we arrived.  She has a special way with children and had them enthralled with her stories from the word go.

Ena is also creative and she had a plan for Halloween.  It went a bit like this....

After dinner, there we were relaxing in the lounge room. the kids happily inspecting, sorting, counting and re-counting their sweetie haul from the just completed round of trick or treating.  All was good, all was peaceful.

Then there was the sound of a bell ringing and into the hotel waltzes this crazy woman, announcing in a loud voice that she is Russian and needs a room for the night.  Let's call her Svetlana. By this time the kids had stopped sorting and were having a bit of a squizzie at who was causing the commotion.

Then into the lounge she barges buck-toothed, black haired, chubby, big black boots and a wildly waving walking stick.  And she was talking non-stop, on and on and on she went.  Difficult to understand, but we got the idea she was staying and she was cold and weary from her travels.

By this time the kids, all of their own accord, had very quietly and very discretely packed up their goodies and were sitting silently on the couch.

Svetlana then proceeded to order her dinner - soup - which she enriched with a few of her own ingredients - spiders, bugs and beetles.  All the while she nattered loudly and to nobody in particular, something about a broomstick and frogs, it was hard to catch all of it.  To the discerning eye there may have been a bit of slippage of the buck-teeth and to the keen ear there may have been a bit of a return of a Dutch accent....

But the kids still sat quiet as mice on the couch...

...until they jumped a mile...Svetlana was asking a favour.  Her boots were too tight...could they go up to her room and get her slippers.  Nobody moved.  Emily visibly shrank and the boys were silent.  Accompanied by Steve, up they went to room number 5 to retrieve the slippers.  I later found out the room had an open spider-filled spell book and strange potion bottles by the bed.  Apparently the boys were very reluctant to enter the room and in a great rush to leave.

With the arrival of her slippers, Sveltana not only took off her boots, but commenced a strange witchy sort of striptease.  Off came the coat....

The kids were back on the couch....staring....silent....

Then, good grief, out fell the teeth (not actually part of the plan but very funny) and the accidental knicker reveal after the inadvertent removal of too many layers of clothes (again not actually part of the plan but very VERY funny) until it became obvious that the crazy Svetlana was ......

.....none other than the lovely Ena!

A prank!  

The kids loved it.  

They laughed  and laughed.

Steve and I laughed and laughed

Crazy Svetlana/Ena laughed and laughed.

And I'm still laughing as I write this two nights later J

Top L to R. Silent children on the couch, the unveil begins, smiles at the end. off with the wig.

The lovely Ena as she usually looks.

Halloween Part 1

Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity, life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. It is thought to have originated with ancient Celtic festivals, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints and martyrs; the holiday, All Saints’ Day, incorporated some of the Celtic traditions. The evening before was known as All Hallows’ Eve, later shortened to Halloween.

And so were the origins of the highly commercialised event we celebrate today.  It was the kids first real Halloween celebration and they were not disappointed. 

It started with getting dressed up.  Funnily enough the weather was terrible.  Cold and rainy, and while that would quite easily have stopped Steve and I, it did nothing to dampen the excitement and enthusiasm of witch Emily and horrendously ugly faced skeletons Daniel and Jeremy.

Armed with buckets they set off.  Only problem was our hotel was right on the A7 and there were very few houses around.  Not to worry though, the 7 or 8 that we visited were stocked up and ready.  Out came the sweeties, and the pound coins and the pre-prepared Halloween wrapped lolly bags.  The kids cleaned up.  

Steve and I waited in the background in the cold and rain, but were cheered by the warm and generous reception our wee ghouls got as they knocked upon each door.

Then it was back to the hotel to examine the takings....

Trick or Treating

Vindolanda

Today we went to Hadrian's wall and the edge of the Roman empire as it existed 2000 years ago.

Love this photo of the kids loving Vindolanda

By the time he became Emperor in 117AD Hadrian chose not to continue expanding the Roman Empire he inherited, but instead focussed on consolidating its boundaries. He visited Britain in 122AD, and ordered a wall to be built over the 74 miles stretching between the Solway Firth in the West and the River Tyne in the east.  He did this to separate his Roman people from the Scottish Barbarians in the North that had proven so difficult to conquer.

Roman occupation of Britain began long before Hadrian's time, with Julius Caesar's initial invasion of Southern England in 55BC.  At this time the British Isles, like much of mainland Europe, was inhabited by Celtic tribes, loosely united by a similar language and culture but nevertheless each distinct.  Despite being victorious in battle, Caesar withdrew back to Rome, but not before establishing treaties and alliances with the Celtic people. Thus was the beginning of some 400 years of Roman occupation of Britain.

The Vindolanda fort we visited today was one of the Roman's most northern military strongholds and was built some 60 years before Hadrian's Wall.  The ruins which you see below are of the final of a string of forts built on the site between the first and third centuries AD. Beneath it lie up to 12 earlier forts, including ones made from both stone and timber, with the earliest dating back to 80AD.

As it stands today and an artist's impression of Vindolanda 2000 years ago

So, why so many forts? Vindolanda was inhabited on and off for over 300 years, during this time forts were knocked down for renovation and expansion.  When garrisons moved, the forts they left behind were largely destroyed so they couldn't be used by hostile forces. The new garrison would lay turf and clay on the old ruins, and then build up again from there.

Over 300 years of occupation, parts of the fort site were built up as high as 20 feet over the original AD80 levels.  In the waterlogged anaerobic environment the buried ruins didn’t decay and a huge number of artefacts that would normally have long disintegrated have been found at Vindolanda, including leather shoes, wooden tools and the famous Vindolanda writing tablets that provide such an incredible insight into Roman life almost 2000 years ago.

Frontier town

The top photo is a reconstruction, partly built to show how much the buildings subside on the
wet soggy ground over time.

An added bonus, Vindolanda is in the midst of stunning countryside....

And the museum housing artefacts excavated from the site is the gorgeous building over the bridge.  

Museum next to the ruins of the fort 

If you are planning a trip over here and have an interest in Roman history, then this most definitely is the place for you.

Scarborough to Carlisle ...

..... via the Yorkshire Moors.

Once again Brian has provided us with some top travel tips that we followed until the light faded, at which point the moors started to seem a bit desolate and foreboding and we hightailed it on to the motorway for Carlisle pronto!

Leaving Scarborough, our first port of call was Ebberston.  Just a quick stop, mainly to take a few pictures because it was pretty and the sky was blue!

Ebberston main street

And then it was on to the delightful Thornton le Dale, with it's lovely Autumn colours and beautiful houses, hotels......

and this gorgeous old thatched cottage.....

After Thornton le Dale it was on to Pickering, where we discovered some fabulous bakeries and indulged in a Yorkshire curd tart, a caramel custard donut and not one, but two brilliant vanilla slices!  Mmm Mmm.  Plus we found Em a new scarf.

Note the dogs welcome bit on the sign, wish we had Lucy Loo :)

Helmsley was the next stop with a visit to the ruins of Helmsley Castle, where the kids ran and ran and ran.  Jeremy, who had to be coaxed out of the car, was the keenest of all........

Although it was cold, the kids soon warmed up with all the running, climbing and jumping that went on.

But who exactly lived in a castle like this?

And one final picture of the castle

The surrounding Autumn trees were stunning.  Autumn is my favourite season and this is exactly why.

Autumn colours

And our last stop for the day was the moated Middleham Castle, dating back to the 12th Century and once home to Richard III.  

Middleham Castle with statue of Richard 111

It was such a pity the weather was poor, with the grey skies and the end of daylight savings we started to lose light around 3:30pm, just as we drove through some of the most stunning scenery imaginable.  All this means is we will have to come back in summer!

ps - thanks for the itinerary Brian, it worked a treat J