Barcelona - Day 1

But before we got to Barcelona, before we even left Billericay there was a major bit of excitement.

"Hey kids look - there's a great big picture of Dad."

Kids with blank looks staring straight at exhibit A below - "Where?"

Exhibit A

How they fail to see the resemblance between these silver-haired twins is beyond me.

And then, after the crowds dispersed and the autographing was over it was on to a train bound for Southend Airport.  Now Southend is a nice airport - brand new, no queues, super nice staff (even if the  security ones were as keen as mustard and gave Daniel a pat down after his zipper made a beep).  And then it was up, up and away with Easy Jet, complete with scallywag air stewards and £1 instant scratchies for sale.

After one hour 40 minutes on the plane, 26 minutes on the train, 4 minutes on the metro we arrived at our (very strange) Barcelona apartment.  Very strange because of the layout, think rabbit warren, think skinny corridors, think lots of pokey little rooms.  Itching to explore we chucked the bags on the floor and headed out the door.  The streets are rabbit-warreny just like the apartment and we wandered up and down and across and back, squizzing at this and that, heading towards a nearby supermarket.  Always interesting to check out new supermarkets and the stuff they have on sale, seems strawberries are the pick of the moment and we bought and demolished half a kilo of whoppers!

Unfortunately our first Spanish dinner was not the stupendous dining event we'd hoped for, so instead of pictures of food we have pictures of drinks - hot chocolate for Miss M .....

Miss M and her hot chocolate

.......sangria for me and a double malt beer for Steve, along with a picture of a florist and one of the less rabbit-warreny streets.

Sangria, florist, pedestrian mall and double malt beer, all within two hours of landing :)

Barcelona here we come....

Two days until we fly to Barcelona.  The kids are excited, Steve's excited, I'm excited - bring on Friday!

Hedingham Castle

Steve works on Sundays and rather than fluff around inside all day with the squids we (actually it was just me) decided it was castle viewing time - it has been a while since our last castle fix in Cardiff.  Jeremy did his usual "I don't like going to castles" whine, which got ignored until it became so irritating he got told off.

So off we set on the 36 mile journey which included at least 90 million round-abouts, well that's how it felt anyway.  Daniel got quieter and quieter in the back and then announced he felt sick.  I took one look at his face and pulled over pronto.  No vomits in the car thank you very much.  Luckily we didn't have a vomit and after a few minutes out of the car and round-about free he was right as rain.  I knew he was not faking it because his little face looked all white and really freckly as opposed to the usual all brown and slightly freckly J

We arrived at the castle grounds and headed up the hill to the keep, only to be distracted by a brilliant bird of prey show taking place on the lawn near the entrance.  On display were about 6 Harris hawks, they were flying around loose and landing on whomever looked remotely like a good perch. And anyone donning a special glove was at the top of the list.

As you can see, the kiddies all got a turn.  I didn't need one because at one stage I had a Harris hawk perched on my head.  I would have taken a self portrait of me and Mr Birdy, but the angle (shooting right up my nose) was just a little unflattering.

But it wasn't just Harris hawks on display, there were barn owls, an eagle owl, a snow owl and a peregrine falcon.  Jeremy (who doesn't like castles and didn't want to come) was in raptures and decided he'd like a pet bird when we get home (he can put it next to his rock collection!).

And then more luck - inside the keep was a man giving a talk on archery and Medieval life in general.  He also had loads of arrows on display - ones with long skinny points for piercing chain mail, ones with small cages designed to carry flaming rags, ones with big U shaped heads for felling horses (didn't like that one) and ones with big, round heads for practicing. Daniel and Jeremy were fascinated and asked question after question.

On the top floor of the keep were costumes for dress ups, Daniel and Emily had a go, but Jeremy preferred to gaze out the window hoping to see more birds of prey.  And then on the way out we went via the snowdrop walk. Next up will be the bluebell walk.  Looking forward to that one, plus the daffodils will be out soon.  Spring is just around the corner

All in all Castle  Hedigham was a good day out (hey Jem?!)

Wow

What a week!  Starting off with Jeremy being awarded Star of the Week and receiving this.......

Well done Jem Jem

And then Miss Emily (after lots of practice with Daddy) nailing her spelling test...

Go Emmy!

And then getting a call from Mr Wade, the Head Teacher of Quilters Junior School about Daniel. Here's what he had to say and Daniel's reaction as he heard it for the first time...

Go Daniel! Go Price Poppets! Whee heee!

Although in amongst all that good stuff Steve hasn't been so lucky, his knee is stingy and continues to give him gyp.  

And me - phewee - this Friday was every bit as good as last Friday was bad. Aaagh - what a fickle world school is. Oh yeah- and I've just learnt how to upload a LARGE video onto a blog. Tiddlers are easy, it's the whoppers like the one above that are a little more difficult! Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Models with attitude

Daniel and Jeremy have suddenly become fashion conscious.  I blame Reggie.  He is a hip, happening little dude who raps and wears his cap backwards.  I think he's also responsible for Daniel and Jeremy's new found interest in skinny jeans.

There we were, out shopping for tracksuit pants (can't have the poppets running around in the snow in shorts - although, if I must be honest, that's what they've been doing for the last several weeks) and Daniel shoots straight past said tracksuit pants to admire a bright red pair of skinny jeans.  After an extensive try-on session Jeremy ended up with the skinny reds (that are loose by the way - man that kid is skinny - he'd need extra extra skinny before they came anywhere near his actual leg) and Daniel got some orange-ish not quite as skinny skinnies with rolled up bottoms (apparently the very latest).

Anyway - here they are......two skinny minnies

Oozing attitude

with poses down pat

in their loose skinny jeans

Slow train wreck

That was my day yesterday. How can something so meticulously planned go so horribly wrong? I've been asking myself that question over and over. Maybe, just maybe, it's because I didn't plan on

• Tion dropping a test tube of jelly that he was asked to hold for all of 6 seconds whilst I lit a bunsen burner

• Billy and Taylor fighting over a container of moisturiser (being passed around with other items to show the recycling code on the bottom) with the end result being a fragrance-free gooey white mess all over them and the floor. Two after school detentions coming up!

• Being bombarded by an avalanche of Yr 8 excuses for why one tiny piece of homework couldn't be handed in.

• Marking what little homework was handed in only to find half did it wrong. Mental note - give gentle message to students next lesson - READ THE FRIGGEN INSTRUCTIONS!

• dealing with one bunch of kids calling another bunch of kids fatties

• having to rearrange a seating plan because Ciann and Bradley were "a bit angry" with each other

Oh - believe me - it went from bad to worse.

I had worksheets copied, put them down and couldn't find them. I had kids that couldn't find their books. I did the squeaky pop test for hydrogen when it was meant to be the glowing splint test for oxygen, luckily that little oversight was easily fixed with the "Did anyone spot my deliberate mistake?" question.

Then later when I actually had to do the squeaky pop test for hydrogen, nothing, no pop, no squeak, not even a peep. That test needs renaming to the virtually silent fizzle test for hydrogen.  That or I need a hearing aid.

Oh - and the piece de resistance. Finally leaving at 4:50pm after marking the pitiful homework - jammed my damn finger in the damn door. It was just hard enough to go slightly blue and still be a bit stingy 24 hours later (sniff sniff).

Don't get me wrong, there were some good bits, like when I found Abbie's missing diary under a tray, and when Billy and Taylor apologised for their bad behaviour unprompted and when Maddie gave me 2 bits of her birthday chocolate. (You are not supposed to eat in the labs, but I'm sure there is an exception for teachers having really bad days.)

I told Bob (our lovely technician) about my shocker and he tried to make me feel better by saying that one time he went into the prep room and couldn't remember why he'd gone there. Yeah, well I'll take that kind of shocker any day!

Fingers crossed Monday pans out a bit better.

Abbey Road

Whee heee -  another trip to London for me.  This time it was for lunch with Margot and Kelly.  But first a detour past Abbey Road and the crossing featured on the cover of the Beatles album Help.

Taking photos on the Abbey Road crossing is tricky - cars everywhere and annoying tourists wanting to take pictures of themselves J

Margot and I crossing Abbey Rd take I - damn cars

Margot and I crossing Abbey Rd take II - damn tourists (actually a bit jealous of the picture she would have got)

Margot and I crossing Abbey Rd take III - Yeehar - that's the one, maybe it's all about the direction.


Ok.  Moving on from Abbey Rd.  Here's a couple of pictures of Regent's Park, only an old man in the way this time.  Actually he wasn't in the way at all, he was the subject of this attempt at very atmospheric and moody depiction of the elderly in London (cough cough).

Yeah baby!

It's here....

6cm of lovely, fresh, powdery white snow.  We've been tobogganing, we've made a snowman and we've been out walking, everything has been transformed and it is beautiful!  I'm looking out the window as I type this and it's still falling heavily.  I have a sneaky feeling school will be cancelled tomorrow!  

Here's what this part of the world now looks like.

Billericay High Street.

Chilly Willy sitting in our front garden.

Lake Meadow Park

And a few snaps from a wee walk Emmy and I went on whilst the boys were off frisking in Norsey Woods with Reggie.

Waiting, waiting, waiting!

Alrighty then, where is the snow?! Seems just about everyone's getting it except us. The forecasts are promising, but mother nature ain't delivering. We have had the tiniest smattering but it's been a bit of a fizzier.

Call us greedy, but this isn't enough.

Not even this will do.

Fingers crossed tomorrow's the day.

Here's what the Essex Weather Centre says....

Or there's the MET office that say this....

Or there's the Prices that say....

BRING IT ON!

Cardiff Part 2

Just in case you didn't know, Dr Who is filmed and produced in Cardiff by BBC Wales.  Capitalising on the Dr's huge success, the Dr Who tour has been created.  It is a combination of film-set style tour and exhibition.

This was Steve's adventure and he was beside himself with excitement and the tour didn't disappoint.  Matt Smith features as the Dr, stranded and in dire need of some help.  Much to his disappintment, all he can find to lend a hand is a bunch of bedraggled "shoppers" (us).  The tour takes you on an adventure inside the Tardis, fighting with Daleks and whizzing through space.  It is a combination of CGI, massive props and cool special effects.

After that excitement it is on to an exhibition celebrating the last 50 years of Dr Who, including the 11 actors that have played the Dr, the enemies he has battled and of course his various companions. I guess everyone has their favourite Drs.  I'm torn - I loved Jon Pertwee (showing my age here), didn't like Tom Baker, was indifferent about Peter Davidson and love the latest three - Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith.

Nasty peg dolls and the scary weeping angels

After Dr Who we wandered a mile or so up to the centre of Cardiff where we browsed in a few shops and then headed over to Cardiff Castle.  Emily got to dress up as a convincing Welsh poppet before we toured around the castle, its spectacular keep and the residential rooms (incidentally, the next British televised episode of Dr Who was filmed in the library room at Cardiff Castle, will definitely have to watch that now we've been).

Dinner was at an all you can eat Indian/Japanese/Chines restaurant and guess who at too much?  Yep - all of us.  Daniel and Jeremy were  reasonable restrained until they discovered the self-serve soft-serve!  I attempted to justify my own little munch-out as just a little try of everything, but given there were about 100 different dishes, that was never going to work. And while we all ate a lot, the food was nowhere near the hight standard of Las Iguanos the night before.

Cardiff Part 1

Leaving Aberystwyth we headed East to Devil's Bridge, which was a little wet, not really fresh, just damp this time, really damp.  Devil's Bridge is actually 3 bridges built one over the other, but the rain, the puddles and the small waterfall flowing down the stairs stopped us from checking them all out.  Here is the view from the top bridge, note the raindrops all over the camera lens.



And if you're lucky after the rain comes the rainbow.  I was itching to take a picture of this and it took a while to find somewhere to stop, by which point it was starting to look a bit faded, still you get the general idea.  Plus that blue sky was worth a picture alone.


We didn't arrive in Cardiff until quite late and after no lunch we all had the munchies.  We stayed at a hotel near the Cardiff Bay precinct, which has been extensively redeveloped over the years and is now home to an imax cinema, the Millennium Centre theatre, the Dr Who tour and oodles and oodles of restaurants.

After consulting trip advisor we decided on Mexican and excuse the rave that is about to follow because, without a doubt, that night in Cardiff I had one of the best meals I have ever had!  Now that's a big call!

It started with something that I love about eating out over here - kiddy menus and activities.  The picture below is of the food part of the "menu", the other 3 pages were full of puzzles, colouring-in activities and quizzes.  A little box of pencils was also provided.  The kids get a buzz out of ordering their own food and then we get a good 20 minutes or so of peace while they do the puzzles etc.  A win win if ever there was.

And now on to our menu.  Mmm Mmm.  Makes me hungry just looking at it.  We had not one, but two lots of the "Share 5 Tapas and Starters" dishes, that's a whopping 10 dishes all together.  I could see the kitchen from where I sat and the smells and flambé-ing all spoke of good things to come.  And then they arrived - a wave of gastronomic delights.  Each dish distinct, full of flavour and as good as the next - we were in food heaven.

I haven't included the dessert menu as despite our best efforts after the above we were done - chockers! Perhaps next visit we'll have 9 starters and then dessert J

Portmerion

Portmerion is an Italian renaissance style village located about 57 miles north of Aberystwyth. To get to Portmerion you have to drive through Snowdonia national park, which has stunning scenery, but unfortunately not that many places to stop. Plus, of course, the weather was crap, so not the best for photos anyway.

Portmerion Village was designed and constructed between 1925 and 1975 by architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis on his own private peninsula. All of the building styles and colours are based on those found in a typical Italian village.   

The village is also the namesake of Portmerion pottery, which was founded in 1960 by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis's daughter Susan and her husband Ethan.

Although Portmeirion Pottery is made in Stoke-on-Trent in England, there are strong connections to the village with all of the original pottery designed exclusively for sale in the Portmeirion gift shop.

Susan Williams-Ellis died in 2007 at the age of 89.  Despite her death the company continues and still comes out with new designs and products in keeping with the spirit of its founder.

Our visit fell just after Christmas and there was still evidence of the festivities.

And then, after looking at the village, we took a stroll around the peninsula.

Feel the serenity.

A

And the kids thought it was all pretty cool.

Love the crazy cross-eyed lion.