Oh No!

This morning we woke up and looked out of the window and thought we saw frost. When we looked closer we realised it was snow. Simon was due to go sailing today, we decided that he didn't need to go. The school in the end decided that it was too cold and they could have an indoor theory lesson instead. Ben decided it was the best day ever this morning. I was slightly annoyed when I caught him outside lying in the grass trying to make a snow angel - whilst wearing his school uniform.

Looking at the photos now, you can see it was only a light covering.

Half term break - the final part.

David Boyd left on the Wednesday to spend a couple of day in London before returning to Australia. He caught an early train from Weymouth. The children were exhausted from the first four days of the mid term break and were pleased to have a few days to do nothing - (i.e. watching TV, playing on the computer or iPod). They were so tired, they were concerned that they would not be able to wake up in time to say goodbye to David on Wednesday morning. He was catching an 8AM train so there was no chance of them missing him.

On the Saturday I finally got to go up the Weymouth Tower. It was not what I expected. It is actually a ride, where you sit down and then the platform rises to the top,  you go around twice and then the platform descends.

On the Sunday it was very cold and we went to a motor museum near Southampton as this was seemed a good indoor activity. The highlights for the kids were the Bond cars from the movies - (even though they had only ever seen one of the Bond movies when we went)  and the Top Gear car creations.

On the Monday, the children happily returned to school for a rest.

Oh Oh

Sailing has resumed at school for Simon and Ben. Simon goes on Monday afternoon and Ben on Tuesday. The weather forecast is not looking to good.

That is the snow symbol for Monday and the very windy symbol for Tuesday. Please don't tell them, we could not cope with the whining.

Half term break - The cultural part

On the Monday, sadly Michael had to return to work while Sarah and the kids set off early for Stonehenge, about an hour and a half's drive. While it was very cold, the kids all enjoyed the audio tour and particularly the myths and stories about how the stones arrived at their location, including the one about how they were flown there using Merlin's magic powers. On the way back from Stonehenge we stopped at Salisbury for lunch to visit the Cathedral with the tallest spire in England. I think the highlight for the kids were the sausage rolls at the pastry cafe we lunched at. We had homemade pizza when we returned.

On Tuesday, we departed early again for Bath. Ella was quite reluctant as she was struggling to keep up with the hectic pace. However, we somehow convinced her to join us. At Bath, we toured the Roman Baths which had another good audio tour including commentary by Bill Bryson which Sarah enjoyed. The museum was very well done and the highlight for the kids was touching the bath waters which was verboten. After the tour we spent an hour or so at the 'best park in England' which Sarah spied as we were parking the car. This was definitely the best thing about Bath as the kids spent ages running around playing chasings with David. For David's final dinner we had the English classic -- fish and chips from one of the many locals.

A busy half term break continued

On the Sunday after the long Saturday, things started a bit more slowly. The kids (including the 21 year old) walked down to our local castle to watch a re-enactment of an English Civil War battle. There were real guns fired although David had to show the boys that they only shot out toilet paper.

Later in the afternoon, the boys wanted to take David to their favourite museum -- the Tank Museum. I took the whole gang along and Sarah was left at home in peace to cook the dinner. She needed to rest up for the next couple of days ahead. I needed to rest when I got home as the kids were not on their best behaviour in the car home.....

The cultural part of the mid term break started after this. Luckily I went back to work so could miss this part of the mid term break. Sarah will have to report in the next few days.

A busy half term beak - Part 1 of many.

We are still recovering from the half term break. This week the kids were back at school. The mother is very happy to have her life back.

On the weekend that the half term break started we visited one zoo, one castle, one museum and of course one pub.

On the Saturday we drove up to Chessington World of Adventures Resort. Since it was still winter, this was really Chessington Zoo as only a couple of the rides were open. It is about a 2.5 hour drive and we left the house at about 8AM. This wouldn't be an issue in Australia, where the children are normally up around 6AM. However we are now in England where it is dark cold and quiet at 6 in the morning and the children now sleep in till almost 7 and then like to spend about 30 minutes tucked under their doona watching videos on their ipods. Getting them out of the house and into the car with all their accessories (teddy bears, ipods, pillows, ipod chargers and snacks) takes quite a lot effort. I am normally exhausted before the drive starts. After the snack and cup of tea stop we got to the zoo at around 11.

We made the mistake of letting Ella have the map. Giving Ella the map is like giving her the audio tour device. She is more focussed on the map than actually seeing the animals.

As you can see from what everyone was wearing it wasn't the warmest day we have had here. The best animal we saw was a Capybara the world's largest rodent. Think of a guinea pig about the size of medium size dog.

The only two rides that were open were the carousel and the pirate ship. Ben was keen to go on the the pirate ship but after a large lunch there were no other takers.

The reason we went to Chessington was that it was close to Gatwick airport where we were picking up David Boyd at 4pm. David was travelling back to Australia from Germany where he had been studying....German. He had decided to spend a few days with his young cousins on the way back to Sydney.

 After picking him up from the airport we headed back to Weymouth with stop at a pub for dinner.  We arrived home at around 8PM.