2015 actually started for us with cake and candles at the Beans’ party (thank you SB and Lfish) and then finishing off games before going home for a few hours of sleep. At a more sensible time in the morning we got up and ready to go ice skating, meeting with the same folk as the night before for fun at the temporary rink. Ice skating is definitely something it would be good to do more often, but cost and distance make it difficult 🙁 I took advantage of the cookware sale to treat myself to a rather nice little omelette pan and some new baking sheets and then we went back to the Beans’ for pancakes and party leftovers – and ended up staying for much of the rest of the day. All in all it was a very relaxed and pleasant way to spend a birthday 🙂
Back to Holiday orchestra for Friday and Saturday, with presentations so we could see what they’d all been up to 😉 then a relaxing Sunday catching up on rest and recuperation. The RI Christmas lectures came to the rescue combining education and entertainment.
It’s been far too long since we saw Rodena, and on Monday her older children had an Inset day so we drove down with K and L map-reading for practice, and spent a long afternoon with them. Ikea ice-creams kept us going on the way back, as well as giving an excuse for a bit of running around to break up a lot of driving.
Tuesday was History catch-up. Having visited Sutton Hoo and made a start on Anglo-Saxons we really needed to polish off the Romans by making sure everything was stuck in, written up and understood. L pointed out that they hadn’t finished watching the Roman Mysteries yet, so there’s been a fair bit of that happening too. Fortunately for A there was no Brownies so she didn’t need to tear herself away from the exciting storyline!
7/1 was the first Wed Ed of the new year. We started with Winter haiku, based around melting snowmen, and recorder ensemble. HH carried on with genetics, using coloured pompoms, forks and chopsticks to show some of the principles of evolution and fitness. J’s Italian hasn’t started yet so he and L were able to stay longer, but A opted to come along to choir with K and Lfish. We spent most of the time in the library as I had lots of service prep to do and A is always up for a quiet hour or two with a book 🙂
Multisport started again on the 8th, despite foul weather. L hurt his finger but carried on without telling anyone until after the end of the session, by which time we couldn’t get back into the building for a cold pack. J had trombone – and got his exam result (merit) – and then we went home for more Roman Mysteries while A had gym.
Friday 9th January started dramatically with L showing me a rather bruised looking finger which he thought might be broken. It hadn’t hurt on Thursday afternoon or evening, and only twinged when he lay on it in the night, so we strapped it to the next door finger and he decided it would be okay for a day in London rather than needing instant attention. We had a fantastic day, meeting the Beans at the station to catch the train together (which was a lot more fun than travelling alone, even if it did mean we didn’t get any History reading done) and then going to the Opera at Covent Garden. Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera was excellent – all of the children enjoyed it and I couldn’t believe how quickly the time passed. During the interval it was lovely to catch up, albeit briefly, with T41 and C. After the opera we gave L the option of going home or staying longer and he opted for staying so we mooched around Covent Garden a bit and then realised that the London Transport Museum was open until 6 so went there. An hour and a half in the museum and then another twenty minutes or so in the gift shop filled in the time nicely so that we arrived at Kings Cross with ten minutes to spare before our train. Once home we got children headed bedwards and took another look at L’s finger. It was looking much better, but still not fully bending or straightening so Bob took him to A&E just in case it was broken. Fortunately their wait was not too long and it was pronounced to be soft tissue damage rather than a break so they were back a couple of hours later with instructions to keep it moving and sleep with it raised. Phew! No need to take a break from saxophone practice then 😉
I have never been to the London Transport Museum. Heard its good.
The ticket lasts a year, which makes the £16 cost feel a little more reasonable – we’re going to have to go back just to make me feel better about that! Children are free, fortunately.
It was good, not trying to be all singing all dancing but lots of interesting things to see and do and enough detail to keep J interested too.