School Trip to Sulgrave Manor

Today was Jamie's school trip. They went to Sulgrave Manor, which is near Banbury in Oxfordshire and had a brilliant time. Here is a photo of Jamie on the coach. School trips are so important to the learning experience and are so looked forward to by the children. I had hoped to go along and help but sadly I was committed to something else and couldn't make it, fingers crossed I can help out another time.

Sulgrave Manor is the ancestral home of George Washington's ancestors (yes that one!), one of those wonderful places where everyone dresses up and you can get a flavour of what life was like. It is particularly geared to supporting work done in school on The Tudors and therefore will help re-inforce what they have been up to this term in history.

Jamie certainly had a super day, he was packed off this morning with an extra special lunchbox, hat, sun-cream etc and was quite tired by the time he got home. Jamie took the old camera with him so he is the photographer, not a bad job at all. An enjoyable day for him.

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 3/16 - currently reading Pop Babylon by Imogen Edwards-Jones
Jamie's Reading challenge 2/12 - currently reading Bed and Breakfast Star by Jacqueline Wilson SLYMI - 1/52

Finally - They Are All Gone!

Friday 19th June

As Mike was off to do a couple of bits for his Mum this morning, I thought I would send over a couple of arrangements for her, so he was sent out with them and a list of the foliage I needed from her garden to complete my last arrangement. And I got on with all of my usual bits and pieces around the house. Binnie getting on very well, Jamie safely at school and I had Metallica on loud.


Mike came home with some exciting news, there is going to be another Friars Gig (hooray), after last time I can hardly wait - Friday October 23rd with Stiff Little Fingers. Check out full details at http://www.aylesburyfriars.co.uk/.
We are going to have a busy October, what with birthdays, wedding anniversery, Spandau Ballet, Sound of Music, La Cage Aux Folles (with John Barrowman) and now a Friars Gig too. My own musical taste is nothing if not eclectic!

So here it is, I think I did about 14 arrangements with the flowers I bought at CRM, so actually they worked out very reasonably priced per arrangement! This arrangement is an asymetrical arrangement, it is triangled shaped, I tend to think of it as either an L or backward L - this one is the backward L. I am very pleased with this one. I had got some chyosia (a favourite, I love the smell), conifer, variegated laurel and a couple of other bits off Mike's Mum and they worked incredibly well. I used the conifer to give me the line and height, then used alstro to support the line, the lillies took centre stage backed up with peony (are they ever going to open?) and carnations.

Mike and I went up to school to view the portraits the children had painted during creativity week and have a look at the scrapbooks they had done. Jamie was disappointed he hadn't won anything in the competition (he should - but I'm going to say that). The winner was very good, I told Jamie he should be very proud of his, he had done all of the work himself and that is very important! Here is a picture of Jamie with his self portrait.

Jamie was happy, it is the weekend and all his new clothes arrived, (he chose his own this time with only a little help from me - I love Next online, have I mentioned I hate shopping!). He has got some super t-shirts and lots of shorts for the summer and very expensive sandals (Timberland). Mike is happy there is going to be another Friars Gig, I'm happy Mike is home for the weekend so we are going to have a lovely family, chillin weekend.


Ciao

Sue

XX
Reading challenge 2/16 - currently reading T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton
SLYMI - 1/52

Thursday 4th June - European Election Day

Just a fairly standard day today with all the usual bits going on. My feet are starting to feel better, the blisters are healing, gosh they were biggies and bloody too (sorry gross I know!).

Jamie is having his school photo taken today, and that will be nice as we'll get a piccie of him at his new (ish) school. Jamie went to a private school between Deanshanger and Buckingham but we had to remove him from the school when he was being bullied. Despite several attempts with teachers and the then headteacher, letters, conversations and formal meetings, the situation did not improve and when his Year 4 teacher showed no support to him whatsoever we decided there was no option but to remove him.

He is now at our local primary school and loves it, yes there are problems here and there, it would be abnormal if there wasn't but he is happy and a happy child is going to learn better than an unhappy one. And the school is a happy place too.

Mike and I have questioned whether we did the right thing putting him in a private school, and feel we took the decision with the best of intentions, what we didn't bargain on was the children in that school being horrid! We all know that children who come from underprivileged backgrounds can have problems, but at the other end of the scale children who seem to have all of the advantages can be just as messed up. I personally feel that it there has to be a connection when the father of one of the main bullies of Jamie, let's call him Bryan Rabbit, at AWJS was never seen. Of course people have to make their own choices and if they choose working over their children that's their right, so long as that doesn't affect others, and I believe in this case it did.

My own view on children is there are really only a handful of things parents need to give children but two of the most important are love and time, back it up with a good set of values and an ability to communicate. If I look back and think about enjoyable days I've had in my life then the one I spent with Jamie in London in September 2007 would rank very high. We visited Shakespeare's Globe, the National Portrait Gallery (to look at the Tudor paintings) and went to Pizza Express. It was a really special day.

That got a little heavy! I am really looking forward to seeing his photo and the class photo.

We went off to vote in the Euro Election after dinner, and the polling station was pretty busy. I had to think seriously about who to vote for as I wasn't going to vote for either of the main parties (too angry at them about the expenses scandal), and I hate extremism in any guise, so was only left with 2 or 3 possibilities. I think it is so important to vote, so many people around the world don't have that right that I am going to use mine every time. Whatever happens in the result, I suspect The Labour Party are not going to do well!

Ciao

Sue

XX
(reading challenge 0/16 - currently reading Only Dad by Alan Titchmarsh)