Red team on the stairs!

Isn't it interesting that rest actually seems to force me to do more in a week than i would normally? Must be that inherent British gene that forces all us good old Brits to go hell for leather when given extra holiday... much like the endless queues that form in B&Q on a bank holiday weekend!

So here i sit, having just eaten a bacon and mushroom omelet, drinking a huge cup of tea out of a big yellow mug, suddenly realising its thursday and i feel i've achieved nothing this halfterm but having been on many adventures. As a result I will have to break this blog up into manageable chunks with this over view at the start.

I pride myself on if not adopting a more european attitude to life, at least trying to. However this week I have been particualrly British and done all those favourite British pasttimes:
1. Had a picnic
2. Sun bathed without suncreme and burnt to a crisp
3. had an ice cream from a van
4. Visited the seaside and stood on the beach shivering in a good northern wind wearing only a short sleved shirt
5. Potted up vegetable plants with pride
6. Had a BBQ wherein i cooked far too much food, became obsessed with it "not being hot enough", and burnt everything to a crisp


ADVENTURES PART 1
On Saturday I went with Stephanie to spend a whole day being a big kid. Now as I type this i realise that quite a lot of what i did was not very child like, but the overall theme of the day felt very kiddie. To start with we went for a bit of a wander around and had a beer (at 12.01... no drinking before 12.00pm) then played on games machines. After such fun we went and got a 99 with flake and strawberry sauce from an icecream van. While eating these we browsed round shops and danced to dirty dancing music like idiots. This kid day out was then topped off with a visit to LAserquest. Now please realise when i did this... Saturday. Saturday afternoon. Staturday afternoon on the first day of half term. Saturday afternoon on the first day of half term in laserquest.

Arriving in laserquest we were confronted by that wonderful mix of screaming child, fried food smell and children clutching plastic cups of toxic coloured slush and attempting to drink said slush through a straw resulting in puckered faces and iminent burst blood vessels. Ah the bliss. We registered and paid and waited for the call. We watched the screen results of the current game flashing across a huge progector scrren at one side of the waiting area and discussed the merit of the gamer names. I quickly decided I didn't wanna be on the yellow team... elf goblin, wizard, warlock. This style of fantasy really ain't my bag... I liked the look of red team... shadow, stealth, hammer etc. yup!

The siren went off and in we went followed by obnoxious teenagers, small 5 year olds and their 'trying to be cool' parents. At this point the teachwer in me reared its ugly head as the game instructor tried to explain the rules of the game while all the teenagers next to us made comments under their breath and talked constantly. GRRRRR. I whispered to Steph that if i had been him i would have said "Hi, .........(pause)....... did you want to play?......(pause) ..... oh really well you don't seem like it, cos if you do you'll shut it now. Thank you!" Hmmmm. Well we were then divided up into teams and we were both put with 5 small 6 year olds and thier asscosiated parents! formidable team!

After packing up Stpeh and I headed out into the arena first and Steph showed her true stealthy talent by disapeering and attacking a base even before anyone else found her. I (in my pure lack of unagressive talent) tried to hide but stupidly forgot that I have two huge flashing lights on each shoulder. I was quckly found by spotty teenagers and shot. This quickly became the norm. Found a hiding spot, shot a few kids, got shot myself. I rapidly became frustrated with this and at one point stomped about the arena like a big kid muttering "stupid game". This wa compounded by the fact the yellow team (made up of afforementioned sniggering teenagers) took to the ramp and decided to occupy the bridge. This then meant if you went up the ramp you got shot, if you walked anywhere in the open you got shot and in certain hiding spaces you got shot. I however took this on the chin and responded by picking on the players i could hit. Small 6 and 7 year olds who were mostly bewildered by the whole experience. I'm proud to say I very regularly shot them in the back and gained my points that way! hahaha!

As the game was over we headed out to discover that Steph had trully excelled and called on her military heritage and manged to rank 3 out of 35! I however made it to the dizy heights of 15th... At least it was in top half!! My stats sheet informed me that I hit others 45 times and got hit 40 times. Basically I sucked at laserquest.

Tune in for more later!....

INTI x

landlocked pirate finds keyboard shock!

Morning all!

Hope those of you out there in your various corners are keeping well and enjoying your varying degrees of temperature and precipitation... (how very british to talk about the weather!)

Well over here in landlocked west yokshire, you find me sitting under a duvet with a stinking cold. First proper one i can remember in a while. There was of course that initial panic on tuesday when had a temperature and constant sneezing bout, that I had infact got Swine flu. Dilegently i reached for the government advice leaflet on swine flu, (which has been pointed out to me by Abi, appears to be the Avian Flu leaflet in disguise... i pointed out that probably some little civil servant used the 'find and replace' feature in word... "find 'avian'...replace with 'swine'... ok. There job done for the day!" man i want his job!") It tuns out i probably have a cold, but am taking all necassary precautions... bar wearing a facemask. I feel this only opens me up to ridicule from an already unbearably sarcastic Year 6 class!

And talking of them....
This week has been SATS week for my lovely year 6s. Here is the week in facts and figures:
9 papers,
78 children,
nearly 7 hours of tests,
24 discarded sealed plastic wallets,
6 panicattaks,
2 boxes of tissues,
100 pencils,
12 pencil sharpeners,
5 rubbers,
12 adults,
4 fights...2 serious pull apart jobs,
25 bags of multipack crisps.
134 times i squealed with frustraion at answers children were putting,
12 2 ltr bottles of fizzy drink,
3 cans of redbull,
5 sausage sandwiches,
14 times i shouted at children
2 giddy dances i did over the course of the week!

Its been a fun week... think the children have done ok... we'll just have to wait and see. Won't find out til july.

In other news... Saw wolverine this week. I love Xmen movies! woo hoo! superheroes rock! Wolverine is a great film, and one perfect for when you can't d anything due to lack of breathing ability and neccisity to carry tissues around everywhere!

Was hoping to get out on the bike this weekend. Was gonna join Abi for a mini ride yesterday as she now has her cannondale too, but the weather and cold defeated that plan. Am hoping cold will subside enough so i can ride to school this week. Starting to feel a bit lazy and don't like it!

Right... Time to shake a leg and show this cold who is boss! ooo and go do my food shopping from local businesses as Sainsburys is shut... I'm really excited to go to a greengrocers, butchers and a deli! how cool! :)

Laters crew...
INTI