London Planning

After our trip to Stockholm, I will be accompanying 70 year eights and six colleagues to London.

This week, I've been putting the programme together. So far we will be seeing, visiting, doing:

The London Eye - a great way to see the city.

Hyde Park - weather permitting...

The Tower of London - I already used this in lessons to get them into some British history with Henry VIII and his wives, the crown jewels etc. They also have an educational package I'm hoping will keep them busy.

A Thames Ferry - Greenwich to Westminster. Another great way to see a different side of London.

Camden Market - my favourite for shopping and lunch stalls.

Museum Corner - The Natural History Museum, Victoria & Albert, The Science Museum. I did the V&A last time and I'm hoping to see the Natural History Museum this year.

Oxford Street - shopping...did I mention we're taking seventy adolescents, some of whom have been saving for this trip since they were born.

Brighton! - our day trip. I've never been and I'm really looking forward to it.

A Streetcat Named Bob

Just started the sequel - The World According to Bob!

Project Life Update

It's been a while since I updated because of the London trip.  However, I'm still loving this project and the trip made these pages especially unique.

Above you can see the latest cushions I made on the left and the start of the London trip on the right.

Below completes the London trip and has a few photos and bits and pieces from the weekend after I got back - running again, gardening on the balcony and buying Nico's suit for the wedding.

London - part five.

 From Tuesday, things got sunnier.  We went to St Paul's cathedral - all those steps were a challenge but the view was worth it.  That afternoon we headed to Oxford Street and walked the group to Denmark Street (music shops for the music profile class), China Town, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus. 

 On Wednesday, we headed to Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards, Harrods and the museums.  I took a small group to the Victoria and Albert Museum which was great.  Harrods was a little disappointing for the kids, but we expected that because of the prices.  The prices shocked even me - 100g of green tea for £18!!  It was an experience though and now I can say I've been in there.

 On the last day, we took the pupils to Madame Tussaud's and shopping on Oxford Street.  The problem was that we were all tired.  It wasn't helped by the appalling queueing system - 50 minutes of standing in a spiral staircase with all 57 of our group as well as other groups and no air conditioning, I was good to drop by the time we got into the museum.  The waxworks were good but I would prefer to go at a quieter, cooler time and still find the tickets expensive.

Lunch with my colleagues was lovely and shopping was good.  The journey back was straight forward but tiring.  Our bags were checked at the port which was a first for me going through Dover.  Luckily, the kids were tired out and we all slept on the journey.

I loved the week.  I would definitely do it again - both take these kids on trips (I already started looking at Barcelona for the Spanish groups) and go to London - with Nico next time.  Can't wait!

London - part four. (The London Eye)

 On Monday evening, we took all three classes up the London Eye for a view over London.  I've been on the Eye before with my Dad so I knew what to expect but it was great to do it again with twenty-four interesting little people, spotting MI6 and all the sights we would visit in our trip.

 We got some great photos - of course I can't share any photos of pupils on here but here's me and Henrik, the class teacher.  I love this class and it was great to accompany them to London after three years of teaching them English.

London - part three.

 We hit all of the major sights on Monday with both the bus tour and the boat tour.  The boat tour was informative but I was highly annoyed by the guide's dialect - "they was...".  It's one of my pet hates (Nico was relieved when Alesha Dixon left Strictly and we could watch the dancing without my shouting at the screen every two minutes.  Luckily the kids weren't paying that much attention.

 We passed the Tower of London, some pirate bars and the dock from which the Mayflower was launched.  We got off the boat at Westminster to take some more photos and head to the London Eye.

 The families we stayed with were excellent.  We had been surprised to learn on arrival that we teachers were also sharing rooms which meant us three women in one room, with bunk beds.  It worked out well though, and the food was great.  Our host father was a head chef with the ministry of defence and we were treated to some great food including some traditional English food including, Yorkshire puddings!

 In fact, the feedback between the families, the women running things and us was excellent.  We knew how the kids had been with the families, if there were problems and whether they were eating.  Things were much smoother than in previous years, although, to be fair, we had a fantastic group as well.

 The kids even got into fish and chips with vinegar and bought out all the salt and vinegar crisps from Tesco on the way back.  Again, I was emotional at seeing the kids enjoying the trip so much. 

London - part two.

 Monday was somewhat cooler.  In the morning, we had a bus tour with a German-speaking guide.  It was a great way to cover a lot of ground.  Later, we walked over Tower Bridge and had lunch by the tower where the cannons were sounding.

 It happened to be the Queen's birthday.  We didn't see many celebrations this week, despite also being there for the marathon and St George's Day.  In a way I'm glad we missed the hectic side of the city though.  Some parts of the trip - travelling in the tube for example - were stressful enough.

 I have to say though, the group we had were fantastic walking together, getting on and off the tube together - we didn't lose anyone all week. Seeing the combination of new sights like the Shard and the traditional ones like the Tower was amazing.

London - part one.

 It's been a crazy week in London and I've slept a lot today - hence the late update - so just a short one today.  I will post more about London over the weekend but here's a little starter.

 The journey to London was great despite the early start.  All the kids were there and despite a missing visa on the border, we all made it across.  The pupils had a great first night with the families and I was quite emotional on Sunday morning seeing all the pupils so happy, especially the ones who are weaker in English but were doing their best and loving the experience.  There were moments like that all week.

On Sunday morning, we took the group to Camden market.  The weather was glorious as you can see and we sat outside for lunch.  I had been to Camden market before but was equally in awe of the place this time.  The stalls are amazing and I picked up a lovely summer dress which I even had the chance to wear later in the week.

Inspiration

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Things I am looking forward to this week...

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Don't get me wrong, I love living in Germany and so many things are better about my life there, but it does make me appreciate my home country a little more when I'm there. 

This week, we are hitting Oxford Street, Harrods, Buckingham Palace, Camden Market, the London Eye, Madame Tussaud's and the Thames, among others.  Some I have seen before and some are new to me.  I will really be appreciating the little things mentioned above though.

I'm also looking forward to seeing my pupils' reactions to the trip and finding out what they find new, fun and strange.  In the preparation lessons, the main thing that stood out was that they don't like vinegar on their chips and expect paprika on them...I think I have prepared them well but at the end of the day, these little things are exactly what make those trips so memorable.  

I will certainly never forget taking an instant disliking to German black bread, but loving the houses and the pro-Europe attitude.  I was also completely shocked by the liberal attitude when it comes to nudity on a trip to the theatre but maybe that is a whole other story.

Donation

I'm a very proud daughter this morning.  Yesterday, my Dad donated bone marrow!  He's been donating blood for years and one of the more recent options there was to be tested for bone marrow compatibility.  Dad ticked the option and recently received the call that a match had been found.

The process involved an interview and some tests followed a couple of weeks later by the procedure.  There are two ways to donate bone marrow.  You can have a series of injections followed by a blood donation or you can donate directly under general anaesthetic.  Dad opted for the latter so that it would be less hassle.  

The procedure had to take place in London but luckily he was there with work so it didn't take too much out of his schedule and expenses are paid. During the interview he discovered that the patient he is donating to lives in Germany - which is kind of ironic!  Also, their chances of survival will go from 10% to 60% thanks to his donation.

I'm a lot more squeamish than my Dad, giving blood is already a big deal given my fear of needles but I hope that one day I will be able to do something similar.  

Well done Dad!

London!

Following on from what I started last week, and staying close to home again, I wanted to share a little about my first real trip to London.  I say real as I had been to London before.  My first ever trip there was when I was four years old and my dad ran the London marathon (yes, I'm struggling to train for a 10k, some genes just don't get passed down!)

Anyway, many years later, I went back for a real tourist trip to London with my Dad again.We hit the major sights - Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Eye, Westminster, St Paul's Cathedral, Harrod's, the parks, it was brilliant.  We walked everywhere....my feet weren't happy but we had a great time.   As you can see, we had typical English weather but it didn't spoil things and the best thing...I get to do it all again in May next year with over twenty adolescents!