The problem with being a novelist is that I often don’t have strict enough deadlines. The problem with living in London is that my children’s school trips are hard to resist.

I’ve been on two in the last two weeks. The first to the Globe Theatre where it was a thrill to stand on its stage and mouth lines from Romeo and Juliet.

This afternoon I just came back from the Cabinet War Rooms, an amazing museum of all things Winston Churchill. Imagine having lived a life of such event and historical significance. One of the most moving things was the footage of his state funeral as a whole city stood silent in homage of the man.

There is a huge interactive table where every day of his life is accounted for historically. And if you happen to place your finger on a date of all around significance the table lights up. My daughter and her partner touched November 11, 1918 and the whole table bloomed with red poppies.

Our job as parent helpers is to help the teacher navigate the children’s way on public transportation. Today we took the bus and tube. Keeping track of almost 30 children on a very busy London tube is highly entertaining. I love watching the eyes of the other passengers widen with horror as our crowd troops noisily in. We then made our way past Westminster and St. James Park. It truly is like herding cats.

But I love going on school trips. I’ve known these children for seven years now. Ever since they all began together at the tender age of three. They are now ten: full of themselves, irreverent, and very funny, definitely products of a childhood in London.

And I am always amazed at how much they have to say to each other after all these years. This year 6 is their last in primary school. I will miss them all.

Last weekend I spent four days and three nights accompanying 11 pupils on their expedition for the International Award. One of my colleagues was leading the trip so that meant I had very little responsibility and lots of time to enjoy the scenery. What gorgeous scenery it is too. The photo above shows the view from Egypt’s highest mountain, Gebel Katherina, and the other photo shows me at 2642 metres above sea level on the TOP of Egypt’s highest mountain. Lucky me! I think I may be the only Fraser or Davidson in our family who has been so high up a mountain. However feel free to disabuse me of this notion. I can cope with the disappointment.

I had such a great time on this school trip. We stayed in a campsite with beds and showers on the first night (www.bedouinpaths.com) and then slept in two ‘gardens’ for the following nights.  The gardens are walled enclosures with rudimentary facilities such as stone built rooms and bamboo walled toilets. Needless to say I struggled a bit with these washing arrangements but I did just get on with it and got used to the idea that I was never going to be completely clean until I got back to Cairo.

The first night I slept outside under the stars: I saw five shooting stars but  I shivered my way through a very broken nights sleep. Even though I was wearing four top layers, socks, trousers, a hat and my sleeping bag was pinned to the ground by a camel hair blanket , I was very, very cold. I cursed myself for not buying a four season sleeping bag as the three season bag just didn’t keep me warm enough. When I did finally get up the next morning my colleague declared that he had been so warm that he had had to kick off his blanket. He has a goosedown four season bag!

The silence in the Sinai is incredible. In fact there is an article here about a woman who runs holidays featuring silence and she bases the holiday in the Sinai (http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/nov/22/sinai-camping-silence). As I lay trying to get to sleep I couldn’t hear anything much but I did hear donkeys braying and some blood curdling screams which I presume came from foxes or animals being killed by birds of prey. I didn’t see any birds of prey during the four days but I did see a spiny mouse at one of the stops and quite a few butterflies.

The best part of the trip was the sense of achievement I felt when I got to the tops of the mountains. I also walked up Gebel Abbas Pasha at 2304 metres to see an Ottoman castle abandoned by Mohammed Ali’s grandson.  Oh yes – the pupils were fantastic walkers too.

A great website resource and potential class/school trip about the cells in our maginificent bodies. This website was created by the Open University web team, and was a link sent to me by The Media Project Manager, a lovely guy who both Roger and Myself (Lee) met on Monday at the Innovation in Education conference in London.
http://www.centreofthecell.org/

The destruction and degradation of the tropical rainforests is the third biggest contributor to carbon emissions worldwide after power generation. It is estimated that as much as 12 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions result from deforestation.

The Prince’s Rainforests Project aims to help the world community recognise the true value of forests by identifying ways to value, and then pay for, the crucial “ecosystem services” rainforests provide.

Studentkind’s eco lodge programs support rainforest preservation and allow each student to have positive impact on the communities in which they travel and the opportunity to change lives for the better. Our rainforest service projects include planting trees in destroyed areas. Under the direction of the host family and staff, students extract rare tree lings from the rainforest and replant them in damaged areas.

Our eco lodge programs are a role model for other neighboring farms and communities who for hundreds of years, have cut down trees in an effort to “live off the land”. With the help of our host families, students work on projects which encourage local families to abandon tree cutting for community based eco tourism projects.

Visit http://www.Studentkind.com to learn more about our Rain Forest projects.

Year 6 recently went on a Beach Trip as part of their work on coasts. Mr Strafford also came in to do some seaweeding in the classroom!
done

Year 5 visited a space capsule last Friday

Hi everyone this last fortnight has brought some new addition to the farm, the thunder & lightening storm on the 25th marked the birth of a new calf aptly called “lightening”  followed a few days later by a bull calf.

The storm also took out our phone lines, internet and some computers!! still recovering from being off line for 48 hours!

A new deer calf also joined us so Dave has proved his worth

Dave a proud father

OK, where’s my passport?

Right, I put it in my messenger bag with the company euros and my euros.

So where’s the bag? Ah, I see it, next to my rucksack for a day’s supplies of food and my clipboard. Is my itinerary still in the clipboarc? Yes, and my notes and the ferry booking and the sweet factory booking. Calm down, no one has touched them.

Where’s my phone? Where’s my freakin’ phone? Like I said, calm down, it’s in the other room charging up.

Company motto: P.M. T. It stands for Passport, Money, Tickets. If you got those, everything else is irrelevant. Actually, it’s the informal motto. I don’t think we have an official motto. It also stands for Pre-Menstrual Tension which about sums up the state I get into immediately before a trip.

I panic, briefly and quietly about everything. I’m full of what ifs and anxiety. I check things six times. If I do this I may have a chance of dropping off to sleep tonight, because my working day tomorrow starts at 1.30am and ends at 2.30am on Saturday. So I’ll be off to bed around 7pm tonight, having hung up my clothes ready in the spare room, and packed everything but the perishables in the rucksack. When I get up at 1am, I’ll fill my flask with boiling water, stuff my sarnies in the rucksack, slap on some makeup and be on the doorstep in time for my boss to ferry me to the coach depot. I aim to have a doze on the coach before we get to the school I’m escorting to Boulogne for the day because once we start, I can’t sleep; I’m on duty then.

So shortly I’m off down to Tesco’s to get my supplies (the budget for day trips is so tight there’s no spare for food; this isn’t a problem but it does mean I need to take what I need) then I shall transfer all I need from my usual capacious handbag into the rucksack and messenger bag. The messenger bag is for vital items I won’t let leave my body, like passport and so on, and the rest of the stuff is made up of things that make travel more congenial, like wet wipes and so on.

I’m going to be away from home about 26 hours, all told, maybe a little less. I do enjoy these trips; I wish I got more of them and the plan is that I will. I’ve got an overnighter provisonally booked for November already, and others that are in the pipeline, like a five day trip along the Rhine next year. They are exhausting in the extreme but very rewarding.

The trouble is I run around like a blue arsed fly the day before as I make sure I have everything. I’ve even asked my boss to get me to show her my passport before we leave my road. I like the belt and braces approach; I’d hate to end up with an involuntary debagging because of lack of forethought.

So wish me luck!

Children from Scoill Vallajeelt particpated in a Manx speaking competition this afternoon at the QEII High School.

Colm, Aaron, Rebecca, Jessica, Adam and Dominic, Lucy, Lauren, Alexandra and Ella all did themselves proud – well done!

Some noteable achievements-

In Year 5- Lucy and Alexandra came joint 2nd out of 11 entries

In Year 6- Jessica and Rebecca came joint 2nd and Dominic 3rd out of 9 entries.

Year 6 Girls and Boys took on other island schools at St Ninian’s yesterday afternoon. The boys took top honours by winning the final on penalties. The girls were also brilliant winning all but one match to come joint third. Congratulations on another success Year 6!
done

done

Vallajeelt took part in Yn Chriunnaght Aeg this morning and won. The Junior Choir sang brilliantly – dynamic contrast, changes of tempo, soloist and choir parts all combined to impress the judging panel. Congratulations to Mrs Dixon and the choir on your achievement.

The year 2,3,4,5 & 6 children visited the Viking encampment in Peel today. The children saw how they made weapons, what they traded, crafts, food they ate, story-telling and even saw a re-enactment of a battle!

Year 3 boys took part in a mini tournament at Ballacottier this afternoon. They did very well indeed- winning all but one of their matches. Well done boys!

The children, parents and staff had a wonderful afternoon at the NSC as the children took part in a range of sprint, endurance and novelty races.
As always, the children were very supportive of each other and tried their best in what were difficult conditions.
Thank you to Miss Shaw, Mrs Asbridge and all the school staff for ensuring the afternoon ran smoothly; the outddor staff at the NSC – nothing was too much trouble for them; the Friends’ Association for laying on refreshments, Gordon Brew for starting each race and all the parents for their enthusiastic support throughout the afternoon.

Thank you to Mrs Cruz O’Dwyer and Mr and Mrs Scott for help with photography during the event.

Hi everyone here goes our new blog about our Farm and business

I remember back in 1994, I was lucky enough to travel to Germany & the Netherlands and got to go visit my “sister”, Bettina, an exchange student from Berlin who had lived with my parents and me in 1989-90, the year the Berlin Wall fell.  My friend Karen & I met a guy on the train along the way from Iowa, who had NEVER SET FOOT IN THE OCEAN (Other than flying over it, he’d never seen it!!)

I’ve never forgotten that.  Imagine never being in the Ocean!

Aren’t we lucky, that Alex got to go the beach for the day with school on Friday, just because it was a close, easy & inexpensive trip.  Here are some photos – don’t you wish you could have been there too?  I do!  (However, I was having an equally wonderful time at Sarah & Neil’s preschool concert while Ginna was the lucky one who got to chaperone!)

Happy to be spending the day at the beach

Pulling a piece of driftwood in from the Atlantic!

A perfect day in every sense of the word!

More games!

Low(er) tide

Alex & Maddie

I just go back from Mount Alverno. This was a trip for a bunch of grade 10’s and 11’s who made it for Peer Ministry, Student Council and Global Culture Club. It was one of the best trips I have been on and I doubt I will ever forget it. Not now, not ever.

Well I had an amazing time. I got to make new friends and become closer with people who I only see every once in a while around school. I also became friends with people who got my school and I’ve never seen during this past year. On the trip we were put into little groups where we did activities and then we’d join the group as a whole and present them to each other. 

  Hmm..some of my favorite activities are “The Trust Walk”. That’s when we were blind folded and had to trust our partner to lead us around. “The Light Circle”…I think that’s what it was called. We were in our separate groups and we got to ask each other questions and become closer. We call it Bonding. We were also given the task where we were each given a disability, for example; no arms, no legs, blind, poor and healthy. I had no arms, so my friend Daniel who had no legs was feeding me. I actually had fun during that activity! And finally the best part of all…was the bonfire!! We ate marsh mellows, smores and told scary stories. It was good! xD

 ~xoxo Mandie

P.S:  Below is a group picture of everybody who attended the trip!

 Peer Ministry, Student Council & Global Culture Club