Unexpected Trip

I went into my kids' school to try to sort out their PE pumps. Between the four of them, they have 5 pumps. As an average, this isn't good. Searching revealed one more of Mel's, which only left Saskia with no pumps at all. On the other hand, she just helped herself to Mia's (a school friend with the same size feet) and promptly lost one of those too. So, now we have 7 pumps, but one doesn't belong to us. Either way, it looks like I'm going to have to go to the shoe shop.

So my plan for Monday was to walk the dog, then replace Mia and Saskia's missing pumps.

On my way through school, the headmistress collared me and asked if I was busy. Busy? Would I be able to help out on the school trip to Warwick Castle, because two parent helpers had dropped out at the last minute. Everyone was looking a little stressed.

I phoned Mum and dragged her out of bed to come and rescue the poor dog. He wasn't impressed as I climbed onto the coach with the kids, while he was stuck tied to the railings. Saskia and Eartha were thrilled that I was coming with them.

Warwick Castle was not the most helpful of tourist attractions, claiming never to have heard of our school and not to have booked the activities booked. How they can have forgotten that 100 pupils were coming is beyond me. One of the teachers had to put the whole lot on her credit card because they refused to invoice the school! Unbelievable!

There were a few other niggles, that I won't bore you with here. They desperately need a dedicated education liaison officer. I might write my own job description and send it to them asking for employment.

Anyway, after lunch, we went to the Princess Tower, where the kids got to dress up as Princesses and Knights. Then they got to make a wish, some of which were quite bizarre - one girl wished for a spotty sock, for example. You gotta love em.
I took a group of six off to sketch swords and the Trebuchet and climb the towers (530 steps). It was all good fun. Eventually we met up with the rest of the group, admired some peacocks, didn't buy anything in the shop and headed back to the coach. We got back to school by 5pm. Not bad for a surprise trip out.