RS Exam turns into a weekend away

Written by Susan on 03 June 2010

Rebekah had her RS exams just over a week ago. We went to Oxford so she could take an O level. She sat it at the lovely Montessori school set in the grounds of an old farm. She was the only one there and her main distraction must have been the peacock looking through the glass door and the cockerel wandering the grounds.

We had left the other two at the grandparents and so after her exam we headed into Oxford for a little strolling about and some light shopping. Top priorities were Millies Cookies (we had a special offer voucher), Primark (for play costume bits), Whitards (for instant fruit tea and as it happens some gingerbread syrup) and Hawkins Bazaar. We also managed a lovely fairtrade shop, fudge shop and a little Italian deli counter where we bought wonderful ciabattas.

This was Friday, her next exam was not until Tuesday so we had some time to kill and decided to stay at the grandparents rather spend the extortionate amount on two lots of ferries. We decided we’d try and do a few of the things on the mainland that we didn’t usually have time to do. So Saturday we were off to the Historic Dockyard courtesy of Blue Peter badges and friends left behind entrance cards. Now obviously things couldn’t be that straightforward for us, Rebekah had a singing exam in Ryde to go to on the Saturday morning wso we dropped her off at the hover to head over there.

We did some of the Action Stations part of the Historic Dockyard:

Jonathan helps Martin destroy ships, planes and submarines.

Ruth manages all by herself.

Coordinated climbing from Ruth and Jonathan, Ruth wouldn’t do it herself even though she wanted to and had to persuade Jonathan to have a go even though he didn’t really want to. He really struggled with it last time we were here but this time did really well and very much enjoyed it. So evidence of progression there then (or possibly just evidence that his legs have grown longer).

We hadn’t tried this before – you have to kick or punch the lights on the punch bag things as they came on, Jonathan had to hit really really hard because he is so light! He was going really fast as the blur in the picture testifies.

As half the Action Stations was shut we onlt spent about an hour there – a quick dash to the shops so Ruth could look in Hawkins and Primark (can you detect a theme here). can there be anything worse than Primark on a Saturday morning – it was dreadful.

Then back to the hover to pick up Rebekah and on to the Devil’s punchbowl. We have been wanting to walk here for ages but are always driving straight past on our way to London. We started off by delving off the beaten paths and down into the depths of the bowl on a route I would never have managed without my walking poles (far too steep and downwards for me). It was like autumn under the trees, all the dry brown leaves covering the forest floor crinkly as we stepped and slid over them. Only Rebekah managed to get muddy near the bottom. We made our way eventually back to a path and carried on in the blissfully cool shade. Unfortunately once we turned to go back to the start we ended up in full sunshine and it was definitely not very pleasant although the views were fantastic, we regretted only bringing one water bottle but at least I had sweeties!

Rebekah sunbathes at the end of the walk.

Even martin looks happy sitting at the end of a very satisfying walk.

After that we headed back to Chichester and watched the final of Over the Rainbow. We don’t tend to watch that sort of thing very much but thoroughly enjoyed watching this last episode. The one we wanted to win did so that was even better. We even managed to watch Doctor Who as well.

Sunday was blissful – girls went off to church with grandma and Jonathan slept in. Martin and I sat outside in the sunshine with a very unhealthy breakfast of Millies cookies, fudge and coffee.

Our unhealthy but very very yummy breakfast

This is the most expensive fudge in the world (well in my world), it cost £5 a slice - even more than the IoW fudge but actually amazingly loads and loads creamier.

Martin demonstrates just how much he enjoys the fudge

When they got back we meandered to the shop to buy a Sunday paper – an unusual treat worthy of blogging about. We then chilled out in the sunshine (well I was under a shady tree) until Grandpa got back from the post service handshaking required of a minister on a Sunday morning. then we had a very very yummy BBQ even if I do say so myself – my highlight was the yummy lime and tomato salsa.