Le Tour!

And so the Tour de France kicked off today! How exciting it is here in England! On Monday, the road outside our school is going to be closed for the Tour!  Our brilliant deputy-head organised a 'Tour de France' breakfast today for all those children who come to school on bikes and scooters (yours truly was photographed on her pink scooter!).  We got a 'highly commended' for our school travel plan and loads of children now come to school on bikes and scooters. Yellow jersery, King of the Mountain bunting adorned the school too and all was good fun!

In honour of Le Tour, I donned my Greater Plains bicycle dress, (shamefully and blatantly copied from Char) and wore my lemon slice necklace which looks a bit  like a bicycle wheel (also shamefully copied from Char, but from a different source) along with Cath Kidston 'Sweet pea' shoes, Per Una green shrug and a navy/floral Baker Boy hat (alla French biking hat).  I always enjoy wearing 'themed' clothing for days and am always cross at myself when I forget about a special day at school which has happened 3 times this year (and I am berated for it since I am 'the expected one' to participate!)

The above photos were taken at my interchange station on the way home. I had 20 mins to wait for my connection so I decided to see if I could take some surreptitious timer photos on the train platform (the train featured is the one I got off).  Propping it on the seat of a bench, I somehow managed to look nonchalant and normal despite 2 platform guards, 2 cleaners and 5 general lurkers/passengers walking past.  Aha, for the silent, no-flash camera!

CBC was in France till about now (he's just come through the door) so because I didn't have my music club on after school, I went to hang out with my two best teacher friends in the local town- we ate food, had ice-cream and chilled at the flat of my Canadian friend before she went off to dance class. I really like our friendship and gutted that she is only here for 3 more weeks. Oh how I wish she was staying!

I then went to Sainsbury's to get some snacks (and eek, a jumper and trousers!) for CBC's and my journey to Herefordshire tomorrow.  I'm so excited to return to Abbeydore for this biennual concert. Here were my posts from last time here and here and here.

We are going to spend Saturday night in Hay-on-Wye, the town of books at our favourite organic B&B, so I won't be staying in the Old Post Office again, though I was offered a place!

Hope all is well with you.

Oh and I saw it as a 1980's cassette. Yes, I am old enough!

x

Linking up to Hat Attack with the Style Crone and her amazing hat creation!



and Fashion Item Friday with the super Renae

Friday's come, let's have fun, it's the nation's favourite sports day!

Friday 21st March- Sports Relief day and all was quiet in the playground until an army of children turned up in a myriad shades of lurid vibrancy!  Shocking pinks, clothes on backwards, hand-drawn t-shirts, pyjamas, bright onesies, crazy wigs and psychedelic skirts.  And of course the usual stream of princess party dresses and spidermen.

I am always up for dressing up for any charity/special/auspicious day but today, because Crazy dress-up day coincided with the Official Opening of the School building (and the mayor coming- Orchestra and Samba Band playing, I though that there would be no time for me to change out of crazy clothing into something sensible (I was right- I was dashing around like a headless chicken all day until 5.30) so had to combine the two events into one.  Admittedly, I'd probably wear this anyway but decided to combine 4 different prints into one outfit.  The Greater Plains dress I was lured into buying by Char's flagrant posting of shopping links ;-) , was suitable as it has bikes (Sportsrelief?) and then I looked for derivative green items and added a headband, boots and cardie.  I did debate bright aqua tights too but decided that was too much otherwise I would have looked full-on leprechaun instead of half!  This could have been a St Patrick's day outfit too if I were Irish!


I have to say, I was SO proud of my kids today. The Samba-band were great and they set up and playing in the wind-tunnel that is the side of our school. We sported luminous scarves Rambo-style round our heads and played Tropic, a samba piece for a good 15 minutes.  They were hugely excited and pleased with themselves. I am so glad I started the drumming club two and a half years ago now as it's been a really successful club which attracts different children as well as the music-types (like myself at school, the ones who are in anything remotely musical that they can be in!).  There's one boy in it was that was a right pain in music before he started drumming club and he's really started to take a sense of pride in his musical abilities and makes sensitive decisions when creating music as well as performing now! He's more confident as well whereas before, a lot of his actions were bravado I think! The orchestra were brilliant as well!! They played the best that they have played and I was so happy with them! They were proud of themselves too and there were a lot of proud parents out there too. Performances really bring out that sense of joy and community! I am so lucky as a music teacher to get that 'final product' that many people can all enjoy and take part in, in one fell-swoop and I thank God that he gave me this job in this place, with events conspiring to lead me to my current position! I take too much for granted! Thank God for so many things!

xxx

Cycling Celeste- The Famous Five go cycling in Cambridge- or not?

I've not cycled as much I wanted to this summer. For various reasons I only went out cycling in the holidays around 5 times. The most epic of expeditions was the day we cycled the 53 miles or so from Brentwood, Essex to Jesus Green in Cambridge. This was supposed to be five of us (hence the blog title), a sort of swan song (or swan cycle) for CBC's flatmate who was moving back to S.A. However, for various reasons, it ended up just being CBC and I.

The weather was fortuitous- it was sunny but not too boiling. CBC and I set off around 10.45ish. I was dressed in my brand new cycling top. I have ummed and ahhed about whether to buy a proper cycling top for a while- they seemed very expensive and not particularly flattering. However, when the 2 tops I had liked in Cycle Surgery, when buying Celeste, appeared in the cycle surgery sale for less than half price, it seemed rude not to! I am a convert- they keep ou cool and covered! Voila- we have a Peal Izumi striped cycling top (and cheapy padded shorts plus modesty preserver in the form of polka dot shorts over the top! Can't quite bring myself to show my bottom encased in cycling shorts yet- after all- I don't want to share drivers or distract them! (plus usual uniform of spotty Converse and sunglasses) For any cycling lovers but hill haters, this route was particularly good as the majority of it is flat and there are some pretty places to visit plus wide open plains to enjoy!
The first exciting place of interest was the old Ongar tube station (used to be the Terminus of the Central line which now ends at Epping.). I've never seen it before and it was an interesting place to see. You feel immediately like you are back in a bygone era, a feeling the preservers of the site are keen to encourage- hence the pile of suitcases. In addition, there is some crazy household situated just next to the station which has an eccentric collection of memorabilia - weird, creepy-looking mannequins, a TARDIS and a dalek in their garden. AND several really scary looking signs saying something like, Trespassers will be killed or killer dogs on site with the latter dogs lurking in the garden. Any of you vintage fashionistas, landgirls or vixens should consider this as a photoshoot location!

The ride continued for another 10-15 miles or so. Our eventual aim was the Jesus Green lido so we could swim as our reward so I was keen to continue without stoppage, however, a small break was needed to drink some water (have I mentioned I can barely take my hands of the handlebars- gripping on for dear life being an understatement). We stopped at the Doctor's pond in Great Dunmow. This a fascinating place. It is known as this for various reasons suspected and fascinating reasons. Number one, because medicinal leeches were bred in the pond for the doctors' house located opposite. Secondly, maybe because a Doctor Rayner, residing in the town around the eighteenth century looked after and stocked the pond with plenty of fish. Finally, and most interestingly, a certain Lionel Lukin (1742-1834), bred in the town, was famous because of his invention, the non-sinkable lifeboat and the lake was the location for trying out the models (Source of reminders: BBC Essex website.)

As we arrived, 3 avid-looking children were fishing there, one of whom pulled out a bright orange koi-carp which they photographed and put back in. In the time we rested, ate a mule bar and a bit of energy gel (shudder), they caught several other, less vivid successors. They took this photo! As you can see, the sky was gloriously blue and my cheeks were feeling rather hot!

Continuing onwards, having called CBC's other flatmate, who was doing work but needed a lunch break, we rode onto the wonderful village of Thaxted. The location of a lovely music festival, the home of Dick Turpin and containing many wonderfully picturesque buildings), we stopped for lunch at the famous Poppy's tearoom. CBC has long raved on about this to me! Any Essex-types, it's worth a visit. They have an extensive range of teas including their own blend, wonderful cake and sandwiches. The flatmate met us there. I enjoyed a chocolate ice-cream milkshake, wonderful toasted sandwich, some cake and a fragrant tea blend, feeling somewhat bedraggled..

The thought of having to STILL cycle another 23 miles or so seemed utterly daunting but I don't like giving up. I almost almost asked N to give us a lift back in his spacious car but resisted!

I don't deny, the next 23 miles or so were HARD! It was getting late, we weren't sure what time Jesus Green lido would close on a Sunday, and the thought that it might be shut when we got there was too painful to bear. I gritted my teeth and continued, PEDAL, PEDAL, PEDAL.

Saffron Walden, another wonderful place, contained the only real proper hill on our journey (a mere pussy-cat by Northumberland standards) but I had a meltdown moment at the bottom of the hill where I stopped and cried! CBC stopped and hugged me better. I vanquished that hill subsequently. The final hike into Cambridge was lovely and flat and scenic although there were a couple of nasty A-roads that we had to cycle along to reach Cambridge.

I should point out at this point, that CBC told me beforehand, that the journey was 50miles, so when it transpired the bike computer was registering more than 50 miles, I felt somewhat cheated.

As we rode through Cambridge suburbs, a constant ostinato in my mind was, "Gotta get to Jesus Green". Alas, what if it wasn't open?????

At long last, passing along a parkland-flanked road, the way to Jesus Green was nigh. Manic pedalling along the canal path, we were there!

Asking at the office, they said we had ONE HOUR OF SWIM TIME!!!! The time was 6.30pm!!!!!

The sun was well and truly getting lower, so the lido was GLACIAL, but a wonderful reward.

The pool is very long and thin- one of the longest in Europe I believe and it is historic, having been open since 1923. We didn't stay in that long-CBC tends to turn blue if in cold water for too long but it was SUCH a feeling of triumph!!!

Fresh clothes to wear, transported in CBC's pannier, wet hair and a pub-dinner to look forward to.

The ride to the main street to find a pub was painful to say the least- my saddle felt rockhard on my saddle-sore behind as was the mile or so ride back to Cambridge station! We took the All-stations, calls at every blooming station in the known universe train back to Stratford, having just missed the Liverpool street train but eventually we returned home. Only problem was, the time being 11pm, utterly exhausted, having left CBC on a train back to Brentwood, I discovered I had forgotten my front door key...

A tiring but otherwise rewarding ride!