It’s MONDAY! The calm before the storm of dealing with school age children and boarders! I did have to get up for morning duty in order to accommodate Mr. Stella who is doing an upgrading course out in Tivinton, so our schedules are changing slightly for this week. But after breakfast, the fried eggs were surprisingly decent this time, I went back to bed and didn’t wake up til noon. Missing lunch, but I’ll take a great sleep in over a meal any day!
Another week has flown by. It just seems like a blur looking back. Wake-up, get ready, eat, help kids read, tea break, playground duty, help kids read/do math, lunch time, playground duty, small break time, PE, break until tea and then evening off unless it’s Thursday, but now that my online-uni course has started, I don’t have much of an evening off. Then I repeat the above list until Friday. Blessed, blessed Friday. This Friday I only had to work til 1:30. By the end, I didn’t care what the kids did or what they did to each other, I just wanted to go back to my little room and pass out. But I had homework assignments due, (yes, not only am I working and living at a boarding school, and doing weekend adventures, I am also doing courses for my Legal Administrative Assistant certificate…people think I am crazy, but I can do it, I did four courses during tax season so it’s possible for me to do it here) so that didn’t happen. But I did mix a little bit of Coke and Disaronno together. Yes, it was 2pm, but it was technically 6 back home….6 am, but the ‘it’s 6 o’clock somewhere’ saying doesn’t specify morning or evening! 😛
Erica and I then caught a ride with the Judo teacher in one of the mini buses to Atlantic Village/Asda. Not sure if I mentioned Atlantic village in my lasts post. But it is an outlet mall, course it’s got nothing on the outlet malls in America, but still some pretty decent shops. Nothing really special to mention about that trip, except Erica introduced me to these yummy candies called ‘Percy Pigs’, I think I’ll have to bring a bag home to Canada for a special lady who is also one of my besties. We were given a 20 minute time constraint, so once the 20 minutes were up we headed back to the bus to wait for the Judo teacher. He ended up being 30 extra minutes, but only because he was waiting for us. Despite telling us to wait at the bus he had been waiting at Asada’s for us. Because, like most women and shopping, he expected us to be longer in the 20 minutes. But then Erica and are not like most women, well at least not over here in England. Back home, I chalk up an extra 30 minutes for when I’ll be back at home and shopping. Just because. In, England, however, I am pretty punctual and conscientious of time.
He dropped us off in Bideford, where Erica had to run some errands. Earlier that week she had dropped off some jewelery for repairs at one of the local jewelers. While there she also needed to get a new band for her watch. As she went to pay, the jeweler’s credit machine stopped working. The only way Erica could pay was with card.What he did next, absolutely amazed Erica and me. Instead of taking the merchandise and jewelry back and telling her to come back at another time; he gave Erica her jewelry and purchase and told us to drop by tomorrow or later on next week to see if the machine was working. HONESTLY! We left a little taken back that he would do such a thing and be so trusting. Had it been either of us, we would have said, ‘I am sorry, but it seems our machine is down, could you please come back tomorrow and pay’ and have kept the wares. It was one of those, ‘faiths in humanity restored’ moments. Erica couldn’t just leave it like that, so she went to the bank machine and pulled out enough cash to pay. It was one of those heart warming, human goodness moments. Because of the wet and rainy weather, I was desperately craving hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps. Apparently they don’t sell schnaps in England, well not the peppermint kind, but I did find a white peppermint cordial that went just as well with the hot chocolate. Only 4.5% but still the desired taste.
We then hoofed it back up the hill, making it back in time before the heavens opened up and started ‘chucking down’ rain on us! When you are down in Bideford and look up towards Kingsley, you can see the big black clouds approaching from the coast. You then must decided two things, do you go to somewhere like Morrison’s and wait it out, or do you go speed walk up Northdown Road and pray that the rain gods hold it back til you are safely indoors. Sometimes you make it, sometimes, like yesterday, you don’t! That night I snuck out my 2-6 of peppermint cordial and Disaronno and headed up to the cottage for some much need unwinding. I introduced Erica to the yummy world of peppermint hot chocolate and then we both discovered how delicious Disaronno in English breakfast tea is! You may scrunch up your nose in disgust, but seriously it is soooooooooooo goood!
On Saturday I joined Mrs. Stella and the Sr. Girls Hockey team to go to Tiverton and play against Blundell’s School. (http://www.blundells.org/ I dare you to check out their tuition cost….) The school was founded in 1604. Just to put this into retrospect, one year later, in 1605, Samuel de Champlain established the first succesful New France Colony at Port Royal. Now found in present-day Nova Scotia. In other words, Blundell’s is oooooold!!!!!!!!!!
Because Kingsley is a small school, very similar to NCS, they don’t have enough girls to make several hockey teams for each year group. Back home they would be classified as a Single A team, while Blundells has three teams in the same year group, making them a Triple, Double and Single A school. Here it is classified as 1st, (AAA) 2nd(AA), 3rd (AA/A) and 4th (A) team. We faced their 3/4th team and did quite well! The girls managed a draw, 3-3, even scoring the first goal of the game! By the end of the game I was screaming and cheering to keep them going. They were marvelous. The girls could have probably taken the game, but as Kingsley doesn’t have a proper turf field, they don’t know how to play or control the ball on the surface. Unfortunately in the merger of the schools, and the choice of Edgehill as the campus, the school left behind some excellent turf and sports fields at Grenville. A sad loss, but in time they’ll have a proper turf pitch and fields.
I absolutely love the drive to and from these sports fixtures. I managed to take a few photos to show just how beautiful the drive is to Tiverton or Wellington.
I was quite tired from the screaming and running up and down the pitch taking photos. There, was not much time to rest, however. After tea was the ‘Boarders Got Talent’ talent show. Almost all of the girls from the house performed, but the boys participation was much to be desired. Oh well, ca la vie. They had fun, and much laughing and applauding was had. It ended just after 8, giving Erica and I plenty of time to pick a movie from the Stella’s library and then we went up to the cottage to partake in some more Disaronno and tea and watched “What Women Want.”
Now here is where the title of this blog ‘Pinch Me I am Dreaming’ comes in. Yesterday, Sunday, was finally a decent sunny day. Erica and I decided on going for a bike ride along the Tarka trail. Here is the link, as I want to get to the pictures and dreaming part as soon as possibly, so you can look it up yourself and find out more. http://www.devon.gov.uk/tarkatrail
We rented two bikes from a store just below the trail on East-the-Water side of Bideford, and headed up to the paved path. We decided on going the Torrington way, as it is more scenic than going to Barnstaple. So off we rode. I’ve not been on a bike for perhaps, 7 years. So it was exhilarating and exciting to be biking once more, and even more incredible to be biking along the countryside in England! If you clicked on the link, you’ll see that the Tarka trail is actually a paved over railway line and it leads through some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen! The distance to Torrington is 5.5 miles from Bideford. It took as twice as long to get there than it did coming back. Mainly because I had to stop every few hundred meters and taking shots. Seriously a stunning trail. There is nothing like this back home. We went over bridges that probably date further back then when Canada became a confederation, we biked under a long train tunnel and under little overpasses. We past bubbling brooks, and raging rivers. Rode past the rolling hills with sheep grazing upon them and sleepy cows in their pastures. It was a dream like ride. Trees lined most of the path and their leaves littered the ground making it feel at times like we were riding over a carpet of leaves under a tree line hall.
We went 2 miles past Torrington, to Watergate and then turned around and headed back to Bideford. In total we cycled 15 miles which is approximately 24 kms! On the walk back to Bideford, our legs felt like jelly and knee’s ached. As we crossed over Bideford’s Long Bridge, we noticed the storm clouds rolling over. Not a good sign. We could have made it back up to the school in time, however, I was dying for a nibble. I had just biked off brunch, and probably last nights tea, need something. Unfortunately, there were no prawn cocktail crisps at the convenience store we stopped at, but the salt and malt vinegar crisps here are just as good! I also got a picture of the naked lady statue that is situated above the pottery shop. Why there is this statue there, I do not know. It’s Bideford.
My little detour ended up in getting us wet. Erica, not so much because she changed into her rain coat when she had the chance. I didn’t care if I got wet, all that mattered was keeping my camera and gear try, so I put the rain shield over it, instead. If I get sick, I don’t care, if my camera ‘gets sick’ aka damaged because of the rain, I will care!
That evening, while up at the cottage, Erica and I were paid a visit by the spawn of Shelob. Scary, disgusting thing! They are huge over here. Although, they would be considered medium size back in Australia, according to Erica….uuuugggghhhhh….
At first I tried to get Matteo (Miguel) to kill it. Because, you know, it should be the guys job to kill spiders. But nope! So that left me and Erica to muster up our courage and kill the bestie. I tried squishing it with the heel of my boot, with my eyes covered over with my scarf. I thought I had smushed it, but the moment I lifted my heel it RAN from underneath. *Insert girlie screaming here* Erica grabbed the broom and just started smacking it down on it. And then wiped its guts outside. *shuddder*
To finish off Sunday night, I had a lovely long chat with one of my besties back home! It was soooooo good to hear/see her! Put a bounce in my step and a smile on my face all the way back to the boarding house.
9 days left til half-term and 10 til Wales!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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