Dan, Helen and Alexander came over on the 6th. We all took Alexander swimming. He wasn't phased at all by the waves in the wave pool, which splashed in his face. He just giggled his way through it. He also wasn't phased by the six large people who followed him around everywhere in the water, threw balls to him, balanced him on floats, floated him around and popped up from under the water to surprise him.
At home, Ben showed him how to play the piano and then Helen balanced him on the piano stool to let him try on his own. As soon as he realised that hitting the keys with his hands resulted in a noise, he banged away. Then Ben sat him again on his lap and played a tune. Alexander then seemed to realise that he only needed to use his fingers and he played much more genteely after that. We will make sure that he gets many opportunities to play the piano and maybe he will decide later that he wants to have a go at playing.
Football
Beccy played in an under 13s tournament and her team reached the final only to lose 1-0. It was a baking hot day, I got sunburnt and I'm sure that Beccy got a bit of heatstroke as she complained of a nasty headache all afternoon.
She had her second trial for the Kent team and...she was selected. We now need to wait to find out what happens next.
At her school presentation evening she was awarded Girls Football Player of the Year. At the presentation we watched Alli perform a fantastic dance and saw her given an award for Outstanding Achievement in recognition of her achievements in dance at local, regional, national and international levels.
Tennis
Ben has been increasing the number of sessions he works as an assistant coach and seems to be enjoying it. He has booked up his tournaments for the summer and has spent a lot of time working at the club (almost every day since the start of the summer holidays).
Sundridge Park Tournament - Ben won his first round games in both the Under 16s and 18s and progressed to the next round where he knew he would be playing boys with a much higher rating. He played well in the games he won.
Athletics
Ben competed in the 3000m, the 1500m and the 4x400m relay at school sports day (he did the 3000m a couple of days before, probably wouldn't have managed it otherwise as, again, it was an incredibly hot day). He also did some work helping out at a local primary school sports day. A group of AS level PE students were asked to run the day and he seemed to enjoy it.
Beccy competed in the school sports day winning the 1500m, the long jump (4m) and being part of the winning 4x100m relay team.
Trips and events
Ben went to Gilwell 24, a 24 hour scouting event which starts at 8am on Saturday and finishes at 8am on Sunday. He went with Explorers and they took part in various activities throughout the 24 hours. Unfortunately, it started raining heavily at 5pm on Saturday and didn't stop until the event ended, meaning that many activities were not possible. As a result, he didn't enjoy it as much as last year. He arrived home absolutely exhausted and was fast asleep on the sofa when we got home at 2.30pm.
Brian, Beccy, her friend Shannon and I went to a festival/private party called Tonefest 2, in a field in Dorset. We had to miss Friday night as Beccy had her Kent football trial and so we travelled on Saturday morning. We were invited by Fiona and Colin and camped with them and some of their friends at the festival site. After we had put up our tents we grabbed a burger and headed into the acoustic tent. They had a large number of sofas in the large marquee where the acoustic sets were being played. We first listened to Jake Morley who did a very good set, then we moved to the main stage where we watched Bird Jaguar, a rock band. During the day we also saw Randall Stevens, The Rebs, Lou Brown, The Colour of Sound and Ortopilot. The final act of the festival was 'The Great Pretender' a Queen tribute act. Although it seemed a shame that the headline act should be a tribute band when there had been so much good, original music during the day, they got the crowd going and were quite enjoyable to watch. The girls positioned themselves just in front of the stage and danced all the way through. The night ended with a silent disco (you hire headphones and all dance to the same music but heard through the headphones - surprisingly effective). The girls wanted a go so we paid the deposit (returned at the end) for the headphones and they lasted about 20 minutes before they were bored and ready to go to bed. Overall, it was a really good day despite the rain.
The rain started before we arrived. We put the tents up in the rain, got soaked again and again and wore wellies the whole time. The girls managed to leave the front of their tent open and the rain got in, then they left a pillow against the side of the tent and it got soaked. Our tent developed a heavy drip onto the end of our airbed, which we moved so that it dripped onto the floor instead. A puddle formed. In the night the rain became very heavy and, when it stopped, a very strong wind followed. Some tents, including Fiona and Colin's, collapsed resulting in even more things getting wet.
When we woke up, our tents were still up and it wasn't raining any more. Just so we didn't get too comfortable, the toilets, which were quite nice for this type of event, were all blocked, none would flush and there was no water. Once we had organised ourselves to wash and clean at the tent, things were fine. Colin cooked us all a fried breakfast and we all packed up to go home.
After returning from the festival and drying ourselves out, Beccy and Shannon went camping with the school (at Treejumpers) on Tuesday, returning Thursday. It was an adventure camp and they did orienteering, caving, high ropes and many other activities. Luckily, it rained mostly at night and so they didn't get too wet. The caves they explored (man-made) were full of smelly mud and Beccy's clothes came home very wet, muddy and smelly!
Then, after returning from school camp on Thursday, Beccy went camping again, this time with the scouts in Ashdown Forest, on Friday night. A friend's party meant that I had to take her late and she didn't arrive until 11.30pm. She returned Sunday quite exhausted and we finally got to pack everything away.
Bikeathon
Ben and Brian both entered the London Bikeathon and decided to cycle the 52 mile challenge route around London. They started at Thames Barrier Park and cycled across London through Richmond Park and back to the start point. They completed the course in around 5 hours, having stopped for a total of 55 minutes for food and toilet breaks. They raised just over £525 between them for Leukemia Research and returned keen to do another long distance ride (Ben has his sights on London to Paris).
Medway Mile
Beccy, Antoine and I ran the Medway Mile, a free event where you run one mile around Rochester. There was an elite race then a fun run (the one we did). Once we had run from the castle and past the cathedral we ran into the high street where people were eating in restaurants and drinking in the pubs while watching a large mob of people, all wearing t-shirts of blue, black, red or green, just running down the street. It felt like the bull run without the danger. Beccy was around the 5th female to finish and I managed it in under 10 minutes which was good for me.
Antoine's visit
I picked Antoine up from Gatwick. where he flew in from Marseille, on the 23rd for his fourth stay with us. Beccy and Antoine have the same sense of humour and like to do similar things. They got on really well during the 10 days he spent with us. On his first Saturday we were invited next door for a barbecue with a number of other people with small children. Beccy and Antoine played with Austin and Rory and their friends and cousins. They sited themselves in our garden and, using the fence as a net, set up a game of volleyball bringing selected small children to join their team for a while. On the Wednesday, Katy invited them to go to Mote Park with her, the children and her sister's family. Beccy and Antoine played with the younger children all day and Katy was really pleased with them.
