Mud, glorious mud

Today was the second trip to the forest for the school. Their special subject this year is forests, so we are doing a series of trips to learn different things. Today was all about waste (ie recycling etc) and animal footprints.

Not a fab start to the day when, despite getting up in easily enough time, I seemed to be moving at a pace so slow it even surprised me. So there was a lot of unneccessary last minute dashing around to get packed lunches packed and children to school at the right time. Briefly, I even forgot that I was due to go to the forest too as a parent-helper and almost ended up with no lunch for myself.

The first part of the day was mercifully spent indoors (as the rain thumped down outside) studying rubbish. It was a fantastic display - one of those exhibitions clearly put together with no money at all, but all so well designed and thought out. The kids had a ball, and frankly I'd like to go back again to read all the information properly. I had to act as a teacher for one group (of four very well behaved boys) but had to keep resorting to google translate for words none of us knew! Happily all seemed to go well and my gang answered lots of questions in the whole group session at the end (phew).

Lunch followed, then some playtime (I was FORCED by the mean headmistress to go on the zip slide, but it turned out I didn't, as expected, fall off and die) before learning about animal prints (the teacher helpfully came over and explained to me the animals I'd clearly never heard of. Though I'm still a bit confused about wild cats and didn't know they had them here.) CarbBoy unexpectedly made me very proud by shouting out 'Poo' at an entirely appropriate moment. All those nature shows were not wasted...

Then out into the mud to search for animal tracks. Despite repeated instructions, the kids were determined that the only tracks we would find would be... 9-11 year old French kids' footprints. But somehow we found enough to go around, and here are some waiting for plaster to arrive. I think I managed to convince a bunch of kids that mine was a wolf rather than a dog, but that's probably not funny since wolves will be here soon enough - a point the sheep farmer parent who was there made later...

Later still, there was a nasty incident with a fallen tree and a lake, a side trip to a wild boar bath, and lots of semi-naked boys who I was, bizarrely, put in charge of. The journey home was made much swifter and more pleasant than it might have been by the company of the sheep farmer parent, who shamed me by not only speaking ok English (though of course he thought it was terrible) but also German and Italian. Still, I managed to struggle through a series of conversations about sheep (he is thinking of getting the same breed of sheep that my parents' neighbour has but might have changed his mind since I told him they just drop dead all the time) and immigration through the ages, as well as the similarities between northern British words and German words.

Later still still (I'm still going, it's been a long day) there was a pause for exhaustion, a cold shower (it turns out I forgot to put the water heater on) and out again laden down with cookies for the Basketball Club loto. We were all exhausted and had a pact to leave at half time. I astonished myself by winning the second prize (some vouchers) and then astonished everyone by winning a BIG prize (home cinema system). This winning thing is extremely stressful as I'm never sure if I have heard the numbers right. But I managed, despite being told very firmly the first time that it's no good shouting "Oui", rather I have to shout "Quine" or it doesn't count. Anyway, sloping out at half time was probably the right thing to do - it doesn't look good to win too many times! And my (non-winning) neighbours were delighted to have our cards to play after we left.

Home (yes there's more) for a conversation with Mr B in which it transpired that he is not buying all the Apple goodies in the world (probably for the best given that after an itunes disaster yesterday I suggested to the kids that I might just murder everyone who has ever worked for Apple - don't worry, I've calmed down a bit now. But seriously, if I can't get FaceTime to work on my computer it might be time for action...) but he is off to buy another huge monster of a car tomorrow instead.

Which means we won't see him until late on Sunday. The only downer on an otherwise exhausting but fun day.

I'm stopping now.