You'll either love it or hate it...

This irritatingly catchy song (if you can call it a song) has been in my head ALL DAY. So now I'm going to put it into yours. It's very, very strange... but I'm starting to think that if I'd seen this programme as a kid, maybe I would've eaten more vegetables.

So, at the risk of losing faithful readers of my blog, here is 'There's A Party In My Tummy' from Yo! Gabba Gabba:



There. That's ruined your day, hasn't it? Just think, you'll never get those two minutes back.

Heather and Katie's Week of FUN!

So, we're back from the Canary Islands. I'll try not to bore you too much with holiday stories, but here are a few of the things that happened to us...

Our adventure started as our plane descended into Fuerteventura. There was a LOT of turbulance. Eventually we reached the runway and the tyres hit the ground and bounced up and down quite a lot. A few seconds later, we realised that instead of gradually slowing down, we were speeding up. And then a really odd thing happened. The plane took off again. It was all quite surreal and it was only when I looked out the window and realised how high up we were that I turned to Heather (not the keenest of flyers) who looked really freaked out. We then laughed nervously and decided that the pilot must have landed on the wrong island and had hoped that nobody would notice. Ten minutes later (a very long time when pondering your own mortality- why hadn't there been an announcement?! What was GOING ON?!!) the voice of the Spanish pilot came onto the intercom. The static was bad and his English wasn't great anyway, so the announcement went something like this:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, you may be aware that *static* plane *static* circling *static*. We experienced some problem *static* wing *static* landing. We try again. Thank you."

Well, that's what Heather heard anyway. The rest of us heard 'strong wind' instead of 'wing'. Which obviously changes the meaning a little. Anyway, the pilot managed to land the plane eventually, to much raptuous applause, and so our holiday finally began.

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

1) Heather took this without me realising. You can take the girl out of England...

2) A banana split without the banana. We discovered, after complaining, that it really should have been named 'The Banana Flavoured Ice Cream Split'. Rubbish.

3) We went across to Lanzorote for the day on Friday, and did a bit of dolphin spotting too. Unfortunately none of the dolphin photos came out, so here's a picture of Heather and I after the tour guide gave us blankets because we were cold... (it was a boat packed with tourists, and we were the only two who had blankets... such high maintenance!):

Some memorable quotes from the trip include:

'This is NOT what I ordered.'

- Heather, after opening the curtains on our first morning to discover it was cloudy.

'Don't worry, my little fruitbowl. It'll be fine.'

- A man we overheard reassuring his girlfriend. We burst out laughing.

'Please put other bag on scales. Before plane leaves.'

- Impatient Spanish check-in guy at airport.

(After checking passport photo) 'Come again soon, my darlings. You are welcome here always. *sleazy wink* Don't go home, please don't go!'

- Final security check man proving that they don't seem to take their job quite as seriously over there...

We had a brilliant time!!!

Miracle Jesus

You know those little shops that sell all sorts of bits and pieces, nice for small gifts and tokens of appreciation? Well, there's a lovely little shop in Durham I used to go to when stuck for present ideas. However, when I visited it this weekend, it would seem the owner has branched out into a whole new market niche. In amongst the homemade bookmarks, cute ornaments and those 'Thank You Teacher' mugs (which you can never get enough of), I noticed this:



I thought the 'glow-in-the-dark hands' were an interesting touch. Also, note the fact that this is the 'DELUXE' version. I wonder what the ordinary Miracle Jesus Action Figure does...

Anyway, I had a very nice time in Durham. Last week I went to the Isle of Wight with Year 6 (more on that later), and during Disco Night they played that Soulja Boy song. All 400 children in the hall immediately commenced this intricate dance routine, which left the adults (who had up to that point felt very 'down with the kids'- we'd just taught the younger generation the Macarena moves) feeling very old and slightly freaked out. Apparently the routine is on YouTube. Being the ancient 23 year old that I am, the only word (and corresponding move) I could understand in the song was 'Superman'- and the next day I couldn't wait to show my Durham friends the move I'd learnt. Laura in particular was very quick to catch on:



The Isle of Wight trip was a very testing time for me- I had to face all sorts of fears and look as though I was thoroughly enjoying every second of it, as some of the kids in my group were more terrified than me. The Giant Swing was horrifying to start off with, as I had to go first and the girl sat next to me didn't want to say 'stop' til the swing was at its highest point (if you've seen the video from the previous post, it was raised so it was actually level with the top bar). In hindsight, I should've known better than be paired with her, as her dad owns Adventure Island... By this time two of the other groups were walking past, and they'd all stopped to have a good look. The worst bit was the fact that it was up to me to pull the tiny pink cord, which then released the swing. After the initial 'AAAAAAHHHH' sensation though, it was really good!!!

Going on the Tunnel Trail was the other really scary experience for me. It involved crawling through these wet, muddy, pitch black tunnels which varied in height (I came out with a headache) looking for a golden brick which, when pulled out, would reveal a secret supply of sweets. Needless to say, there was no golden brick. And when I decided to stay in the one small chamber with a light to look after the frightened children, the light went out and I was left comforting all these crying children who I couldn't see.

Apart from that, it was a really good trip, and the Isle of Wight is beautiful. Have officially had enough of children now though...