Nearly half term!

It's been rather an eventful week leading up to half term, which is finally here!

One thing I forgot to mention from the week before last was the visit from Duisburg Zoo.  As part of Science Week, the Primary School decided to study the rainforest, and rainforest animals.  Some people from the Zoo came in to do a talk on rainforests and they brought some creepy crawlies with them for the kids to have a look at.  We stroked cockroaches, and millipedes, and I had a cuddle with a boa constrictor snake, and I got very very close to a tarantula!!!  There was no way I was going to touch it or hold it, but I got about two feet from it, so I was quite pleased with myself!  That is very brave for me, since I really hate spiders!  It was a good day, and all the kids donated one Euro each to give to the Zoo's Duisburg Grass Snake conservation project.  The Zoo have promised to come back and do a talk on Grass snakes, with a few along for the talk!  That should be fun!

Last week was quite a long week, in the lead up to half term.  We had parents evening in Primary on Wednesday.  I didn't have to stay until 7pm like the teachers did, but it was still quite hard work, lugging boxes of stationary around, tidying and sorting out the storage cupboard, and then doing a stock take on all the stationary.

On Tuesday, I was out of school on a trip with the Year 6s, who are currently studying the first world war.  We went to a fantastic exhibition on 1914, which was set up in an old coal mine, in Essen.

To get into the museum we had to take an open roof cable car up this tunnel (below).  The museum was set out over three floors; the first was pre-war, the second, during the war, and the ground floor was post-war.  We had a tour guide, and while it was fascinating, the tour lasted a bit too long for the kids.  It was an hour and 45 minutes, which is just a bit too much for an 11 year old!  The industrial setting really went well with the themes of the museum, and I really enjoyed myself.  We let the kids run around a play ground for a couple of hours after the tour, so they were all exhausted by the time we got back on the coach!  It was a good day, and nice to be out of school.  I work with some of the Year 6 kids during Maths and English lessons so they know who I am and I enjoyed having a chat with them in a more informal setting.

Outside of school it's been an interesting week too, starting with me going into the bedroom on Wednesday, and a light bulb exploding all over the room.  Glass went absolutely everywhere, including a few fragments winding up in my chest!  We spent the next two hours hoovering and washing and finding bits of glass everywhere!  We have just had a visit from an electrician, who said that the lights hadn't been looked at for 40 years, and that the wiring was all messed up!  It's fixed now, so hopefully there will be no more nasty surprises, and we can stop shielding ourselves in anticipation before we turn a light on in the flat!

On Friday night, we went to a house party for a friends 24th birthday.  It was nice relaxing, and not having to worry about school for a week.  We went home at midnight, but everyone else headed out to Dusseldorf, apparently not getting home until quite late the next morning.  We made a good call going home, because we were able to have a sewing/playstation day without feeling ill!

I'm very much looking forward to the week ahead, being able to relax, do some sewing and work on my article.  Matt's mates are coming to visit at the end of the week, which I know he is really excited about.