We made sure the kids were in their tents at 10:30pm, although we were certain they wouldn’t stay there – throughout the night we were aware of scurrying footsteps, flashing torches and squeals of excitement. The next morning they were grumpy, bleary-eyed and could barely lift their heads from their cornflakes – it turned out they had been up until 4:30 a.m. and, to make matters worse, it was one of the hottest days of the year, so their three hour walk with heavy backpacks was going to be a real struggle. The boy who packed the scary masks was mortified when we revealed that he would have to carry the whole lot for the walk …
The final expedition took place a week before the end of term, and happily, lessons had been learned from the practice – such as going to bed on time, packing only essential items, and so on. It was quite a strange feeling dropping the kids off in unfamiliar countryside with no advice other than, “Good luck – see you at the campsite in six hours’ time!” – as a member of staff working in a school, you can never feel wholly comfortable until you know that every member of your brood is where they should be – but the fact is they were far more likely to run into trouble on the nasty streets of London than in the Oxfordshire countryside. With the exception of one group, who called our SOS number (for life-threatening emergencies only) to tell us that one of them had been bitten by a gnat and someone else had been chased by a sheep, everyone dealt with their respective “navigational malfunctions” independently and arrived at camp safely. The campsite was something of a disappointment – we were placed far too close to the farmhouse to really feel the “solitude” - and the couple running the place clearly didn’t understand the occupational hazards of their profession; they spewed out a list of rules such as no hot pans on the grass, no noise after 10pm or before 7am and so on, yet placed our kids in the spot closest to the farmhouse where they were most likely to cause offence. In actual fact they were very good (and my tolerance level for annoying children is very low) – they cleared up after themselves and behaved in a civilised manner – but it didn’t stop the owners from wandering across BEFORE 10pm to whinge about the noise. Note to people who don’t like “noisy” kids – don’t run a campsite! Get a job in a library instead!
After the expedition and all the various end of term bits and pieces, I had our London honeymoon to look forward to – rather than go overseas, Nicky and I had decided to spend a week or so exploring the home town that, actually, we know very little about. As I write we are still mid-honeymoon with a few days left to go, and all I can say is … although it has been brilliant, the late nights and hangovers mean we will probably need another week to recover. I will look forward to telling you all about it in the next instalment of “Confessions …”!
|
