Queen Victoria Something

Last night I was convinced I was going to see Queen Victoria or something to do with her, and it turned out to be a school visit to the Queen Elizabeth Country Park.

I have been to this wide open space before, and recommended the bathtime dinosaurs from the shop in this very blog. But I never remember so every visit is like the first, a good trick if you can do it. Even before we got on the giant coach one of us tripped over and head-butted the pavement causing a fractured skull which will require a brain transplant and a life wearing a bubble on her head. When we got there, the rules stated that you couldn't take pictures so I have no pictorial record of the day, an opportunity lost.

But we played Splat and I won one game, we played Bulldog and I won one game, we played tag with 28 people after we finished our treasure hunt an hour early, we built shelters in groups of 6 and ours was quite poor, the jugful of water (simulated rainstorm) soaked me and the brisk shaking (simulated adverse wind conditions) took out most of the walls.

We had to climb the big hill to get to the wooden playpark at the top. I am led to believe that it is the equivalent of 27 storeys high, and once we'd got all the way down again I noticed I'd left my hat and coat somewhere but luckily the other class had picked it up so I didn't have to go mountaineering again.

Then the nasty cruel teacher (we all love him) said Oh dear we've forgotten to look at the water purification system at the top, we'd better go back and it turned out he was just trolling us, over the howls of anguish.

I wonder what delights will trundle along next on the conveyor belt of life. A cuddly toy? A hostess trolley? Maybe a fondue set and Blankety-Blank voice recognition system and contactless card payment module! Look at what you could have won, this lovely speedboat ...

My newest ambition is to go coin-hunting in the Trevi Fountain. Once Jof had got home and I'd forced her to make pasta with cheese sauce and bacon crunchies, we called our personal shopper to get luxury cake and actually, why bother to have ambitions when everything you need is right here.