Mexican Heatwave

Well, it's practically the holidays which is why we're hardly doing any work at all. First we 'finished our homework' and had a quiz. This was a lengthy endeavour with 60 questions, and a few pitfalls for the unwary student, of which we are legion.

You get points for questions correctly answered. In this, it was traditionally arranged. But if you stage-whisper the answer so loudly that Team James on the other side of the room can hear it, Team James will get an easy point with no synapses fired, and Team Whisper will have one deducted for idiocy, and breach of the peace. You could also lose precious points for being told off, so there's a few more gone. We came third.

Then was the battalion rounders game. The entire year played boys versus girls and although significantly more numerous, the girls don't quite have it in the hand/eye co-ordination, as they hardly spend any time at all hitting things with sticks. So we won 17:5, with my home run coming from a shot onto the roof which came back down the drainpipe. In the rematch the last girl hit it by accident on her follow-through which sent us stalwart fielders the wrong way and they won by half a point.

In a post office inside a shop we posted 5 different kinds of throat-clearing pastilles including Fisherman's Friend to Grandad, who likes to sing without a frog in his throat. Perhaps he's moved onto newts. We walked home in the welcome but brutal heat.

Scouts today could not be at the bandstand due to excessive building works for the Americas Cup so we went to the Mad Hospital. Getting there early and shirtless, we had the chance to climb trees and see the midges dancing in shafts of sunlight and to get called strangers by some kid with a Dino-Transformatron who then wouldn't leave me alone. Bit by bit the cubs arrived and we outnumbered DinoBoy. We ate chips and crisps and played 'Fruit Salad', so at least some of it was healthy. I renegotiated my own age to allow myself to go on the next Cub camp, for by then I will be a Full Scout.