Days of leisure

Apparently the best way for young lads to entertain themselves in Garstang is to spend the evening traversing a zebra crossing in front of every car and faking broken legs half way across. I must admit I found it quite funny, although I'm glad that I have better things to do on my day off - like walking in the Lake District!

A few days ago I completed my first proper day of walking in 2015 with a circuit of Derwent Water and an evening ascent of Catbells, a hill I've not climbed since I was 3 (as far as I'm aware), and a beautiful day it was too, even when it rained.

Not a bad spot to stop for lunch

Can you make out the beginnings of a rainbow in the centre of this picture? (Look carefully!)

It's that bridge...

Sunshine on the valley

Evening reflections

 

 

24

The number of hours in a day, bits in a computer to represent TrueColour pictures and frames per second at which motion picture films are usually projected.

There are 24 ways to order the digits 1,2,3 and 4, or any four distinct items.

It is the atomic number of Chromium, a steely-grey, lustrous, hard and brittle metal, which takes a high polish, resists tarnishing, and has a high melting point.

There are a total of 24 major and minor keys in Western tonal music, while in Basketball the offensive team has 24 seconds to attempt a shot.

24 is the number of carats representing true gold, and for the next 365 days will also represent me.

French Invasion

"Parlez-vous français?"
"Non"

And that was the end of that conversation.

Yes the French are on centre and today I taught my first ever French class - that is a lesson to French people, in English - which, to be honest, was probably easier than teaching English children French.

The session was on 'improving the environment' and 'conservation' but seeing as most 9-year-olds in this country would struggle to understand those words getting the point across to eleven French kids was always going to be a bit out of reach.

Still, we had fun making bird feeders out of pine cones and catching bugs and slugs to put in our Insect Hotel, and it was both amusing and frustrating for both sides that for most of the three hours we couldn't understand each other. I'm still working on that.

The List

Excerpt from an old notepad I found when cleaning some stuff out of the study rooms on centre:

Treat each other nice and friendly

Be on your best behavior
All be respectful
Do not Pay attention to people’s opinions.
No headphone / phone
Make sure everyone feels including
No violence
Language

No idea what it’s from but I expect you all to keep to this list from now on. Admittedly some of them are a bit ambiguous but do the best you can.

Wide Games in the Dark

"Put your heels on the edge of the tower for me. Bend your knees, and now lean back. Straighten your legs. Well done, that's the hard bit done. It's up to you now, just start feeding the rope up through your hands. Keep your feet where they are until your nose is level with your toes. Okay now you can start walking down the tower. There you go, easy see. You can try a few jumps if you like. Don't forget to have a look at the view on your way down. You're doing really well. Not much further, and you're down. Well done! Now unhook yourself and then you can come back up and do it again, but this time we'll make it harder."
  ~ A snapshot of PGL life ~

An unusual abseil session in which there were only two guests led to a series of fun descents in which they tried to grab tags off each other on the way down, and had to trust each other by holding the other one's rope. It was a bit windy at the top though and today that wind has blown in the first real dose of snow since I arrived. Fortunately it was only raining last night as a group of us played Capture the Flag and Manhunt in the dark.