Home Sweet Home
“You’re back in England?!” Yeah, I am, SURPRISE! I’ve had to keep it all completely secret because on Saturday night I surprised one of my best friends from school at her birthday night out in Birmingham! I booked the flights only a month or so ago so they were pretty pricey but totally worth it!!
THURSDAY
Thursday I worked in the morning as usual and then got to the airport about 1 ready to jet off to London Stanstead. Dad picked me up and I finally got home about 7.30pm greeted by mum, one of my brothers and of course, my dog and overly clingy cat! As requested, I had a full roast dinner with all the trimmings waiting for me followed by a toffee apple, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, muffin made by Will (my brother) in food tech and screme eggs! (Incase you haven’t worked out, my mum is definitely a feeder!! I can tell my little brother misses me because he was adamant that we played cluedo as a family – I lost both times but it’s the taking part that counts right? 😉
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| Crazy antics at home!! |
FRIDAY
I had such a fabulous day Friday! Me and mum got up at the crack of dawn (which wasn’t too bad for me because of jet lag!) and headed for central London. As it’s 100 years since the beginning of the First World War, over 800,000 ceramic poppies have been placed around the Tower of London. It is one of the most beautiful and moving things I’ve seen! As we got there so early there weren’t many people but after a quick stop at Starbucks the streets were rammed!! It’s lovely to think that one of those poppies has been placed for my great great great uncle Herbert (Bert) who I’ve learnt a lot about in the last few years. He died in action and we have 2 lovely, long letters from commanding officers he worked with describing how much they liked him because of his “emotional cheeriness” and “coolness under fire”.
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| Me, my lovely Mummy and 800,000 ceramic poppies (and the Shard) |
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| Monument for the Great Fire of London |
After finally escaping the crowded streets we headed for Pudding Lane where the great fire of London started in September 1666. I’ve just been teaching year 3 about London and the great fire but I had no idea there was a huge monument (monument tube station) that you can walk up and see London to mark the exact spot!
After that we headed for the V&A Museum and looked at wedding gowns throughout history, theatre and film, disobedient objects and China. I now want my wedding dress to be handmade, I want to go to a West End show and I want to visit China – little bit influenced by it all I guess! The museum is absolutely huge and has the history about almost everything!!
After our busy morning we went for my favourite meal and my favourite restaurant (Wagamama – chicken Khatsu curry) and then did a spot of shopping in Oxford Street seeing the Christmas lights too 🙂
I love spending time with my mum and we make sure to do a few Anna and Mummy day trips a year! I’m looking forward to our next one in December where we continue our annual tradition of seeing a musical (hint hint Matilda hint hint!!) 😉
SATURDAY
The day had finally come!! The morning was spent just slobbing around the house – eating more and skyping my other brother who’s currently studying at Staffordshire University. Was very weird to have the whole family skyping but I’m not the one at university!
As I mentioned in my last blog, I get a lot of unwanted and unnecessary attention because of my blonde hair so I fixed it – I am now brunette! It’s a bit darker than I expected and has a tint of red which I’m not sure about yet but it’s only semi-permanent so it’s not the end of the world!!
This Wednesday it’s my friend Ammun’s 21st birthday so this weekend she invited all of us from school to go to Birmingham for a night out at her student union. Initially I was going to surprise all my friends but 2 had to be told so it was just Ammun and Shalini being surprised. After jokingly saying that I was coming, Ammun told me that ‘I’d better start swimming’. So obviously, I ran with the joke and continued to tell her about swimming lessons and my new swimming costume etc. then turned up in a swimming costume and swimming goggles!! Because of my change in hair it took them a second to recognise me but her reaction was brilliant! Was definitely worth the social media blackout!!
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| Her face didn’t change for about 30 mins after this! |
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| L-R Shalini, Fiona, Ammun, Melissa, Me <3 |
There’s not really much to talk about for Sunday as I didn’t sleep all night (alcohol insomnia) and I’m a bit hungover. Currently writing this feeling crappy on my flight from Birmingham airport to Alicante. Really looking forward to eating dinner and then just going to bed!! My alarm is gunna go off at 7.15am tomorrow which will feel like 6.15!! I’m sure year 6 will be understanding and hopefully not too noisy! I didn’t think I would come home before Christmas but I’m so glad I did purely to give my brain a rest from having to think in 2 different languages all the time! It’s also made me feel very festive… John Lewis have their advert out, the coke advert is back and I have an advent calendar! I love Christmas and I’m looking forward to working hard for the next 6 weeks and then I can come back home and get super festive and super jolly!
See you on the 18th December England!!
Annalise x
(Espanol pronto!)