despite the bleeding nose it has been a lovely half term

After re-jigging on Wednesday and in-order that I would feel well enough to enjoy a big bash of an adventure out on the last day of the hols on Friday , I set Thursday aside for a little rest and recuperation .Plus I was to welcome two new Italian teenage male students .So the cupboards were stacked with chocolate cereals ,donuts ,Nutella – all the stuff they seem to like …. and I sat back , welcomed a friend for coffee , and then did some chores .

All was going swimmingly ,until 11am when 6 Italians arrived at the doorstep with huge suitcases ( I had agreed to them dropping cases off ,just didn’t realise there would be so many ) and proceeded to unpack them to get their umbrellas out .I said goodbye and they toddled off to Covent Garden in the rain.

Roll on 6 hours and they return – stressed ,wet ,hungry and confused and by now the number had swollen to nine,……made up of two teachers ,a lady from the agency and 6 students – none of whom were staying with us . Seven out of the nine were on their mobile phones .No-one was happy. I gave them drinks and Kit-Kats ,one boy took tablets and sat at the bottom of the stairs with his head in his hands .Another paced the hall .One teacher stayed calm ( and close to me ) ,the other shouted a lot down her phone to a man called Fabrizio . The woman from the agency just smiled and said she didn’t know what was going on .

A taxi came , one student shot off , minus the other two students he was sharing with ,and the number of the house he was staying at !

He phoned his teacher here his host family weren’t in .

Teacher gets cross and phones his host family – host family are in .

Phones lonely boy- he was dropped off at wrong end of street and just knocked on random numbered houses as he’d lost his piece of paper with address on .

Others still in my hall – no taxis arrive

Show teachers to their room – 1 teacher NOT happy as she was promised her own room and en-suite .Refuses to stay here – tell her I was expecting 2 boys and they do have their own shower room

Phone agency . Agency is confused ,teacher is angry ,Agency offers teacher room in different house that has a dog .Teacher has a phobia of dogs ,so on hearing this , nearly explodes

Meanwhile , in the background, more Kit-Kits ,tablets and drinks are being consumed .

And so it went on ,until 9pm when all students had been collected , 2 teachers had eaten with us and I drove the quiet teacher to her her new host family.

Then I had a stiff drink and watched Cucumber !

So yesterday was heaven ….

our dear friends Claire and Bob treated us to our train to journeys to the wonderful seaside town ,Whitstable .

The four of us had a ball …coffee and cakes in Jojo’s , a walk along the seafront , aperitifs in The Old Neptune and the most amazing seafood meal in Wheelers – which if you haven’t been there and you like fish – go .It is like stepping back in time and it’s still BYO

and seats a maximum of 12 so it’s like sitting in your granny’s parlour .Then the train back , the crossword and even the guy in the next compartment helped us with the clues.

5 Replies to “despite the bleeding nose it has been a lovely half term”

  1. Never a dull moment in your house! Rachel your little trips out are helping me enormously to compile my list of ‘places to visit when I get back that I’ve never seen before’. People tell me that I should be working though my Dubai ‘bucket list’, but I’m not interested. Whitstable sounds like the way forward. I’ll join you on one of you day trips next year-if you don’t mind that is!

  2. Never a dull moment in your house! Rachel your little trips out are helping me enormously to compile my list of ‘places to visit when I get back that I’ve never seen before’. People tell me that I should be working though my Dubai ‘bucket list’, but I’m not interested. Whitstable sounds like the way forward. I’ll join you on one of you day trips next year-if you don’t mind that is!

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