Well, here we are at the Moodiesburn Hotel sitting down to our tea! The children are all eating and are full of chat aftere their first day of the trip.
When I arrived at school this morning the bus was already sitting outside the school and the driver said that he had left Glenrothes at 5am to be here in time. The driver was going to take us down to Glasgow where we would meet our ‘real’ driver Bob who will be with us for the rest of the week.
The Strichen children arrived at school very excited and got their bags loaded into the boot. I do not know who was more excited – the children thinking about their trip or the parents thinking about a week of peace and quiet!
After all the last minute checks the children piled on to the bus along with Mrs Mitchell to head off for Longside. The parents stood and waved and one or two even wiped a tear away from their eyes!
I suddenly realised that I needed to get the phone number for the school’s information line and rushed back in to school to get it. By the time I got to Longside the bus was full of the Longside pupils and staff and all their parents and all the other pupils were out waving them off!
We headed off to Aberdeen and the roads were quite kind to us and we were soon driving through the city. We managed to get split up in the traffic and I eventually caught up with them just as they arrived at Laurencekirk for our ‘toilet stop’. The children enjoyed the chance to stretch their legs, get some fresh air and have a look round Laurencekirk School.
After some lovely toffee, courtesy of Mrs Davidson, we were back on the road heading for Dundee.
We arrived in Dundee at noon and went straight to the ‘Discovery Centre’ down by the River Tay. We split into two groups and one group went round the Discovery while the other group went round the exhibition. The best part of the exhibition was the multimedia presentation that told us all about The Discovery’s three year trip to the South Pole. The ship was “locked” in the ice for two years and it was a miracle that the ship eventually was set free.
At 1pm we had our lunch. Our group had our lunch on the quayside while the rest had their’s on board The Discovery down in the bowels of the vessel! After lunch the groups swapped over and did the other half of the tour. At that point we headed to the SHOP where the kids were desperate to get their first souvenirs of the trip! I believe they still have some of their money from today left.
At 2.30pm we were back on the bus and off once more. The children enjoyed “Johnny English” and “Over the Hedge” on DVD. Perhaps one or two even looked at the scenery out the window! (“Scenery?” they shouted, “We want to watch a DVD!!”
Before long we arrived at the hotel and got all the cases off the bus. Some seem to have packed enough for a fortnight – although now we are heading to the bowling I can see why as some of the girls are now into outfit number two of the day! They were not quite so happy when they had to lug their cases up the stairs to their rooms!
Anyway, we are almost at the bowling. We will let you know who wins later on!
Anyway, a great start so far – let’s hope it continues!
Bowling was a great success! Everyone had great fun and some pupils, and staff, had good scores! The highest for pupils was around 111 and one member of staff managed 120! (Well done Mrs Davidson!)
We are now back at the hotel having juice and a biscuit and oing the “dreaded” diary! (It’s amazing how they can suddenly forget what has happened over the day – or that the journey suddenly becomes “boring” even though they had great fun on the bus!)
Anyway, the final challenge is to come…..getting everyone to sleep and keeping the staff awake long enough to make sure the kids are asleep!
If you are reading this then we were successful in getting it uploaded to the blog site! Here’s hoping!!
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