My First School Excursion

My job at this school has come with a lot of firsts, and organising an excursion for one of my classes was one of them.

As mentioned in previous posts, one of my classes this year is a non-curriculum class. Instead of focusing on content prescribed in a curriculum, it is a chance for students to do something not necessarily 'school-like', something that involves developing 'life skills' and/or broadening their experiences. My classes for this are STEM-based, which gives me a bit of a challenge trying to justify how the activities we do are related to team building or problem solving etc. I know, most of you reading this will be thinking how ridiculous that sounds, because to us STEM incorporates those things naturally, but having to actually explicitly state how can be difficult.

I decided to take advantage of the fact that we are within driving distance of The Royal Observatory at Greenwich. It is a place I'd wanted to go, and I saw this as the perfect opportunity for myself and my students. What is more mind-blowing and life-thought-provoking than exploring what it means to have the entire universe around us?

I remember from my own experiences, some as early as primary school and some as recent as last year, how humbling and inspiring it can be to learn about space. To learn about our tiny, insignificant place within it. The realise the true meaning of continuity, and that in the grand scheme of the universe our own lives are so completely insignificant. But also to realise what we have done to explore what we currently know of the universe. All the people and technology and creativity that has gone into developing this understanding. The people who are sitting right now outside our atmosphere. The people who will one day sit ON ANOTHER PLANET. It's simply incredible.

Organising the trip took a lot more time and effort than I thought it would, but in hindsight I also expected that. There were pages and pages of forms to fill out, people to coordinate, letters and emails to write. Having never done it before, it was definitely a daunting task. Especially when you are told it will be taken care of for you, only to find out that no you'll have to do it yourself, and quickly because the trip is next week.

Luckily for me the Observatory includes a full risk assessment in their booking confirmation package. It meant I didn't have to sit there for who knows how long thinking of all the things that could have gone wrong, and how to prevent them. Being the legal guardian of the students I took out on the trip was something on my mind all day - if anything happened to any of them while we were out it was my responsibility, even if they did something completely stupid that got them into that situation in the first place. I know that's why we have a staff-to-student ratio, but it doesn't stop the stress. I'm sure we can all remember how we behaved on school trips - everyone goes just a little bit (or a lot) silly, and unless they have great respect for the teachers there with them it can go to mess very quickly. I am lucky enough to have a great relationship with my students, who in this group are all nice people to begin with, so they all listened to my instructions and behaved well throughout the day. We did have instances of silliness, but nothing extreme enough to make me have to get grumpy at them.

We had to leave class in the morning to get there on time, which meant chasing a few students who forgot and rushing them on to the bus. They were all super excited to get out of school and do something different for the day, which meant lots of giggling and jokes on the way there. When we arrived we were led through to an area where the students could store their bags, and they were even more impressed with their excursion when they learnt they didn't even need to bring a pen with them. This trip was all about exploration, and nothing about 'proving how much they have learnt' while not being in school.

Our first activity of the day was a presentation from an astronomer. I think the students were a bit surprised to find out that it was a young man talking to us, not an old one. The presenter was about my age, wearing casual clothes, talking in a way that they could immediately relate to. He explained things simply, but in no way condescendingly or patronisingly. He probably said things that they didn't quite understand, but he didn't make the assumption that they wouldn't. He treated them just like an audience of people, not school kids, and they responded very well to that. Every time he finished discussing a section of the talk, the students were asked to participate in a little quiz. Each had their own control pad, like a little remote, and had to punch in their vote for the answer out of the options given. It was completely anonymous, and they were all interested enough to actually try answering correctly. We all laughed at the silly answers, and the presenter explained why the right ones were the right ones. I think the topic of most interest was the potential of living on Mars, and the current NASA plan to make that happen. A few of the boys particularly lit up when they were told it would be happening at a time where they could be the right age to be candidate for the trip.

After the talk we had a break for lunch. I'd organised a lunch room for us, as per suggested on the booking form, so that we had our own space to relax in. Myself and the other staff member who accompanied us sat apart from the students, but I could hear that most of their conversations were either about the talk or space in general (and of course their food!). Clearly they were engaged with what they'd seen so far, which made me very happy.

We then had time to explore the interactive exhibits on display. The boys really enjoyed the simulation where they had to design and build a rocket to go explore some planet - they tried many times but couldn't quite get it right. Here they naturally worked together as a team and tried problem solving, self-assigning themselves roles and hearing each others suggestions. The girls, on the other hand, were fascinated by the concept of the sun exploding in a few billion years, and were clearly having an existential crisis. The concept of Earth not existing was mind boggling for them, and they distracted themselves with some of the more silly exhibits and the photography display.

When we'd exhausted the exhibits, it was time to settle in to the planetarium for a show about what it means to be an astronaut. None of the students had ever had the unique experience of such a show before - reclining chairs specifically designed to direct your attention to the domed roof, which fills your line of vision. The shows are designed in such a way that you feel completely immersed in what you are watching (to the point of feeling a bit motion-sick at times!). With the rest of the room very dark, and David Tennant narrating, it made for a completely engaging session. At the end, we were asked to stay back as the rest of the public left, and the students were given the opportunity to ask questions about anything they'd seen that day. Of course the girls asked about the sun exploding, and the boys asked a few questions about the technology involved.

In the end it was time to head back to school. We collected our bags and went back outside. We had a quick moment to go look at the incredible view of London and take some happy snaps for the school newsletter, then it was off to the bus. Our bus was parked about a 10 minute walk away, and we walked along the path in a beautiful park. We spotted squirrels and puppies, and I even let the students run around and ahead of the group. Shock horror! I know many teachers/schools who would never allow such a thing - students should be in a group walking calmly back to the bus together, particularly as they are in uniform! But this was a group of 13 year old Londoners, outside in a park, on a school day, with glorious sunshine beaming down. Of course I was going to let them run and be a bit silly! I would have myself if it wouldn't have been too improper! Plus, I knew I could trust this particular group to not be entirely ridiculous, and they were all in my sight anyway.

On the bus back to school they were even more loud and happy than they were on the way there. The girls were singing along to the radio, which prompted the boys to copy them in silly voices, which just turned into them all singing along properly to Ed Sheeran (much to my delight). Back at school they all assured me they had a fantastic time and absolutely loved it, and that they had all learned something new even though they weren't trying.

So, my first self-organised and run excursion was a success!

Studio Audience - Bring The Noise

Being in London has provided us with many unique opportunities that we did not have back in our home town. The city is so big and so many different things are happening all the time that we are trying to get involved with as much as possible.

I signed up to the email list of Applause Store - they recruit audiences and contestants for various TV shows, and Mr wants to be in the audience of QI at some point. Last week I received an email from them about a new show they're recording called Bring The Noise - it's a comedy music type show. We decided to give it a go, because why not? So I signed up and got our eTickets to go along to the Friday night recording.

We arrive at the studios to find a rather large line of people waiting to be let in. As we had priority guest tickets, we were allowed to bypass this group and stand in our own smaller line, where we were given raffle tickets. We were told these were confirmation that we would get a seat (as they often over-book to make sure they have a full audience), but we noticed that they were giving people different coloured raffle tickets. We got pink ones. More on that later.

Eventually we were lead through the studio grounds to a large warehouse, where we were left to mingle and buy drinks/snacks until they were ready to call us in. Unfortunately something had gone wrong, so we weren't called in until an hour and a half after we were originally supposed to. This meant that the recording would start and end an hour and a half later than planned, so a fair few people had decided to leave. We chatted with the security guards for a while, drank some cider, and waited long enough to get bored, but finally we were given the all clear to enter the studio.

The stage was set up with seating on 3 sides, some on the ground level slightly lower than the stage, with the rest as grand-stands. Camera crew were everywhere, as were security and other staff. One camera woman, hanging from the ceiling with her aerial-view camera, was a spitting image of Julia Gillard, much to our amusement. We were called in by ticket colour - pink tickets first. We had noticed some time ago the type of people that were given those tickets, and our suspicions were somewhat confirmed - that apparently these were the 'you are relatively young and attractive and most likely to play along' tickets. We were lucky enough to be led right to the seating at the stage, next to the hosts! It was almost like being in the front row at the theatre, except that we were half-way along the circular stage, with the hosts sitting to our left.

The host of this show is Ricky Wilson, lead singer from the Kaiser Chiefs. His panellists are Nicole Scherzinger, from The Pussycat Dolls; Tinie Tempah; and comedians Joel Dommett and Katherine Ryan. The basic premise of the show is bringing celebrity guests on to do music-based games and some musical performances. Our special guests for this episode were recording artist Katy B, and John Bradley, who plays Sam Tarly on GoT. It was quite surreal to be so close to such famous people - Joel and Nicole were within 3m of us, and the other side of the stage was at most 10m.

Without giving away too much of the content of the show (it is supposedly airing on the 29th), the show involved the hosts and guests participating in comedy skits with a musical basis, as well as performing musical items. It was like being side-of-stage at a music festival combined with a comedy show. The hosts and guests were absolutely incredible in their performances! The comedy banter was part-scripted and part improvised on the spot, which lead to many genuine laughs from the audience as well as the hosts themselves. The musical performances were on point (even if a few words were forgotten/mixed up here and there - it was definitely not lip-synced!), and it was such an honour to see them live. A definite highlight for me was seeing Nicole Scherzinger - she has been a bit of an idol of mine for probably a decade now, so to see her live, and to see her as a person was particularly special. Sitting so close even meant we caught eyes a few times, and she winked at me once and had a quick chat about how insanely high her boots were! *cue fangirl moment*
Another highlight was seeing a new song performed live by Tinie Tempah and Katy B - a song that stuck in my head the entire weekend and is now one of my favourites. I honestly had never even heard of Katy B before the show, so I listed to more of her music afterwards and wish I'd heard it all a long time ago!

It was interesting to see a bit of the behind-the-scenes things going on. I haven't seen this side of things except at my own high school musical back in the day. The endless re-takes because something wasn't quite right (like a glass of orange juice being left in shot); the hair and make-up crews being on hand between every scene to remove sweat and reset hair (look out for one particular performance from Nicole and you'll see what I mean!); the complete exhaustion of the hosts and guests, who were just as tired as the rest of us at having to be so switched on so late in the evening, but still performing perfectly as needed.

In between shoots, we were kept entertained by an audience-host, who kept us informed of what was going on and tried to keep us energised and excited. It must have been a hard task - we didn't wrap up until after 11.30pm, and most people had been there since before 6pm, having come straight from work. He was very witty and got us laughing time and again, and instructed us on what we needed to do for each section of the show. He got us all involved in little challenges to keep us occupied when the breaks were a bit longer, and even got some of the men up on stage for a silly game (Mr was one of those chosen because I nominated him - sorry Mr!).

As audience, it was our job to be as energetic and into the show as we could possibly be. Many took full advantage of this, calling out to their celebrity crushes and dancing like crazy at the right moments. Others, however, were clearly up past their bed time, and it made me sad to think they couldn't put in the energy required by the show. Not that I didn't struggle, by the end of the shooting I could barely walk back to our hotel, but I had so much fun putting on the show expected of me. If you happen to watch the show when it airs, if we were lucky enough to get into a shot here and there (most of the recording was happening from the camera above our heads, so apparently we were on the wrong side of the stage!) you'll probably see me being the perfect woo-girl and pulling out my best Tay-moves. I have no idea what anyone else around me was doing - I was too focused on what was happening on stage, and at one point didn't realise everyone else had sat down. Woops!

We clapped that night more than we have ever clapped before. It got to a point where the arm movements were so automatic we probably look like robots. Our hands were actually swollen by the end of it. But it was worth it. If it wasn't for the fact that the studio is so far away (2 hours by public transport), we would be back in a heartbeat!

Dinner by Heston

Heston Blumenthal has long been a point of interest for Mr and I. We love the concept of molecular gastronomy, and of the science behind food. Of course our bucket list includes eating at at least one of his restaurants! As the Fat Duck is currently back home in Aus, we decided to try out Dinner by Heston, and what better occasion than for our anniversary! We were spending the night at Hotel 41, but decided a meal at Dinner was a necessity for our celebratory weekend.

The dishes served here are inspired by and based on recipes that were popular between 1500-1940. It makes the menu a little intimidating, but one would expect nothing lesson from Heston.

We arrived at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park and found our way inside to the restaurant. We were led to our window-side table and were offered the food and wine menus. It was a little hard to hear the waiter due to the noise in the restaurant, and a little hard to understand his strong accent, but the atmosphere was happy and relaxed so we did our best to understand each other.

We decided to start our culinary journey with the signature dish, Meat Fruit. This glorious concoction takes three days to make, and consists of chicken liver parfait inside mandarin gel, served with grilled bread. It is probably one of the tastiest savoury things I've ever eaten, even if it was a bit hard to convince your brain that it wasn't actually a mandarin to begin with.

We followed this with a different steak each from the menu. Steak in London is not really the best, so we were excited to have one that promised to be very good. And very good they were! So good, in fact, that we ate them without a thought to a photo. The accompanying chips and mushroom ketchup were equally delicious. Ketchup, as we discovered on the information slip included with our cutlery, was traditionally made from things like mushrooms, seafood, pickles etc. It was designed as a sweet and sour sauce, and only recently was converted to the tomato-based sauce we expect today.

For dessert I chose the Chocolate Bar - a chocolate mousse-like bar filled with passion fruit jam, with a side of ginger ice-cream and crushed biscuit. The flavours on their own were a little overwhelming, but somehow combined together made a perfect, delicious mouthful.

Mr went with the Beekeeper's Chocolate, after seeing another table receive it. This was a malt and honey cake with toasted barley mousse, and chocolate and ale ice-cream. Again, each flavour was strange on its own, but combined they were absolutely beautiful.

To end this exciting adventure of new and unusual flavours, we were surprised with an Earl Grey infused chocolate ganache, complete with a delightfully crumbly shortbread and lovely chocolate message.

Having experienced the perhaps more usual food of this restaurant, we are more keen than ever for the Fat Duck to return to London so we can expand our Heston culinary exploration!

Hotel 41

One year ago I married my best friend. To mark this wonderful occasion, we knew we wanted to do something very special, and being in London makes it all the more exciting. Back home when looking at accommodation options for when we first moved here, I discovered Hotel 41 on Tripadvisor. It is marked as the #1 hotel for London, so of course I had to have a look. The information on their website immediately had me hooked - 5-star, in-room skylights, champagne on arrival, 'plunder the pantry'. I knew I had to experience this wonderland at some point, and what better excuse than our first wedding anniversary!

We arrived a few hours before check-in time because we had a lunch booking and wanted to store our bags at the hotel. The entrance to the hotel is rather unobtrusive, a simple glass doorway along the front of Rubens at the Palace. We were a little unsure what to do when the door wouldn't open, but the staff quickly opened it for us and welcomed us very warmly to their hotel. We gave our name and were asked to wait until another staff member could come and escort us upstairs. Sitting in the tiny lobby, we were offered a drink from a range of iced and flavoured waters and tea (I had the raspberry and blackberry water, and Mr had the orange-slice iced tea). Before we'd had a chance to finish our drinks, an extremely happy and polite man came to take our luggage and escort us upstairs via a small and beautiful elevator.

Contrary to most hotels, the heart of the hotel isn't the lobby. Rather, we wound our way past hotel rooms and through to the lounge. In the lounge is the concierge desk, food and drinks, TV's, a fireplace, bookshelves full of very old books, tables and couches. The whole set-up was so comfortable we could have spent all day there. 

The Lounge

These books were published before Australia was colonised by the British

We were escorted to the concierge desk to check-in, and were told our room would be ready in an hour. We were offered the use of a day room to freshen up as our lunch booking wasn't for another couple of hours, but because we liked the lounge so much we decided to just relax there until the room was ready. While checking-in, a champagne trolley was wheeled over with a range for us to choose from. As I'd never had rosé champagne before we went with the Gosset Grand Rosé, which may very well be the nicest thing I have ever drunk. 

Once the check-in process was complete, we settled ourselves at a chess table, thinking it a perfect way to while away the wait. Before we'd made more than a few moves each, we were offered snacks - olives, cheese twists and egg dip, to accompany our champagne. It was very satisfying to relax in this way after a hectic week at work, and not too long after we'd finished our game (with me losing of course), we were told our room was ready.

First order of business was explaining our stay - we would get breakfast the following day as per our booking, and we had full access to the pantry (this is their 'plunder the pantry', which is free for all guests). At this point in the afternoon the pantry was stocked with bags of chips and popcorn, individually wrapped chocolates, little bags of sweets or nuts or dried fruit, and a few baked goods. We were also welcome to help ourselves to bottles of water, though other drinks were charged in an honesty system, and little tubs of complementary ice cream were found in a little fridge. Those who know me best will understand how exciting it was for me to have unlimited snacks available, and the best part was they were available day and night, with different offerings depending on the time of day. After this exciting explanation, we followed the staff member with eager anticipation, and to our absolute surprise and delight we found we'd been upgraded to a junior suite. I almost cried, it was so beautiful and thoughtful. 

On the chest in the entry-way was a cake, card, and little petit-fours, arranged for us by the staff to celebrate our special day. Leading on from here was a little sitting room, complete with writing desk, fireplace, TV and mini-bar. Up the stairs was a loft bedroom, with a railing over which you could see down into the sitting room. In here was an absolutely enormous bed, another writing desk, TV and wardrobe. And a skylight. I almost cried again - I'd seen on their website that one of the rooms had the entire roof as a window to the sky, but had no idea any of the other rooms had smaller versions. The sun was streaming through in such a glorious way, but it could of course be closed off if you'd rather. Through the bedroom and into the biggest bathroom I've ever seen. I had never really understood the desire for large bathrooms, but now I do. The shower was like a little room on its own, with enough water gushing out of the shower head that it felt like being in a monsoon. The tissues on the bench were arranged as a rose. The toiletries smelled and felt divine, and every need was thought of. There was another skylight in here, just as big as in the bedroom and making the whole room feel all that more luxurious. But the shining glory of this room was the bath. The bath was so large I could lie our straight with just my head above the water, and there would be room for Mr to do the same thing at the same time. I want (need) this bath.  

As we had our lunch booking at Dinner by Heston, we decided to save our cake for when we returned, and managed to squeeze it into the mini bar. We headed out to enjoy our lunch, being just as excited to return and relax in this wonderful hotel.

Unfortunately, something at lunch made me feel very ill, so relaxing in the room after lunch was a necessity more than a choice. I knew that having some sort of mint sweet would help me feel better (it always does when I feel nauseous), so Mr went to ask the staff if they had any available while I went to lie down. They didn't have any on site, except mint tea which I knew would make me feel worse, so they sent Mr back to our room with the promise of obtaining what we needed shortly. As per their promise, a short while later we were presented with a bowl full of what seemed to be Kool Mints - exactly what I needed. I was so grateful and impressed that they went out of their way to help me out. It is such a nice feeling to be looked after.

When I was feeling a bit better, we went back out to the lounge to relax there. We settled into a lounge and read through some books - I was hooked for some reason by a book all about Wedgewood, and found it fascinating to learn the history, even though I own none of their pieces. Food seems to be just as important to this hotel as it is to me - while reading, we were presented with a tiny platter of canapés. We were still full from lunch, so this was a perfect amount of food for a simple dinner, knowing we could plunder the pantry later if we got hungry.

Soon it was time for Dr Who. The prospect of relaxing on the huge bed and watching one of our favourite shows was very enticing. On our way back to our room I asked if we could have a couple of cups of tea sent to our room. Below is what was delivered. If I could have this every time I asked for tea, I would be a very happy girl indeed. The teapot was so full of steaming loose leaf tea that we had three cups each. The taller pot was full of hot water, I assume so we could either water down the tea if it was too strong, or top up the pot for even more tea. Sugar cubes of white and brown varieties were provided in the little pot, and the cookies were of three different flavours. 

Unfortunately for us the TV refused to work properly - the sound would cut in and out exactly every two seconds. We called the concierge desk, and a technician was promptly sent to investigate. To our dismay, after almost half an hour of investigation he could not work out what was wrong, let alone fix the problem, so we missed the show. Disappointing from a 5-star hotel, but we chose to not let it dampen the weekend. 

To lighten our moods, we decided to go back out to the lounge and see what was on offer in the pantry. We made ourselves little cheese, cold meat and fruit platters, and turned down the offers of more champagne. They really like champagne here, and I can see why! After we decided we were well and truly full, and tired of the lounge, we retreated back to our room for the night. Of course that included a bath! The bath gel was so bubbly and smelled so good, and it was so satisfying to relax and look out through the skylight. 

The next morning Mr worked out how to use the coffee machine, and I regret not ordering up another pot of tea. We got ready for the day and headed down to the lounge for breakfast. Sitting at a table with fresh flowers, a white tablecloth, and tiny pots of marmalade, honey and jam was a lovely start to the day. I ordered French toast complete with maple syrup and berried, and Mr had the breakfast burger of bacon, egg and chorizo with hash-brown chips on the side. He was very amused to be offered a choice of sauces to accompany his meal, and again offered more champagne. We instead went with cloudy apple juice.

Back to our room to regretfully pack away our things and get ready to leave. We had time though to sit in our little sitting room and flick through the magazines while enjoying our anniversary cake. This was accompanied by a glass of champagne that was offered to us in lieu of the romantic turn down service they'd forgotten to do the night before. Perhaps not quite a fair trade, but it was very nice champagne. 

Overall, it was the best hotel experience I've ever had, and probably ever likely to have. If possible we will go back again someday. I could not recommend this hotel enough, it was absolute bliss for a weekend that I wish lasted a year.