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| Blogger(s) | Day | Blog of the day... | | Mr Jenvey | Sunday | So, the day started off interestingly, at precisely stupid o'clock, with the surprise presence of 2 coaches at The College, one of which was intended for the contemporary Spanish trip which had actually left 2 hours earlier! Never mind, with all the pupils and staff (minus a few last-minute drop-outs) loaded on to the correct bus, we set off for Portsmouth!
Upon arrival at Portsmouth, it was discovered that we had an hour and a half to wait, and all bar one of the shops and cafés were shut (with just one man, and one coffee machine, to service all 44 of us! And both other school groups that were there!!)
The ferry journey was relatively uneventful, if 6 hours long (subgroups of CC pupils roaming the ferry, while most listened to music, played cards, slept and/or ate lots of sweets in the room provided for us), until the teachers' game of cards was interrupted to deal with certain rogue elements of our group throwing litter and behaving poorly in public areas! Not the greatest of starts to the week, but retribution was swift, and we're definitely of the opinion that they'll be OK by the time we get home!!
A short coach journey (in the château's sparkly new coach!) brought us to Château de la Baudonnière - our home for the next week. After everyone had been shown to their rooms, and the fights for the bunk beds had all been settled, it was time for dinner (the typical french dish of lasagne!), followed by a floodlit games tournament.
Various relay races you won't find in the Olympics, Basketball, Volleyball, and an interesting version of Ultimate Frisbee made up the tournament, which was played in a very good spirit by most of the teams, although one team's competitive nature certainly got the better of them! The main thing to spot is that there were joint winners of the tournament, and the ultra-competitive team were neither of those teams!!
So, to the end of a very long day and off to bed, although certain members of the party seemed not to spot the, we thought reasonably obvious, link between the time set for 'lights out' and the time we expected them to consider going to sleep - thus some of the pupils were much better rested the next morning than others!!! (With any luck, they'll have eaten all of their sweets, and there will be no such confusion for the rest of the week?! :-P )
| Alex Smith;
George Monk;
Connor Underwood; Cieran Doherty
| Monday | After a very long journey and not much sleep last night, you can imagine we weren't really up for much today. However, we dragged ourselves out of bed and Mme. McKechnie's inspiring speeches drove us on to achieve great things.
We started the day with a tour of the château and some games which, to be honest, didn't turn out great. After the rules were explained in french, which no-one could really understand, it was anarchy.
We then had a delicious lunch (steak and chips!), which I think was certainly needed if we were going to survive the day on the little sleep we had. They also explained what to do if we needed more water, juice, etc., which was now getting rather tedious as this was the 10th time.
The afternoon activities consisted of a french lesson and archery for some of us, and fencing for the others. Guessing from the amount of red faces after the fencing, people were very tired but enjoyed it nonetheless. However, the french lesson was very funny, especially our miming, and I can safely say that none of us are going to be competing at archery in 2016.
Dinner was rather uneventful but, yet again, we were told how to ask for more drink, juice, etc., to which everyone groaned. Let's hope it stops soon. We had chicken and chips, which went down well, as chips always do! Pudding was, well...different - chocolate mousse that really didn't look appetising.
Finally we did a treasure hunt with a twist. For this treasure hunt we didn't have to find the actual item but something we could pretend is the item. As soon as that finished we all headed for our rooms but, of course, didn't go to sleep 'til much later, despite the tiring day and the thought of another early morning tomorrow!
| Brittany Holder; Sian Elstow; Henry Reeve; Adam Becksmith;
Joe Reeve | Tuesday | We hate France,
Coz its so pants,
We must get out,
Or we will shout.
Lol, joke!
Fun with the folks.
Loads of banter,
With Coke and Fanta.
Aeroball had bouncing,
And prodding in fencing,
The assault course had mud,
And the dinner table had a flood,
We are acting like year sevens,
Although we are year elevens,
But at least we know how to make tea,
And don't worry, its all free! | Ed Noone;
Sam Hallatt;
James Melling;
Joe Reeve | Wednesday | We woke up to the sound of Tom Torley whining about how he had to do the assault course later on in the day. I replied with the simple but effective phrase "shut up".
At breakfast everybody ate the same old addictive bread. As usual everyone said it was nice (the bread).
We all moved on to our morning activities. For most of us we had the chance to go climbing. This was a very fun activity. However, for some of us it could more accurately be described as falling!
After, we went to taste some of the local french cider or cidre. It was OK but not like the "English stuff".
We moved swiftly on to lunch, which was shepherds pie. An all-time British classic!
Although, of course, it would have to be consumed with a commentary of all the flavours passing through the wise, and even 'whine-ier' mouth of Tom Torley (aka "head chef")!
Finally, it was time to confront the dreaded assault course! Torley was up for it and aggressive as usual! Jenvey 'Nealey' went around the course without getting too wet, but the mud was inevitable, with everyone ending up with clothes that are now destined for the dump. But what we didn't know was that Mr Jenvey was wearing a wet suit, which was an idea devised using the 2 years previous experience he has had with this course!
We ended our day with a meal which included the French speciality of snails, which, of course, brought on the wrath of Torley's mealtime peeves! | | Connor Underwood | Thursday | Day 4 in the Big Brother house. Yet again we lumbered our lifeless bodies to ''le petit déjeuner'' at 8h15 and again the diet consisted of stale bread and butter - by this stage we were too tired to complain but still managed a grumble to our neighbours.
After brushing left, right, back and front, and half-dressed, we went to the shooting range to try our hand at archery. Alex Watson seemed to have an eye for it, despite the -5.5 magnification glasses. After 9 arrows, Henry Reeve (who seemed determined not to say his ''H''!) was on a solid 730 points, closely followed by Connor's 40! TK managed a very respectable score of 600.
After almost murdering our instructor, and following a quick sip of Grenadine, it was off to the classroom for a well-needed lesson. Sophie's lesson was surprisingly interesting, but that could have been due to the violent games involved. After lunch, which was more bread with a sprinkling of veal, Group ''F'' spent three, gruelling hours mixing, stirring and generally abusing lumps of dough, for a rather pathetic outcome. After moulding the dough into phalluses and various other explicit shapes, the group were left to consider how else they could abuse the dough's "human" rights!
So here ends Day 4 of CC's BB house - who knows what lies in store for everyone, and what the citizens of Vire can expect from this bunch of testosterone-filled kids tomorrow?!
| Barnaboogie
(Barnaby Morton-Woodruff) | Friday | You could call today a shopping day and a museum day. Today we went to the Bayeux Tapestry and had a look at the 70 metre long embroidery thing - we were given an audio recording which took us around the different scenes of the tapestry.
Before that, we went to the market town of Vire and had a look around both the market and the town; we also had the opportunity to barter with the stall owners. We then went to the Supermarché, and bought all the sweets, chocolate croissants, pains au chocolat and the drinks we drank this evening, so please excuse any spelling mistakes! ;) (I think the staff will have a lot of trouble getting a load of buzzing 15/16 year-olds to bed tonight!)
We then had dinner, which was some sort of ham or bacon and pasta. After that, we had a very exciting talent show, with acts from our very own Mr Miller and the now-called Nealey (in other words Mr Jenvey) - both did a very good repeat after me song and dance. There was also the dramatic act of the younger boys' school breaking the table tennis table by sitting on it - I am still not sure whether it was a deliberate act or an accident (but I think it was an accident.)
We were then told that we had to do the dreaded job of tidying our rooms, so we all lugged ourselves upstairs covered in bin bags, and we still had to ask for more.
We are now all enjoying our own mini disco upstairs by the dorms, and, currently, George and Connor are attempting a Nealey and Miller act (a sing along and dance act) to the song 'tribute'.
Bonne Nuit
| | Nealey Jenvey | Saturday | So, with due apologies for the lateness of the writing of this blog, here we have the details of the final day of our trip to Normandy!
Our final day started very much as the first, except that it was we staff that had to get everybody up and about, rather than the parents. Having said that, it was relatively painless, as it happens - all were up and about quickly (some even before us!!) and most were on the ball from moment one. (Following the outstanding entry of 0 acts into the Talent Show the night before from CC pupils, we were expecting a similar level of effort in the morning - we were most pleasantly surprised!!)
So, we loaded up and headed off to the ferry, and, once the lights had been turned off, and Mayowa had been encouraged not to sing out loud to the music he was listening to through his headphones, most dropped back off to sleep.
By the time we reached Caen, the weather had definitely taken a turn for the worse - it was cold, windy and raining - and this didn't improve as we headed into The Channel! Most members of the party started off OK, but, within half an hour, the number of CC pupils roaming the ship had reduced drastically, and the number sitting in Salle 4 with a slightly green tinge to their faces was on the up! There were a few hardier souls who headed for the canteen for a fry-up (notably including 3 of the staff, with just Mr Miller left sleeping in the salon!), and several others who found the bracing air and splashing seawater of being on deck a help, but most were feeling sorry for themselves in the salon, with only Casino Royale and other sufferers for company!
Fortunately, things calmed down in the second half of the crossing, and, by the time of the awards ceremony, most were back to at least 95%! Everyone on the trip received an award (decided upon by the staff, with some able assistance from our Head Boy, Smithy!) - some were recognising excellent achievement in one or other of the activities we did, others acclaimed efforts for fancy dress, and still others commemorated whatever parts of the week had stood out to us staff (whether that was breaking a sword in fencing; having one of the most annoying, repetitive phrases of the week; being the 16yo who still thinks he can get away with claiming something wasn't him, even when he was seen doing it; trying really hard not to look like you're having a good time, even if you are, because that just wouldn't be cool; or just being the person who spent their whole time doing almost the complete opposite of what was asked of them, again for reasons of 'coolness'!!)
So, with the weather having bashed us a little on the way over, and having set sail a quarter of an hour late, we arrived in Portsmouth over half an hour late, and were surprised to find no Reynolds coach waiting for us! A quick phone call to head office revealed that a bus with a completely different name was actually there, but we still had to wait a while until we could go because the driver had only just arrived (due to appalling traffic on the M25) and was legally required to have a break before we could start back! Before too long, however, we were ready to go, and, once Jenvey and Miller had both played about on their phones, a route was decided upon and the final leg of our journey passed without a hitch.
Can I just take this opportunity to thank all the pupils who came along and gave the week 100% effort - I really believe that they will have got a lot out of it! I would also like to thank Mr Miller for his efforts with this website, and for all those of you out in cyberspace who have followed what we've been up to and even got involved. I also need to thank Mr Marsden for stepping into Mr Harris' shoes at very late notice and coming along with us - a difficult thing to do after only being at the school for 5 weeks and staffing a year group he doesn't teach, but he coped admirably. And finally, Mrs McKechnie, who has now completed her 16th trip, over 15 years, to the chateau - without her hard work, this trip would never have happened.
I hope all of the pupils enjoyed their trip, and I hope all parents enjoyed their week without their sons/daughters!! :-P
Au revoir |
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