THE LAST FULL DAY in paradise...

Hi to all from Holly and Catherine!
And so, here we are, on the last day of our immense holiday on the Isle of Wight. First, let's hear about what we have done today.
As you know, today is April Fool's day! Knowing us, we had planned a very intricate surprise for Mrs Harvey and Miss Carrington, which involved many rehearsals (at a price though...). We woke early this morning to get ready, and at 8 o'clock we were lying in bed, ready and waiting for the teachers to come storming into our rooms. They never came. We were forced to go downstairs for fear of annoying them for being late to breakfast. Our plan failed.
Today the weather has blessed us with marvellous sunshine, which we have definitely taken advantage of, for example by sunbathing amongst daffodils in the beautiful gardens of Osbourne House. You may not know that Osbourne House is the holiday home of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. We were amazed by the overwhelming ornateness of the interior that proved to be 'fit for a queen'. However, we were slightly worried by the recurring theme of nakedness in paintings and statues!
Talking of recurring themes, Holly and I have noticed a slightly creepy thing about this trip. Some things keep on haunting us: Albatrosses, Abba, Wallace and Gromit, Sapphires, taxidermy, creative juices and Bacchus.
Next we went to a place called Carisbrooke Castle, not far away from Osbourne House. In fact, on the Isle of Wight, nothing is far away from anything. We wandered along the perilous Wall Walk, dropped stones down deep wells and stroked a donkey called Jack. Also, we are just about to watch a film Felicity has made about the castle! It's a premier...
That's not the only reason why we are all dressed up though (yes, most are wearing dresses and make-up). Tonight we had a wonderful buffet dinner at the guest house, where we were told by Sue that she had just received the exciting news that she could adopt a 9-month old baby! The food was too good and we were stuffed. After dinner, we presented all the staff involved with thank-you gifts. Being the resourceful girls that we are, we had bought them presents from Ryde. It was a happy, tear-welling experience.
This has been the most amazing trip, we have all become very close friends and many quality pieces of written work have been produced. We shall cry tomorrow morning!!!
Lots of Love
Holly and Catherine :D
xxxx

The Roman Villa

We, Shalaka, Harriet and Eugenie resent Leo's comment in the last blog! We will talk about the Roman Villa which we visited this morning. It was an intriguing and fascinating look into the history of the Isle of Wight. Our tour guide was called Joy who focused on the stories behind the mosaics because she knew we were a writing group. One artefact that was particularly interesting to us was a nameless skeleton boy who died 2000 years ago. His bones were still intact and are respected greatly by the staff and visitors. We found his stories moving and were inspired to write poetry about him in our writing session this afternoon which may be shown on the next blog.
We have to go eat now before some more writing this evening. Thank you and good night! xxx

Ghost Walk

Heya! It's Eugenie here! I would just like to say
HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY MUMMY!
I hope you have a great day and we have had a great day here!
Love you! x

Hiya, this is now Leo! I'm going to talk to about our exciting ghost walk last night. We started off in the Botanic Gardens in Ventnor with a lovely man called Marc. He told us stories about death and the old Royal National Hospital, which affected the surroundings and us. Our first fright was from a grumbler who looked like Quasimodo/death eater/grim reaper. He shouted in our faces and then ran off. The next grumblers were wolf men who jumped around and growled. Every now and then there were grumblers jumping out at us or shaking the trees. Marc, our guide, was a very good story teller. Near the end there was a little pirate show where Becky and Amandeep busted some pirate moves. They looked very fetching. Then Bill, the pirate, and Bill, the general, had a swashbuckling fight and Bill, the general, died. It was a very interesting ghost walk and some of us couldn't sleep properly, not mentioning any names, Shalaka, Harriet and Eugenie. So all in all the ghost walk was great.
Bye love Leo x

Monday morning!

Hello all! This is Emily Snell. We are all alive and well. We are currently all at Flick's house, which is HUGE, and I am writing the blog. Go me!! The bathroom in her office is also huge. We are all under way with our stories. Mine is about a vampire (*groan*) who is lonely and everytime he tries to get close to someone, he ends up eating them. Eventually he finds true love in a "batwoman"! Flick has been helping out with the structure of our stories, and where our masterpieces will go on the shelves when we publish them (always keeping our hopes up!).

Last night we did some more work on our stories. Then we played Articluate ("a fast talking description game" according to the box). Some of us were tired out, and went to bed at 10:30 like good little SHS girls we are. But other (rebels) went to sleep at midnight. Tut tut.

Tonight we are going on a ghost walk (cue ghost wail). And tomorrow we are going to a Roman Villa. Should be fun :).

We've now been on the island about 24 hours and it's been fun! We caught a slightly earlier ferry than planned yesterday, so had time for a quick shopping trip in Newport (!) before heading to our very comfortable guesthouse.

Last night we met Flick, our inspiring writing tutor, for the first time. She is encouraging us to draw on the power of our imaginations and story ideas are already developing! As I blog (Miss Carrington) the girls are enjoying tea, choc biscuits and session number 2...

This morning, we walked from Lake to Ventor, deciding that all the hills were definitely good preparation for the Y10's upcoming D of E! We also enjoyed our tour of St.Catherine's lighthouse with views all the way over to the Needles - lovely blue skies!

Leo wishes to report she is tired out from the walking (in her words, 'pooped'!), but all seem happy. More tomorrow hopefully - and possibly some photos!