High ropes and Tesco tour

Katie and a small number of children from the group went here on Friday to have a couple of hours fun and tuition on these very high ropes! Some have done wall climbing before but somehow the supports, wires and ladders seemed much higher out in the open. Fabulous views from the top no doubt. Having had such temperamental weather these last few weeks, we were all relieved that it didn't rain (although the clouds did come over during the session). I don't think I'd like to climb up wet and slippery ladders and wires, but apparently the activity would have gone ahead rain or shine!

Such a shame the centre had to spoil it a little by announcing, the afternoon before, that the invoice will include VAT (on the £100 fee) as we are not a charity. I was absolutely livid as none of the paperwork we'd received had stated this (and no "*" with tiny print) and I'd checked the cost each time I'd managed (and boy it took many attempts) to reach them on the phone. Having explained to the guy that we weren't a school who could pass the invoice to the council to pay, each family had to find the cost for their child(ren) to climb and there was no way I was going to ask them for an extra £2 per child (making it just over £9 per child to climb) with less than 24 hours notice. I told him we'd have to cancel which, of course, he didn't want to hear. Basically I think I sent him packing with a flea in his ear! He promised to come back to me, which he didn't, and again each time I call him I just receive the answer machine. They've paid out a lot of money to have this equipment put in, surely they want to entice customers to use it. OK, rant over ...







Today we went for a tour of the Tesco superstore. Didn't take any photos, but it was a really interesting tour which left us all extremely hungry as we wafted through the in-store bakery and watched fresh dough being squished into finger rolls and rows of warm cookies, danish and muffins within reach of our eager paws! No handouts though! Katie, Ben and I enjoyed this part the best, but we also found it interesting to see exactly what happens when we do our Tesco shop on the internet. The lady, busy packing up groceries for six internet customers, kindly talked us through how she gets each of her orders correct by following codes on her screen and on the shelves (we'd never even noticed them before). There's some kind of in-store computer mapping which ensures the groceries are in their correct spot on the shelves and isles - all pretty impressive, technology wise. The amount of food behind the scenes stored in boxes ready for putting out onto the shelves and also being freshly baked made me realise just how much grub we consume! Perhaps I should have asked how many bread rolls are binned (or otherwise) at the end of each day.

Katie went off to a friend's house for lunch and an afternoon of horsey play and model painting while Ben and I did some chores and ended up in the park enjoying some time together. Love the autumn colours at the mo, they seem more intense this year I'm sure.

P is extremely quiet finishing off the puzzle Ben had started a couple of weeks ago (he stayed up until 1 a.m. the other night). Ben's still adding his bit here and there but P's really taken to it in a compulsive way. Apparently he's always loved puzzles, never knew this, even though we've been together for 20 years at the end of this month (gulp).

(not long now!)