A busy weekend and a visit with a visitor!

We had a very busy weekend, with M taking part in 4 performances of a ballet show, called 'London's Calling', with an olympic theme.  She was a Londoner with the rest of her class and also presented the ballet school principal with the chocolates at the end of the final performance!  It was a weekend of ups and downs, I think she enjoyed it for the most part, but got rather teary when I picked her up after the 2nd performance when she told me she'd made a mistake.  She was pleased to find out next day that she wasn't the only one, as one of her friends had made on in the same performance.  It was really rather exhausting with two late nights as well as all the excitement.
K could have taken part, but had the self-knowledge to be aware that she doesn't like being looked at and the self confidence to say she didn't want to join in.  She loved watching it though and has decided that next time (there's generally one every 5 years) she thinks she would like to take part.  K and I went to the first performance, as M really wanted me there because she was nervous.  Then we all, K, A and I along with Uncle M who's come to stay for a few days, went to the final performance.  It was really very good, with pupils from M's age (just turned 7) right up to teenagers and even beyond, as a former pupil who now helps with classes did a solo and took part with classes she helps with.

As Uncle M is visiting we decided to go on an outing, and since we'd never been either, we took him to Nottingham's City of Caves.  There are hundreds of caves under Nottingham, all of them man-made, as the town is built on sandstone.  I liked that you are encouraged to touch the walls and feel the difference between the sandstone and the occasional deposits of clay.

Clay deposit in the sandstone

They've been in use for over a thousand years, as dwellings, cellars, tanneries and bomb-shelters among other things. 

Part of the caves used as a tannery.

Holes where barrels used to sit for soaking hides in quicklime.

In Victorian times slums developed and the caves were used as dwellings again when the population outstripped the housing supply, Drury Hill was one of the main streets in the slum area and some of the basement walls can still be seen.

Victorian slum dwelling.

During the Second World War the caves were cleared for use as air-raid shelters.  They were effective and nobody who sheltered in a cave air-raid shelter during bombing died during the war and none of the caves collapsed.

We had also planned to take Uncle M to Brewhouse Yard museum too, somewhere we've been on a number of occasions both as part of organised groups and just us.  Unfortunately it's opening arrangements have changed (I didn't think to check!) and it's only accessible to groups by arrangement, which is a real shame as it's a lovely little museum.

Finally we've been playing with a late birthday present that M was given; a card game of The Game of Life Adventures edition.  It's quite good, although I think the instructions are less than clear in places, and we've had a few goes.  A nice thing about it, is that you have to tell your life story as you put your cards down (cards are worth different points and you add up the points of the cards in your 'life story' at the end).  M decided that it would be a good idea to turn this life story into a book, so she did!