The journey home..

8^th of August 2012

Hi, it’s Kylie and Maddie here today to write you our blog!! It is the last day of our absolutely AMAZING London trip :( But we did have sooooo much fun, thank you Mr Goff, Miss Cumming, Mr McCarthy and Mrs Dougan.

At 8:15am, we were all ready to leave the hotel, but we actually weren’t because I (Kylie) accidentally left my iPod in the hotel, oops! But anyways, we arrived at the airport at approximately 9:30am; we said our goodbyes to Neils Wagner, our wonderful tour guide and got ready to go home. Our flight was at 12:30pm and it was time to say goodbye to London :(

The trip had felt long but we thoroughly enjoyed it. By the time Wednesday came we were glad to just sit on the plane and watch. But our work wasn’t done yet as we had to sort through 40 or so movies and spread them out between flights.

We arrived at Bangkok, safe and sound and also ended up in Perth, really sleepy but also happy and relieved to go back to our own beds! Thanks to all the staff to make this happen!! And also the parents who were there to support us and also to help us if we were troubled. We all had the time of our lives!!

Kylie and Maddie xoxo

YouTube videos

Here are a few videos of some of our performances:

Channel Nine News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS1gwA1eDuk&feature=related

Channel Ten News: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=267466286701610&set=vb.198087696875068&type=2&theater

Paris performance

I Still Call Australia Home: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV-XRx1ybJ4

Under the Southern Skies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEGdYBmycuA&feature=relmfu

G’day G’day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAFl7Ia3PJI&feature=relmfu

Journey’s End: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS1gwA1eDuk&feature=related

Victoria Park – Olympic Live Site

Giocoso String Quartet, Livin’ on a Prayer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNAqeK_AC_0

Giocoso String Quartet, Handel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIzXHhKGUnQ&feature=relmfu

Put a little sunshine in your life/Under southern skies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGRp27U1o7w&feature=relmfu

Southwark Cathedral:

I Still Call Australia Home: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnw8HfIqUYk&feature=relmfu

Journey’s End: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzmAjybGSoE&feature=relmfu

Put a little sunshine in your life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWCK01HHZ1M&feature=relmfu

There are a few more – have a look and enjoy!

A big thank you to Karen for recording and posting these videos. We have a few more using a school device, which we hope to share soon.

Last lot of photos?

7th August

HELLO! From Madi and A-J!

We are currently typing from Southwark Cathedral and so far, we have hopped onto a bus and walked around at the Borough Market, where Jamie Oliver gets his food! We got to try some YUMMY paella from a store in the market! The bus ride was quite fun apart from the bit when some girls were telling us to turn the music down and when people kept playing the songs from Matilda non-stop. 

Our performance was great! “Our performance wasn’t busy but we still had a fun time singing and dancing,” Sandrine commented. We strolled around the markets after our performance and girls got some yummy treats like giant meringues, macaroon, Turkish delights of many flavours, ice cream plus we both went into a fish pub and watched the Olympic Dressage. Team GB took out the gold medal, of course!

It was a short walk to our next performance at Potters Fields. A-J did a wonderful solo which impressed everyone! WE LOVED when the string quartet played ‘The Can Can’ as we all danced along. Right in the middle of the song ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ Anna Meares won gold for Australia!! We joked around saying we were going to sing that song more often. It was a great final performance which we all really enjoyed.

Dinner was scrumdidilyupmtious! Lots of people had duck for the very first time including some of the parents who mistook it for chicken. A few of the girls didn’t like it but our entire table did.

So now we are driving on the bus home and are all very sad as we have to go pack and that must mean….. we are going home tomorrow :( I’m typing this alone as A-J has left our group( She is in London until Saturday night though) so we are all very sad.

That’s all from us now. We will be home soon and don’t worry, A-J was still here to type half of this.

XXXX Madi and A-J the awesome………………….. we are now M.I.A (Missing In Action)

6th August

This morning, we thankfully had a sleep-in ‘till 8:00am, and we had a breakfast near to 9:00am and then departed to Buckingham Palace. We went on a grand tour! The annoying part was that one of the rules was no photography!!! We had an audio tour and one of the audio people pointed out that in a painting there two kids wearing dresses we all thought that they were girls but… they were guys!!! Up to the age of 3 boys wore dresses!!! At the end of the tour we gave back our headphones and radios.

Emma:

In Harrods, my favourite place was the pet kingdom they had these cute little dogs that looked like Chihuahua. Athough they were very expensive, I wanted all three! They also had Siamese kittens, but when I looked at them after 10 seconds they got taken away. For lunch I had scones and raspberry lemonade, DELICIOUS! In the toy section they had toy ferarris that actually had a working engine, but for 6,500 pounds I don ‘t think it would’ve been worth it.

At the end when we eventually found some certain people, we split up and went on a shopping spree! We went to Harrods and Hamleys (not going to say that they were toy shops…). The shops were huge!!! Hamleys was 4 storeys of TOYS!!! And 1 of lollies and choc. On the 3rd floor there were shouty men everywhere who kept singing! The most awesome toy that I thought was the car that could drive on walls! It works like a really powerful vacuum! In the end, I got two.

We went on the underground subway to get to a double-decker bus to Trafalgar Square, where we met to get to dinner at Cucina, an Italian restaurant. For our entrée we had bruschetta, for main we had chicken and for dessert some of us had tiramisu and the rest had vanilla ice-cream.

From Emma and Libby!

Photos cont.

Day 6- 4th of August

Today, we woke up rather early at 4:40am, yes, no typo. We were going to go attend the London Olympics to watch Beach Volleyball, which was our excuse. We were divided into two groups. One group went to the Olympics first and the other went ‘exploring’ around Covent Garden.

Olympics- We all wore our green and gold afros and mohawks to cheer the Aussies… Even though they didn’t compete.  Although we did attract a lot of attention by passers as they wanted photos and asked why in the World we were wearing them.

The venue of the games was at the Horse Guards Parade. The women were up first. Team China and Russia versed each other. It seemed to me that mostly everyone went for the Russians. At the Beach Volleyball, we saw people falling over, whacking the ball with so much force with their bare hands; very brutal. Ok, anyway the Russians unfortunately lost. They didn’t just lose; they lost by A LOT of points. When I use capital letters, let me tell you something; I really mean it! I guess the Chinese team were way too good for them.  The next match was played by the men; Germany and Brazil were the two teams. A few of us went for the Brazilians as their flag is the same colour as our wigs. No surprise, they won!

In the breaks of each match, these “Horse Parade Dancers” and the “Rakey Rakey” (people who rake the sand) came on. Also we did the Mexican wave every now and then. I wonder why?

Covent Garden- Shopping galore! We were allowed to roam around until the second group had finished watching the Olympics. We went to many shops, but what everyone was most excited about was M&M’s World. Four story building, of unmistakeable M&M’s everywhere. Toys, chocolates, displays, heaven for a chocolate lover like me!

Bella Italia was the restaurant we went to. We had toast, salad and cheese for entrée, warm chicken salad for main and chocolate brownies for dessert. Mr McCarthy entertained all with his ‘magic tricks.’ We figured out his tactic, well he told us straight after.

Going to bed was what everyone was especially excited about, after this long action-packed day.

That’s all from us,                                                                                                                                           Marina and Brierley JJJ

                                                                                   

6th August

This morning, we thankfully had a sleep-in ‘till 8:00am, and we had a breakfast near to 9:00am and then departed to Buckingham Palace. We went on a grand tour! The annoying part was that one of the rules was no photography!!! We had an audio tour and one of the audio people pointed out that in a painting there two kids wearing dresses we all thought that they were girls but… they were guys!!! Up to the age of 3 boys wore dresses!!! At the end of the tour we gave back our headphones and radios.

Emma:

In Harrods, my favourite place was the pet kingdom they had these cute little dogs that looked like Chihuahua. Athough they were very expensive, I wanted all three! They also had Siamese kittens, but when I looked at them after 10 seconds they got taken away. For lunch I had scones and raspberry lemonade, DELICIOUS! In the toy section they had toy ferarris that actually had a working engine, but for 6,500 pounds I don ‘t think it would’ve been worth it.

At the end when we eventually found some certain people, we split up and went on a shopping spree! We went to Harrods and Hamleys (not going to say that they were toy shops…). The shops were huge!!! Hamleys was 4 storeys of TOYS!!! And 1 of lollies and choc. On the 3^rd floor there were shouty men everywhere who kept singing! The most awesome toy that I thought was the car that could drive on walls! It works like a really powerful vacuum! In the end, I got two.

We went on the underground subway to get to a double-decker bus to Trafalgar Square, where we met to get to dinner at Cucina, an Italian restaurant. For our entrée we had bruschetta, for main we had chicken and for dessert some of us had tiramisu and the rest had vanilla ice-cream. 

From Emma and Libby!

5th August 2012

Hey it’s Olivia E, Mel and Bianca unfortunately we do not have Leonardo as 2 girls not mentioning any names left him at Matilda the other night we should get him back but there won’t be any photos of him today.

We had a late start today as the night before was very late. We got into the bus and headed to the Tower Bridge and walked towards the Tower of London. We enjoyed the Tower of London’s Torture Chamber, Bloody Tower and Crown Jewels. After filling up with Lunch we headed to the Victoria Park live site and got ready to perform. After a search for the missing socks we got up on stage and sang our hearts out followed by continuous applause.

Our dinner came in a box. The yummy stuff were:

·         The bread roll

·         The muffin

·         The fruit

·         And the coke

After performing we went on a fun explore through the Theme Park. There was a big Ferris Wheel, and balls suspended in water [you will probably be surprised to know that we only had 5 minutes of air, but the ride went for 4 minutes!]

After walking around we were interrupted by a bunch of screaming girls led by Alisha, loudly announcing the sight of Mr Goff going down the Flying Fox screaming like a girl. As he flew down the ‘Zip Line’, we ran after him screaming our hearts out.  “WOW, that was loads of fun” said Mr Goff as he shivered!

On the way out we had to wait 15-20 minutes as they didn’t trust Daniel (our bus driver) to drive out the festival, so we waited and waited then finally they led us out.

We are having loads of fun here and are looking forward to talking to you soon!!

Love Olivia(E), Mel and BiancaJJJJJJ

Day 6- 4th of August

Today, we woke up rather early at 4:40am, yes, no typo. We were going to go attend the London Olympics to watch Beach Volleyball, which was our excuse. We were divided into two groups. One group went to the Olympics first and the other went ‘exploring’ around Covent Garden.

Olympics- We all wore our green and gold afros and mohawks to cheer the Aussies… Even though they didn’t compete.  Although we did attract a lot of attention by passers as they wanted photos and asked why in the World we were wearing them.

The venue of the games was at the Horse Guards Parade. The women were up first. Team China and Russia versed each other. It seemed to me that mostly everyone went for the Russians. At the Beach Volleyball, we saw people falling over, whacking the ball with so much force with their bare hands; very brutal. Ok, anyway the Russians unfortunately lost. They didn’t just lose; they lost by A LOT of points. When I use capital letters, let me tell you something; I really mean it! I guess the Chinese team were way too good for them.  The next match was played by the men; Germany and Brazil were the two teams. A few of us went for the Brazilians as their flag is the same colour as our wigs. No surprise, they won!

In the breaks of each match, these “Horse Parade Dancers” and the “Rakey Rakey” (people who rake the sand) came on. Also we did the Mexican wave every now and then. I wonder why?

Covent Garden- Shopping galore! We were allowed to roam around until the second group had finished watching the Olympics. We went to many shops, but what everyone was most excited about was M&M’s World. Four story building, of unmistakeable M&M’s everywhere. Toys, chocolates, displays, heaven for a chocolate lover like me!

Bella Italia was the restaurant we went to. We had toast, salad and cheese for entrée, warm chicken salad for main and chocolate brownies for dessert. Mr McCarthy entertained all with his ‘magic tricks.’ We figured out his tactic, well he told us straight after.

Going to bed was what everyone was especially excited about, after this long action-packed day.

That’s all from us,                                                                                                                                           Marina and Brierley JJJ

                                                                                   

Day Five-3rd Aug

Today started off with a bright and early start. There was a wakeup call at 7:00am and we had to be down at the hotels main entrance at 8:30am to aboard the bus for a long day ahead of us. The bus ride was around 1 and half hours long, Leonardo Di Vinci was having a snooze so he’ll be ready for our tour. During the ride we went past lots of farms and cottages. We got to see the country side of England. When we finally got to Oxford, we split up into our groups and had a tour around Christ Church, where they filmed part of the Harry Potter series!!!!! We got to see one of the four universities where they filmed Hogwarts School!

Sandrine= At first I had no clue on what Levana was talking about because she was chatting away about being a big fan of Harry Potter when I had never watched it. She shouted about Dumbledore getting killed in Tom’s Tower and I was trying to guess who he was, as was Leonardo.

Levana= I wouldn’t understand how Sandrine hasn’t seen the Harry Potter series. I was telling her about all the places and what number movie they were in. Some of them were the Quidditch, the moving stairs, the dining hall and Tom’s Tower because that’s where Snape killed Dumbledore.  

Sandrine= Leonardo had a great time learning about the history of Christ Church. We even got to see where the writer of Alice and Wonderland got his inspiration for the garden. Near the end of the tour we past art gallery which had paintings by Leonardo Di Vinci. The tour ended at 1:00pm, we then had free time to have lunch and go shopping. Leonardo had a great lunch and got some souvenirs from the markets.

Leonardo= I had a great time today with Levana and Sandrine and can’t wait to have another adventure tomorrow!!

By Spectacular Sandrine and the Lovely Levana

Day 4 – 2nd August

Heya peeps!! Today was sooooooooo EPIC (I wonder who this is…) and we (Maddy S and Emily B) are going to tell you all about it!!!

We started the day with a delectable buffet breaky!!!!! (no coke in soup this time). We hopped on the bus after an hour rehearsal for Westminster Abbey. We drove past Big Ben to get to the London Eye to pick up our London tour guide. We had a lovely tour of the City of London and City of Westminster.

We saw all sorts of amazing sights consisting of the London Tower, River Thames and BUCKINGHAM PALACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Leonardo Da Vinci got caught by the police for being very naughty as you can see in the pictures. We had lunch at an English sandwich bar called Eat.  After lunch, we made our way to Westminster Abbey to get changed and have a quick rehearsal before we met the organist, Martin. We were told by the Verger how the Evensong would go down.

We had a very short break before heading down to the service.  Here, I saw my Mum and Dad who came over to watch J! (Maddy. S). We sang like angels (apparently) and we had comments from many people who work at the Abbey.  We went for a short tour of the Abbey. We went through the tomb of Mary Queen of Scots, who apparently was a Catholic and hated Catholics - but we think we heard it wrong. Bianca said that if Queen Mary hated herself, then maybe she beheaded herself and Marina thought that she actually meant it. It was HILARIOUS!!!!!!! 

We hopped back on the bus and played M.A.S.H on our way to this restaurant. There we enjoyed an entrée of cooked goat’s cheese, a main of pork belly which was absolutely delish but very, very fatty and a dessert of chocolate profiteroles.

We all miss you very much!!!!        

Signing off yours truly  

The Magical  Maddy S and the
AWSEPICAL…… Emily B!!!!!

Day 3 – 1st August

A long day today full of travelling. First of all we had breakfast at the hotel and then hopped on to the bus. We literally travelled for hours...but we had a shopping spree on the ferry from France to England, so it was definitely worth it! Leonardo De Vinci was very well behaved on the bus ride and kept us very entertained with his infinite artistic stare. Leo enjoyed the feast of fatty foods along the way which helped us last to the end of our journey...in other words Journey’s End (a piece we are playing!!) We felt that the year 6’s really liked to waste their money on nothing really as they got completely addicted to the claw thingy where you could win a toy, complete rip off..! Us year 7’s would much rather spend our money on expensive clothing, hahaJ

When we finally arrived at the hotel after our interesting journey, it felt great to kick our shoes off and relax for a while. The hotel wasn’t the first place for people to relax as we had a laugh watching people doze off on the bus. Dinner was very rewarding after our hard day of travel.  We definitely can’t wait to have a relaxing shower and to hop into our comfy beds.

That’s all from us today folks,

Love Georgia Fullarton and Riley Abbott xoxo

More photos

Day 5 Christchurch and Matilda