Lunch at the Bluebell pub with Nonna and Big G in Unky Toby's tshirts

Elstead Marathon

Mama took part in a local race for the first time.  Misleadingly named the Elstead Marathon, it was in fact, a rollockingly 5 miler through the Elstead countryside taking in road, trails, forest, fields, rivets and lastly the River Wey. 

A smashing way to spend a glorious Friday night in the height of summer.

That'll be me, pushing some poor bloke out of the way in order to gain maybe 2 seconds.  Oh dear.

Benson

We dog sat this weekend.  It was, um, enlightening.

What we liked (a lot):

• Taking Benson on walks and being outside in the park at 8am with doggie
• Holding the lead for Benson to pull us along (Oliver and Pip)
• Bossing Benson around (Pip)
• Meeting other dog owners (Mama)
• Seeing Big G try to discipline Benson.  Pure comedy gold.
  

What we didn't like (a lot):

• The poo
• The weeing (constantly over everything)
• The smell
• The dribble
• Not seeing Hoocus and Milo for 4 days.  
  

Benson was adorable, great with the kids and it was a good way to test drive if you're ready for a dog. We're not.  I loved so much of having a dog, and probably would really enjoy being a dog walker, rather than a dog owner.

Pip to Benson: can you put the mat back benson? Its very messy.  
Five minutes later: Benson, now listen to me, don't eat the cat food.

Carnival Time

 
Sam Baker, Harry Norris, Henry Hogg, James Goldsworth, a happy looking Oliver (from left to right)

Every year, Farnham puts on a stonkingly good carnival.  All the schools participate, alongside local clubs and societies, culminating in a carnival round the streets of the town.   This years theme? Farnham's got talent.

St Andrew's answer to that was celebrating a local hero, Mike Hawthorn, a successful racing driver in the 50s (we won't mention his untimely death on the Hog's Back in a car crash).  For an amazing £2.50 per participant, we got costumes and floats for an enormous number of kids - all dressed in t-shirts, hats with trophies, steering wheels and cars to strap on.  An amazing effort and it looked fantastic.