Education but not as we planned it..

Sam and I had a nice day planned, normals in the morning, the space centre in the afternoon and then a swim at our new gym. The day didn't quite happen like that as the jeep decided not to work but in the end we had an even nicer day. Sam got a good lesson in mechanics and physics from the two RAC men who came to the house, the first to try and fix the car and the second to tow us to a garage. Sam kept offering helpful advice to both men who took it with a smile. We then did a bit of geography as the garage was in a part of leicster that we only vaguely know. Then some diplomacy as I did my best not to explode when the woman told me that she wasn't sure that they would get a chance to look at it today, let alone fix it. As it turns out the garage is about 1/2 a mile from the Space Centre so we covered off PE on our walk over there. I sort of assumed that being a tuesday morning it would be empty but boy was I wrong. It seemed like every school in leicseter was there. I am sure in my day we only got field trips at the end of term--not in the middle-who said they could be out of school-not fair!!!

We managed to enjoy ourselves, despite the noise and chaos and I my interested was sufficiently peaked that I am going to look into doing an OU course on the planets or the solar system. Sam enjoyed the museum much more than last time we went about a year ago. It is still aimed at older children but having done some planet stuff at home he was much more interested at the museum. I still think that their entrance fees are outrageous when you consider how big the science musem in london is they don't charge a thing. luckily, EO members get a discount.

The Abbey Pumping Station Museum is right next door so we headed over there when we were done at the space centre. It was delightfully empty and we were able to browse in peace.

More PE as we walked to Abbey Park and explored there. It includes the remains of Leicester Abbey where Cardiinal Wolsey died and was buried. There are quite a few remains to seee and we had some interesting discusions about the dissolution, funding for archaeological digs and the layout of churches. I just love the fact that not only does HE allow us the freedom to do this but that he is interested in all these things. His focus changes so quickly too, one minute he is going to build a space craft and the next he wants to know what happened to the monks from the dissolved monastaries.

More lessons in dipolmacy was we walked back to the garage (it was gone 3 by this time) to be told that they still hadn't properly looked at the car and that they would not get round to it until tomorrow. GRRRRRR.. what happened to being nice to your customers. If only our wonderful mechanic wasn't away at the moment. They graciously agreed to give us a lift into the centre of leicester, wheere we explored some more while we waited for M to get off work. The museum at new walk is great and even better it was empty!! Definately worth another visit when we can stay longer. We got a lift home with M and were both shattered.

We had a good day, just not the one we had planned!!!

Have a great time in LV Dad-can't wait to see you guys.