School News Autumn 2012 Term

What a busy term it was at the end of last year.  We arrived back from our hols and were literally straight back to school and I started full time work - my feeble excuse for not updating the Blog for a while.  We are now all out of the house at around 7am, ouch.  School got off to a great start especially as Isy was voted in a Vice House Captain at school.  It was something she wanted to do and came home and wrote her own speech and presented it to her House.  I cannot believe how much she has grown in confidence. Then Isy's portrait of the Queen using different textiles she produced for the Jubilee was selected to be displayed to be displayed at an Exhibition for young artists in Riyadh.  Unfortunately, when we entered the competition we were not aware that said picture had to be framed.  We mounted it on gold card and hoped for the best.  On arrival at the exhibition we discovered due to its size it had been allocated its own stand!  Fame at last. Cross country season involved me running an after school cross country club.  It is amazing what you can achieve on a football pitch in the desert.  Isy won her girl's year race at Salwa but was desperate to win the finals against BISR main site. Not sure who was more nervous me or her and after much parental (well perhaps there was a little bit of a competitive mum) advice she ignored everything and  took an early lead.  There was no doubt about her determination to win and she flew around and took a very well deserved first place. The grin says it all! This Festive Bazzare brought rain and weather more typical of a UK summer.  But the children sang all the festive songs and Isy and Maddy particularly enjoyed their version of gangnam style - yes it even hit Saudi. Gangnam, or 'Sleighing Santa Style', hilarious. Isy throwing herself into Gangnam Style Not convinced Isy and camels get on, she really is not amused with this one.  Maddy on the other hand couldn't have too many rides.

Salam Park

Over the Autumn we found a large park in Riyadh so took the opportunity to take a picnic and chill under a palm tree. We arrived early before the locals were out and about. Very British. There was even a boating lake.

Isy at Mada'in Saleh

Look what I can do with my iPod Touch and the help of
our guide.

Red Dune

Driving around 45 minutes from here you come across a massive red dune.  One Friday morning we drove out with friends and the plastic sledges in the boot to try on the dune. Dragging the sledge up the dune. The view from the top. "On your marks get set go", well perhaps not very far as we just sank into the lovely soft sand.  Still lots of fun to  drag each other around on the sledges especially after you have carried them all the way up the sand dune taking one step forward and nearly sliding back the same distance. Who can resist running down a massive sand dune and that includes the adults. And down we go.  When we arrived home it was worse than a beach trip, red sand everywhere.  Lots of fun though.

Mada'in Saleh

The real reason for our visit north was to visit the ancient ruins of Mada'in Saleh a mini version of Petra in Jordan only without the tourists.  it was extremely impressive and dare I say a delight for children who jumped out of the cars with cries of delight and excitement at the prospect of playing hide and seek in the ancient tombs.  The excitement intensified when our excellent guide took them into a tomb with real bones! Darting between the tombs or should I say hiding places. Some of the amazing rock formations within the Park . Some clever photography by our guide, hopefully you can see that the large rock in the background looks like a face. Time for a rest. A break from climbing and running around. The tomb from the above photos just to show how large it really is. Lazing infront of the tombs in between pretending  to be mummies. More Tombs.  I believe there were around 130 in total.

Al-Ula

We were lucky to have the opportunity to fly to Tabuk in Northern Saudi, from there we drove 3 hours south to Al-Ula.  Expecting 3 hours of 'are we there yet?" we were all amazed by the spectacular scenery on the way.  At times we felt like we were on another planet, bizarre rock formations everywhere. We were lucky to have the chance to visit Mada'in Saleh in Northern KSA. We flew up to Tabuk and then drove about 3 hours south, the journey was just amazing and we found ourselves stopping to look at the scenery. Sometimes you thought you were on another planet with strange rock formations. We stayed in a town called Al-Ula which still had the remains of the old mud village, I believe people may have lived there until the 1970s. We did not dare let the children run off in it, or play hide and seek as they desperately wanted to, for fear of never finding them again. A real rabbit warren. Late afternoon we drove to the local view point. Once we reached the top of the mountain it was a plateau of dark volcanic like rock, nothing like we expected. The views were amazing. Romantic Abaya  shot.