Thursday 30 April 2009

The Big Three-O

Youthful though she may look, Clare turned 30 on Tuesday! She was initially daunted by the prospect of entering her 4th decade but a series of surprise parties thrown by her school pupils and staff brightened her day considerably.

To celebrate, we're off to the big smoke (London) for the Bank Holiday weekend. Knowing that Clare is a musical lover, I have booked tickets for Wicked and Oliver which should be very good by all accounts. I will try and remember to take some photos and post them when we return!

Friday 24 April 2009

Rescue at Warwick Castle

Well, I'm long overdue a blog entry so here's a little tale from our recent holiday. We went to Warwickshire for a week staying at a beautiful Mill Cottage in Braunston. We spent the time unwinding after Clare's stressful school inspection and using our National Trust Membership to visit lots of lovely old houses in the area. 

We spent one of the days out visiting Warwick Castle, which is one of Britain's most complete castles. It was built in 1068 by William the Conquerer and has loads to do there including knights fighting and a scary dungeon.

Whilst we were there, we noticed a fire engine and ambulance had arrived in the Courtyard. We later found out that a man had suffered a heart attack climbing the very steep spiral staircase in one of the turrets (Don't panic though....I understand he's ok now!). The Firefighters couldn't quite work out how to get him down safely from the turret so eventually an RAF rescue helicoptor airlifted him off the top of the turret. 

Despite a huge amount of wind and dust blown down by the helicoptor's rotor blades, I managed to capture the rescue on video. It's two minutes long but about halfway through you can see someone being winched up. Towards the end, I pan around so you can get a good view of the castle as well. 

What excitment and they didn't charge us any extra!