Speed Angel Sisters

For a while we have been going to the park after piano lessons on the few dry Thursdays. Sophie and Gemma-Rose always ride their scooters around the lake. One week Mum asked me, "Do you want a scooter?" I hadn't thought about it before. Would I like to whizz around the lake like the wind? "I think so," I replied. "I'll see about getting you one," Mum said. A few days later I had a brand new pink and white scooter. And then the inevitable happened. The rain poured down and the wind blew. No chance of going to the park in that weather. So my wonderful new scooter sat lonely and unused in the garage, awaiting the day when I could finally use it without the danger of being drenched.

Today, though it was cloudy and a bit chilly, the rain held off and we got to go to the park at last to ride our scooters. Sophie and Gemma-Rose are experienced riders and fly along the path but before today I have only ever ridden a scooter at friends' houses where they have scooters and will let me try. Slightly nervously I trundled off slowly down the path. And suddenly I started to push harder. The scooter flew and I put my foot up and cruised along. The feeling was wonderful. I loved riding the fabulous pink and white scooter immediately. The fun carried on. After a lap of the lake I stopped and said to Imogen, "Have a go." She doesn't have a scooter. She resisted though. "Go on," Mum urged. "It'll be fun."

With both Mum and I insisting that she try Imogen gave in. She wheeled the scooter to the path and with a little help from Gemma-Rose and me started off. She went slowly at first as Imogen has done even less scooter riding than I have. But she was caught by the scooter fun as well. Imogen zipped around the lake while I rested and caught my breath. My second go came soon. I hopped on and felt the urge just to go faster and faster. I vied with Sophie (who as I have said before is an experienced rider) to be the fastest. Naturally she was but that didn't stop me from trying.

Sophie has a scooter the same size as mine so when she needed a rest she lent hers to Imogen and we zoomed around the lake together. Being both beginners we had about the same speed so for once I wasn't left behind. Sophie and Gemma-Rose are super quick on their scooters. It would have been rather embarrassing if it wasn't so much fun. Rather tired and very happy we packed up the picnic.

All of us were exhasusted but the trip to the park was a complete success. Never before have I had so much fun at the park as today. On the way home Mum had a brainwave. "You should call yourselves the Speed Angel Sisters," she announced. "It's a lot nicer than Speed Demons." And so we are now the Speed Angel Sisters. Imogen is going to get a scooter of her own so that we can all ride at the same time. With a little bit of luck it might not rain next Thursday and we can go again.

The Ice Cream Treat

We don't have ice creams very often so when we do have them it is a real treat. Today Mum decided to take Sophie, Gemma-Rose and I up to the village to get an ice cream each. The real reason was a trip to the post office but the ice creams were the interesting part. "Do you want to go for a walk?" Mum asked soon after we finished learning for the day. "Where to?" I replied. "To the village to get an ice cream," Mum announced. Of course we wanted to go for a walk. Any walk that ended in ice cream must be good. It was socks and shoes on immediately and we were off. At the village we stood by the ice creams. They all looked so nice that it was difficult to choose. "We hardly ever have Kit Kat ice creams," Sophie said, hinting at Mum. "I really like them." "All right," Mum took the hint. "You can have one. What do you want Gemma-Rose?" After much looking and thinking, Gemma-Rose decided. "I want the same as Sophie," she said. That left me and Mum. I chose Milo, because I almost always choose Milo ice cream. Mum so rarely has ice cream that Sophie exclaimed, "Mum's having ice cream too!' "Shall we eat them on the way home or stop and eat them here?" Mum asked. "Let's eat them here," I decided as no one else answered. Near the village is a patch of grass with a stone bench. The bench looked pretty normal from the other side of the rode but up close it was tiny. The bench was just about the right height for Gemma-Rose but for anyone taller it was that tiniest bit too short. Sitting on the tiny bench was like sitting on the short chairs people put in the children's section in the library. Mum's knees were rather high and the table top was rather low but that only added to the fun of eating ice cream on a weekday in the afternoon. On the whole it was a very good walk.

The Mikado

I don't like many movies. Maybe most of the ones I decide I don't like are quite good but I'm fussy. Of the very few movies I do like I have a short list of favourites. Alice in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice and the Mikado are an example. . Gilbert and Sullivan plays rank high on my extremely short list of movies. The Mikado is my favourite one so far. I like others, the HMS Pinafore, the Pirates of Penzance and the Gondoliers, but none rival my love of the Mikado. We have the Australian Opera version of the Mikado. Of the two versions I have seen the one we have is the one I like better. It's not exactly traditional. The costumes are not really Japanese and the words have been changed slightly but the actors make it worth watching over and over again. I have two favourite characters, Poo Bah and Koko. . Koko, the Lord High Executioner, is really funny. His costume is strange, odd for someone who used to be a tailor. I suppose he must have made it himself. He wears a prison suit and a strange baggy thing that looks like a cross between a dress and a very long shirt. It sort of gathers up at the back around his legs. It looks uncomfortable but always makes me laugh. Why a man would wear such a thing I don't know is beyond me. The dress/shirt things just makes Koko funnier. . Poo Bah, Lord High....well just about everything, is only that high ranking because all the other Lord Highs resigned when Koko became the executioner. He is followed almost all the time by his faithful servant Pish-tush. Poo bah must employ Pish-tush for one thing; he almost always carries a box with Poo bah's medals to show people. . I enjoy watching it but the fun doesn't stop with the movie. Recently we found a book filled with the words and music set for the piano for eleven Gilbert and Sullivan plays in the library. I like flipping through the music and dreaming of playing them. I have managed to play just about the whole of one piece on the piano but only through practise. My sight reading isn't that good so I can't just sit there and play. But when I have finished learning the first piece I can try the others.

Dinosaurs in the Bedroom

I consider spending an afternoon knitting with Imogen to be one of my favourite things. We have had this ambition to knit some of Jean Greenhowe's dinosaurs for a long time. Every time we have tried, though, we have either lost a knitting needle, lost the book, forgotten about the project or lost the whole piece of knitting. But this time we have done a lot better.

I like flying dinosaurs a lot. They are so cool. So a flying dinosaur was my obvious choice. And what colour did I choose? Well the obvious colour of course. What better colour for a flying dinosaur than bright orange? He's complete now, wings and all.

Imogen was adventurous and tried a white and purple stripey dinosaur. It was a complete success, despite her assurances that she'd never finish a project. I sewed it up last night. The dinosaur doesn't have huge teeth or massive claws but I think it looks like a really good dinosaur. Maybe if Imogen had done the face it might not have ended up with such a wide smiley mouth. But she seems to like it.

We're not stopping with these two. We have plans for many more dinosaurs to join the little band of prehistoric creatures we're making. Part made dinosaurs are spread around our bedroom. We hope that this time we really will make it to the end of our project (wherever that might be. We don't know how many dinosaurs we will make).

Maybe one day when there are hundreds of finished dinosaurs, cave men and eggs we will begin to find them in odd places. Perhaps one day I will wake up and find my bed full of cave men hiding from the dinosaurs or we might find mini battles raging on the fan blades. Who know?

Charlotte's Web

Mum and I were talking. Technically I should have been in bed but that didn't matter. She suggested I have a blog of my own. Before this I have been blogging with my sister Imogen on 'Dancing with Dragonflies'. Dad wandered into the room as she said this.

"Why don't you call it 'Charlotte's Web?" he asked.

Soon Imogen joined our discussion. She agreed to help me set it up. I never was much of a blog partner. I only ever wrote about three posts but on this blog I'm going to do better.

After we finished homeschooling for the day Imogen and I began to set it up. Setting up the blog was easy. A few clicks and we had one brand new blog. But then there was the background.

"What background do you want?" she asked.

"Um," I said.

I'm really not good at deciding. I gave her my special 'I'm hopeless' look.

"Let's look on the internet," she suggested, taking pity on me.

We started looking through many free backgrounds. After zillions of pictures, millions of backgrounds, I said,

"I like this one."

Well that's where things began to go a bit wonky. The background wouldn't come up, the blog title didn't fit and we even had the wrong template. But Imogen, who's a genius when it comes to getting me out of whatever muddle I've made, fixed it all. Finally the background came up properly.

"I love it," I said.

Imogen handed things over to me so I could write this first post. Hopefully I don't make a mess of things as usual. If I do, then Imogen will fix me up.

I love word play and internal jokes so I loved the name. As my name is really Charlotte it suits my blog perfectly. Anyway I got Imogen to help me set it up. This blog is going to be a sort of online journal where I will write about whatever happens to me, post photos, stories and so on. Enjoy!