First day at boarding school

I'm all excited it's the start of the new school year today. I think Grandma was also excited and proud. My school, which is also Dad's old school, is two hours drive from London. Dad drove. Before we went to the school, we stopped off at the Queen's Hotel, where we met up with Debs and James – longtime friends of Dad who agreed to be my guardians. Dad says that I will be spending some exeats and term breaks with them.

Grandma, me, Dad, James and Debs, in front of the Queen's Hotel.

I'm in Dad's old boarding house too! There are ten boys in my year, and I share my dormitory with four others. I never liked sharing a room, so I'm going to hate this! I just hope they don't stay up all night talking, and that none of them snores!

My cohort, in front of our boarding house

Tuck box!

Tuck box!

I'm off to boarding school in a few days. Dad took me to M&S and bought me a suit. He was so pleased with it that he couldn't stop himself repeating how good it looked on me.

I then went to the supermarket to stock up with some of my favourite snacks – a large supply of Bounty, Creme Eggs and Twiglets! My tuck box is now so full I am struggling to close it. I think I'm all set!

Day trip to Portsmouth

Portsmouth Naval Museum

Dad's been talking about it since we were studying the Mary Rose for history last year. So today, we visited the Portsmouth Naval Dockyards. Not on;y did we see the wreck of Henry's warship in its new tank, we looked at an exhibition about the Battle of Jutland. The traffic coming in from London was bad; it was more bearable on the way back.

Iceberg

Tell me it's not a great idea to haul a bunch of icebergs from the polar circle and put them in the middle of Paris. Olafur Eliasson, an artist from Iceland did exactly that. He chose the Pantheon as  the location, installed a circle of icebergs with a circumference of twenty metres during this year's Climate Change Conference, which is taking place from 30 November to 12 December.

Mum and me in the Place du Pantheon

It's called “Ice Watch”: twelve blocks of ice is arranged like clock face to indicate the passing of time; and people can watch the ice melt in real time. Mum, Dad and I went to visit it. Duncan wasn't interested, so he stayed at home. It was cold here, but not enough to stop the ice melting.

Braces

A few weeks ago,  I had four teeth taken out. Today I got some new braces on my uppermost teeth. Dad joked  that I may be able to pick up Radio 4 in my mouth!