Friday Focus 15/08/2025 – Intense

This week has been quite intense with a trip to Bristol to hunt for Gromit Unleashed 3 sculptures at the weekend, an extra rehearsal for Calendar Girls and Sophie spending the week in rehearsals for this year’s summer youth project, Bring It On.

 

The word 'intense' in red and yellow bubble writing

 

We had an intense day of Gromit-hunting on Saturday and managed to tick 27 sculptures off the list. It was lovely to bump into two of our friends (who are also our children’s godparents) whilst in Bristol and stop for a drink and a catch-up. As well as trying to find the sculptures, Sophie was also trying to tick off items on her dance school summer bingo sheet, getting photos of her doing various dance poses.

 

Sophie doing the splits in front of one of the Gromit sculptures

 

It’s been a more intense week for rehearsals for Calendar Girls with an extra-long rehearsal on Sunday afternoon in addition to our two regular rehearsals on Monday and Wednesday.

 

Sophie started rehearsals on Monday for Bring It On and has been at the theatre all week. It’s been an intense week of rehearsals preparing for next week’s performances. I’ve also had some time at the theatre chaperoning.

 

While Sophie was at the theatre on Monday, my husband and I were at a funeral at church for Cecil, who was our oldest church member. I was very thankful that another church member was able to help look after Thomas during the service as I was playing the piano and my husband was doing the AV.

 

In between being back and forth at the theatre, I’ve been out and about enjoying some one-to-one time with Thomas. We had fun finding the characters from this year’s reading challenge on a trail around Langley Park (although there wasn’t a map for the trail which made finding them a bit more challenging!) and Thomas enjoyed a morning up in the nets at Go Ape in Black Park.

 

 

What I’ve been grateful for this week:

 

Sophie and Thomas's awards from Wild Week; one of the Gromit sculptures; Sophie stretching; Cecil dancing in the aisles at church; red roses in the garden; Thomas doing the Story Garden trail; Thomas having fun with the giant bouncy balls on the Nets Adventure - "#365daysofgratitude 2025 - Week 33"

 

  • Day 220 – I am grateful that Sophie and Thomas had so much fun taking part in Wild Week.

 

  • Day 221 – I am grateful for a successful day looking for Gromit Unleashed 3 sculptures – we found 27 today, bringing our total to 45, and unexpectedly bumped into a couple of friends and had a lovely catch-up with them too.

 

  • Day 222 – I am grateful for space to stretch.

 

  • Day 223 – I am grateful to have known Cecil and for this moment of joy that will always be how I’ll remember him – dancing in the aisle at the end of a church service.

 

  • Day 224 – I am grateful that the roses are in bloom again.

 

  • Day 225 – I am grateful for a Story Garden trail at Langley Park.

 

  • Day 226 – I am grateful for a fun morning enjoying the Nets Adventure at Black Park.

 

 

Other things that have made me smile this week:

  • The little row of colourful mini Gromits on someone’s windowsill near one of the sculptures.

 

A row of miniature Gromits in all the colours of the rainbow

 

  • Watching Sophie and Thomas having fun on the water walkers while taking a break from Gromit hunting.

 

Sophie and Thomas inside water walking balls

 

  • Enjoying some ice-cream at the park.

 

Thomas eating an ice-cream at the park

 

 

Joining in with Raisie Bay for Word of the Week.

 

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8 thoughts on “Friday Focus 15/08/2025 – Intense

  1. It does sound intense but a lot of fun too! Well done with the Gromit hunt and what fun for Sophie to be doing the dance poses. I hope Bring it On goes well.
    So sorry about your friend Cecil. x

  2. I love those sculpture trails, they always look like so much fun. Well done on finding that many!
    How lovely to bump into friends too, that was a lucky coincidence.
    Good luck to you and Sophie in your upcoming productions. I’m sure they will be wonderful.
    Sorry to hear about Cecil, that’s very sad, and I imagine he will be sorely missed.
    I love Thomas’s colourful outfit, it matches his ice-cream.

  3. You found a lot on that trail, so well done. It’s nice that the children are having so much fun over the Summer too. Soon it will be back to the school routine and all that. I hope all the rehearsals go well.

  4. Sounds like it’s a busy time despite being holidays. Love those mini Gromits. I never get round to visiting any of the sculpture trails, although they’re usually some way from us.

  5. It sounds like a very intense week but fun too. I love those trails, we had one in Birmingham with owls and we spent a lot of time over the summer searching for them, the kids loved it. I did spend some time in Bristol too, we had five minutes between trains… very intense. (they actually held the train up for 5 minutes so I could get on!)

  6. A Gromit hunt! That is so cool 😀 A very full on week with all your rehearsals. Glad the kids enjoyed their wild week

  7. What a wonderful tribute to Cecil, remembering him when he was happy. I am sorry for your loss.
    Thomas looks like he is having fun on the net. Sophie is so flexible, well done for a lovely pose in front of Gromit.

  8. Sorry to hear about your friend. Glad you were able to get someone to look after Thomas for you. “I love the dance challenge Sophie is doing for the summer.

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