Changing Places No 126 W\C 13th July 2008

‘Summer school is summer fun’ is Kate’s phrase of the week. She spends her school term days at an International school in Palma with the car journey each way and the routines of an English prep school. Working parents find the summer holidays endless so Jay investigated the world of the Soller summer schools on their doorstep. No car journey allowed! The little school that Emma attends in the Port of Soller had the option that suited the family best. Kate and Emma do not normally attend the same school so this was a novelty in itself. The summer school is staffed by a young energetic team ready for anything from water fights in the playground to trips to the beach. Making things, playing games and quiet corner for reading are also on offer when it all gets too hot. The school day is from 9 to 2 and provides some core hours for the parents to work. It is often Grandparents s that pick the children up and then the holiday fun continues into the afternoon. The flexibility that summer school offers is excellent – parents sign up for the days or weeks they need the service as you only pay for the sessions you want and don’t have to sign up for the full two months.

Emma is fully at home at that building it is her day school but for Kate the benefits are obvious. She is making local friends of her own age and speaking Majorcan. She has no choice and is enjoying learning new words and relating them to the Spanish she already knows. The days of Kate and Emma conversing in their own secret language that the adults in the house don’t understand are here. Summer school has been an unqualified success so far and being immersed in the language on a daily basis is as good as it gets.

Matthew our tennis coach son-in-law is meeting the children that he coached last year who are back again. They grow in a year and get stronger so the tennis is a little harder and hotter for them all but they wouldn’t have it any other way. Tennis in Majorca has always been popular but this year’s added frisson in providing the Wimbledon champion is hard to beat. Matthew can take no credit for that apart from watching the final like everyone else in awe of the boy from Manacor’s strength and skill. So for him it is the summer of tennis and tourism as his roles at Ocean Village and Classic Holidays continue alongside. How many jobs does it take to pay the bills in this lovely country? The work must be done when the work is there it really is as simple as that.

The local fiesta outside my front door was well underway as I left for London. The children’s sports races with Olympic volume tannoy rang in my ears as I reluctantly headed off. I love Majorca in the summer from non-stop local fiestas to the beach and the pool so London only happened because of a family emergency. I type this now from Primrose Hill in North London instead of looking at the heat haze on the Tramontana Mountains.

London is in the grip of the Masai Barefoot Revolution and I was converted. A little retail therapy took me to the display of these ‘non fashion’ items that the high priestesses of fashion are wearing. Masai warriers have a lot to answer for because half of London is walking round in the ugliest shoes and trainers ever seen. They are built on the premise that the human muscosculoskeletal system is designed to walk barefoot on natural uneven ground. We on the other hand walk almost exclusively on hard, flat surfaces. So a blueprint for physiological footwear was born where the sole technology enables the body to walk naturally and have a work out at the same time. I have been bouncing around London on mine and grew two inches immediately because the sole is so thick. You can tell who is wearing them because we all look like Tigger from Winnie the Poo because we can’t stop bouncing. MBT’s are the last word in stupid fashion but maybe they will be good for me – half of London can’t be wrong can they?? The sooner I get back to Majorca the better.
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