7th Dec day 54 triathlon and tree

With being away for the weekend I had completely forgotten that I had agreed to help with transport for some of Nicholas's classmates to get them to the triathlon. Thankfully I remembered late Sun night so I could get organised for being out the whole day. We got to school about 8.30am in time to help with the loading of equipment into the two trailers.

The event was held at Frimley Park which is over the other side of Hastings for years 5-8. Some of the kids did all 3 events - the swim, cycle and run but most of them were part of a 3 part team. Nicholas, Natika and Elisha were team no 213 and you don't need me to point out who was doing what.

The other two were years six which meant Nicholas was swimming against others who were nearly 2 years older than him, he was born at the end Oct. He did really well but it was 2 lengths of a 100m pool which is twice the size of the pools he usually attends. It was outdoors and a very hot day so getting into a unheated water caused quite a few of them an awful shock. But I was proud of him for swimming the 2 lengths, as you can from this shot quite a lot of the kids failed to touch the end of the pool before turning to do their second length.

The triathlon for the younger ones was in the morning, by the time years 7-8 did their event they were bored. Nicholas's teacher Miss Vee gave me permission to take them to the playground in the park. I was watching them when a younger woman, perhaps early 40s came and sat next to me. She started chatting and asking questions about which school the kids were from, when I said St Matthews she asked me what they believe. I wasn't sure why she was asking initially so felt I needed to give a clear answer in case she was a Muslim or JW. I said simply they believe Jesus is God's Son who died to forgive them and repair their broken relationship with the Father. 

She then told me she was a Christian who had walked over from her job in the maternity unit at the hospital for her lunch break, to have some peace and quiet (that wasn't going to happen today with the hordes of kids), as she was fasting. We had a really good chat with her explaining why she was disciplining herself to not eat today. She was spending that time praying for two guys Dave and Tyler who both needed healing. We then prayed together, whilst the children had fun, it was amazing.

After the triathlon Nicholas was allowed to finish school an hour early which meant we had time to go shopping together before I took him for his swimming lesson at Flaxmere. Simon had left me a very well-drawn map as I didn't know the way. Nicholas was a hoot he was the Satnav giving me the directions and when we arrived he said in that flat voice "you have reached your destination".

It was the last lesson before the long summer hols as a result they did quite a few relays. In the last one his team was behind and he managed to close the gap, overtaking his opponent as the picture shows. They went on to win this race, well done that boy.

After dinner it was time to do the tree together, I have been so looking forward to it. Here are the 4 decorations I have bought, 1 from each of the 4 countries I have visited since leaving the UK. Can you guess 1) which is from where and 2) how much each cost? I will give you the answers later in the week.

We got the tree up with all 3 of us joining in, it lived up to my expectations and we are all happy with the result. Now it's starting to feel like Christmas, yippee.