Welsh Wales for World Book Day

3 March – freezing! The author bloke scraped the windscreen and we headed along the coast to Rhyl. The sun was out, what a glorious day, then halfway through Rhyl someone turned out the lights. The sea fog descended like a curtain.

We were looking for Ysgol y Castell in Rhuddlan but were surprised when we found it. It had no roof…the walls were crumbling…and it looked as if it had been built five hundred years ago. I know some school buildings need a bit of attention, but…oh, oops, we’d found Rhuddlan Castle itself, not the school. I did wonder. You don’t get many open air schools in the UK!

It may have been dark outside but we were determined to keep it bright inside. So everyone at Ysgol y Castell gathered in the hall and we kicked off World Book Day. Brilliant. What an audience. Loved them. They really knew how to laugh.

And laughter brings out the sun. Or so it seems, because it was blazing in the sky by the time lunchtime came around.

So we set off for Ysgol Bryn Hedydd, where the teacher for the session was Mrs Lees. Yes, she nearly had the same name as me!

Julie – the lovely lady in the office – must have wondered what was going on, because every so often the roof was blown off. No, it wasn’t another open air school, it was blasts of hilarity that were raising the roof, because these pupils were so much fun.

And then home. 5 hours of driving back to Scotland, although the author bloke did insist on stopping for a tiffin cake. Yum.