Half days off are decidedly good for the soul, polls suggest
Well, by polls I of course mean Hayley, Megan and I. We went gallabanting off into a valley, through the woods and into a river today.

Initially I felt guilty about skipping third and fourth periods, but that wore off rather fast. As in, as soon as we departed Megan's house for the walk. In all reality, it was far too beautiful a day to spend indoors. And I don't think I would have gotten anything relevant accomplished at school anyway, as I seem to be completely unable to do work while trapped within the walls. First, we paraded up Altona and across Taunton (after sampling the pears on a wild pear tree) until we came to a bridge. Oh, and I forgot, I, in a particularly courageous mood, up-rooted some developer-made political signs on the way. Anyway, we walked along this big, gourgeous, ravine-like river valley on this path. We came upon a pair of praying manti, one of whom was eating an ant. Eventually, we worked our way down to the river, which is where the real day began.

I really love being able to just peel my socks and shoes off and go walking in rivers. It seems like nature is always just a "look but do not touch" kind of a thing. Gooshing clay-mud between my feet felt so nice. Hayley and Megan also removed their shoes and we began to (slowly) make our way down the river towards the cliff we had just been looking down from. We stopped to look at almost everything, from rocks to fish to snake skin to leaves. I showed my fellow explorers my method of making little waterfalls out of flat rocks, which is actually quite fulfilling as simple as it sounds. And somehow Hayley managed to go from examining a leaf face-down on all fours on dry land to being on her back in the river. My, she has a talent for accidents. After a while, we got to this part where there was a bit of a path coming up out of the river again and Hayley and Megan took the dryland part while I continued down the river. I saw these really cool sheer clay cliffs that were dripping water from underground springs, and cut myself rather nastily on an evil blade of grass. We met up again and decided the fastest way up was straight up the side of the cliff. Hayley almost fell again, but it was fun.

By this time I had begun feeling guilty again, so we had to rush back so that I could make good my excuse about feeling ill and going to Megan's. At the time, my mother seemed fine with it so we continued our day. After a short meal of chick peas, rice and couscous, it was time for my bike-riding lesson.

Yes, it's a sad truth, but I don't know how to ride a bike.

All in all, it was a very profittable experience.

Now I am quite tired and will elaborate further when I'm feeling more competent.
Good night!