Carys and Gary Avis

Wow, the balletgirl has had an amazing day. After driving to Ipswich a combination of nerves and excitement struck her dumb when we arrived at Dance East! Gary Avis was running a ballet workshop with  Helen Crawford and David Pickering as part of his Dance4Suffolk initiative, which will see members of the Royal Ballet dancing in a Gala in Ipswich next weekend and raising money for Suffolk Community Foundation’s Arts and Culture Fund and support special outreach projects with the Foundation and Dance East.

So Carys had a ballet class lead by a Ballet Teacher from the Royal Ballet, learnt about how to create swan wings correctly from her elbows from a Royal Ballet Soloist and was inspired and enthused by a Ballet Master and Character Principal of the Royal Ballet. She didn't stop talking about it or grinning all the way home.

Will and I had a wander along the marina after dropping Carys off, then headed in to the town and found the Tourist Information Office. There we found a very helpful lady who gave Will a map of Ipswich and highlighted a route for him to follow, things to look for on the way and which ended up firstly at Christchurch Mansion and the finally at the play park. So we also had a good day.

He loved being in charge of where we were going and persuaded me to buy him a guide to the mansion for the great price of £1! He then proceeded to read the information for each room out to me, had a good look at two Constable paintings and two Gainsborough's, we preferred Constable, and engaged one of the guides in a discussion about various musical instruments on show and the Grandfather clocks on display!

So all in all a great day. Late home though, so we will play tomorrow by ear, we were planning a parkrun, but will see if they wake up or not.