There's a gas mask on the kitchen table

Sophie's homework yesterday was to construct a gas mask from cardboard and a plastic cup. The end result looks disconcertingly realistic. Today she has taken great pleasure in wearing it, and looming out at me from various corners while intoning "Mummy...mummy...are you my mummy?" (If that confuses you then clearly you didn't see the scariest ever Doctor Who episode). The gas mask has been constructed because they're studying the WW2 evacuees. They're going to have a day when they dress up as evacuees and tour the bomb shelter at a local school, and they'll also be visiting the Childrens' War exhibition at the Imperial War Museum (We went there a while ago; the exhibition is extremely well put together). When I was her age my school trips were to places like Groot Constantia, on the slopes of Table Mountain. The world is filled with so many interesting and wonderful places...