To most people an airport is one of the most boring places on the face of this earth but to our little gang anything is a laugh. It all started when James pulled a 'Mary Poppins' act when passing through Málaga airport security. The security guards were losing the will to live by the time he had finished emptying his pockets! Who else but James would think of packing a Playstation plus controllers and a full set of games for a one night stay in a Hotel? I think we can all agree that he had a good time on the Thursday night.

As soon as we had arrived in London, we all decided to go shopping and to explore the capital city. Our first stop was Harrods and what a great time we had there! Whilst Miss Bev and Mrs. Morris went looking for the Café Espresso, Daniella, Lewis, Glenn and I went to purchase a 'few' gifts for Glenn's family. Now, of course, being in London, there had to have been one person who bought out the town and this year our prize went to . . . Glenn, for his countless bags and heavy luggage…and, yes, we have photographic evidence to prove it!

After our exhausting trip to Harrods, which gave a new meaning to the phrase “shop ´til you drop”, we visited Covent Garden.

The buskers were amazing: dancers limboing over fire, statues that blow kisses when you give them money, leaping classical musicians - what a hive of activity! After all that excitement, we needed to relax with a pizza. The fact that we were faced with possibly the biggest pizza in the world was no cause for concern to our intrepid heroes Glenn and James. Pizza? What pizza?

Well, since the whole point of the trip was to go to the award ceremony in the Houses of Parliament that is exactly what we did.

The following day we arrived outside the Palace of Westminster at roughly ten in the morning and we went straight through the security to meet the Rt. Hon. Michael Portillo M.P. He took us for a tour around the Houses of Parliament and took us into the House of Commons. His “inside” information was fascinating; as a former Secretary of State for Defence, he had many anecdotes to tell us about life in the House of Commons.

Outside the entrance to the House of Commons there were two statues, one of which was of the famous Second World War prime minister Winston Churchill and as it was the custom to rub his boot before going in, for good luck, we all did. We hoped it would bring us luck in the award ceremony. We tried to get into the House of Lords but unfortunately for us they were in sitting which meant they had started a debate of some sort.

Finally we had to go into the Members’ Dining Room where the award ceremony was held. Firstly everyone was given their Distinction certificates and as we were called for the International category, we were awarded with a distinction and the winning certificate all in one! This meant that we were the only international school even to get invited to the ceremony! Then it was time for the website award. Two schools were invited for this award and so it was a harder decision for the judges, but yet again EIC was victorious and we walked away with a staggering two awards, the only school to have ever done that!

Unfortunately, each school was only allocated a few invitations to the award ceremony so we were only allowed to take along a few representatives from the ‘First Bell’ group to London. To make up for this and in recognition of the ‘First Bell’ editorial team´s amazing achievement, we all went to Selwo for the day on the following Friday. As the photographs show, a great time was had by all!

Mitzi Voase Year 8