I thought 2019 was pretty quiet but when I started looking at what I’ve done this year and where I’ve been, I’ve had a really good year!
Travel
Malta
I started the year with a quick and extraordinarily cheap long weekend in Malta, using zero holiday time from work. Highly recommended, would do again if those prices were repeatable.
Rome
With an eye to saving holiday time for Russia, which was still a blur on the horizon by May, I did a shorter long weekend in Rome, also using no time, mostly to see the Sistine Chapel #BeforeItBurnsDown. Yeah, it was good. Rome’s not among my top five favourite cities but I’m glad to have the Vatican ticked off.
Russia
I’m still writing the Russia blogs but in late August I finally went off on my Russian odyssey. I was away nearly three weeks and I visited five cities. I learned some history and I’m still not sure if Lenin was one of the good guys or not.
Russia blog posts (many still to come, still!)
Gdańsk
I’ve never fancied Poland but someone at work went to Gdańsk in March and everything he had to say about it made me think it was the sort of place I might like. It turned out I was right. More history learned, more amber bought, more nebulous plans to return being made.
Paris
I still don’t love Paris but I really wanted to go there on the Eurostar. I’ve been enough times to have done the big stuff but it turns out there are still plenty of important things I’ve never done, starting with Sainte-Chapelle.
Paris blog posts won’t be coming until February.
Our Chalet
You don’t get to hear about this yet. As at time of writing, I haven’t been there. As at time of publishing, I should have landed in Switzerland but I won’t have made it to Adelboden yet. I’m excited. We’re going to hike and play in the snow and visit a woodcarver and I’m going to do my Our Chalet Challenge badge.
No link yet, obviously
UK breaks
Sparkle & Ice
This really doesn’t count because this was a Ranger camp but I’m not leaving it out because we camped in February at -4C and the tents froze – and we’re going back next year. So proud of my girls. So proud of me.
Sparkle & Ice was sparkly & icy!
Pax Lodge
I spent a day at Pax Lodge, WAGGGS’ World Centre in London, for Thinking Day and then another day doing their Turn Back Time Challenge Through London. I’ve done other London overnights this year but I think this is the only one worth mentioning.
Turn Back Time: A Pax Lodge Challenge Through London
Chilterns/Oxford
Another camping trip, because I was in the middle of nowhere with little other option. The tent was patched up from Sparkle and didn’t leak in the rain, I had an early lazy breakfast over my camping stove and then went into Oxford where I had a late pub breakfast.
North Devon
Ah, a lovely summer camping weekend surrounded by sheep and sand and jellyfish. This was such a nice chilled little break and I hope I do something similar in 2020.
Edinburgh
I did two trips to the Fringe because I couldn’t fit all the comedy I wanted to see into one weekend. I danced a minuet on stage, I talked to three comedians, I got hit on by an American in a graveyard and I got evacuated from an upside down cow because of a thunderstorm.
Fearless Fun
Another that doesn’t technically count because it was Brownie camp. But it was the girls’ first ever camp, the other leader’s first ever camp and my first camp with girls that young. It didn’t go as well as Sparkle & Ice, I’ll be honest.
Dartmoor
I spent two days hiking Level Two logbook walks in east Dartmoor. It was drizzly and miserable but mostly I killed my feet. And my knees. Field first aid was required on Saturday.
Canterbury
Another #BeforeItBurnsDown. I spent a weekend visiting the cathedral and photographing old half-forgotten haunts around the university, all in the pouring rain, while staying in an inn.
A pilgrimage to Canterbury: The Blogger’s Tale
York
I spent a long weekend visiting the Minster, crossing Jorvik off my to-do list and taking selfies with steam locos, as well as having two comedy nights out in a row. Blog posts in March, I think.
Day trips
Winchester
I go to Winchester quite regularly, especially for comedy, but I spent a day there specifically to get to know the Norman/Gothic cathedral #BeforeItBurnsDown. I got to go up in the roof and on top of the tower.
Salisbury
Ok, I went to Salisbury to get my car serviced and MOT’d (single most expensive day of the year!) but I also wanted to see the cathedral there too #BeforeItBurnsDown. Had a jammy scone in the cloister cafe before going back to rescue my poor car.
Before it burns down: Visiting Salisbury Cathedral
Isle of Wight
I went to the Isle of Wight in November a few years ago and wasn’t overly impressed. But the addition of sunshine, a day bus ticket and a hovercraft elevated it to “nice enough”.
Activities & events
Outdoors instructor training
Less said about this the better. All I really learned was finally how to light a fire and whittling safety. I had a good bushcraft day. The climbing training wasn’t training at all. Never did a day’s outdoor instructing.
Flying Scotsman
The world’s most famous steam locomotive came to Swanage so I spent a day on the railway (and also on the beach and eating chocolate).
A day out on the most famous steam train in the world
Segway
I did my first ever Segway adventure. I’ve been wanting to try it for years and finally decided enough was enough. They’re really counter-intuitive until suddenly they’re not.
Going outdoors: a Segway forest adventure
Sea kayaking
I bought an inflatable kayak so I thought I’d go out with a real kayak and a professional guide to re-learn how to kayak safely. I accidentally filmed part of it.
I went kayaking and I didn’t capsize
Inflatable kayaking
So I took my little blow-up boat out on the open sea, very mindful of all the ways I could die. It’s much harder work than paddling a rigid plastic kayak.
This post coming in June 2020.
Paddleboarding
My Rangers requested paddleboarding since we couldn’t make a kayaking invitation from another local unit on two weeks’ notice. I really like paddleboarding and so do they.
Rowing
To finish my summer on the water, I took a rowing boat out on the river. They’re the hardest of the lot. Such a big heavy boat! Such awkward oars! I spent three-quarters of the time wrestling myself free of the reedbeds.
Messing about on the river: Juliet vs the reeds
Fencing
I taught my first fencing sessions this year, with girls ranging from seven to sixteen and group sizes ranging from six to thirty-six. I also taught it as one of the trainers at a county training day. Never been among the trainers before.
Archery
My teaching qualification expired this year so I renewed it in October and got 100% in the exam. The county outdoors advisor sent me a couple of requests and I taught at the county camp training weekend where a child wandered onto the range during the shoot. I also taught my first adults-only session with some guy off the TV and I’m still tempted to blog about it because that was a good day.
Swimming
I’ve swum 100 lengths every month (200 in June and October) and I’ve swum twice in the big Olympic pool in London, which is pretty amazing – it’s four times the size of my local pool. I’ve also done quite a lot of outdoor swimming in a local lido I didn’t know existed until May. In total, I swam the equivalent of the Channel and halfway back again – 23.5 miles, 1,514 standard lengths. That isn’t something I set out to achieve and taking a year isn’t exactly a brilliant rate but hey, did you swim the Channel and halfway back in 2019? I did.
Caving
Having failed to get a Ranger caving trip together, I went on my own. Well, not on my own. In a guided group with the Mendip Big Cheese followed by a fairly tame visit to Wookey Hole.
Cavers do it in rubber socks: a half-day in Goatchurch
Al Murray’s Great British Pub Quiz
I nearly forgot – I went to my first ever TV recording! It was in a former mill in east London, I was at the back in a very small seat and totally invisible when it was finally on TV six months later. I applied for a Mock the Week ticket but no luck there.
Festivals
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival doesn’t count here. I spent a day at the Larmer Tree Festival where I bought a sequinned jacket, watched an Australian band that was recommended (slightly less successfully) by the same person who recommended Gdańsk and waited for the comedy to start well after my bedtime. I went to three comedy festivals: in a pub, in a church, in a tent in London & in a tent in the middle of nowhere, all short evening things. I went home afterwards from the first, stayed in a student flat in west London after the second and third and camped in a very cold & wet field after the fourth. And they weren’t even in that order.
Getting rained on at the Larmer Tree
Spa day
I spent my birthday at a spa in the New Forest. I love it there so much that I’m going to make it an annual event. Not necessarily on or even around my birthday. Actually, I had two spa days because my sister was using up her holiday allowance before March so we went to one in Christchurch near the beginning on the year and I had a hot stone massage, which was more painful than I expected.
Scifi Ball
I went to the Scifi Ball! It turns out Robert Duncan McNeill is really nice, Andrew-Lee Potts is also really nice and I met Gigi Edgley!!!! That’s Chiana from Farscape and I’ve wanted to see her since I was about fourteen. She likes that I spin poi because of her.
Other events
- I saw and attended the scene of an eleven-year-old girl running out into the road and being hit by a car. She was fine. Bruises and abject contrition.
- Mentor training. It hasn’t come to anything but I did the basic training to be a Girlguiding adult leadership qualification mentor. Need to get in touch with the county adult support team.
- I went to Guide camp! One of their leaders temporarily paralysed herself brushing her hair four days before camp so I went in her place. It’s so nice to go to an ordinary properly-organised camp with – and this is the important bit – someone else in charge.
- I bought a heated jacket. I’ll review it when I get back from cold snowy Switzerland.
Thanks for reading my blog if you did in 2019. It’s had nice figures this year and I’m looking forward to seeing them even higher next year.