There we are in the blistering heat, a marquee up behind us. It’s taken us three or four attempts to figure out what shape the frame should be but it’s up. There’s me, most experienced camper of the lot and severely emetophobic First Aider. There’s Pixie, inexperienced camper doing her assessed camp for her camp … More Alice in Wonderland camp
You pick up a lot of skills as a Guide leader. Team work, leadership skills, First Aid, various outdoors abilities, admin, improvisation, children skills, public singing – and event planning. I was involved in my biggest event yet last weekend. I’ve planned multiple district events for 50-100 people, some of them all on my own … More Behind the scenes at a national Brownie event
Something very exciting happened two weeks ago. My Bronze DofE badge and certificate arrived in the post! For anyone who hasn’t encountered DofE, it’s the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, done in three levels (Bronze, Silver & Gold) and stereotypically involves two to five days of walking in the rain over inhospitable territory like Dartmoor. The … More DofE – as an adult!
Friday night was not optimal tent-pitching weather but there we were – me, three Rangers and four Guides, up to our ankles in mud, in pouring rain, putting up our tents in the dark. We’d arrived at 6pm at Girlguiding’s latest event, Sparkle & Ice, a winter survival camp happening simultaneously at three Training & … More Sparkle & Ice 2017: it turns out winter camp is cold
This week, I took my Rangers ice skating. It’s one of the things Girlguiding should be about – oh, not necessarily taking them ice skating, but doing fun things, having new opportunities and trying new activities. We spend far too much time in the meeting room where the girls are more interested in Snapchatting each … More We went ice skating!
Anglophones have a pretty bad – if mostly accurate – reputation for not learning languages. I don’t know about other Anglophone countries but here in the UK, when I was at school, everyone learnt French from at least secondary school and everyone had to take at least one language at GCSE and yet if you … More I am learning Norwegian!
I spent a couple of months earlier in the year unemployed and during that time, I got a bit into scrapbooking. I’d owned a scrapbook for at least five years and finally, I not only filled it, I had to order two sets of additional page protectors. I also discovered “scrapbooking on the road”. It’s … More Scrapbooking on the road
When Region announced that it was celebrating the Senior Section Spectacular at Alton Towers, I immediately decided I wanted to go. I’d never been to Alton Towers before and I probably never will again. It’s a five hour drive from home and I hate rollercoasters. But I do enjoy spectacular events and camping in unusual … More Senior Section Spectacular at Alton Towers
I’ve acquired a couple of new badges for my camp blanket lately and that’s because I went walking on Dartmoor. I went with Girlguiding and my region now does walking badges because they don’t want to be outdone by LaSER (London and South East Region) who started producing badges in 2014 and whose badge was … More Walking on Dartmoor in the sun and in the rain
Back in the good old days, you could hand your torn caving suit over to Dragon and they’d fix it for you. But that’s not an option in these post-Dragon days. So when I realised quite how extensive the tear in my suit was, I turned to the internet. “How to repair a caving suit” … More How to repair a caving suit
I Am A Polar Bear 