Guide Camp

This year we did a joint camp with two other units to a small Scout owned site in Wells-Next-The-Sea. We took 23 Guides, 2 Young Leaders and 5 adult Leaders. We also had 3 adults, 2 of them othe Leaders, and their 2 children visit for the day. The camp was loosely pirate themed.

We had lots of fun making owls/parrots from pine cones.

 And lanterns out of tin cans (we had chilli for dinner and tinned fruit for desert on the first night so we had enough cans).  

We also made fire a lot and sang campfire songs. 6 Guides made their promise at a campfire. 

We went to the beach and let them loose in the shops in Wells-Next-The-Sea.  

Had some help with some first aid form a visiting student paramedic and a budding orthopaedic surgeon.  

The boat trip to see the seals was brilliant, we couldn’t have had better weather. Another Guide made her promise on the boat trip.  

 And we returned them all home safely although maybe a little pink.
 

Weekly Witterings #7

1. I was bad last week and missed a Weekly Witterings. In my defence I mostly spent the weekend on the sofa with a box of tissues feeling generally a bit rubbish.

2. Why are all Guide plays a bit strange? Is it just me that doesn’t get them and wonders what goes on in their heads? Oh and why does one of my .guides think potato mashers are cool? I do think they are all pretty great though, most of the time.

3. Really enjoyed the Great British Bake Off this year. Nancy really deserved to win in the end. Also enjoying the master class episodes.

4. Been doing some baking of my own today. Apple Danish pastries (cheated as out of a box), sausage roll and rhubarb and custard cakes with Lego Movie toppers. This was the special unikitty one for Fiona as it was her birthday.

Weekly Witterings #6

1. Why is it that when you get back to work after a holiday it only took ages a couple of hours for the holiday to seem a long time ago?

2. 10,000 + Guides, Senior Section and Leaders at Wembley Arena make a lot of noise when screaming, even with ear plugs in! Big Gig 2014 was great though and we successfully got 19 Guides, 1 YL and 3 Leaders home safe and happy.

3. Not liking the dark evenings 😦 Roll on next summer!

4. Was a lovely warm week, unseasonably so. On Friday we even sat in a pub beer garden for lunch. This was the view over the fields on my lunchtime walk.

Weekly Witterings #4

1. Guide camp went well. No rain all weekend and lots of happy Guides.

2. Cruises are great. Currently cruising around Italy on P&O’s Ventura, today we are in Naples and we (Mum, Dad and me) have been to Sorento. I love waking up in different places and generally feeling somewhat spoilt by lovely food etc.

3. This was the view from Mum and Dad’s balcony this morning just before we headed off for breakfast. It is Vesuvius and the

4. Poor little Lenny (my nephew puppy) has had the snip. He looks very sorry for himself in his cone of shame.

5. Still a few days left of my holiday. Looking forward to cruising into Venice.

Weekly Witterings #3

1. WordPress gets in a tizzy if you have posts with the same title so now these posts now have a number after them.

2. Made the Lakeland Rhubarb and Custard cakes. They are good!

3. Been getting ready for Guide camp (I am a Guide leader not sure if I have ever mentioned that before). So my kitchen looks like a bomb site from washing kit and finding things. Hoping for some nice weather!

4. This is what my kitchen looks like after the Guide camp Tesco food order arrives… Breakfast and lunch for 16 Guides, 1 YL and 3 Leaders for 2 days looks like a lot of food!

London and a wet weekend!

So what has Alli been up to you must all be asking as she hasn’t been updating this blog!

 

Well I have been pretty busy…

 

Last week I was in London on a .Net Best Practices and Design Patterns.  It was a really good course and I found it really interesting.  I have even put some of what I learnt into practice at work all ready!  Oh I am getting so geeky!  In the evenings my colleague and I walked to lots of places around London and found some good places to eat.  We particularly liked one restaurant we found in Great Queens Street which we went to twice, it was friendly, had a good atmosphere and the food was excellent! 

 

Then I went rushing off to a Guide camp site in Shedfield just outside Wickham to spend the weekend in the rain with 6 lovely Guides.  Despite the rain (which didn’t stop all day on Saturday) we all had a great time.  The Guides did Archery, Backwoods cooking and a scavenger hunt as well as making beaded dragonflies, butterflies and bead bracelets.  For those of you who don’t know what Backwoods cooking it is where you wrap things in foil and throw them in the embers of a fire to cook, they even made chocolate cake in a tin with tin foil on the top!  In the evening the camp fire became a sing song in the barn but it was still good fun.  Then on Sunday we basically spent most of the day taking tents down and tiding up but we did have a BBQ lunch which made the day a bit more interesting for the Guides.  The Guides were all great and went to sleep easily and got up and were keen to cook and help with things!

 

After all that I was very glad that I had taken Monday off work to recover and watched a few episodes from the 1^st series of House which I have on DVD.

Safe from Harm!

Last night I went on a Guiding training called “Safe From Harm”.  It was all about how to keep the children safe in the meeting, when we take them out and away and how to ensure that we as the leaders are not put into any situations where we may be at risk from accusations.  The most depressing part of the evening was when we were looking at how to react to a child that tells you that they are being abused and what to do.  We also looked at how to spot things that may mean a child is being abused.  Basically if we suspect anything or a child tells us anything the advice is to write everything down and remember to tell the child that they can tell us anything but we can’t promise to keep it a secret.  Thankfully these things are apparently quite rare but it is still worth knowing what the policy is and knowing who is there to help!