Banned from the Co-op

If my father taught me nothing else it was to make the best of what life serves you.   No matter where you are you can have a bit of fun.

In the 70s we had nylon clothes and Marks and Spencers had nylon carpets and low shelves edged with metal rails. My mother liked to shop at M&S, for endless hours.  If we shuffled our feet around the carpets and the touched the metal you could make a static spark.  Great.  BUT if you shuffled your feet around the carpets and then touched your siblings ear it really really hurt them. FANTASTIC. Hours of sibling warfare and endless fun.

The local co-op had wide aisles and trollies with the bar on the back.  If you got up a good speed you could make it to the end of the aisle standing on the back and with a lean, get a full spin in on the end.  With Dad in one aisle and me in the other you could have a complete race to the death for the bargain on the end of the shelving.  The manager did not have the same competive spirit for the potato dash.  Finally one sad Thursday lunchtime we were asked to refrain.  I don't have an ounce of guilt and it still makes me giggle.

I've taught my daughter much the same, I was always happy to sit her in the trolley seat and spin her until she was squealing. We have enjoyed setting the alarms on all the clocks in Toys-r-us.

I still love to sneak up behind her no matter where we are and scare the willies out of her.  Again, it comes from my father, time and time again I would be washing up looking out of the kitchen window and he would crawl round and jump up at the window with his false teeth out, I never got used to it but still found it funny (after I'd calmed down) .

So I can totally relate to this guy.  I so want to hide in the clothes racks and  yell 'pick me, pick me'..and those of you that know me well, know I would do it too.











But beyond all things funny, just recently, I have read this so many times and it still hasn't stopped making me laugh.   If you like cats try Missing Missy.

Read more...

Frustration and Reward

Sometimes I  think 'why do I do this?'

I'd had a night of limited sleep because of back pain, been to the hospital, straight onto work, straight to a school concert.  I had to leave the concert early (something I was really unhappy about as it was a slide show of the Germany tour COG had just been on) to get to my Rangers meeting.

Most of the Rangers are positive, appreciative girls.  A couple are 'exactly the type of girls Guiding is there to help' (also known as a pain in the arse).  I get no respect from them, they talk over me, are dismissive of what I say, yawn, sigh, talk and correct anything that I try to do. 

"This is a rubbish old groundsheet"
"No, it's a new one I bought at the weekend and I need some of you to pay some subs so I can claim the money back!"
"HAAAAA" (sarcastic tone) "someone's drawn all over it"
"Yes, that was me, I spent an hour gridding it up so you didn't have to"

She sat in a chair and turned her back to me as the rest of us got on with the games, but despite wanting to be surly, and despite her really wanting to wind me up (it's her favourite pastime I'm sure), she was slowly sucked into it.

Rangers are great, I set them off on a battleship type experience but one introduced a scoring system which took it up a notch.  By the end of the evening they had turned the gridded groundsheet into a full blown game of BlockBusters, totally self-developed, self managed and run.

I was simply enjoying myself with them and even Miss Surly looked happy for a while. 

She sloped off at the end with no goodbye, just 'that look'.

Bless teenagers, you really have to catch them out sometimes to know they are getting something out of it.  But when you do, it's a great reward.

Read more...

How to teach a child to tell the time.

This week's Gallery is Hands:

I'm going to share with you a truly rubbish picture but there is a reason. That black line at the top is the hand of a clock. Part of my kitchen was given over to time telling, a pair of clock hands a metre in size and a plethitude of stickers. They had the twelve numbers on. They had all the words like 'half past', 'twenty five past', 'quarter to' 'o'clock' etc. They also had 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 etc.

If you are interested it is the Little Big Time clock, but that's a by-the-by, the point is that children learn if it is fun and different.  For a while my whole house was 'labelled'. Can you see the word 'light' under the light switch and the colours written in their appropriate colours.  On her bed was a label 'bed', on a wall somewhere was the label 'wall' - it was endless, when she started to write I let her do her own labels, it was not pretty but hey, children are only lent to us, blink and they have grown up and left home and then you shop at the White Company!

So I would often say something like "we need to leave at quarter past, where will the big hand be?  Can you keep an eye on the time for me and tell me when we have to go?" or "the cakes are ready in 10 minutes, do you know where the hand will be?"   You need to be doing this regularly, talking through it and applying it as a part of other things that are happening - not a 'today we are going to learn to tell the time'.

I've struggled to find a photo of it because she was telling the time properly very young (pre-digital camera) and my wall became a school art gallery instead!

She now is so teen-clever (in her opinion) that she can live her life by the procrastinators clock.

Why do something in plenty of time when you can run around in a panic at the last minute shouting about lost homework, or needing a pack-up and how she has to do everything around here and don't forget about how unfair everything in her life is right now.

Pass me the patience bucket - I think I need it again. 

Read more...

This Green and Pleasant Land

Sometimes the greens just seem greener than green.

Even the wind turbine disappears into the landscape.

What at first appears to be flowers in the hedgerow from a distance...

Turns out to be the flowers for an 18 year old boy killed whilst driving here recently.

I finally got the buzzard.  I've seen it so many times and sometimes very close, but finally I had a camera in my hand.  Though not the one with the decent zoom.

Baa

Not a dark satanic mill in sight, just a lovely slice of England at it's best.

Read more...

Confidence and Courage for our children

I think I am using the word children loosely here as I am talking about Young Adult Leaders, perhaps 16+. But I also think that whilst they are mature (mostly), responsible (mainly) and fantastic (always) people they aren't fully mature adults. They are still growing, finding out who they are, forming their paths in life.

I know life is a permanent road of self development but this age group should still be recognised as a time in life where good support and opportunity will shape the people they become.


At 18 they count towards the all important  headcount (child to adult ratios) but they are still learning.  Even though they are often qualified, experience still needs to be gained.  Sometimes they need to be reminded of the 'safety assessment' that comes automatically to most mothers who have become skilled in the 'mind your head, there's a sharp thing, hot thing, pointy thing' from first baby age.  But mostly they impress me and don't. "stand back from the yellow line" comes the sensible chirp of the 18 year old and it sounds so much sweeter than the 40 year old's "stand back" bark.   The younger girls relate better to the younger leaders, and that increases their enjoyment.



Our Young Leaders and Guides ring fencing the brownies,
 and then the  Adult Leaders ring fencing them! 

So would the two 18 year olds be capable of taking 7 year olds to London alone?  Oh, they'd have all survived it but it would have been stressful for them.  And in the same way I would not want to go without a few younger leaders who take the physical strain off the older ones as their legs can do so many more toilet trips!

But we place great trust in our Young Adult Leaders, we know they are capable of being capable but what we do is let them see that they are capable of being capable.  And this builds their confidence and courage.  They now know they are capable of herding cats (trust me if you've ever tried to move large groups of young children across cities you'll understand) and in the future they will take the lead, they will walk into their first classroom as a teacher with head held high, or will face an interview panel knowing they didn't lose a child amongst 250,000 others!  It will make a difference.

In the way you allow your toddler to jump manically around a soft play barn and they learn about how to control their body so when they start doing PE at school they aren't so scared, we need to remember that we can do the same thing for our tweens, teens and young adults.

Instilling confidence in them for the future.  If they can achieve that challenge for today they will feel capable, confident and have courage to do more.  And that 'more' is their future.

Let your toddler spread their own butter today, let your preschooler put on their own shoes (yes it's a bore waiting as they struggle!), let your tween walk to school (in safe boundaries, in prearranged groups, safe routes etc), let your teen catch a bus alone. 

In Guiding terms this turns into let Rainbows choose their own colours (even if the Queen gets a green face), let Brownies actually carry the cups of tea (have a cloth ready),   Guides are fantastic at helping little Rainbows mark bingo cards (and they love doing it even though it's not cool to admit to it),  Older Guides make great sheep dogs for herding brownies,  Rangers are capable of entertaining everybody to break up waiting boredom and trust those 18 year olds to amaze you with their leadership skills. 

Read more...

When faith carries the pain

It was the funeral for my friend. He was an enormous part of our church and his funeral was testimony to that.

There was a Requiem Mass the evening before. The incense was the same as they use at Walsingham which always makes me feel close to God. I also love it when lots of Priests do the consecration, it carries such energy and at this mass there were nine.

The funeral was entirely Protestant Catholic. 5 beautiful hymns, readings and of course speaking about my friend, committal and burial in the church yard.

It all felt so calming, so healing, soothing, closure. In fact my friend was such a huge part of any ordinary service that it didn't feel like he was missing at all, it felt like he was there with us.

Of course there are tears and hugs but it's like we all knew his ultimate beliefs would have taken him through death without fear. His poor widow, married for over 50 years, is one of the most loving, giving people I know, she will always be strengthened by her faith.  It almost felt like their (him and his wife's) cloak of love and gentleness was still supporting us.

At the wake a very distressed and weeping lady came over and spoke about how she had found the service hard. She said was wasn't the religious sort and people like her didn't want to hear that sort of thing. She was in great distress about our friends passing. I thought it was a shame that she couldn't see the comfort so many of us had there knowing that our friend's faith will have supported him through death and supports us now to deal with his passing. Faith was carrying us for a while.

I simply said at the appropriate moment as she moaned about religion 'well, we all can feel and believe different things'. I so wanted to tell her how comforted I felt, how important the service content would have been to him, how it was just as he and his wife planned it.  It's really hard to say anything about religion without sounding either like you are preaching, trying to convert or just downright sanctimonious and I'm generally rubbish at explaining myself well at the best of times, so I stayed quiet, nodding at the appropriate moments and giving sympathetic looks.

I know so many of you that read regularly don't do religion. I know this post will have a few of you sighing at me but I needed to say out loud how important my faith has been to me over the past few days and how it is the main stay of my life. I am a better person for it and so often the really beautiful (that's the beauty on the inside) that I meet are Spiritual in some way. Maybe not a faith in 'my God', but a calmness of love, honesty, integrity...I'm not sure I know how to describe it.

As far as my experience at the funeral goes it would be obvious for me now to turn to Footsteps in the Sand  but that is about my God. I started to think about If but really nothing describes it better for me really than Desiderata

Go placidly amidst the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its shams, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

Read more...

Props and Well-Being

When I'm out and about walking alone I prefer not to see anyone.  I always get a general sense of unease if a man is walking the same paths. But if the chap has a pair of binoculars, or a map and stout walking boots, perhaps a dog or a camera then I'm perfectly happy.  It's just if he has no clear purpose I feel uncomfortable.  And yet I carry no props myself.  Today I stopped to talk to a guy photographing birds.  He was mainly talking about the number of snakes he's caught in the area recently (yes caught, not just seen) and also I learnt about tree felling and why the patterns are carved into the stumps.  It was an interesting 20 minutes and I learnt so much, but without his camera in hand I would have scurried past him.

I still don't get why cows are so dumb.











COG returned home from 5 days in Germany on a musical tour. I am a firm believer in the importance of residential trips for children but as a mum I still worry. It was the long overnight return coach journey that held that knot in my stomach for a while.  She was home in the morning but she hardly spoke about it all day.  In the evening we went for a walk across the fields and out it all poured. She had a wonderful time. They played in a Schloss and in an open air bandstand amongst other places.

She had a fantastic time.  Given the gel of the music between them all and the enthusiasm and brilliance of the particular teachers that went I suspect she'll not have another this special, but who knows.

It gets harder to know what to give teachers to say thank you and I recall one teacher telling me that you can rarely go wrong with alcohol so I popped this note with an appropriate amount of wine buying money into the medical forms to be found by them once they were on their way.  They really appreciated it and it made them laugh. 

The day ended with a lovely sense of well being.

Read more...

A cousin is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost

This week's gallery is Family

A cousin is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost

Initially forced together but a bond that just seems to grow regardless of the time between get togethers.

A cousin is a ready-made friend for life.

A cousin is a sister you never had

Cousins are different beautiful flowers in the same garden

Cousins by blood - friends by choice

Read more...

How to Join GirlGuidingUK (Rainbows, Brownies , Guides, Senior Section )

Girlguiding UK is the largest youth organisation for girls in the UK today.  There are half a million young members aged four to 25.  And you'll also know from listening to me that there aren't always enough leaders to go around.

So if you would like your daughter to experience what at least 400,000 Rainbows, Brownies and Guides already enjoy then you probably need to get her name down somewhere as 'interested' fairly early.

That has just become easier.  There is now a central area on-line

www.girlguiding.org.uk/interested

Go to the 'register interest' box and follow the steps.  This will help you find the units closest to where you would like your daughter to attend, whether that's near home, school or Grandma's house.   

This is a new system so if for any reason you don't get a response back please ring your local County Office.  Simply type GirlGuidingUK and your county name into a search engine and you should find your way to a phone number.  They will be able to tell you who your local unit leader is and how to contact them.

If you're really lucky there won't be a waiting list, but I'll give you a top-tip, sometimes numbers are restricted because of the number of adults helping, not because of a maximum number of children in a unit, if you offer to become a regular helper you might find a door opens.

And once the Guiding door opens, oh, the places you can go.........

Awesome Just Doesn't Describe It

Downing Street and Buckingham Palace

Residential Trips are the Spring Boards to Life

Fun at Sleep Overs

Read more...

Queens Guides

We are so blessed in my County with a great commissioner so full of energy and motivation and she seems to inspire her leaders forever onwards.

Today we had as many Queens Guides as they could muster in our county at a big get together to celebrate their achievement.  There were 160 from many generations.  Some ladies there received their awards in the 1940s. (A couple of Queens Scouts sneaked in too but we won't mention that!)

It was a lovely afternoon of displays, tea, scones, bands, presentations and the UK Chief Guide Gill Slocombe came to join in and make some new presentations too.

The Queens Guide is a hard award to work for, it takes a lot of time, effort and dedication.  Every person there that had achieved it had every right to celebrate and feel very proud. 
I was never Queens Guide material in my teens and I'm not sure I could pass now but I am very fortunate in having some great Guiding blue blood friends who did get the award and one chose to take me along as her guest.

What today has done for me though is make me realise it is my responsibility as a Ranger Leader to make sure the girls coming through me now get the opportunity to tackle this award if they want to. I need to be able to support them though it and this will be quite a challenge in itself.  Being a Senior Section leader is a serious challenge compared to a Brownie Leader. I hope I am up to the job.

I look at leaders like our last County Commissioner and wish I had her grace and style. Our current County Commissioner is one of the most motivating people I have ever met, I am just totally in awe of these ladies and aspire to be half the leader they are.

I wonder if I'll finally have it wrapped just at the point where I'm herded off to Trefoil!

Read more...

Birds - the feathered variety

Because I've had to slow down again, I've had time:

I've 'known' a buzzard for a while.  He sits in a tree I walk past a lot, he watches me.  
But I've taken the time to stand and watch him.  He floats high above the wood, drawing great circles in the air.  He swoops and soars over the arable and then heads off high up the hill. 

Whilst watching the graceful bird soaring off, I realised I'd got a pair of yellow wagtails sat within arms reach on the wire fence.  Bold as brass.

And as I walked up past the old slate capped mud wall, 100s of years old, there was a housemartin sat staring at me.  They make me laugh, always so graceful in flight and dumpy no necked things when perched.

As I was walking down the canal, I heard a cat in distress.  I tried to place where it was  and realised it was the buzzard shouting about something from the other bank. 

I remember once running with a robin, now I walk with groups of sparrows, noisy packs of squabbling, flitting, puffs of brown.

I don't know whether it's because I have a particularly light foot or whether it's just because I am alone but wildlife just doesn't seem phased by my passing by.  The baby bunnies are silly little things that hop within metres of me and the birds just seem to stare at me and flit across my path.  The muntjac deer are still hopping high in and out of the rape seed.  Of course, they won't sit still for the camera and knowing my demographics I suspect any attempt to lift my jacket would be for the pocket contents but at least it's entertaining.


What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.      

Read more...

When we lose a friend, We die a little

I lost a friend this week.  A man who I adored. He reminded me a little of my father which made me adore him more.

I knew when I walked into church he would say "well here she is". Everytime.

I knew he would have prefered me to be there more often but like a loving parent, he was pleased to see me back. Everytime.

He taught me how to toll the bell.  How not to get the 'double ding'.  I think he considered me his bell pulling failure, my timing truly rubbish.  He tolled the bell.  Everytime.

All, I've had going round and round in my head this week is : Who'll toll the bell? (I said the bull, because I can pull, I'll toll the bell).

He was my Walsingham companion.  I loved how he didn't go to Rosary, he had Saturday afternoon with the papers.  He taught me it is ok not to be pious all the time, to sometimes be yourself, I took it a step too far and chose not to do the Sunday morning mass at the village church.  I can still hear him say "where's our girl then".

Who will organise the coach?  Who will set up the darts night?  Who will run the harvest supper?  Oh, someone will,  someone will fill the hole.

But the husband, the father, the grandfather, the friend.....a hole.

Who will say "Well here she is" : no one now, never.

Read more...

Microsdiscectomy Post Operative Relapse 2 (week 18)

CFC5Q2PCUU8B

It's been a hard week. I was fine whilst I was in London, very very careful, and I rested well leading up to it. The problems started after I returned.

The moment I returned from London, I had to immediately bake a cake ready for camp the next day (I had tried to explain to the Guide Guiders I was struggling - they do not listen), so no rest  afterwards. I had to help daughter carry her camp stuff and drive her there, then I was dispatched to buy a bag of potatoes by the Guide Guiders..more driving and more weight to carry. The next day was work and because I'm time short, no lunch break, so no walk. Straight onto a joint units campfire where I was bending and stretching to run bingo (because of the rain) and moved a coat rack to get to a cleaning cupboard to help clear up Rainbow vomit.  Work without a walk break again (because my break was driving HWMBO to the train station), a long drive to a tennis match where I stood/sat cold for 3 hours plus with  HWMBO away (as he tends to be this time of year) I'm doing the jobs I would try to nag him to do normally - like pull out the bins.   Add into the mix having to walk up a house to drop off a very necessary thing (because I was in too much pain to drive) and trying to help daughter pack a suitcase for her next residential trip.

The final result of the gradually encroaching stiffness and pain was being unable to move by Sunday lunchtime.  I literally was grabbing at the walls to try to straighten up whilst crying in pain.  Monday was the same.  I called in sick to work (which they will be thoroughly unimpressed with) and iced lots.  I resorted to the emergency sore back exercises I used last time I got stuck, switching between heat packs and ice packs.  But even trying to get to the freezer or microwave was an epic painful journey.

I've been taking co-codamol which makes me feel very dopey on top of the nortriptyline I take (for neuralgia) but I just couldn't stand the debilitating pain any longer.  The co-codamol took the edge off my back pain but I still had an impending sense of herniation doom as the pains slowly crept down my useless leg and the muscles spasmed continually.

Yesterday I woke up a little less pained and more able to move, after lying down until lunchtime, I went out for a very slow 3km walk on flat soft ground. But trying to sit on my kneeling stool for longer than 10 minutes was next to impossible.

Today I'm stiffer and my leg hurts but the back pain is still considerably better.  Shoes and socks are an issue again but I'm thinking some stretching might help that and another walk has helped my back to feel better, but left the leg a bit sore.

I've been to the doctor who has signed me off for 2 weeks, they really don't mess about with this, they know that plenty of rest and gentle exercise is what's going to sort it.  I don't think I'll need 2 weeks off though.  Quite amazing how I can go from excruciating unable to move pain to walking again in 3 days. 

I think it's really important for everyone else around me to realise I'm only 4 months out of major back surgery.  The Guide Guiders have a habit of not taking no for an answer from me at anytime but even HWMBO asked me on the phone on Monday if I was at work - errr hello, I can't actually move.

Whilst I wouldn't wish the pain on anyone I do sometimes wish the people who expect so much of me could feel it just for 5 minutes.  It is worse than labour pains, it is so bad I imagine smashing my leg with a hammer just to break away the pain. 


I'm sure this is just another temporary relapse but life has to come down to a pace my body can cope with.  My wiseoldowl has given me a break from Brownies for the rest of the term, but the other Ranger leader is now on holiday so that is all mine for a few weeks.  There is also a multitude of stuff happening at home that, as always, is left in my hands.

The vicar collared me at a Church Jubilee Parade about going on the Youth Pilgrimage Camp as the female leader with the words "you won't have to do anything other than just be there" - yeah, right! I was still yelling after him "I haven't said yes", as he went away nodding and smiling, saying "that's good then".

How the bloody hell do you say NO and people actually hear you? 

To add insult to the injury, my private health insurance have decided they aren't paying for me to see the consultant anymore.  Clearly they, like me, believe I should be fixed by now too.  I do hope that insurance underwriters are the first with their backs up against the wall when the revolution comes.

Ahhhh, I'm just grumping now, because I was feeling better and I've had a set back.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Read more...

The boy who cried bully

Well the Fearne Cotton that cried Bully actually.

I read about a twitter exchange between Fearne Cotton and ANother:

ANO "You were pretty rubbish on the Pageant day, love"
FC     "Right, this is what I am talking about. YOU=bully. Take a look at yourself. I have been working non-stop for 15 years thank you"

I wouldn't call this bullying and I think it's about time the world started to grow up on this one.  ANO might be called rude, inconsiderate, insensitive or unkind but on the back of one critical comment I wouldn't call him a bully.

There is a trend to call anyone who offers a critical opinion a bully.  I don't think that does us any favours in the quest to highlight bullying and drive it out into the open as unacceptable behaviour.

We are becoming immune to the word, it gets thrown around so much it starts to mean nothing.  But the consequences of real bullying are soul destroying and evil.

Fearne may well have been working for 15 years but I wouldn't hold the jubilee coverage as a candle to her career.  To be quite frank I thought the BBC did a pretty poor job with it and Fearne didn't do anything to offset the balance of crapness.

She also is quoted as saying  "I’m from a working-class family and have worked hard to get to where I am today. Others will just sit and do nothing but judge.”  Hmmmmm, is she saying she deserves to be cut more slack because she is from a working class background or that people not from that class don't have to work as hard to achieve?  I don't believe either is true.

Wikipedia describes bullying as "a form of aggressive behaviour manifested by the use of force or coercion to affect others, particularly when the behaviour is habitual and involves an imbalance of power. It can include verbal harassment, physical assault or coercion and may be directed repeatedly towards particular victims, perhaps on grounds of race, religion, gender, sexuality, or ability.^[2][3] The "imbalance of power" may be social power and/or physical power."

Fearne Cotton may have received a lot of tweets from different people commenting on her performance and this probably was very upsetting but 1 comment from 100 people is not the same as 100 comments from 1 person.  She is in the fortunate position of having worked hard for 15 years to get into a media spotlight and if she does a fabulous job I've sure many fans will tell her and if she does 'meh' I'm sure many people also let her know.  But one "well that was a let down" does not a bully make.  It makes a rude person who probably ought to internalise that thought or vote with the off button.

Please stop crying wolf world because there are too many real monster bullies out there hiding behind the false cries.


Photo of Fearne displaying one of her many talents : ombromanie

Read more...

Diamond Jubilee Youth Enclosure

I wanted to share with you the 'sheer luxury' of the Youth Enclosure we were in on the Mall for the Diamond Jubilee Procession.

We had to be there before 9am which meant a very early train, tube and walk but we made it.  Although we seemed to be one of the last groups in, there was still plenty of space for us to stand.  I did speak to a Guider from another group and appealed to her 'Guiding Spirit'  to allow our Brownies to stand in front of her and her other leaders, not her Brownies, they had room a plenty.   The guilt trip seemed to work just fine and our girls had a great view with the taller adults stood behind.  I felt it a shame that I needed to ask, and a Guider I was speaking to from Lincoln came and repeated a similar story to me later  (sort yourselves out Guiders - the girls come first).

The land sloped slightly and I was happy leaning up against a tree to rest my back a bit and watched it all happen from a little further back.

The area we were in was completely enclosed and ringed by Police the whole time. Proof of identity was required to get in.  We had our own loos, that were clean, with paper and hand wash and stayed that way the whole day.  We rarely queued for the loo and when we did, the police sent us a little further into an area the public were not allowed into to use their loos.  The Rainbows were making the most of the privilege with what seemed like as many toilet trips as they could possibly get away with!

We cheered the Queen on her way to the service.

And then sat and had a picnic whilst we listened to the service over the tannoy.  It was so good to have space to spread out into, to leave our places at the barrier and know that later we could just stroll back to it.  In contrast HWMBO was jammed in crowds at St Pauls unable to see or move whilst our girls sat and made crowns and did some colouring in.  The Beavers played football and the Scouts were climbing the trees!

Lots of bands marched past us, so many that we started to wonder if they were going round in circles and changing their hats around the corner.

To the side of us was Horse Guards Road and ceremonial soldiers were riding through there too, I think this was part of the Changing of the Guard.  The kids ran back and forth between the front and back of the enclosure with things happening on both sides.

We had a view of Horse Guards parade as the 60 gun salute happened, they had previously pulled the guns up the Mall.

And yet whilst all this was happening, some children just chose to play football!  If you look through this picture you will see the crowds further down the Mall stood forty deep.  Whereas we just left our bags piled up knowing they were relatively safe and stood around chatting, cheering and generally enjoying the moment.

We had a fantastic view of everything and even whilst we were waiting for the 'best bits' there was always something happening be it soldiers marching, police moving about, horses, bands, guns, yet more toilet trips (!)  The police cadets were used to look after us. Great training for them and I think the police knew they could trust us to behave.







 I think it is absolutely fantastic that someone decided the Youth Groups deserve this space.  Taking children in large groups to see the procession would have been an impossible mission for us without this and 1600 (ish) children and leaders got the experience of a lifetime.

I know I keep saying it, but sometimes I just can't believe our luck.

Read more...

Awesome just doesn't describe it

I've done quite a lot of things across the Jubilee but being at the front of a procession of 250,000 people probably was the best bit.

I'm not being facetious when I say probably either because behind this most incredible moment is another Guiding story of amazing parental trust and privilege.

On Tuesday we took a number of Brownies, Guides, Young Leaders and Young Adult Leaders to London.  We were so lucky to get special tickets to the private youth enclosure and spent a glorious day in London and I plan to do a couple of posts covering it as one would be just too long.

These pictures are lifted from the BBC as I don't have personal photos of the moment.















That big banner is ours.

I didn't take my own photos as my priority at the time was ensuring I went home with as many children as I left out with and given the crowd we were in, that meant hanging onto them for dear life.  We had a good briefing from the Police before we started the procession about exactly how they would control it and about what the crowd would do once the masses were allowed to join the youth groups.  I also had a conversation by phone with a very experienced Scout leader (he and others had travelled down with us to help out but hadn't tickets to go in the enclosure) who explained how to line up the girls into a block, surrounded by leaders so the crowds would at least run around us and not break up our group. And it worked out fine.

We were at the front, and stayed close to the front all the way down the Mall. As we walked up to the Victoria Memorial, all the people in the stands (from the previous nights concert) cheered and waved. I was so proud to be there, all of us in uniform, Guides and Scouts together.

A couple of the brownies with us had only just turned 7 and it was their first time in London.  But it's not just trust from the parents of the littlies, it's the parents of all of the children we took. 

What a massive privilege to be allowed to take them, to be trusted to keep them safe.  Of course we are trained to do it, we do risk assessments galore, we briefed, de-briefed, we labelled them, counted, double counted, then counted again.  We even had extra experienced adults with us to help with the journey on the tubes as we expected mayhem.

We gave those children an experience that they will never forget, something they will remember for ever which is great, it's what we aim to do, we call them 'Mountain Top Moments'

BUT those children allowed me to have an experience I will never forget, something I will remember for ever and that is the privilege of being a Guider.

Awesome.

Read more...

How to create a stand alone page on Blogger

If you want a permanent place on your blog for a 'Privacy and Cookie Policy',  an  ' About Me' page or  a 'Disclosure of Material Conections' then you need to use a page rather than a post.

Before making changes to your blog template please take a backup first and perhaps play around on a test blog if you are really unsure about what you are doing first.

Using the the new Blogger interface, this is the way to create a page:

Instead of posts, use the 'pages' link on the left hand side.  Then 'new page', 'blank page'

Now complete your page details just like it was a blog post.  Everything works just the same.   When you have finished, think about whether you want to accept comments or not. I don't on my 'policies'.

Once you have 'published' the page you will get a screen that asks you how you want to show it on your blog.  I choose 'don't show' - I'll show you what I do next - but have a play you might find the options there suit you just fine and then you are finished,  I find they mess up my template but that may not be the same for yours.  If it does you can come back to this screen and change it to don't show simply by clicking on the pages link on the left hand side.

 If you decide to show your page through a gadget on your blog (I'm about to show you how) you need the page url.  Just click on the page title from the 'pages' link and where it takes you to is your page,  copy the url at the top of your browser.

I show my pages through gadgets, my bar across the top of my blog has my 'About Me' page linked from it.  I use the link list gadget to do this.

In your layout screen either edit your link list or if you don't have that gadget then choose 'add gadget' from where you want it to go. And scroll down the gadgets to Linklist and click on the + sign. .

The 'new site url' is the url of your page.  The 'new site name' is  whatever you want people to see the title of it as on the link/bar/list e.g 'My Cookie Policy' or 'About Me'  Now click 'Add link'.   The arrows you see help you change the order of of your list.  Remember to 'save' to close the window you are in.

You might want to place a link to a page somewhere else on your blog.  You can do this with any type of link, it's the same as before, you just need the URL of whatever you want to link to.  So your page url is what you need in this case.

From your 'layout' screen, choose ' add gadget', the scroll down to 'html/java script' and click on the + sign.

The code you place in the Content box looks like this.  Just <a href="http://your/page/url">My Link Title</a> You can give it another Title if you like from the 'Title' box. Remember to save to exit.

Hope this help, if you have any questions I'll try to help and update this post with anything that isn't clear.

Remember your backups and perhaps play around with a test blog if you are really unsure about what you are doing first.

Read more...