Rangers on a Killer Trail in London

My last batch of Rangers are now all about to go to university, I'd been saying for a long time I would take them to London to get some experience of the transport systems and just to give them a confidence boost.

Covid and life got in the way, so we were up to our final possible date we could all make it and the weather annouced 35C.  I really wondered how sensible travelling would be and reconsidered my risk assessment a number of times, if these girls had been younger I would have cancelled but they are old enough and few enough that we could be very flexible with the plans.  

I had asked a couple of my now ex rangers that live and work around London what they thought might be good and cheap, these girls had done the monopoly challenge with me years ago. They recommended a 'killer trail'.  

So armed with laminated cards, a heavy duty sun umbrella, more water than I felt happy carrying and the refill app off we went.  It was interesting that I was the only person I saw using an umbrella for sunshade - the one I use now is a silver reflective vented one. It's fantastic and created shade for the whole group at the right angle. 

Luck was on our side, the long hot summer meant a track fire which had upset all the trains, initially it was a worry we would be able to get there at all but our planned train started at our town rather than the big stations further up line so we got onto an on-time empty train and had a 'converted to standard' first class carriage - we played cards all the air conditioned way in.

 

The tube was hot, but most people had decided to stay away I think and it was quieter than usual even at peak times.

We did walked our way around the WestEnd killertrail (murdermystery type tour/quiz). I recommend them as a cheap way to fill a 3 hours. 

You are looking for clues on streets, statues etc to help you solve a mystery.

It's not particularly hard but it is a better focus than just walking around,

We stopped many times, just sitting in a shady area, we took advantage of different places to refill water bottles some were happy to do so, some took a little buttering up, but a uniform and a necker can take you a long way and with a lot of neck I even managed to get Greggs to fill our water bottles whilst we were stood next to a fridge of bottles selling water!

We did also buy water on the south bank but also got Pret to turn on the refill tap so we could do a double top up, buy & fill. 

An ice-cream stop sat on the steps near the Duke of York statue lasted nearly an hour, just cooling, chilling, chatting, they even starting to sing some camp songs and tourist took photos of us!! That is the beauty of an itinary with no time pressures at all and the flexibility of rangers in small groups.  

I’m pleased with how I led them,  which was my usual style of from behind. I let them get off at the wrong tube station, work that out, all get back on and have another go, gives them confidence to know it doesn’t matter. Showed them that it’s normal to have 300+ people waiting for platform information before the barrier opens and those pushing through don’t know something you don’t! How to get water bottle refills without buying it! And how to manage ‘broken’ tickets (after one Ranger kept her ticket in her phone case). It was interesting watching what worried different girls at different times.

I was a little worried about taking them on my own, I normally like to have a second leader around to bounce off.  But actually it was a boost to my confidence in my leader skills too. Leading from behind is sometimes very swan like, you look calm and all knowing whilst your mind is constantly doing overtime! 

We did the trail, we had a bit of fun in M&M world, we had a wander to Horseguards and Downing Street, passed Westminster, a sit on the Southbank soaking up the buskers and summer atmosphere.

Before heading  home in a non-airconditioned train. Which was an opportunity to show them how long a bottle of frozen water can stay frozen in an isulated cover, how putting it on the back of your neck is an instant cooler - we passed it around the group each having a go more than once!

Another grand day out.

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Maze 2022

This year's maze design was a crown to mark the platinum Jubilee.

Cog was working so it was just HWMBO and me again this year.

We always walk every inch of path, marking it off with a highlighter pen as we go. We use the map without clues but that still has number baords shown, I've asked the owner if next year she will produce a completely unmarked map.

It was a very hot day, pushing 30C. I'm not as fit at the moment as I used to be and I found it hard going.

We were a bit early in the season for an abundance of sunflowers but there were enough to keep the bees busy.

The great thing about mazes like this is that they really 'swallow' up crowds.  The car park was rammed but you rarely get into crowds in the paths.

There were many parts that were hardly walked at all.  

As always my tips for visiting a maize maze are:

Call in advance, they will tell you how muddy (or not) the paths are and if you need wellies, trainers or sandals. And then stick all 3 in the boot anyway!

Take a small backpack, with waterproofs, hats, and bottles of water.

Take cash - ours is on a farm and this year for the first time they accepted cards but I still recommend taking cash or be prepared to drive a long way to find an ATM!

Take a couple of pens - they will charge you for a pen.

If you want to make it easier, take a highlighter pen and mark off the paths as you go round.

Ours is totally wheel chair and pushchair accessible unless it was really really muddy. They have lots of viewing platforms and helpers, you won't lose your children (for long) no matter how hard you try and they have quick exits so you can get out to the loos and then go back in again without having to walk a million miles.

At ours there are lots of other games and mini mazes to do as well, picnic tables and plenty of parking. It is an easy, fun day out and I thoroughly recommend it for a family few hours of togetherness and exercise....oh yes and yelling at each other debating about which way to go!


As maze post tradition now dictates, here is my maze gallery:

2021  - the Phoenix rising from the Flames after Covid, Me and HWMBO

End of season height, coats and lots of sunflowers

2020 - Not open because of Covid lockdowns.

2019 -  Astronaut to mark 50 years since the first man on the moon.

HWMBO & I went

2018 - NHS Ambulance theme with Australian friends and Cog not long out of intensive care.





















2017 - A hot year and a good crop
























2016  was a bad year all round but points to us for still making the effort to go.

2015

This was a good crop year and a fun afternoon with friends.

2014
The weather couldn't make up it's mind, warm, sunny and wet at different points of the walk.

















2013

This was the best crop they'd had in a long time.





2012
Dreadful crop year. But the sunflowers meant it was still well worth seeing.














2011

The owners said it was a bad crop year. It seemed pretty tall to me, but maybe it's about the size and number of the maize itself, not just the height of the plant.










2010

The height was there but the plants were rather lame








2009




A wet year I think as we are wearing wellies.









2008   Again not too bad a height.




















2007
Looks like another bad year.
















Cog  always reminds me that 2006 was the 'alien' year and she went with her father, not me.








2005

. 

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Angel in Blue - Girlguiding reading for a funeral

  ANGEL IN BLUE

Having left mortal earth, I passed through Heaven's Gate
And while anxiously awaiting the outcome of my fate
I walked among the Angels all robed in purest white
Whereupon I saw one figure which cast a blue-ish light.

She sat upon a misty cloud, a harp held to her breast
In a flowing, blowing gown of blue unlike all the rest;
I asked what great deed she'd done to earn the special hue
That gave her colour where others had none, or maybe just a few.

She said "On earth I sought no fame, fortune was not my goal,
I shunned the power of politics and worked without a toll;

I spent my time with children, helping them to grow

For as you reap in life, so must you learn to sow."

"You see...", she said, "the dividends while growing up I'd share,
I returned where many others were too self-involved to care.
Girl Guiding was my choice of roads to follow in my quest

For among the girls I found a love deeper than the rest."

"A teacher was I, my work was hard, I had no diploma or pay

But where family and institutions failed, I help show them the way.
The lessons I taught were obscure and difficult to see

For they didn't have names like 'spelling', 'maths' or 'geometry'."

"They were lessons in life delivered through guided experience

And they taught such things as character, spirit, and confidence.
Though on earth my life was blessed, it's even more so today

For when I look down I see my work,  as my girls show others the way."

"On earth Girl Guiding taught me to leave things better than before
And the same applies to that mortal place where life never was a bore.
Now having lived by that Girl Guiding rule in every earthly endeavour

I have become an Angel in Blue and shall be a Girl Guide forever."

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