Thinking Day

(Yes, so I'm a bit behind because Thinking Day is 22nd February but I've only just managed to get my old phone working which means that I can include the photo as well)

Thinking Day is a day for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts all around the world to remember that they're part of a worldwide organisation and to think of their sister Guides and Scouts in all the other countries.  The WAGGGS page has all the history of it.

We tend to celebrate Thinking Day with an activity afternoon followed by a short time of reflection when we renew our promises and collect the Thinking Day pennies (money that generally goes to either the World Thinking Day fund or the Guide Friendship Fund to be distributed to units that are in need.  This year was no exception.  As an easy starting point, most of the activities were culled in some way or another from Adventure 100 (Yes, there is more to our Centenary than Adventure 100 but my enormous Centenary Adventure was to be one of the Everest 100 last year so my savings are pretty much wiped out, much as I'd love to go on the Tall Ships or go somewhere exotic again.  Most of Dorset's big Centenary events haven't yet happened).

Leaving aside the sticky-sticky mess I got into while trying to create a race-track for marbles to run along (it's very easy to make play dough at home but it can get sticky if you try to bag it up before it's cool), about the only other thing I got involved with was contributing my Thinking Day pennies to the giant "100" shape.

Our day trip to Portsmouth

Well, I survived the trip.  We had the same number of Brownies, Guides and leaders at the end (39 and 6) that we had at the beginning so that was good!  We met at the train station at about 8am, managed to take over the quiet carriage by accident, survived two changes at Southampton Central and at Fratton and finally stumbled off the train at Portsmouth Harbour about two hours after the first call of "When do we have lunch?"!

We split into two groups to wander around the Historic Dockyard and all the ships.  Our first stop was HMS Warrior, the first iron hulled, armoured ship in the British Navy.

We wandered around the decks and up and down some very steep ladders. We saw all the cannon and hammocks and guns and engines and stuff and also managed to miss the one big downpour of the day due to being below decks at the time.

After HMS Warrior, we stepped back in time 100 years and went to see HMS Victory.  Personally, I think HMS Victory is set up better to wander around yourself.  There's a lot more information boards and the route through the ship is a lot more interesting.  A word of warning though...if you're more than about 5' 5", you are going to have problems because the ceilings and beams are so low! We nearly didn't escape from the ship because the girls found the shop at the end.  However, by this time, it was 12.50pm so it was very easy to distract the girls from shopping by telling them that it was lunchtime.

The other group met up with us at lunchtime (when I managed to get a much-needed cup of coffee from the cafe) and we all took a few minutes to sit and eat lunch together.

The next stop was Action Stations.  None of us were quite sure what Action Stations was but it turned out to be great fun!  Upstairs was a hands-on science type area with things like "see how a submarine's propeller works" and "build a giant FM radio".  Downstairs was a helicopter simulator, a couple of climbing walls and various other bits that they all enjoyed.  I highly recommend it as a way of breaking up a day that might otherwise be very heavy on the museum-type stuff.  It is fairly "look how cool being in today's Navy is!!!", which might be an issue if you're a strong pacifist.  All of our group seemed to enjoy it though.

(It's now quite a few weeks later and I'm failing to remember what we did next)

......

Ah yes, we went to the shop in the Mary Rose museum ("Is that all your money?", "Are you sure you want to spend all that much?  There is another shop at the Spinnaker Tower as well you know!?" etc, etc, etc) and then did the harbour cruise.  HMS Ark Royal was in dock and I was surprised by how small she is.  I think I'd imagined her to be similar in size to the current MV Oriana, one of  P&O Cruises ships that is often based in Southampton.

We got off the harbour cruise boat at Gunwharf Quay (after the girls had attempted to spend yet more money on sweets and Pringles at the bar on the boat, most of the adults managed to get a coffee at the same time) and made our way to the tower.  We appeared to scare a group of men who were visiting at the same time but they were lucky and didn't have to go up in the same lift as us.  As soon as we got to the first level, the girls all took their shoes off to go and stand on the glass part of the floor.  Most of us adults were standing around the edges until the girls started thinking that we were all too chicken to walk across the glass.  They were wrong.

We even managed to get all of us on the glass for a group photo which I strongly suspect will end up in the county newsletter or something.

One brief visit to the shop and a brisk walk back to the station and we were finally on our way home.  Yet again, the first carriage we picked was the Quiet Carriage, so we moved on through another couple of carriages to find some space.  Somehow we made it all back in one piece, without needing a first aid kit, with very few tears and with none of the girls losing anything (I haven't seen my sunglasses since the journey home but that's now up to SW Trains Lost Property office).

All in all, a good day although very tiring!

Points gained
Look up High - Top of the tower - Visit a well-known tower, 10 points
Wet and Wild - Sail Away - a river cruise, 10 points
Moving - Making tracks - take a trip on a train, 10 points


Other points which we'll only count if absolutely necessary...
Share the adventure - your own adventure, 20 points

The Great Brownie Takeover

Tomorrow, we're off to take over a tower. More details to follow after we've been there.  This is the bag I'm taking with all of my stuff and the first aid kit, sponge balls, pencils, notepaper and everything else that seemed like a good idea at the time. Many thanks to the members of the Guiding UK mailing list for reminding me of what I'd forgotten!  In other news, I have a new phone after my old one died.  I chose not to spend very much money on it and now miss having a decent camera on my phone and being able to send real emails from it.  I haven't yet managed to get Blogger to accept my phone number to let me send MMSs.

A slight technical hitch

I have all sorts of photos that I've taken over the past few weeks that I can write posts about.  However, I'm slightly stuck because I took them all on my mobile which died a couple of weeks ago.  Somewhere in this world I have the cable which will connect it to my computer and then all I can to is cross fingers and hope that they all upload themselves without me pressing all the buttons that won't work!

Forget about the girls....

....these are my challenges for the next year

Look up High - Climbing, growing and getting to the top
1. Top of the Tower
Visit a well-known tower (10 points) Not done yet  but there’s the potential of a day trip somewhere fairly local at some point in the spring (I'll tell you all about it when we've been there!)
2. Upside Down
Ride a rollercoaster (10 points)  We’ve got a County trip to Paultons Park in May so I have no doubt that I’ll be going on a rollercoaster then
4. Grow Tall
Watch something grow. Plant a herb or sensory garden (15 points) I've been meaning to plant a herb garden for ages so perhaps this'll give me an incentive

7. Jump Up High

Play jumping beans, hopscotch, leapfrog or kangaroos (5 points)  Played hopscotch and “elastic” games with the Brownies

In the Dark - Adventures, sleeping and exploring at night time.

5. Disco Music - Music and sounds are amplified in the dark

Carols (5 points)  Carols by candlelight

7. Play in the Dark

Wide games in the dark (5 points)  Dark meeting at Christmas

Wet & Wild - Getting around on water and getting wet.
4. In the Surf
Kayaking (10 points)  Get back into kayaking
                   

What a Performance! - Singing, dancing, acting and mime.

4. Live Theatre

Go and see ‘live theatre’. (10 points)  Radio play of HHGttG at Hitchcon09, various local shows, Pantomime, anything else I end up seeing

Look to the Future - What will you do and be?
1. Grow Guiding.  This of ways to recruit new members into our movement.
Use materials available from Girlguiding UK’s Project 50K and display in your local area.(5 points)  okay then.......
10. What Next for Me ?
Find about employment opportunities in your local area, or what the entry requirements are for the local college. (10 points)  OU course?

Ice Cool - Freezing activities and being chilled out.
6. Ice
An adventure on ice – skating, skiing or sledging (5 points) 

8. Wrap up Warm

Try knitting a scarf to keep warm (5 points)  Knitting is not my thing but I do consider teaching the Brownies to knot fleece together into scarves as being worth 5 points!

Share the Adventure - Taking part in Centenary adventures.

1. Centenary Launch Parties (10 points)  done

10. Finale
At 20:10 on 20 October 2010 all members will be meeting to kick off the next 100 years of guiding! We will also be renewing our Promise, so be part of this exciting moment! (10 points)

Moving - All kinds of travel explored.
2. Bike Rides
 Know how to mend a puncture and undertake a cycling proficiency course. (10 points) show Brownies how to look after their bikes?
5. How Fast Can You Go ?
Quad biking (10 points)

Wacky 100 - Crazy ideas around the number 100.
3. 100 Miles
Travel 100 miles and keep a record of all you see on the way (20 points)   sounds fun!  Ooh, how about walking 100 miles of the SW coast path over the summer?
10. Centenary Moments
Perhaps make a scrapbook or stick them in the Greatest Adventure (20 points)  Centenary blog

Flashback - Looking at the decades.
9. 1990s: WWW

Use technology to tell people about guiding (20 points) Create a unit webpage

I haven't forgotten about this blog!

Honestly I haven't.  We went all Christmassy for a few weeks while we made stuff for the bazaar and then we had a party in the dark.  Oh yeah, that was an Adventure 100 challenge, wasn't it?

For reasons that I'm still mildly unsure of, my fiancé had a tube full of those glow necklace things and I wanted a decent excuse to wear my sparkly neckerchief (it's got flashing LEDs!) so the last Brownie meeting of the term was a "dark meeting".  After issuing all the girls and leaders with necklaces and giving them a brief rundown of the rules, we got on with the rest of the meeting.  Games in the dark - check!  Brownie Ring in the dark - check!  Register in the dark - ummm, perhaps not.  The girls were pretty much in the dark but the lights above the leaders' table were still on so I went back there to call the names.  Overall, it wasn't that dark.  We left the lights on on the Christmas tree and the hall has skylights so there was quite a lot of light coming in from outside.  We played musical statues and only stopped when the lights came on, not when the music stopped which was absolutely nothing to do with there being no power sockets for the stereo within arm's reach of the light switches.  I then hid a ticking clock and my iPod which was playing very quietly around the room and the girls had to find them.  I think the Brownies enjoyed the meeting but after Pack Holiday the previous weekend, I was still shattered so it was a lot of work to keep the girls from running riot during the meeting.