Rain, boats, magic giraffes... just another typical Friday, really... ish...
I have had an immensely fine day... I met rosie_rah at Victoria at about half eleven and we bopped along to Guide Headquarters together. Necessary purchases were made & there was trying on of various comedy garments. I was a bit worried by the fact the Rainbow hooded top fitted so well. And indeed that the girl who was aiding and abetting us in our mockery said she thought it suited me... Rosie looked very well in the Brownie jumper, incidentally. Possibly a shame we didn't capture the moment on film for the mind of the posterity... After the shopping we went upstairs to see N, the 4 staff member. I had an expenses form (& indeed receipts, as I am a Good Girl) for her; and the hoody of dooooooooooooom. N did laugh really quite hard at the size of it in relation to me, which is fair enough, because it was a bit absurd. Meh... As it was raining quite hard we then went and sat in the members' area in the basement and mocked read the latest issue of guiding...
When it stopped raining we went forth to the South Bank, to Wagamamas, where I was almost forced to stab the waiter with my chopsticks when he tried to tell me I wasn't allowed to order from the children's menu that his colleague had just given me. Rah. It makes me so cross... He was a motley fool. And very rude. And didn't seem to understand why I was objecting to wasting a) food and b) money by ordering my own body-weight in noodles/rice, because I just wouldn't manage to eat anything like a sensible amount of it. I really like the food in Wagamamas, but the portion sizes are absurd. In the end common sense prevailed & I was not forced to impale him on my chopsticks as a dire warning to others; and I had a very nice soup with noodles & tofu & vegetables. As I didn't even manage to finish that, I am very glad I had not ended up with an adult meal... Oh, and Rosie had her goat chopsticks again, which are so very splendid & caused an awful lot of envious glances from the small children who landed next to us. While I am in a ranting mood, I would like to point out that I was quite tempted to take the small girl next to me & drop her into the Thames, because her behaviour was revolting. That and she almost shoved my shoulder right out of place for me, and not only did she not apologise (and trust me, she can't have missed what she did) her attendant adults also saw no need to. Gah.
After lunch we went and bought tickets for a boat down to Greenwich & then sat in Embankment Gardens to chat until it was time to board. I get a HUGE discount as a Freedom Pass Holder & as the Rosie had a travelcard she also got a hefty discount, which always makes things better, let us face it. So we had a very splendid trip down the river, with me occassionally providing the information the guy giving a talk about what we were passing was about to, which I don't think confused Rosie too much, honest... *looks innocent* The guy doing the commentary was very splendid. A proper Thames waterman. One of his finest moments had to be telling us that there were enough life-jackets for us all, but that we'd be charged for using them because they were expensive & they'd lost 1500 of them on the Titanic... It rained for all of about 2 minutes, but the rest of the time it was lovely and sunny and warm, and everything looked so pretty... *sighs* I don't often travel by boat, because it takes so much longer, but it is nice as a sometimes thing...
Wobbling gently as we disembarked at Greenwich, we took ourselves off to the milkshake shop. And I think I may have scared the man a little because he insisted I examined everything, including the Swedish Glace, to ensure I could eat it. He was really rather fine though. So I had a Fry's Peppermint Cream & bourbon biscuit milkshake; and Rosie had a Turkish Delight one, that was apparently very scrummy. We took our milkshakes along to the DLR and bopped along to Lewisham (I made Rosie admire the Laban, because it is quite special) where we got the 321 almost instantly, possibly because it was feeling guilty about its spurny behaviour...
Once Rosie and I reached home we flopped a very little bit & then started to get everything ready for Brownies & Guides. And then sat and chatted some more (we are very good at that & possibly should get a badge frankly) and then Rosy-Jess appeared and we all walked to Brownies together & sat on the wall by the church to wait for Katie, who had the keys & the folder of being-in-chargeness...
Brownies tonight was quite incredibly funny. The Brownies organised a game of "Strut Miss Lucy" at the start, until it was time for Brownie Ring. DW did the last bit of her Dancer badge - she was talking about Irish dancing & showing various things like her shoes & some photos & her wig... She was very nervous, and was talking to me rather than the Brownies, but she did a very good job, even when her CD player refused to work. She is quite shy, but because I am, as I have mentioned an Evil Owl, I felt she should talk to the rest of the Brownies & not just to me. And she looked very happy when she finished & her mum will be pleased, so perhaps I'm not really that evil. Must try harder... She and IG then had to go for a rehearsal for their First Holy Communion as they're making it tomorrow at the vigil mass, so I took them round to the church, while the rest of the Brownies were getting embroiled in their plays.
I split the Brownies off into three groups & they all received a selection of props & random words & were left to their own devices. This worked, although at one point I had to go and help the Imp-Leprechaun group who were having some slight woe. I told them to have a mini pow-wow about ideas, leaving EM, as a Sixer, in charge, and everything came out quite nicely after that... They were noisy enough in their planning, but it was a thoroughly creative noise & there was a lot of quite serious planning going on. HT was very much in control of her little group & a career on the stage may yet await...
The plays we ended up with were quite splendid. CT was Simon Cowell, who I had not realised generally wore a racoon stole, much less let it speak for him, but see how clearly I am ignorant. And EM as a rabbit presenting Pop Idol was quite splendid. OB made a spectacular wicked witch although the plot of that particular drama was a little tricky to follow at some points, but obviously all the Owls almost fell of their seats laughing when she was vanquished by a magic giraffe, as wielded by TK. Oh yes. And EO'M was quite splendid. She was wearing Liss' giant sunhat, and she swooned quite beautifully, and then, still lying prone, shuffled herself "offstage" in what was not quite an inobtrusive fashion... It was quite fine. Magical giraffes also featured in the final offering (you really can tell they're my Brownies, can't you?) which involved the theft of a bourbon biscuit from a Fire Station, and people being turned to stone. This group also turned them selves into "bells", donged three times, and then announced "in other words, it's three o'clock"... Possibly you had to be there, but it really honestly was very funny. And the Brownies were very good at watching each others plays and we had a quick pow-wow afterwards about what they'd found hard and how it's important we listen to each other...
There was time for some singing before home, which is always splendid. The Brownies are getting quite good at "Edelweiss", and are very good at "Alive, Alert, Awake!". They like "The Princess Pat" and we did "Singing In The Rain" and "Ram Sam Sam" as well, finishing off with "Make New Friends", with the arm actions... The meeting did rather seem to run away, frankly, because lots of people looked quite confused at it being time for Brownie ring. Some then got more confused by Brownie Magic, but there you are...
In the space between Brownies and Guides Rosie and I went to the chip shop to get tea. While we were in there Michelle bopped past, wearing most of the props she'd contributed to the Brownie madness meeting. A fur coat, a hat, a cane... It's a definite look, I tell you... While Rosie and I were eating tea the Guides were busy giving each other makeovers, as they're working on "Go For It! Glamorama" at the moment. They all seem to give far more consideration to their appearance in terms of hair & make-up stuff than my contemporaries and I did... Also, busy being a wee bit disturbed by some of the clothes that appeared for the fashion parade - children dressing as adults makes my brain a bit squiggly.
After the Guides had had Patrol time & once I was nicely full of Diet Coke and chips (mwahaha) Rosie became my glamorous assistant for a 4 session on disability awareness. There was lots of talking and drawing round people and building things and generally being active. They are actually a very thoughtful bunch, my Guides, and lots of them have family members who are disabled, so they had plenty to say. Sometimes a bit too much, possibly, but they were all thinking and I got the very splendid bit of feedback that someone liked the session because I listened to their opinions and respected their views, as well as just talking at them. So huzzah. Attempts at building a tower at the end of the meeting were quite interesting - various members of the groups were "disabled" and one group came to grief when their "blind" member stomped on their tower... Anyhow, they enjoyed themselves & things were learnt, and that is rather the point of 4...
I am very sleepy. Rosie is also very sleepy. This may well mean it's bedtime...
When it stopped raining we went forth to the South Bank, to Wagamamas, where I was almost forced to stab the waiter with my chopsticks when he tried to tell me I wasn't allowed to order from the children's menu that his colleague had just given me. Rah. It makes me so cross... He was a motley fool. And very rude. And didn't seem to understand why I was objecting to wasting a) food and b) money by ordering my own body-weight in noodles/rice, because I just wouldn't manage to eat anything like a sensible amount of it. I really like the food in Wagamamas, but the portion sizes are absurd. In the end common sense prevailed & I was not forced to impale him on my chopsticks as a dire warning to others; and I had a very nice soup with noodles & tofu & vegetables. As I didn't even manage to finish that, I am very glad I had not ended up with an adult meal... Oh, and Rosie had her goat chopsticks again, which are so very splendid & caused an awful lot of envious glances from the small children who landed next to us. While I am in a ranting mood, I would like to point out that I was quite tempted to take the small girl next to me & drop her into the Thames, because her behaviour was revolting. That and she almost shoved my shoulder right out of place for me, and not only did she not apologise (and trust me, she can't have missed what she did) her attendant adults also saw no need to. Gah.
After lunch we went and bought tickets for a boat down to Greenwich & then sat in Embankment Gardens to chat until it was time to board. I get a HUGE discount as a Freedom Pass Holder & as the Rosie had a travelcard she also got a hefty discount, which always makes things better, let us face it. So we had a very splendid trip down the river, with me occassionally providing the information the guy giving a talk about what we were passing was about to, which I don't think confused Rosie too much, honest... *looks innocent* The guy doing the commentary was very splendid. A proper Thames waterman. One of his finest moments had to be telling us that there were enough life-jackets for us all, but that we'd be charged for using them because they were expensive & they'd lost 1500 of them on the Titanic... It rained for all of about 2 minutes, but the rest of the time it was lovely and sunny and warm, and everything looked so pretty... *sighs* I don't often travel by boat, because it takes so much longer, but it is nice as a sometimes thing...
Wobbling gently as we disembarked at Greenwich, we took ourselves off to the milkshake shop. And I think I may have scared the man a little because he insisted I examined everything, including the Swedish Glace, to ensure I could eat it. He was really rather fine though. So I had a Fry's Peppermint Cream & bourbon biscuit milkshake; and Rosie had a Turkish Delight one, that was apparently very scrummy. We took our milkshakes along to the DLR and bopped along to Lewisham (I made Rosie admire the Laban, because it is quite special) where we got the 321 almost instantly, possibly because it was feeling guilty about its spurny behaviour...
Once Rosie and I reached home we flopped a very little bit & then started to get everything ready for Brownies & Guides. And then sat and chatted some more (we are very good at that & possibly should get a badge frankly) and then Rosy-Jess appeared and we all walked to Brownies together & sat on the wall by the church to wait for Katie, who had the keys & the folder of being-in-chargeness...
Brownies tonight was quite incredibly funny. The Brownies organised a game of "Strut Miss Lucy" at the start, until it was time for Brownie Ring. DW did the last bit of her Dancer badge - she was talking about Irish dancing & showing various things like her shoes & some photos & her wig... She was very nervous, and was talking to me rather than the Brownies, but she did a very good job, even when her CD player refused to work. She is quite shy, but because I am, as I have mentioned an Evil Owl, I felt she should talk to the rest of the Brownies & not just to me. And she looked very happy when she finished & her mum will be pleased, so perhaps I'm not really that evil. Must try harder... She and IG then had to go for a rehearsal for their First Holy Communion as they're making it tomorrow at the vigil mass, so I took them round to the church, while the rest of the Brownies were getting embroiled in their plays.
I split the Brownies off into three groups & they all received a selection of props & random words & were left to their own devices. This worked, although at one point I had to go and help the Imp-Leprechaun group who were having some slight woe. I told them to have a mini pow-wow about ideas, leaving EM, as a Sixer, in charge, and everything came out quite nicely after that... They were noisy enough in their planning, but it was a thoroughly creative noise & there was a lot of quite serious planning going on. HT was very much in control of her little group & a career on the stage may yet await...
The plays we ended up with were quite splendid. CT was Simon Cowell, who I had not realised generally wore a racoon stole, much less let it speak for him, but see how clearly I am ignorant. And EM as a rabbit presenting Pop Idol was quite splendid. OB made a spectacular wicked witch although the plot of that particular drama was a little tricky to follow at some points, but obviously all the Owls almost fell of their seats laughing when she was vanquished by a magic giraffe, as wielded by TK. Oh yes. And EO'M was quite splendid. She was wearing Liss' giant sunhat, and she swooned quite beautifully, and then, still lying prone, shuffled herself "offstage" in what was not quite an inobtrusive fashion... It was quite fine. Magical giraffes also featured in the final offering (you really can tell they're my Brownies, can't you?) which involved the theft of a bourbon biscuit from a Fire Station, and people being turned to stone. This group also turned them selves into "bells", donged three times, and then announced "in other words, it's three o'clock"... Possibly you had to be there, but it really honestly was very funny. And the Brownies were very good at watching each others plays and we had a quick pow-wow afterwards about what they'd found hard and how it's important we listen to each other...
There was time for some singing before home, which is always splendid. The Brownies are getting quite good at "Edelweiss", and are very good at "Alive, Alert, Awake!". They like "The Princess Pat" and we did "Singing In The Rain" and "Ram Sam Sam" as well, finishing off with "Make New Friends", with the arm actions... The meeting did rather seem to run away, frankly, because lots of people looked quite confused at it being time for Brownie ring. Some then got more confused by Brownie Magic, but there you are...
In the space between Brownies and Guides Rosie and I went to the chip shop to get tea. While we were in there Michelle bopped past, wearing most of the props she'd contributed to the Brownie madness meeting. A fur coat, a hat, a cane... It's a definite look, I tell you... While Rosie and I were eating tea the Guides were busy giving each other makeovers, as they're working on "Go For It! Glamorama" at the moment. They all seem to give far more consideration to their appearance in terms of hair & make-up stuff than my contemporaries and I did... Also, busy being a wee bit disturbed by some of the clothes that appeared for the fashion parade - children dressing as adults makes my brain a bit squiggly.
After the Guides had had Patrol time & once I was nicely full of Diet Coke and chips (mwahaha) Rosie became my glamorous assistant for a 4 session on disability awareness. There was lots of talking and drawing round people and building things and generally being active. They are actually a very thoughtful bunch, my Guides, and lots of them have family members who are disabled, so they had plenty to say. Sometimes a bit too much, possibly, but they were all thinking and I got the very splendid bit of feedback that someone liked the session because I listened to their opinions and respected their views, as well as just talking at them. So huzzah. Attempts at building a tower at the end of the meeting were quite interesting - various members of the groups were "disabled" and one group came to grief when their "blind" member stomped on their tower... Anyhow, they enjoyed themselves & things were learnt, and that is rather the point of 4...
I am very sleepy. Rosie is also very sleepy. This may well mean it's bedtime...