But this is not the place that we recall...
Well, I made it to church parade, although getting up this morning was not particularly fun, jolly, or easy. Lots of slow-going & stopping & having minor woe. But I managed it and was ready when Barn Owl arrived so we could walk to church together. Emily had arrived before us and been nabbed for colour party, and we ended up with about twenty Brownies in total, all of whom behaved beautifully during mass. Mass starts just before eleven on Remembrance Sunday so we can hold the silence at eleven, with flags dipped (which latter takes much rehearsing but Emily managed beautifully as did the Emily-Guide who was in charge as she had the Union flag). Akela was in charge of this part of the service this year & had even got hold of a recording of the last post. Instead of a homily we had a talk from Bernadette Farrell, who in my head should have been (1) older and (2) a nun, but there you are. It was very interesting & thought-provoking. Plus I am now wondering if we'd be able to get her to come and talk to the Brownies if they decided to work on the Discovering Faith badge, which some of them have seemed keen on before...
After mass the uniformed organisations parade out onto the back carpark & this morning I heard Amy and Molly make their Promise in front of everyone. Possibly a bit daunting, but they did it very well & looked everso pleased-proud when they had done it. They are so very cute. And Barn Owl was in charge of badge-pinning and there was no impaling, so everything was just fine. Then it was off to the station with half a dozen Sixers and Seconders for our further Rememberancing.
We went to Westminster Abbey to see the field of remembrance there and to leave poppy crosses in thanksgiving & remembrance. The Brownies were so very very well-behaved & lots of people were murmuring approval about them, which is always nice. I did rather a lot of explainy-talking for them & they asked intelligent questions and thought lots, which is always splendid. We then walked down Whitehall; watched the Salvation Army at the Cenotaph; admired the memorial to the women of WWII & talked about what women (and Brownies) did during that war & about why the memorial looks like it does; and then went down to Horseguards. Emilia is horse-mad and fell slightly in love with the horses and was pouring information out to the others about horses and all things horse-related (including horse poo, delightful) until we went to speak to some Chelsea Pensioners who were in the courtyard. They were awfully nice & explained to the Brownies about what Chelsea Pensioners are and what their badges and medals mean. The Brownies were expecially impressed with their wings...
We walked on to the war memorial & police memorial at St James' Park & then took the tube down to Lambeth North and went along to the IWM. Lunch, begun on the train, was finished off, and then we went exploring. The Brownies did the Trench Experience and the Blitz Experience & an elderly gentleman talked to them about WWII and showed them the German gun that could fire round corners & explained about the pock-marks in the back of Wolfe's statue in Geenwich Park. He also showed them models of bullets, to give them an idea of how big the things were. The Brownies were picking what we did & as they're most of them learning about the holocaust at school at the moment, we took them up to see the holocaust exhibition - or rather, the less-grim parts thereof. They were all very good indeed - and again, they were thinky. There was a quick trip to the shop before coming home - Shauna spent all her pocket money on presents for her brothers, because she'd had the fun of a day out - and then it was brisk-walking to Waterloo East. Missed our train by seconds so went to Lewisham & got a bus up. Sadly the buses were spurning, so we were somewhat later than hoped, but the Brownies kept warm by singing the penguin song, so it was all okay.
So today was good. I am tired, but it was worth it. The Brownies thought and learnt and got to be more independent than when we take out a whole horde of them. And they really did behave wonderfully well, which isn't unusual, but I am still awfully proud of them. It's like the fact they were all smartly dressed for church parade today & lots of them wore school shoes not trainers so as to look extra-smart. Emilia even had hair-ribbons. I do wish there was better smart uniform for Guiders/Senior Section though. I was wearing my Senior Section shirt, but it does look awfully funny-peculiar...
After mass the uniformed organisations parade out onto the back carpark & this morning I heard Amy and Molly make their Promise in front of everyone. Possibly a bit daunting, but they did it very well & looked everso pleased-proud when they had done it. They are so very cute. And Barn Owl was in charge of badge-pinning and there was no impaling, so everything was just fine. Then it was off to the station with half a dozen Sixers and Seconders for our further Rememberancing.
We went to Westminster Abbey to see the field of remembrance there and to leave poppy crosses in thanksgiving & remembrance. The Brownies were so very very well-behaved & lots of people were murmuring approval about them, which is always nice. I did rather a lot of explainy-talking for them & they asked intelligent questions and thought lots, which is always splendid. We then walked down Whitehall; watched the Salvation Army at the Cenotaph; admired the memorial to the women of WWII & talked about what women (and Brownies) did during that war & about why the memorial looks like it does; and then went down to Horseguards. Emilia is horse-mad and fell slightly in love with the horses and was pouring information out to the others about horses and all things horse-related (including horse poo, delightful) until we went to speak to some Chelsea Pensioners who were in the courtyard. They were awfully nice & explained to the Brownies about what Chelsea Pensioners are and what their badges and medals mean. The Brownies were expecially impressed with their wings...
We walked on to the war memorial & police memorial at St James' Park & then took the tube down to Lambeth North and went along to the IWM. Lunch, begun on the train, was finished off, and then we went exploring. The Brownies did the Trench Experience and the Blitz Experience & an elderly gentleman talked to them about WWII and showed them the German gun that could fire round corners & explained about the pock-marks in the back of Wolfe's statue in Geenwich Park. He also showed them models of bullets, to give them an idea of how big the things were. The Brownies were picking what we did & as they're most of them learning about the holocaust at school at the moment, we took them up to see the holocaust exhibition - or rather, the less-grim parts thereof. They were all very good indeed - and again, they were thinky. There was a quick trip to the shop before coming home - Shauna spent all her pocket money on presents for her brothers, because she'd had the fun of a day out - and then it was brisk-walking to Waterloo East. Missed our train by seconds so went to Lewisham & got a bus up. Sadly the buses were spurning, so we were somewhat later than hoped, but the Brownies kept warm by singing the penguin song, so it was all okay.
So today was good. I am tired, but it was worth it. The Brownies thought and learnt and got to be more independent than when we take out a whole horde of them. And they really did behave wonderfully well, which isn't unusual, but I am still awfully proud of them. It's like the fact they were all smartly dressed for church parade today & lots of them wore school shoes not trainers so as to look extra-smart. Emilia even had hair-ribbons. I do wish there was better smart uniform for Guiders/Senior Section though. I was wearing my Senior Section shirt, but it does look awfully funny-peculiar...