About

Notes from Guiding is this place where all my Guiding thoughts will live. 

Hopefully I'll keep it going for as long as possible and anything I type will be useful to someone somewhere.

I joined Girlguiding in 1977 as a Brownie. I continued my journey into Guides, though only remember attending one camp. It has a silly story, of course - my life always seems to. I turned up in a big field on a military style camp with my sleeping bag and what I thought would be an absolutely fine camp bed - a sun lounger.

The leaders all immediately put paid to the idea of me sleeping on the lounger by immediately taking it away and pointing out there wouldn't be enough room for anyone in the tent we were all sleeping in. So instead I slept on two compost bags sewn together by my mum in a too-short groundsheet sort of way. Every morning I woke up with a wet head and wet feet. Fortunately I didn't wake up feeling miserable - it was the opposite - freedom, having fun with my Guiding friends and remembering never to take a sun lounger to camp ever again. 

I left Guiding at some point in the eighties, picking it back up again when my daughter was old enough to join Rainbows. "Do you need some help?" I enquired to the unit, knowing they probably would. Cue two years of me helping at Rainbows, six years at Brownies (which I'm currently on a break from due to illness but I hope to go back), and just over a year at Guides when the leader suddenly left and I was the only qualified person to take it on. (which I was fine with, btw) 

My daughter doesn't want to continue to Rangers but is keen to be a Young Leader - and it fits perfectly with her Duke of Edinburgh award she's about to start working on. 

I'm happy to continue as I am doing, as a Brownie and Guide leader - while repeating the mantra "it's only an hour a week...."