guide dogs for the blind

Tonight at Brownies we had a man in to talk to us who looks after a retired Guide Dog . He brought the dog and the kids learnt about how guide dogs are trained etc.

They start off their training as puppies. Some dogs are bred specifically to be Guide Dogs but not all. When they are 18 months old they are allocated to a blind person. The blind person gives a donation of 50p to Guide Dogs for the Blind - not sure why... The dogs work for 10 years after which they go to someone to be looked after for the rest of their lives. The person who gets the retired Guide Dog does not pay for the dog, but must be in during the day to look after him/her.

The girls were told it takes £10 per day to keep a Guide Dog. They managed the maths to work out how much it would cost then over 10 years.... and they learnt that we can collect money by bringing in old mobile phones, or by recycling printer ink cartridges or toner.

They were told what types of dog are usually used as Guide Dogs. They got to pet the dog (who was GORGEOUS!).

We then did some Brownie stuff - points collation etc and then played a quick game before home time.

All in all - I thought it was good. If anyone wants to sponsor a puppy the Guide Dogs for the Blind website is: http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/.

That is it for me and the wink game. Tomorrow I am away so I'll catch up soon. Queenie I think had posted this link and today I am going to join in. Sorry - it was Akelamalu!

David's (Authorblog) question this week is:

When did you last write or receive a real snail-mail letter (you know, in an addressed envelope)?

If you want to join in here's what David would like you to do:Please answer today's question on your own blog, any time until next weekend. Just link to this blog (or to this post) so I can follow the progress of the discussion

Receipt of Letters:

I can't remember when I received a proper letter last. I am taking part in a blog project sending journals around the world and these come with a note but a not a whole letter. Although it could be suggested that 6 pages of journalling might in fact be more information than you would usually enclose in a letter so in fact it may well be better even.

When I started university for a year or so I kept in touch with friends from school. Several of us wrote back and forth a couple of times during this year. I keep all of these letters still in a folder which I came across when tidying out the music room this weekend. It is lovely to have them and is very funny to read them back now seeing how excited and nervous we were and how we changed after we started 'studying'!

I often received letters from my 'Aunty' Betty, who has now passed away. Again I keep these letters in a file. The last ones of these are three or four years old I suppose.

My mum sends me short letters fairly often. They don't really tell me much and are usually a bit of an excuse for Ma to post a fiver, or a small gift. They are always well received though, and definitely appreciated!

Letter-writing:

I complain... I'll admit to you now - I'm a complainer. If I feel service has been poor I will write to a company to tell them. The most recent of these was in relation to bank charges imposed on my account when the bank decided to reject a direct debit of £6 (as I would have gone slightly overdrawn) then charge me £30 for rejecting it, then charge me £30 for going overdrawn and then charge me £30 again for going overdrawn again. I have received a full refund of charges.

I have not sent a real letter to a friend or relative for at least two years. I have posted thank you letters now and then to relatives after Christmas or birthdays, but beyond that I can't remember a single occasion! It's the age of technology though and I think that letters are probably dying out.

I've been thinking about this all week - and it just isn't necessary to write down news or stories on paper any more, as all my friends and relatives probably know them already from my blog... or from my phone call.. or my text messages.

I will be interested to read some other posts about this to see whether anyone else is keeping letter-writing alive. I certainly am not, for no better reason than it's easier and quicker to send an email.

Thursday Thirteen #25

For this weeks TT I am going to stick with the theme of my previous post;

In the musical 'hello dolly' this week the brass section (ie. me) are playing 'wink' games. It's a simple premise... We have to catch the eye of a cast member and wink at them. Bonus points are awarded if the cast member winks back!

I have decided to use my tt as a checklist - I will cross off names as we manage to get them to smile, chuckle or best of all WINK BACK! Tonight I had to stifle laughter into my trumpet as I was finding it amusing.

1 Dolly! (she's the big challenge - never looks down at us)
2 Horace Vandergelder - got him! Wink 1 - he looked away. Wink 2 - he smiled broadly.
Wink 3 - HE WINKED BACK! Champion.
3 The girl from the hat shop - GOT HER!
4 The older woman from the shop
5 The chief shop clerk
6 The 17 year old shop boy - GOT HIM
7 The Judge
8 Chorus - Girl in pink (this one'll be easy)
9 Chorus - Older woman (any)
10 Chorus - A young person
11 Dancer (the one who looks like he's stuffed socks down his incredibly tight trousers!)
12 Dancer (the other male one)
13 Any of the female dancers

The only thing I need now is for someone to tell me how I do a score-through thing on words in blogger?????

The Code: Find it here

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged!

Where I would like to be

I'm working a lot this week........ so this lochside shoreline looks so appealing to me. It's always the way when I know I CAN'T get out of the city that I want to get out the most.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not unhappy. I just want to be able to do everything all the time. And it isn't possible.

Tonight in the show I'm doing a colleague set off a game of winking at the cast to see if they'd wink back. It was fun. I caught the eye of a girl on the stage so winked at her, and the speed at which she looked away was FANTASTIC! Made me want to laugh out loud (but the audience might have found that offputting during the dialogue). I quite fancy winking at her every night as the reaction was so good! Maybe I'll stick to winking at the guys though.

Early Starts

Today I got up REALLY early and had planned to go straight through to school after dropping my boyfriend off at 7am this morning. HOWEVER - When I actually worked out that i'd probably be at school by 8am and would then have nearly 3 hours before I could start work I thought better of this idea.

So instead I have come back home and am watching breakfast tv... I'm getting dozy but am trying NOT to drop off again as I think this will make me feel bad. Today is really long though as I'm working from whenever I start teaching until about half 10 tonight. And will therefore be sleepy tomorrow so would LOVE to catch up on some kip now.

NO! Going off now to do some washing up etc to keep lively!

In on a Saturday!

Today Scotland played Italy at football. And I tested the Glasgow water by driving through after work today and town was MOBBED.

So I turned down my invitations to the pub and stayed in watching telly. Until I dropped off that is.

I tell you - 30 is approaching rapidly! Dropping off in the middle of the afternoon...

It is POSSIBLE that it may also be due to the wedding reception party I went to last night and the early morning today to teach at 9 o'clock.

Or it could be old age.

I did watch the dancing today though - near perfect score for Alesha. Results tomorrow.

There isn't a vid embedded allowed up on you tube yet but here's a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3Py8fFLniQ&feature=user

Strictly Come Dancing

I love the dancing... Unlike Travis I am sadly blessed with 2 left feet, but I still LOVE watching dancing.

So I bring you my favourite dancer - Alesha. This is the only version with embedded allowed that I could find so wait for it to load if poss and skip to 3 mins 20ish:



And sex-bomb Kelly Brook. This is a really annoying cut up version but she's still beautiful.



Finally the person who left - Penny Lancaster-Stewart who had a bit of a disadvantage in that her partner had never made it this far himself and had never done this dance before either.... oops. 2mins14 again for the dancing. Bye Penny!



I should probably mention that I've missed the Saturday show several weeks (including this one) so a fair bit of my Strictly watching has been from the results show and You Tube.

Fire Station Trip

Tonight my Brownies and I will be visiting our local fire station.

I am quite excited.

More Mums offered to help out at this evening than on ANY previous outing.....

I'm hoping for:

But I have to say I'm not convinced the local firemen will look QUITE like this.... especially in the baltic temperatures in Scotland just now.

UPDATE - It was FANTASTIC! The firemen were brilliant with the girls (- and were in no way a disappointment to the adults!). We had a great time exploring the station, looking at the fire engines and boat and firing the hoses. Definitely a highlight of my Brownie days so far.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my wee sister!

ill

I've caught a bug right when I'm at my busiest so I'm having an early night........ will be round to visit as soon as poss.

I had the flu jab as well - so was hoping to avoid being ill this winter. Oh well - colds shift fairly quickly usually so I'll dose up with vitamin C and sleep it off!

Hope everyone else is well.

remembrance

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

kicking the WINTER blues

and acquiring a new blues in its stead.

I think the winter thing has passed - I feel quite excited at the moment and fairly motivated. Long days are back on the cards and trumpet is getting the attention it deserves.

However - my head is now buzzing with ideas instead. So I need to get them in order so I can actually get on with some of them!

I want to look after my career - individually, confirming gigs and there is a competition I am thinking about entering.

But also have a flailing ensemble which I have been clinging onto in an attempt to save it. I now realise I can't save it alone so have elected to forget about it until I can work out a resuscitation strategy for it or speak to the others and see whether they are actually going to do anything.

And I am in a rising ensemble - which I am excited about - and want to promote with full energy.

I think this has helped! I wondered if blogging it might help clarify what I need to do and it has. I worked with Brownie planning before - and blogging does it again.

I love blogs.

Peace

Wednesday 7th November is the day designated by Mimi as the 'blogblast' for peace.

My globe is up.

I'm having a very peaceful evening as I had to cancel Brownies tonight. We couldn't get into the hall because the person who normally opens up had given us the wrong keypad code for the front door. After 10 minutes waiting in the cold dark rainy Glasgow gloom I sent the kids home. About 5 minutes after they left the Guide leaders managed to get the correct code and let their girls in - but it was too late for us.

Never mind!

Please click on this link for more information: Peace Globes.

It's bonfire night!

And Glasgow is resounding with crashes and flashes from the fireworks.

Hope you're all having fun. I love fireworks displays but I HATE the kids with fireworks - and the STUPID parents across the road who have been letting fireworks off all night in their FRONT garden. Too close to other houses - Idiots. Grr.

apathy

I'm in a weird place at the moment - I can't really be bothered to do anything much and am avoiding people and jobs.

It CANNOT continue. I've been like this for a week now and I need to snap out of it.

So far I have not turned up for a hen night and a party, and have started a project I'm doing but not finished it off and have started doing about four trumpet-related promotion jobs but have ended up giving up on them and marking where I was/saving what I've done. I have missed TT and haven't been to visit any of your blogs for a week.

I really want to feel refreshed and get some 'zing' back - but can't think what to do. I'd say I need a holiday but we've only just got back to Glasgow a couple of weeks ago after a visit with our parents.

I think it might be due to the weather and season a bit. It is really dark now - and evenings feel so long. I remember how excited I felt when in Spring/summer I came out of a gig into daylight and could go out til 3 as it felt light enough. Now on an office day in Glasgow we have to go to work in gloom, and leave work in darkness.

I would kill for some sunshine on a weekend at least.

(a snap from sunnier times)