Merry Christmas!

I'm going to head over to your blogs soon to see how you have been getting on.  It's been the typical Christmas build-up here with concerts, shopping, making stuff.  Busy enough to keep me offline.

I probably won't be round much til after the New Year so would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year a bit early.... (that's it done!)

snow experiment

It's a bit hard to see... but the experiment was excecuted perfectly, however in my amazement I poured the remaining boiling water down my arm.  What a doofus!

Still - it was worth it.  Made my day.

It's s s s s so c c c cold... brr.

I tried chucking a kettle of water into the air today not thinking it would really do anything.

It made snow!

It's THAT cold here!!

Sad! And Happy.

Well Brownies has been snowed off for 2 weeks in a row.

Last week my DC (also halls boss-lady for church) texted me to cancel Brownies. One of those times when I think a phone call would be better as I'd have had better explanations for my kids when I rang them all if I'd know WHY exactly - Icy?  Slippery? Heating problems?

This week we were to have the division christmas concert, but the snow here on Monday closed the entire city - shops closed, trains stopped, buses were cancelled... I haven't been to school for a fortnight.  I'll be skint - now glad I bought so many presents on my credit card this year!.

Anyway - my house must be pristine I hear you remark, with all this time off.  Haha... or not.

I am going to do some work now - practise I mean.  Yippee.

UK Weather-Watch

Well it has all gone a bit Wintery in the UK!

We have had a lot of snow here lately and I feel as though I am on permanent weather-watch.  At the moment it's 5am-ish and I am awake for two reasons:  My boyfriend snort-snored suddenly extremely loudly scaring me out of my slumber, and I've got to get to Anstruther on Sat for work and don't fancy my chances much.

However the weather forecast is changing every time I check.  It is also not correct - the current weather on the BBC website (generally more reliable than elsewhere) is wrong.   Visibility here is excellent - says v poor - and we have no snow and have had none all night.

I would like to book a train for this weekend but don't know if they'll run.  There also is no train station in the village I'm playing.

I would book a bus but none run in the evening so I'd be stuck there overnight.  Car it is!

On Sat when the snow started we were so excited that we grabbed the nearest clothes (I was in PJ's - it was midnight) and headed out.  I had just done a xmas gig - so the Santa hat and heeled shoes were out... I also have on 3 jumpers, a coat and a scarf. Looking good, eh?!

 Gleneagles - Saturday day

 A tree.  I like it - snowy and crisp against beautifully clear blue sky.  

This was Gleneagles too - I have lots of photos as I was playing the Girlguiding Centenary Fanfare for the last time (fingers crossed) this year and got a lift up with one of the event organisers so arrived 2hrs early with nothing much to do.  I played for a while in the hotel til someone came in to prepare the room for the do, then went for a walk in the snow.  New snow is fun - I can't help myself messing it up! 

Got an East Coast train on Sunday morning - view from the train of the coast South of Edinburgh.

OUR SNOWMEN!

Jen pointed out (in comments) that there are dietary requirements for many of her Brownies.  There are a few in mine, but no vegetarians.

For my Halal req Brownie we used profiteroles (without the cream filling) - I tried it and it tasted nice.  Just like you'd imagine dry profiteroles covered in white choc might taste.  It also looked quite good but was much more difficult to do as she had to dip each profiterole in the choc and roll it around, then skewer it and stick the 3 lumps together at the top of the stick.

As to our milk and egg allergies - they can have the things IN stuff... and there actually wasn't anything in the marshmallows other than the gelatine (which clearly would rule out veggies).

For the nut allergy I checked EVERYTHING but there was no 'trace nut' warning on any of the items.

The Marshmallow Snowmen came out like this:

I ate most of mine... it was so sweet it made me feel sick!  I binned the bottom marshmallow.

This week we are making these: Chocolate marshmallow snowmen

Not my photo - this was from the blog below.  I only hopeours can look this cool!

http://susanbanderson.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-little-corner.html

I NEED A HOLIDAY!

I really really really want to go away somewhere to do fun things in the days.  Roll on New Year!

Brownies - Winging it again!

I started re-planning tonight this morning.

We have a board game thing that my assistant started in my absence and has a bit of work left to finish off... so what to fill the rest of the evening when we have use of the big hall?

Board game-themed party games!

We will play:  human noughts and crosses, plus game-themed fishes or any other group games that use names I can think of.  We might do charades or Who am I/20 questions... will be fun!

Photo - for no reason other than to make me happy.

It's FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!

And I already have that Friday feeling!  It's going to be a good one - I can tell.

In order to maintain this optimism I am now heading to bed.  See you in the morning... evening?  Tomorrow perhaps.

Peace Globe 2010 & link for Travis

If you're baffled by the Peace Globe thing (why have they appeared all over the internet again?) go here http://mimiwrites.blogspot.com/ to find the answer.

Personally I'm not sure about the peace globes.... I don't know if they make a difference, but I'd like tolerance and understanding to be more widespread, as that's the basis for peace, right?  So I'm posting this year after a 1yr absence, as a reminder to myself as much as anyone else - if someone does something you don't understand, if someone has an opinion you don't share - think twice before you condemn it.  What makes it right? What makes it wrong?  Are you qualified to make that judgement? 

Hey Travis - check out our dancing show.. this was good I think.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/vt0kc/

Meaney

I am horrible.

My considerate boyfriend asked when I was on the phone to him today what he should get from the shops as he would pass them on his way home (in a 'what would you like' way).

My response went something like this: "I don't care what you buy.  This is my only 2 hrs in the house now until Sunday between 8am and 11pm - when am I going to need anything?!!"

What a horror!  In my defense I had already explained I was really tired and was going to try to grab an hour of sleep before going back out to work tonight...  But I was still a bitch.

bwah ha ha

Halloween... night out... started badly!  Finished well!!!!!!!

Earlier I did a gig - I forgot my trumpet mouthpiece.  A trumpet is made up of only 2 parts:  trumpet & mouthpiece... so it's a very stupid mistake.

I did the gig - it was ok.

As I left the church my shoe caught and the heel broke.

I was then pulled over by the coppers after making a mistake at an amber light (def amber) - and was charged.  That's £60 fine and 3 points.  For goin through on orange with a taxi on my right getting in my way distracting me........

However I then attended the end of a gig by funk band Fnuk.... and it was great!  A good 3 hrs of boogying later and I'm happy.

Incidentally: the police told me to go out.  I was just following their advice..... ha!

As I plan to fascinate all...

I wish to inform you that I did have cheese tonight - in left over red pepper & tomato soup (that I made on Weds for a friend) with bread.

It was delicious.

Flying Solo

I'm on my own for 5 nights as my boyfriend has gone away for a birthday present treat trip to London (that I declined for financial reasons).

What shall I do?  I'd do all the things he hates but he's so easy going there isn't really much... I can eat cheese and tuna.  I think I will do that tomorrow.  I can practise the trumpet lots as I'll have the house to myself....

Fun fun fun... Or not so much.

VISION 2010 - GIRLGUIDING GLASGOW

For me it took up the afternoon & evening of Wednesday 20/10/2010.

My Brownies caught the train at a little after 5pm.
We had a change at Partick but arrived safely in Queen Street before heading off to Pizza Hut for some tea.

While the girls (and Guiders) tucked into their mini-pizzas and salad (Hahahahahaha... nachos... that's about the only salad bar option I spotted them eating!) I had to go for a sound check at the venue.  I returned to pay for food then had to leave again as I was booked to play the Centenary Fanfare to open our event.

The gig started at 7pm with approx 2000 members in attendance I believe.  My Guiders/Helpers/Mum got the kids into their seats with their goody bags in time for us to start. 

The background music faded, the light dimmed, a microphone was put in the centre of the stage at the Royal Concert Hall and I was on.  By myself.  In a spotlight!  Performing the Centenary Fanfare composed by Claire Griffin.

2 mins later the fanfare was finished, and the real entertainment started.  Clyde 1 fm hosted the concert and after a little chat from the beautiful blonde compere Pearl and The Puppets were introduced.

Pearl and her Puppets were great!  I snuck into the auditorium and found my unit - who were loving it too. 


I hung around for a bit. 20million toilet trips later I had to leave to head back backstage to prepare to close the event.

The making of the promise bit at 20:10 20/10/2010 didn't quite go according to plan I presume... it was a little strange.  Still - everyone did it - we joined the rest of the uk in making/renewing our promise.

We then saw dance group The Fusion who were also brilliant - and very popular if the screaming and shouting was an indicator!

Following a few thank yous I had to head back to my very scary spotlight to play Taps - then off home we shot on the 20:53 train.  This is a shot from the stage (snuck on in the corner partly to distract myself partly to have a look at what was going on!).

I was very proud of my pack - they were very well behaved and had a great time - well done 310th Brownies and well done Girlguiding Glasgow!!!

VIP PASSES

Think it's ok to have this up here? It says division etc...

Brownies Centenary Finale

This year we have been celebrating 100 years of Guiding.

Our year-long party culminates next week with a nationwide make or re-affirmation of our Promise.  In Glasgow we are going to the Royal Concert Hall where we have a big concert with pop acts and radio hosting as well as other exciting stuff.

I am nervous about this because I have to open and close the event with a solo fanfare.  In front of 1700-plus people I kind of know or have a link to.  It's strange - playing to strangers is dead easy but performing to friends and family is horrible.  So I am sh'tting it.

I am also a little nervous as we have all our Brownies going (except 1 who says she doesn't want to go and that her mum is making her come to Brownies.... I only discovered this when it was too late to get another ticket anyway, so I am leaving it be for now.)
I was quoted 75p for return tickets by Scotrail but when I phoned back to buy them the price had somehow doubled. Still - we have to get there.

To try to make the whole thing a bit less stressful I have elected to add dinner to the mix.  We are all going to Pizza Hut first...  Sometimes I wonder where I get these ideas from!!!

And I am up now because I want to get this stuff done - sorted - finished - organised - before Ma & Pa arrive.  I have counted the promise badges (special limited edition ones for the Centenary). 

I have written the Promise Certificates for our 4 new Brownies who will be making their promise for the first time. 
I have packed the cloth badges from the division. 
I have packed the name badges we made in wks 1 & 2 in anticipation of this trip (and to help the new ones learn names of the others).  They are fake VIP passes and they look amazing - I might blog them for any Guiders out there.  Amusingly the kids all think they can actually use them for the gig... they'll be too busy to remember when it comes to the night.
I have printed spare consent forms as I'm missing a few.
I have written a letter to go to the ones who missed the last meeting where we provided final details of the trip.
I have sorted out the emergency contacts - updating mobile numbers wherever poss as we're using public transport for this one and I'd like to be able to text them if there is any delay getting home.

I think that may be it.  Phew!  Night all.

DIY

We are still doing up our house - we have today steam cleaned our carpets. Before the descent (ascent?  Wales - Scotland) of my parents we need to tidy our bedroom and steam clean the tiled floors.