The weekend.

This weekend was a SSAGO/SAGGA Session up in the wilds of Blackwell/ Redditch. I’ve come back from it feeling very positive about lots of things, if rather tired due to lack of sleep over the weekend.

SSAGO wise, it was good to sit in on the reps meeting to see how good the organisation is working with both the Scout Association & Girlguiding UK as well as sorting out the boring stuff that will make decisions and actions clearer both for members and execs in the future. It was also nice to see the few faces that I know … although there were a lot of new faces! One of whom knew my mum! She’s a former C/bury girl (but different district) and went on the county trip to Kenya with the YL who lives next door to my parents (and now at Uni but with a unresponsive SSAGO :( so not yet a member!).

Personally Saturday evening was extremely productive with the card selling! I took in an amazing £50 over the course of the evening, which pleased me a lot. It was the first big selling opportunity like this I’d had and I wasn’t sure how successful it would be. Mind you it means I’ve got quite a lot more cards to make before the Guider’s Training in March .. I believe the main areas needed for cards is Mother’s Day, Camping card (they’d sold out by about 9:30pm along with the alcopops on the bar table next to our table), along with the more male suitable ones. So I returned home with the remaining cards occupying only one much lighter box!

SAGGA committee meeting meant an early escape from the SSAGO AGM, but I was amazed to be walking out the door of the AGM at 10:15am having been item 5, and the meeting having started late at 10am! Hmm got quite a few items to sort out between now and the AGM with both the Registrar hat on and the Solent hat on. More amazing/ concerning was that I found out Saturday Evening was that Dr T is an Indie member of SSAGO! Darn that MSc … one day he’ll give up the idea of being a student ;). I think some members of the exec were a little surprised when he stood up for the Indie members present for the AGM attendance list!

I'm still amazed it took until 10am this morning for the first coffee of the day to occur!

Got home, made Tom’s birthday card while the first load of washing was going through; wrapped his main bit of pressie … for today Dr T is the grand old age of 33.

Card Selling

Monday I brought my cards in to sell at work, I was rather nervous about this however as I wasn’t sure what their attitude towards my cardmaking skills would be. In the end it was nothing to worry about as they loved them! So I went home £15 up on card sales that day :).

Then they came out last night, as it was district meal … alas not so good, with only 2 cards sold, but hopefully it will form a trickle throughout the run up to GM. It was a bit of a disappointment after the surprise of how well it went Monday.

Then at the weekend I’ll be off to the rally with them (we’re staffing), I plan to try and sell some in that lull that occurs between the end of dinner and start of the barn dance… we shall see how sales go. I feel its going to be an all or nothing affair there. So I’ll try and make up a few more mother’s day cards this evening to sell there.

Then a little while later in Mid march (weekend before Mothering Sunday) we have the county craft training morning and I’ve got the OK to sell my cards there …. So hopefully the thanks for volunteering (I’m going to point out how good they are to go with long service awards!) campfire cards will go down well there. Also I’ll no doubt replenish the Mother’s day card supply.

I’ve also adapted the Brownie Meeting poster for the cards … and stuck it up by the photocopier for the wing at work, it might just generate a few more sales.

Also watch out at SAGGA AGM as no doubt they'll come along with there too!

So at the moment I’m really crossing my fingers that sales go well Saturday night …. ‘cos I’ve got ideas for a whole new batch of cards to make!

Driving in my car.....

Back over Christmas my sister was discussing how they were having the New Year bash for her uni friends at their place (now they are renting a house and numbers have dwindled). Due to the presence of 9 week old kittens at the time (they are very well behaved, although Scamp is rather mischievous) they asked for no dogs (and besides my sister, more so than me doesn’t like being near dogs as they scare us {a dog nipping incident when she was young is the answer to that one}) even though quite a few friends have them. Now they knew for 1 this would be an issue (no bad thing), but the rest would respect Becca’s wishes and get them looked after for the period. Now these weekends have always been held Snowdonia way (Aber not being that far from the area) so she’s always driven over from Kent for such affairs no questions asked as she has wanted to spend time with friends. However turn the tables and ask the friends living Wales to come to Kent and the reply is ‘Oh its so far to come, I don’t we could do it, its such a long way to drive’ … so weren’t coming; but these are the same friends that didn’t think twice about Becca driving over from Kent?!?!

So further discussion went on and we came to the conclusion that Northerners are generally a bit woosie over driving for ages to get somewhere, but us down South think of it as a slight inconvenience on the way to getting to see our friends. Hence the puzzle of why 3 hours (6 hours round trip) is reasonably close for us down south for a weekend; but too far for people North of the Watford Gap generally? Hence the 3 hours for Blackwell Court next Friday is a ‘reasonably short’ drive for a weekend away. 1-2hours is positively close!!! Oh and the conclusion on the Southern thinking was that to get anywhere we have to go north and if you’re in Kent it will certainly involve a part of the M25!

Card Making Update ...

Last night I properly sorted out my card website so its more user friendly, so the pages are now themed and I've tagged on a photo website for the rest of the cards (as I was running out of photo pages in freeservers).

I've also sorted out another selling opporunity, as I will have a table for sales before, at the break and after the Craft Training morning (our county it seems doesn't do full day trainings!). So hopefully business will bustle then with the cards available (I'm going to big up the 'thanks for volunteering' ones to go with long service awards!).

But before that comes a couple in the next week or so, first is district Christmas meal that wasn't (so I'll bring the cards along for any sales/ promotion that they're at Brownies each week until I go); then I'll take them along to the Brum Rally to see if I can sell any there (so there may be the opporuntiy for any SAGGA committee requiring cards as well as they'll have been packed in the car to go to that!).

Finally I'm also going to bring them along to the SAGGA AGM ('cos they're small enough to just bring anywhere!!).

So if you want some cards and are going to be any of these places, let me know and I can put them to one side to secure the ones you want! Same goes for if you want them a bit more personalised .. just let me know.

On exciting Card News today, I got a parcel from the postie as I was mid sandwich making. For I had e-mailed Do Crafts to try and blag some stuff after reading they'd given some stuff to a YL for the Iceland Jamoboree fundraising. So in return for 1 e-mail I've got about £20+ worth of stufff. Admittidly not all of it is stuff I'd choose (I'm thinking on one of the wooden backed stamps), or more of the kiddie side (but I've not really got many kiddie cards so that's good) but it will all be put to good use in card production, and saved me buying any of these items. So if you have fundraising with a crafty theme going anytime, try dropping Do Crafts a line ...

A time to think ...

5 years ago yesterday I started my current job. Whilst the job doesn’t currently really fulfil me the change was for the better. It gave me a fresh start, let me be back amongst my support group of friends from Uni (thus improving my social life greatly) and I suppose gave me my relationship with Dr T.

I’ve never regretted leaving Kent for Portsmouth either time, the first at 18 truly gave me my independence and let me meet and keep a great set of friends to join the experiences of University.

The second time, my first proper job had really run its course and home life was rather lacking … it was time to move on. I never really settled in Kent when I came back from Uni, I guess for the same reasons I wanted to escape first time! A few more years under my belt, and having properly lived somewhere else (I’d lived in the same house for 18.4years before moving for uni) I think if it came to it I could settle back in Kent (but having to use the M25 to get any further north than Dartford/ Sevenoaks would still annoy me).

From the friends I lived with at uni there are still 3 that are really close, mind you 2 of them are now married to each other! They helped me move back to Portsmouth and provided me a bed to kip on when I came for interview & flat hunting. Mel & Will you are stars! 1 friend was someone I lost contact with, but on starting archery rekindled the friendship; she had annoyed me at times as a student, but she, as we all did, has grown up and matured and learnt some of the things that annoy others. All in all its given me a great friendship/ social circle outside work (something I didn’t really have back in Kent). Life moves on, the married friends now have a kid and the other a lovely bloke who’s been accepted into the friendship group as well as Dr T (He earned his merit stars by helping me move upstairs after 2weeks with friend!).

Being in Portsmouth also allowed something else to flourish, my relationship with Dr T; had I been living in Kent would he have come over for a Easter break drink that Spring? Southampton to Portsmouth is a much quicker train journey than Southampton to Faversham. Suffice to say I am more than pleased at how things have panned out over the following 4.5years (yes it is scary that come April we’ll have been a love interest for 5 years! And still not made an honest woman of me ;)). At times I still wonder why it took us 7 years to get to that stage… and why it happened in the first place (not that I’m complaining!).

As time has gone on other things have flourished and been found, such as my friendship with TWM2 & his lovely wife Anna (she’ll be pleased to know I associate her with Tom rather than her sister first!); joining up with CMT again(remind me never to say yes to her again after 3.5 hours sleep ;)) on various things Gascit wise which lead to SAGGA stuff and seeing people of my SSAGO days once more; so the social circle widens.

So while the job maybe be in a lull at the moment (no crashing ferries/ new stuff); at least I have a far better support group of friends than I did 5 years ago when I left Kent, car packed full of fragile stuff and my friends with a hired Luton with all the rest of my stuff (I’m not sure if they have ever forgiven me for that one).

So from me, a big thanks to those who’ve made the past 5 years so positive, lets hope the next 5 bring more happy times.

Girlie Weekend :)

I have returned from a very enjoyable Girlie weekend in Amsterdam. I’m still rather tired … but only have a 3 day week at least (hmm like last week).

In the style of Learn Swedish in 1000 difficult lessons (link from Mad’s blog) I will also incorporate a dutch lesson into this entry. We found our German became rather unrusted in understanding written dutch, mind you when it came to speaking lots of english was spoken (phew).

It was freezing (het bevriezen) out there so our first purchase was a pair of woolly tights to go under our trousers (we’d not thought to pack our walking thermal long johns). We found that Dutch woolly tights have a weird bum panel & I thought they had very long legs (as mind did a very good Nora Batty impression).

We started with a boat trip (included in our Stayokay (Dutch YHA) citybreak package) for a bit of orientation. We just missed a boat so went and purchased tights and return for the following one, having not had to stand about in the cold (koude). We found that we actually had a canal boat to ourselves! This was good at one canal where we didn’t get the pic we wanted … so the boatman reversed the boat to go back! However a Bateau mouche isn’t that great in the fast flowing choppy waters of the Ij (pronouced I) as it bounced around a lot.

Next was coffee/ lunch and tight putting on in the loo before more walking exploration of the area around southern Amsterdam. After all this exploration we went for the easy option on food (as it was so cold and we’d rather not have the hassle of going out) we had Satay (Indonesian food is big in Holland, its a former colony) & chips (of course with mayo).

Saturday was shopping day, as we used our 24hr tram pass (part of the package) to do a raid out to the Amsterdam scout shop. We purchased lots of badges, a clog woggle (we’d seen them earlier in a souvenir shop but with urgh scarves) and a birthday pressie. Mind you we also caused a bit of disturbance to the shop for ¾hr of its 2hr opening (we’d like to apologise for the other shoppers as we were dealt with by the dutch equivalent of Scout Fellowship/ TG). The important shopping done, we did 1st museum, Jewish Historical Museum, its usually over 4 old synagogues, however due to building work it’s only the Grand Synagogue and the the shop synagogue until later in the year, then hoped on a tram up to Dam square for the Royal Palace (once more closed for renovations) before late lunch in Hema (department store, Ikea meets BHS/ woolies), then headed back to our preferred shopping area of KalvertorenStraat, but generally resisted. Then tram back to Hostel and had our 3 course meal (on the package) of Kip Kurrie (Chicken Curry to you lot). Mind you before dinner we had a pre-dinner Gluhwein at a bar in the park ((Vertigo, part of the Film museum); warm drink and alcohol in one ideal for the Amsterdam weather we were having))

Sunday was museum day … having not made it out the door that early on Saturday our 24hr passes were still valid until 10:30am .. so we made the effort to get out the door early up to Anne Frank House for near opening time (as we would be working our way back from there into walking distance blocks). We both really liked Anne Frank Huis, those who have read the diary will be aware of what happened. The museum had the whole thing at the right tone and level that it was all tastefully done. They have to balance the tone of the subject with the desire of visitors. The annex is very bare (thus allowing the visitor numbers) but we felt actually this was better as it made you think about how cramped it was. There were the items to show how they made it homely as well as the lengths those protecting them went to. Added to this was the time and day we chose to visit, as for quite a lot of the visit we had the bells of Westernkerk (the big church in Jordaan) ringing its bells for the Sunday service, to think of hearing the bells, but knowing you couldn’t escape outside and see the church. Rather ominously as we ended our tour in the annex section and went into the part on what happened the Westernkerk had a single bell ringing out 11:30am as if a warning bell. We then went into the section above the front half of the office where they went into the fate of the families in the annex and the various camps they died at (other than Otto Frank who survived), then you had the original diary itself and the legacy of the diary. The museum was simple and clean in its design, but also very moving we felt that they had got the museum just right. Following this, my current reading will be the diary once more (having read it at about age 11). We then moved onto the Amsterdam Historical Museum and it café, for recommended pancakes (thanks Andy R & Rachel H they were fine pancakes, the ginger & pineapple one comes with lots of ginger be warned!) then museum. The museum doesn’t seem the most obvious choice (it had been recommended by Andy & Rachel as good place to visit) but gave us a really good understand of the way Amsterdam (and to a certain extent Holland) had evolved. We spent nearly 4 hours in there without realising! Following the museum we followed Andy comment on a good chip & mayo place around the corner … we found one around the corner that was mighty fine, whether it was the chip hut he suggested is another matter. We also drooled over the rubber stamps in a shop next to the museum (as used by the Queen of the Netherlands) but it was closed. We walked back to the hostel, dumped bags, went to Vertigo for a restorative pre-dinner/ pre-shopping Gluhwien and headed to Albert Hejin (the waitrose of Holland and dominates Amsterdam) for some dutch food to take back home. So Sarah got some Salt Liquorice (Drop Zout) for her office and I found Dark Chocolate Spread (chocolatepasta puur) for Dr T to try (Alas Tesco Finest Dark Choc Spread is no longer). Back to the hostel for dinner (by far and away the cheapest place to eat) to try out some dutch food. Conclusion Hutspot is better than Borchenkasel (?sp). Finished off the bottle of NZ wine I brought over for girlie weekend (we met on the GGUK trip we did to NZ in 2003, so opt for NZ wine on these occasions) whilst trying to get everything packed to come back.

Then final day … Van Gogh museum (where we found out we missed a dating session based on Chinese new year on Friday night late night opening), which was well laid out and we found we actually like the pictures from the end of life before he went a shot himself due to mental illness, dying 2 days later. I’d not thought about it before but Van Gogh only painted for a reasonably little time, so there isn’t the volume of other artists. The museum also has painting from his contemporaries and inspirations (as well as those he inspired) which completes the story well. Afterwards it was a main meal lunch special at a Indonesian restaurant, it was lovely and we were amazed at the amount of food they fitted in a bowl! We were stuffed at the end. Then for the final bit we hopped on a tram back to Spui for the stamp shop we saw the day before… and purchased a couple of rubber stamps (lovely non cutesy stamps available, and lots of browsing)… and took photos of the amazing cards in the window for some inspiration on card making. Then a rather quick goodbye at the tramstop in Spui as our 1hr on the tram ticket was nearly up so Sarah headed north for Amstelkring and headed south for sew on badge for the camp blanket and bag pick up before departing Amsterdam for the train journey home (Thalys & Eurostar).

Final dutch lesson, Nee, which is no; which leads to impressions of the Knights that say Ni! Monty Python has a lot to answer for!

Then on Tuesday it was a bit of a lie in @ parents, mooch around Canterbury shops (I do miss all the independent shops you get there that aren’t in Portsmouth, we have to go to Chichester).

So all in all we had a great time in Amsterdam and have been left with the feelings of wanting to explore more of Holland at a later date (if only to stay in the YH that’s in a castle near Haarlem).

My, what a long blog entry … photos will appear in flickr in due course.