12 Days!

So things are getting hectic in my little life in England.

Next week, starting on Monday, I'm going on a massive adventure to Paris with our school choir and orchestra. Just before Mosaic I hear you cry? Yes, indeed. What a buzz!

We'll be singing THIS or rather, I will be singing the Alto solo in this :o I AM REALLY RATHER NERVOUS! We're singing the whole Mass (minus the Credo LOL) and it is so beautiful, I would marry it if I could. Aside from me spending every other moment preparing for this concert tour, I am also gathering bits and bobs for SWAPS and clothes I need to pack.

Like my International Necker!

Isn't it awesome? I can't wait to wear it around Canada after Mosaic and on the plane of course!

OH! Wait, what is that I hear you say again? There's MORE awesome to come in this blog? Well my friends, YOU ASSUMED CORRECTLY!

Look at that beauty! So the Royal Mint has decided to make a Centenary Coin for GirlGuidingUK, and I personally think it's fantastic. So does my Mum... and lo and behold we bought one!

Of course it cost more than 50p, we live in a silly economic climate, duh!

I hope to post sometime next weekend with any last minute preparations, but until then...

Stay adventurous!

Haze

Genuinely so proud!

I have some big news!

The roundabout at the top of Hild and Bede bank in Durham City centre has THIS on show!

Now, how fabulous is that? It makes me beam horrendously every time we drive past it! Waving, shouting, smiling... you name it, I display it because I'm so happy that Durham is recognising and promoting our fantastic organisation that is GirlGuiding!

It was our last full group (minus Grace, sad face) meeting last night before we all set off for Canada, and we discussed a few (LOTS) of things.

I wanted to take some pictures of us having discussions and chocolate fondue... alas, we had our faces full of marshmallows and the swing of the meeting didn't really lend itself to stopping and taking pictures!

I've got some swaps sorted hopefully... but I'm still pondering what to make/do/if I should print some labels etc.

This week and the subsequent weeks are really looking busy for me, and everyone else, but now that my exams are over, I'll hopefully have some pockets of time to organise/sort more things regarding this fabulous trip! I'll also be corresponding with one of our leaders, Jenny, regarding our Cultural presentation thing-y-mah-whatsit for the 15th July, and man, we have some excellent ideas in the pipeline XD

Most of all, I'm excited to be celebrating my 17th Birthday whilst we're in Canada.

Exactly a month from today infact! ^___^

Hopefully it'll be full of awesome, although maybe not full of the blenderized cake Rachel suggested, however sweet the vlogbrothers' reference is :P

Stay adventurous,

Haze

Sweet New Threads!

Yes! It is that time folks, when we all have our sweet new uniforms for camp, all the same, but PERSONALISED! MANY HUZZAHS!

So we all have these AMAZING hoodies (the same purple colour as Charlie McDonnell's "I Look Better In Purple" t-shirts, which are MADE OF AWESOME) that have our truly terrific Monty the Moose (drawn by our homegrown Helen! :D) on the front and our names and another groovy logo on the back. I'll leave that up to your imaginations, strangers, and if I see you at the camp (which I really hope to!) then you can fill in that gap in your imagination with the real thing. We all chose names/nicknames for our hoodies...and quel suprise... I went with Hazeltron *giggles* HOORAY!

We all also have these darned amazing polo shirts with cutie Monty on too:

I'm so excited! We're now going to get a few more personal group t-shirts I think, because we've got a few for our days travelling after the camp and for times as groups at the camp. Hopefully we'll be able to use the embroidered transfers that Mum and I found from a while back, they're super cool!

Anyway, aside from sounding lamely excited about our personalised threads, I've also been stocking up on essentials for camp.

REPELLENTS.

No, not people repellents (like my retainers)... INSECT REPELLENTS! I've started taking some supplements (Odourless Garlic and Vitamin B1), as advised by Dr. Jen who is coming with us to Canada, to hopefully repel any icky and evil insects that may want to bite me silly and make me a very irritated camper.

Here's what I've got so far!

I don't know why it's rotated, but oh well! It's some of those weird Mosquito Bands that you wear to ward off the buzzers, and some roll on gel to stop 'em getting stuck to my arms.

It's fair to say I'm really excited, because it's just over 5 weeks until we all set off to the airport to fly over the pond and get set up at GMC2010!

In other exciting news, I've been trying to source swaps, and I will update you on how that goes :D

Also, in terms of actually where I've been (i.e. actually out and about) I went to the local quayside open air festival this weekend called Evolution (and actually saw Nichola who we'll be going to GMC2010 with, it was fun) and saw some AMAZING live acts!

That was what the stage looked like just after De La Soul had finished their set. Every band we saw were HUGE (as in they made a big impression/sound) and I had a totally amazing time with my friend and fellow GirlGuide Francesca! Live music is really a passion of mine! Especially Campfire songs! Let me know if you like singing around the campfire! If you don't...is something wrong with you?

No seriously, you need to have like a fun implant or something.

I need to mend my camp blanket because my swaps from Poacher are falling off! Sad times!

Stay adventurous,

Haze

It's all hotting up!

It was 19 Degrees Centigrade today! WOW!

The sun really made me think about how much I am looking forward to the GLORIOUS weather in Canada!

I've just been to a Brownie fund-raiser because they're going to Disneyland Paris in October! They had an auction, and I helped to sell the raffle tickets, and Mum took some fresh rhubarb to sell in bunches! It was great fun, our community is really supportive of Guiding :D

Alongside that, it made me think that you might like to know that the week before Mosaic, I'm going to Disneyland Paris myself with our school Choir and Orchestra for a Concert Tour! Phew! Busy times, but I thought I'd drop you a note letting you know about how I'm getting all prepared :D

So I went shopping tonight for shoes. EXCITING, right? I really do love shoes, but these ones are for camp. Now, I'm *really* not a CROC person, and I did have a pair of cheap ones for Poacher, but they wore out really quickly and I am quite glad of that. However, these ones do remind me of Crocs, albeit they are NOT.

They're like...water shoes? For activities and what-not! They're totally CAMP shoes, like they say everything about the practicality and fun :D Ok... they're not HUGELY attractive, but they're BLUE! I REALLY LIKE BLUE.

I also got another "Micro" towel...

It's SO ABSORBENT. Super, duper weird.

I do also look really rather...surprised?

Oh well! I guess it's just because I'm really excited, right?

We're going BIG bag shopping soon, I'll let y'all know how it's going in the U.K. sometime soon!

Stay adventurous,

Haze

Progress in exciting times!

Hi guys and girls! I've just come in from helping with Guides, we were making friendship bracelets, and it reminded me about all of the amazing new people I'm going to meet at GMC2010, as well as the great gang we're going with!

You might be aware by now that this has gone up on the official GMC2010 website for y'all to vote on!

I thought I'd let you know on a new post that I'm going to try and update this as soon as I get more information about how we're all getting prepared for the camp! So that'll be quite frequently... as it just keeps running through my mind at every spare moment I have, and I can't help but just grin with excitement!

We'll be travelling to the camp on the 8th July and dunndunndunnn! I'll be turning 17 at the camp! :o I KNOW! I'm so excited, and I thought you'd all be interested, you lovely bunch of people.

We're getting the train from Darlington (North-East England) down to Manchester (just a bit further down really) to the airport to then FLYYYYY to Canada and then to the camp! There's 10 Girls going, and 4 leaders, all of whom are great fun and fantastic members of Girl Guiding. We're all so excited for the whole experience, especially because we've been organising it for over a year and a half!

We all met up in Durham last year in June at Redwood Lodge (a little Guiding hut in the centre of Durham) and stayed the night so we could get to know each other. It was the weekend of Durham's "Big Meeting" (which is really called Durham Miner's Gala) and it's where the collieries process their banners and there's a fair in town and THERE ARE HUGE CROWDS. Here's a picture of us ready to go into town to do a trail, and find the hidden bits of Durham!

We also had a murder mystery night! We all got dressed up and acted out the bits from the script! It was absolutely hilarious! Helen even sparked the kettle off!

I'm the one with the big black fascinator hat and the silly fishnet tights (I've had my hair cut since :P)

It was a *very* funny evening. We've sold quizzes and held evenings and ALL SORTS to raise money in this time too! It's all been very exciting, especially now we're getting so close to the real thing!

It was such a great weekend, we all got to know lots about each other!

We also played some great games...

Filling plastic bags with water and trying to fill buckets with them. It doesn't *sound* that fun...but believe me, it was!

Since starting off this blog, I've made my Theme Day Selections on the website, and found out that we're all going to be staying in the 70's Ranger Village! WOW! I mean, this really got me fist-pumping the air, it means I can wear some vintage 70's clothing, and get on down to some Lindisfarne, right?

We've just sorted out colours and nick names for hoodies and shirts for when we're at the camp and travelling around as a group, and it's really hitting home how soon this amazing camp is going to come around!

Thank you so much for following this, I promise I'll try and make it interesting (maybe even... *entertaining*?) for you to read about my experiences!

Stay adventurous,

Haze

Hello new blog and a new stage of my life!

So, this year (in about 9 weeks time :o) I'm going to be flying out to Guiding Mosaic Canada 2010, which is an international Girl Guide camp! I'm so excited, and one particular thing that is getting me really pumped about the whole experience is being offered the chance to blog for the camp!

This was my original entry... I hope you enjoy it!

I've been involved with Girl Guiding since I was five, and so far have loved every minute of it! I have learnt so much, made so many new connections, and hope that these experiences shape me as a person for the rest of my life. There are people from all walks of life that I never thought I'd be such good friends with that I have bonded with over a soggy washing up cloth and a string puppet who have become the people I want to spend my time with; helping others and being part of a team. I am extremely proud to be part of such an amazing organisation, and the experiences that Guiding has brought me will surely stay with me forever. I have always loved documenting things, keeping an entertaining blog for the past year (http://imnotgoingtolietoyou.blogspot.com) and telling stories, and throughout my guiding experiences, I have been encouraged to express myself and discover aspects of my true personality, and I would like to thank Guiding for this. I am sure that without Guiding, I would not be the person I am today, and surely a less interesting person. What inspires me about this organisation is the sense of togetherness, to better each others and other people's lives. There are no aspects of jealousy or selfishness, just coming together to have a great time whilst making a difference in a huge number of ways. I am extremely excited and honoured to be a part of this amazing camp, and hope that everyone I know and will come to know through it will take from it as much as I will, and continue to pursue a life made better by Guiding.

(I'll be posting more things about how we're all getting organised with our Team from Durham, U.K. if you follow this link http://www.hazelgoesoutandabout.blogspot.com)

Stay adventurous,

Haze.