I have had such a busy week!! I've been out to two meals with different friend groups, spent an evening making templates for this week's Guide meeting, held this weeks Guide meeting (based on Father's Day- what else?), and spent the weekend in London with the Guides!
I baked some cookies for Dad as I wasn't going to be home to share his special day- it didn't all go to plan as I was forced into some emergency hoovering by the cat and didn't hear the oven beeper going off- cue slightly singed cookies! He said he preferred them with a hefty crunch which was very generous of him.
My weekend has consisted of an overnight sleepover at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. We took seven guides for the sleepover and activity day and had to travel by train, taking all of our luggage in rucksacks with us. I took The Brother's camping rucksack which could fit my sleeping bag and roll mat in/on, and The Mother produced a tiny camping pillow to go with it. The pillow cover wasn't in a fantastic state with some ominous stains on, so I quickly (within an hour) whizzed up a new cover for it in a much more 'me' style.
Holding the existing pillow over my chosen fabrics I guess-timated the size and cut and stitched together three panels for the front. These weren't quite long enough across the width of the pillow so I added a matching border at either end so that it fitted. Two pieces of light blue fabric to create an envelope opening at the back, all stitched together and done!
I am very pleased with it. Camping in style with pretty pillow cases. The actual sleeping part of the overnight wasn't the best night's sleep I've ever had- the floor was very uncomfortable, even with the layers I managed to take with me to lie on (I've been spoilt by memory foam mattresses!)- and it was the first overnight the museum had ever done and there were minor teething issues with lights not being able to be turned off and security men wandering the halls with cloppy shoes on. Never mind, it was all an experience and the girls seemed to enjoy it.
Walking up the incredibly steep hill from the museum, through Greenwich Park and up towards the Royal Observatory, there is the most amazing view of the London skyline and Canary Wharf. We went up the hill a few times (an excellent work out for one's thighs!) at different times of the day, and saw it at sunset, in the early morning and in the middle of the day which had different lights and shadows that were quite amazing. The girls were treated to a show in the Planetarium (very cool zooming through the constellations) and took part in lots of different activities to do with space, boats, nature, science and history.
On Sunday afternoon we went on the Cutty Sark, a very old ship with lots of history. It started out as a tea clipper, then transported all sorts of goods (from pianos to limes, coffee and silks), became a training vessel for Navy cadets and is now a historical landmark in it's own dry dock museum. Did you know that the amount of Nautical miles it has travelled in its lifetime, would get it to the Moon and back again two and a half times?
We met Nannie, the figurehead of the Cutty Sark who gave a talk to the girls about the history of the ship. She was a witch you know! (Although I'm still not sure how she ended up being a figurehead.)
It was a brilliant trip, and was completed with lots of badges for my camp blanket (yet more to be stitched on!) All in all, a very eventful week! I'm hoping next week will be quieter to give myself a chance to recover slightly!
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