Proud mum!

Little Fink was awarded the highest badge a Cub can get, the Chief Scout's Silver Award at Cubs today. She has worked hard for it and I am very proud of her. She also moves on the Scouts in September.
The parents and Cubs spent the early evening playing Non-Stop Football Cricket in the nearby playing fields. Great fun and I even got 2 runs!
Little Fink is also going to be one of fifteen scouts that travel to Denmark for 10 days next year as a visiting party to the Scout Jamboree in Sweden. They'll camp on the island of Zealand in Denmark and have a day trip to Sweden! She's really looking forward to it.

Catch Up

Well, what a busy few weeks.
First up - The Further Adventures Of Shouty Grandad. Every week, three times a week, Shouty grandad goes swimming. Last week he received a verbal warning. "What for?" I hear you cry. Splashing the Lifeguard. I kid you not. Grandad's response was to go and see the manager and tell him the lifeguard should be sacked on the spot. Needless to say the lifeguard is still there (and a little dryer as Grandad has gone on holiday!)

We've been mudlarking again, didn't find anything of note but nanny really enjoyed it. We've enjoyed a great couple of nights out with Silver Surfer and Astral. Once to see Pam Ayres - very funny lady, and once to see Elvis - brilliant. We've celebrated George's 18th birthday - doesn't time fly and it was lovely to catch up with some family I don't get to see half as often as I would like.
Yesterday we saw Little Fink and J1 off to Cub Scout Camp to Blackburn in Lancs. for the week.(see pic above). there were 8 minibuses, 2 lorries and a couple of vans in the convoy. they have masses of activities planned and their progress and daily podcasts can be followed at http://www.leverstockgreenscouts.org.uk/.

Right, I'm off to enjoy the peace and quiet before Mr Fink gets back from golf....it's a hard life!

Busy Weekend at Fink Mansion

Phew, what a weekend. Mr Fink and I headed off to Wickes, B&Q, Homebase etc to check out the showers. Didn't buy one. While I was in Wickes, The Oracle phoned me and invited me out for a drink (coffee) and a gossip. So we went to the local pub and had a lovely gossip, put the world to rights and solved all kinds of problems! then I dropped her off to meet with her sister and I went home. When I got in I had the most awful headache and felt really sick - must have been all the caffeine from 5 cups of pub coffee. Never again!

Saturday I went to work, when I finished I found several patients wandering round the deserted department, they were lost - my worst nightmare, I just know I'm going to get them lost even more by trying to help them! We found where they were supposed to be and I went home. In the evening we met Nanny and Shouty Grandad at the swimming pool for the Cubs District Swimming Gala. Little Fink came first in her heat of the 25m breaststroke and third in the final. Her team came 2nd out of 16 Cub packs. We were all so proud of her.

Sunday we did the housework and then GWTBO and Nanny S came round for dinner which Mr Fink cooked brilliantly. Afterwards we were treated to a game of Triv and some magic tricks from Little Fink. A thoroughly entertaining afternoon of entertaining!

Next week I have Bob The Plumber (Plumb-bob geddit?) coming round to start the bathroom refurb and the Ovenu cooker guy coming on Thur to clean my cooker. (Note to self - Do not ask the Oven guy to marry you again!)

Oh I wish I was 9

Oh I wish I was 9 years old. The Cubs had their annual "games in the park" and BBQ for the end of the year. We all went up to the park and had an enormous game of non stop cricket.

First Akela split everyone into two teams, of roughly 30 children and adults per team. the batting side stood in a line and the 'man in' had a plastic cricket bat. Akela stood a few metres away and bowled a plastic football at the batsman. When the batsman had hit the ball, he had to run to a nearby post and back to the batting area, before Akela and the fielding team had retrieved and bowled the ball again. If the batsman was not back in time, he was out, he had to then quickly pass his bat to the next person who then had to hit the ball.

We had a brilliant time, I scored 2 of our 120 runs, Mr Fink stood up to the plate, all the Cubs ran to the outfield ready for the massive slog....Mr Fink missed the ball and all but span round on the spot. OUT!

The people that run our Cub pack are unsung heroes and deserve our thanks for teaching our children old fashioned values, having modern fun and keeping them safe. Thank you all.

Words and Cubs and Climbing

Yesterday Little Fink and I were driving home in Laura and we were playing word games. We tried saying sentences without using the letter P. We said 'ineapple, 'orridge and dol'hin, colours 'ink and 'urple. I really liked Urple and am going to use it often!

Little Fink and her pal went to the local Scout Camp for, "Bring your friend to Cubs" evening, They did rock climbing, tobogganing, crate stacking (stand on crates, keep adding crates in a stack until it is so wobbly you fall off.), high ropes course (looks terrifying, about 20-30 feet off the ground) and  assault course. They both had a top time and were shattered by the time they got home. All good fun.

St George's Day Reminder

There is only a week to go before St George's Day.

It's easy to remember 2-3-4

23rd day of the 4th month

(Remember it - there will be a test)

The Finks will be off to Wrest Park to enjoy the St George's Day festivities - the above pic was taken there last year. Little Fink will also be taking part in the annual Scout Promise Renewal in the local Park which is held on or around St George's Day.

Cub Camp and Half Term

The picture on the right is not a scene from one of Mr Fink's zombie films. It is Little Fink's bag from cub camp. the brown bits are the bottoms of her trouser legs, she fell in the bog again.

Everything smelled of woodsmoke - not an unpleasant niff but the blue jumper on the left had an underlying 'parfam' of 'eau de mackerelle'!

The washer earned it's money and got the lot clean - except the socks!

I'm So Proud

OK, I'm boasting, but who wouldn't. We've just come back from Little Fink's Scout Group AGM where the annual presentations were made.

Little Fink won the award for Best Cub and if that were not enough, she was awarded a shield for being the best overall member of the Scout Group (out of 200 young people!) for joining in, helping people and putting others before herself.

I was so proud, I had a tear in my eye. She is a wonderful little girl and I told her how proud I was of her. We usually play down her achievements and don't crow about what she wins and earns, but today I am crowing and pleased to know such a pleasant and joyful young lady. (end of boasting!)

I love Cub Camp

Cub camp was amazing - had a brilliant time. The weather was fantastic and the children were brilliant (mostly!)

The Cubs had a fully packed programme, including, Kayaking, Water zorbing (and there was me thinking it was cruel to put kids into plastic bags, blow them up with industrial hairdryers, zip them up and throw them on the lake?????), raft building, archery, 3d maze (pitch dark tunnels laid out on 4 floors of a shed, wide enough for a 10 year old, one way in - one way out. Apparently better with no torches? EEP), archery, rounders, water pistol fight (the adult leaders 'kidnapped' the sixers, tied them to trees. The Cubs had to get past the leaders and untie their sixer, whilst being fired on with water. The noise was unbelievable), rounders, wide games (a game played over a wide area, designed to get to know the site).

On the first night, the Cubs went to sleep about 1am. I got up at 5.30am to go to the loo and on my way back, found 5 Cubs in their jim jams huddled round the water stand pipe...filling their water pistols!

I helped with the feeding of the five thousand (I never want to see another home made chocolate cake as long as I live! Well, maybe not until next time!) Mr Fink made his debut as a leader, and guided by Baloo, did a sterling job, I think he enjoyed it almost as much as the children did!

We took our tent down during free time on the Sunday. Akela told me that Little Fink returned from kayaking to get changed (she gets changed in our tent to spare the blushes - hers and the 4 boys she was sharing with) she walked almost half way up the field before she realised our tent was missing! Akela let her use his tent instead. when we had the closing ceremony he gave out the lost property, lo and behold a pair of wet Cub shorts was produced - she had left them on the floor of his tent! Oops.

J1 read Doctor Who comics all the way back and Little Fink slept - although she claimed she could not get to sleep! When we got in, she flopped down onto the sofa and slept for a further 2 hours. Woke up, watched Doctor Who, then went to bed!

What a weekend.

What's the weather going to be like?

I've been checking the weather carefully for the last couple of days. The Fink family and Mrs Cub-share's son, J1 are off to Cub camp at Thriftwood in Essex this weekend and, if you are a regular reader, you will know how much fun camp is in the rain.

Last night on the TV weather I heard the vaguest most sit-on-the-fence report I have ever heard..

"This weekend half the people in the south-East have a 50% chance of getting wet."

Well that just about covers everything and I'm none the wiser!

Cubs are sooooo funny

I really love the children at this age (8 years - 10years) they are discovering their own sense of humour and playing with rhymes and language. Observe. I am on the Cubrun, picking up Little Fink and her 2 boy cub buddies J1 and J2. an exchange between them.

Little Fink, "I am a winn-er, winn-er, winn-er."

J1, "More like weiner, weiner, weiner."

Little Fink, "Ape-face monkey-boy"

J1, with a resigned sigh and a shake of the head, "Little Fink is such a maniac."

J2 was quiet on this occasion but usually he joins in a gives a good account of himself.

Sad/Glad to be home

Well I'm home and recovering. the short time I spent at camp was so much fun that I wish I were still there, but know I wouldn't have been comfortable.
SATURDAY - Set off for camp - I had my bus swapped at the last moment as one of the mini buses didn't have an 'adult' in the back. (The driver and co-driver concentrate solely on the road). It was brilliant, I was in with Johnny, Ollie, Fowler and assorted other Cubs and Scouts. Top fun, they have such a good sense of humour, observation and knowledge. They can also sing, they know the words to most modern pop songs and make up for what they don't know with tumultuous volume! For instance, they managed to take a beautiful song, "Chasing Pavements" and turn it into something akin to a 200 decibel football chant! So funny.

What goes on at camp, stays at camp.

Apart from.....
A little cub throwing bits of bread at Little Fink and her friend, I shout at him to stop. A little later, Little Fink comes up to me and says, "Please don't tell C****** you are my mum."

Mrs Biscuit and Mr Coultard were both on site, in fine form. Along with The Charioteer and his faithful driver Jeeves who never fail to make us smile. (Jeeves had requested that his breakfast bacon roll be delivered to his tent by the kitchen staff - to which he received a suitable reply!)

SUNDAY - Rain, rain and more rain, some of the kids tents are in danger of becoming waterlogged so all start digging trenches around them to divert the water. The children are filthy and loving it. On site activities including, Backwoods Cooking - "Eugh look at the blood on that fish...yuck...can i touch it?" Cyclo-cross - rerouted as the mud and water made the original route dangerous. Woodworking - Little Fink made Harry the Hedgehog. At elevenses i looked at Little Fink (you only really get to see the children at meal times, the rest of the time, they are spread out all over the site, impossible to find) bearing in mind it is walloping down with rain and she is wet through, I ask, "How hard does it have to rain before you feel waterproofs are necessary?".

Two of the cooking team and I spent the night in the local TravelInn as my back was so sore and they don't camp. I watched the morning (5am) weather report on Monday - Hike Day - to find a severe weather warning had been issued, 60mph winds and torrential rain forecast. By 7am I had decided my back was too painful to stay on site so I phoned Mr Fink and he sleepily agreed to come 160 miles and get me. We cooked breakfast for the hikers, we were worried as the weather was so fierce and the children were due to be hiking across Exmoor - I was sure the troop would be on the evening news having been rescued by the Mountain Rescue people. I found Little Fink - bacon buttie in hand - told her I was going home and asked her what did she want to do (I really wanted her to come home as her eye was going pink again) she declined my offer and said she was going hiking. What can I say?

As the hike parties were leaving we had to create a trench through the kitchen to divert the water through. Mr Fink arrived at about noon and i was very relieved to see him. I said my goodbyes and asked the girls to keep me updated on Little Fink's progress eye=wise and headed off home. Sad to leave but in enough discomfort to be glad to be going too.

Apparently some of the hikes were rerouted from across the top of Exmoor to the beach for safety reasons. I'll know more, hopefully, when I see Little Fink on Friday.

I'd like to offer a big thank you to all the Finkers that have left messages of support on the camp website, you know who you are.

We're all Going on a Summer Hoilday

OK, the lorries are packed, 120 cubs, scouts and adults are gearing up for one more sleep till 'lift off'!

Saturday we are all off to Scout Camp. Little Fink and I will be there but Mr fink is remailing behind on his own to feed animals, work through the list of jobs I've prepared for him. Not to drink cider, play golf and watch zombie films, oh no.

He is dropping us off at 9am on Saturday at the Scout hut.

"Will you miss me?" I asked.

"Not on Saturday, I'm playing golf in the afternoon." Typical.

We almost cancelled the trip, I picked Little Fink up from school and she had two bloodshot eyes with green goo coming out of them. I took her to the chemist, who prescribed hayfever eye drops. Over the early evening her eyes got worse and worse, almost becoming swollen shut. We took her to another chemist who prescribed anti-biotic eye drops. By the time Mr Fink and I went to bed, she was asleep, eyes swollen horribly with hardened green goo trailed across her face. My heart was breaking, I woke her up a bit and cleaned her up.

Mr Fink and I considered A&E but thought we would leave it til morning. When she got up she cleaned her now stuck together lids and as the day progressed, her eyes have got better and better. She has one slightly swollen, totally bloodshot eye (horrid to see) and one that is almost back to normal. Yay we can go to camp.

I shall be off line and incommunicado for the next week - don't think they have tinternet and phone signals in deepest Taunton!

Pray for sun - unwashed damp cubs don't half pong by the third day!

Where is my child?

Monday. Hm Monday. Garfield always said, "I hate Mondays!". The Boomtown Rats said, "I don't like Mondays". Me, I never really bothered about them until this week. I had one that bit back.

I went for lunch with my friends from work - The 'Ladies Whot Lunch Club'. All was going well until I text'd Mrs Emm and asked her where she was?, she replied, "You were going to text me if you were going - you didn't text". Oh bugger, I thought we had I was going UNLESS I text'd. OOps, Mrs Emm missed the lunchtime Chinese buffet.

Then I had to take the minutes at the monthly department Board meeting. That was fine until one of the board members said, "Don't minute that remark." I thought, "What remark?" (note to self - don't go for a big meal prior to an afternoon full of meetings - or you will feel sleepy)

After the meeting I went to pick up Little Fink who had been to Tigger's (she is the same age as Little Fink but twice as bouncy!) house for tea after school. I had 10 minutes to collect her then drop her off at my 'Cub-share' friend (we take it in turns to ferry the Cubs back and forth). I pulled up at the house, knocked on the door, after a few minutes a strange woman in a bathrobe came to the door. Eek who is this? Where is my child? We ascertained that Tigger's family had moved from there nearly a year ago - ARGH I knew this - what am I doing here. I apologised for getting the lady out of the bath and set off to the other side of the Town to the new address. I got lost and had to ring Tigger's mum for directions. I got there and picked Little Fink up, gave Tigger's mum a really good laugh at what I had done, dropped Little Fink off at Mrs Cub-share's house. went home and hide from Monday for the rest of the night!

Monday - 1. Me - nil

Cry, "God for Harry, St George and England"!

It's easy to remember, 2 - 3 - 4.

23rd of the 4th month. St George's Day. One thing I am passionate about and that's pride in what I think this country should hold as it's values. Marking England's saint's day is one of them. I take this so seriously that when the little kids come knocking at Halloween, I ask them 3 questions before they get their sweets, one of the questions is when is St George's Day? If they get it wrong - no sweets.

So how will I be marking the day? On Saturday I will hopefully be going to Wrest Park for some St George's Day celebrations and a pageant. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conEvent.1477 On Sunday, Little Fink will be marching with the Scouts from the local park to the Town Hall for their St Georges Day Parade. Mr Fink and I will march along behind. On the day itself, I will cover my car and front door in St George's flags. I will wear red and white to work and have my St Georges flag badge on. Short of paining myself red and white, I think I've done my bit.

Will you mark the day?

What have I done?

Mr Fink and I dropped Little Fink off at the Cub camp. It was 7pm, it was dark and there were ?herds? of rampaging Cubs charging about all over the place. We approached the 'building' where they will all be sleeping, the leaders have the 2 rooms nearest the doors (either to escape or to stop the Cubs escaping?) The other rooms have 8 children in each one. She is sharing a room with 7 boys.

When we arrived one of the little darlings was jumping off the top bunk and showing us the vast numbers of cakes he had in his pack for midnight snack. It was like a room full of Chimps. She looked a little overwhelmed and seeing as we had had all the other little chats I didn't know what else to do or say to her apart from give her a kiss, tell her I love her and say I hope she has a lovely time.

As we left her to it, one of her little mates kindly asked if she would like a wrestle.

Aaargh. My poor baby, what have I done??????

How Can Pride be a Sin?

A couple of weeks ago at Cubs, Little Fink volunteered to swim backstroke at the Scouts County Swimming Gala. At the time I was horrified. The other Cubs that were chosen for the team seemed to all be club or county swimmers and probably in a different league to Little Fink. They also seemed very competitive. I was worried that they would be upset that Little Fink wasn't up to their standard.

I needed have wasted my time. She worked hard with her swimming teacher to get some technique, the Cubs supported each other and they were all fine.

Little Fink came third in her heat and third in the final. "Shouty Grandad", Nanny, Mr Fink, and I were all shouting ourselves hoarse. Shouty Grandad swore blind that she should have been given second! And Little Fink was completely unfazed about the whole thing.

If pride is a sin then I am a sinner. Well done Little Fink.

(by the way, the picture today is from a series that have made me smile. Pictures of cute cats with badly spelled/babyish/computer nerd type captions. The one above says, "I made you a cookie, but I eated it."

LIVE 07, Festival of Scouting

On Saturday I took Little Fink, Master and Miss Glum and J to the Dome for the Festival of Scouting, the culmination of the Centenary of Scouting. It was a 3 hour exhibition of the innovation and myriad skills of the young people that make up the Scouting community.

On a lighter note - it was 15,000 people involved in Scouting, enjoying a whole evening's entertainment. Brilliant.

The children were well behaved (and a joy to be with) and just as well, I was terrified of loosing them. As we approached the Dome on foot and stood marvelling at the Dome and it's surrounding sculptures, Little Fink piped up, "We've lost J, he's gone"

Argh, we hadn't even gone inside yet. I looked round in the low key panic mode us mum's go into. After 30 agonising seconds Little Fink said, "Ha ha got you, he's here really". he had been hiding behind me the whole time.

I calmly (I thought - considering) asked them to look at my face and tell me if I looked like I thought it was a good joke. We all agreed not to play that little joke again!

The place was packed solid, we moved along in a hand holding chain and checked out the ground floor, after a while we needed to find a toilet before the show.

There is only one set of toilets on the main ground floor of the Dome! The queue was back out onto the main corridor. Again the feelings of minor panic were setting in. The kids have to sit for 3 hours, they need to go to the loo before we go in. The worst case scenario was we would have to take them outside and go al fresco but the fight to get through the crowds made this idea seems almost impossible too. Mrs Coulthard said, "I just heard someone say there are toilets in the cinema". We rounded up the troops (3 women and 6 children) and legged it up the stairs. We asked the man on the door, could the children go to the loo. "No, we had hundreds of people in here this morning trying to use the toilets, I'm not starting it this afternoon".

I begged and pleaded with him just to let the children through and when that didn't work I asked if the manager could come down. When he arrived I stated my case again. I couldn't see a was of getting this problem sorted out and my voice started to crack with emotion/panic.

The manager must have thought I was going to cry or something so he let us through, on the proviso that we didn't tell anyone we had been allowed through! The things we do for our children?

Close encounter with my Cuz

In a few weeks my favourite cousin, Ched and her partner Doris, will be coming to visit for a party. My sentiments in her words, "I'm giddy at the thought", I enjoy her company so much. Many a time we have stayed up drinking and talking, putting the world to rights until we watch the sun rise together. This is my favourite story about my favourite cousin.

Ched was in the pub, testing the local brew for quality and quantity. A man at the bar was extolling the virtues of his shiny new mobile phone and making sure everyone in the pub knew how expensive and full of gadgets and gizmo's it was. He was bragging and boasting to the extreme until My Fav Cuz turned to him and said, "I bet it can't swim" and dropped it into his pint of Guinness.

I wasn't there but I do know Ched and she would have. Like the time we were having a family and friends BBQ. I had invited a few families and Ched too. One of the husbands (we shall call him Coulthard for his driving style on Scout camp) which none of us knew very well, explained to Ched that she wouldn't throw that bucket of water at him (for we were having a water fight) because he was sitting at the table fully clothed. Ched dutifully informed him that if he dared her, she would. He reiterated she hardly knew him and wouldn't actually throw the water.

Ched threw the water and Coulthard was drownded. The moral of this? Ched is fair but don't dare her to do ANYTHING.

Rememberance Day

Not including weddings, christenings and funerals, I only go to church once a year. Today was that day. I have an over riding need to show my gratitude to those that gave their lives so that I might live mine in relative peace.

Is it just me? Ever since I had Little Fink I have become overly emotional at certain stimuli.

Rousing music (Albert Hall New Year Concert - the timpani drum started playing the theme from 2001 a Space Oddysey and I was toast - blubbing), Rugby players singing the National Anthem (the recent World Cup had me in tears every time), ordinary people talking about emotive subjects, I hear that barely audible 'wobble' in the voice and I'm history.

The thing that set me off today was, an old soldier laid a wreath on the memorial, took a step back, bowed gently, then as he straightened up, he threw his elderly shoulders back with pride, stood to attention and saluted all his comrades, known and unknown. The way he held himself infront of that memorial, the pride and strength in that simple gesture made me cry, it's making me cry just thinking of it now. Later in the service he read out the names of all the local people who died in WWI, WWII and the Falklands, this again made the tears fall.

On a happier note, earlier on in the day when Little Fink had gone to meet up with the Cubs to parade into the church, I met up with 2 of my best friends, one of which came to Scout Camp this year (where she made her name as an expert biscuit-procurer, remind me to show you the video of her Biscuit Stealing Dance sometime) She and I were sitting together in church which is a dangerous place to be because I only have to look at her and I collapse in fits of giggles. I blame my other friend for not supervising us properly. Anyway, as the vicar got to the bit about, "Blessed are the meek, blessed are the peacemakers" I started to shake with suppressed laughter and dare not look round at Mrs Biscuit for fear she would launch into a Monty Python tribute and get us both thrown out.

The other highlight was Little Fink, she recited the Lord's Prayer beautifully (she knows the 'old' version from her time in a Catholic Scout group - they don't teach it at her school - terrible) and at the end, she dutifully crossed herself in the Catholic fashion, bless her, she was the only one, we were in a C of E church!