![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Mar. 4th, 2006 10:35 pmI'm back. My home PC now has operational anti virus software so I can update on days other than Monday! As a minor aside Monday is Cardiff Bloke's 30th birthday. I put his pressie in the post on Thursday night and insisted that I be given a self adhesive stamp this time. Knowing my luck with things to do with Cardiff Bloke it's probably been destroyed in a freak Royal Mail incident! Anyway, I hope he likes it or that he can make a few quid out of it on ebay if he doesn't. I'll write about it a bit more on Monday by which time he'll have opened it.
After posting on Monday night I realised that I hadn't written about Thinking Day. For the benefit of anyone who was never a Brownie, both Lord Baden Powell (the founder of the Scout and Guide movements) and his wife Lady Baden Powell (the first World Chief Guide) were born on 22nd February which is now known as 'Thinking Day' if you're a Guide or 'Founder's Day' if you're a Scout. It is the most important date in the Guiding year. Each year our district goes on parade on the Sunday nearest Thinking Day and then takes part in a short Church service. I only started helping out at Brownies again last summer after a break of five years so this was my first Thinking Day in ages. Unsuprisingly it was absolutely freezing on parade. We walked for about 20 minutes I guess and I had earache by the time we got to the Church. I'm suprised the Brownies (some of whom are only just 7 years old) didn't all develop colds on route. The parade route has changed since I last took part. The police stopped traffic so that we could march up one of the busiest arteial routes in West London. We commented jokingly that the motorists wanting to use the road would hate us but we needn't have worried as the police didn't keep the road closed. Traffic started zooming past us at full speed after a few minutes. It's only a single carriage road with one row of traffic running in each direction so there was hardly space for the traffic to get past. Fortunately the Brownies march in pairs and we didn't have many pairs so with three leaders in our unit we could stand between the kids and the traffic. It was pretty scary for us leaders though. It was silly really as there is a wide pavement on that road and we easily could've marched on that. The church service was nice but could've been better organised. Whoever had typed out the order or service had made an error with the formatting so the words to the hymns didn't fit with the music. Brownies are 7-11 years old but they're quick to spot any mistakes. At one point it was so dire as everyone tried desperately to squeeze the words in that I started giggling which set the other leaders off!
I have a bit of a problem with going to Church as I'm not Christian. I was brought up in a sort of Christian household but we never went to Church. My mum and dad met at a Christian youth group in the early 1960s and my dad's parents always went to Church but it never meant much to me. On the other hand my parents are socialists (my mother's grandmother was a member of the Communist party) and as they've got older they've moved away from religion. My mum had been a member of the United Reformed Church and therefore was liberal Christian. United Reformists don't usually baptise babies so my sister and I were never Christened. However, when I was at school I considered myself to be a Christian, because I guess, I was more of a Christian than I was any other religion. It wasn't until I went away to university, made friends with several practising Christians and realised my beliefs weren't in tune with theirs that I started describing myself as having no religion. Anyway, I go to church for weddings, funerals and Brownie events (and presumably christenings although I haven't ever been invited to one) but I feel like a fraud all the way through. Even so I'll never stop going to Thinking Day as the Brownies put a lot of effort into preparing readings for it and they'd be dissapointed if I didn't attend.
Other than that the week has been predictably dull. Uni on Monday followed by the last episode of 'Life on Mars'. Brownies on Tuesday and a new comedy called 'Thin Ice' which I thought was very funny. Helped my parents look at potential holiday destinations on the internet on Wednesday. Didn't do much on Thursday except watch 'Hotel Babylon'. Friday was the last episode of 'The IT Crowd'. All the decent TV seems to be finishing this week and next. Maybe I'll actually get some uni work done.
On Thursday I also ordered a bundle of stuff from Amazon. I had to buy a text book so I thought I might as well get some other bits as well. In the end I ordered: the text book (glad I remembered that!), DVD of series two of 'The Tribe', the soundtrack to '24 Hour Party People' and the Hard Fi and Artic Monkeys albums. I now wish I'd ordered the two disc addition of Their Law as well as I tried to buy it in HMV today (I've got a £10 voucher) but they didn't have a copy. I'm a bit fed up that Baz Lurman's 'Red Carpet Trilogy' has now been released as a box set. It was released ages ago in the States so I assumed it wasn't going to happen here and brought 'Strictly Ballroom' and 'Moulin Rouge' individually. Tut. I also brought the new issue of 'Empire' today and noticed that three movies loved by all my past older boyfriend 'The Dark Crystal', 'The Goonies' and 'Labyrinth' are being released on DVD on March 13th. Thirtysomething blokes will be wallowing in nostalgia over the next couple of weeks with those.
Have just discovered from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
violetcreme that I missed Julia Sawalha's first new TV appearance for ages this morning. She was on BBC1 talking about her memories of food through her life. My careful scrutiny of the Radio Times yesterday evening failed to spot that. To be honest 11.30am on a Saturday morning isn't a timeslot I usually look at especially as I knew I'd be at the hairdressers today. Oh well, maybe it'll be repeated.
Press Gang spottings a bit thin on the ground again this week. Dexter in 'Hotel Babylon' of course but no sign of Rosie Marcel in 'Holby City'. I guess a new Julia spotting trumps them all though.
Meeting my friend to do 'something touristy' tomorrow as her boyfriend has gone snowboarding in Austria and she's lonely. Must remember to set the video for 'The New Tomorrow'.
Think I need a 'Tribe' icon to celebrate the release of series two on DVD. If I've got time I'll work on one tomorrow.
After posting on Monday night I realised that I hadn't written about Thinking Day. For the benefit of anyone who was never a Brownie, both Lord Baden Powell (the founder of the Scout and Guide movements) and his wife Lady Baden Powell (the first World Chief Guide) were born on 22nd February which is now known as 'Thinking Day' if you're a Guide or 'Founder's Day' if you're a Scout. It is the most important date in the Guiding year. Each year our district goes on parade on the Sunday nearest Thinking Day and then takes part in a short Church service. I only started helping out at Brownies again last summer after a break of five years so this was my first Thinking Day in ages. Unsuprisingly it was absolutely freezing on parade. We walked for about 20 minutes I guess and I had earache by the time we got to the Church. I'm suprised the Brownies (some of whom are only just 7 years old) didn't all develop colds on route. The parade route has changed since I last took part. The police stopped traffic so that we could march up one of the busiest arteial routes in West London. We commented jokingly that the motorists wanting to use the road would hate us but we needn't have worried as the police didn't keep the road closed. Traffic started zooming past us at full speed after a few minutes. It's only a single carriage road with one row of traffic running in each direction so there was hardly space for the traffic to get past. Fortunately the Brownies march in pairs and we didn't have many pairs so with three leaders in our unit we could stand between the kids and the traffic. It was pretty scary for us leaders though. It was silly really as there is a wide pavement on that road and we easily could've marched on that. The church service was nice but could've been better organised. Whoever had typed out the order or service had made an error with the formatting so the words to the hymns didn't fit with the music. Brownies are 7-11 years old but they're quick to spot any mistakes. At one point it was so dire as everyone tried desperately to squeeze the words in that I started giggling which set the other leaders off!
I have a bit of a problem with going to Church as I'm not Christian. I was brought up in a sort of Christian household but we never went to Church. My mum and dad met at a Christian youth group in the early 1960s and my dad's parents always went to Church but it never meant much to me. On the other hand my parents are socialists (my mother's grandmother was a member of the Communist party) and as they've got older they've moved away from religion. My mum had been a member of the United Reformed Church and therefore was liberal Christian. United Reformists don't usually baptise babies so my sister and I were never Christened. However, when I was at school I considered myself to be a Christian, because I guess, I was more of a Christian than I was any other religion. It wasn't until I went away to university, made friends with several practising Christians and realised my beliefs weren't in tune with theirs that I started describing myself as having no religion. Anyway, I go to church for weddings, funerals and Brownie events (and presumably christenings although I haven't ever been invited to one) but I feel like a fraud all the way through. Even so I'll never stop going to Thinking Day as the Brownies put a lot of effort into preparing readings for it and they'd be dissapointed if I didn't attend.
Other than that the week has been predictably dull. Uni on Monday followed by the last episode of 'Life on Mars'. Brownies on Tuesday and a new comedy called 'Thin Ice' which I thought was very funny. Helped my parents look at potential holiday destinations on the internet on Wednesday. Didn't do much on Thursday except watch 'Hotel Babylon'. Friday was the last episode of 'The IT Crowd'. All the decent TV seems to be finishing this week and next. Maybe I'll actually get some uni work done.
On Thursday I also ordered a bundle of stuff from Amazon. I had to buy a text book so I thought I might as well get some other bits as well. In the end I ordered: the text book (glad I remembered that!), DVD of series two of 'The Tribe', the soundtrack to '24 Hour Party People' and the Hard Fi and Artic Monkeys albums. I now wish I'd ordered the two disc addition of Their Law as well as I tried to buy it in HMV today (I've got a £10 voucher) but they didn't have a copy. I'm a bit fed up that Baz Lurman's 'Red Carpet Trilogy' has now been released as a box set. It was released ages ago in the States so I assumed it wasn't going to happen here and brought 'Strictly Ballroom' and 'Moulin Rouge' individually. Tut. I also brought the new issue of 'Empire' today and noticed that three movies loved by all my past older boyfriend 'The Dark Crystal', 'The Goonies' and 'Labyrinth' are being released on DVD on March 13th. Thirtysomething blokes will be wallowing in nostalgia over the next couple of weeks with those.
Have just discovered from
violetcreme that I missed Julia Sawalha's first new TV appearance for ages this morning. She was on BBC1 talking about her memories of food through her life. My careful scrutiny of the Radio Times yesterday evening failed to spot that. To be honest 11.30am on a Saturday morning isn't a timeslot I usually look at especially as I knew I'd be at the hairdressers today. Oh well, maybe it'll be repeated. Press Gang spottings a bit thin on the ground again this week. Dexter in 'Hotel Babylon' of course but no sign of Rosie Marcel in 'Holby City'. I guess a new Julia spotting trumps them all though.
Meeting my friend to do 'something touristy' tomorrow as her boyfriend has gone snowboarding in Austria and she's lonely. Must remember to set the video for 'The New Tomorrow'.
Think I need a 'Tribe' icon to celebrate the release of series two on DVD. If I've got time I'll work on one tomorrow.
