I have a soft spot for gift bags. I tend to collect them from school and Guides and this year I've found myself left with half a dozen wine-bottle shaped gift bags. However, with a bit a forward planning and a lot of cunning and guile and other such attributes, all my friends' gifts will fit in long thin bags. So they all have matching presents and I no longer have odd shaped gift bags. Life is good. As we all know there's nothing worse than having the wrong size gift bag.*
*This is something I happened to exclaim quite loudly on the tube in the summer on the way to a birthday party. At the time I had a small gift and a large gift bag, which made the gift look a bit pathetic. Obviously, I know there are many things worse than this and the mocking derision I have received since has taught me to be careful about exclaiming things on the tube. And also to ensure that friends' gift bags are the right size. They now notice.
And exciting news time: I'm a Guide leader with a unit of Guides and a member of Girlguiding UK, but as I'm 24, I'm also a member of senior section, which is term which covers people who are anything from 14 to nearly 30 and are involved in Guiding. A few weeks ago, I went on a camp called InTops (International Opportunities) to find out about some of the things Girlguiding does overseas, and to take part in some completely off the wall activities. While at camp, I applied to go on an overseas project. There then followed a long wait while they reviewed the things everyone did on camp and look through applications.
And my exciting news? I've been invited to go on a voluntary project in Armenia for three weeks in the summer! I'm totally excited and a bit nervous as there's so much to do beforehand and I've never done anything like this before.
A team of six of us will be completing the fourth year of a 5 year project which helps to start Girl Guide units in Armenia, provide leadership training for the volunteers, run a national camp for existing Armenian Guides and help build an infrastructure so that more girls can get involved with the fantastic opportunities available to Guides. We're going to be running sessions, camping, staying in hostels, providing resources....it's going to be busy :D
And before any of that happens, I need to raise £2000 to support the project.
Kisses xxx
P.S. Friends have all left now. But I think we spread a good bit of Christmas cheer about the place :D
This made me laugh - I also collect and recycle gift bags!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your place on a GOLD project!! I'm 29 now so have been out of SS for a while now (sob) but friends who have done these internationals rave about them!
ReplyDeleteI would suggest signing up to easy fundraising, unless you use for your Guides already? We make around £100 a year & don't push it that hard at all. Let me know if you want a referral number as then we benefit too.
Are you on Guiders.co.uk? Some great ideas there!
It sounds like a very big adventure :)
ReplyDeleteYou're such a bag lady ;) Many congrats on your exciting news! xx
ReplyDeleteWow! Congratulations on your trip to Armenia. I was a Brownie leader until not so long ago, and didn't realise there was a senior section for the older ones. Maybe something to look into when baby has arrived!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with all your fundraising!
Congrats on the awesome news!!! Good for you! I'm a HUGE fan of gift bags!!! I really should only use them! I stink at wrapping presents!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your exciting news - nearly as excited thinking about reading your posts next summer! (OK an exaggeration - but I'm in good company obvs ;-))
ReplyDeleteWell done on your selection. I led a trip in 2005 across five European Countries in 2 weeks, great fun, hard work and very rewarding. I'm going to sign up to your class and coincidentally, 4 other members on my UKS team are Guiders so I will point them in your direction too.
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