Everything today is thoroughly modern

This is my final post in the 'Reasons I haven't really posted about food lately, but here's a look at Guiding in it's Centenary year' trilogy, and this is purely about Centenary Camp which happened at Harewood House in Leeds earlier this month. Myself and 4 of my unit went, along with about 96 others from our County, and 4900 other Guides and Guiders from around the world. There's just so much I could write about here. There's probably so much I will write about here and that's barely going to scratch the surface of the amazing time we all had.


For me as a Guide I actually got to do very little, we went once to a day camp that I guess was a County event, where we got to do some orienteering, my sister did some pioneering, and I remember having a camp cooked meal and singing songs. However outside of that we really didn't do much outside our meeting place and certainly never went on holiday. One of the things that makes me saddest is that I couldn't complete my Baden Powell because of the lack of opportunities available to me, and without a doubt this is a key reason why I push to do so much with my girls, encouraging them, begging, borrowing and stealing to give them the opportunities that I didn't have. I don't want them to ever look back and wonder if I could have pushed for them to do more, achieve more have more fun. Centenary camp was for me a huge part of this, I wanted them there, I wanted them to have the experience and to see that Guiding wasn't just about meeting on Tuesdays, playing games and making Christmas cakes. I think we achieved that.

Girlguiding UK has talked a lot this year about wanting everyone to have their mountaintop moment. I have spent so long trying to make sure that Guides and Brownies have the opportunity for theirs that I had really lost sight of the importance of mine. However, at the closing ceremony, listening to what I have since been informed was Ellie Goulding's 'Stars' watching thousands of young women ahead of me barely contain themselves and stay seated as they watched the light and dance piece unfold in front of them, I realised that this was my mountain top moment. This was what I'm a part of. And our conversation on the way back to our subcamp was pretty much the icing on top of that.

Guide 1: "Wow! I don't know how I'll explain that to my Mum Penny"
Me: "Honestly, I don't know either"
Guide 2: "This is amazing, this whole week has been brilliant!"
Me: (barely managing to put one foot in front of the other I'm so tired) "It has hasn't it"
Guide 1: "Can we do this again?"
Me: (thinking - not yet, please not yet!) "Well not this, but something similar I'm sure"
Guide 3: "You know the disco is open till midnight"
Me: "Yes"
Guide 3: "When do we have to go to bed?"

Well, I was going as soon as I could, but bless them their excitement and enthusiasm was barely contained. I have never seen 4 so tired children as they were on the way home, in my life - but it was the most amazing week. And like them, I don't think I'm doing a particularly good job of explaining it, so through the medium of pictures I'll show you our week at Centenary camp. (All girls who's faces you can see have full photo and internet permissions)