Merry Christmas you lovely lot! Hope you have a really great holiday season, full of love, laughter and tinsel!!! :-D
xxx

Sometimes, things come along in my day that really make me smile. This is one of them... Give yourselves a huge pat on the head, all my fellow volunteers! :-)

Volunteers – God Bless You

Many will be shocked to find,
When the day of judgement nears.
That there’s a special place in Heaven
Set aside for volunteers.
Furnished with big recliners,
Satin couches and foot stools;
Where there’s no committee chairman,
No group leaders or car pools.
No eager team that needs a coach,
No bazaar and bake sale;
There will be nothing to staple,
Not one thing to fold or mail.
Telephone lists will be outlawed,
But a finger snap will bring
Cool drinks and gourmet dinner,
And rare drinks fit for a king.
You ask, “Who’ll serve these privileged few,
And work for all they’re worth?”
Why, all those who reaped the benefits,
And not once volunteered on earth!!!

Gene Aleth

Interesting article from the left-handers club...

( clicky clicky )

Wish Challenge first section

The first 7 points of the 18 needed to gain the Wish Challenge badge (for over
16s) have to be from the first 'Make-A-Wish' section of the badge. I have
copied the options for this part and how many points these are worth below:

Find out about the history of Make-A-Wish and the story of the first wish to be
granted = 1 point

Have a look at the Make-A-Wish website and read about the latest wishes that
have been granted. Watch a Wish video = 2 points

Raise money for Make-A-Wish. Suggested ideas include filling a Make-A-Wish money
box with loose change, doing a sponsored event, holding a cake sale or coming up
with your own idea = 5 points

Collect old mobile phones from people and recycle them Make-A-Wish gets
£3.50 from every recycled phone = 5 points

Make-A-Wish grants 4 types of wish: to go, to meet, to be and to own. If you
could have one of each wish, what would it be? You can present your wishes
however you want you could do a drawing, design a poster or do a piece of
creative writing for example = 3 points

If you could have absolutely any wish granted (even the impossible!) what would
it be and why? Describe your idea wish day! = 2 points

Discussion: Do you know who Make-A-Wish grants wishes for? How do you think you
might feel if you were one of these children? What difference do you think a
wish would make? = 2 points

Yes, it's that biannual time of year again, it's Red Nose Day!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rednoseday/donate/


They're doing a great spoof of Mamma Mia, with Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley! Worth a watch! (And then a donate!)

As for me, I've been at work, where I've bought strawberry cakes with strawberry red noses, played football with inflateable giant football boots on, rolled pennies for a bunny, worn a bright red wig all day, and been handcuffed to students for people to pay my bail!
So I'm happy I've done my bit, I now get to enjoy the comedy! lol (That's how I'm justifying it...)
;-D
xxx

Hello to all my Girl Guiding and Scouting friends, and hope you've had a very happy, healthy and fun Thinking Day!
xxx

If you haven't noticed from the slightly prolific posting, I'm back!
I've had SUCH a lovely break! It really gave me chance to relax, and not having to do ANYTHING was great! I picked up my knitting, I read a couple of magazines, I sat and had a glass of wine in the afternoon JUST BECAUSE I COULD! lol It was really lovely!
Oooh! I haven't said where I've been have I?!
I drove myself, mum and dad up to my Aunty Mags house in a village near Ripon, Yorkshire. It was the first time I'd ever driven that far but the journey wasn't actually too complicated! It was just over 300 miles, and they live in the middle of nowhere! lol Well, it's a tiny village, so lovely and quiet and DARK! No street lights, bliss! It was like being in the outback in Aus at night, apart from the lack of chirping crickets...
We went to the Black Sheep Brewery which was great (and we got to try the malt - it was amazing how different the malt tastes and then comparing it to the end product!), and into York which was really lovely! We ate lots of good food, drank lots of good wine (and real ale!) and just RELAAAAAXED! It was so nice not having any time restraints, or anything to do, or any guidey work to do! lol I gave Mag an Indian Head Massage because she'd never had a massage before! I was shocked! And an IHM is quite a nice introduction... Anyway, she fell asleep in the relaxing parts and ooh'd and aah'd in the working-out-the-knots bits, so that was good! This morning she said she was going to find a beautician soon in her local area so she can book in for another, so it must have been ok! ;-)
Anyway! Photos! :-D
( Clicky for the family pics )

It WAS a RIGHT old mission doing anything in my room, but I've been sorting it out for about a gazillion months now, so I was FINALLY at the stage to be able to clear everything out, borrow my Grandads dust sheets to throw over my bed, pc and wardrobe, then got PAINTING!!!
( Here are the <b>BEFORE</b> photos... )

Here are my challenges!!! :-D
Start day - 8th July 2008
Finish day - 5th April 2011

Personal
1 - Run between the piers non-stop
2 - Get Wii Fit and reduce my fitness by 5 years - June 2009
3 - Save and buy then USE ‘PMK Overcoming fear of spiders’ - April 2009
4 - Pay off all of my Natwest credit card
5 - Make an emergency kit for the car
6 - Try a new fruit a day for a week
7 - Get a full time job - 5th Sept '08
8 - Do a body cleanse to try and get rid of allergies
9 - Run through the Yew Woods
10 - Go through ALL my cd’s and make a compilation of all my happy songs
11 - Write a song about my life
12 - Have my hair braided
13 - Go to the cinema alone
14 - Go to the beach and read a whole book non-stop
15 - Go to the pub alone
16 - Go clubbing in fancy dress
17 - Make up a box of fireproof belongings and save and buy the box
18 - Write a message in a bottle, and send it out to sea
19 - Pay off my debt to Laura


Creativity
20 - Finish my sequin art bear
21 - Finish my rug
22 - Sew all my badges onto my camp blanket
23 - Put all my photos in albums
24 - Put all my camcorder tapes onto vhs/dvd
25 - Make pompom pets
26 - Make and print #1 and #2 zines and distribute for swaps
27 - Put everything in my two loose bags into scrapbooks
28 - Design and paint my own t-shirts
29 - Paint my bedroom - 8th July 2008
30 - Make a photo collage to fill my pinboard
31 - Make pretty cakes
32 - Finish mums knitted scarf - June 2009
33 - Crochet a doiley
34 - Write the full outline of each chapter of my book
35 - Make up a package of goodies to swap with someone I don't know well
36 - Press flowers that I’ve picked



Guiding
37 - Get my campers license
38 - Write a community action dissertation
39 - Make a dvd of all units signing songs
40 - Go on an expedition/exploration
41 - Get my CGC award
42 - Make a plan to finish my Look Wider
43 - Organise a fun evening with no education involved for my Guides - July 2009
44 - Do my knotters badge - 21st August '08
45 - Make a Guiding photo scrap book



Visiting
46 - Go to the butterfly museum
47 - Go to the natural history museum in Portsmouth
48 - Take Aunty Vi for lunch
49 - Drive to Sarahs house
50 - Go to Cheddar and buy some cheese - June 2009
51 - Go out with Sarah on a day trip
52 - Spend a whole night in Babylon (9pm - 2am)
53 - Drive somewhere far I’ve never driven before - 10th July 2008
54 - Go to the theatre to see a play - 5th Sept '08
55 - Go to the opera
56 - Go on the London Eye - 12th August '08
57 - Go camping non-guiding related



Learning
58 - Make a portfolio of my own art work together
59 - Learn a new piece of music on my violin
60 - Read “1001 books to read before you die”
61 - Choose 20 books from above and read them
62 - Learn how to make a pattern from scratch
63 - Make a top from my own pattern
64 - Master water colour sceneries
65 - Learn how to divide maths without a calculator
66 - Learn 10 useful German phrases
67 - How to abseil or climb - 13th Sept. '08
68 - How to make 3 fabulous cocktails
69 - Put basic pages up on my webpage
70- Work through the whole of my quiz book
71 - Go to a day class at the Arts centre
72 - Try belly dancing
73 - Write a list of ten ways to improve myself, and an action plan on how to do it



Friends and family
74- Write letters to everyone in my address book just because
75- Spend a whole day without my diary with each of my close friends
76- Make a daft surprise present for each of my close friends
77- Send nice catch-up cards to my family I don’t see
78- Go and spend time with Carl and Noosh
79- Buy at least one Christmas present for my close family by 1st November
80- Draw all of my family and close friends
81- Have 5 dinner parties where I’ve cooked
82- Find one thing to do regularly with my close friends for a month
83- Have all my Christmas cards written by 1st December - 2nd November '08



Mind, Body, Spirit
84- Do a pair of size uk14 jeans from next up
85- Find at least 10 different ways to instantly relax
86- Use them in 10 different situations
87- Use the PMK 90 Day journal everyday for 90 days
88- Drink 1 litre of water per day for 1 month
89- Have a reflexology analysis session - March 2009
90- Have a full body massage
91- Set aside time to meditate each week for 3 months
92- Go to the spiritualist church
93- Give someone an Indian head massage - 12th July 2008
94- Give myself a top to toe pampering session for a day
95- Do my physio exercises every day for a week and measure the difference
96- Go to a yoga class
97- Make a cd of my favourite hymns
98- Spend a day saying and thinking no negative things
99- Go for a bike ride
100- Learn ‘Salute to the Sun’ routine and do it every day for 1 month
101- Only have 10 things on my day to day to-do list by the end of this challenge

Helloooee all,
I'm doing my 2nd-but-1st-serious 5k on Sunday, and I'm not as far ahead in my run-all-the-way plan as I'd hoped I'd be.
Is there anything, ANYTHING I can do to improve my fitness in... a week...?!?!? :-S
Added pressure, I'm running for GirlGuiding UK as a challenge, the newspaper want to interview me and GirlGuiding UK are going to be taking photos to put in publications...
Hahahahahaaaaa!!! <-Hysterical panicked laughter

Any tips?! PLEEEEASE?!
Carri -xxx-

cross-posted in a mad last minute rush...

HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAAY YOU TWOOOOO!!!! *hands you the cakes of your dreams*

Birthday parties ahoy for fitjourney and zyne!!!

Today is 'Blogging Against Disablism' Day 2008, and I thought, "Eh, why not! I know a fair few People With Disabilities (PWDs), and I have something to confess..." So what better a day to confess than this...

I, Caroline, confess that I am a MEAN friend to those I know with disabilities. I have a suprising amount of friends who have disabilities, I suppose in my line of work there would be a fair few, but I seem to attract PWDs. This isn't a bad thing by any means, in fact a lot of the time I forget, and it's the non-PWDs that get discriminated against. An example of this is when I'm down the pub with a friend, and I come across a group of Deaf friends. Hands start waving around, (usually me arguing with them why they didn't invite me to the pub, I'm a bit of a fan of drinking wine...) and not being rude I turn round to the friend I went with to introduce them, for them to be looking blank. Hmm, yeah, not everyone signs.
But anyway, my meanness is more to do with friends with mobility problems. The friends who use wheelchairs and I say "Are you gonna sit round all day?!", or who I poke with their own crutches, or as I make excessive skin-ripping noises as I peel away their difficultly placed TENS pads... It is useful having friends in wheelchairs, there's less bending involved in supermarkets, as I can just say "Can you pass that tin to me please?". And those useless handles on the back of powerchairs? Make brilliant shopping bag holders...
You may be thinking by now "This is meant to be about anti-Disablism, this all sounds very negative and Disablist!" (I can see you waggling index fingers and everything...) but it's not. It's because I do the same to everyone. Friends with no Disability get treated exactly the same, "You're not SERIOUSLY going out with your hair like that are you?", "OMG could you stink of cigarette smoke much more? I'd just have to run past you a couple of times to send smoke signals...", "Ooooh quickie! Hold out your free hand! Hold this bag..."
EVERYONE regardless of, well, everything, gets treated exactly the same.
So maybe I should change this posts title from 'Mean Friend of PWDs' to, hmm...

MEAN FRIEND.


This page explains more about Blogging Against Disablism Day 2008
http://blobolobolob.blogspot.com/2008/05/blogging-against-disablism-day-2008.html

I saw this in a friends lj...

For those of you who don't already know, there has been a strike scheduled for Friday, March 21st, 2008, during which we hope to have many members of LiveJournal provide LJ with absolutely no content for twenty-four hours. This means no posting and no commenting. If you post elsewhere and have it set up to be posted through a feed on LiveJournal, don't do it. Stay away from LiveJournal for twenty-four hours. That can't be too hard, can it? I know some of you are probably quite active on LiveJournal and will find it hard to stay away for an entire day, just as I will, but this is something that needs to be done, to show the people running LiveJournal that we're watching the changes they are making, that we're paying attention, that we're discontent, and that we want to be heard and taken in to consideration. We are not simply users who can be tossed to the side and ignored. We are the people who make up LiveJournal. Without us, without the content we create, without our words, our voices, our creativity, our participation, there would be no LiveJournal. This is a fact, and it needs to be realized and understood and then taken in to consideration when making decisions regarding the way that LiveJournal is run. The strike is only a few days away, so there isn't all too much time to prepare. While this is unfortunate, it isn't enough to keep this strike from taking place. It will take place, the second it is meant to, and it would be best to have as many people take part as possible. Please, spread the word. Spread it fast. There are only a few days to organize this. If you find that you care about LiveJournal or care about the people you interact with on LiveJournal or simply want it to remain a place where you can entertain yourself without constant censorship and money-hungry practices being thrown in without the consideration of those who use the service, act now. If you don't wish to spread the word, that is fine, but please: refrain from using LiveJournal on Friday, March 21st. Do something else for a change. It's for a good cause. (:

For background on this strike and why it is being held, please read the following posts:
http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/394838.html
http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/395310.html

To find out exactly when the strike begins and ends, depending on where you are located, please see this:
http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/395125.html

What's this about?

* It's about free and ad-free LiveJournal accounts being abolished for new members, ignoring the advice from the newly-formed Advisory Board.
* It's about LJ staff trying to sneak this decision in under the radar, and when people found out, telling the users it was done 'to make the signup process less confusing'.
* It's about LJ staff failing to apologize for trying to hide the facts from view and for lying about the actual reasons for their actions.
* And finally, it's about the latest decision to hide certain user interests from the list of Most Popular Interests, some of them being fanfiction, bisexuality, sex and depression. This decision was not announced or explained in any way. Users found out for themselves.

-Taken from the journal of m03m

Feel free to repost.

Hello!
Yes, madness has officially taken over my brain, and I have paid my entry fee to run 'The Race for Life'. And I AM going to run it this year!!!
SHIIIII-HIIII-IIIIIITTTT!!!! I'm not at all ready!!! I'm really scared! REALLY! lol I'm laughing because I'm so scared! lol! See, there I go again!!! :-D

I WILL do it though! I'm going to run the whole thing, and I'm going to attempt to run it comfortably and easily. (Rather than have my lungs explode out of my chest and my head implode because of high blood pressure...)

Wish me luck! Oooh, and as it's for a fantastic cause, why not ( clicky here! )

Mmhmmm, THANKS! :-D

I think this joke pretty much sums up my sense of humour... ;-)

Mary Poppins was traveling home, but due to worsening weather, she decided to stop at a hotel for the night. She approached the receptionist and asked for a room for the night. "Certainly madam," he replied courteously.
"Is the restaurant open still?" inquired Mary. "Sorry, no," came the reply, "but room service is available all night. Would you care to select something from this menu?"
Mary smiled and took the menu and perused it. "Hmm, I would like cauliflower cheese please," said Mary. "Certainly, madam," he replied. "And can I have breakfast in bed?" asked Mary politely. The receptionist nodded and smiled. "In that case, I would love a couple of poached eggs,please," Mary mused.
After confirming the order, Mary signed in and went up to her room for the night. The night passed uneventfully and the next morning Mary came down early to check out. The same guy was still on the desk. "Morning madam...sleep well?" "Yes, thank you," Mary replied.
"Food to your liking?" "Well, I have to say the cauliflower cheese was exceptional, I don't think I have had better. Shame about the eggs, though....they really weren't that nice at all," replied Mary truthfully.
"Oh...well, perhaps you could contribute these thoughts to our Guest Comments Book. We are always looking to improve our service and would value your opinion," said the receptionist. "OK, I will...thanks!" replied Mary....who checked out,then scribbled a comment into the book. Waving, she left to continue her journey. Curious, the receptionist picked up the book to see the comment Mary had written.

"Supercauliflowercheesebuteggswerequiteatrocious!"

A lady on the train asked if she could sit in the seat next to me, to which I said "of course" and she replied....

"Whizzo!"

She was straight out of Enid Blyton! I grinned away for ages!

Enough said.

Love you all!