What a Week!

This past week has been a roller coaster of a week!

I had serious reservations about moving into a caravan, but on the spur of the moment, last Tuesday, me and Bob went and looked round Manor Park, i have to confess to being impressed with the homes, the site, the pitch and the staff, what was going to be a 10 minute visit and look round turned into a mammoth 3 hour visit, we met this lovely young man Andrew Rees from Wales who had only been there 3 weeks, and we were his first sale on the park.

So we went away, and for the next 24 hours talked of nothing else with each other and with Mum, then the following day, Mum and Dad came up and we again had another extended visit,  and we decided to go ahead and paid a Deposit.

In the meantime, we found out that Jenny's friend Sarah Mullins lived on site, and there is a refer a friend bonus where you both get £500, so Sarah became my best friend overnight although i had never met her!  Sarah told Jen it is the best thing she ever done, it is like being on holiday 11 mths of the year, any questions i had, i asked Jen, she went and asked Sarah and bought back the answer, talk about jungle telegraph :).

I also know some people who live on site from Church, Penny Pinder, David and Grace Shaw and Pat Norman.  They all live on Kensington.

Our home will be on Balmoral, the same as Sarah's.  Jen and Andy are very excited about the move, they will be the postal address for utilities and parcels, and have offered to let us have use of the loft and let us have a shed on their garden for Bob's modelling and ebay stuff.

So all systems go............

I then wrote the following email to the family, Steven, Jenny, Micheal and Kevin

Hi family of mine

As you are aware the business is failing and the heartbreaking decision has been made to put it on the market, which will leave me Jobless and us Homeless, after a lot of soul searching yesterday we decided to have a look at manor park holiday homes, we spent 3 hours there and we found a pitch we liked a lot and a home we liked at the right price, after spending the past 24 hours of discussing nothing else we went back again today and had another look, it ended up with us parting with money as a deposit.

Our home will be Purple 16 on enclosed map.

Advantages
We will save money on annual bills
We will be able to partake of all entertainment/swimming pool etc FREE of charge
We have 8 passes so family can use them
Easy to keep clean/tidy
Sleeps 6 although we will remove 1 bed, to increase storage space, so will sleep 5
Compact
Can have sky
On site Wi Fi
Maintenance and Gardening included
A village within a town, should hopefully have good community spirit
Everyone very nice

Disadvantages
11 mth occupancy - we have to vacate between 15th January - 15th February.
Have to downsize considerably
Will need storage
No Landline - but will hopefully have wifi, if not will use dongle, and probably use Skype more in conjunction with mobiles
No washing machine (but on site launderette, and can have a Storage Container fitted with Washing Machine)
No Freezer (but fridge has small freezer compartment)
Less privacy but in a good location

On Friday I got a card from my New Best Friend :)

Then Monday, came and we had a change of heart.


Then Tuesday came, and we had a surprise a lovely Bouquet of flowers delivered by Scent with Love from Manor Park

and then after still  further discussion, had another change of heart, went to Manor Park and paid the balance, now it is going to happen..................... and we move in 2 weeks on the 15th February.

http://www.park-resorts.com/holiday-parks/east-anglia/manor-park/

Friendship Bracelet Project

We are inviting Girl Guides and Girl Scouts from all over the world to make friendship bracelets and send them to Sangam. We will then sell them in Yahdei, the name of the Sangam shop, for just 10 rupees each (this is approximately 20 US cents or 13 British pence!).
This will help Sangam to continue supporting its projects, like Children's Camp, and supporting our community partners. This will also allow visitors, and particularly local guides and scouts, to buy something that celebrates the world of WAGGGS and the international friendship we share.



Why not have a bracelet-making meeting with your unit or troop? Make a bracelet for a friend,
and then make another one to send to us here at Sangam. When you pass on your bracelet,
you can share the Sangam Spirit by explaining why you made the bracelet. You can share what you have learned about Sangam or your favourite Guiding/Girl Scouting experience.
We would also like to help promote WAGGGS’ Stop the Violence campaign through our
friendship bracelet project. Learn about the campaign and make your bracelets in the red and green colours of the campaign. This will help us to keep building the whisper into a shout!
Thank you for your friendship and support. We hope you enjoy making your friendship bracelets, and we look forward to receiving them and sharing the international friendship!

There is no deadline! This is an ongoing project and you can send your bracelets all year long.
If you have any questions, please email info@sangamworldcentre.org.
Send your completed friendship bracelets to:
Sangam World Centre
c/o Friendship Project
Alandi Road
Yerwada
Pune 411 006
INDIA

Growing Guiding

This weekend we attended a North West Division Growing Guiding which incorporated, training, fun and chill out time - agreat weekend.

We arrived at 7pm on Friday Night, after sorting out our bed, we went downstairs for a social time while having nibbles and wine.

On Saturday Morning we had breakfast of cereal, yoghurt, fruit and crumpets them we split up into 3 groups, I was in Group 1.

My first sesssion was outside with Scouters Bob and Paul. We did a series of 3 challenges.

On going outside it was beautiful foggy frosty morning, the morning was lovely warm and sunny

We first got into teams of 2 and had to put up a tent 1 person blindfolded (which was me) and the other person has to keep their hand in their pocket, this was disability awareness with one blind person and one person with 1 arm.

Then we did 2 wide games, the first was a Jungle Book Challenge based on Cluedo, we had to collect tokens take them to a game leader and saw what he had in him envelope, and illiminated all the Who What and Where, to find out the murderer.

The second was we were shown an animal and had to find a picture of that animal.

Then we went in for morning coffee which included Homemade Fruit and Cheese Scones.

Then i went in Catherines Group where we looked at the On Your Marks Challenge which is loosely based on the Olympics.

Sara Making Olympic Torch

Olympic Promise Torch

Greek Urn

We then had lunch of home baked bread and home made soups, followed by Fruit.

Then we joined Nicky and worked on Golden Jubilee Crafts.

Crown

Golden Jubilee Card

Pyrography Crown

We then had afternoon tea which included homemade Cake.

We then made no cook sweets

Then we made some Bags to put in our sweets

For Dinner we had a delicious Roast Gammon with Cauliflower and Broccoli in cheese Sauce, Root Veg Mash, Roast Potatoes and Parsnips.

Followed by Chocolate Log decorated with bunting and/or Ecklefeckle Tart which is similar to Mincemeat
Tart.

We also made broaches which i was very pleased with, doing French Knitting

After dinner we watched the Film Eat, Love, Pray. While we ate Thorntons Chocolates and Wine, and made things.

This morning we started off the breakfast of cereal, yoghurt, fruit and crumpets.

We had a session by Lisa Barker,  from Drive U Pottery from The Clay Barn www.driveupottery.co.uk we started off by making candles with Wacky Wax

We then had a go a Glass Fusion

The Glass Fusion had to be fired before they were finished, so we will get the finished article later.
The County Commissioner Helen Green visited during this session.

We then all put our thumb pring on a plate for a souvinir which again will have to be fired.

We left for home about 12 noon after a lovely weekend, this is the 5th year we have done and it is the best ever.