Last night, at Guides, was chocolate night! The Guides had all remembered to bring a bar of chocolate in with them. And they had all ensured it wasn't made in the UK. We even managed to have no two bars alike which I was really pleased by.
The Guides were busting to taste the chocolate so obviously we made them do a couple of other things first, including introducing them to a new leader who joined us last night for the first time. I'm thrilled to have someone else joining the team as it'll be a lot less pressure on me to always be there every week! So, for example, madam's birthday is on a Friday and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be a bit late. But knowing I won't be leaving QM on her own means I don't have to rush as much to be there on time.
I have a feeling madam will want to come to Guides that night, anyway!
I am kicking myself for not taking photos of proceedings once we got started on our tasting. We had everyone sit around a big table and then had everyone try a piece of their own bar to see if they liked it. Then, without me having to persuade them, they decided to go round everyone with one bar of chocolate at a time so that we all tasted the same thing together.
Then they had a quick discussion about whether they liked it or not. (the nots were mainly reserved for the dark chocolate!) and some idea of why. And once all 9 bars had been sampled we concluded that amongst our group the milk chocolate was more preferred than the dark, but that no-one necessarily agreed on which had been the best bar as everyone had their own favourites.
The Guides learned that different countries and companies made chocolate that tasted quite different from each other and they all agreed that it was good to have had the chance to try something new.
For example, my favourite turned out to be the Peruvian milk choc that one Guide had brought in. I usually prefer darker stuff. And a couple of the Guides surprised themselves by liking the Asda dark chocolate with orange as they liked the bitter/sweet flavour combination.
I also asked who would be around the week we broke up for half term. Normally we don't meet that week as we don't book the hall. This is because in a larger company if you have a couple from each patrol who can't come then it really changes the dynamic. However, the small group makes that easier as they're still all working as one patrol. But, likewise, if more than a couple were going to be missing it wouldn't be worth the effort!
Anyway, we established that they were all available and have told them we will be doing a scavenger hunt type thing around town. In the dark. You have no idea how exciting this made it for them! Now that we have another leader we will also be able to divide the girls into teams (patrols) for it. This will make it more fun, I feel...
Now I just need to devise a route and some clues ;) I shall have to keep it to the town centre and try and use either the Merchants Trail or the Elwell Trail which are both dotted around and about in the centre. They may well have seen some of the things around, but I'm hoping having them solve clues for it will make it harder.
Also, our new leader is not local and so won't be able to help them very much! This is quite cruel of me... Obviously, I shall pair her with a unit helper who is local, but still... Mwah ha ha! And the Guides all know I won't help them.
So that is Guides for me to be organising.
Today, with madam, I am going to the Viking boat launch at her school. This is not as odd as I think it sounds. They have built a boat shaped bookshelf in the library along with a snake shaped one and they are getting their official unveiling today. There is apparently going to be some games and activities for the kids to do as well, so might as well take madam along to keep her occupied for an hour or so.
We will be taking her scooter with us as it has been living at my parents house since the start of summer but she now wants to be able to scoot to school like most of her friends do. She will still have her bike for playing out with the neighbourhood kids, so it'll all be good.
The church has their Harvest festival tomorrow morning but I am in two minds about whether to go. My first objection being that its at 9.30 in the morning, which is a bit keen even for me! And also, madam has her school harvest service on Wednesday to go to. I don't think she probably really wants to go twice. The advantage of going to the service is that we would get to then go and have a look around the food festival in town (which is why the service is so early). We've missed it the last couple of years, which has been a shame. Its got to be quite a big event for the town and this year has been combined with the real ale and cider festival! :)
I couldn't find a harvest picture, so here is the cutest pumpkin ever!
