I'm going away FOREVER. Ok, not forever (only 'til next Monday) but it feels a bit like that. LJ is my lifeline and a whole week without it's gunna be strange.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Guernsey with a group of Guides. I'm going as their Young Leader and it's gunna be my first camp as one. I know most of the girls as I've met them before but they're my Mum's Guides so we're not close. I'm a Brownie Young Leader. You can probably understand why I'm a bit apprehensive.

I still have to finish packing and bake a cake. Oh, well. On the bright side, the time away without LJ will probably mean I'll get some writing done; if I'm reading other people's stuff, I'm not writing.

I know I moan like buggery about my brownies sometimes but tonight they made me so proud.

I arranged to have a guest speaker come and talk to the girls. She was from a local wildlife rescue called Secret World and she brought some animals with her. We had a flightless bat called Ned, a hedgehog who wasn't far off being released back to the wild, a corn snake called Victor (who spent a large chunk of the evening wrapped around my arms) and Zazzle the Barn Owl.

My mum had had them visit the Guides but Guides are older and I was a bit worried the girls would get silly but the Brownies were better behaved than I'd ever seen them. Our speaker Debbie was lovely and even said how good they were. Next week, I fully intend to tell them how proud of them I am.

On a similar note, I'm going to Guernsey with the Guides this summer (God help us all!). I'm really looking forward to it now.

I am a Young Leader with a local Brownie pack. That many 7-10 year olds can be very frightening. This is how I feel about them sometimes.


I think I'm scared of my Brownies.
There should be a name for it
But because, I suspect,
I'm alone in my fear
No-one's created one. So I will
And I shall call it:
Browniephobia

I think you'd be scared too
If confronted with twenty-four
Charging young girls.
Two dozen expectant young faces,
All looking up to you. Gulp.
Then you'd get hit with
Browniephobia

I think you would be terrified
To see them attack as a pack.
Their weapon of choice? Felt. Tip. Pens.
You can't hide from the noise
Of marauding Brownies.
Oh, save me from my
Browniephobia

I think you believe they look so innocent,
Singing Brownie Bells at the end of the night.
But really they're stood there
Plotting our downfall.
The Brownies are going to take over the world!
Or it could just be paranoia caused by
Browniephobia!