Bit of a Catch Up i suppose!

Ok, this time it really has been a long while!
been on camp number 2, done the Boston Marathon, and had 2 Racing events on the local river.

So... camp 2
wow this is going back some (to august!)
it was entertaining - ended up sharing a 6 man tent with 4 people (altogether -so including me) sharing with 2 people i hadn't met before (one being french...). Me and someoe else had spray in hair dye in guiding centenary colours - different hair colour each day ... to the amusement of some of the guides and leaders! We held a 'guides got talent' - you can probably guess what it was... me and my friend (yes the one with the dye) done a duet - i was on my acoustic guitar and she sang... twas Cat Power - sea of love... quite a simple and effective song - however i specialise in flamenco guitar and was soo not used to doing chords like that! (or even doing those chords...)
On the last night we slept in an old Bell tent (big and roundish and white - used 'back in the day')
o and one last funny thing about camp - in the shop there was the security bear - (a big cuddly me-to-you bear) and one of the leaders had decided she wanted him - so managed to smuggle him out of the shop during the day and into the D of E tent, (all in good humor of course!) so anyways, later that night we decided that we would move the DofE tent into the shop (bear and all) so at 1 in the morning we did... we went and unpegged the tent (twas inside a marquee next to an old style DofE tent as part of an exhibition) picked it up - 1 person in each corner, walked it out of the marquee and into the shop marquee - repegged it in the middle of the shop and set up the bear in his camp chair next to a trangia (not lit of course!) and with a box of gummy bears, a packet of survival food and a map... we left a note saying that he was cold so he brought a tent with him and that he liked this new food much better than the gummy bears! (made me chuckle)

ok next!

Boston Marathon (of the rowing variety)
31miles/50 kilometers from Lincoln to Boston (UK). One of the hardest rowing feats it is possible to accomplish... yet we did!
Not only did we successfully complete the race, we were the fastest 8 of the day, out of all the 8s, not just our category, we got a course record for our category (novice 8+), and most importantly beat the crew that had previously got the record (i know that sounds obvious... they didn't race again we beat their time, but they happen to be a crew from our club so there was a friendly rivalry there...)
The start was only a little hectic...
we left a bit late... my fault i kinda didnt wake up when my alarm went off! Then we drove to Boston, and got Taxis to Lincoln where our boat was as we had managed to share a trailer with another local crew... We got there and had 15 min to get the boat in one piece and in the water... (usually takes about 40 min) luckily the crew we trailer shared with massively helped us out and we weren't too late starting! the marshals weren't too happy with us tho! As soon as we were on the water we were off! touching land only briefly to get out of the boat, pick up the boat and walk around a lock, replace the boat and carrying on... that was 13km into the race... (and apparently we looked professional!)

The other 2 races:
nothing overly spectacular - i cant remember the result of the first race! (i dont think it was too good...)
the 2nd race was ok - there were 114 boats entered (all shapes and sizes!) and we came 13th overall! we came 2nd in our category by 7 seconds, i cant remember what the time of was of the crew that came 3rd but i don't think they were anywhere near us! (which makes it more frustrating!) And we couldn't have gone any faster as at the finish line we were practically on top of the boat in front (good job the finish line appeared where it was!) (we beat them by 30 seconds!) - it was quite a good finish from the crew, especially considering we hadn't been on the river for the last 2 weeks due to all of the ice!

So that sums up the Things that have happened - i guess mostly...
Yeah ok - I'll admit there has been other stuff but these things happen in life and i am So not in the mood to poor out my heart right now - tho what i will say is that i am not feeling the Christmas spirit right now... I'm hoping i will find it before.. you know... Christmas - but i have absolutely no idea where it is that I'm meant to look for it! which kinda sucks... :/

What a couple of weeks!

ok well since my last post -
Our Rowing team were awarded Blades for making 4 bumps :) (awarded them by the club as we got 4 and weren't bumped!) So that created major happiness :D (that and the HUGE amount of chocolate given to me by the crew!)

Then i had a few rest days, before Centenary Camp!!
What an experience!!
Camp like You've Never Camped Before! indeedy :)
it was an amazing camp with loads and loads of badges swapped, loads of new friends made, and old friendships renewed/strengthened!
There is a lot of talk about - what was your mountaintop moment?
my answer - i dont know!! it was all so good :)
One of the best highlights came in unexpected - a bus journey home from an evening 'it's a knock out' activity - a bus full of Senior Section members (over 14s) who were all very tired from half a weeks camping/working the day at Fusion and then doing sports! Yet we got on the bus and the driver turned up some charts hits rather loudly and everyone sang along! It was amazing!! just purely everyone having fun together not caring about what others thought of them - the atmosphere was so good that journey! I think it summed up Guiding for me, let alone camp!

Yet, as the week drew to the end i got worse on the trich front... people started to notice the lack of eyelashes - and then tell other people about it... And that was just strange - i mean i wont talk to my parents about it, but i can talk to people that were complete strangers to me at the beginning of the week about it... I think its also a testimony to how far i've come - last year if questioned about it i would have shrug my shoulders and walked off... however i can tell if someone had hugged me at the time i probably wouldn't have been able to keep it together :/

right - its late and i have rowing in the morning...
did i mention - we are entering into the Boston Marathon http://www.bostonrowingmarathon.org.uk/Marathon.htm
it will be interesting...

really am off now - will do a slightly more detailed post tomorrow... i still got more i want to say but struggling with keeping my eyes open!!