May We Come To Brownie Land

For some reason Miss Six is rather proud of the fact that she has already dropped out of two hobbies in her lifetime: From age three, she did a couple of years in ballet, culminating in a stage performance that brought tears of pride to my eyes, and then a season of rugby, with the highlight being one of the few times she touched the ball, running half the length of the field and scoring a try.

“Yeah I quit!” she proudly announced to her friend the other day after overhearing her mother and I talking about the range of hobbies available and which ones we’d already ticked off.
While I’m not one to endorse giving up, at this young age, there’s no point pushing these things – if it’s not their thing, then why make life harder. So she’s had a year off hobbies but recently expressed a desire to join Pippins.

Now this is one thing that would be right up her alley but, despite my enquiries and the amount of interest from other parents and children, I’m yet to find one in our area, which is a shame. My years in Brownies and Girl Guides taught me a lifetime of skills that I’m still using today.

Other than skipping round a toadstool singing May We Come To Brownie Land, I learned how to tie donkey hitch knots – which later came in useful in Pony Club, how to pitch a large pole tent, how to work a compass, first aid and CPR, how to cook, knit and sew (although the latter was and still is an epic fail), and how to light a fire, amongst other skills.

The latest one has held me in good stead each winter with my Kent fire. I’ve always carefully built my tepee fire just like they taught me in Girl Guides: newspaper first, followed by kindling and logs. But last week Fair Go put that theory to the test, building an ‘upside down fire’, then lighting it, with it successfully igniting.

I watched fascinated, but like revolving credit, this goes against everything I’ve been taught, plus the jury was still out from viewers as to their subsequent success with this method, so I’ll be sticking to my Girl Guide method.

Another legacy from Girl Guides was the motto: ‘Be Prepared’, although I think I tend to take this one a little too far at times. One particularly ghastly morning last winter, in a bid to ease coming home to a cold, dark house, I prepared a crock pot, before carefully building my tepee in the fire place before work.

Satisfied, I dusted myself off and turned to walk out the door - then ‘whoosh’, I looked back to see the entire fireplace, obviously still hot from the night before, alight.

As I sat at work that day trying to dry off from getting drenched after my umbrella blew inside-out, I thought of my roaring fire and, no doubt, cosy home. And, of course, by the time I walked in much later that day, it had long gone out, the house stone cold.

Never mind, I thought. At least I have a yummy hot dinner to enjoy. I lifted the lid, expecting to see my casserole bubbling away, but was met with the same sight as when I last put the lid on.

You guessed it – I’d forgotten to turn it on.