Photography Night

Our latest activity at Rangers was a photography night, and we were lucky to also have some of the Guides visiting us.   The evening was run for us by the very wonderful Heather, a keen (and very good!) amateur photographer who came along to give us some tips and tricks about how to take better photographs.

She showed us all her kit and explained what it did, told us all about “photographing in thirds”, gaves us tips on how to make our photos more interesting, and set us various tasks to go off and take photos of things.  We all had great fun running around trying to take the best photos that we could of all the random things we could find  and then we looked through some of the results that we’d come up with!  Hopefully we’ll post some of them up here soon.

It was a great evening, and the only downside was that it was still a little bit early to have the light for a really long time in the evening, so we weren’t able to take many pictures outside.  Maybe in one of the summer meetings we can have another go?

Thank you Heather for all your advice and for giving us a great evening!

Picking and Packing at One Can Trust

As part of the additional part of our promise, to be of service in the community, we have been helping the One Can Trust food bank, which helps feed people in the High Wycombe area.  We have organised a food collection within the district, had one of their volunteers into speak to us, and in March we went to the food bank itself to help sort donations and pack parcels.  

When food gets donated to One Can Trust, it needs to be checked to see if it’s still in date, put into the “packing area” if expires in the next year or so or is a particularly needed item (often things like tinned potatoes, carrots, tinned ham and beef and hot pudding), or put into the “long term” storage area where items that the foodbank has lots of (e.g. rice, after a kind donation of a whole pallet of rice) are stored.   This can be a quick task or a long one if lots have donations have come in since the last sort was done. 

Once the donations were sorted, it was time to start packing parcels for people.  The foodbank pack parcels in advance, so that they have them ready to be delivered when a request for help comes in.  They have various types of parcels that they pack, for single people, single parents with children, families, etc.  There are lists to follow to know what to put in each bag, and all the food is in separated crates so it’s easy to access.  

It’s obviously quite hard work doing the sorting and the packing, because as soon as you are carrying more than a couple of cans,  things become quite heavy, but it was great fun to help with, and nice to know that we were really being of service in our community!

If you want to find out more about the great work that One Can does, check out their website, http://onecantrust.org.uk/

HIgh Wycombe Gang Show

On March 29^th, we went to see the first night performance of the High Wycombe Scout and Guide Gang Show.  A Gang Show is a theatrical performance involving members of Scouting and Guiding of all ages.  The Princes Risborough Ranger leaders used to *be* in the Gang Show, once upon a (very) long ago!) time,  but the Rangers were all newcomers to it.  We were in the very top row of the theatre, which was a bit vertigo inducing, but we soon settled in to our seats and sat back for the show. 

We were treated to a whole variety of numbers, including a wonderful version of Take That’s “Hold Up A Light” as the opening number, some amusing sketches, a wedding themed number and a pirate themed one, a great rock and roll “hop” medley, complete with twirly rock and roll skirts.  The whole show was finished off with a medley of songs from the show, ending with “Crest of a Wave”, the traditional Gang Show songs, complete with the High Wycombe Gang Show moves to it, which the PR Ranger Leaders performed with gusto, thoroughly embarrassing the Rangers!

Well done to all the cast, it was a great achievement and a really enjoyable show!

Bowling Night

Last night was bowling night - four of us went to the local bowling alley for a two game bowling match. 

Things didn't start particularly well - there were a fair few gutter balls to begin with, but E soon stormed into the lead with some well placed balls - thanks, she reckons to all the Wii Bowling she does! D and L were having real problems in the first game, until their discovery of the "magic" ball (orange, size 8, medium finger holes!) which seemed to line up perfectly most times and resulted in some better scores. 

The first game ended with a well deserved win for E, followed by C, D and L. 

Time for the second game, and L managed to organise some judicious (if accidental!) sabotage of E's game by giving her favourite ball away to the people playing on the next lane... ooops!  Devastated by the loss of her size 10 pink ball, E's game crumbled, and the results were completed reversed this time, with L winning, followed by D, C and E.

It was a really fun evening, we all had a great time competing with each other (to see how badly we could do in some cases!), and best of all, we all scored at least one strike.  I hope we'll have a repeat of it sometime soon!

Games Galore

There are some great resources on the GirlGuiding UK website, including some amusing games.  (I know they are designed for Guides, and as a Leader, I'm rather older than the target audience, but it doesn't stop me having fun!)

My favourite one at the moment is "I'm a Camp Leader, Get Me Out Of Here", which allows you to run a virtual Camp! There's a whole page of games here and also some of the same, and some different ones on the Senior Section site. 

As we're coming up to that time of year that's full of revision and exams, it's always nice to have a little distraction for 5 minutes to give our minds a break.

Enjoy, and let me know your favourites.

Happy Thinking Day

Today, February 22nd, in World Thinking Day.  Thinking Day, the birthday of Lorda Baden Powell and Lady Olave Baden-Powell, his wife, is a day for us to think about Guiding accross the world, and all our sisters in Guiding in the UK and everywhere else. 

WAAGGS, the World Association Of Girls Guides and Girl Scouts, chose a theme every year. The theme for 2012 is "Girls Save Our Planet" and is about supporting environmental causes and all being able to make small steps to help our environment.  We've not planned any meetings around this theme yet, but maybe it's something that we will look into at a future meeting?  

So Happy World Thinking Day to everyone out there, and remember, Girls Can Save Our Planet.

A Little Hiatus

We had a hiatus for a couple of months over Christmas due to increased work commitments for the Guiders, but we're back now with even more plans.

We all met up for a meal at Wagamama's last night, which was really nice, though some of us (guilty leader here) maybe need to work on our chopstick skills to become less messy eaters!

Plans for the next few weeks including helping "Pick and Pack" at the One Can Trust food bank, going bowling, going to see the High Wycombe Gang Show, and having a photography evening once the weather improves. With all this, plus Competition Hikes, DofE Expeditions and exam season coming up, we're all going to be busy!