Queen's Guide Update #1

As it is half term this week, I thought I would update you on my progess towards my Queen's Guide so far. You can keep up with what I have done on my Queen's Guide page too.

Service in Guiding

Regular Volunteering
This is on hold until I move house (some point next year - we have made an offer on a house and are now working through all the legal bits).
Residential
I've not done anything towards this one yet, I'm looking to find something in Spring/Summer 2020 as that fits in better with all the other things I have planned (like moving house and getting married!).
Event for 2 Units
I emailed my District Commissioner to ask if she needed any help for Thinking Day 2019. We then had a district meeting and she essentially handed the whole event over to me! I made a suggestion of a venue and the other leaders there had some other ideas so now I am in the process of sorting through all of them and coming up with a rough price for each, along with coach prices so we can make a decision as a District at the next meeting in early December. I will probably also make a Doodle poll of some sort to find out what day would be best for the leaders before we offer it out to all the girls.
Working Group/Committee
I have spoken to the woman who runs our local campsite, who has said that she could definitely find me something to do for their 50th anniversary camp next year. However, I need to find out if this would count as currently it is within my County and this clause specifies that it must be out of the county. Once I have moved house, it will be but I am unsure whether this would count.

Outdoor Challenge

I haven't looked into this much further, as I probably won't do it until next summer at the earliest.

Personal Skill

I started having weekly clarinet lessons again at the end of August. I bought myself a little notebook which I keep a record of all the things my teacher says in each lesson and also what I have practised each week. This will serve as my record of how much I have improved, if I don't manage to take my Grade 8 in the year given by the Queen's Guide (I'm still going to do it regardless!). I also created a spreadsheet which allows me to see how many hours of playing I have done, and how close I am to the target of 60 hours.

There are a few weeks where I haven't managed to get in any practice between lessons, as it has been harder than I anticipated to fit it in once I have got home from work and eaten. It has been really nice to get back into playing again after so long though and I was surprised at how quickly certain things have come back to me! I'm definitely still a little bit rusty, mostly in my ability to count complicated rhythms, but I'm enjoying myself a lot and I can see an improvement every week.

For those of you who are interested, I am doing my Grade 8 under the Trinity College London exam board (yay for no scales!), and my pieces are:

• Sarabande et Allegro, Grovlez
• Sonata in Eb (Adagio and Allegro Moderato), Mendelssohn Bartholdy
• I Got Rhythm, Harvey
• Scheherazade (3. Satz), Rimsky-Korsakow [orchestral excerpt - first 10 seconds of video only]
• Sinfonie Nr. 6 (1. Satz), Beethoven [orchestral excerpt]
• Sinfonie Nr. 6 (2. Satz), Beethoven [orchestral excerpt]

Community Action

I haven't done anything towards this yet, I will start putting out some feelers soon for some ideas from local STEM businesses and then will start properly on this in the New Year, hopefully.

Residential

I haven't done anything towards this yet, as there are very few residentials over the winter months. I have told my other half that I will come on the next camp he takes his Beavers on as a general helper - I plan on floating around to whoever needs an adult at the time, so I spend time with people I don't know, rather than sticking with him and his Beavers for the whole camp.