Girl Guides

Someone from Senegal two weeks ago, someone from India today: Myspace does the backpackers trip I couldn't afford to go on, but didn't want to anyway because I was screeching and thudding away in a punk band.
Something reminded me... I used to work as a volunteer for the Girl Guides. Once, a woman was standing outside the church hall in the dark with a miniature horse. It was bring-your-pet week.
It was delightfully unsound. One week, bats came, with their handlers. There'd just been a massive scare about rabies and bats, but Mr and Mrs Guide leader didn't care a hoot (or should that be a radar-twitter?) about a silly old thing like safety. I made cranachan once, which disappeared almost before it was made.
We had a mad trip to Trent Park, where we lit about six bonfires amongst the dead leaves under the trees, and cooked bacon and fried bread.The bacon didn't cook properly and a lot of it fell into the leaf mould to be scooped up and returned to the pan, but even the delicate little vegan guides greedily scoffed it all as the open air hit them. Mrs Guide leader just vaguely twinkled her glasses in the dusk and let everyone get on with it.
The highlight, I think, was Carol Singing in the Retirement Home. I took my guitar and happily improvised around high-speed versions of carols sung mainly out of tune and off-key, and the Guides held sheaves of photocopied carols in one hand and fast-burning candles in the other, which dripped hot wax all over their fingers at the same time as setting the carol sheets on fire. The elders loved it; the Guides wrinkled up their noses and complained of a smell of wee, but I'm sure they learned something from it.
I did. There was a poor old lady with Alzheimer's, thinking the bus was coming along any minute to take her home. I learned that there are lots of things more important than shopping, exams, getting there on time and hierarchies of all descriptions. Sometimes the moment is perfect; little things in life are a blessing while we have our faculties to appreciate them with. We all abide by rules which are made up often to spoil our lives by distracting us from the best things in life, which of course are free.