With only 5 weeks to go until G-day, we were all very
excited to meet up for 3rd briefing, which was just this weekend at
Nikki’s sister’s house in Luton (thank you very much Carrie and Nino!). Sadly
one of the team, our beloved Laura, was unable to make it because of her silly
back, but we all wish her to get well with all of our hearts! Due to amazing
advances in technology we were happily able to skype and so we could all talk
together, and we dressed up a bear in Laura’s t-shirt so she was there in
spirit!
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| Team photo in our beautiful hoodies! |
Friday evening was very relaxed, Nikki, Hannah, Heather and
Zoe went shopping and made tea whilst I struggled with trains being late and
being stranded in Derby and Leicester for longer than anticipated (I have never
been so delighted to arrive somewhere)! Finally though, we were all together, and
catching up on all the chat we have missed since 2nd briefing.
Despite everyone’s tiredness we had a long chat as there was so much to catch
up on, as well as skyping Laura (which occasioned some tears!). There was also
the very exciting moment when we all got our kit!! They are very pretty, all
lovely colours and beautifully embroidered. Needless to say we all wore our
hoodies all weekend J.
We all dropped off quite quickly once we had assigned beds – training for
Guyana!
Saturday dawned bright and early, with our lovely leader
bringing tea in bed! We spent the morning researching and writing session plans
and resource lists, Hannah and Heather focussing on the environment, Jess and
Zoe on advocacy, and Laura on leadership and energisers. Nikki has the
unenviable task of writing up the Handbook they worked on last year to take to
Guyana with us. We had great excitement
when we received the parcel Laura had sent, containing not only our beautiful
badges, but also some amazing Guyana biscuits with the Guyana flag and our
badge iced on them. Nikki cried again when she read her letter!
We had lunch, and afterwards continued marking things off
our ‘to do’ list, which was quite long and creatively presented as post-its on
a Guyana flag which when we had finished them could be moved to the UK flag!
When we had come to the end of our tether for the day we skyped Laura to keep
her updated, then got ready and went out for dinner at a local restaurant. We
all had a lovely time and lovely food! We did feel a little sorry for the
couple next to us who had clearly come out for an intimate, quiet dinner, when
we sat down right (and I mean RIGHT) next to them. It didn’t improve when a
huge party came and sat on the other side, by which time we’d had a few glasses
of wine! We were of course very sensible and fairly quiet for GOLD team
standards but they weren’t very happy judging by the looks they gave us! There
was also a visit to some very strange toilets, but that’s another story...
In the evening we skyped with Laura and chatted until the
wee hours, whilst looking up hotels in Trinidad (how exciting!) and confirming
that Nikki is ‘a serious leader!’ There was an incident before we got to sleep
with inflatable beds deflating but eventually it was time for another sleep. It
seemed to come round really quickly, and it was not long at all before it was
Sunday, the last day we would be together before Guyana!!
Sunday morning began a bit later, but still quite early for
a weekend, and after breakfast and showers we started our day with looking at
the kitlist with Laura on skype which was a long but very useful process,
involving dividing out group stuff and reminding us of stuff we still need to
get! We also went through forms, of
which there are a lot, and the risk assessment (a little scary!). Then we got very
excited making gingerbread Lauras, showcasing the various guises we have seen
her in! After we ate them with a cup of tea, we did some more things on our to
do list, then had lunch. In the afternoon we went for a walk to clear our heads
and took some pictures in a local park, possibly scaring/confusing local people
on the way. We were glad of our decision not to take the giant bear though!
All too soon we had finished all our stuff and divided out
the remaining things to do, and it was time to leave. We made a thank you card
for our hosts, packed and hoovered, and then it was time to go! Train trek number
2 was about to begin for me (apologies for the train complaints!) and for Zoe
and Hannah too. We skyped Laura one last time to wish her farewell and send her
our love (We love you Laura, we do, we love you Laura, we do, we love you
Laura, we do! Oh Laura we love you!) and headed to the train station to go our
separate ways!
We all had an amazing weekend, as always, and it was nice to
really get down to some Guyana business. It’s unbelievably close now, only 5
weeks away, and so everything is sorted or being sorted, and getting very very exciting!
There is a lot to do in these 5 weeks and I know they are going to go so
quickly but it still feels like a long time till we will be reunited as GOLD
Guyana 2012 again! This time it will be for real though, and all our planning
will come to fruition!
Well that’s all from us, for now anyway, our next blog may
be coming to you from Trinidad!! (Or, less excitingly but still quite exciting,
at least for us... Gatwick Travelodge!)
Lots of GOLD love
Jess xxx
P.S More photos to come! If anyone wants a copy of the challenge badge pack or a badge, email us at goldguyana2012@gmail.com :)
