Journal Entries
Hurrah! :D
Posted Mar 19, 2005
ok, this is very exiting for me but the few people I have told dont think it is that amazing, but as I know you would all like a good reason to get exited and happy etc, etc, 
then I will tell you. It needs a bit of scene setting and stuff before hand though. 
since I was about 7, I have been going on "wild days" which are activity day things, held outdoors, with a main themey thing, like "you are on a crashed spaceship with only a malfunctioning computer and you have to collect objects A, B, C and D to mend it and launch again" held at beale park, a small wildlife park on the side of the thames. To begin with, untill about 3 or 4 years ago (goodness, that dosnt sound very long at all), they were run by a guy called jerry (the jerry of a previous journal) and assisting him was flow. Jerry left and went to Austria, leaving Flow in charge. It was around this time that I mainly stopped going to the wild days (I was getting too old) and starting to go to the camps. These camps we WONDERFUL! yes, thats it, full of wonder! It was always wild camping, sometimes under canvas and sometimes in shelters we had built ourselves. campfire, night-games and lots of fun! we do lots of thing that other wise I couldnt do, and they dont lecture us endlessly about safety either, we are all a bit wild! I have also recently been on 2 "walking camps" the first in 2003 in the brecon beacons in wales, the second last year in cornwall, via lands end. recently (at the end of last year) they started to have some trouble with insurance (they are not the best candidates for cheap insurance - children with rivers, knives, axes and fire!) so it was not looking good for any more camps and wild days and they had to cancel the one that was going to be held in the febuary half-term.
ok, here comes the news!
a couple of days ago I got a text from flow, reproduced here in entirety:
Hello rachel, guess what, we have finally managed to find someone to run some wild days through, no camps yet but hopefully at half term. Romilly and i r going to b running wild days from 3rd to 9th of april but not on the 4th in a lovely wood in goring heath behind the king charles head. If you want to come and help on any of them it would be great to see u. x
like woo-hoo man, whoo-hoo! I reply with something like "thats wonder ful, Id love to help, Im free on all of the days!"
she replyed with: (by the way, Katy is another girl like me who has been doing camps for ages)
Hello rachel and katy, great that you can help. How do you feel about making a costume 4 a celtic day? old blankets are a good material to use. 4 better info on whats happening when, u can phone __(this number that I won't tell you all)__ and ask them to send you info on the easter wild days, if you get to speak to someone explain that u know me and u r going to help on some days, if u get an answer phone leave your name and address. It will also have info on which days phil or wolfie is running. x
like woo-hoo X2!!! so I am all exited about that now! bits of other stuff is happening but I have been typing for too long now, so I will tell you some othe time!
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Latest reply: Mar 19, 2005
The New Forest and Bogs...
Posted Mar 14, 2005
ok, this weekend, (sat, sun and mon) I went on my silver duke of edingburgh practice expedition in the new forest. on satarday morning at 8 o'clock, we arrived at school with our rucksacks and got on the (new!) minibus. we drove down to the new forest. On the first day, we walked about 15k, getting a bit lost near both the beginning (when I fell over a bush) and the end through the moorland! we met our leader margeret at a few places along our route. we got to the site where we were camping, which was a wild clearing at the edge of the wood. we set up the tents and began to cook just as it was getting dark. we had spaghetti, and dropped it on the floor twice! katherine dropped most of it the first time when she tried to drain it, then me and amelia dropped a bit again when we tried to pass the pan to each other. also, after all that, when hannah was eating hers, she dropped it! so hers was dropped three times!
that night was very cold, so much so that the water in my bottle in my bag in the porch of our tent froze! there was ice on the inside of the porch as well! 
we got off earlyer than the other group in the morning, and went to the loos to fill up our water bottles. we tried to pass along the path we were meant to go along, but there was a stream that we couldnt get across, and some of the grass was all wobbly and floating, so we had to go back to the path next to the road that we had come along to go across on that bridge. The walk went pretty smoothly from then, through patches of wood, moor, bog and scrubland. after lunch (oatcakes, cheese and really nice and sticky toffee spread) we came to a rather boggy part of a wood. we struggled through/round that and came out into a long, thin clearing. this was quite obvious on the map (so we thought) so we turned right, or south-west. a while going along that, having not seen the road we were supposed to meet, we checked what direction we were supposed to be going against the compass and the map, and we found that we were supposed to be going north-east! so we turned round and went back the way we came past the 'path' where we got into the clearing. at the end of the clearing, we found that we were in the wrong place anyway and had to walk down the road a bit untill we were at the place where it said on the map that we were supposed to be camping. margerets car was there which was a relief, seeing as we hadnt seen her all day, but she wasnt and neither was anyone else. we made sure we were in the right placeand scouted round a bit to find her, which we didnt. when she finally turned up (emerging from the path we should have come down
) she said that she was getting a bit worried because she was waiting at several points on our route where we didnt turn up) well mr robinson spoke to us about that, and we did go wrong but we did the wrong thing when we did go wrong! that night, I got rid of practically all the food I was carrying for dinner. The other group got in just after dark, and we made them hot drinks. I also discoverd that I had done an absolutely utterly idiotic thing as I am a compleate ninny. 
I had put a banana in my survival rations!!! it had compleatly sqished! 
anyway, that night was a bit warmer than the night before, it didnt freeze, and I had more sleep than non-sleep.
this morning, we got off about 45 mins early, setting aside some time for bog-walking. the first bit of bog was very boggy, and just after we had crossed in a very soggy way, we saw margeret crossing the bridge!!!! yes, there was a bridge about 100 metres further down the path!!!! 
anyway, we carried on a bit the soggier and insulted all the other tiny bogs that we saw because they werent proper bogs!
we wound on again, not getting too lost. we went well till the last leg or so when we all got a bit tired and achey 
it wasnt helping that the last leg was about three times the size it was meant to be! the last k or so, was very up-and-down, but I t was a relief when we saw the minibus sitting at the top of the hill! I got out the rest of my cereal bars and the last of my kendal mint cake to eat and we went to the place where the other group were meant to end and had lunch there. after about half-an-hour or so, mr robinson got a phonecall from the other group saying that they were hemmed in by marsh and had been going around in circles for 2 hours! we went to collect themin the bus, them went to beaulieu (pronounced Be-you-Lee) to get icecream , I had a mint choc chip and vannilla one with a white choclate thingy-that-looked-a-bit-like-a-chinese-man on the top!we then got in the bus and came back to school, getting there at about 3.20 which was earlier than we planned. I had told dad to pick me up at 4 so I was prepared to have a bit of a wait. people gradually got taken home untill I was the last one! dad eventually came at about 25 past 4 and we went home via sainsbury's
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Latest reply: Mar 14, 2005
I'm Procrastinating, who are you?
Posted Mar 6, 2005
My maths coursework. due tommorow, havnt done any. Ireally mean that, not ANY!!! *swears profusely* ... or history, also due tommorow. 
of course thats why I am on hootoo. 
lots have been happening but itll tell you... ohhhh..... possibly tuesday night!
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Latest reply: Mar 6, 2005
tiredness
Posted Feb 23, 2005
ok, Ive been back to school since tuesday, and I have realised what a lot of work I have to do!!!! 
also, a strange thing that happened, I missed my bus home yesterday, so I walked instead, and because of the long, circuatus route that it takes, It took exactly the same time as it does on the bus! (to within 5 minites) It was hard on the feet because I was wearing my school shoes which have high-ish heels so the balls of my feet hurt a lot after. I also couldnt walk in bare/socked feet all the way, I couldnt in town but on the (old railway) embankment (that they have turned into a cycle path) I did for a time but when the balls of my feet stopped hurting I put my shoes back on because the sharp gravel was annoying and stubbed my toe. Today I got up a bit earlier than usual 
so I could take / mum could take pictures of my Design and Technology project, a tall stool that has a lift-off seat top and a box to put things in underneath, for my folder. the rest of the day was quite boring except in geography when Cara didnt know about or get the hang of why people put terraces on the himalayan mountains, she kept asking why anyone would bother to build them all the time, why people couldnt farm on the flat land and how people got their tractors up the mountains! Also me and Amelia kept freaking out Laura by finishing each others sentences and looking at her the same way simultaneously. Also, in half term, I saw the majic roundabout movie 
and got 4 new CDs (all albums) - Antics by Interpol, Comfort in Sound by Feeder, Final Straw by Snow Patrol and Vehicles and Animals by Athlete 
Hmm, I should have done some more D&T tonight, but it is too late now, I won't get much done. I did my history though, which is good. I need a shower tonight and I think that I may have it now, as I need to go to bed relitivly early today, 
as I'm tired! 
oh yes, and Its my mums birthday tommorow, I have got her 2 DVD's, Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy, because she loved the books (according to Dad!) I also made the card, It has a material picture of a flower - closest to a snowdrop - on the front with several differnt textures and shades of the green for the leaves & stalk, and tissue for the flowerhead. the background is dark purple card.
well, I think that that about sums up one of the longest journal entrys I have done for a while (if ever! ) and my shoulder is hurting from all that typing!
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Latest reply: Feb 23, 2005
oddness (cancledness?)
Posted Feb 13, 2005
ok, as some of you may know, I was due to go to the Oxfordshire County Archery Championships today. There was snow forcast for about 10 o'clock 
but we went to the place where it was going to be held and drove around a bit beause we were a bit early, and there was only one car in the car park outside the school were it was due to be held. This was a bit un-nerving because half an hour before the event starts there should be someone there setting up etc! we sat outside in the car untill about twelve (when it was meant to start) , when another guy from my club arrived. He had a look around and couldnt find anybody to ask about it. As he knew it was being held there for certain (he had been there before) we were at the right place, they must have cancelled it because of the snow, or we both got the wrong venue and the rest of them are wondering where we have got to! I am a bit disapointed and surprised that no-one told me it wasnt happening!
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Latest reply: Feb 13, 2005
Keseral - lost...
Researcher U204758
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