GLASGOW AND POLAR BEARS

I had my first waitressing night on Tuesday. I only had about 4 tables at a time, but it was hard to keep up with them all, and make desserts in the back simultaneously.
Anyhow, got a text from Emma at about 1:00am Wednesday morning, saying Bex and Adam wouldn’t be coming to Glasgow with us as their plane from Egypt had to do an emergency landing in Cyprus! Rung up Emma first thing in the morning (and consequentially woke her up too) to see what the situation was. Everything was okies but they were stranded in Cyprus for the time being.
Packed up for Glasgow. We were going to a Christian youth event in a church up there and staying over. The mini bus set off at about 2:00pm and to my surprise Bex and Adam made it by some miracle and much fun was had on the way down involving, me, Emma, Snowy(my polar bear) and Richard (Bex’s teddy bear), much to Jon’s annoyment. We soon had the music blasting and got into the mood for a great event later. Played numerous games of ‘word association game’ and many ‘I spy’ games.
Arrived in good time at the church and after a pep talk on how not to get shot at in Glasgow, we braved the streets and raided subway. By this point it was beginning to rain, so we made for the church and finished eating on the way.
It was quite an extraordinary night, we started off with some worship songs, and band was amazing and the drummer was wild. Everyone was getting into the right frame of mind and a really calm yet powerful atmosphere was about the place. There were a couple of guys that shared there testimony and performed some pretty remarkable rap songs which got everyone up and dancing. There was a speaker who had recently been in Florida (Mick), and he shared some of his experiences at the Christian events there that have been publicised around the globe recently. He certainly had the gift of speaking and connecting with people and the message he got across was clear and in such a powerful manner it was obvious to all that God was speaking to him. I wont go into details here (please feel free to ask me about this though).
Everyone was supposed to be in bed and lights off by 12:00 ... but ... you know how it is ... the girl’s room was a children’s play area, and I made my bed in the ball pit. I don’t have any horrible memories as a child, but I rediscovered just how hard it actually it to get out of one, especially when you are completely submerged with two of your best friends. Like trying to swim through near solid water I suppose. A while later, me, Emma, Bex, Hannah and Lexi (youth leader) decided to go to sleep in the adjacent room and leave the others to stay up all night. The result was that we were kept up till some stupid hour in the morning from lights and shouting in the next room. many Jaffa cakes were eaten that night/morning.
Later that same day ... at an Earthly hour, I managed to get up and raise the alarm that it was later than we thought. All was packed up and I drank alot of hot chocolate (mmmmmmmm). Me, Bex, David, Hannah, and other people (can’t really remember as I was still asleep) went for the healthier option of a bread shop ... while the others want to McDonalds for pancakes and syrup. I then decided to go to Summerfield to buy a random carton of milk ... yes ... while Jon and Adam went looking for meat to prove their manliness ... or something like that.
There was a short meeting in the morning, then we were on are way home. I was just getting to sleep when I was rudely awakened by Adam grabbing my hand. Odd things went on in the mini bus on the way back ... me and Emma are still awaiting the publishment of our ‘adventures of snowy the polar bear’ video.
This blog is ending here for a good week and a bit as I will be living in a tiny caravan some where near Tarleton, as strange golf people live in our house. I shall report back when ... and if I survive. =]

I have decided that I’ve got used to writing this blog ... and looking back on some past experiences ... I have concluded that there are more interesting going’s on in my life than even I realised!
Since D of E, I have recovered, passed my driving test, learned to balance many plates at Pizza Express, marvelled at the new plates my mum has bought for us (which are whiter than white) and have moved my stuff to a tiny caravan in which me and rest of the Cairns’ will be living for a week while strange and peculiar golf pros live in our house. Oh, and been to JJB gym many times with Emma, Jon, and Eddy having resolved to do something about my excess ice-cream eating recently. JJB is so posh! I’m getting slowly back into working out and am determined to retrieve my 5-pack from hiding. Also, i have stolen all relating mountineering and climate change books from around the house and they are now accumlated in my room, along with a very long rope ... i enjoy tieing things up ... =P
I’ve been driving around as much as I can. It was so strange being in the car by myself, than I had to direct myself by saying ... ‘turn right at the round-a-bout’. I picked Rachy-babe up the other night to go to Emma’s to play on her bro’s ‘wee’. The out come was that when it came to parking, we drove down the length of the road and round the corner at 5mph with Rach leaning out the door saying ‘closer, closer, closer’. Also I suck at guitar hero.
Spent an hour and a half at the train station on Friday morning, as the train was cancelled. Jumped on the 10:30 train to Burscough Bridge, met Carrington who had been shopping for Alcatraz supplies (totally gutted I couldn’t to that) and we drove to Liverpool Awesome walls after stopping off at Carrington’s house to feed the small fury animals we found there (Merlin the cat). Got kitted up and did a good few 4a’s and 4b’s and one 3 speed climb, we also had a bit of time on the pinnacle, and after my hands started ceasing up, we grabbed a sandwich. Topics of conversation were mostly goldfish, how Carrington was my guardian for the day, and many other funny things i now can't remember ........... I also spent about 5mins hanging a foot off the ground ... because someone found it funny.
I’m starting to feel the effects of working till 12:00pm at pizza express after working at Clark’s from 11:00am. The only consolation is that I get free pizza ... and money for certain extreme sports.
Went to give Jenny a hand at the YMCA climbing wall on Monday night. I amazed her with my one handed, eyes shut, bowline. So ... I spent an hour flying off the floor when belaying people heavier than me as there was no where to tie down to, and I resorted to getting people to hold me down.

D OF E GOLD - DAY ONE =]

By 7:00pm on Saturday night, I decided it might be a good idea to pack for my Gold D of E! Realising I had no food apart from freeze dried stuff, me and my dad whizzed down to Morrison’s (which I will never forgive him for) and fancied a take-away from the Shamratt on the way back. All was packed and food was eaten by 9:30.
The next morning I met the rest of the crew at Alcamy at 10:00am. Arrived at Kettlewell youth hostel at 12:00 and after a quick bite to eat, sorted gear out, to much amusement to everyone when I de-cluttered Gary’s bag to half the weight. Met the assessor part way through a game of chocolate ‘Deal or no deal’, and had a final pep talk.
Got tea on the go at 6:00. Bex dropped Josh’s on the floor, which worked out well for him as he had some of each of ours and ended up with more in the end! Much fun was had over pudding when Rachy-babe and Eddy came up with the new word ‘wald’ (an alternate for the word warm, between hot and cold!) Eddy is now on a mission to find the metal that malts at ‘wald’ and become a world class professor. Moseyed on down to the pub later and me, Rachy-babe and Josh decided to go awondering. We walked out of Kettlewell, through large branched over the bridge, I saved some small animals by scaring them ... and Josh and Rachy-babe taught my about animals. Also came across an old petrol station ... the kind they use in dodge car adverts etc. Met the others at the pub and took part in the pub quiz, and didn’t do to badly I add! Raced the others back to the youth hostel and won ... much to Gary’s annoyment. Fell into bed at last and had strange dreams about ‘deal or no deal’.

DAY TWO =]

Woke up bright and early, grabbed a quick shower, packed up, and organised everyone into a production line for a cooked breakfast in the kitchen. Rach put bread in the toaster, I buttered it, Bex cooked the beans, Mike cooked sausages and bacon, Gary set the table (or should have done) and Eddy and Josh took food out. After everybody was suitable stuffed, the guys washed up and soon we were all rearing to go ... and pretty lost in Kettlewell before we had gone anywhere!
The first few km were spent contouring down a valley and round a hill. We went past Scargill house – many a happy memories for me and Mike as we went there for the church weekend away. We saw a silver group ahead of us and some badly shaven sheep, but the soil creep, limestone pavement and craggy bits were the most interesting. Met Dennis the assessor just before Conistone and had a quick blister stop and refuelling session. Got to the bridge and had lunch and an art stop before trudging up a hill, rolling down it and having a navigation stop. I, Mike and Josh did most of the navigation and we didn’t get lost at all! We found an old barn which I insisted on exploring and a good few pics were taken.

There were some issues of the exact location of the campsite, which turned out to be someone’s back garden! I and Mike had been running up and down a few roads to find it, and eventually we got there. Our ‘tidy’ skills have certainly not improved since last D of E and after showers, boil in the bag tea’s and some camera action, all was tidied up and I called a de-brief of the day and a quick chat about the route and plans for the next day. All were in bed by 10:00 and after a game of ‘Deal or no deal’ between tents, we fell asleep.

DAY THREE =]

Second day of actual D of E began awfully. I have never seen such midges! All was quickly packed up by 8:45 and I spent 20mins looking for my hot chocolate. Sang a few walking songs to get us going and had a few cow encounters on the way. Had a minor ‘BO’ stop and passed the map around so everyone had done a bit of navigation. I had taught everyone how to use a compass in Kettlewell, and it was proving useful! Lunch and an art stop were had in a nice yellow field and Eddy went mad with the suncream. Moseyed on down and met Jenny and Paul who sorted Eddy’s feet out and we were soon heading along the Pennine way to Malham.
Camped at Gordale Scar, after tea and tents, I managed to drag people down to the waterfall for a scramble – which was unsuccessful. Anyway, fun was had by all and lots of photos were taken, Gary predicted it would rain at 9:00, and it promptly began to chuck it down at 9:05. Dived into the tents and chatted for a while, was then woken up at 2:00am by Rachel screaming about potassium and pudding ...

DAY FOUR =]

Time was spent on the limestone pavement above Malham cove and certain people were shouted at when they started taking pictures of their feet ... over the edge. Went through allot of shake holes around Gorbeck, and walked through a bog ending up in a mini forest, by which point it was getting pretty damp and people were pretty wet. We hung wet stuff on branches and got some hot chocolate going, while Gary-lad made a miniature forest out of some well chosen sticks. I wasn’t allowed to build a shelter to I settled for bisects. Met Jenny and Paul just out of the forest and after I pointing out the Yorkshire fells, we were allowed water.
Got into the campsite at Stainforth in good time. Eddy was upset as there was a considerable amount of cheese in the shop which he couldn’t have. The evening was spent doing art by the river, playing gladiator on the kids play area, racing up and down the campsite and eating excess food. Playing cards in the guy’s tent went on till gone 11:00 and hence we were pretty shattered the next morning.

DAY FIVE =]

It was a wet start to the last day and some navigation expertise in leap frogging was almost required at points. The morning was hard as people were starting to get fed up of the naff weather and constant bogs. I ended up singing ‘Hairspray’ up half the road, and I and Josh sang the traditional SClub & ‘Don’t Stop Moving’.
Met Jenny and Paul to collect some rubber gloves for over Rachy’s gloves. Soon stopped for lunch on Knowe Fell then powered round Malham Tarn to the finish where there was apple pie and cheese waiting for us (Eddy). Stopped off for chips on the return journey before picking up Dennis for a de-brief. All was successful and we all passed.

In conclusion, D of E was an amazing experience to test friendship and my navigation in fog =] we all learnt something and it was one big holiday ... just with allot of rain ... it just made it funny really!

for more photoes see - http://picasaweb.google.com/Emmmmmmmmmmmma

MORE EXAMS, WORK, HAILITE, DANIELLES PARTY AND ASDA

The last few weeks I’ve hardly seen the light of day ... been revising to the point of chemistry coming out of my ears. Started my job at Clarks, and was surprised at how easy it was to sell shoes, providing your good at convincing strangers they need things they don’t really need ... like ‘shoe trees’ ... I can be very persuasive. I also got to wear a sexy head set like in the movies and spent the first five minuets pretending to be Kylie!
Danielle’s party last night was certainly eventful. Me, Alice, Danielle, Shawnee, Sarah, Pauline, Beaky and Mike had our last geology exam in the morning, and chose to celebrate by visiting the famous Mr. Evens for the keys to the geology room ... and stealing a rather large amount of Halite (a very salty rock). Anyway, we made it to the entrance hall, and after having a geography revision session with Mr. Porter, Mr. Clowes (geology teacher) finally hunted us down and demanded his beloved rock back from Alice ... that reused point Blanc. Soon we were on the bus to Skem and saw allot of nice fields which I want to run around in one day =].
The party got started and I made friends with Danielle’s Nan (who is amazing!) we danced the night away, and danced in front of the TV when the male portion on the guests decided to watch the football ... but ended up watching us! At about 10:30, me and Danielle walked Shawnee and Michael to the bus station ... only to find there were no trains till 7:00 am, and a scary man watching us. So I calmly phoned Arriva ... the bus did turn up in the end and everything was ok.
A while later, me Alice, Lisa and Pauline were standing outside Asda weighting for Alice’s dad ... who the whole time was weighting for us across the car park but had his phone off. The result was that we spent about 45 minuets, standing around Asda with a few trips inside to get Galaxy ... mmmm and to have a look at the bedding section, just incase we had to spend the night. I got home at some ridiculas hour in the morning and went straight to bed after polishing off the galaxy as I had work in the morning.
Had my last chemistry exams on the Thursday which went awful and I’ve been thinking of a back-up plan if I don’t get into Edinburgh ... =] Anyhow, I met Pauline, Becky and Mike at the station later that night for our geology party organised by Mr Evens and Mr clowes. We moseyed on down to Lloyds bar for a drink or two and then for a geological tour down Lord Street (I had no idea there were so many brachiopods in the walls of Waterstones!) got to the Restaurant and reminisces over the past two years and especially the trip to Arran in Scotland! By the end of the meal, some of us ... Toby ... were a little worse for wear due to the now absence of a bottle of wine or two. We then found an Irish dancing pub ... somehow... and yet again I got the party started by getting everyone to dance!

A good time was had by all and I know for sure I certainly will never look at a rock or formation without questioning it again after these two amazing years!