Carolines' blog

December 2008

.. And before we knew it, it was January again.

December has got to be, by far one of my favourite months of the year. I love the parties, and the beautiful frosty mornings and beginning the year afresh. My December seems to have lasted forever, but its been amazing.

The start of the month was the beginning of a serious revision effort for all the AS levels Im taking in January and an overload of French and Spanish grammar rules. One of the last things I had to do for my warrant to become that Assistant Guide Guider officially was attend a Division meeting, which I did on the 4th. Were got so many plans for the centenary, it seems closer every day! It seems like ages ago now, but from the 11th to the 13th I was at Worcester College, Oxford, for an interview at Oxford University. I went there with the main aim to try my best and enjoy myself, and I know I definitely did! I loved being around people who had the same interest as me languages and I made some good friends. Obviously we made a Facebook group afterwards, and although I didnt get into Oxford, Im really happy for those that did and we might be meeting up soon. I was discussing my Gap Year plans with an Oxford professor at an interview and when mentioning the World Centres, she enthusiastically mentioned that a friend of hers had worked at Our Chalet for a few months, which made me smile in quite an intimidating situation. With Oxford being my last university decision Im now really enthusiastic about my Gap year. With the right grades, Ive got a place at UCL in 2010.

With the ladies from Lloyds pharmacy, where I work, we had a fantastic work Christmas party, which seems to be quite the unprecedented thing! A lot of my Christmas holidays have been spent with friends. We kicked off the festive period with fourteen tickets to the local pantomime, which was excellent fun. I hadnt been to the Pantomime since I went with Brownies when I lived up north, and with my 17 18 year old friends it was a right giggle! My friends and I had agreed on a Secret Santa this year, which wed put a 25 limit on each. One of the lads was my Secret Santa and I got a lovely present a digital photo frame. Im very keen on taking photos, and its great to be able to change them whenever I take something new I love. Ive got lots of new photos from the parties and nights out throughout the holidays when I should have been doing revision.

Christmas Day went very well. Im a huge food lover, and Christmas Day is definitely a day for food! There was good television, and everything went well. I got some nice presents a surprise ipod nano that Ive fallen in love with and some DKNY perfume.

New Years Eve was packed for me! I agreed to meet up with Guiding and Scouting friends Id not seen since September, but my friend rang at 11am to see where I was and woke up, ooops. After jumping the car half an hour later I made there with time enough and we sat and drank coffee and caught up.

New Years Eve was spent at a party in my friends flat, and I spent the first day of 2009 sleeping from 9am til 3pm.

My best Guiding moments of 2008 were spent at Innovate Wroughton in March and at the Essex International Jamboree in July, writing for the newspaper and dancing into the night in the dance tent. This year wasnt fantastic I spent two months of it extremely ill, and some things have had to take a backseat, but I can safely say Ive the best friends in the world, and they are what made 2008 such a lovely year.

Happy New Year!