Another Book Closes

Nathalie officially left scouts last night. Having worked her way through the system from beavers to girl guides to scouts she'd outgrown the pack she was with and the scouting rules don't allow transfers to another pack within the same town.

It's a shame in many ways because she has got a lot out of it and we've both felt tremendous parental pride watching her march through the streets on Remembrance Day and St. George's Day, when she carried the flag from Christchurch Quay to the Priory. The camps, trips, learning new skills will all serve her in one way or another I'm sure, if they don't that's not as important as the enjoyment she got at the time.

It seems quite short sighted to me that at a time when people are moaning about children spending too much free time in front of the computer or television she can't switch packs, particularly as she's already reached the position (rank?) of being second in command in her particular group. It's strange timing as well coming close to the end of the school term, it coincides with her just having made the school rounders team - which has only one more match this year, and the athletics team - which doesn't have any inter-schools matches this year and the sportsday was rained off!

I suppose that leaves her to concentrate on her karate for the summer and think about whether or not she wants to join the Army Cadets. She is quite keen on the Cadets for two reasons: first off she likes the idea of wearing camouflage which she says looks cool and secondly she likes the idea of learning how to fire a gun. Perhaps the MOD could use those two ideas to arrest the drop in numbers of people wanting to join-up. "Join The Army. Travel the world whilst wearing cool gear and firing a gun."