Looking it all up

A list of activities that could potentially earn Grown-Up Girlies a badge – so far.

• Craft activities – knitting, sewing, crocheting, embroidery badges, BUT you have to make something useful and grown-up for each badge – knitting an iPod, quilting a laptop bag, for example.
• Nature activities – finding leaves from 5 British trees, drawing the footprints of three different animals, following the Hockley Woods trail.
• Cooking – coming up with a meal based on three main ingredients, designing a dinner party menu for six people where one is vegetarian, one is wheat-intolerant and one is on a diet (see, grown-up issues).
• Exercise – we’d have to be able to manage a minimum level in five different  activities – running, swimming, lifting weights, skipping etc.
• Literature – reading a book, and then giving a three minute review back to the group. Maybe have a creative writing slot, where we have to write a 500 word short story in a certain genre.
• Work – all I can think of this is creating a 2-page CV that has no spelling mistakes or lies.
• Music – be able to identify 5 No. 1 hits from each decade since you were born. Go to an opera. Learn to play one tune on a musical instrument (and the recorder DOES count).
• Gardening – grow one thing in a pot from seed to ‘fruit’ (or flower). Pick up a worm. Cook a meal using something you’ve picked form a garden/allotment (if you don’t have any food/herbs growing, you can ask a fellow GUGAS member if you can pick something from their garden).
• Fashion – I want to have this, because I’d like to learn something, but I’m not sure what to do. Maybe it could involve the personal shoppers at Debenhams.
• Housework – how to clean things with green/eco products and very little effort. How to declutter without throwing away everything you won. How to persuade the other people in your house to do their fair share. Sorry, this one’s a bit dull, but I like the idea of a badge for this.
• School subject-orientated things – history, geography, maths and religion ?
• DIY
• Drawing, painting
• Fencing, indoor wall climbing, ice-skating

There, my list so far. N (work) and I were discussing whether drinking 1.5 litres of water a day should count as a badge-worthy activity – and as GUGAS is yet to be a proper organisation, and the rules are open to change, we decided drinking water should definitely be on the list.

Today for lunch, I’m trying bacon and Gruyere scones. While it sounds like a nice idea, I’m not really sure what you eat with it to make it a proper lunch. The greedy person in me says “LOTS of scones” but I’m wondering if baked beans or a salad will be good.