The next few days will bring a break from routine - and a couple of days are technically 'off' but a bit of a bus drivers holiday if truth be told.

This photo is almost ten years ago - which is decidedly scary!  It was taken at the last GB Camp (though they're now called residentials apparently) that I led in 1999 when we went to Scarborough.  Don't you just love the traffic warden outfit!

I have been looking back at various GB photos because this weekend I will be in Northampton for the 75th anniversary of the company my sister and I belonged to as girls.  Both of us trained as leaders but whilst she escaped I seem to be a lifer having now done all but 28 years as an adult leader (various ranks at various times, including the now defunct 'Commandant' which used to raise titters among my work colleagues for same strange reason!!) and still going strong.

So, after the EMBA Association half-day on Saturday, I will driving south for a social-evening gathering of 'old girls' where I hope to meet up with various retired leaders as well as my peers.  I'm led to believe one or two drop by here occasionally, so maybe I'll see you there?

Sunday afternoon is a special thanksgiving service and parade - meeting outside the house where we used to live and marching behind the BB band to the church.  All very nostalgic!  And judging from the church's website nothing much has changed physically in the chapel since I left there in 1981 to go to university, though the list of services and activities is VERY different.  I have the privilege of reading in the service and it will be a happy honour, remembering an important stage in my own faith story and why I still remain committed to this organisation so many years later.

After that, Monday is the EMBA's quiet day for ministers led by BU president Revd Dr John Weaver.  I will be travelling with a good friend (of ten years) from nearby D+6 where she is a specialist minister for older people.  I am looking forward to a good chat there and back, some space to be still and receive, and some renwed energy for the next relentless round of services and pastoral needs.

I'm not sure it exactly counts as a rest, but it will be a change and I am looking forward to it.

Last night at Girls' Brigade we started to move towards Easter with a fun evening of different activities which the girls moved around until they'd all done all of them.  So we had a table of puzzles and word searches, a table with colouring, a table of craft with funky foam and a table of cutting out.  All things our girls enjoy.  But before we began we talked through the tag end of Lent to see if we could work out the calendar of Sundays and other special days between us.  Quite entertaining really.

So I asked what last Sunday was and then what next Sunday is.  Up went the hands 'Easter Sunday' (good try but not yet) 'Palm Sunday (closer but still not yet) 'Father's day' (unfortunately that one isn't for ages yet, it's in June)... It begins with a 'P'... 'It is Palm Sunday then!'  (honestly it's not).  So I explained that it was called Passion Sunday (unless you're a Catholic, which some of our girls are, who call Palm Sunday, Passion Sunday...) the day when Jesus began his last journey towards Jerusalem.

Then we moved on to Palm Sunday.  What happened then?  Another flurry of hands and those frustrating waves and squeaks that mean 'me, me ask me' (which like all mean adults I ignore).  'It was a day when Jesus walked into Jerusalem with a donkey and all the women put their coats on the ground and the children had those, um, like branches, yeah, branches' (excellent answer, well done).  Wave, wave, squeak: 'no it weren't.  He, like sent two of them to get a donkey what had never been rode before and all the people shouted and waved branches' (yes, very good, that's mostly what "Jane" said isn't it, so you're both right really).

Now, what other special days come before Easter Sunday?  There's one that begins with 'M'... Mau.... 'Monday?'  It does sound a bit like Monday doesn't it.  Maundy Thursday.  So we talked about the Queen and Maundy money and rich/powerful people serving poor/powerless people because Jesus has washed his friends' feet and told them to do the same sort of thing.

After Thursday comes... 'Good Friday' and we mentioned the cross and that sadness - thankfully no one asked why it was called 'Good'

Then comes 'Easter Sunday?'  (no, not quite, there's a day in between) ... Saturday?  What happened on Saturday?  Puzzled looks.  A waiting day - some people call it Holy Saturday some say Easter Saturday but it's a day we have to wait between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

So what comes next?  Every hand goes up, eager faces longing to answer... 'Jesus comed alive again' (is that right?  All round the table are earnest nods)  A few hands remain up 'and we get Easter eggs,' 'and I eat one bite a day of mine,' 'and I get ten Easter eggs,' 'and I get ten hundred' (yes, it's a happy day isn't it and so good to celebrate).

Will they remember any of what we said?  Who knows.  Did I have fun?  Yes.  I love the awful grammar and muddled tenses (though often highly logical) of small children.  I love the 'Jesus comed alive again' response, as if this was the most natural thing in the world for him to do.  And I even don't mind the elision of Easter and chocolate if it means they see it as a day of celebration.  I of course will buy myself one Fairtrade Easter egg which will do well to survive much past lunch time on Easter Sunday, and look forward to being surprised again by what this season brings.

Now - time to check on the soup for my Lent prayers, average age about 80, and a different kind of fun and fellowship...