Temper Temper Chocolate Factory

The Guides requested that we go to the Temper Temper Chocolate Factory. Now they have been here before but this was my first time.

The chocolate factory is based in Tunbridge Wells. The parties are in their workshop and last around 2 hours. (just think how much chocolate you can make in 2 hours!!) Everything you make you get to take home with you.

Here is what we got up to.

Firstly we created a moulded chocolate figure. These come in a variety of shapes such as a teddy, heart, rocking horse, dinosaur, truck etc, I choose to make a duck (obviously!!). For this we could create a design or colouring in parts of the mould using two types of chocolate. I went with the dark and milk. After this we had to pour in the main chocolate which was white for me and close the mould and move it around until it set.

Next we made a lolly. I choose to use milk chocolate for the main and decorate with dark and white. I thought I would be a bit of a geek and do a trefoil.

After that we made our baskets which once set we can put all of our treats in to take home. Now this was quite scary for me as I don't like balloons especially when they pop. To make the basket you had to place the balloon into the melted chocolate and rock it back and forth until it was covered, again I choose white and if you haven't already guess white chocolate is my favourite. That was it for that one, quite simple really.

Next we made Florentines which are small circle chocolates with a fancy pattern on them. I enjoyed this part the most and think they come out pretty good, the hearts are my favourite.

Lastly we made truffles with a variety of things to stick to them. All we had to do was roll them into balls and then roll them in the toppings. The toppings to choose from were icing sugar, almonds and sprinkles.

And here is the finish product!

The chocolate tastes amazing and I think everyone had a really fun day, can't wait to go again.

Sign Language

Since the beginning of October I have been learning British Sign Language, I am doing this as part of my Queens Guide award so I thought I would talk about all the things I have learnt so far.

Here is a list of what I have learnt:

• Finger spelling names and places
• Counting.
• Days of the week and months.
• Time.
• Feelings.
• Weather.
• Introductions.
• Family.
• Facial Expressions.
• Descriptions.

 I have learnt a lot in the last 5 weeks of attend the class. My tutor is deaf so signs all the time any way which makes it so much easier to pick up and she is a fantastic teacher.Along with all the serious stuff we have learned we have also picked up other random words like food, animals and my personal favourite is to sign drunk.

My first exam is on the 13th December. I am a little worried as everyone is when they are taking an exam but my tutor is so great I am sure I will be fine. I feel I have learnt so much all ready and have only had 5 lessons fingers crossed I can remember it all.

So wish me luck everyone, will keep you posted on how I get on.

Geocaching

My friend Natalie has been going on about this for ages, I personally had never heard of it before and thought she was just crazy looking for treasure that isn't there.

So many of you are probably still wondering what the hell it is so I will tell you a bit about it.

Geocaching is an outdoor sporting activity in which the participants us a  GPS or mobile device to hide and seek containers called geocaches or caches anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and sings it with their established code name. Larger containers can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value.

Geocaching is often described as a "game of high-tech hide and seek" or "a treasure hunt" as Natalie calls it. They are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world. There are over 5 million geocachers worldwide.

Basically it's a massive treasure hunt.

For my first ever Geocache I wanted it to be easy so found one that was close by and with a really good clue. Mark and I went in the dark but still managed to find it. Once signing the log book we hid it again, sadly I forgot to take a picture that night so I went back the next day to do it. This one was a large box and had lots of stuff to trade in there.

Today we thought we would be a bit more adventurous and true a couple of harder ones. Firstly we went back to where we found our first one (so I could get a picture) then found another close by. This required Mark to climb up a tree. We then headed to Greenwich to complete the Gates of Greenwich Series. There are 11 in total but we only did up to 8. The only one we was unable to find was number 3 so we will be back another day to give it another go. From visiting the website I notice some people take along a mascot and get pictures of them with the caches so I thought I would take Danny Duck with me.

Once you have found the caches you need to log them on the geocache website. I have just done mine and I am now up to 9 in total. Have a long way to go yet to catch up to Natalie.

I am hoping to count this towards my Look Wider Out of Door Octant Phase 3. (will explain more about this another time.)

At first I thought this was a bit of a silly hobby and didn't fully understand it but after actually doing it you can learn a lot of History about the place you are visiting and they can also take you to places that you wouldn't normally go, for example I have never actually walk around the whole of Greenwich Park. It was great fun and I can't wait to do some more.