Ændr the Mad Hatter

Hello and welcome!
My nickname? I like hats - lots and lots and lots.

Who am I?

I love Guiding. A brief history of me (guiding):

I first joined 17th Wallasey West Brownies at age 7, starting off as an Imp and later moving to be Sixer of the Gnomes. Apparently I wanted to be a Brownie from a long time before that though.
I moved up to 17th Wallasey West Guides and became Patrol Second of the Roses very quickly, remaining there until we formed 17th Wallasey West Rangers of which I was secretary.
Wallasey West District was renamed Harrison and I became Assistant Guide Guider with 17th Harrison Guides briefly before heading off to University.
I was Assistant Guide Guider at 1st Chelsea Guides for my four years in London, and Brownie Guider in Charge of 1st Chelsea Brownies for my final year
In Oxford, I was Assistant Guide Guider at 10th North Oxford Guides for 3 years. I joined Oxford University Student Scout and Guide Group, a SSAGO group.
I also helped start up NetGuides, a Guiding unit for Brownies, Guides and Senior Section members who can't get to regular meetings. I was coordinator and Assistant Brownie Guider, Senior Section member and Guide Guider in Charge at various points over the 5 years of the project.
During a brief six months in Bracknell, I was Assistant Brownie Guider for 1st Crown Wood Brownies.
At Exeter, in Devon, I was Assistant Guide Guider and then Guide Guider in Charge of 40th Exeter Guides over 2 and a half years.
In Cambrideshire East, I was a district Guider for Toft District while I found my feet, planned a wedding and a house move.
Then in Cambridgeshire West I was Assistant Guide Guider at 2nd Little Paxton Guides.
On the web, I am a member of the guidinguk (unofficial) emailing list for Guiders and Young Leaders in the UK.
I have now reached 20 years as a Guider!

I have an amateur radio licence (M1FGO), which I got mainly for the purpose of helping Guides and Scouts talk to each other using amateur radio. I help out at Youlbury Scout and Guide Radio station (GB4YOU) when I can.

I'm a married woman and a mother (eek).

I married Ganesh on 24th February 2007. Photographs are collated here. We then had two children, Alex and Heather

I love hats

I love hats... this is an understatement. I collect hats... this is an understatement. I collect hats... and have lost count at the moment but the number is somewhere between 80 and 99. When I get a round tuit, I will put some photos of my hats somewhere around here. However, don't hold your breath - I wrote that over 10 years ago and still haven't got the correct round tuit.

Other hobbies

In my spare time, I do a lot of needlecrafts and other crafts. Many of them have a slightly Guidey slant, in that I tend to work out crafts that the Guides or Brownies can do. A list of some of my larger pieces of (borrowable) craft equipment is at my craft page. I also read a lot of fantasy fiction, historical fiction, crime fiction and linguistic non-fiction. I occasionally do Scottish Country Dancing and play computer games. I'm rather addicted to OxIRC, but I won't give you a link because it's rather addictive. I got into reenacting at Kentwell in 2013 and have even less time to update my webpage, now.

Food

I enjoy cooking and some of my favourite recipes are here.

What I look like

Well, that's me, except what I look like... Oh, and I'm a lefty and proud of it!

Abysmal photography

The photographs from my digital cameras can be found here.

This page was last updated by Mad Hatter aendr-website@earth.li on 27th October 2014.