(2006)
(Colin`s Blog)
Sleepovers, a New Years Eve Party and the pain of being a teenager! 30th Dec 2006
Friday
All seemed to be going to plan, the New Years Eve sleepover started Friday, Dan bought some serious food supplies for the sleepover and the Big Night. Colin supplied another massive Makro firework for the event, plus of course the boring forms that go with the Explorer Led Camp Leaders role on every sleepover.
Saturday
Colin dropped in and merrily headed off to the steel scrap yard with the horsebox full of 500Kg of scrap with Tom riding shot-gun. Unfortunately they were closed for the New Year, so after some not very professional attempts at reversing and turning the horse-box around, much to the amusement of the locals, we duly returned the full trailer back to Paddicks. Ho hum! Second trip that day was to the dump with the Espace (minus seats) doubling up as a dustcart. Colin's wife will not be impressed if we don't clean it afterwards! The junk was from Colin's son Tim's bedroom cleanout plus previous Explorers sleepovers and some general clearing up from previous work partys at Paddicks. Oh good! Dump was open! We queued patiently for half an hour then unloaded the trash and waste paper. Ah, whoops, I didn't mention to Tom that those black re-cycling boxes for paper should be emptied INTO the skip, and brought back, not chucked in with the paper, ah well, left an email with WDC for another couple of boxes which duly turned up on Wednesday morning. Excellent service, I must say!
Sunday
Started well, with Manhunt and lots of outdoor activity. The evening costumed New Years Eve Party was a great success, take a look at Emma's, New Year movie. Wayne said he would look in and check the refreshments, but Dan remained in charge and main organiser. He had by then discovered that Leading frequently means doing a lot of work yourself, although you can see him in the movie leading by example! But our Dan soldiered on bravely and kept up Scouting Standards as is expected! We hear that the fireworks were very well received!
Monday
By now some very tired campers got rather over boisterous and eventually "words had to be said". After a general clearup we all had a discussion, and it was agreed we should have a Unit Council meeting to discuss various things, including Gilwell Camp, plus some other general matters that were "pissing many of the Explorers off".
It was agreed that smoking would be immediately banned in front of the Hall, and smoking limited to outside the (closed!) fire door at the back of the hall only. Comments on attendance at Parades should include all attendees, with no exceptions hanging around the tables on the "mound", and also that ALL attendees at meetings must enroll and start paying subs, ie no spectators! We agreed to formally ratify these decisions at the Unit Council on Tuesday.
Despite their obvious weariness, some stalwart members of the team volunteered to sleepover another night and continue the essential work on the new roofing the next day, as best they could.
Tuesday
The new fencing for the Paddicks Woodland Renewal Project arrived and was paid for with a cheque supplied by Colin. A phone call an hour later suggests that Colin needs to explain how to fill in a cheque to certain Scouts. Ah well, they are probably a thing of the past so we won't dwell on it, Colin duly paid by Visa and all was well.
Dan and Morgan started the Fencing Project and erected a considerable amount in the remaining daylight time.
At 5pm the old reliables all duly turned up to their Explorer Unit Council meeting with Colin & Frazer representing the Leader Team. A frank and open discussion took place with everyone taking part and the meeting came up with a useful and well thought out number of Unit Council Decisions that we will be following from now on.
Summary
Well! As my favourite and oft-misquoted (by me) character Arkwright (Open All Hours) would say, "it's been a funny old New Years week-end", highs and lows, fun and tears, but we all learned a little bit more about living and working together, and I guess that's exactly what Old BP had in mind 100 years ago when he setup this knobbly knees organisation we all love!
Snowflake Ball and a Wrinkly Birthday, Sat 16th Dec
After some frantic setup activities and last minute adjustments to the catering and the PA systems, the Snowflake Ball was ready to Rock & Roll by 7pm, guests expected by 8pm. Colin had sensibly supplied some refreshments for the leader team, for a small donation, and there were plenty of soft drinks for the Explorers.
Carolyn, Lizzie, Dan and others had done sterling work on the decor for the Hall, in silver and blue. Carolyn had done the most superlative job on the food with enough to feed even the hungriest mob of Explorers.
Stu, Dan and the A Team had erected both marquees and laid out the dance floor. Mark lent us his Dad's massive PA system, which, we were subsequently informed, could be clearly heard at Twyford Station and at Tesco in Woodley... oops!
Carolyn supplied a white sheet and Christmas banner for all the Explorers to be photographed against as they arrived. Bob supplied the camera. Colin and the setup team were first into their Tuxes and waited patiently (and hungrily eying up the food!) while the Guests arrived. And we were not disappointed by the turnout....
As fine and well dressed a bunch of young adults as you are ever likely to meet. Wonderful ball gowns and cocktail dresses worn by all the ladies, very smart shirts, ties and bow ties with best bib and tucker from all the Explorers. Bill & Hazel arrived followed by Mark L all looking like "quality", James and Ashley even came dressed in matching his & his outfits!
The evening just went on wonderfully, photos for the album, food of every type for everyone (and not a trace of Nuts, except the Explorers, of course!) and everyone had a lot of fun.
The chairs around the the chiminere were very popular, which was initially lit by Dan but kept going by Mr Pyro Andy all evening. Although the food was started at 8pm it lasted right until the end, superb judgment on the quantities by Carolyn.
Throughout the evening we had more photo shoots and of course our ears were constantly assaulted by the PA system!
At 10:30 we had the fireworks in the car park, and they were good and noisy too!
At midnight Colin was conned into making a Thank you speech on behalf of the DESC, Frazer, who sadly couldn't be there that night. After the short speech, Colin was hi-jacked with birthday cards and presents and a lovely cake (well actually a Fruit Rum Baba, but whose counting at that time of night!) with sparklers on it. Probably wise not to put 51 candles on it, not with the amount of rum Carolyn had put into it, and our fire alarm system would have believed we were on fire if we tried that!
Those with permission stayed over to guard the tents (that was what they told us!) and many agreed to help out the next day with the take-down and clear-up.
Another of those days when you are really proud to be an Explorer Scout leader.
Twyford Christmas Market & Fosters Christmas Fayre 9th Dec
A very smooth start from Paddicks, trailer packed and ready to roll at 15:30 for a 16:00 tent job in Twyford. After some initial confusion at the road block, Bob the builder and his mate finally let us gain entry to the closed High Street. From wheels stopped to 20x10 tent up, it was under 15 mins even with concrete boots, walls, tables and chairs.
The job was worth £60 so well worth doing in the lean winter months.
Then it was back to Paddicks for the other two 30x15 tents. With more walls and tables we headed for Fosters Home to put up a marquee for their Annual Christmas Fayre. We raced over there but when we tried to erect one sideways in the Fosters courtyard, we found we were 3 foot too long for easily putting up both 30x15, so compromised on one 30x15 length ways instead. And then onto the wages, Carolyn's famous Fish & Chip support!
Carolyn fed the team of 3 with her special homemade crispy battered fish & chips cooked for 6. The 3 of us ended up a bit stuffed, but it seemed impolite to leave any! We completed the tent job and waddled back to Paddicks to unload quickly.
On Sunday, due to a timing problem, at 10am Colin took the tents down on his own. Well to be honest, with some help from a very pleasant bunch of "crims" doing their community service! And he was just starting to unpack at Paddicks, when the cavalry, in the form of Stu and Carolyn arrived to help finish off, and feed us all the promised Big Fry-Up Breakfast! Super!
Quiz Night, 4th Dec
A good turnout, your editor understands, and an interesting evening of weird questions as well as easy ones. I look forward to a report on the detail, gossip and scandal if someone would care to pen one for the record?
Leisure Activity Anniversary Camp for Emma, Andy & Dan, 2nd Dec
A serious work party set to on Saturday morning and put up both 30x15 Marquees, flooring, lights heating and disco kit ready for the "Anniversary Camp" for Emma, Andy and Dan that night. They even managed to pack the trailer for the Extravaganza the next day ready for Colin to take home and meet everybody on site early morning.
OK, so they forgot to pack some chairs, the gas spanner, tea, coffee and sugar, but let's not be picky, the tent was all there!
The Party evening went extreemly well. Security was provided by "The Management" of Stu, James and Morgan, suitable suited and booted, wearing black "Security" sweat shirts and with their very own "Security Tent" in the car park. A few guests were politely relieved of "contraband items" before being allowed on site, (returnable when they left). "The Management" were happy to report that no Explorers "tried it on", probably because they knew Stu would be on the door. and would NOT have been happy! (Stu being unhappy is to be avoided, trust us on that one!)
Reports from the Birthday People the next day were that the evening went far better than expectation and eveyone had a great time. There were no reports of problems of inappropriate behaviour, although it did get a bit "rough" in the Mush Pit at one stage, but that is regarded as an optional activity, if you don't like Mush Pit, then don't join in! Andy appologised the next day for apparently becoming a touch "tired and emotional" late in the evening, but he wandered off when his ''rents popped by, so no-one minded. Must have been something he ate? We all learn by experience, that's what Explorers is all about.
Woodley Extravaganza 3rd Dec
Despite the late night on Saturday, a lot of Explorers, some a little jaded looking(?) came down to Woodley precinct to help run the Winter Extravaganza. We basically help the stall holders setup, keep the place clear of litter, and clear all the rubbish away at the end, for which we get a free double pitch, and paid £100 for our work. Here we are in the Woodley Chronicle:
 |
Please email Stu with your hours and he will work out the wages.
Stonker Week-End November 24th - 26th 2007
Stonker by name and it certainly was a Stonker of a week-end!
The trip down to Weymouth was complicated by many of the Explorers finishing their Work Experience week, and thus not available to travel until nearly 8pm. So Fet, the Event planner and Trip leader, decided we would eat before we travel, and then pack the Explorers into cars rather than the minibus and send them down as they were filled up.
 | Carolyn
once again very kindly obliged, and prepared a sumptuous
shepherds pie
with Nick, her work experience trainee chef for that week, (this
evening not wearing his rather fetching hair net!) to
feed the mob. Many
thanks again Carolyn, and Nick! The car trip down was truly horrid. The weather was really foul, winds of upto 75mph forecast, which was especially worrying for Colin towing the horsebox, and it rained heavily the whole way down. But once on site, and duly installed into our Chalets, the usual late night fun and gossip catching up took place. |
| On
the Saturday morning after a hearty breakfast, (once Colin had
cannonaded Fet's chalet door to get some grub!) Morgan and Hugh duly
set-off onto their pre-planned MTB trek
and were dropped off near Corf Castle, fully kitted, mapped and raring
to go! The remaining members of the Unit enjoyed the roller skating, swimming and on-site activities, all provided as part of the package at Warmwell. The Leaders headed down to Weymouth for their lunch, but barely half-way there, Colin got a plaintive call from Morgan and Hugh, "we are cold, wet and tired! Please come and collect us!" So he and James set-off for the "extraction" while the remaining Leaders lunched in Weymouth. |  |
 | After arranging, at their insistence, for the soggy MTBer's very muddy bikes to be hosed off with the Warmwell ground staff, the damp MTB team to finally departed to go and change into dry clothing and get warmed up again. At that point Colin & James finally got a chance to grab a Pub lunch at the Smugglers Inn at Osmington Mills. |
| The
evening meal
was made more memorable by Mark ignoring proffered advice and having
several too
many drops of Frazer's latest "killer chili sauce" on his pasta. With
sweat pouring off like he was showering, he braved the situation with
good humour, but caused howls of
amusement when he later discovered that these chillis were remarkably
quickly
expelled from the body, and a quick tinkle turned out to be quite a
blast, and then even his tears started to get chili in as well. How we
all laughed until we cried, which of course made things even worse for
Mark! After that tasty if selectively hot, evening meal, cooked in 2 of the 4 chalets by teams of Explorers, the serious events of the evening started to get planned, the maps, sledges, boards, tea trays and CB radios came out, and the fun began. |  |
 | Things
all seemed to be all going to plan, until Nick
decided to leave his "watching post" and go grab some tucker from the
Chippy. There he was, queuing for chips next to one of the Security
Team when
his CB radio duly burst into life!! Since radio silence was hardly the
way to
describe the constant air-chatter, this hic-cup caused a lot of debate,
and most of the leader team to burst into further hysterical laughter
for
several minutes. Eventually Dan did a test run (on foot!) and once the team had established watchers and ground rules, the descents began. By 3am the following morning, most Explorers had made multiple, runs down the Slope, with Morgan attempting to stand on his flat ski board and later on a sledge! Despite a couple of close calls, no-one got caught by the local Security Team, except Fet, funnily enough, but that's the way it should be with Leading by example! |
| Sunday
was unsurprisingly
a very late breakfast, as you can imagine, but by midday almost all the
team were on the slopes (officially this time) boarding and skiing.
Mark tried a few very spectacular half pipe jumps until he finally
wiped out and gave himself and interesting carpet burn on his mid-rift.
Ben did some impressive tricks on his snowboard. Bob produced a very fancy digital camera and caught all the (legal!) action on the slopes, and so impressed were the staff, that they requested a copy of the pictures for their web site, and gave us all the skiing for free! An excellent day, and now staying well under Fet's planned budget. Which makes a nice change, Colin's attempts at budgeting are usually woefully short of breaking even! |  |
 | After
a super pasta meal, generously cooked centrally
by
Frazer, who avoided
showing the other up with his skiing skills, in favour of making sure
the catering all worked to time-table, we did the final clearups and
tidying. As we departed the site, everyone agreed it had been
an
excellent event, Fet's organisation, booking and planning had all
worked, and even if a little rough around the edges (as he learned the
loneliness of Leadership!) it had been flawless
in it's execution. Another County Network Scout led Stonker is already been planned for March 2007, so watch for Stonker III, where even more audacious action is promised! |
Mon 20th November
Skiing evening. Yours truely took a night off to the local folk club. No reports of serious injuries, so must conclude it was a sucess!
Mon 13th November
Explorers doing what they do best, "giving it large"! Dean and Stu supplied the Sound Systems, Mark L supplied the projection and lighting, the Explorers supplied the energy and enthusiasm. The evening rocked, from end to end, from YMCA with Colin dancing with a broomstick, through some curious line-dancing and finishing, as always with Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.
Frazer invested two more Explorers at the final parade, with a few more still to be invested, probably on the slopes at Stonker.
Sat 4th November
Fundraising
Last weekend was a great fundraising success. Alled set the standard on the Saturday at Wyvale, packing and carrying bags to cars, with a superb total of £130 in donations. Colin followed on with the Sunday team but was just pipped at the post with £125. The Manager was so impressed with the turnout, he invited us back in 2 weeks to his Santa's Arrival start to the Christmas Shopping Season, which is typically one of his best days of the year, so we "should make even more" he said.
Best grab of the day was Andy who spoke to a nice lady willing to pay 2 Scouts upto £60 to fully valet a car she wanted to sell. Andy and Morgan immediatly volunteered and at 3pm Colin whisked them off to Maindenhead to deliver the service. They earned £60 in just over 2 hours and were kindly brought back by Gareth. Well done Andy & Morgan! With an additional £30 "profit" from the Lewes Fireworks trip the total for the weekend came to £345! A "nice little earner"! Thanks to all involved.
Sat 28th October
It was "Halloween Night" last week
Carolyn was already in full swing with the catering and the hall was beautifully laid out by Stu, Claire, Fet and others before I even arrived. With mini pumpkin lanterns illuminating the scene, balloons, spooky decorations, and real pumpkins all ready to be savagely attacked with sharp knives for the traditional Pumpkin Head competition, the evening got off to a flying start.
The dough nuts-on-a-string eating contest was a huge laugh, and was followed by the pumpkin lantern carving completion and then Colin and Alled had prepared a special Scout version of "apple bobbing" outside.
With a tripod of pioneering poles and a scaffold pole as a lever, they had constructed the Scout equivalent of the Witches Ducking Stool, and offered any volunteers the opportunity to try and duck apples from a huge rigid pond of cold water, by being suspended face down from a climbing harness and and being launched at the surface of the water by a sometimes less than sympathetic pole manipulating team. Surprisingly we had queues of volunteers willing to give it a shot, and amazingly most succeeded in getting an apple with teeth despite being constantly ducked and swung about like a bait on a fishing line!
With Colin's Chiminaire (sort of pot belly stove) roaring away nearby to warm any cold or wet parts of the body, Explorers soon recovered from the hypothermia of the apple ducking and could next try their luck with Claire's sweet on a mug of flour. A group take it in turns to cut away the flour, and the one that makes the sweet finally fall, has to retrieve it with their teeth! (And get a face full of flour!), always popular!
Dan managed to prove that he doesn't need any additional equipment or props to injure himself, by crashing, completely un-assisted, into a door post inside the hall and injuring his elbow. Our pet paramedic, Alled, provided the ice packs and deft touches, which caused squeaks, and suggested yet another trip to casualty for our Dan. So no change there then, eh, Dan?
Frazer closed the evening off with prize giving for the various competition winners, a few notes about Wyvale from Colin, money for Stonker & Germany, and the not unusual moans about keeping the kitchen tidy, and not leaving clearing up to the Leaders!
Once again a HUGE thank you to Carolyn, Stu and Claire for all their work on organising and catering. The cakes Carolyn spent hours making were small works of weird art and had to be seen to be believed. Many thanks again, folks!
Yes, it was yet another fun and amusing night!
Scary moments..
Congratulations to Dean on passing his driving test, commiserations to the other drivers in the Twyford area! ;-)
Our Web Site is World ranked 697,997 + #1 hit on Google
We are apparently are ranked 697,997 in the world and #1 Google hit!
I will have words with Mark about fitting a disabled ramp to the website to comply with British regulations! ;-)
Take a look for your self at our SiteScore.
Stampy comments on "UK has worst behaved teenagers"
To paraphrase a classic Scout prayer, that we have been quoting for many years:
It isn't the teenagers that oblige their parents to work ever longer hours just to keep their jobs.
It isn't the teenagers that market, exemplify or extol the virtues of a consumer materialisticaly obsessed way of living.
It isn't the teenagers that smuggle in or grow, or profit from illegal drugs.
It isn't the teenagers that brew, heavily market, sell or profit from inappropriate types of alcoholic drinks.
It isn't the teenagers that print, publish or promote pornography on the Internet or in the daily tabloid newspapers.
It isn't the teenagers that produce, market or exhibit films, games or TV programs of violence, depravity and moral corruption.
But somehow it all becomes a teenage problem?
Fortunately Scouting offers the Adult interaction as well as the peer relationships that build balanced citizens for the future.
Sat 28th October
Great Breakfast Chase Sat 21st – Sun 22nd Oct
The Explorers volunteered to man some of the the bases, helped with the monitoring, and ably assisted certain leaders taking part (who should have known better) with "advice" that was perhaps "accurate", but not entirely what was requested, and resulted in confusion and an "extended hike" for some. Ho hum!
No-one got lost, everyone managed to collect their breakfast and the whole event was once again a great success.
Results will be published shortly on the 1st Woodley Web Site http://www.1stwoodleyscouts.co.uk/
A very big thanks to Lynda who once again managed to put on a superbly organised, safe, fun and adventurous activity for Scouts and Explorers from 10 to 18 years, not counting the wrinkly old Leader Teams who also tried to zimmer frame their way round (by way of various pubs en-route, we gather!) without getting totally lost, but maybe they were just a little tired and emotional? :-)
"Drown an Explorer (or a Leader)" Swimming Evening.
As per usual, the "last minute rush" of Explorers "please can I have a lift to Coral Reef" resulted in 4 car loads of Explorers leaving from Paddicks and a surprisingly high final count at Coral Reef of 25 Explorers and 5 Adults, considering it was half term.
Phil from Reading East called on the mobile as Colin was driving over (it's OK, Colin has car mounted hands free), and Phil wondered if any of our mob would like to go for a paddle and camp this coming weekend. Morgan was up for it, and Colin offered to do an emergency email to all Explorers and see if any other reasonably experienced "paddlers" were up for a serious kayak trip along the Thames this week-end. (Currently awaiting the PC form and details from Phil)
Phil is also interested in doing some joint meetings between his East Reading ESU and our Loddon ESU, so we happily invited him along to Monday 6th Nov for our Fireworks Night. We will put on some special Bonfire Night grub and extra activities to make the evening go with a real swing as well as a crackle and a bang!
At Coral Reef, once the mob had crocodile'd in without breaking the turn-style, Colin paid the pool entrance fees using the card, as always, and discovered he had "very slightly" undercooked the fees charged to Explorers (£2) resulting in a slight (ok, £50) loss on the evening, but everyone agreed THAT was what fundraising funds are for, and we all had fun, which is what it is all about.
Fun indeed. Almost as soon as we were in, Morgan lost his Tunnel (large tubes like hula hoop crisps stretching his ears for some obscure fashion reason that none of us leaders can fathom) so he and Colin and others spend 20mins searching the depths with goggles until Morgan himself finally recovered it. He was worried his ear would "close up" without it in place....
(The editor wonders if they do them for mouths with the same useful side effect?!)
Then Chris had a try on the Python Slide (the fastest) and shortly afterwards up-chucked his tea in the bogs, but soon recovered.
Then the Explorers discovered a another bather who did a marvelous impersonation of Vicky Pollard from Little Britain. They were falling about laughing and egging her on for quite some minutes... until they realised she really was a 15 year old Chav from the East End, pregnant (she said), with an IQ struggling for double digits and vocabulary that apparently only just exceeded her IQ!
So they politely backed off; but despite being only 4 foot tall and a size 0, she was back again in the waiting area, "giving it large" to Explorers almost twice her height, until Colin finally decided it was getting a bit too heated, and barked "P**s Off, Girlie" and threatened to phone the "Bizzies", at which point she scuttled off out the door with her diminutive tail between her legs and was last seen heading south out the car park in the inevitable clapped out ford fiesta, belching oil smoke from the exhaust and ciggy smoke from the windows!
Other than also managing to break the chocolate machine within 5 minutes of our starting to use it, no further chaos ensued, and the mob finally headed back to the car park to await the various "lifts", much to the relief of the Leisure Centre Staff!
Once relocated back into cars for lifts or parent transport, we all headed for home or Paddicks, which will indeed be home for the next few days for some Explorers who have chosen to stay over at the Leaderless Camp until Thursday (or Friday, TBD!), hopefully putting up the Aerial Runway (under adult supervision only), as well as catching up on some housekeeping work around Paddicks.
Another fun and amusing night!
Leaderless Camp 22nd - 26th Oct
The camp went extreemly well. Stu managed to keep the best of order as Camp Leader, and everyone ate well, and had fun. The Aerial Runway was duly erected and provided the main Scouting activity of the week. We look forward to lost of embarssing photos.
The remainder of the campers days and nights appear to have been spent on the Internet terminals that Fet made available in the hall. This may not sound ideal, but at least this was a group interacting locally rather than each at home alone in their own room. Best practises for safe internet surfing and chat room safety were openly discussed and stories and advice passed around the team, which will hopefully have helped make them all that bit safer and wiser on "The Net".
Colin had a bit of a moan about having to clean up the kitchen on Friday morning while Fet put away the computers, so some new practises and proceedures will suggested for the next Leaderless Camp, which Morgan may be willing to lead.
Frazer and Colin would like all participants to feedback and freely discuss how the camp went for them and ideas to improve it.
Sat 21st October
And so to Scotland for the annual Stamp pilgramge!
Week in Scotland with my brother, Roger, attempting to drink Scotland dry of beer, play a gig almost every night, well, Roger plays and sings, I act as the aged Groupie, and get the beers in! Visited Mum in Ullapool almost every day, she seemed much better than previous visits, for someone in her 80's!
The Explorer Scouts seemed to run OK in my absence, which was re-assuring.
Wed 11th October
Monday
Base: "Unusual Sports"
Well
it would have been, very unusual, with the down-pour late last
Monday afternoon we were looking good for water polo on the parade
ground, swimming in the car park and mud-wrestling in the woods, but
not much else.
So we sensibly rescheduled for "indoor activities!"
So,
how exactly how do you entertain nearly 40 Explorers in a small hall
without a near riot breaking out or the hall being used as part of a
pyrotechnic entertainment? (Although fortunately Andy wasn't there that
night, so we were spared practicing our fire-drill!)
Answer:
Produce a Nintendo, project
it on a large screen for multi-screen 4 player useage, then
involve 4 Explorers wreaking inter-galactial havoc, now step
back;
and add our
own Fet who had cunningly enabled multiple computers in the
Pod
and the Hall to allow mutli-way internet chat and access to the
Explorer Web Site and the Internet, and we had an evening of busy
Explorer interaction of an electronic kind, relational, emotional and
inter-galactic warfare!.
Fet
even managed to get several dozen "sign-ups" on Colin's "Activities"
spreadsheet, making the planned Expeditions at Easter and in the Summer
immediatly viable. Fet also practically "sold out" his own Activity,
the infamous Stonker 2006 (revisited) trip.
In
all, Fet beat Colin
at his own game, hands down, by getting 4 signed up for the
Summer Expedition, 5 for
the Easter Expedition and a staggering 17 for his Stonker 2006
week-end. The
editor takes his hat off to such business accumen!
Other
Explorers are now activly interested in devising and running their own
Expeditions or Activities, with plans a foot for a visit to
watch a very particular "dangerous sport", a trip to the
SnowDome
and possiby Sky Diving in Milton Keynes, and possibly even a week-end
of skiing next year or the year after. Talk to the Leaders, we are here
to help and will make it happen for you, tell us!
Colin
supplied the
pop and biscuits for light refreshments, and the
evening passed
off without serious issue, despite the weather.
Wed 4th October
Monday
Base: Aerial
Runway Part 1
Your
Editor
was enjoying himself at the Munich Beer Festival over the week-end and
was still driving back on Monday night, so was looking forward with
nervous
anticipation to a report of the possible carnage and mayhem that may
have resulted from the water based obstacle race and the attempts by
Explorers to tie a few simple knots, as well as learn the dark arts
associated with erecting and running an Aerial Runway.
Word
reaches the Editor that a lot of Explorers turned up, and a lot of
young people had a lot of fun! Nuf said!
Wed 27th September
Awards Evening and Editor eats humble pieYour Editor, when informed during a dark and stormy Monday evening's Explorer Night that "The Explorer Web Site is down" opinioned that this was extremely unlikely, given the track record of our professional hosting company and that the cause was far more likely to be local Pod installation related issues (ie Fet's fault!). Fet soon proved the point, leaving yours truly with egg on proverbial face. We later learned that a lightening strike had hit our Hosting company in Maidenhead, and that, despite the fact that all systems were still "go" they were obliged to shutdown & switch off everything and evacuate while Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb went about making sure that Trumpton wasn't about to burn spectacularly to the ground.
Further egg on face occurred when the Editor found that the Explorer Web Site menus when using IE had stopped working, and after initially blaming Fet (again unsucesssfully) discovered that poor testing by yours truly during page and menu development had kicked IE in the proverbials! Interestingly Firefox seemed to care little about the poor HTML and just worked through the Editor's incompetence without complaint (moral, use Firefox!). Anyway, your Editor duly debugged and fixed his own mistakes and all should be working perfectly now. (Ho hum! Ed!)
Note to self: Never trust IT no matter WHO is running it, and TEST TEST TEST!!
Apart from those egg-related episodes, the Monday evening went like clockwork. Clare organised and sorted out various Explorer Award programs, updated DofE and Chief Scout record books, and at flag down Clare awarded come very well deserved badges to Tom (Water Activities), Dean (Faith) and <help me here someone!> the Creative badge.
The Arson badge should have been awarded to Andy, seen this week without the spiky retro hair-do, who kept up the glorious Unit tradition of being able to burn everything that needed to be disposed of in the shortest imaginable space of time. Ah, that lad will go a long way, and probably down-hill for most of it! (Just kidding Andy!).
Hot News! Loddon District expands into Earley.
Loddon Scout District is to grow from 8 Groups to 11 as part of a local reorganisation aimed at improving Scouting in the area, after the Groups join will have 1,000 members.We really look forward to welcoming 31st, 84th and 99th Reading Groups to Loddon District.
There is also talk of a possible new Explorer Unit, (Section, Branch?) maybe Earley, maybe Twyford maybe both. Which isn't a bad idea, with the current Loddon Unit in the high 50's. I chatted with Frazer and we tried to come up with a suitable name for a new part of the Explorer Unit.
The problem is that an Explorer Unit (and the Young Leader Section which is a sub-section of the Explorer Unit) is strictly District based, run by the DESC (District Explorer Scout Commissioner) who reports to the DC (District Commissioner). The Explorer Unit is thus "singular", so how do we then have multiples? I think the neatest answer is to call these sub-Units "Bases" (as in an Explorer's Base Camp). Well we await the future to see what emerges.
Wed 13th September
"Pizza Making".
Chris won best
looking Pizza
prize and Tom won the healthiest pizza award, (bags of unhealthy
choclate sweets, ah well!). It was noticed that after
consuming
their creations, some of which barely stayed on the small 6 inch pizza
bases, and many were as tall as they were wide, some of the Explorers
looked distinctly green around the gills. Must be the weather?
But
30 Explorers being creative and feeding themselves certainly seemed to
keep us all very much amused.
Iceland Expedition Report Back Meeting.
The entire Iceland Expedition Team plus the other Explorers were all invited to Coronation Hall, Woodley, together with parents, other District Scout Leaders, Commissioners, County Commissioners, and many other folk who together sponsored and supported the Iceland Expedition and made sure it would happen.
The Leader Team arrived early and setup a PA system, projector, computers and the technology to run the event in style. Tea, coffee and soft drinks were laid on for the guests refreshment afterwards, and then we waited to see if anyone would show.
We didn't need to worry, it was a sellout! Standing room only! All the great and the good duly turned up, and many perhaps not so great and definitely not always good Explorers & Leaders as well!
The Explorers greeted their guests, then took turns to speak to the slide show of photos that summarised the Expedition. Despite their nerves the young team gave a first class performance, making the ReportBack thorough, detailed but above all funny.
The hi-lite in the Editors opinion was the heckling of each other, the great one-liners, and Dobbies memorable exploit saving Amy from apparently disappearing without trace between the worlds tectonic plate fault line, which was admirably described by Jason, surprising everybody with his grasp of continental plate geophysics.
The Leader Team could not have been more proud of the Iceland Expedition Explorers, and indeed all the Explorers who, we are all agreed, are the greatest bunch of young people and a positive pleasure to be associated with.
(That's enough flannel, I'll need to fetch a bucket soon! Ed!)
Tue 29th August
Stonor Park Thu 24th to Mon 28th.
"It's gonna absolutely POUR down with rain this weekend, and those cars will be sliding about like Ice Hockey players in a brawl"
It's nice when the Doubting Thomas' of this world are proved categorically wrong! OK, we had a couple of short sharp showers on the Sunday, but otherwise we were all getting sun-burned, not drowned.
The actual visitor figures this year were down just a little, but not a huge amount, however the Team said it felt much quieter than previous years. Colin's suggestion was that it was simply that we were getting really good at it!
The camping this year was chosen as "all together in the 20x10 marquee", partly because they thought it would be fun, and partly because most of their tents had not yet arrived back in the Landrover Discovery (aka Disco) from Immingham docks where it had just cleared customs. But all 15 managed to squeeze into 200 sq ft of floor even with their kit, and we gather it looked rather like a refugee clearing center, or perhaps like Heathrow last week during the crisis!
As we were unloading the shopping into the 30x15 mess & cook tent, (mess tent is the correct word word here, trust us!) we noticed we had a near neighbour, and Colin introduced ourselves, and wondered if they knew they were about to camp next to 20+ Explorer Scouts? "Oh that's fine" they said, "we have 2 teenage girls camping with us for the first time, could you help them get over their nervousness, and maybe let them join in with your teenagers".
Colin nearly got trampled in the immediate hormonal rush! But sensibly, Colin initially introduced them to that still small voice of reason and calm, Lizzie, and asked if she would kindly (at least try) and protect them (initially) from the now after-shave soaked crowd of young teenage males forming a circle around us like some salivating hoard of hyenas surrounding something tasty!
"Oh yes", Colin quickly assured the nice lady (who apparently wasn't their mother, anyway) "they will be in good hands, with us" (he was very confident of THAT statement!). And indeed, they did get on well with the Explorers and apparently had a great time camping and hanging about with them. One of the advantages of the shared accommodation is that it does dampen the ardour, we have found.
The next day Mark and the Disco turned up on site, but no-one could be bothered with hike tents, except Dean, so communal living and eating was the theme for the camp.
The only self inflicted near death experience at this camp was left to Mark Elliott, in the absence of Dan, who is on the County Spain Expedition doing his DofE Silver award. Dan can usually be relied on to try and kill himself in some incredibly dramatic way at least once a week. Thus without our very own resident micro disaster area, it was left to Mark to demonstrate that just because you get older, doesn't mean you necessarily get any wiser! Mark took up the theme from Morgan's air-born accident last week, with a truly impressive early evening Kamikaze (Kite) Go-Cart flying demonstration. Starting well up the now empty Car Park "A" hill, he carting down the steep slope, and unbelievably cleared the roadway (by several feet) landing perfectly safely much to the watching Explorers total amazement. Apparently multiple fingers were starting to dial 999 as Mark came to a sucessfull halt, un-ruffled and beaming! Who ever said Explorers or their Leaders were dull, huh?
The long week-end concluded very successfully, all the kit was returned to the storage Pod, and Colin eagerly awaits the arrival of the £2250 cheque!
And yet more embarrassing pics!
By special request, here is Morgan in the air ambulance shaken but not stirred after that very spectacular bike crash at the LookOut last week, here just about to be whisked off to A&E! He was fine, btw, just winded and bruised.
Sun 20th August
“Trailer run for pallets & Iceland Debrief”
The last Explorer meeting we met at 7.30pm at Paddicks Patch for a quiet social evening. The Iceland team all wandered in, and the Iceland Leaders went through the considerable number of photo's taken in preparation for the Iceland 2006 ReportBack meeting on the 4th September.
Colin arrived back from Henley with the 30x15 tent we had hired out, and the team duly put it away in the storage Pod. Colin then took another team to go and Hoover up some unwanted pallets from around Woodley to make up for the considerable number that the Explorers have "used" during the first few days of the LeaderLess Camp.
Leaderless (Brainless?) Camp
An interesting Leaderless Camp this August. Started out well with a "no shoes" in the Hall rule, and the Pagoda tent as a porch outside the doorway. Colin did a few shopping trips for supplies, amazed at how much teenagers can put away! Stu & Nick ran the Camp together and everything seemed to go swimmingly. Our suspicions should have been raised by the smoothness of it all!
The first hint of trouble was the call from Stu on Monday afternoon to say he had slightly over cooked a jump at Paddicks and the tree he chose as a brake was tougher than he was, and he lost. His long suffering Mum, Caroline duly took the aching hulk off to casualty, and Nick stayed in charge of the circus.
Tuesday was cycling at The LookOut. What could possibly go wrong? Nine teenagers on weird bikes in dense woods and dedicated tracks for mountain biking? No risk, surely? Tuesday mid-day Colin get's a call that this time Morgan has "over cooked one" and experimented with trying to make the earth move with his shoulder from a good height. That too didn't work and again a shoulder came off worst.
Concerned about the loss of feeling (in the arm, it was generally agreed he had no nothing to damage between the ears!) the Ranger was called out, then the Paramedics, and then. before we knew what was happening, the Air Ambulance was circling over head and Morgan was whisked off to Wexham Park A&E in the whirly bird!
Fortunately Morgan was not seriously hurt, just winded and shocked, so quite enjoyed the free helicopter ride as well as all the drugs and laughing gas made available to him... hmm! Frazer recovered the damaged biker from A&E and he seemed fine if rather bruised and tender when the rest of the party returned from the LookOut at 6pm to Paddicks.
Wed afternoon Paddicks was tidied to Stu & Nicks satisfaction (and hopefully John the Warden's too!) and everyone headed home for a bath and a decent night sleep, before Thursday, the start of the long Stonor Car Parking Weekend! Sigh, it doesn't seem to stop, does it, go see the Diary and the Activities listings!
More silly pics!
By special request, here is another silly picture of the Editor, this time in cartoon form, drawn at Chris' wedding:
Sun 13th August
“Dark Evening”
The last Explorer meeting we met at 7.30pm at Paddicks Patch but it was all dark! The power was out! Colin phoned around, checking that Trefor has paid the bill (he had!) and that John hadn't already alerted the authorities (he hadn't). So Colin called Southern Electric, who initially said Reading (RG1 - RG42) was (presumably) in Scotland and under Scottish Power, who, when Colin rang them, in their turn said it was definitely under Southern Electric. Hey ho! Colin could see a Monty Python sketch building up fast here....but the next call to Southern Electric worked as anticipated, and they confirmed that Reading was very probably not in Scotland and agreed to log the issue and arrange a call out, "within 4 hours". Humph, that could be midnight! Yuk!
While waiting for the Electric folks, the Explorers burned off the trailer trash collection of the day, Colin recovered the BBQ from Mark's mum's house, and while the fire raged, Frazer tidied and tried to keep good order.
The Iceland Team phoned the Paddicks Patch phone and stayed on for nearly an hour (courtesy of Fet's International telephone pre-paid card) and told everyone the details of the Expedition, the 3 day hike and all the other fun things the Iceland Expedition had brought with it. They certainly appeared to have had a great time, and the whole thing was running like clockwork and totally on the original timetable estimates.
The Explorers eventually wandered off, from the darkened campsite, just after 9pm.
At 11:15 the Electric Men finally arrived in 2 large vans. They looked, poked, muttered and then made that curious teeth sucking sound that work-men are wont to do, and told Colin with great authority "It's your Blue, mate. That's the trouble" after ripping out all the sealed fuses and poking about with what appeared to be Dr Who's sonic screwdriver which magically lit up with different colours for the different phases (of 3 phase supply). Well Colin was impressed anyway!! (He would be, he's a Geek! Ed)
Since Colin was not intimately imbued with the information as to exactly where our Electricity supply came from, (overhead or under-ground) the initial team retired to another job, promising that a "jointing team" would be arriving the next day, sometime, to trace the cable, locate the offending 3 phase (failed) supply, and make good.
Southern phoned Colin the next day, because they had a bit of a work-queue. Colin agreed that Paddicks, in their terms was a lower priority, and that we would be happy to wait while "real" customers with dark houses were sorted out first!!
A "jointing team" did duly arrive late the following night and "did their stuff" and Paddicks was once again lit up. The following day (Wed) yet another Southern Electric team arrived to follow up, finish off and close the call down. Colin joined them at Paddicks, and it transpired that all that remained was to re-seal the Paddicks HQ master fuses with lead seals, which was duly done, and then everyone was happy.
John came by later that day to reset the alarm system, and Stuart tentatively fished the slowly decomposing meats and ice-screams (mis-spelling intended!) out of the now thoroughly defrosted fridges and freezers and dropped them in a bin. Stu then vacuumed and cleaned to John's satisfaction, as part of our Explorer agreement to clean the HQ every week (for a fee, of course!)
More on the Mad Hatter and silly pics front!
Following on from the meeting where Frazer was obliged to wear a silly hat, the Editorial team thought it appropriate to publish the following embarrassing photo of Colin, caught at Chris & Hannah Finch's wedding, in even more daft head-gear, (just to even things up!):
Sun 13th August
“Social Evening”
The last Explorer meeting we met at 7.30pm at Paddicks Patch. The Iceland Expedition had departed so we could please ourselves! Frazer was convinced he needed to wear a hat of the Unit's choosing, sadly the one offered was insufficient to handle his intellectual largess (in plain speak, his big bonce!) so we will have to find a more capacious model for next meeting!
We cleared and compacted the trash from the trailer, Stu did a major HQ Pod clean up and rebuild, adding new clothes racks to keep uniform in good condition.
We presented Morgan with his 16th Birthday Card, signed by the team there that night. A sleepover was agreed for Explorers who wanted to stay that night and finish celebrating Morgans "coming of young-age" occasion. Richard agreed to be the responsible adult on this occasion, his first time, apparently.
Sun 6th August
Packing for Iceland & Social Evening at Paddicks
On Monday the Iceland crew weighed their bags, checked the contents, and made final arrangements for the sleepover on Saturday Night prior to an early morning departure on Sunday morning for Gatwick and the flight to Iceland.
The evening for the non Expeditionary Force got off to a good start when the Campfire they built started to set fire to the nearby tree. Ho hum, Colin sends a few Explorers scurrying up with numerous buckets of water to put out any potential conflagration before Paddicks turns into a blackened wasteland.
Well, the ground and trees are very dry after the long hot spell, we are sure the singed tree had nothing to do with the size of the towering inferno they had lit?
Note to self: Better get some more pallets in before we get complaints!
Sun 30th July
Social & tent checkout for Iceland at Paddicks
On Monday the Iceland crew got down to some serious tent & kit checking in preparation for the big expedition. Mark L produced two newly purchased and very neat "roll-up" camping tables. The whole Expedition crew were advised to purchase a small 3 legged canvas camping stool each (cost under £3) to take to Iceland. All this additional kit will be packed into Marks "Disco" (the Discovery Landrover, not some ad hoc free festival in Paddicks!) which is to be shipped over to Iceland as freight next week in preparation for the Expedition's arrival.
Mark demonstrated the new collapseable plastic hiking mugs plates & bowls. Sort of modern day Origami with the penalty for getting it wrong being that your lunch lands unexpectedly in your lap! How we will laugh!
To the relief of Colin & Richard, who had only some seat of the pants ideas about a wide-game, (since Fet, Dan and Albert had all sneaked away to Twyford's summer Scout camp in Wales), the remainder of the Explorers decided it was much too hot for Wide Games, wild or otherwise, and mooched off to the campfire circle to get hot there instead, and as Explorers do, to "burn something"!
Colin, Richard and the non Iceland remainder of the leader team continued with some serious clearing up, tidying, litter picking and finishing odd jobs.like cementing the post for the spare planks from the famous "Purple Explorer Wall" on the assault course.
Mark & Mark with Lynda on hand, made certain the mess tent they chose to take had all the necessary bits. As Mark Elliott said, finding bits missing in Iceland was NOT going to be good news, and replacements bought in Iceland would be very expensive, so the Expedition Team need to get it right while still in the UK.
Everyone had a chilled evening, all the requested Iceland cheques and PCs seemed to arrive en-mass into Colin's brief case, to be sorted later.
Mark laid down the law to all Iceland Expedition members, which is that full Explorer uniform with all badges sewn on is MANDATORY, or you will be turned away as the coach leaves. So you have been warned. Contact any of the leaders to buy replacement badges if you have lost the ones you were given when you were invested into the Unit.
The next Iceland meeting is midday Sunday 30th July, where all dried & tinned food, and all heavy kit (like tents, cooking gear, the new tables and stools etc) will be packed into Marks Discovery. Once packed the entire vehicle (the Disco) and contents is being shipped by sea (in a container) to Iceland next week. The Disco and it's contents will be available after the Icelandic Monday bank holiday, ie on Tuesday morning. So sleeping bags should be packed in PERSONAL kit.
On Monday 31st July Bill has a personal kit packing and weighing evening planned.
Sun 23rd July
“Pitch & Putt” at Downshire
On Monday it was blazing hot all day, but had fortunately cooled down by the time we reached Downshire Golf Centre. We had the usual advanced teenage planning ahead techniques, with several Explorers contacting us for lifts right up until we left Paddicks gate. Some even managed to miss the 7pm leaving deadline. Fortunately your leaders are not as mean as they look and Mark E generously volunteered to act as sweeper at 7.15pm and collect the usual waifs & strays who had arrived at Paddicks either without a lift, or missed the first convoy.
Liz as efficiently as ever noted the attendance and grabbed the £2 each, while Colin broached the subject of invading the Pitch & Putt course with 20+ more or less sensible Scouts & Leaders. The golf shop was quite amused with the numbers, took our money, and totally undaunted they duly supplied 18 sets of putters and sandwedges (no, not the edible kind, and anyway that is spelt differently, go look it up or try your spell checker!) and a lot of balls, plus some spare balls, even though Dan wasn't with us this week! (See News! passim).
We piled up to the first tee and the leaders told the Explorers to do a Shot Gun start by assembling in their teams of 5 on any vacant tee and working logically from that tee round all 9 holes.
Once the mayhem was well underway we got the inevitable complaint from a paunchy red faced member of the public; but it was the usual Victor Meldrew ("I don't believe it") impersonator who informed us how dangerous golf was, and why weren't the leaders personally supervising each Explorer? Colin politely explained that we weren't actually allowed in law to hold their hands any more, we would get sent to jail, and besides, the apoplectic gent was told, many of them were almost 18 and should be considered adults, they were hardly children. After listening to more of his choleric rant for another minute, in exasperation Colin told him to go and moan at somebody who cared to listen, try the Pro Shop, and left him to continue to his early heart attack all on his own.
In truth he was right. It was pretty dangerous. But it wasn't the teenagers he needed to worry about! The noisiest and most dodgy group was the Leader team, with drives arriving on the greens of all the wrong holes, divots flying, and a significant amount of good but unnecessary exercise being had by all. Frazer seemed to have got the wrong ideas about the scoring system and we had to point out that the winner got the least strokes, not the most! This after he achieved what we think was a 20 on one particularly testing 10 yard par 3..... He then amazed us all by getting a 3 on the last green!
Stu and Colin then did a bit of practice driving on the range, until Stu unleashed a massive swing and the club head detached itself, much to the amusement of his audience, and flew away down the range further than the ball. Oops! Oh to be a fly on the wall when he explained, later that night, where his Dad's spare driver's head had gone!
By yet another of the freak miracles that happens just occasionally, we actually managed to deliver everyone home or to their waiting parents at 9.30pm.
Well, it was a funny old day, as Arkwright would have said in "Open All Hours"; we can't speak for all the Explorers, but the leaders certainly had a good evenings entertainment! We hardly stopped laughing for an hour and a half. The Golf Centre Staff were very understanding about the complaints, but we suspect it might be prudent to book somewhere else the next time, just in case they remember us from this time!
Sun 16th July
Film Making IILast week it was yet more filming mayhem. The idea was to review the rushes and make final cuts, titling and any last minute scene re-takes. Yeah, like THAT was going to happen! From the early "rushes" we saw, there appeared to be a huge amount of folk unaccountably screaming, some pretty impressive sound scores, (loud and obliterating any possible underlying sound from the "artists" as the professionals call them), and a fascinating general emphasis on "film noir". In truth we felt that the Film Noir might be more closely related to the dwindling day light than the artistic temperament of the Directors.
One group, when offered the opportunity to view their "rushes" and start on the titling and final finishing touches, requested that we "lose the tape" from the previous session and ""please, say no more about it". Now THAT was bound to get our attentions, so we must review those rushes and see just how bad things can really get! And of course make them available to our reading public out here on the web site!
We finished the evening off, as always with a stunning crowd of 39 Explorers around the flag, in various guises of uniform, much very distant from the ones BP would have recognised, but we are sure he would not have dis-approved, but then they had all had a great evening, and surely, that is what it is all about?
Sun 9th July
Music
& Dance?
Last
week it was a
Music & Dance evening! With the beat thumping out and
threatening to knock
all the windows out of the Paddicks Patch Hall, and with the inside of
the
building resembling a steaming sauna, most of the Explorers kept
dashing in to
be "kool" and then out to "chill", many of them half naked
(the top half, don't start getting smutty thoughts, and ONLY the lads!)
but
everyone seemed to be having a great time.
The
local Girl Guides
turned up early in the evening to have a polite and lady like Girly
campfire
and singsong. They thought they were alone! We offered them the
opportunity to
join in with the Explorers in our Music and
Dance extravaganza, but one
look at Jason's half naked torso emerging, blinking, from the Hall was
probably
enough to persuade them that their Girls probably didn't need THAT much
stimulation on that hot and steamy evening, and they all retreated to
the
safety of an Explorer free camp fire to sing nice Girl Guide songs in
the
twilight.
Clair, strategically encamped close to the hall exit, carefully picked off Explorers with the skill and accuracy of a chameleon catching unsuspecting flies, as they emerged, blinking and stunned from the musical steam room, with "Oi, you, SIT here" and then made sure that she and they were thinking the same thoughts and planning the right actions to achieve their various Activities and on going Major Awards targets.
Mark E made busy with the power tools working on the various trailers, Mark L collected various Iceland funds and forms, Hazel managed to sell a good number of the Explorer Polo shirts, Colin arrived with a trailer packed with old car parts, (don't ask!), Bill arrived on his push bike, and our Commissioner, the ever cool Frazer, still managed to look immaculate, despite the heat, and, maintaining that air of authority and order despite the total chaos and half naked bodies around us (that's your Naval Officer Training, see!), he finally precision navigated the apparent mayhem of the evening into the harbour of a final parade with one Investiture and then flag down. A hot and sticky evening, but everyone had great fun doing their own thing, as always!
Our Thoughts are with
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Bob's Dad, Brian, who has been a great supporter of Scouts for many years and was taken ill on Monday. We wish him a speedy recovery. Both Bob and his brother David have both been Scouts, indeed Bob recently joined us as a leader, so we wish them both strength and courage to help their Dad through his illness.
Loddon District Scout Raft Race & Explorer vs Leader Challenge
Sunday was the Great Annual Loddon District Scout Raft Race for the Ugly Plate (aka Murray Plate Trophy) plus the Explorers vs Leaders Challenge Race, and with temperatures over 30 degrees centigrade it was a HOT one in all senses!
The Explorers set to raft making with great gusto. They constructed a mega-big raft with massive steel oil drums and generally made up in enthusiasm what they seemed to lack in knotting & pioneering skills; an oversight that was to come back and sink them later! The Challenge Race was to take place after the official Scout races had completed.
The young Scout Section Leaders duly constructed a nifty lean, thin and mean raft. Meanwhile, the Explorer Section Leader Team pioneered a somewhat larger "heavy weight" design, as better fitted their age, maturity and "solidity! True to form the Explorer Leaders raft was based around 6 large beer barrels, sadly all empty, the team observed! But undeterred they completed the construction with an interesting design topped off with two half ladders to sit on.
Cheating at all levels seemed to be taking place, but with the temperature so high, an early launch and testing was deemed essential to cool tempers. Both rafts duly floated, the Explorers being much more visible than their Leaders craft, which appeared to be almost totally submerged once the mostly 50-somethings parked their rear ends on it! Colin revealed his secret weapon to the assembled crowds (behave!) by donning his diving fins and gloves, ready to help propel the raft and as a useful fighting booster, if hand to hand combat should break out in the water!
The waiting parents and members of the public were then treated to a series of Explorer vs Leader water fights both on the rafts and on the shore, until order was finally restored by Alan the event organiser, and everyone was beached to allow the younger Scouts Section to launch and race their rafts uninterrupted.
Once the last Scout team had finally hobbled back to the beach, the Explorer vs Leaders Challenge Race finally got underway, but not without some start line planned cheating by shore bound accomplices holding back the Explorer Leader raft! After a certain amount of wrestling with Colin and general splashing the Explorer Leaders got under way and soon overtook the Explorer Scouts behmoth of a raft and successfully completed the course, coming a close second to the lighter and more agile raft of the Scout Leader section, paddled by some much younger and fitter canoeists. Well that was our excuse, anyway!
The Explorers themselves, now languishing and soundly beaten into 3rd place, managed to go round the marker buoy the wrong way, and then began the to lose all enthusiasm for racing and shortly after their raft self destructed and they all ended up pretty much swimming back to the beach, much to the crowds amusement!
Here are some really super photos of the event, taken by Morgan's Dad with a long lens, so all credit (and copyright!) for these goes to Gareth Jones/sports-alive.com:
http://www.sports-alive.com/imagewebs/ScoutRaft06/index.html
The Wedding from hell
Well it was probably all my fault! I am such an easy touch for a sob story, and when quoting for a wedding, I guess I just assume the best of intentions, and fail to observe when the customer is clearly not playing by the same set of rules! I always usually assume the best of everyone, but as James said, sometimes one has to consider that the customer is a right one!
And so it was with the Wedding from Hell in Bray. Multiple trips to the site to size the tent, requests for the tent several days before the event, replace the chairs with more suitable ones, add flying canvass or not, add an extra tent on standby (like that was going to happen in July!) and waiters for the event itself.
After putting up the tent in the grounds of a half million pound house, I guess I should have smelled a rat. These folks and their parents didn't get rich through generosity and charitable donations! At the end of the day they had £600+ of canvas, labour and kit and decided to pay us just a measly £330.
The Explorers who waited on them for the evening came back with tales from the guests about how mean the happy couple were, and various other observations that are beyond the pale for publications here! Suffice to say they booze unlimited, a fridge stacked with more champagne than any of our team had ever seen before, and the whole evening descended into a multi-thousand pound piss-up for the invited guests, the majority of whom seemed to dislike either the blushing bride, or the groom, or both, but were happy to get totally pissed at their expense!
So when the happy couple finally coughed up, we ended being paid about half what we should have been paid, and a really small fraction of what they would have had to pay to a professional like Carters.
Ah well, we live and learn. James has insisted that all future quotes be passed though him first, for sanity checking and to let him up-sell the business.
Sun 2nd July
Last
Meeting was Raft
Design, Building and Testing…
Last
week we tried our
hand at raft building ready for the District
Raft Race at 13:00 on Sunday 2nd July at Black
Swan lake
The
Woodley Times
reporter expressed an interest in coming along to watch us all falling
in… and
then dropped out. Ah well, their loss, and possibly a certain amount of
decency
was gained. They asked for photos to be forwarded on, and hopefully
they will
be able to attend the actual main Raft Race on Sunday where a lot of
fun will
be had, and serious water battles fought!
The
Explorers formed
smaller and larger groups and started grabbing any likely materials
that would
float and possibly form the basis for a raft. It was suggested to Dobby
that
the double kitchen sink would probably, well sink….
Then
the rafts were
transported in un-assembled, semi-assembled and more or less complete
form to
the lake side. Colin and Mark constructed a neat ladder assembly over
the fence
to prevent the already sagging wire from being totally pounded into the
ground.
Colin just knew those two half ladders lifted from the skip outside
Albert’s
Uncle would come in handy. (Scavenger! Ed.)
At
the lakeside final
preparations took place ready for each grand launching. Pioneering
skills and
advanced knotting techniques were sadly not on view this evening, the
best
description one could give the sorry set of assemblies would be
“loosely
knitted”.
But
being Explorers
didn’t stop such small matters as security and reliability
from getting in the
way of having fun, and a good number of Explorers were soon immersed in
the non
too sparkling waters of our neighbouring lake.
Dan
was early into the
murky waters having asked if it would be OK to take part in just his
boxer
shorts, with the alternative option of his skinny dipping and offering
the
assembled crowd an exclusive view of his war-wound. (See News! Archive
passim ad nauseam for the long saga of Dan and personal injuries, and
specifically for the low down, in every sense, of that, probably small
and
rather unusual viewing opportunity, especially given the water
temperature!)
Anyway, the leader team shyed away abruptly from this chance of
personal long
term incarceration at Her Majesty’s Pleasure, and recommended
that all
Explorers try to remain faithful to the Scout Laws about
“considerate”,
“careful of possessions & property”
(particularly Dan’s personal ones) and
having “self respect and respect for others”.
Believing
we were now
safe from immediate arrest and press vilification, we then suddenly
found our
morals further tested when Dan asked Owen if he could borrow his swim
trunks,
and Owen immediately obliged in front of the crowd! Fortunately Owen
was
already kitted out in his wet suit, so our liberty was once again
safeguarded.
The
loosely coupled raft
structures, once immersed in water, like talcum powder from our Physics
days of
yore, soon became disseminated flotsam, and, with the excellent
exception of
Dobby, who was now happily cruising around, in a very laid back manner
on his
rather neat lilo shaped raft without serious issue, the waters were
soon full
of dis-assembled raft parts, waders and swimmers.
At
the end of the evening in the aftermath, chaos and water reigned (pun
intended!) around the Paddicks Patch compound as multiple soggy
Explorers were
then hosed down to wash off the lake waters and mud while the
non-sub-aqua-participants returned the kit to it’s various
stores.
Sun
25th June
On
BT
(Bloody Trouble?)
It
all sounded so easy. At the April Paddicks
Patch campsite Committee meeting, it was pointed out that the landline
phone
bill seemed to “peak” every time the Explorers had
a camp! We had to hold our
hands up to that one, so it was politely suggested that we perhaps
should “own”
the telephone line and sort out the bill ourselves, since we seemed to
be the
principal user! How could we refuse such an offer, as the guilty party?!
On
the up side, this now gave us an interesting
opportunity to put Broadband into Paddicks Patch! At our AGM in May I
asked the
simple question “Do we want to allocate about £30 a
month from Fundraising to
pay for Broadband?” It was a unanimous
“Yes” decision. So the following day I
contacted BT.
Now
how hard can this be? Well, try working with
BT sometime!
First
I had to contact The BT Landline dept, and
switch the billing to the Explorer Scout’s account and with
me as the Billing
Address. This went through surprisingly easily, and I should have been
suspicious that I was being lulled into a false sense of security here.
So
next I contacted BT Broadband and asked that
ADSL be enabled on the Paddicks line. They investigated the line and
found that
I couldn’t! Because it was set to the “Community
Hall, Zero Rental Low User” tariffs.
So I asked them to change it to the standard tariff, so that ADSL could
be
enabled.
No
no! They can’t do that, only the Landline
Dept can make that change. Hmm…
But!
They will put my sales request “on hold”
and watch the line status, and activate my request as soon as the line
changes
to standard line rental!
And
the billing? They will take all the details
and billing from the landline contract. Smashing! Plan coming together!
Back
to BT Landlines. “Please can I put this
line on Standard Tariff such that I can get ADSL enabled?”
“Ah
no”, they said “The Owner of the line has to
authorise that, and that isn’t you” OK, says I, so
who is the owner of the
line? “We are not permitted to tell you under Data protection
Act laws” they
said. Huh? Can I have a clue? “Nope!” But, I
pointed out, I am now the
authorised Billing Address and I am now paying all the bills!
“Doesn’t matter,
still need the original line owner to authorise it”. I
pointed out that the
original authorising owner was now sadly deceased, (guessing who it
was) and
that to contact him we would have to have a séance or use a
Ouija board! BT
remained implacable, “no can do”.
OK,
so how do I gain ownership of the line? “We
must write to the owner and if they don’t reply after 7 days,
then you can take
over the line” OK. So what address are you going to write to?
“Paddicks Patch,
Waingels Road”. But, I said, it’s a hut in a
woodland and has no occupier, and
no mailbox! No matter, they said, we must write anyway, must follow
procedure!
This is getting very surreal….
So
they wrote, and the next day I get a letter
(as the Billing Address, I guess) telling me that someone (me) is
asking to
transfer ownership to someone else (me). I phone and ask if, in this
schizophrenic BT world, I can give myself permission to move the line
ownership
to me? “Nope!” Has to be the deceased
person!” So we wait. And sure enough, the
next day John finds a letter pinned to Paddicks Patch gate, ho hum!
After
7 days I finally get authorisation to
“own” the line. At last! Problems are
over…? You think?
Contacted
BT Landline. The switch to my name
would take another few days! Sigh! OK, I will wait. Can you transfer
all the
details from the old contract to the new one? The Billing address, I
explained,
was pretty vital since the Site Address was a hut in a wood with no
post box.
“No Problem” they said.
Contacted
BT ADSL Sales again, (I thought). I
explained that I had already been talking to them and that they were
“waiting
for the line to become available”. Nope, they said, no trace,
but no worry,
they would take the sale and enable the ADSL and sell me the contract.
It
was at this point I discovered that there are
two separate departments, one internal, one Agency, BOTH selling BT
Broadband,
and, yes, they do not use the same Sales systems and are not in
communication
with each other! I was beginning to think someone around here was
losing the
plot, and it could easily have been me!
Eventually
I got BOTH sides of BT Broadband
Sales to discuss my order and agree that just ONE of them would deal
with it! Amazing
idea!
A
week later I get a call from John. He has
found the BT ADSL contract details stuck on Paddicks patch
gateway….
I
call BT landlines. Yes, they have the address
as Paddicks Patch. And the Billing Address?, I asked. Nope, they said.
Nothing
in the contract. Me (fuming somewhat!) then please CHANGE it for my
home
address, Paddicks is a Hut in a wood with no mailbox. OK, duly done, no
problem.
Scott
gets the ADSL going with the router we
bought from Netgear, then a few days later it stops working again! Oops!
John
gives me the ADSL contract details letter,
and I recover the BT ADSL router and instructions from the Royal Mail
depot in
Reading and Scott has another try at commissioning it and gets it going
with
this one.
The
following week Scott is at Paddicks setting
up the Network. Another communication from BT has been stuck on the
Gateway,
this time my “free” firewall and anti-spam
software……
I
am speechless, but that won’t last long. On
Monday I will be contacting BT again….
Hazard
Hike from Twyford
This
week, while I was in the USA on business, the Explorers met at Twyford Youth &
Community Centre,
(by the old Twyford Scout HQ site) and were given flo-jo
jackets, a detailed “treasure hunt” map with
mapping co-ordinates and a marked
map for those that still couldn’t manage map co-ordinates!
They were all then
sent on their way from Loddon Hall to Southbury lane in Ruscombe
and then along the traditional Vineyard Hike
Route.
The
evening got off to a shaky start when one of the adult leaders turned
up in flip
flop sandals, (somewhat inappropriate!), but fortunately it was dry and
the
Leader still valiantly completed the hike!
Mark
L had prepared clues about locating small edible items hidden at
various places
along the way with grid references, but also highlighted the locations
on their
maps so those who can not read a map reference would not get totally
lost! Hmm,
good theory, but didn’t work.
Several
groups still managed to get slightly lost; some even before the start
of the
Vineyard Hike route, and one of them because they foolishly followed a
slightly
lost senior Explorer who was supposed to be marshalling the hike.
Albert
claimed it was because he didn’t have a map, but he did
managed to successfully
navigate to the Green Man pub, after asking directions from a bemused
citizen,
so that was all right.
The
first group back came in the wrong way and lost time going round
Paddicks
patch, thus losing their first place in the process.
The
Leader Team “counted them all out, and counted them all
back”, as Max Hastings
might have said! So a successful evening.
Sun
18th June
Awards
& Bike Madness Night
12th
June: Dan and Stu had
set up an evil Bike Course
around Paddicks. Thus from the start of the evening, chaos then reigned
across
Paddicks as rabbits, birds (feathered variety!) and wildlife leapt for
their
lives and leaders clung from trees to get out of the cyclists path.
Miraculously no serious injuries or hospital visits occurred and a good
time
was had by all, especially in the competitive time trials, and the
“poke fun at
John Wayne Dan”, competition.
Colin
found out what the chanting out of the car windows about
“wanting a poo”,
is all about! On arrival at Paddicks for our Monday
night Explorer meeting, we found that John had closed all the toilets
because
the septic tank had filled up over the week-end! Frazer explained to a
cross-legged Explorer that trees would be acceptable as a target this
evening,
and to Dean how to correctly use “that spade”!
Fet
managed to disable the Broadband he initially had working,
so he and Colin will have to find out what happened there!
Claire
did a review of where you all are with your Award Schemes, such as
Chief Scouts
(Platinum & Diamond), Queens Scout, DofE (Bronze, Sliver
& Gold) as
well as Explorer Belt and similar add-on awards. She outlined the
available
programs and highlighted the very significant advantages, and that
holding
these awards are IMPORTANT, not just for the Unit, but for YOU!
Many
of you expressed a keen interest in continuing or starting an award
scheme, we
all await your progress and awards!
Dan
was concerned that his “very personal” bike injury
problem of late last week,
where Stu Fet and Colin
escorted him to the RBH casualty dept for stitches in a delicate area
would
feature highly in this weeks News! I assured him it wouldn’t,
and that no-one
except him and perhaps his GF was interested in such a small matter!
At
the end of a busy Explorer evening Frazer invested four new (and not so
new!)
Explorer Scouts. This brings our total “population”
up to 63, with between 30
and 40 regularly attending each week. I tell ya,
it’s
like running a small business this Explorer Unit stuff!
With
Albert’s timely assistance we actually remembered flag down
this week, which was
then punctuated by the “bang and hiss” of
Liz’s Dad running over a nail in the
car park! Colin assisted, but it was eventually down to the recovery
services
to provide the correct tools to change the wheel and get Liz and Dad
home again
at 11pm.
An
interesting evening, as Arkwright
would have said, in
Open all Hours, but alls well that ended well.
Colin
moans about Bikes, Helmet and Lights