Alton Towers Saturday

Up at 630, put on the water as soon as we could.
Windy. Very Windy. So windy in fact that the tents were happily nearly blowing away...
Cooking took a LONG time, there has got to be a faster way to cook breakfast for 17 people, one massive frying pan on a small hob just doesnt work, I might have to look into using the massive wok hob we have...

So we didnt actually get out until about 840, (meant to have left by 8), and drove like a mentalist- (apparently my driving was the worst thing about the entire weekend, the only time at which any of the kids threw up...hmmm.)

Got there just at the right time, Braddles, who came up by train that morning was standing in the queue as we got there. I took the executive decision to go to the express parking- for an extra tenner, I really didnt want to faff around with everyone else in a battle tank of a mini bus.
Got our tickets, told everyone where to meet at the end of the day, gave out the tickets and told them to get lost.
4 leaders together- we then ran over to the far end of the park, did Sky, Nemesis and Ripsaw in quick succession, went over to Rita, then Oblivion, then a little pinball thing which was the longest wait in the whole day, then over to a log flume, an expensive burger and chips, mine train ride and back to Sky for a last ride of the day where we caught up with the kids and walked them back to the bus.
Perfect.

Drive back, and set Braddles up to cook pasta bolognaise thing, while Chalky got the kids dragging wood around, lighting fires on the altar fires, which kept them busy for long enough.
I then did a bit of stealth dinnerage- getting them to go up in 2s or 3s to get food, instead of having them all bundle up there at the same time.
Chalky was very impressed with a couple of them who have never really made fires before, who really persevered, and had a good deal of success.

After food, I organised wide games. as it was dark I used tea lights under small cones which lit up brilliantly and made excellent bases.
First game was putting out the other teams candles, which was a fast and frenetic game, but turned a little violent, so we didnt really pursue it. (some of the explorers really werent into the whole thing, so we changed and used the candles to a different effect)
Second game was- what I know as Touch Can In. basically, stealth and speed to get back to base before the catchers catch you.
the base was set out with the candles, as was the area where the catchers werent allowed to hang around, (which probably wasnt big enough) and the games commenced.

Once we had a couple of games with the leaders being the catchers, we changed over and let volunteers catch, others who had opted out earlier came in and joined, and by the end, even those who had no luck at the beginning of the evening, were getting it and had success.
And they were totally knackered out at the end as well. which was a bonus.
Explorers dead to the world after a quick hotdog supper at about 11.
nice.

Alton Towers Friday

Well, This weekend just gone was my camp assessment, or whatever its called, so there was a fair bit of stress leading up to it, particularly as Ive not planned a camp for anymore than 2 people at a time, and that generally involves grabbing a tent, driving somewhere and picking up food in a supermarket on the way.

So I had it all relatively planned, got my Nan form in (eventually), planned the food anf bought it, made sure that all the gear was out in the hall ready for putting on the van, and tried to get everyone to arrive at 620 in time to leave for 7pm.
Things started well with me getting a migrane at 3pm and not being able to see anything. Issue. So I lay down for a bit, took a load of asprin and waited, which is the only thing you really can do with migraines.
Walked up at about 430 to get there at 530, still feeling a little fragile, made sure that everything was in order for people to come in.
They started to arrive at about 620 or so, we started with a patrol box, tables (3) benches (6) on the roof, followed by tents and general baggage.
Most of them remembered their emergency contavct forms, those that didnt, luckily had parents on hand to re-write them and sign, so not too many worries there.
Managed to get it all on and food in the back and off by about 720, which really wasnt bad.
Driving up to Drumhill was fairly uneventful and we got there with no massive hold ups- no little ones either, was a straight drive, at about 1030-11.
Tents went up- the kids were in popups, and a dome, we had a little more trouble with the mess tent, but that was up and all gear in it by the time it started to rain a little.
Managed to get everyone in bed by about 1.

Preparing for this evening

I think i may be more excited about the plan for this evening that any of the explorers that bother to check the weekly plan for tonight is balloon and rocket night.

I am running a session making tissue paper hot air balloons (I have not made one since i was a cub) and tim is going to be making match stick rocket (sorry no link, will add one with some photos after the event).

I have spent my lunch break making a scale model to give them an idea of what they are doing and we should have enough stuff to the leaders to make a balloon as well.

I do hope the explorers enjoy it as much as the leaders do.

Quasar

Ok, so I was a little stressed before we did this for a couple of reasons.
I was going to a station in a dodgy part of town, to meet a lady Ive never met before, to pick up a vehicle, the likes of which Ive never driven before, to drive back to the hut on a route I didnt know, to pick up 20 screaming kids and then navigate to quasar, which I didnt really know where it was, to get there no later than 50 mins after I picked up the bus.

However.
I managed to pick it up and get to the hut in good time- thanks to a good bit of Follow Me action by someone else in a car. Picked up all the kids, and managed to get them all to quasar.

The seniors managed to all get on one team- which could I suppose, have been what they would have like to be called the "cool" team. The rest were lumped with us, the leaders.
2 games,
2 utter slaughterings for them, by at least 700 points.
Also invested a newbie and a leader, which is all good, and then proceded to drive back with no great mishap, which was good.

Still couldnt sleep though.

first wed night expedition training

Yep, went well.
There were only 8 people, who were all interested in learning. So that made it a fair bit better and easier than a normal monday evening.
Went through the grid ref system and how it works through the entire UK, basic trangia usage, map signs and 6 fig grid refs.

no one faffed around, there were no behavioural issues, just good, solid learning from beginning to end.
I reckon that lot will be able to rock on out expedition-wise very easily.

just need to make sure that everyone is able to do their own thing, instead of leaving it all for someone else to do.

Climbing supervisor

Was up at gilwell over the weekend, finding out about their new procedures and how it all affects volunteers and what we can and can't do.
One very good thing is that the current "anchors" around the climbing wall are going to be replaced with proper anchors.
There is going to be a 3 tier instructor system as well, which is a little too involved to go into as I'm doing this on a train, suffice to say it sounds entirely reasonable to me, though I'm sure there will be a number of people who will want to have their tuppence worth and will spout nonsense about it.

However, neil was also there, and assessed me for my climbing permit, which was good. I'm only qualled for scouts as opposed to scouts and guides, but I can take up to 10 kids on 3 systems to any scout wall in the uk, which iis good.
Important thing to remember is not to be in the system at anytime as far as you can manage.