That went as well as could be expected

Last night was the greatly amticipated international night.

Greatly anticipated by me, as there were a number of people from Rotary coming along to see what we are doing for the young community, and the fact that we are currently in a place that really isnt big enough to accommodate us all. 

Evidently not greatly anticipated by the Explorers by the fact I txted the lead protagonists halfway through last week to ask how their research was going, to be met with the unanimous response, "what?" 

Great. 

So last week was a study in getting peoples numbers, asking them what they would be doing, writing posts on facebook, prodding, pushing, suggesting and cajoling them into getting information, and working out quite what they were going to be doing on monday evening. 

At least I had a list of things to buy over the weekend in terms of the food... which I dutifully brought along. Only to have a txt as soon as I got there, to say I wouldnt be entirely happy with at least one of the explorers as they had forgotten EVERYTHING. 

Panic was averted as someone else had some information. 

The evening started 15 mins late, most people in uniform, with 2 games, ladders- a nice space taking up game, and crows/cranes. Then we launched straight into cooking. 

Kind of. 

with 2 tables to each patrol, one for cooking and one for washing up, we made them wash all utensils before starting, and then generally helped out with bits and pieces as the evening went on. just over 20 kids, 5 leaders and 5 people from Rotart meant that organised chaos reigned- and there wasnt much space to go around either, which was precisely what we were planning. 

The Seychelles team cooked up a lovely fish curry- with an amazingly smelling mix of spices, kindly provided by Braddles, it somehow tasted of lemon, even though none was put in it. Sri Lanka sorted out 2 curry's, Slovakia, a very good dumplings in cheese sauce (though it didnt look appetising, it tasted excellent), and a Swedish something or other, that I cant remember what it was called. 

All equally delicious. 

in the last half hour we had a presentation of each country, and then we all tucked in. 

The result was an excellent evening, full of activity, colour, constructive youth work, bustle and information. 

To cap it all off, we had 3 Jack Petcheys and a Queen Scout Award given out. 

Cushty. As Im sure the Explorers would say. 

communication issues

Seems I havent been communicating correctly with everyone.

This was brought up today as we cancelled explorers because of the weather, and the message didnt get around to everyone.

From now on I shall endeavour to keep all people in the loop as far as possible.

Actually feel quite bad about that. pretty bummed out.

Tidying up

Braddles and I went up to the hut over the weekend with the intention of clearing up the back room.

Cue music and tea, and off we go.

Started out taking pretty much everything out of it, attempting to catalogue some of it and putting it back.

wow. there was a LOT of stuff in theere, Im not going to write it all down, but suffice to say that there were 9 opened HP sauce bottles in there.

So its a bit tidier in there now, and there is a shed load of gumpf to throw away, but it is more organised. 

Part II of this is to go back of a weekend, with a BBQ or something, and really get it sorted out shelf by shelf, audit the tents, and make sure we know whats there.

Second week

Well the second week giving control of the night over to a patrol was not as successful as the first.

The night did not even start well, as no one in the patrol managed to turn up on time. When the first of the patrol turning up I had decided that no one was coming so started the evening myself.

Patrol turned up just as we broke parade for games asking for time to prepare for the evening. So whilst our 'leaders' prepare for the evening the scouts got changed for games and we play two rounds of the Minute game (All sit down count out 60 seconds and stand up when you think the minute is up, Closest one to a minute wins).

The 'Leaders' now 'organised' ran their first game of the evening. Which was a one on one football game (split the unit into two teams giving each member of a team a number. When your number is called you run up and try to score a goal before your opponent).

This game was cut short and not all the scouts got a turn. when some of the other 'leaders' decided that is was time for the next activity, painting. Each Patrol was given a selection of brushes, a palette of paint and a canvas a where told to paint a portrait of their patrol leader. This was given no dead line as it seemed that the had no further plans for the evening. The majority of the scouts soon getting restless and the painting activity did not really involve the entire patrol. So pretty quickly carnage ensued.

At this point it was decided that the actual leader would take over as the patrol had completely lost control of the evening. We got the paintings cleaned away and got the patrol to mark the paintings and the had out points.

before the evening ended we invested a new member. make the count up to 6 investitures in the year already.

Next weeks leading patrol have ask everyone to bring along a baby photo, which should be interesting.

Not as much carnage as expected

SO it went off quite well actually. 

Other than the fact the flag was upside down, and I cut myself... (on a kitchen knife, nothing more serious than that)

The idea being that a patrol runs the entire night, with no real help from us, to give them an idea of how much effort it is to co-ordinate and sort things out week after week. 

First up- was good, started with a game of quarters, or some such thing, with the novel way of non random selection for teams. which worked ok actually, and then let loose. It was good as there was no physical contact, but still very competitive- which is a good thing to think about. 

Then a game of wink murder, swiftly followed by getting on with the evening. 

As leaders we were tyring to be slightly disruptive, just to give it an edge, but not too bad. 

During the cooking, Braddles and I did most of the prep work, while Whitey sorted out 3 of them for investiture next week. 

Each team was given the same ingredients in the style of ready steady cook, and off we went. 

Mild chaos ensued, but I made sure we concentrated on our own stuff, and didnt intefere, letting the duty guys get on with keeping order and making sure nothing drastic happened. Which worked quite well. 

Food was done by 9pm, and as a point for future cooking stuff, it should be noted that hot water and bowls should be out on the tables for immediate washing up use, to expediate clearing up at the end. 

The leaders and the duty guys ended up staying for about 20 mins after, clearing stuff up, but was kind of to be expected really. 

oh, and the leaders are clearly kicking butt when it comes to getting points. 

a success so far. Lets see what happens next week. 

Ye Gads. 

First in a series

So this evening is the first evening in which we let the Kids (ahem, young adults) take over for an evening. 

This one is meant to be something along the lines of ready steady cook, and I suspect that the actual cooking and clearing up is going to take a fair bit longer than they think it is....

Im predicting total chaos, but it might be ok... 

first week back

Entertainment abound...
only really a skeleton idea of what was going to be happening this evening, so the fact it went off quite well, was a very good thing.
Started off with blindfold punch and judy, followed by a thinking/practical game with candles, mugs, string, gaffa tape and bits and pieces.
That was organised by Braddle, and it progressed excellently. Though I think that we need to make it a little more complex and more difficult- they were surprisingly quick at it.

After break we sat down and told them basically what was going to go on this term, camps and outs and things like that.
The First is to Alton towers- just for a weekend at the end of March.
There will be a camp on the second May Bank holiday- which will probably be at Youlbury, or maybe in Gloucester, and Summer camp is going to be- probably- at Hawkhirst waaaay up north.

A minor point about the May camp is that GCSEs and exams start around that time, so it might be a quiet one...

We are also looking at getting 100 nights collective expedition nights out of the Explorers, and the person with the most nights by the middle of the year will get a free Out- which we are planning to be at Milton Keynes snowdome.