Hello all, on the 1st of August I went with J-W by train to Woking to see a friend of ours, Jo.  From her place we went by car to a place called Windsor which has peanut shaped roundabouts.  We got the tents up had lunch and then went looking for Bears and Rails (J-W here, Bears Rails is a scout camp site 15 minutes walk across the Great Park, is in the part of the park where the Bears were kept).

When we signed in I showed my WSJ pass, as you had to show offical  scout or guide ID.

Saw a load of the Gojamboree members and some new friends.  We were meant to have been doing Archery, which means we would have been with three other people who were instructors at Essex08 last year.  We were short of staff so we ended up on the shooting range.  I got to coach Mary from the Gojam lot, and had a go myself, and no it was not me who shot J-W that was an Archery Instructor!  We made friends with people from Denmark, Canada and the USA.  If you went to Bears by minibus, you had to wave your pass at the guards on the camp site gates.  At first I and the ducks hid, but later in the week we got waved not the passes.

On the last day J-W had a nice 2 to three mile jog around the Great Park looking for lost Scouts, whilst eating his lunch.   We scared up about 2 Pheasant, 8 Partridge and were followed by 50 or more Red Deer.  That was a bit scary.

We traded for a lot of badges.   Last two days the weather was helping to clean the tents, so we did the shooting from inside the tents which meant we could only use 13 not 14 shooting points.  The ducks were helping on the outdoor cooking and the archery.  We got back after the jog on the last day to find two of the ducks sitting on the heads of the archery instuctors.  One of the ducks was still on a head in the evening.

We camped for a total of seven nights.  So I am up to 99 nights away. JUST 1 MORE FOR MY NEXT BADGE!!!!!!

I took J-W and his parents up to Bentley Copse on Wednesday and Thursday.  So J-W thought that Friday was Monday.

J-W had to drive the tractor to get things set up on Wednesday.  It was a bit bouncy across the field.

We had a load of school kids from Guildford, who were part of a Police Young Achiver's Scheme.  Someone got confused (again) should have had about 60 people per day.  We had 80 on the first and only 40 on the second day!

Got to see some of the Scouts and Guides who had done the frost camp.

Also on Wednesday we had the Cubs digging for worms!

Hello all, back on the 27th May to the 29th May, I got J-W to take me and some Cubs to a place called Longridge which is on the River Thames.  I know this as we got wet closer we got to it.  Once the Cubs had got the tents up we stopped getting wet!

J-W took me with him when he went in a bell boat and a dragon boat.  The bell boat would not ring, I tried really hard to make it ring, all the humans got wet by putting heads over the side and into the river.  The Dragon boat did not have a dragon on it, nor did it breath fire, it did go quiet quick, with someone counting to ten over and over.  We also sang the banana song again and again.

We had a campfire and counter sang against the Brownies for one song, who were also having a camp fire.

2 more nights away.

Thats 92 now.

J-W a month or so ago, stayed up Bentley Copse so the Wardens could go to a County Event, so I went too, so I have a nights away from that.

As normal on the Wednesday to Friday after Easter, the Guildford East Scouts went for a three day swim round the New Forest.  It should have been a walk, but looking at the number who needed to change clothes each evening, I think it should be called a swim.  We had one Scout who was still laughting about a friend in another group who had gone up to mid-shin in a river, when he walked into a sink hole and when up to his knees in it.

Second day started bad, we were meant to go out of north side of camp site and turn so we were going south.  Even I know that means to follow the white pointy thing on the compass.  So one km to the north J-W asks the navi' where we are going.  At lunch one of the scouts went for a bath with his cloths on.

Day three J-W had the girls from Merrow and or Ripley.  We were all singing Camp Fire Songs at one point, with actions. 

The weather was good, J-W only had to get the rain cover out for an hour on the last day.  It makes a good tent fo soft toys!

So 3 more nights making a total of 90.

As you can see I got J-W to build me a Snow Bear, when he got back from work.  I borrowed his waterproof coat bag, so I could give instructions.

J-W was working on the Bentley Copse Frost Camp.  We went up in Emma's car on Friday and did not come home until Sunday.  J-W did get scar but not from the Wide Game.  The Guides I liked were there again, and I got some badges from them.  J-W was doinf Shooting Instruction and photoing.

2 nights, so now 87 nights away.

Mood:  happy

Hello all, we are back from the District's Christingle Service for the Cubs.  I put on my neckerchief, Kandersteg Bell and I had a nice beard as I was being Father Zippy!

This was cold on the Saturday morning, the roofs down the road were wearing a white shiny layer of something.

J-W had to be down the Scout HQ for 7:30!

We took some bits from the HQ, and got a lift to Walton Firs, which was not furry at all!?  There was a lot of noise coming from something called the A3.  I do not know what that was, but I could hear cars on a big road!  J-W and his group put up a big tent and a patrol tent to sleep in.  I went to sleep in J-W's bag, as it rained most of the day, and he had to go and learn things.  We had a Camp Fire in the evening.  Sunday was wet and J-W did more learnting, and cut up lots of veg and fruit, as he had to help cook for about 12 people!

85 nights away now.

Last weekend (13th and 14th) J-W had to go on a Nights Away Course and then go camping with the Cubs.

He had to cycle over to Ripley, which is ten miles away and the other side of the Downs (which go up as well).  We had to be there for 8:45, but the keyholder was not there! After the course J-W cycled off down some roads which went up and down, left and right.  It was like a bad fair ground ride.  We went up onto Ranmore Common and then down one hill and up something called Box Hill.  I did not see any boxes, but quite a bit of a long zig-zag road, which is called the Zig-Zags.  Who said humans did not have a sense of humour.

The cubs took  ages to pack the next morning and were off finding insects and other minibeasts.

We cycled back down the zig-zags (on Sunday), which were now facing down the hill not up it, how did they know which way we wanted to go. It was slow as we got stuck behind a car, so J-W did nor pedal for most of the way down.

84 nights away now.

Hello again.

Essex International Jamboree.

21st July to 3rd August 2008.

We went off to another Jamboree in Essex.  J-W had to pack a lot on Sunday, and finished it off on the Monday morning.  Took about 5 hours to get there, including going shopping in Guildford on the way.  We went on a bus, a train, two tube trains, two trains that seemed to think they were cable cars and then we got picked up in a pickup truck. We were camping in the WSJ tent, which seems to be changing.  The red printed bits are now a pinkish white!  J-W says this is due to the tent always facing the sun, due to him pitching it that way at the WSJ and the other camps.

We found Vix who is a Gojammer and Scottish on the first day there.

J-W was helping with the build from Tuesday to Friday.  I was supervising him and the work teams he was with. I got a bit worried as he was driving the Pickup Trucks around the farm.  At one time he said he had a pig in the open bit.  All I could see was a 8 foot long metal tank with water tap points down both sides!  One of these 'Pigs' had broken the weld and was making  a fountain.  So J-W and crew took this thing over and helped change it and bring the dead one back.  J-W did  a lot of water pipe work including digging them into the ground.  He also moved hundreds of tables and chairs around the site.  He was loaned out to Security at one point on the Friday, as all their stuff were being trained.  He got to sit in the control room for an hour or more eating biscuits!

We were by the Big Blue Wet Thing (J-W: he means sea) near Clacton-On-Sea.  The places have funny names.  We got off the train at Thorpe-Le-Soken and were in the village of Kirby-Le-Soken.

One of the kids in the second week, did ask J-W about if they were near the Big Blue Wet Thing (sea) and J-W said "See that bank at the end of the field, well it's called a Sea Wall!", and got the reply " Oh so the seas behind it?"

On the Saturday when the camp site became a car park, J-W was raking the grass up as the grass was cut down from about my height to an inch or so, where the targets and nets would be.  This went on for hours. The archery range they made was twenty metres from targets to the shooting line, and we had thirty bases on the line, but no zippy lenght bows.  Some small bows were made later in the week!

We met lots of the Go-Jammers.  Saw Becky and Plop a lot, Mary and Colin, and all of the Rangers with Merry and Co.  Saw most of the Bugs and the Beaver who was with the Rangers, who I meet last year.  I got a badge from the Rangers.  J-W also put a badge on my blanket, a Dutch Archery instructor gave him.  Also I got my 75 nights badge sown on my blanket.  J-W seems to thing it was funny that I kept getting stuck upside down in a lot of different beer glasses.  He would not believe I was helped by the Gojammers some of the time.

When we left we got a lift out to the station with Vix and her friend and two others, so we all got the same train down to Liverpool Street Station. So the five humans took up about eight seats in the end due to the bags not fitting inthe luggage racks.  The train got packed due to a Footy match in London.  Vix was taking one of the bugs home, so I got to talk to someone on my higher brain power level.  Took less tha five hours to get back, not bad as the trains and buses are lazy on a Sunday.

13 nights away, so that's 83 nights away.