Ok why do we have to go out in the cold and dark to do night hikes?  It would be much easier and warmer in the day and maybe in mid summer.

Night of 23rd October.  So J-W and parents and about 6 to 8 other Fellowship / SAS members were staffing a Food base on the Guildford East Scout and Explorer Night Hike Challenge.  That moon thing was up and was very bright.  We had to cook for the scouts and stand by the road to slow the cars down where the crossing point was.  J-W says the drivers seemed to think we were some sort of police check point, as there was so much hi-vis about.  All I know is that we had lots of cakes and bacon butties!  Something strange happened, we were home not long after mid-night!  Not sure about the Scouts.

Tom our Cub Young Leader some how found a stone on the sandy hills and ripped his trousers, and cut his knee a bit.  His uint had a large first aid kit which only seemed to have wound dressings in it.

J-W says no nights away for this.  but I did get to see some of the lot who went to Kandersteg, and a couple who are going to Sweden.

15th to 17th October.

We went by mini-bus to Foxlease in the New Forest, this is a Big Guide Centre.  We also took 10 Cubs along and put them in the Stable! I never did find any horses.

We got them up and out of the stable by 9am on the Saturday, as we were taking them across to Brownsea Island on the ten am ferry.  Whilst waiting for the ferry the cubs found the statue of Lord B-P which is on the Quay.  One Cub was heard to say, "I can get my finger's up  his nose."  So there followed the talk about who he was and why the statue was there.

The weather was great and the Cubs were ok as well. We had a guided tour of the island from a National Trust lady, and then in the afternoon she had the Cubs and the Leaders reinacting the activities from the Brownsea Camp.  Over lunch the Cubs had been mugged by a Peacock.  The Guides who were also there, did not seem to like it when it tried getting food from them.  This is the time of year to see Squirrels on the island.  One Cub made it up to seventeen, and one of the others was very proud of his six sightings.  We were getting a bit cold from the wind, so took the 4:30pm ferry back round the island.

On the way back to Foxlease we stopped off for Fish and Chips.  We had phoned in the order from the bus.

On the second day had to get the cubs up for breakfast.  It took the Cubs quite a time to clean out the stable and load the bus.  We got away by 10am.  We were only going a couple of miles down the road to Beulea and the National Motor Museum.  Not too sure of having a monorail running through the roof of the museum building.  The Cubs spent ages watching the videos about the land speed cars, and they seemed to like the Top-Gear and James Bond displays.

We left around 3pm and were going to be on time (i.e. home for 5pm) untill we came across a three car accident on the Motorway.   Our bus driver is a member of the Ambulance Service, so had to stop and give First Aid as there were no Ambulance staff or other Emergancy staff there.  So we ended up with two leaders in Hi-Vis in lane three and one leader and the mini-bus full of Cubs on the hard shoulder inside an On-slip road about 150 metres after the accident site.  This was ok for the first ten minutes, but at the end of half an hour the Cubs had got bored with playing spot the emergancy vechile.  Quite why any large white van with orange lights on top was said to be an Ambulance, I do not know.

Two nights away.  Up to 119 now.

Mood:  happy

Right J-W got an email on Tuesday saying that he has been offered a place on the IST going to the 22nd WSJ in Sweden.  Not sure what all that means but I do know that Sweden is not the thing you eat, but is a foriegn place which is up north, so I'm starting to try to practise my skiing on the stairs at home.

This also means J-W will be trying to write his own Blogg, which I will help him with.

On the 3rd October which was a Sunday, J-W got up at 05:30, so he could get to Guildford to get the first train from Guildford at 06:57.  It lef ttwo minutes late.  It was dark when we left and the road to Guildford was flooded.

We joined up with Jo from Woking and travelled by train and underground to Chingford, we only had to wait about 10 minutes at Liverpool Street.  We joined up with another leader and walked the mile plus to Gilwell.

We went into the Lid which has been rebuilt since we were last there.  J-W had his photo taken and then whilst he was having tea, we found two of the Buckets and one other Gojanboree member.

We had a talk about Jamborees.  At the 21sty WSJ one loo role was used every minute!  There was a funny game with long streamers.

J-W then had to do some team based activities outside on the Training Field for two hours.  I kept a lookout from his bag. J-W slipped over at one point, but I still do not know how he got mud all down his back.  It started to rain half way through the 2nd hour.

I think J-W's team on the third base drove the instructor round the bend, they did seem to get off topic, well J-W was with one of the buckets so they did have to say they know each other.

Again at the end there was info about the 22nd WSJ which will be in Sweden.

We  helped clear away the chairs, and got a lift to the station.  We waited about 15 minutes for a train.  We then waited out Guildford for a bus.  So in all we got back after 13 hours at 19:30. That was our fifth trip to Gilwell.

On Tuesday at 14:20 J-W got an email offering him a place on the IST at the 22nd WSJ, so he must have done something right at the weekend.

REALLY long entry!

Friday 13th August, one of my favourite days and dates!  J-W came home from work, and got into his scout uniform about 17:45.  He did not get out of it until about 15:00 the next day.  I wore my hi-vis jacket on the coach, and changed later.

We got the coach to meet us at Cranleigh. We had the same pair of drivers as last time, Mark and Steve.  Cranleigh and Shere & Peaslake were also on the coach.

We had to drive up through Shalford on the way up to the M25, which was playing at being a car wash, as it rained quite hard.  Saw one crashed car on the other side of the road.

The coach drove onto the boat at Dover.  Meet up with some Guides and some Cornish Scouts,  I think J-W had meet one of the leaders at the WSJ.

For some reason J-W played with the hands on his watch.

Did not think J-W should have eaten the sandwich he bought at 04:00, as the first ingredent was pain, and I did not understand what the other bits were.

This coach is a bit smaller that the last one, so it made it up the mountains in Switzerland.  Some of the mountains seem to have Icing sugar mines on their tops.

Started to rain just as J-W got the tent together.  It rained quite a bit on camp, mainly at night, so I rode around in J-W's pockets all the time, as some of the mud was as tall as me!

This guy with a Scottish accent was walking past and asked J-W if I was around.  This was Scotland / Stuart from the Gojamboree.org.uk forum.  He was in Kandersteg with his english unit.  We got together a couple of times.

Later in the week one of the older scout leaders, found that his old scout leader was also at Kandersteg.

We were right at the back of the main site, in the shade and half way up the slope, near the cliff.  I think this was because of the smelly socks the leaders were wearing when we got off the coach.

Day 1, we teamed up with the Cranliegh Scouts and went to see a waterfall.  The one Merrow scout with us, came along and slipped over in a river crossing, as J-W was half way through a warning about the concrete being slimy.  We then went down into the village, and some of the scouts went swimming.

We went back and helped serve tea.  We helped out in the kitchen at most meal times.

Day2, was worried as J-W, and Pauline and loads of the scouts were in uniform, so I thought we were going home!  Instead Mark and Steve took us (via a long low route due to rain) to the Chocolate and Cheese Factories.  I tried to get into one of the chocolate machines.  Some of the scouts did not get the idea that any choc's theypicked up had to be eaten in the serving room.  One or two went a bit green eating a whole handfull of different chocolates, it was great.

The coloured cow was still at the cheese factor.  The merrow scout had to go back 7 times for a new info phone, so he and J-W were last out of the desplay area.

At lunch J-W was talking to a family from Isreal.  No one was sick on the coach this time.

Day 3.

Off with St Savours and S&P to go rafting.  I stayed in the bag looking after the camera, as the river looked a bit cold.  Good sleep in the mini-bus.   J-W was on the tail-end raft.  Had fun breaking out of a rapid into still water to stay behind another raft which hung up on a rock.  Joe from S&P had to pulled out of the river when they were swimming at the end.

Day 4.

Off with St.S and Cranleigh to some funny coloured lake after going in a cable car thingy.  This has replaced the chair lift, boring now.  Rain stopped play on the tobbogan run.  Got most of the scouts to wash in the lake.  We walked back down, and J-W went down the hill onhisbottom a couple of times.  I think he wanted a go on the tobbogans.

Day 5.

Fun today, we went into the next valley and did Scooterland.  Took S&P and Cranleigh.  Not sure if we should have taken the scouts as  seemed to spend more time chashing than riding.  You could do a lot of different routes, including one on a gravel track with a stream down it. This got J-W wet.  I rode in J-W's knee pocket in his scout trousers.  Had to dodge a calf which was standing in the shadows under some trees on a bend.  J-W and another first aider got their gloves out.  We even got an ambalance for one of the scouts, so our guy who can drive uk ones , got to go for a free ride.  I liked the bruisers the leader got when he stopped the hard way in a cattle grid.  Was sunny for most of the day today, it has been cool and cloudy most of the time, which is J-W's thought for taking a full container of suncream.

Day 6.

Got J-W to go on a little walk with three explorers and a leader up the Gemmi pass.  The sun came out, and so did the rain again!  We dragged the explorers upto 2350m.  J-W said we got down to 1850 after going from 1200 at the bottom of the cable car.  Not sure if it is a car as I could not see any wheels.  The cows, goats and sheep were playing the same music as last time we were up here.  It is a really long way down from the Gemmi cable car station to the village below.  The icing sugar mines are much lower up at the station.

Day 7.

Today was the first day with no clouds when we got up, which was good as we spent the morning breaking camp and then spent the rest of the day on the coach.  We got off in france somewhere and it was about 30 degrees.  I found it a bit hot, so went to sleep on the coach, when not doing air guitar.  We got off the coach at 7am on Sunday.  The scouts were starting to smell a bit.

Nine nights away, so 117 nights away now.

On Friday 30th July in the evening we went by train to Chalfonts St Peters.  We came back on Thursday 5th.  We somehow got an over ground train at an Underground Station, which was above ground, and J-W says I get confused!

We were helping at a Guide Centenary Camp.  J-W was doing archery and he got to drive one of the vidoe cameras on the stage on each of the three evening shows. I went along to direct and wave at the guides an buckets.  I was part of the 100 challenge for the guides.  They had to come and make friends with me, and I had a stamp to give them, I was number 62 in the list of one hundred things they had to find.  I saw a number of the Gojamboree Bugs (mascots from the Gojamboree.org.uk forum).  J-W was part of the secoundary service team, ie people mainly doing activities, but also helping out the main service team the Buckets.  I could not see any handles, but they all got very wet on the leaving day, so that is why I trhink they were called buckets.  J-W's team renamed itself the Funnels!! We camped right at the far end of the site.  We were as far as you could get from the loo block and the canteen!  It was abouta 10 minute walk.

Thanks to the Buckinghamshire Guides for asking me to go and help.

One question, what is it with Guides and WELLIES?  I think there were more pairs of wellies than Guides on site.

I got 6 nights away, so upto 108 nights away.

Got J-W to go to Corfe Castle and camp for three nights.

Someone should tell the National Trust that the castle is a bit on the open air side.  I think it may have been a sand castle which got very wet!

We met one scout troop on three days, once getting off the train, once on Brownsea, and finaly at the Tank Museum.  I could not get any of the tanks on to J-W's bike.  Which is not  fair, as I could have used a tank to carry all my badges when going to camps.

J-W's shampoo leaked in the cycle bags and I got covered, so I had a bath when we got home.

In  Swanage we met two of the Cubs from Shalford, and then on Brownsea we met four leaders we had worked with at the Essex Jamboree in 2008.

We saw steam trains around Corfe Castle quite a bit.

J-W was not too keen on all the hilly roads.  But I thought they were fun.

J-W killed his camera which meant less photos of me!

Ok I had to behave last Saturday and spend most of the time in J-W's pocket.

All the Cub Pack and Scout Troop Leaders from Shalford, plus a Beaver Leader all were at the wedding of the Cub Leader Hathi to Rob a Scout Leader from Caterham District.

We went to a BIG old country house / hotel for a meal and reception.  The rest of the leaders turned up.  Including the one who has joined the Fleet Air Arm (no fair she did not bring any boats or aircraft).  J-W was even in a suit!!  I did not even know he had one.

Hathi found the Cub Leaders outside in the evening, as a couple of them like setting fire to small sticks and eating them, which you can only do outside!?   She asked where I was, so I stopped playing with the deck of cards in J-W's pocket and got out and had my photo taken with her.  [the cards were wedding favours. J-W].

Mood:  surprised

Two Saturdays ago was SCRAM, which is a county activity day for the Cubs of Surrey.  I was meant to have been there telling J-W how to run his base.  But the weekend before we all went down to the coast to visit J-W's nanny.  I somehow ended up camping in the lily of the valley over night.  I spent the rest of the week in the airing cupboard.  J-W has said I do not get night's away for this as I went on my own.

Over this last weekend I had a bath, ready to go on camp next month!

Today we went up to the county camp site as J-W was doing shooting instruction all day for 80 teenagers.  One of the other bears from here went as well and spent all day climbing into and then dropping out of the guns on the gun run.

J-W has been on at me to update this page, as I for once forgot to do this, not him, or so he claims.

We went to the New Forest with about 40 scouts and explorers at Easter for three days.  Almost did not get to go due to the train people trying to go on a strike.

2 nights away, so on 102 now. 23 nights needed for next badge!