THIRTY!

Before you say anything, no I have NOT just turned thirty... I have years between now and becoming old


The biggest change that I have found in moving to the explorers has to be the number of them.


For the past couple of years, while I was with the 9th Lincoln, I was dealing with about 9 kids... the explorer unit has 30. Thirty, three zero, that's a lot of bodies. And it's taking a while to get used to handling that many. I'm seriously having to think more about exactly how everything will run just because of the increase in people.

Suddenly having 30 explorers also means that I have about 30 names to learn, and about 30odd nicknames to boot. Unfortunately I am not one of those people that can just pick up names really easily. Give me at least a year and I may just be able to remember that your name starts with a J... Jim, James, John?... oh sorry Brian!

Regardless of the size (THIRTY!), any new group of scouts will react differently to the same activities. Which has been my next biggest change. I've had to learn how this set of 30 teenagers will react to activities. How would they be with Global issues? Crafts? What sort of games do they like? So, how better to find out than to try some different activities with them.

We've had a variety of different activities over the past couple of months. Everything from disability awareness nights, to market nights (which I have covered on here in the past) to egg drops, cake decorating and even a pub quiz.

They had to ID different muppets in the Pub Quiz picture round... this one is apparently me
... try not to laugh too hard

These, I will admit, had varying degrees of success... the disability night, for example, was a nightmare (but a valuable reminder on practicalities of running activities for 30). So, I'm not going to go into that really, there were plenty of other nights that were a success that I can talk about instead.

We had some interesting methods employed with the egg drop challenge.

We had crumple zones, and parachutes and shear dumb luck in abundance.

 

The drop zone... I was stationed under the stairs, like a egg craving troll

The cake night was, for obvious reasons, one of my favourites. But boy did it require a lot of prep! They all got 2 cupcakes to decorate each, we also did a team challenge where they had half an hour to decorate a 6inch cake, the winning team got to take home all of the 6inch cakes. Which, when you factor in that it is for 30people, makes for a LOT of cake. 60 cupcakes and 6 6inch cakes to be exact, and all home made (by me) to try and keep the costs down. We also got them making hot chocolate spoons and funnel cakes... mmm funnel cakes *drool*....

ahem, excuse me

Don't know what came over me there.

Anyway, here's some of pictures that I managed to grab between being coated in icing sugar!

The Guns n Roses 6inch cake... All the team cakes had to be covered in fondant

The team working on the Field of Sheep/Pandas

A yellow mothers day cake

This team tried to curry favour by making a scotland cake... they didn't realise that the other leaders were being independant judges

Some of the cupcakes

The final cakes, the green one won the challenge

Not that all the nights are messy. This week we had a Skills Night. Each of them had to teach a skill to everyone else.

All I'll say is that the demonstration on how to mow the lawn using another explorer as the lawnmower was PRICELESS!

Obviously, muppets etc don't belong to me... please down sue me!

3Nations: Free Day

Have a look at previous 3Nations posts on the Expedition Page. It's where all the cool kids hang out!

Sunday 26th July 2009

Today was a free day for us to relax, recharge the batteries etc... which is usually needed at some point in the middle of such a long expedition.


In the morning, as a thank you to the monks that allowed us to camp and hike on their land, we did a litter sweep through part of the Bogd Khan National Park.

All of us, about to set off on our mission.

You would be surprised for somewhere so remote just how much rubbish we found in the National Park!

It truly was rather disgusting. Some of the stranger things that we found included most of a deck of cards (all separate of course, we were all trying to collect poker hands as we went along) and I found a fair amount of a vehicle chassis.

A small selection of the bags that we filled.

In total we filled somewhere in the region of 130 black bin bags!

The rest of the day was ours, and was mostly filled with laundry and washing and relaxing. Until dinner came along and we were told that it would be a cooking competition, where we were to make some traditional Mongolian food. We opted for some Khuurshuur (pronounced Horsha) with a variety of different fillings.

And we actually came joint first! Tho to settle who came first overall it was a relay race to the flag pole... which we didn't win. The rest of the evening was just laid back and relaxed.

As Clear as Crystal?

As I've mentioned in the past, we are trying to include some of the Join In Jamboree activities into our weekly program. This month was all about water.

To highlight some of the problems with the supply of water we didn't just want to talk at the sprogs about them, we wanted them to experience them.


So, first challenge was to actually collect the water. Not from the tap like the sprogs wanted to, but from the  a local waterway. The walk was supposed to be 20mins if you follow the program idea, as that can be the normal length of walk for some people in the World to get their water, but the sprogs were rather quick at walking!


The water was obviously not safe to drink as it was, just as it isn't in many parts of the World. So the next challenge was to go through the process of purifying the water so that we could make a drink. And let's just say, we were leaving nothing to chance.


The water was put through colanders and sieves to get rid of the big bits...


... then passed through coffee filters to get rid of smaller stuff.


... then they used water purifying chemicals


... and then it was boiled... twice... just to make sure.


And for their efforts they were rewarded with some hot chocolate, with water they had purified themselves.


The sprogs were having a good laugh with the water and were surprised at how much the water needs to go through before it was safe to drink. Hopefully it will help them appreciate the water that we have so readily available from our taps, and to think of those that don't have the equipment to properly purify their water.


Ok, so I know this one is way late... but I've been a busy boy ok! Unfortunately it means that I forget the little jokes and stuff that the sprogs did... d'oh. But it was a good night.

Mothering Sunday

This week I had a bit of a problem.

Initially this week, the program had us down to get ready for camp, but camp has been delayed until the end of the month. Normally we would have simply have moved the program for that week forward to this week. But given that that week is connected to a certain wedding, we couldn't exactly move.

I mean, I could try asking Will and Kate to move it... but somehow I doubt they would go for it.

How selfish of them!

So their rudeness left me in a bit of a problem, what to do with the scouts on Friday. Luckily it would be Mothering Sunday that very weekend... the challenge with that being coming up with something different from all the other youth clubs and schools etc.

Here mummy, I made this card for you at school and these paper flowers at sunday school and this other card at science club and this....

So I got to thinking, and I remembered this post from a food blog that I kinda follow and I'll admit I have made some yummy things from it in the past. And then I remembered this post from a blog I used to follow. And I had a brain-wave. It's traditional to give your mum flowers and chocolates on Mothers Day right... I mean, that's what all the shops keep telling me (and why would they lie?)... so let's give them flowers and chocolates, but in cake form!

Yes, I am obsessed by cake recently!

So first off was cake balls, to look like chocolates. I missed some pictures of the process, but it is very easy. You get them to rip up some cake, I used cheap cupcakes, they have to turn it into crumbs.

Then you add some frosting, just a little bit mind, and get your hands stuck in to stick all the crumbs back together. With this you can grab a lump and shape it however you like.

You can see some of them just behind the bowl of melted chocolate... that's the next stange.

We got them to shape them like chocolates and then coat them in melted chocolate. It's best to use a fork to move them round in the chocolate as when you lift them out you can tap off the excess chocolate and it falls nicely between the forks teeth.

like this

The process was slightly messy

Once dropped in the petite four cases the sugar glitter was unleashed.

how pretty

And that's the chocolates done! We just needed to leave them out to dry. Now for those flower pots. Obviously the first thing to do was to thoroughly wash them. Well, hopefully that would be obvious. What I failed to photograph is that you need to get a small square of greaseproof paper and put it over the hole in the bottom of the pot.

Then cut up some swiss roll, and stuff it in the pot



Then top that with some frosting (i used ready-made Betty Crocker stuff.... *drool... I could (and have) eat that stuff with a spoon).



You can even mix up the types of cake... and stuff in some marshmallows if there are any gaps. Keep going like that til you're nearer the top.

Now get a whole load of Oreos, about 5 for each pot) and crush them with the end of a rolling pin, until they are crumbs. This is going to be the soil. It's rather convincing too, some of the sprogs thought i was eating soil initially.

Grab some flowers of your choice, cut them to length and strip some of the thorns and leave off the stems. Now, you don't put it straight in the cake, rather you insert some straws into the cake... and put the flowers in the straws!

The results, I think, are pretty cool.

Cook Off

It's time for Ready Steady Cook!

... well, not exactly...

I mean, for a start, we don't have Ainsley Harriott

...or his friends Susie Salt and Percy Pepper

And instead of getting the scouts to bring ingredients in a poly bag, we supplied the ingredients. 

This was for ONE patrol!

Also, we had gotten the patrols to randomly pick out a country from a hat last week. We had 6 to pick from: India, China, USA, Sweden, Italy and Mexico... and they would have to cook in the style of there chosen country (Curry, Sweet & Sour, Hamburgers, Meatballs, Spag Bol and Chilli respectively). As much as possible was to be from basic ingredients.


The two chosen were Indian and Chinese.


So on the menu was:
Indian: Chicken Curry, Onion Bhaji, Rice and Naan (all homemade)
Chinese: Sweet and Sour Soy Pork, Chicken and Vegetable Spring Rolls, Rice and Prawn Crackers (again all homemade)


One of the patrols got the kitchen and the other patrol had some tables set up in the hall and the gas stoves. Mim was looking after the Indian food and I was looking after the Chinese.... Jo was trying to do an impression of Ainsley Harriott and munching as much food as she could get away with!


I unfortunately forgot to take pictures of the final dishes, but I will say that I was rather impressed with the outcome. Both patrols did a brilliant job and got a load of compliments from the parents that came into the hall and tried some.


Om nom nom


The Indian food won on presentation, but the Chinese food won the taste test (yee haa!)... so I would say that we won overall.


Ainsley Harriott and Ready Steady Cook belong to whoever they belong to... well obviously Ainsley Harriott belongs to himself... I mean the images etc of them

3Nations: Silk Road

Friday 17th July 2009

Wakey wakey rise and shine, its 7:30am and it doesn't matter if you have jet lag you've got to get up... you've got a country to explore!

  

Breakfast, I'll admit, was a bit of a culture shock. Yes, everyone who travels abroad expects the food, especially the breakfasts, to be a tad different. And you usually expect your international breakfast at a hotel will contain certain staple elements; toast and cereal and the like. What we weren't expecting was stuff like: corn on the cob, dumplings, watermelon, steamed celery, egg fried rice and beef in black bean sauce with onions and green peppers. Not that these things are bad! I think most of us have had these as cold left overs in the morning when hungover, but having it hot and freshly cooked just seamed somehow... weird.

It was during this more-Chinese-than-we-had-expected breakfast that we were told that there was a slight change in plans due to the weather. Given that it was supposed to rain we were going to go to swap the Silk Road and general tourist days. So this afternoon we would be heading out to the Silk Road market, but the morning we would have free to explorer/settle in.


Please note: our plans were changed because of the rain, but being from Britain we're used to rain! We're weren't going to let a little bit of precipitation to stop us exploring Beijing...

 

ok... maybe we should of! Who would have known that waterproofs don't like acid rain...

In fact, none of our waterproofs worked, and this on day 2 in China. It no real surprise that there was so many locals either laughing at the wet white people or trying to sell us umbrellas. So it was with failed waterproofs and a rather soggy outlook we retreated back to the hotel to try and dry off before the afternoon.

It was back at the hotel, sitting in the foyer to be exact, that we were introduced to the wonders that is the doobb. It's a cartoon in China, about beansprouts that fall in love.

Look, we can be Doobb too...

The most worrying thing about this photo is that it's not the only one with us in this pose!

After getting suitably dried and amused by Chinese cartoons we set of by coach to the Silk Road market. This was to prove to be full of surprises; first off... its not a road! It's actually a huge 6 storey building.

Before being ushered in by our tour guides we were warned that the sellers would be pushy and that we should barter for everything, never accept the first price. We'll I doubt I have been more complimented in my life, ever... or ever will be again. Mind you, them asking me if I wanted to buy stuff for my wife was a tad off putting!

'Pushy' is what Seriena our guide said... 'pushy'... I would have loved pushy. The Chinese stall holders would actually reach out and grab our arm to try to direct you into their stall; which is not too bad until you take into account that there are about 1000 stalls in this building, each vying for and literally grabbing your attention.

But once you got used to it, it started to become fun bartering with the stall holders and working on a price for something.

 

It really was a little treasure trove of wonders

Pretty much, if you wanted it then you could find it in this building. I personally got offered everything from designer watches, to suit cases, bags, and even Cashmere and Armani. There were several guys that got suits, made to measure... some of the girls got dresses made too.

Dinner was something rather special, as we were treated to a Chinese Hot Pot. Take any illusions of a dish with meat and potatoes right out of your head.

To start with, this is how your place setting was.

The bowl was kept with a literal 'hot pot' of boiling stock. That is because the food was served in the middle of the table like this:

yup... that is waffer thin RAW meat people!

We were to pick it up with the chop sticks, bung it raw into our pot of boiling stock, wait about 30seconds, fish it out and enjoy! (you can actually see my claw like hand doing just that in the photo above) 

 This also awaited us... no, I am assured that it is NOT poo. It is actually satay sauce

... or so I am led to believe!

Note: I've actually ran a meal like this for COLDnet for their Chinese night. Everyone had eaten Chinese food before, but no one had even heard of a Chinese Hot Pot before. I would highly recommend this as an activity!

Things I have learned today:

• The Doobb are fantastic
• The Chinese don't do breakfast like we do, in any way shape or form
• "Waa Eye Knee" is Chinese for "I love you"
• Scary begger boys only know one phrase in english... "F**k you"
• Starbucks are everywhere, and they are all the same
• In the battle between acid rain and waterproofs, the acid rain is going to win... every time
• Calculators are a God send when bartering
• Colgate makes fruit flavoured toothpaste (including watermelon)
• There is such a thing as pineapple flavoured milk... and it comes in a bag!

 Again, thank you for those that helped by donating photos