Times they are a changing

Well... just about everything has changed over the past month. I think if any more was to change then I could seriously rival this guy



And no comments about me being two faced.... okay?

The biggest change has to be that I have FINALLY moved house!

HUZZAH- *villagers rejoicing*

And what is more I actually now have internet in said house. I have got an app for blog posting from my phone, but I hate using it as it isn't really user friendly, especially for adding photos/videos etc.

While I was moving I was also finished up with the scout section. We had finally managed to get a hold of the Lincoln Mountain Activity Team to run a session for us at a climbing wall. The sprogs absolutely loved it, some of them were up there like a shot, as spry as monkeys they were... and about as loud

... SCOTLAND LOOK AT ME!!!

Yes that's nice, now get out of the way of that other line...

... I'M AT THE TOP!!!

I can see that, now be careful when you set off as you'll swing into that overhang...

... *THUD* ...

... *sigh*

I got to have a couple of goes myself, just to remind myself how long it has been since I climbed, and they had this automatic belay device which frankly scared the bejabbers out of me. Normally you have a person at the other end of the rope that would control your decent should you fall, decide you can't go further or even reach the top. Which is comforting cause they can talk away to you and they support you the entire time. This thing doesn't kick in until you reach a certain falling speed... and it's useless at conversation.

But generally a night that ends with the sprogs asking if they can do that activity again is always a winner.

My last week with the scouts was another Cinema night, like last year. We got a projector and screen and a choice of DVDs and they got to pick a film to watch... and periodically someone would pry the pringles away from my hands to pass them round the sprogs.

They have a good taste in films those sprogs, we watched How To Train Your Dragon... but this was partly because Jo (one of the leaders) vetoed all the Muppet movies. Apparently they scare her for some bizzare unknown reason. I mean seriously, how can you be scared of the muppets?!

Rizzo is, of course, my favourite.

I mean, if it was something like Mimic with mutant cockroaches start attacking people just for the fun of it then I could totally understand (ok, I'll admit that I only got about 5minutes into that film before giving up), but this is the Muppets! Well, I suppose that we'll accept all sorts to be scout leaders.

But Muppet-haters is getting close to the line...

And that was my last night with the 9th Lincoln Scouts!

*sniff*

I've had a brilliant time with the sprogs of the 9th Lincoln Scouts. They are a fantastic set of kids and I wish that I could take them with me... and I've told them all that I expect to see them at future explorer events.

I was going to put in about me starting with Dodgers Explorers, but quite a lot happened and this post is already rather long so I am going to be kind at cover that later.

And given that I didn't put up a festive message, please accept this little video (except if you're weird like Jo... )

... Don't say I'm not good to you!

Golden moments

One of my scouts has managed to gain her Chief Scout Gold Award!


*does a little dance*


For those of you outside of the UK, or just outside of scouting. The award is the highest award that a member of the scout section can get. Out of the 9 possible challenge badges available in the scout section, they have to complete 8 of them. And those challenge badges ain't exactly easy... they take months to complete.


So I will happily admit that I am rather proud at the moment.

Lincoln District held an award ceremony at RAF Waddington this week for all those that gained the award, and I got to tag along as her leader. We had a tour and got to see some parts of the base that aren't open to the public before the Station Commander presented the awards.

Unfortunately the spot lighting kinda caused a bit of a glare on the award itself! Hopefully the professional photos that they took turned out better than my iphone ones.

I did collar her before leaving the hall tho to get another photo.

Congratulations Jess!

Note: before any of you say anything about my 'no photos of the sprogs' rule... I asked for specific permission from her and her parents if it would be ok to post a photo here to mark the occasion.

Twister + Record Cards + Investiture = An Impossible To Title Blog Post

Tonight was a bit of a mash up for the scouts as the radio station we were planning to visit never got back in contact with us. M'eh, it happens... you plan things, you try to arrange them and for some reason the planets don't align and it doesn't go ahead.


This is why we have back up plans.


I will admit that it was Mim that came up with this particular back up plan. (Yeah, buying a house really takes up a lot of your time... they should come with a health warning or something)

Also... be careful of giants

After a quick game and introducing a newbie (a cub moving up- huzzah!) we got on with one of our activities for the night. OS Symbol Twister! We taped 16 OS symbols in a 4x4 grid on the floor, one grid for each patrol.... and then we randomly shouted out hand/foot and symbol combinations.

Sprogs should not be that flexible.

Both hilarious and disturbing at the same time, arms and legs all over the place.... one tiny little scout cowering completely underneath her PL. Slightly more disturbing when one of the sprogs asked "where's my left foot...?" *facepalm*

Once they had finally all fallen over Niall and Jason went on to do 4 and 6 figure grid references with them, while I pulled one of them aside and went through their Record Card, and it was a good thing that we went through it, as we had found that she had completed a couple of challenge badges.

The end of the night came along and I got to present a whole host of badges, most of them challenge badges.

And what's more I got to invest a PL.

Yes, I invest my PLs. It isn't normal practice, but I've found that it helps give them some confidence in taking on the role and it helps the others recognise the authority that they have. The investiture runs like any other investiture, but with a modified promise that I came up with.

Patrol Leaders Promise

On my honour I promise, 

That I shall lead my patrol to the best of my abilities,

And that I shall remain worthy of the position of Patrol Leader,

For the sake of my Patrol, my Troop and the Scout Movement.

It doesn't seam like much, but my scouts have taken it all to heart. You should have seen the beaming smile he had when I told him that I was going to invest him as a PL.

Does this mean that I will need to change the name of my blog?

You know how recently I have been kinda teasing you... saying that I have some secret stuff going on and that I couldn't tell you about them until the time is right.

Well, the time has come! 


*villagers rejoicing and dancing in the streets*


So huddle in and pinkie promise swear you won't tell anyone...


*deep breath*


.... I'm changing sections to be an Assistant Explorer Scout Leader!


There are a number of reasons why I am wanting to make the move, but the main one is that is it a section that I have always wanted to work with and all my recent work with the Jamboree reminded me of that and made me want it even more. I haven't made the change yet tho. That's going to happen after Christmas, to give me time to get all my loose ends sorted out in the scout troop (like updating blooming record cards).


You actually have no idea how much I wanted to tell you all that sooner. I shadowed an Explorer Unit here in Lincoln for a couple of months to get a feel for the section and I loved it and I wanted to share it all with you. Like the refugee experience, or the murder mystery night at halloween or the Guy Fawkes night... but I couldn't as my scouts didn't know I will be leaving them.


Not long now until Christmas, and I am so excited!


Oh, and that other secret project of mine... all in good time... you'll find out soon enough.

I did warn you they would get messy...

Recently (well, recent enough...) it was halloween!


You know, that time of year when sprogs dress up, asks for sweets and the challenge for scout leaders everywhere is to throw a party. My rule of thumb with this: the messier they leave the better.


But before I share with you my recipe for a messy child, I'll share with you some photos of the pumpkins that we got them to carve.

Recipe for a Messy Child


Ingredients:
Sprog                                   x many
Costume                              x one per Sprog
Apples                                 x numerous
Water                                   x bucket loads
Marshmallows                    x more than a mouth full
Flour                                    x a bouquet
Doughnuts                          x enough to choke a giant
Treacle/Golden Syrup      x enough to grease a small monkey



Method:

• Inspect sprog in costume, it may be necessary to remove articles for movement/breathing proposes
• Float apples in buckets of water
• Insert sprogs head
• String up doughnuts on a rope so they all dangle freely. Coat doughnuts in treacle/syrup
• Hang doughnuts above sprogs heads and let them apply treacle and syrup to face/hair/body/costume as they attempt to consume them.
• Once all sprogs are damp and coated in treacle/syrup, bring out marshmallows on a plate covered in a large heaped pile of flour.
• Insert sprogs head, flour should stick rather successfully to water and treacle mixture

We finished off the night with a game of Fluffy Bunnies. If you don't know what that is, you take turns putting a marshmallow in your mouth and saying 'fluffy bunnies'. You are not allowed to chew or swallow at any point or you're out. Needless to say, this was played round a bin for them to eventually throw up into.


What's a halloween party without a game that includes vomiting?


They all loved it really, chasing each other round and putting treacle and flour in each others faces, drooling down their tops while trying not to spit up marshmallows. Of course when their parents showed up and saw how messy they were it was 'horrible'...


I've since learned (from one of the parents) that it took one of the sprogs several days to remove all the treacle/flour.... SUCCESS!!

Lest We Forget

Today is the 11th day of the 11th month and at the 11th hour we will pause to remember.

Usually scouts will attend church this Sunday, in full uniform and in parade to mark the occasion. My scouts wont. Not because we don't remember, but because the Salvation Army church we are linked to goes elsewhere to help others mark the occasion. So we usually have our own form of remembrance.

The past couple of years I have dedicated a whole scout evening to remembrance, and one of the things that I have always struggled to get my head round... and something that I am sure that the scouts have struggled to grasp... is the shear numbers involved.

When told about the numbers that died, the numbers are so huge that my brain just can't imagine anything that size. So a while back I worked out a way to highlight it, a way to make the numbers real. I think I have talked about it in the past, but never actually posted up the numbers and the process, so here it goes.

I found out, from the internet, how many grains of sugar are in a gram (15.432 on average) and then figured out how many grains were in a 1kg bag of sugar. Then equating 1 grain of sugar to 1 soul I worked out how many bags of sugar were needed to illustrate the numbers.

The numbers were still huge.

So I took along one bag of sugar, and emptied it out across the floor. Getting the kids to see just how many grains were in that one bag... and then went through how many bags were needed for each war and other events to help put things into perspective.

And here are those numbers:

World War 1                      15000000-20000000 dead             972-1296 bags
World War 2                      40000000-72000000 dead             2592-4666 bags

Genocides of Nazi Germany     4871000-11000000 dead          316-713 bags
Auschwitz-Birkenau                  800000-1500000 dead             52-97 bags

Indian Ocean (boxing day) Tsunami         230210 dead              15 bags
Haiti Earthquake                                      222000 dead              14 bags

9/11 Attacks (excluding hijackers)           2977 dead                   0.19 bags
7/7 Bombings                                          52 dead                       0.003 bags
War on Terror                              at least 47183 dead                3 bags


These numbers always humble me, and remind me of how privilaged I am.

Thank you, for all that you gave, I will try to live my life to the fullest and remember.

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.

Bomb Disposal (again)

Just who is leaving all these bombs laying all over the place??


It's careless is what it is... some would even go as far as saying dangerous.


Before I get to that ticking time bomb, we actually did another activity with the sprogs first (it helped give us some time to set up the detonators and rig the motion sensors). As you all know it is the Jamboree this summer, so the UK Scout Association has some Join In Jamboree activities... so that everyone can experience a bit of the Jamboree.


(by the way, free pdf downloads of the booklets are here... if any of you are looking for program ideas).- actually, do any other countries have something like this in place? Would be interesting to have a look at it, if you can then leave a link in the comments.


We chose the New Planet one, were they were to pair up and come up with a new planet and they were given a list of things that they had to come up with to help describe life on that planet.

1. Name the planet and explain why it is called that
2. Draw the flag for the planet, explain the design
3. 10 laws
4. Motto for the planet
5. How will the planet make money?
6. List 5 things that are banned on your planet
7. Design your planets formal costume
8. Draw and name the money used on the planet
9. Write and perform a planetery song, at least 6 lines long (can be to a tune they already know)
10. List 6 items you will take from Earth with you.

And all I gave them to do all that in was half an hour!


...cause those bombs are ticking you know.


Like the last time, they would have to use water to float the trigger out of the bomb. But this one is a different model.

See all those extra obstacles? They are the bomb-o-matics new 'features'... now with extra deadly. (and a free carrage clock with your first order)

With these Proximity Prevention Poles (PPP for short) water will need to be dropped from a height.

Infact, the pioneering project they had to build was a chariot, an A-frame. One of the patrol would have to ride the chariot, carrying the cup of water, while the rest of the patrol carried the chariot. Of course, you get more than one cup in a bottle... so they had to go back and forth a number of times to fill it.

They're getting so close!

Surprisingly, we managed all of this... designing a new planet, deactivating a bomb and clearing up... and we still had time to spare! So we played human checkers, Sprogs v Leaders (we had cones as our pieces as there were only 3 leaders).

The sprogs lost.... mah ha ha ha

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.

Caching In

It's about time that I introduced you to some new members of my scouting family...

This is Albert, he lives with Mim (the GSL) and likes to get out and about with her family. He's sociable like that, altho you will find him at some family gathering sitting in the corner munching on some boiled sweets.

<>

Betty here has been living with me (oh the scandal). She likes visiting places and sometimes accompanies me to work. She likes cake and her favourite colour is blue.

 

Cyril can be a bit tempremental at times. Jo, his carer, has being having some problems with him. He has occasional dizzy spells and gets slightly disorientated.



And not to forget Doris, our shrinking voilet. She's rather quiet, keeps herself to herself and doesn't get out as much as the others. She can usually be found round the drinks table at the party tho.

Yup, these are our new GPSs. Instead of numbering or lettering them we decided to name them... because it's more fun that way! The worrying part about it was the number of emails that flew between Mim and myself as we were trying to come up with the names.

It was like we were naming children.

We delibrately went for more old fashioned names so that it would be less likely that we would get sprogs with the same names.

Now, what have we got planned for them? GEOCACHING! Geocaching is like a giant treasure hunt. People hide containers of varying shapes and sizes all over the world and register it online, anyone else can then look up the co-ordinates and the clues and then go hunting for them. Usually there is a log, a strip of paper, for you to sign.

This video should help explain it:

Now, Mim is pretty nifty at this whole geocaching malarky (as of writing this she has found 250 of them... and that is bound to go up... oh and she only started 9 months ago!). So she hid a series of caches just for the scouts to find, some of which would be made public later.

We split the sprogs into two teams and got them to go hunting, as subtly as they could manage (which wasn't that subtle if I am honest). They had varying degrees of success, but they all seamed to enjoy it... which is handy as it all goes towards their Navigator badge

Theres a mApp for that

Given some of us leaders new found joy in Geocaching (I blame Mim my GSL for getting me into it), it was only natural that we would want to cover the navigator badge with the scouts... especially given the new GPS/Geocaching option for it!

Mind you, even though we were going to teach them how to use a GPS and geocaching, we still wanted to make sure that we covered the basics on how to read a map, so the past two weeks have been dedicated to mapping skills. well... it was when I starting writing this, before I went on holiday!

First off, contours... and potatoes.

Yes, potatoes.

We cut them in half length ways and then got the sprogs to draw lines on them at regular intervals (using CD cases as spacers), that way they could look at them from above and see how the contours relate to the shape of the potato.

I have to say, it worked rather well... altho the pens didn't like the starchy wet juices from the potatoes.

While that was being done in the kitchen, I was drawing out a massive grid out in the other hall with chalk. The patrols were then given a map key and a list of items to mark on the grid at given co-ordinates.

We got the activity idea from Programs Online, altho we had to adapt it as we didn't have time to make up the cards needed and some of the symbols listed weren't on our local OS map keys (oops)

Moving forward a week (did you feel it?) we continued on with the mapping skills. We didn't want the scouts thinking that all maps had to be really complicated so this nice was all about them making their own maps, starting off with their homes.

You would hope that they would know their own homes right? And you would be right, mostly...

But why leave it like that? Let's get them to map somewhere they haven't seen before... how? Well, that's easy. First they would have to build it. We dragged a whole load of stuff out of the cupboards: ground sheets, chalk, rope, cones, boxes, buckets etc and each patrol had to create a landscape that the other patrol would then have to map.

And if I am honest I was rather impressed with the results!

I was liking the use of the table to make a cliff, and the waterfalls. Also they used the different tins to represent different types of building (church, bank etc). Unfortunately I just can't remember what it was that they called the country!

And our other country- the name of which was something Twilight themed (grrr):

I'm liking the mountains, forests and lake with waterfall

Now, they didn't get it wrong with the red rivers... that isn't water, it's lava. We have volcanoes here!

The cones off to the side were a large body of water with some small islands in the middle.

You have to admit, that's pretty darn funky!

Balls!

No wait... strike that


awww man, you're going to make me go spare if you keep this up.


just shut up and eat your turkey already


...


So can you guess what we were doing the other week? Yeah, that's right, we went ten pin bowling!

We paid for a game and they paid for a game, and because we went slightly earlier then we normal would go it was a load cheaper. Woo hoo for discounts for arriving 15 minutes earlier.


It was a fantastic night... very laid back and relaxed. Did some bowling, got some cream sodas and curly fries (cause we all know that they are the king of fries- especially ones that are slightly spicey). Mind you, that doesn't mean that the sprogs didn't manage to scare us.


Either:
They were scarily good, numerous strikes throughout the evening... the ante had to be uped a bit when we had the bumpers up for the second game, the sprogs started getting so many strikes!
OR...
well, lets just say that there were some rather... unique... techniques involved.

Let's go through some of them shall we...

The Big Run Up Technique:
This methodology involves running with the bowling ball right up to the line. Stopping suddenly. Then drawing the ball back and throwing it.

The Top Gun Technique:

Called the 'Top Gun' technique as if it is successfully executed then you will convince everybody around you that you are actually a fighter jet just about to take off. The ball starts off behind you and level with or above your head. It is then swung at high velocity while you run towards the line. Hopefully you release the ball before you join it down the lane. Maximum points if everyone behind you flinches. (also known as the Reverse Rocker as the arch your arm makes looks like someone playing the air guitar backwards)

It's actually remarkably similar to this... but with a bit more velocity and deadliness. Think of this at double speed and you're closer to it.

The Stop Drop and Roll:

No... not that stop drop and roll...

Unlike its predecessors this techniques doesn't actually require a running start. If anything, it looks better if you start off by just wandering up to the line. At which point you stop, drop the ball onto the floor and then roll it down the lane with both hands.

The Squat and Drop:
Fine balance (or a lack thereof... I'm not sure) is required for this technique. The start just looks like any other bowler, but it's all in the finish for this move. Upon releasing the ball, the bowl must squat to the floor (presumably to regain balance or invoke some sort of magical rite or something). The lower the squat, the more pins will be hit. In fact, it was noted that buttocks hitting the floor actually resulted in a strike!


And yes... all of these techniques were used! But what I still can't understand is why the smallest sprog kept getting her finger stuck in the holes... how does that even work?!

This was actually a couple of weeks ago, I've just been keeping rather busy... so didn't have the time to blog straight away. All photos and videos obviously don't belong to me.

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