The Million Pound Note
As camping season is almost fully underway, as are school trips and events, I thought it was time to write this particular blog entry.
For those who can remember, there was a film made in 1954 starring Gregory Peck called the Million Pound Note. The basic premis is that two American millionaires give a penniless man a loan, in the form of a single banknote made out to £1million. The film itself then follows his trials and tribulations as he tries to spend this money… but of course, no-one will accept the note (obviously, it’s a lot of money and no-one has that sort of change). There is further twists when it is thought that the note is lost (by this time, Gregory Peck – or rather, his character – has built up an amount of credit on the promise of this note).
So what’s the link between this and Scouting? Okay, here’s a challenge for you. Go into a sweet shop, armed with a £10 note and try to buy 1 Mars Bar and 1 can of coca cola. Feel uncomfortable? See the problem?
But wait – there’s more to this exercise. On another day, armed only with a £10 note in your pocket – no wallet, no credit cards, no spare change – go to work, go to lunch, go to the gym and possibly go shopping. How many times did you check to see that you still had the £10 note in your pocket? What happened when you checked the wrong pocket?
As a plea to parents, please, if you are giving your children pocket money for camps, whether it is going into the camp bank or straight to the child, make sure it’s in small enough amounts that they can buy the things they want to buy – mainly sweets, drinks and possibly comics.
Don’t just give them a single note – at a recent camp I had a distraught Scout come to me as he had lost the £5 note his parents had given him… it was Friday evening so he had nothing at all for the weekend (fortunately, I had a few pound coins I could give him so it wasn’t a total washout for the weekend).
Unless, of course, you want them to buy you a present that cost £7… so that they had change for sweets and drinks….
February Camp – or “I’m a Scout at Winter Camp, Get me Out of Here”
Whilst I consider myself a seasoned camper, this was another one of those excellent moments when you find yourself learning all over again. With the heavy snows the week before, I was wondering what sort of weekend we were going to have – if at all. However, the decision was made to go ahead.
Friday night we drove to Phasels – and the first order of the day (being a winter camp) was to get the fire going. This would have been fine, if it wasn’t for the foot deep snow that covered everything! Luckily, after shifting a few pallets we found (relatively) dry wood and we could get the fire going. Also, the snow made everything much more light (even at 9pm) so putting the tents up was fairly easy!
I say easy – we started with 8 Scouts, but before the first tent was pitched two decided that winter conditions weren’t for them, so they went home (good job we were close to home!)
Saturday morning and I woke up – a little cold – but to a beautiful sight –
The Scouts had already got up and had got the main fire going – which was good news (less good was that it had taken them 2 matchboxes, half a box of firelighters and half a bag of dry kindling to do so!). Still we got an altar fire going and eventually got breakfast cooked (we also found that the temperatures had played havoc with the camping gaz, so the cookers were almost useless!). Lunch was then next, so the potatoes were wrapped in foil and deposited in the ashes. Unfortunately one of the Scouts had smuggled his mobile phone onto camp and we found that this had enabled another to phone home and make arrangements to leave Saturday afternoon. In resolving this, our fourth less-than-happy camper also decided that he wanted to go home.
We had only brought enough food for breakfast and lunch – so we took a hike to the local supermarket to buy the evening meal and Sunday’s breakfast. Surprisingly for the time of day the supermarket was heaving with people catching up on lost shopping! Still we got away with what we wanted and returned to site.
Before we started the evening meal, the Scouts had a go on the Rolling Wall – an indoor revolving climbing wall which will challenge even the most adventurous Scout – and being only a few feet from the ground at any time means that you won’t need certification to let Scouts have a go (Phasels have put this into a room that they are also building a traversing wall, providing activities that campers can enjoy even into the evening). On the wall we invested Luke and Alastair – another “unusual investiture” under our belts.
The evening meal was Cowboy Stew – a foil packet containing veg, meat, and stock and cooked in the embers – followed by Bananas and Chocolate. Still a little peckish, Ivor and David then had apples, brown sugar and currants whilst the Scouts toasted marshmallows and bread.
Given the lack of sleep last night, the Scouts were quick to retire Saturday evening; by 10:30 nothing could be heard across the camp.
On Sunday morning the altar fire was quickly started and breakfast dispatched. Being a short camp, we then struck camp (although the cold had slowed up the Scouts… well, that’s my reasoning) and soon after lunch we went home.
It was a camp like no other – we couldn’t have planned for it; and for those that lasted all the way to the end of the camp I don’t think that they will ever forget it either!
The other thing I tried over the camp was the use of the micro-blogging website twitter – www.twitter.com – posting regular updates on how the camp was progressing. This enabled parents to follow the camp as we got on. To see the blogs, go to www.twitter.com/frog_scout – but note that these are in newest post first, so you will need to scroll through to read them in the “right” order.
Gilwell Winter camp 2009
It was a shame that I missed it this year – it looked like a fun camp:
http://www.scouts.org.uk/news_view.php?news_id=150
Hopefully we can work out how to get there next year….
The BIG TLW Review of 2008
So, what made your TOP 5 Scouting things this year?
For me, I’d say the following:
1. Completing the epic 26-week story. A mammoth achievement with some involvement from the Troop to add scope and shape to the story.
2. The trip to the fire station – and watching the water hose spin and knock over a swivel chair!
3. Fishing for Mackerel – then cooking and eating it that evening
4. District Camp – and spending the weekend dressed as a pirate
5. Creating a proper home for the Blog as “The Two Left Wellies”.
So… what’s yours?
The programme is now written…
and so we have a general idea of what fun we will be planning for next year! On the programme we have a broad scope of activities that will keep you all interested – and plenty of challenges that we expect you to rise up to… including the introduction of “Frosty the Ex-Snowman Weekend”!
Also next year we intend to make greater use of the blog. As well as the weekly write ups of evening and activities, we will also be adding in weekly messages and instructions that will add (or subtract) points from the Patrol competition. So it will be in your interest to read the blog - and if you can’t try to get in touch with someone who has (but not a leader). It could make or break you winning next term’s competition!
Have a good christmas!
Frog
Cooking Evening
(article by Ivor - thanks!)
The objective this evening was to produce a quick meal in camp cooking style.
It was suggested that the patrols all be given some chicken breast and a cook in sauce to be served upon a bed of rice.
To make things even easier the scouts were given boil in a bag rice and the sauce was a sachet that just need to be poured over the cooked chicken and heated.
Simple yes? No! two patrols did not read the cooking instructions for the rice and opened the bags pouring the rice into a billie of water.
However this was not too big a distraction and the boys had cooked and eaten within three quarters of an hour. The 4 boys not taking part in the District Pathfinder weekend were then left with all the washing up.
The others were split into their two teams for the weekend. This tended to be a team of four13 year olds and then a team of five younger boys but we swapped one of the older boys into the younger team.
Ash had pulled out the tents and purchased the new Coleman lightweight cookers. He had also been to Waitrose with a member of each team on the previous Wednesday evening and purchased as much lightweight food as possible.
This evening the team members shared this equipment and billies out, and packed it into their rucksacks which they had brought along fully packed in accordance with their instructions the previous Friday.
They had also returned the maps and finished route plans so that all could be put into the bus that night and then they just had to appear next day with their packed lunch.
Various changes had to be made to the rucksacks as they were either too small or the waist belt was too large for their small waists. One rucksack (or was it a large day sack?) had not waist belt at all which meant the scout would have taken everything on his shoulders.
However all was achieved within the evening and the boys departed looking forward to the next day (especially when I showed them the giant water balloon catapult)
Yarr! Tharr be Pirates at the Campsite then!
Well, what a fun weekend that was! The motley crew of Oliver, Lewis, Matthew, Oskar, Sam, Aaron, Shane, Jamie, Anand, Jordy, Bradley, Thomas and Rory joined Ivor, Ash, Alan, Bruce, Simon and myself for a weekend of high jinks and fun!
We landed at Paccar Scout site and the crew’s first challenge was to get their patrol tents up. Mutiny seemed to be the order of the day, and it seemed to take ages to get the tents up. Anyway, the moon cast a clear light to work from…
Saturday morning saw a parade of Cubs, Scouts, Explorers and Leaders in a variety of outfits and costumes. I had raided my wardrobe for stuff, but looked more like a highwayman (or Van Helsing according to some) than a pirate (whether the pirate of the roads would count… hey ho!)
It was really good to see so many had made the effort (well done Jamie for winning the Scout entry!) – and the leaders really had gone for it! Once the parade was complete, we set off into the woods to run the cycle cross course. A tricky circuit, causing a few to attempt to fly rather than pedal, but no major injuries (although a couple of very nasty-looking bruises). Out on the main field, the sun beat down giving everyone chance to bask in the rare heat. It was also good to see so many Beavers and Cubs that had come out for the day.
On the cycle cross, Shane managed to work hard to get the fastest Scout time… also beating the fastest Explorer Scout!
In the evening there was a brilliant campfire circle that everyone could join in with.
The evening (although still clear) seemed much warmer than Friday night.
On Sunday the Scouts took part in a scavenger hunt challenge – and whilst the sun rose steadily, the leaders marked from inside a large marquee. Not much chance of a sun tan in there! Well done to some from our team (especially Jamie again) for putting the effort in and coming third! After the hunt had finished, we saw a very interesting dog agility display, before lunch and then packing to head home.
Whilst the Scouts did need a little prompting, generally they knuckled down and did well.
