A Big Bag of Apologies...

Erm, well... I guess I should have posted something a bit earlier on this blog, but I have MOVED! Yes, it's all very exciting, but I have simply changed blogging websites to the wonderful being that is Tumblr. You can find my new blog here:

http://thesearethedaysofendlessdreaming.tumblr.com/

Sorry for all those who thought I had just given up on my blog, I most definitely haven't!

So toodloo blogspot, see you all in Tumblr!


H

It's About Time...

I though that, seeing as I talk about them so much in this, I should tell you a little about the people in my unit, the people I will be sharing the most amazing experience with. Here is just a little peak at some of the members of Spitfire...

Kirsty: I've known her one of the longest as she went to the selection day with me. One of the original members of Sporkism, though, if I can remember, she actually set up the Anti-Sporkism group... Oh well. She may be short (and short's a GOOD thing) but she has a massive personality, and is one of my best friends at Jambo, as well as being owner of Percy the Dinosaur (more on him later!).

Hayley: I first spoke to Hayley because we have the same initials, which means we stood together in a line when picking teams. She's very bubbly and bright, and will always bring a smile to your face. I haven't seen her for a while because she hasn't been in a patrol of mine for ages!

Adam: He's my Twin. I can't exactly remember where that came from, but I'm sure as soon as he reads this he wont hesitate to remind me. He WAS an original member of Sporkism, he once ran into a rope, causing a rather large gateway to collapse, he does a great Irish accent, and he's a pretty awesome person. 

Kay: Kay is, well, a babe. She is a really cool person, has a great taste in music, and is incredibly funny person. She's an awesome person to talk to, and although I haven't known her very closely that long, she's one of my bestest friends there. She shares my passion for crazy piano playing and awesome hats. 

Mike: Mike MAAANNN, as he is commonly known. Mental, he is, but in a good way. Always cracking jokes, never knows when to shut up, which means he's still talking when we have all gone quiet, which keeps the atmosphere up. Him and Kay are the cutest thing... well... ever.

Jack: The little, crazy one. Never stops talking about diving, his passion. A little random sometimes, but that's awesome. Starts off the best conversations. He ALSO never stops talking. Always running around, never fails to make you laugh, even if it is AT him not with him. But we know he doesn't mind. 

Georgia: The REALLY crazy one. Seems to have an addiction to sugar. Never give it to her though, she'll be bouncing off the walls for hours. Her, well, bouncing personality makes her a joy to be around because it seems to rub off on everyone else. She's also very good at making tea.

That's just a few of the 36 people going, I will give you some info on the others a little later.

H

Perhaps Paradise Park wasn't quite right.

February 13th marked yet another Jambo meet up, this time in the familiar settings of Danemead. We had been there once before for our back to basics camp, but this time we would be walking from Danemead to Great Amwell, about four hours away.

Now, what with us being teenagers, and it being very early on a Sunday morning (well I say early, it was about half nine), we were all pretty tired, and cold. Luckily, we set off very quickly with out any time to think about how cold of tired we were. We were in the patrols that we have been in for the last couple of meetings, and we are beginning to think that these could be our patrols for the Jamboree. Which would be great because my patrol is pretty awesome. Anyway, we set off walking at a good pace. One of our patrol members seemed to know the woods quite well, so we were thinking, yeah, we are going to make this in good time! We had a pretty fast group, chatting, listening to reggae, laughing but walking steadily.

Unfortunately, maybe it was our lack of knowledge of how to read a map, which is unlikely, or our reliance on the person who knew the woods, which is unlikely, or even some dark wizard leading us astray, which is most likely, we, um, got lost. Quite badly. We had ended up walking in quite a large circle for about two hours, and ended up at Paradise Park, a nature reserve about a hundred meters from where we started. And yeah, we felt pretty stupid. Luckily, we have such wonderful leaders that told us to go back to the car park where we started, and take a shorter route to the lunch spot. When we arrived we got a fair few laughs and teases, mostly because we had turned up 45 minutes late, but after eating a surprisingly amazing lunch, we were up on our feet and raring to go again.

Despite our major deviation from the route the first time, and major lateness, we ended up turning up at the finish point at the same time as everyone else. It MUST have been our immense walking skills, and one of our leaders promises he didn't change our route to a shorter one. After a bit of relaxing, some washing up and some hot squash, we tidied up, sorted out some badges and then packed off home. Much to the delight, I'm sure, of my parents, I turned up on the doorstep very muddy, very messy and very happy.


All in all, a very nice day, thank you guys!



H

And finally....

I'm finished! Fund raising that is. After almost exactly a year of fundraising, I have raised the total needed! It been quite a long, sometimes hard, but almost all of the time fun year of fundraising, so here is the total list of things I have been doing:

- Eggs - My wonderful chickens have been providing me with eggs since the beginning, and I hope they will comtinue to! Thank you very much Ladies.

- Fudge - I have been making fudge for almost 4 years now, and I have to say it is my most reliable, and delicious, frm of fund raising. I recommend it to anyone who needs to fund raise!

- Bake sale - I have done a lot of bake sales, including the Grove school fair and a lot at Tring School.

- Making and selling hair bands, pins, etc - I did this earlier on in the year.. well, my fundraising year, and although it took a lot of time and effort, I am really proud of the hairbands and pins that me and my Mum made!

- Coconut shy at the Albury Fair - This was one of my best money raisers, but also one of the hardest things I had to do. I give all my thanks to Ridgeway Scout troop for lending me the stall. The day itself was a very wet and cold one, but after six hours on the stall, your fingers and toes get cold enough that you don't  feel them. I'm so glad I did it none the less.

- Recycling phones

- Bag packing at M&S - The people from my selection day, Kirsty, Chris, Helena, Chloe and I, did this as part of a group fund raise.

- Babysitting - I've done this for my parents quite a lot, looking after my brother.

- Pet sitting

- Raffle at the Crong Music Evening - I did this with Chloe, another girl from the Spitfire unit. It was a lot of fun, and the music was great!

 

So that's it! I also have to give a big thank you to the Tring Lions, who gave me a very kind donation towards my Jamboree.

 

Any other money I make between now and the Jamboree will go towards and kit I need, hiking boots or a new camera.

 

Now that I have finished my fundraising, I feel just that little bit closer to the Jamboree.

 

 

 

H

The Badges...

I mentioned before that I had some fund raiser support badges for sale, and now I finally have a picture of them!

If you want to buy one, contact me my leaving a comment on this post, or on hannah@lorato.co.uk



H

The Jambo Journey Continues...

So we had another camp on the weekend, this time at Lees Wood, which was actually the place where all of us met for the first time. It was nice going back there because it was a really nice camp site, and what made it especially nice was the fact that we got to sleep in huts, not tents, which was a nice change! When we got there on Friday we lounged around for a bit, then had a very nice home made pizza and were told what was in store for us this weekend.  We then played a wide game that was supposed to take us until 10:30, but it actually finished at quarter to midnight. We trudged back to our hut, only to find that as soon as we snuggled down into our sleeping bags, we were wide awake. After about an hour, Kirsty FINALLY admitted that she seems to never be able to stop talking, we went to sleep. Some of us got up at half 6 to make breakfast (ouch!). which was very nice for a breakfast cooked by people that were half asleep, we started on our day activities.

Patrol 2 (which was my patrol) went tree planting first. You see, on the Jamboree there will be at least one point in time when we will have to do some community service in Sweden, either on or off the site, and our leaders thought we needed some... practice. In Less Wood they have ordered about 500 trees to be planted in the wood, and we went to help. It was pretty cold, and we were all still tired, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. I'm quite proud of all the trees we planted, which I think turned out to be over 200 over the whole course of the weekend. We then moved onto planning an entertainment for people for when we get to the Jamboree, as well as trying out some Stomp, which was VERY interesting! We had lunch and did quite a bit of hanging about while things were getting sorted, and then we started working on some other projects. We had decided at the last camp that we wanted a unit cook book that could have all of the recipes on it that we could try and use with the food we are given. We also made a list of songs to learn, as well as another list of things we needed to take. Each unit gets half a shipping container that will go to the site early that can be filled with any extra things we might want, including footballs, twister boards, a Horse (?!?) and two birthday cakes, seeing it will be mine and Chloe's birthday when we are there!

That evening we had a talk from one of the people in our unit's Dad, who went to the 18th Jamboree in Holland. It was really interesting to get some info on what goes on day to day at the camp, instead of just the amazing activities we will be doing. He gave us loads of tips on how to talk to people and make friends, how to spend and manage our time, and just how to get the most out of the Jamboree in general. Because he had previously gone to one, he had so much.... stuff from it! He had all sorts of t shirts, scarves, badges, photos and things people had given him, including some 15 year old sweets which we were allowed to eat! That may sound disgusting, but they tasted a bit like fruity Mentos...

We had dinner cooked by one of the other patrols, and then headed off to bed again. Unfortunately, the next morning it was my patrols turn to get up and make breakfast, but after being crown Queen of Eggy Bread, I guess it wasn't too bad. We started the day with a bit of pioneering, as well as designing and being to make our life sized (not really, about a 10th of the size!) model of a spitfire. It was designed like one of those aeroplanes that can just be slotted together so it's easy to transport, and although at the moment its just bits of wood painted white, I think it looks really good! I'm very excited to see what it looks like at the end. We also designed the route card for our next meeting, which is a hike.

We got all our stuff packed up, said our farewells, and went home to a nice warm bath and a hot cup of tea... (as well as a whole lot of homework!)



H

And....

It's 200 days to go everyone! 200 days until we leave for the best Scout camp ever!!!

Jambo Update!!

Happy New Year! It's 2011, the year of the Jamboree! I have been working towards the Jamboree for almost a year now, and I still have 7 months to go. But there is still some news from Jamboree Central (Our Troop).

Horray! We finally have a confirmed date for our Home Hospitality, also known as HoHo. And the country is.... the Czech Rebublic! The average temperature in the summer is between 20 and 25 degrees, and can get as hot as 30 degrees! So it should be roasty toasty when we get there on Sunday the 7th of August. We will be leaving for the Jamboree on the 24th of July, and be getting home on the 11th of August. Which means that my birthday is going to be on the last day of the actual Jamboree! That means I will probably have the closing ceremony on that day! Woop Woop! Though, that also probably means I might have all the packing up to do, but even THAT will be fun!

I am going on a camp to Lees Wood in a couple of weeks time, but I don't know anything about that yet. At our last camp we were given our brand new Jamboree scarf, as well as fund raising badges and our uniform badges. If anyone wants to buy a fund raising badge, they are £1.50 each, just contact me!


I will give another report of the camp when I get back from it!




H

Fund raising part 2 - The Fudge

Unfortunately, relying completely on the sale of eggs to get me to the Jamboree is a nice thought, but might take me a decade to get me there. So I had to find something else to sell at many fairs and events of which there seem to be many around the Christmas period. A while ago someone, I think it was my mum, bought me a sweets cook book. One of the recipes was fudge, and at the time I thought that would be a nice thing to do, everyone loves fudge, me and my family included. I gave it a go, and after rather a few completely failed batches and about, oh, 4 years, I think I can finally say I can go into a kitchen and whip up a pretty decent batch. Luckily for me, where ever I go, it always sells.

I have been selling it at my brothers school fair for the last four years, and have managed to build up some people who come back every year! This year I also sold a lot at my school fairs, of which there is one about every half term or so, and at the Victorian evening in Tring. I was lucky enough to sit on the end of the stall run by my old Scout troop, and I am very grateful to them.

In total, between the Grove school fair, all the stuff I have done at Tring school and Victorian evening, I have made over 200 bags - nearly 16kg! That's a pretty big stomach ache! Its one of the best sources of income I have for the Jamboree, and I am so glad that I have it. It is a lot of work, but it is most definitely worth it.


Apologies for the wait but it is, after all, Christmas!

H

What a Jolly Swedish Christmas...

I had another Jambo camp this weekend past, and lets just say it wasn't quite what I had expected! When i heard that we were going to be going from one hut, into the centre of St Albans, and then back to a different hut, I though, well, its going to be some sort of orienteering challenge. I couldn't have been more wrong. We were put into groups, given a recipe, and then told that later one that day we would be cooking a Swedish Christmas dinner. My group got one part of the pudding, almond tarts, and then headed into St Albans. This was really good training for the Jamboree, because every day we will have to go and fetch our food. We don't know how far away it will be, or how much there will be of it. We will also have to cook without a recipe, just a pile of food, Ready Steady Cook style.

Once we started cooking, or preparing in our case, because ours didn't take very long at all to cook (One teams took 3 and a half hours!) we were told that we had some 'projects' to get on with. These were making some Christmas decorations. We made Reindeer out of clothes pegs, and although they took ages to dry, and a fair few fell apart, I think they worked really well! We also made Snowmen/Skiers, depending on how you looked at it. These were for our place names at the table, and some people managed to come up with some rather inventive ideas, including a pirate and a Snowman on a rampage. There was also crackers to make (possibly the most frustrating thing I have EVER done!) which I was VERY pleased with, and fabric hearts, which we hung on our small but very festive tree. There was also light to hang around the hut, along with the paper chains we spent ages make. Once it was all finished, I think its fair to say we were all very proud of our efforts, as well as pretty hungry!

Luckily for us, dinner was almost ready, and as we sat down, although there was a bit of waiting, we, with Sporks in hand, tucked into a mushroom starter, delicious main and a whole lot of pudding. It was very nice, and definitely something I would love to eat again. It was nice to do something that involved us in Swedish culture more. Once this was done, there was some clearing up to do, before the boys headed back to the hut where they would be sleeping, when us girls got to stay in the warmth of the original hut. We did have to finish cleaning up though, but it didn't really matter, because once we laid out our sleeping mats and bags, it was nice to just hang out, and chat and muck about. We listened to music and laughed and had a pretty good time.  We did eventually settle down to bed.

The next day we woke pretty early (well, earlier than I normally would on a Sunday!) and we got to work. It was mainly about cleaning up the hut, and then the boys came back over and we had a massive discussion about a lot of really important things, like whether to do a flash dance as our unit entertainment (YES!) and some advice about the actual site. When it was time to go I think we were all pretty sad, because this was one of the best Jambo meetings yet. I got to know some people that I didn't really know before, I leant how insane and how much fun we can have together.


H

Oh, and another thing...

For those who didn't know, my Nana included, THIS is a Spork.

General Scouty Things...

Lots of stuff has been happening with me in Scouts lately, so although its not specifically Jamboree related, I thought I ought to tell you a little about it.

A couple of weeks ago, I did a talk to the Ridgeway Cubs about the Jamboree (see, I DID mention it!). At first I was pretty, well, worried. As you walk in , the first thing that hits you is the noise. 30 or so 8, 9 and 10 year olds in a fairly echo-y hall is any speech-givers nightmare! But actually, it turned out quite well. Once they settled down, they were a very nice audience to talk to. Some were a bit squirmy, but I think that most of them took in what I said. I talked them through a bit about what the Jamboree was, and why I was going, as well as a bit on fund raising and when they can go. We then played what turned into quite a long game, along the lines of each pair having a card, and then them having to find their matching pair. It was based around countries, to try and get them to learn something, and I think at least a few of them enjoyed it.

It was a nice way to start to learn how to talk to people who had never heard of it before about it, to see what their reactions were. Of course, its going to be different with people my age, or older people, as I'm going to get different reactions with all of them. But Cubs are a good starting point. What's more, I got the honour of joining in their game at the end. I can't exactly remember what it was called, but it mainly involved me being a 'Princess' and the Cubs had to come 'save me'. It was a lot of fun, even though i did get slightly squished and trampled on. I was quite sad to leave early, but I had to get to my own, slightly more sophisticated Explorers. This left my slightly less princess-like friend who is a permanent helper at Cubs to take my place as Princess. I don't think he minded at all.

My second Scouty date in my calender over the past couple of days was my Chief Scout Gold Award presentation. For those who don't know, the Gold Award is the highest award you can get as a scout, apart from the Diamond award. It consists of collecting several activity badges, and then planning and going on a two day hike. It had to be a Purpose with a Journey, or the other way around. I did it with 5 of my other friends from scouts, and to make it a bit more interesting, we decided it might be nice to head down to Dorset, hike all the way through Swanage, and then camp on Brownsea island, the birth place of scouting.

It was a very long, and very tiresome walk, and we seemed to pick a very hot weekend to go, but it was a whole lot of fun. We went all the way down to the bottom of dancers ledge, had a nice beach lunch, consisting of fish and chips, in Swanage, walking along a nudist beach, (no, that WASN'T intentional!) and when we finally got to the camp site, it was amazing. We were right next to the water, and spent a very long time paddling and occasionally swimming/falling in it. The camp site itself was very pretty, with water on one side and forest on the other. We slept outside that night, even though we had lugged the tents all this way, it just seemed right to sleep outside. We then packed up our things the next morning, and headed off to Corfe Castle, our end point.

I think  it was a very good experience for all of us, and a lot of fun too. It was my first ever proper hike, and really encouraged me to do the DofE. I hope it will be much of the same.

Anyway, back to my point, we had the awards on Tuesday, along with the AGM. The beginning bit was, admittedly, a bit boring, but it was nice at the end of it the have something to prove our efforts.

Sorry for this post being so long, I didn't think I would have this much to write!

We have a camp this weekend, so I will keep you posted on that once I get back

H

Sporks: A Complete List Of Uses

This is, as you can tell by the title, the complete list of uses for the Spork.

1. Knife
2. Fork
3. Spoon
4. Three in one tool
5. Presents
6. Drinking
7. Eating
8. Scratching your head
9. Christmas tree decorations
10. Hair styler
11. Lock picker
12. Garden tool
13. Rake
14. Cutting through rope
15. Attacking zombies
16. A very light hammer
17. Guitar pick
18. Light switch
19. Drum stick
20. Making very small snowballs
21. Ice cream scoop
22. Toasting marshmallows (not advisable with plastic Spork)
23. Stroking cats
24. Musical instruments
25. Wind chimes
26. Catapult for grapes
27. Moustache comb
28. Nose picker
29. Watering plants
30. Defending yourself in a fight
31. ‘Sporking’ people
32. Hunting rabbits
33. Good for eating Chinese food
34. Throwing Spork (to annoy people)
35. Digging your own grave
36. Eating soup and cabbage at the same time.

I started off with the normal red plastic spork. It was the most useful thing I owned. It turned out that several people on Jambo also had one, and so Sporkism was born. Unfortunately, my oh so lovely brother broke my spork, and so I had to buy a new one. I have now moved on to a titanium spork, and it is DEFINITELY the coolest thing I am taking to the Jamboree.

More uses to come, if I think of them! 

H

( Many thanks to Kirsty, Adam, Hayley, Mike, Georgia and others for some of the ideas above!)

Mmm... Deep Fried Jam Sandwiches...

This was our first proper camp. It was at Well end, a camp site I had been to a couple of times. It was from the 21st to the 23rd of May, and it was an absolutely baking hot weekend. We had only just met each other, but there was a really good atmosphere around. We arrived, got together in groups and started putting up the tents. This was, well, interesting, and mixed with chatting and mucking about and playing rugby. Well, I call it rugby, it was more 'tackle whoever had the ball'. Nothing very sophisticated, but good fun all the same.

Once the tents were up, we got together and were put into patrols. We swap around these patrols every time we started a new activity so that we got the know everyone. We had to make the majority of our meals, and one consisted of making an oven out of a cardboard box and some tin foil, then putting a pizza (which we had also made) inside. Its was surprisingly delicious. The evenings were spent round the camp fire, chatting and laughing until it was time for bed.

On Saturday we started on a project. We were told that we had to have a gateway to put at the front of our small site on the actual Jamboree. We spent the first part of the day designing them with skewers and bits of thread, and then moved onto the big stuff. We worked long and hard on our massive pioneering gates, often having to have a break from what was the increasingly roasting day. But finally, we were done. I think its safe to say that all of the groups were very pleased with their 'creations'.

As you can see, ours had a VERY awesome revolving... thing. Which, I guess, didn't really work, unless you were a three foot high dwarf. But we were proud all the same. We also found out that one of them could be collapsed, and then put back up again, like a piece of Ikea furniture. This only came about because my friend Adam ran into one of the poles in the dark. Very funny, and rather scary at the same time!
Another one of the awesome, if not a little strange things we did was make deep fried jam sandwiches. Which, I know, sound horrid. But just wait. They were exactly what they sound like, jam sandwiches dipped in batter and then fried. And they were amazing! There is nothing more satisfying sitting around with your friends on a very hot summers day, eating deep fried jam sandwiches with a spork. If you never have, I seriously recommend it.

Now, Sporks. Possibly the worlds greatest thing since sliced bread. Actually, scrap that, they are BETTER than sliced bread. There is nothing to describe the awesomeness of a spork. A religion was born from that camp called sporkism, to celebrate sporks. And so was the counter religion Anti-sporkism. But we wont go into that. One day i will make a post with the completed list of 'uses for sporks'.

But until then, that's all I have to say.


H

Lots and Lots and Lots and Lots of London

As we go along on our Jambo adventure, we are having a lot of bonding exercises. One of these was a day called 'London Adventure'. We didn't know much about it until we got there, but the long and short of it is: we had to go around London, using any mode of transport, apart from car, and take pictures of ourselves with certain landmarks, of which we had a list. They were things like Paddington bear, The Swedish Embassy (because we are going to Sweden!) and a red bus. There was about, oh, 25 of these 'destinations' and each of them were ranked with different points, depending on how hard they were to get to. I think that Paddington bear was only 10 points, whereas the Swedish Embassy was 25!

There was a lot of running around that day, a lot of missing of buses and trains (one team managed to leave half their team off the train, with the other half on!) and it was a lot of fun. We stopped for lunch half way through, and although we were all supposed to meet up at the same time, that didn't really work, with teams arriving half an hour after the one before, and someone getting pooped on by a bird in the process. Yes, it was VERY funny.

It was a lot of hard work, and it did involve a LOT of running, but I think we all got on really well, and learned a lot about London in the process. We saw loads of sites that I had never actually seen before, like the Globe Theatre. We went to the statue of Nelson Mandela and London Bridge. It was a great day, and I think that I made a lot of friendships a lot stronger. 

H

Fund raising part 1 - The Chickens

As you probably know, I have to raise a lot of money for this amazing trip. £1325 to be exact. This means a LOT of fund raising. My biggest long-term form of this is my two lovely chickens. We got them about a year ago and their names are Pebble and Rose, the first is a Silver Link, the other a Columbian Black Tail.

Everyday I clean them out, and collect the eggs, which I then sell to friends and their families. They are lovely pets, though they do take quite a lot of work! It's worth it though. they have been massive contributors to my Jambo fund, and I hope they continue to be.

More about fund raising to come.

H

Scouts Speak Up.... Hoe-downs, Happiness and a Whole lot of Tea.

The weekend just passed I went to a Scouts Speak Up course up at Gilwell park in north east London. This is the home of scouting in the UK, and as the website says, 'It’s our biggest centre and boasts excellent facilities that rival any activity centre.' It really is a very cool camp site, and was a perfect choice for the course! The course itself was a media and communications course, trying to train people who were going to the Jamboree how to talk to the media in the press, on TV and on the radio. This meant a lot of practical stuff, like using a portable radio mike to record interviews (in which I managed to forget where curry came from!) and then listening to them back. It was strange how weird your voice sounds on the radio!

We also did some interviews with a video camera, which I found much easier. This was probably because it was just like having a conversation with someone, it was very relaxed. There was also a press activity, and a main project on campaigning, which was A LOT of fun. I was in the Hot Pink group (woo!) and our topic was anti-social youths, which was a lot harder than you might imagine! We came second over all, which I think we were all really chuffed about! 

On Saturday night, we were told we were going to have a 'cowboy themed party', but I don't think any of us were expecting what was to come! There were hay bales everywhere, cactuses, palm trees (okay?), decorations, and all the leaders were properly dressed up! We all had an amazing night (well, I certainly did!) with all of us rocking out most of the time to the top hoe-down hits. We did have some 'normal' music at the end, but there was nothing more enjoyable than watching people slip sliding around trying to dance like a cowboy. With my AMAZING partner and a whole bunch of new friends, I had the best time ever.

All of this was split up with cups of tea (8, count 'em people! A world record, I'm thinking) and getting to know other people. I made some great new friends, and learnt a lot! I really hope I can keep in touch with them, and see them again at the Jamboree, which I am more excited about than ever!

H x

First isn't always the worst

The first time all 36 of us met as a unit was on March 7th at Lees wood. All of us knew one, maybe two people, but all that I knew was that I was in a room full of strangers (minus Kirsty and Chloe, the two other girls who were at my selection day!), who would turn out to be some of the best people I know, and that I would be spending some of the best times of my life with them.

We started with the typical getting-to-know-you exercises, where we got to find out a little more about everyone, including some of the leaders. The day that followed was a mix of activities like fire lighting, games, and putting up a tent blind-folded (which, as you can probably guess, was VERY interesting, and also VERY funny!) There was also a fair bit of tea making, house keeping and name learning. We got to have a proper chat with some more people over lunch, and I made some good friends just on that first day. It was all a bit crazy, and there was a lot of info to take in, but it was defiantly so much fun.

I will post some pictures up when I can.


H

Let's start at the very beginning.

Okay, so I'm very new to the whole blog thing, but here we go.

On the 21st of Feburary I was chosen to go to the 22nd world scout Jamboree in Rinkaby, Sweden. I am in the 44th hertfordshire unit, Spitfire. This was a name we came up with together, and will feature on everything we do. So far we have had two over night camps, 3 days together, and one year to go BBQ. All of these have been amazing, the weather has been, well, varied, and the activities have been so much fun! But I will share some more about that later...

The Jamboree is held every four years, each year in a different country. Last year it was here in the UK, and I was lucky enough to go along for the day, which was mind blowing. there was about 42,000 people there, and the size and scale and general vibe there was glorious. This was one of the main reasons I signed up for the Jamboree, and I'm so glad I did.


That's all for now, I will keep everything up to date each week.