One month to go …

Wow! I never quite realised how close the Jamboree is until now. I have now officially finished all of my exams and have prom in the upcoming week.

We have one month to pack, to go on last minute precamps, to wear in hiking shoes and to mentally prepare ourselves for this amazing adventure.

I have my final precamp coming up next weekend and I am super excited. To prepare my readers (and myself) for the Jamboree in America, I will be posting more frequently over the upcoming weeks. But for now, this weekend I will be helping out at Strategy. Look out for the daily blog posts over this weekend.

Rumour has it

So this weekend the unit leaders (and IST) have been at the final leader weekend at Gilwell Park. They have been finding out last minute details and handing in the 3 duffle bags to be shipped off to the USA.

I’m now excitedly waiting to hear where in Canada our HoHo is going to be, however rumour has it I might be staying at HoHo with … Scout group. We found this out through a connection of badge swaps.

This week I have survived my first week of GCSE examinations – I am now a third of the way through my 23 exams with 4 weeks still left to go. Also thanks to my biology exam I now know what an axolotl looks like. Not looking forward to tomorrow’s exam, but at least I’ve only got the one exam.

Better get back to the revision now.

Not an axolotl, but is a clue to where HoHo is near.

Honest UK24WSJ Kit Review

(Sorry for not blogging for a while, I’m busy revising for my exams and while I’ve got a couple of big blogs planned, including our big city experience in London, here is something shorter until then.)

On Wednesday I went to collect my Official Jamboree Kit. Here are my initial thoughts and my rating on each item out of 10 (10 is the best and 1 is the worst):

Main bag: 7/10 – Better and bigger than I expected apart from its in girl guiding colours and has no pockets.

Rucksack: 2/10 – Slightly small and could do with more pockets. Not sure how I’m going to survive: 

  1. the plane
  2. NYC
  3. the night in NYC
  4. until I get to the main campsite

with this.

Explorer Blouse: 8/10 – Fits perfectly and is nice and thin for the West Virginia summer. It also uses the new scout logo while I still prefer the old logo. Bonus marks for actually being a blouse and not a shirt so has a better fit.

Shorts: 10/10 – They contain a lot of pockets and are a nice length (I like knee length shorts which these fit me as).

UK T-shirt: 7/10 – This yet again looks really nice with the printed branding however the blue appears greyer than I imagined.

Necker: 9/10 – The design is phenomenal the only real downside is the ends have come a bit loose.

UK blue Tea Bear badge: 8/10 – Not very nice to sew onto uniform but the design is funky except I can never line up the badge correctly to sew onto my uniform.

Hat: 9.9/10 – A brilliant hat: I would leave it at that but only gets 9.9 as it’s quite small for my rather big head and does not have any corks attached.

Padlock: 8/10 – It works. I guess.

Water bottle (red): I have not tested this product yet. However, I’ve heard rumours that they aren’t very strong (denting easily) and the straw does not work.

The Great Blue Sewing Bee

Hi everyone, it’s Blue here again, 84s been really busy revising for her upcoming GCSEs so I’ve decided to step in and help her out. Hopefully 84 will be back soon – she needs to take a break from revision sometime?!

Before the London trip I treated myself to a new necker. Unfortunately normal size ones are way too big for me so I thought I would raid Mum84’s hoard extensive fabric supply and make my own.

I did find it a little bit hard to use the sewing machine, reaching the foot pedal and ensuring that the material was sewing straight proved rather difficult so I roped Mum84 in to help.

After a long afternoon working together I finally had my new necker.

Here are the photos of my progress:

Leading Questions with Blue.

Hey everyone, guest blogger Blue here again!

I got to spend a few days with 84 again after meeting back up at one of her county’s events. Since she interviewed me last time I thought I’d do the same.

So 84, you’re looking a lot better by the way, what was the day about?

This day got together the patrol leaders in my county who were leading a patrol on the 24th World Scout Jamboree. We took in a range of activities to learn different leadership skills and techniques.

That sounds good. So what sort of things did you talk about?

We talked about different personality traits – drivers, thinkers, feelers and entertainers. They told us how each different section are motivated as well as push and pull factors.

We briefly talked about what makes a good leader as well as the characteristics they should have; they should be allowing everyone to have equal responsibility, able to handle all situations as well as giving credit where it is deserved.

On top of this we learnt about how to delegate well and the ladder of unconsciously incompetent to unconsciously competent.

Did anything in particular surprise you or make you think “oh yeah”?

I learnt about the ladder of unconsciously incompetent to unconsciously competent.

At the bottom of the ladder you have those who are unconsciously incompetent.

These are the people who have seen a new skill and believe thoroughly that they are able to do this without even asking for help the very first time. They are usually very happy and excited to give a new skill ago; this is until they give the skill ago and become consciously incompetent.

They now have tried the new skill and are unhappy as they are not able to do it; as time progresses they will become consciously competent.

This is where they are still a bit worried about the activity but are able to now take part with very little assistance; this is until they become unconsciously competent.

They now are able to do the skill without really thinking about what they are doing such as tying a reef knot. This is a good place to be in but sometimes they can forget the specific steps in the task and forget exactly what they are doing.

So what would be your top tips for other patrols going out to the Jamboree?

My top tip would be to learn about the different personalities in your patrol. to learn what motivates each individual and the main category of people they fall into.

Are they a “Thinker” who like to work out the problem step by step or are they a “Feeler” who cares about how the rest of the patrol are feeling and doesn’t think about themselves as much?

Are they a “Driver” who drives to make sure that everything has been done on time and to task or are they even an “Entertainer” where they have the most fun with others joking and laughing around?

The more you know your patrol the easier it will be in the long run to delegate specific tasks to and help them to drive towards their target all whilst having fun and enjoying them whilst doing even some of the more boring tasks.

Finally, tell me one thing you learnt about yourself.

I learnt that I am partly a thinker and a feeler; I like to plan ahead of time to make sure that everything will get done whilst checking that everyone is happy; I need to be able to be a bit more firm with others when they are not listening and to also make sure that I not only play to the strengths within my patrol but also can teach them new skills.

Finally I have learnt how the patrol leaders team has been arranged. Personally in my patrol leadership team we have an entertainer (who can also be partly a driver) with me being a thinker and a feeler – everyone has all characteristics which work well together within a team.

Thanks 84, sounds like it was a really good day. Can’t wait to see you again!

North America in a Bag

This week I’ve been out and about with North America in a Bag.

First I took it to the Beavers where I am a Young Leader. I know my Beavers well and I know they like doing craft so I planned the main activity to be making Dream Catchers. We played a version of “North, East, South, West” but with a WSJ spin. I also made some salsa in advance to take along so they could try salsa and nachos. The Beaver Leader was so impressed with how it went that I was given Barry the Beaver to take home.

I stayed on after Beavers to run a session for my old Scout unit. I didn’t think they’d want to spend half the meeting making dream catchers, but I still gave them 10 minutes to make one in their patrols. To add to the challenge after 5 minutes I told them they could only use one hand each. We played the Stealing the Sombrero game and then held a debate over which was better: tea or coffee. The session ended with lots of really good questions about both the Jamboree and the fundraising to get there.

The following evening I took the bag along to the Scout group my Explorers are attached to. All 4 sections meet on the same night, with some overlap, but I managed to spend some time with all of them. I spent the most time with the Cubs, I’d been a bit worried about this sessions as unlike the night before I didn’t really know any of them. It went really well with them enjoying themselves and showing a lot of interest. I also managed to speak to the Scouts and Explorers and run some games with them too.

My final visit was to my old Rainbow unit. I turned their regular circle time into a Pow-Wow with the headdress passing from one Rainbow to the next as they gave their news. They also enjoyed making the dream catchers and playing the games.

Although I’ve been a Young Leader with Beavers for a year and a half it was good to try and plan things for the older units as well. I’m also secretly hoping some of the Rainbows might defect to Scouting in the future.

Jamboree Camp: Take 5

So this weekend I went on another Jamboree camp and caught up with all my friends. We arrived on Friday evening and got put into our patrols. I got the position of being the assistant patrol leader for my patrol and so once we were all in our patrols we had to come up with patrol names. As a patrol we came up with some very obscure and weird names, we could not decide on a name so still haven’t chosen our final name yet! but we did chose a time to wake up and cook breakfast the next morning.

‘Before bed’ (as quoted) we had hotdogs and hot chocolate for supper. We then watched Toy Story 3 in the hut all cosied up with our sleeping bags and roll mats. As usual on my Jamboree camps we didn’t get to sleep until way past 2 the next morning.

The next morning we cooked omelettes for breakfast and washed up before the activities began. One of our morning activities was to plan our unit video to be sent to the UK contingent. We discussed what represented our counties and what represented our unit as a whole as well.

After this we discussed where we wanted to visit in NYC and Washington DC. For NYC we had discussions on visiting Ground Zero, Times Square and Central Park. For Washington DC we discussed visiting the White House, The National Mall and Smithsonian museums including the air and space museum (Mum and Dad- I promise not to sleep through the whole of the first floor exhibits if we go).

We then watched a short video on the timeline of the 9/11 attacks, we then discussed how it had changed and shifted the world and how we now experience air travel.

Our unit then played a couple of games before we went inside for lunch. To practice having to use points to buy meals we were given a set amount of points and had to decide the best way to ‘spend’ them on our lunch. Each of the lunch food items were worth different points and so we had to work out what we wanted for lunch and to make sure we had enough points to buy it.

After lunch, we had a talk about what to expect if we go to Canada and which countries we would also be going too. We also looked at the additional kit and what kit we would be given. As we were doing this we wrote down any queries into a box and also who we wanted to share a tent with out on the Jamboree.

In the afternoon, we went on a mini hike around the village where we had to go on a mini scavenger hunt. We had to find a blue item, see how many people we could fit in a phone box, get a takeaway menu, take pictures of birds (we cleverly took picture of chickens in the butchers) and more. My patrol lost but I believe this just gives our patrols a lot of room for improvement. When we returned we were given an activity to find out what was stuck onto our forehead and the pair. Later, we found out that this is who we’d be sharing a tent with.

For dinner we had chicken curry and rice and for the only time ever the whole unit had finished cooking and cleaned 40 minutes before planned. We were then split into half and talked about some of the things which might happen on the Jamboree and any more worries we might have followed by yet another unit discussion.

Our evening activity consisted of as called ‘Unit 82 got talent in their eyes factor, get me out of stars in their strictly popstars on ice’. In our patrols we decided on our ‘talents’ with my patrol doing a mini magic show with magic tricks. I did a card trick and we had other card tricks and a plate trick. Other patrols did dancing and acrobatics. My act came second from last but as I mentioned earlier there is always room for improvement. Our leaders also surprised us by dressing up in suits and dresses to be the show’s judges.

To finish ‘Unit 82 got talent in their eyes factor, get me out of stars in their strictly popstars on ice’ the whole unit sang Bohemian Rhapsody. After a couple of rounds of Irish snap and cheat, we settled off to sleep. Yet again, we weren’t asleep until 2 the next morning.

Breakfast was bacon baps and was then followed by a first aid session. We talked about what we might experience on the Jamboree and how to prevent it. For example, we were reminded of DR ABC, what to do if someone faints, how to prevent dehydration and sun burns as well as how to clean and cover grazes.

We played a couple more games and then it was time to set up afternoon tea for the parents and to eat our lunch (no point system today). The parents then had a parent meeting where they learnt some more information and had the chance to ask any questions. It was then time to say goodbye to all of my friends before we left to go back to our county.

I’m currently finishing this blog on the way back with my motivation (a minibus classic and tradition) of cold custard. We also had a challenge this camp go try and fit all of our kit into a medium bag to practice for our first few days travelling to the Jamboree where highly likely we won’t be allowed to go into our big bags. I managed to pack mine into a small-ish rucksack, so my Mum didn’t have to call the plumber to remove the kitchen sink this time!

December meetup

Shortly before Christmas I went to another day long unit meet-up.

The day was a chance to find out more about where we were going, what we were doing and how we were going to go about it. As you may know we are off to New York as well as Washington DC and maybe even Canada. We were asked what we wanted to do on top of what the UK Contingent would arrange for us.

Some of the ideas we had included:

  • Visiting the National Mall in Washington DC, including the Smithson Museums, the White House, the various memorials and the Cherry Blossom trees (even though they won’t be on bloom).
  • Even though we are only in NYC for one day we’d love to see the Empire State Building, Central Park, the Ground Zero memorials, the Statue of Liberty, Golden Gate Bridge.
  • Although we don’t know where we’ll be in Canada we’re hoping we’ll get to see some small towns to contrast the big city experience, Niagara Falls (if we’re close enough), snow-topped mountains, beavers in their natural habitat (rather than the turquoise ninjas racing around the scout hall), and get a chance to buy some maple syrup from a maple syrup farm.

We also had confirmation about what kit we will be given and can purchase. One of our leaders said it was the best Jamboree Kit they have ever seen so we’ve got more confidence it’ll get there and back in one piece.

There were a lot of team building games but I had to sit those out as I was still recovering from my injury – I got to separate and fold raffle tickets instead.

As well as my injury our unit has also had broken arms, broken feet, sprained legs and loads more, hopefully we’ve got these out of the way before the Jamboree but they also told us about how good the on-site hospital will be.

Unfortunately I had to return Blue at this meet-up and found out he had missed the Christmas Meal the day before, although I did get a surprise Chocolate Santa in return.

I got another surprise from Father Christmas my own Blue Bear, who I have named Blue-Too. Blue-Too has found my Washington DC board book, which I got when I was nearly two on my last visit to DC and has been busy planning what he wants to see.

Q and A with Blue (The mascot of Unit 82, Double Blue)

Wishing all my readers an exciting 2019. I still can’t believe in just over 24 hours time I can start saying ” I’m off to the Jamboree this year.” (I wonder how long it will take my family to get fed up with me saying it!)

To round up 2018 here is an interview Blue and I made while he was staying with me.

Happy New Year,

84


Hi Blue,

An easy one to start, what is your favourite food?
Mmm what a way to start the interview talking about food… Is human an acceptable answer!!
Only joking I can’t bear (do you get it!) marmalade or honey, what is with some bears they have no taste. I’m actually a bear of impeccable taste, my favourite food is Nutella on toast.

So Blue, what are you looking forward to doing most at WSJ2019?
Well that’s an easy one, I’m looking forward to meeting my cousins, I hear that I have a few who live in West Virginia.

Moving swiftly on, what 2 things would you take to a desert island?
Umm can I take 3 things?
No just 2.
Oh it’ll have to be matches and Bear Grylls.
That’s a pretty sneaky answer and I’m sure that Bear Grylls can light a fire without the aid of matches.

In human years how old are you?
Gosh you should never ask a bear his age.

Apart from Bear Grylls who is your favourite bear?
Well you’ve already heard that I’m not a particular fan of Paddington or Winnie so I’d have to say it’s definitely Yogi. If HoHo allows I’d love a trip to Yellowstone National Park.

What is your favourite campfire song?
What a toughie, I think Baby Shark is quite catchy and has potential, but I am quite a traditional bear so it really has to be Kumbaya.

Is there anything that you are afraid of?
Heights, I can’t stand climbing trees I get very dizzy.

If you could have a super power what would you choose?
That’s easy invisibility then I can sneak up on my food.

Since you mentioned food again, do you prefer Double Gloucester or Shropshire Blue?
I’m not sure it would be fair to choose between them. Can I go for a nice Camembert instead?

I’m thinking that it’s time to wrap up this interview, thank you Blue for taking the time out of your busy schedule to meet me.

Blue on Tour

Hello!

Guest blogger Blue here. I’m Blue the Bear and I’m the official mascot of Unit 82. At our last unit meet-up I got the chance to hit the road with one of our more distant members and I was shocked to find out they were the secret blogger! I though I’d hijack their blog and tell you a bit about what I’ve been up to.

I got to visit the Beaver Colony that 84 helps out with and see some of the fun and games they get up to. I met their own mascot Barry the Beaver. We were taught about some of the things to take on a camp and the following weekend I went along to their winter camp.  I wonder if any of the beavers I met will be a participant at a future World Scout Jamboree.

I’ve been to visit a museum all about the history of jet planes. It was interesting getting close to the planes. I can’t wait until we fly out for the Jamboree although I imagine the plane will be a lot bigger than the ones I saw. Talking about flying I was really excited when 84 told me about the travel details that had been released.

With Christmas coming up 84 has been out fundraising at Christmas Fayres. I’ve been along to some of these where I was on guard duty looking after the collection pot and keeping an eye on everyone looking at the things she had been making to sell. Fortunately no one tried to buy me because I’m sure I overheard her discussing with her sister how much she could charge for me.

You may have noticed in some of these pictures I’ve been sporting a Double Blue Bow-tie. While I’ve been staying with 84 there was a winter ball for the Explorers and Network members in her county. She went to this with some of her Explorer Group friends, but there were also quite a lot of other Jamboree participants as well and there are some nice pictures taken of them all. 84 made me a bow tie so I could dress the part as well.

As well as all things Scouting, 84 also took me along to a Rainbow meeting. There I met Olivia, the Rainbow mascot. The Rainbows were doing a craft activity with lots of glitter. I think we need more glitter at Double Blue unit meetings. The Rainbows taught me a new song while I was there, a Christmas Nativity song to the tune of the classic campfire “Pizza Hut” song.

This week 84 has been poorly and so been off school and at home during the day. It was nice to get the extra time with her although I am also a bit sad that she is unwell.  I hope she recovers quickly in time for Christmas!

Sadly my time with 84 had to come to an end. Today we went to a meetup of all her county’s Jamboree members where we learnt more about what to expect. At the end of this I hitched a ride back up North.

While I’ve been staying with 84 we’ve written some other blogs together to publish in the future so I’m sure this won’t be the last you hear from me.

Yours in Scouting,

Blue