Explorer Scout 84

Honouring the Queen

Ove the past 72 hours I have been in London visiting a school friend. It has been very surreal being in the city during the mourning of late Queen Elizabeth II. I have been honoured to visit the memorials in Green Park watching citizen laying flowers to honour her and remembering the good she has provided for our country.

On the Wednesday, I was fortunate to watch the procession from Buckingham palace towards Westminster as they moved the Queens coffin. Whilst waiting for 14:22 to appear, I got talking to some of those around me. One lady, had stood in the position many years ago for the VE day celebration “hanging from a branch in the tree”, another had travelled from Dorset to be here. We shared some lovely memories over the years waiting to catch a glimpse of the King.

I followed the Scouting motto, being prepared, by bringing many snacks, my chair and even my full waterproofs (on a very sunny day). Even with height not to my advantage, I was still able to see the road to view the Royals and the parade. How powerful it was just to be stood in the crowd waiting.

At 14:22 the procession began and we were first greeted with police horses who were followed by the marching band. Shortly, we saw the Queens coffin followed with the Royal Family walking behind. We all paid our respects towards the longest raining monarch in British history and for me as the Patron Saint of Scouting.

I then returned back home fortunate to have witnessed history.

On the 19th of September, I watched her funeral with the rest of the nation and was very moved. I look forward to the King’s coronation for the UK to celebrate together again.

30th July to 4th August

Switzerland 22nd to 29th July 2022

New friend

Howdy Blue here,

Recently 84 has got a new mascot (don’t worry, I am not being replaced yet!!) from BUSAG (Birmingham Universities Scout and Guides). It’s called Orinoco, after the Wombles and 84 has him due to being on the 2022-23 committee as publicity officer. I hope to become good friends with Orinoco and I am planning on interviewing him soon.

See you soon, Blue

Gangshow Week 2022

A few weeks ago, I helped out with my districts gangshow. The following is what I got up to over the week helping as a member of the backstage crew.

On the Friday, I helped with the get in process. This required moving all the scenery from the districts hall into a lorry which would then be driven to the theatre. We had lots of Timbits to keep us motivated before then driving to the theatre to unload. I then helped the scenery crew completing some laminating (to make smiley awards) as well as tying lots of paper cranes onto string. At the end of the day, I had blisters after tying over 300 knots!!

On the Saturday, I helped to tie the previous paper cranes with string onto another piece of string in order for them to hang in rows on the stage. I then started helping on the stage where I found out my role was to move backstage staging and scenery – whilst also checking the staging was secure with tight clamps. We went through all the sets to check there positions with the producer and chair of the show, and when we were given the all clear, we marked the position of the set with tape. When setting hanging scenery, I got to help screw some wire rope clamps onto the metal wire which would be hung from the bars via. a carabiner: we had to make sure that this set hung evenly and was not wonky. At lunchtime, we had Chilli for helping out all day.

Over the Sunday and Monday, it was dress rehearsals with the cast. I became an honorary curtain puller, due to the designated curtain puller being unavailable. Luckily, I only went wrong once during the two rehearsals. On top of this, I helped to move set and was given a radio where some funny radio chatter happened.

The Tuesday consisted of a crew only rehearsal, where the musicians practiced whilst we quickly changed sets to become more efficient. It was a lot more relaxing during the practice and so we could get away with messing about in between.

Golden drapes fell down (which we had to fix)

Wednesday through to Thursday was the full show and it went well without running too far behind. On the Wednesday, I was given my new gangshow red necker which I was very excited for. I missed the Friday due to my university friends coming to visit however, this was when I made my gangshow newspapers gossip columns debut – all for hanging up some of the fallen set backstage in the wings.

Saturday was the longest day of the week but Blue came along for the shows. It consisted of two shows with a dinner break in between. We got free ice cream from the local ice cream factory during the break which was very kind of them. During both shows they were filming and so at the end we had to go on stage for our bow/ wave. The final show was the best show as we hid a pineapple during each singing number – it was a tradition dating back older than me. After the final show we had to have the get out process where we removed all the items, loaded up the lorry and unpacked at the districts scout hut.

Overall, it was a very fun week volunteering and I am already looking forward to next year!

Chaotic Week

For today’s blog, I will give you an update on my chaotic week. From no water due to a busted gas pipe to an exec meeting, I have experienced an untypical week.

Monday:

Last weekend, I went home to celebrate my mums birthday as well as to visit my cats. I returned on the Monday to celebrate one of my universities friends birthday. I caught the train home at midday (which was lovely and quiet) before making coffee cake and investigating the busted gas pipe which had happened over the weekend. In the evening, I headed out to Spoons to celebrate the birthday. I also had a district executive meeting which I attended.

Tuesday:

On this day, I woke up to no water due to the roadworks having hit a gas pipe, they needed to turn off our water supply to fix it. However, we got water around 5pm again which was pretty quick. I had badminton in the afternoon, so used the Universities sport centre to have a shower as well as claimed my free hot drink from Costa due to the inconvenience it had caused us.

Wednesday:

This was a fairly chill day, I visited the Universities archives with BUSAG to learn about the societies history and the surrounding area Scouting history. It was a very fun meeting. I also had my weekly shop delivered from an undisclosed supermarket where we had issues getting our shopping. We were told that you needed to be 25 for the delivery which was confusing as we had ordered previous deliveries with no issue. After speaking to customer services, our delivery was reunited with us.

Thursday:

Thursday was a fairly calm day with Beavers and Scouts in the evening.

Friday:

I had my only lecture of the week at 9am for Computing – due to it being Maths consolidation week. In the afternoon, I watched the new Batman movie which was amazing!! I then went to Nandos for dinner before heading back to my friends flat party.

Saturday:

Without going into too much detail Saturday was chaotic. I had a friend ill from midnight where, I managed to get 5 hours nap time as I was looking after them. Eventually we called 111 to ask for advice and they advised heading to A&E. Eventually they were seen and my friend and I headed to grab coffee before I went to my friends before going out clubbing.

Sunday:

After waking up on 6 hours of sleep (pretty good compared to the previous night), I ate some breakfast before attending a BUSAG event to cook a roast dinner. The roast dinner was divine, I helped to carve the chicken, peeled carrots, put Yorkshire puddings in the oven and did some washing up. Whilst the food was cooking, I nipped to Tesco to grab a chocolate twist and some orange juice. In the evening, I cooked fajita pasta before heading for an early night.

Blue and the Brownies

Howdy Blue here and what an adventure I’ve had.

When 84 told me that we would soon be enjoying some Brownies I thought wow, Beavers and Scouts weren’t enough each week and that she was volunteering to do Brownies as well. Well that couldn’t have been further from the truth when I realised that she wasn’t taking about the ones who wear yellow and brown uniforms but the gooey yummy delicious ones baked by Sam at The Sugar Rose Kitchen.

My taste buds are now on high alert, I’ve had them before and they are the best brownies north of Brownsea Island.

The Christmas selection was divine with a true mixture of flavours – Mince Pie, Mint Chocolate and Cranberry and Orange Tiffin, my bear senses are now in overload at the thought of trying the valentine selection.

First up from 84 was the hot stuff chilli chocolate brownie, oh my that tangled my taste buds, a brownie that tasted of chilli con carne!

Next up was triple chocolate, a smooth tasting gooey delight which calmed my senses after the hot stuff one.

Following on from the first two 84 gave me the raspberry ripple blondie. Sweet sticky raspberry goodness in a light golden brownie.

After a brief break to enjoy a cuppa I settled down to try the rest, sweetheart rocky road – a rocky road with mini marshmallows and gummy hearts ❤️

Turkish delight came next a gooey brownie containing Turkish delight pieces and topped with edible flower petals.

Lastly was the Oreo brownie, two of my favourite things Oreos and brownies. Large pieces of crushed Oreos in gooey rich chocolate brownie, what’s not to like. This one sent my taste buds out of this world and I ended up sneaking most of the slice much to the disappointment of 84.

In conclusion (pulling out the big words now, go me) brownies from The Sugar Rose Kitchen are divine. I can’t wait to taste the next one’s or I might switch it up a bit and have cupcakes or cookie sandwiches.

hi 2022.

So a new year, a new resolution. I would say my resolution for 2022 would be to be more frequent in my blog writing but with university exams throughout January, I knew this would not be the case. I do not really have a resolution for this year other than to wake up earlier and be more productive during the day. My university semester starts back on the 31st so I currently have a week of ‘freedom’ and during this I am exploring the city.

This past week has been semi eventful. On Tuesday, I had the last of my exams after which I had my booster jab (as an end of exam present). On the Wednesday, I went on a walk along the local canals before starting season 2 of Cheer on Netflix (and subsequently finishing it by Friday). (see photos of canal walk below)

Thursday was a quiet day, however in the evening I had Beavers and Scouts. The Beavers learnt all about Australia to help them with their international badge whilst the Scouts made their catapults in their patrols. I made my own catapult at the same time (which worked better than the Scouts’ catapults!). I was then invested as a leader into the Scout Group which I definitely was not expecting – I now have another neckerchief to add to my collection.

On Friday, I choose to go on a mini hike around Lickey Hills where I walked over 22,000 steps (around 15km). It was a very therapeutic walk even with the strong winds and in the cold. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to wander around the woods and find look out points to try and spot my University’s clock tower (Old Joe). As I was returning back onto campus I was proud of myself as pre-WSJ, 84 would never have done anything like this. (see photos of Lickey hills walk below)

On Saturday, I tagged along to visit the Guide shop. I found some old badges in a lucky dip bag as well as the county Guiding badge which I had to buy. I avoided saying the banned word ~~Scouting~~ in the store – though it may not actually be banned, I didn’t want anyone catching on that I was an imposter! I got back to my flat and one of my flatmates had returned from the Christmas break. We caught up before going out shopping to grab some food before watching the Incredibles 2 (I worked out the villain within the first 30 mins – my flatmates can back me up) and an episode of Dawson’s Creek.

On Sunday, my flat and I headed to the Winterbourne house and gardens; where Blue has previously gone on a Bear hunt. We then ate some food before tidying the flat to have a small party in the evening. Look out for Blue’s blog where he heads on a Bear hunt!!

BLOGMAS ’21 (day 2)

Today has been a very long day. I woke up for my 9am lecture on Algorithms where the lectures spoke about SatNavs before learning about integration. I then ate porridge for my mid morning snack before completing some coding.

During the evening, I helped at a local Beaver unit to make Christmas decorations before helping at Scouts where we played the peel game. This was learning about capitalism and the unfair trade market. I then headed back to my flat and it was snowing.

BLOGMAS ’21 (day 1)

As usual, I am going to try and blog every single day leading up to Christmas (we shall ignore last year as I may or may not have given up on day 3/4). I will explain my chaotic day below:

I went to my SSAGO meeting and we made Christmas hats for our pom-pom duck. I then went back to my flat to write up my maths work before heading off house hunting with my future flatmates. We found a lovely house which we are gonna reserve for next year. After getting back in the rain (near hail), we cooked dinner (where Ella, nearly almost poisoned herself). Following this, we watched I’m a Celeb before dragging George out to game with Ella. For supper we ate garlic bread, opened our advent calendars, defrosted tomorrow’s dinner and listened to Christmas music.