Explorer Scout 84

30 km Charity Hike for Sue Ryder

A week ago, I participated in a charity hike for Sue Ryder. This was a 30km hike around my county and we went up 4 hills. Throughout the hike we experienced a fair few problems including one of the public footpaths being covered with stinging nettles and overgrown plants (meaning we had to change our route which then coincidentally passed a McDonald’s). Later on in the hike, we also changed our route and took shorter footpaths in order to gain time back after having to backtrack ourselves early on. Finally, we finished slightly early due to being 2 hours behind our schedule.

Overall, we hiked for around 11.5 hours on on average walked around 46,500 steps. After 5 months of lock down and being unfit, this hike was very challenging however, I am very proud to have taken part. We were lucky that the weather stayed nice and dry with the temperature staying around 20 degrees (centigrade) for most of the day. As we climbed up our last hill, we watched the sunset which was very beautiful. Throughout our walk, we spotted many different animals including a Peregrine Falcon, playful and energetic dogs, horses, cows, sheep, alpacas/llamas, bunnies and squirrels. We also saw a Halloween skeleton on a back gate.

Summer 2020

Tomorrow I will be returning to school for my very last year (year 13), I am slightly nervous and I have written this blog post to recap my summer.

Caught up on some school work – this included some of my maths and chemistry which after taking my online course, I became behind
Read quite a few books – such as Red Rising, Red Queen, The Summer I turned Pretty, reread the Selection series and more
Watched Netflix – including Scorpion, iZombie, the Order, Vampire Diaries etc.
Home and Away via. My5 – I’ve been getting very behind on this show but it is amazing
Did a tiny bit of revision – this was reading my flashcards through from year 12 and creating a few more resources
Visited my family – this was lovely as I had not seen my family since Christmas
Met with some friends – I was able to catch up since lock down and even saw my friend who moved to Manchester
Watched too many movies – including Chalet Girl, Camp Rock 1&2, Feel the Beat, The Kissing Booth 2 and more
Took some photos – I learnt some new skills and practised star photography with Comet Neowise
Played guitar – learning some new songs and chords
Spent time in the garden relaxing
Stroked my cats
Went on a 30km charity hike – blog post coming soon
Wrote some letters
Tweeted for changed to my ALevels in 2021
Played on my Switch – changed my island in Animal Crossing New Horizons and visited my sisters island
Celebrated my sisters 14th birthday – in my eyes she is still 12
Practised french plaiting my hair
Created a photo book – blog post also coming soon
Went camping by the seaside
Cooked lots of different meals – including pizza, burgers and coffee cake
Attended some virtual camps
Attended virtual open days

Goldfish Ratings

Goldfish are one of my favourite American snacks (not real goldfish!). Since it has now been over a year since I returned home from America and Canada, I am reminiscing this snack so today’s blog, I will rate each goldfish flavour.

Goldfish flavours I have tried:

Cheddar – 9/10 a classic snack which I always 100% will go to

Colours – 10/10 these are the cheddar flavour but in colours of red, blue, green and the classic orange: what’s not more to love

Baby Cheddar – 99/10 these are so so cute and are a smaller version of the Cheddar snack (by the way they don’t taste of babies)

Extra Cheddar – 5/10 these did not live to the high standard of the classic cheddar flavour

Pizza – -4/10 my dad84 first brought me these back from the states and I can still imagine the horror of them

Goldfish flavours I have not tried (once Pepperidge Farm sponsor me I will be able to give better ratings – please sponsor me):

Original – I have heard these are just plain goldfish and do not know what to do with this information 7/10?

Whole Grain Cheddar – the thought of whole grain sounds too healthy 2/10

Whole Grain Pretzel – similar to the above they sound healthy but may taste better than the Cheddar version so 4/10

Parmesan – a mix on the classic cheddar 3/10

Cheese Trio – a pic a mix but with cheese goldfish sounds funky 7/10

Pretzel – dad84 has tried and gives them a 7/10, “nice and pretzely but weird cause they were goldfish”

Ranch – I do not like ranch so I do not have high hopes but will give them a shot 2/10

Grahams (inc. honey, cinnamon, chocolate, vanilla, s’mores, hot cocoa, vanilla cupcake, cookie ‘n cream, chocolate chip, french toast, strawberry cheesecake and honey bun) – some of these flavours sound amazing, the next time I spot some of these flavours I will give them a try 9/10

Nacho – Similar to ranch, I am not entirely sure what these will taste like so 6/10

Queso Fiesta – I think these are cheesy and spicy so if there is a good balance they should be nice 7/10

White Cheddar – I have tried white cheddar popcorn and did not really like the flavour 3/10

Sour Cream and Onion & the Salt and Vinegar flavours – I do not like these flavour normally so, I do not think I will like this as goldfish 1/10

BBQ – all BBQ flavour snack taste good so I expect good expectations from Pepperidge Farm in this goldfish variation 8/10

Cupcake and Fudge Brownie flavours – these sound amazing to try 10/10

mixed versions (inc. pretzel & xtra cheddar, pretzel &honey mustard,. chocolate mint pretzel~) – due to these being a mix they all sound fairly nice 7/10

puffs (inc. cheddar bacon, mega cheese, salsa con queso, buffalo wing, twisted grilled cheese, sizzlin’ hot wings, BBQ) – some of these flavours sound really good and others not as much so on average a 6/10

Cheeseburger, Seasme & Mac and Cheese flavours – these sound interesting to try and might be similar to the pizza flavor I’ve tried 7/10

x-treme zingy chilli lime and x-treme screamin’ hot flavors – these both also sound interesting and spicy hot with the zingy chilli lime flavour reminding me of a sauce which might be a Nandos so 8/10

Christmas, Co-world Treasures, Space Adventures, Beach Ball, Princess, Cars 3 and Mickey Mouse – these area all different shapes and colours of the cheddar flavour (I believe) so a 12/10 as different shapes are really cute

a year later

24th World Scout Jamboree Closing Ceremony

One year ago, I returned home from the best summer of my life. Over 21 days, I made new international friends, learnt about different cultures and was able to share my stories. Since my return a year ago I have been on a reunion camp, raised funds for EJ2020 (let’s not talk about that), met up with my Shropshire friends, been on a day trip to Poland, become Maths captain, written some more blog posts, been in lock down and finished year 12. I am still so grateful that it was COVID-19 and not COVID-18 but I never expected a year after returning from WSJ the world would be a completely different place.

love and hugs, 84 and Blue

Last day of year 12

Two weeks ago, I went back to school again for my last official day at school in year 12. I got mini lessons from each of my subjects where we discussed some of the work we completed over the past few months as well as completing some practice questions. The day was slightly similar to the week before when we went into school, keeping 2 metres apart etc. However, the timings of the school day were slightly different. Sis84 also got to spend an hour at school on the same day I went in, she thoroughly enjoyed seeing some of her friends.

Since going into school, I have completed an online Cyber Course where I learnt skills such as Penetration testing, Encryption, Open Source Intelligence and Digital Forensics. It was a virtual course across the country and at the end of the course we got to do some ‘Capture the Flag’ activities which my team did not do very well in. Overall, I learnt many new skills and am inspired to look into Cyber Security in the future.

Finally, I have also completed my EPQ project on left-handedness. In the last official week of year 12, I completed my presentation (again virtually) as well as handing in my final essay.

All this concluded my year 12 and I am looking forward to seeing how year 13 turns out!

Microwavable mug-cakes

This week at Beavers we learnt ‘virtually’ how to make mug cakes. Here is the recipe we used.

Ingredients (dry)

1/4 cup of flour
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
a pinch of salt

Ingredients (wet)

1/4 cup + tablespoon of milk
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Ingredients (optional)

1 tablespoon of mini chocolate chips

Instructions:

1/ place all dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together

2/ add wet ingredients into the same bowl and mix until smooth

3/ place into a microwavable mug (you may have to scrape sides of bowl to get all mixture into mug)

4/ sprinkle chocolate chips (or extra ingredients) onto top middle of mixture – no need to stir them in

5/ with a microwave of 950W place into microwave for 70 seconds or for an 850W microwave place in for 80 seconds etc.

6/ take care when removing mug from microwave as it’ll be hot

7/ if your cake does not feel ‘cakey/spongy’ place in microwave for an extra 10 seconds

8/ wait for cake to cool down before eating

First day at school

This week I went back into school for the day. It was very weird to be back after 107 days without being inside the building. Yes, you read that right, 107 days defeating Phineas and Ferb record of ‘104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it …’.

When I arrived at school, there was a strict layout in place and so we entered through the main school gate. We were always 2 metres apart and even got to wear our own home clothes! On top of that, it was a late morning start at 9:30 am compared to the usual 8:30 am start.

For the first half of the day we did some well being activities discussing how working at home has been going and how it differs from being at school. We had a one-on-one with our form tutors and also did a kahoot about lock down news (where I placed first). The second part was creating SMART targets within each of our subjects.

For lunch, we were able to sit outside in our bubble and caught up over the past 3 months.

For the second half of the day we completed some UCAS work. We also discussed what we needed to do over the summer holidays such as writing our personal statements and researching universities as well as different courses. During this I also had a quick EPQ meeting with my supervisor. This led to the end of the day where we used the one way system to leave school.

Our classrooms were set up with desks being 2m apart as well as only having a small number of students (I had 7 other people in my bubble). Overall, the day was very useful allthough it was very weird being back at school again after so many months of learning from home.

Online Stravolution

Over the past weekend I completed online Strategy and Evolution. For the past 2 years I have helped out with Strategy and attended Evolution as a participant. The weather has usually been warm and sunny during this camp and this year also lived up to the warm weather.

During this weekend we would complete different activities on the Saturday earning points as a team. Different activities would include; nail painting, obstacle course, wire maze, first aid, bag check, ring toss etc. For the online version we were set 15 activities to complete. These included; spending a night outside, nail painting, first aid, drinking a pint of water, designing a new weapon, making ice cream, creating your own campsite, etc.

Blue and I both participated together and Blue tried to paint my nails in triple blue. I really enjoyed participating and so did Blue and we cannot wait until we can go camping again.

Blue interviews Brian

Brain and Blue outside a Santander store

Today’s blog is going to be Blue interviewing Brian Florence Mount-Battenberg Winsor II.

Hi, Brian let us start with an easy question. Is it true you were stolen on the Jamboree?
At first, yes. I was just chilling with my pal Nick when these British girls came to speak to him and kidnapped me in the process. It turned out to be quite fun anyway since I was gifted a bowtie and they put me on a pole so I could look out upon the jamboree site and say hello to everyone who passed by. It was not a very long kidnapping either since I returned to my fellow Americans later that evening. The fact I remain with my British family now was all a completely legal adoption.

I see, what is your favourite food?
An easy win for vegan shrimp. It has been my favourite for as long as I can remember. Being vegan does limit my options and it is not the cheapest thing for mum to keep buying but man does it taste good. Thankfully, it does not seem to be top of many other people’s list so there is always a stack in the supermarkets.

Speaking of food, do your prefer double Gloucester cheese or Shropshire Blue cheese?
Hmm, being vegan I have never tasted either so that is a limitation. Equally, one of my parents is from Shropshire and the other is from Gloucestershire so that does not help either. I do live in Shropshire though and it is a great place so for that I will say Shropshire Blue cheese. The colour blue reminds me of the sea as well so that is a bonus.

If you could have a superpower what would you choose?
I can already fly, and I am convinced I am psychic so that would be pointless to have again. Maybe teleportation though? I know I can fly but it is a long way to Florida when I want to see my old family so that would definitely be helpful. Also seeing my British family would be easier as well but the world is scary without mum with me so it would have to be the kind of teleportation where I can bring people with me.

What is your favourite campfire song?
Oh, you will never get to Heaven definitely. I have only sung it once, but it was a lot of fun. It makes fun of all my British family since they are scouts but not flamingos, so it is a lot of fun. I do like most campfire songs since they are a time that everyone comes together with smiling faces. One of the best parts about camping is the campfire to me.

Brian you sound like a brave flamingo so, do you have any fears?
Well, I know I don’t like flying but I think that’s more because I have to do it with my legs in luggage below so that’s not fear so to speak. We did have a few lightning storms at jamboree which was very scary, and I had to go curl up with someone each time so that is probably my biggest fear. Second would definitely be supermarkets stopping selling vegan shrimp.

A controversial question, who is your favourite from Double Blue?
This is hard! They are all this one big family who I all love. I mean my parents, Leanne, and Hannah, they give me food and are always there for hugs if I am scared. My godparents, Frankie, and Liv, they are awesome and are always fun to be around. Jess and Jess are great people too who always sneak my extra food when my parents say I have had enough already. One of the leaders, Justin, is pretty cool as well. Oh, and there is also Jacob who is the reason I have my fabulous bow tie. Yet, I do not think I can actually choose a single person from the unit.

Finally, to conclude this interview, do you prefer England or Florida?
This one is hard, they are both so different. I love British accents so being in England helps with that. The weather in Florida is a lot warmer which I am used to and even when its sunny in Britain they seem to complain about it which is annoying. Vegan shrimp is easier to find in England as well which is important. So, I guess my answer is England, but I love both places dearly!

Thank so much Brian, go and eat some vegan shrimp.

84 days since school…

So, today marks 84 days since I last was at school. I have been ‘home schooling’ myself since being set work online as well as competing various assessments. Since this, I have been reading lots of books as well as binging Netflix a lot. I have also been catching up on a few of my TV shows and am very happy as I’ve got the crossover I’ve been waiting for on DVD – Crisis on Infinite Earth’s (I am an avid fan of the Flash). – 84