Japan is this year!

I have finally found time to update my blog and I have really missed it!

What's been happening in the life of an explorer scout going to Japan this year?

Lots of things have been happening from fantastic training camps to bag packing in Guernsey. The district jamboree committee helped myself and other fellow scouts to put on another quiz for fundraising. Oh, and I went to visit Frenchie is Guernsey over christmas.

Training Camps

Since I lasted posted, I have had the pleasure of attending 2 training camp with other scouts and explorers from my contingent. During a weekend in September, we went to join the guernsey lot on a camp over on their Island. We did many activities from coasteering to pioneering.  This camp flew by, which was a huge disappointment, because we were having far too much fun with exploring the island and doing many activities. Luckily for us, the weather was clear and sunny which helped contirbute to our fantastic camp. One of the best evenings I recall from that camp was, on the saturday evening, where we hiked a long way to the beach then proceeded to have  a BBQ and play beach games... I also recall Kenneth and I diving for the flying missile and ending up getting very wet in the water. We were very sad to see to leave the island! The next camp was not that long ago at the start of january. We went to the New Forest and thankfully reunited with the guernsey lot. On the first night we went on a night hike and I am proud to say that my group were the only group that did not get lost. Good luck to the rest of you lot when navigating in Japan! After the hike we failed to get any sleep and started the next day with tired eyes and mixed tempers... nonetheless we had a great time. During the weekend we finally decided on unit clothing, tried new food and talked about patrols. We also discovered our 'Japan in a box' which was very entertaining! 

Christmas

As Frenchie and I have grown to become rather good and close friends, we decided to meet up over the christmas holidays. So on the 21st Dec, I flew out to Guernsey and spent a few days with him and his family. Whilst over there, he showed me around the island, showed me his dad's fishing boat and his dad showed me their WWII bunker that they use to store fishing equipment. On the lines of fundraising, I took part in some bag packing at M & S with the other scouts that were going to japan as well. I felt very welcomed over there so thank you to all those who made it a memorable visit.

District Fundraising

Over these past few months, us scouts and explorers in the chandlers ford district have been doing many fundraising events. In November, myself and the other 9 scouts and explorers going to japan put on a quiz in the local community centre. We had around 125 people turn out to participate in our quiz, the profits raised from it were very good and from what I have heard from those who participated in it, they thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you to all those who turned up! Like Christmas 2013, we put on our Christmas bazaar again. That generated a few monies for the pot so thank you to those who bought a stall and those who turned up to buy. I'm looking forward to these upcoming months as we have a district campfire to look forward to!

So there we have it, what I have been doing since I lasted posted!

Until next time,

James :) 

I'm back!

Hello all, I am back from the dreaded world of GCSEs!

So a few weeks ago I finished my GCSEs and I now have a 3 month holiday - lucky me!

During May I had the privilege of meeting Bear Grylls at the joint WSJ camp at Ferny Crofts. Due to my exams, I could only go for a few hours but the short stay was made up by meeting the Chief Scout! Much better than French Revision!

I have my next camp coming up this weekend with The Tea and Biscuits; it'll be great to see the WSJ lot again! Also I am going on a media camp with Kenneth and Ed the weekend after next. This camp will be with Scouts/Explorers from every UK Contingent. The aim of this camp will be to prepare us for what we need to say/do during interviews whilst out in Japan. I am really looking forward to this because it will be a challenge and I love meeting new people!

Various Chandlers Ford WSJ Committee events have been happening and I have been dragged back into school to help with these (not that I have anything to do anyway!). We did staff car washing and sold Jubbly's & Lucozades at Sports day. Then soon I will be off to Jersey for a week with my old Scout Troop and whilst there I will be selling the Jelly Bean neckers.

Today I did some gardening for a neighbour, he was very grateful for my efforts.

Take care.

James

Exam Period - Fun times...

Well I haven't been on here in a while...

There is a valid reason for that and that's because I have been studying hard for my GCSEs!

I will be away from the social aspect of fundraising for about 6 weeks but then after than I shall be fundraising all the time!

I already have a few fundraising ideas lined up:

-Gardening

-Car Washing

-Dog Walking

-Painting sheds

-Sponsored Cycles

-Car Boots

-Rowing to Japan

So its goodbye for a few weeks and then I'll be back working my socks off fundraising! 

Quiz Night - 28th March 2014

The Friday just gone, myself and 3 other explorers ran a quiz night that was held at our local community centre, The Hilt. We had a huge turnout with 162 adults turning up.

Fish 'n Chips were delivered by the local chip shop half way through. Well when I say 'half way through' I mean we only got through two rounds before supper arrived because we didn't anticipate it would take so long to do one round! Then to make it extra confusing, especially for Harvey doing the scoring, we changed some of the rounds around which made it more of a challenge to see who would come out on top! Well done 'Club Fromage' for winning!

We had 12 rounds varying from Geography to Naming Musicals! Various jokers were also played throughout the night to allow people to gain double points on rounds which unleashed their strong points! Some rounds went down better that others - the musicals one was very interesting... when we finally got the sound working!

It went on later than expected by the longer it went on, the more people bought alcohol so we made some money on the bar as well.

As a result of our combined efforts we made a substantial amount of money and thank you to everyone who supported us in attending our quiz night!

We cannot wait to do another one!

PS enjoy my many photos :)