Its Christmas Time

Well another year seems to have passed and my posts on this a few and getting scarcer I think. Once again Im relaxing for a couple of weeks at my parents house to celebrate the festivities. Yesterday the evening was spent at my sisters where she prepare dinner for 11 people and boy was I full after it all, I even believe that there was plenty of dad's deboned turkey left so guess that Turkey will continue to be on the menu for a few days. She definitely did herself proud, the meal was as follows:

Starter:
Smoked Mackerel Pate (made by Graeme)
Carrot and Coriander Soup (made by my mum)

Main:
Roast Deboned Turkey stuffed with Carrot, Leak, bacon and chicken
Roast Parsnips and Carrots
Roast and Mash Tatties
Bacon wrapped sausages
2x Stuffings

Desert:
Dumpling (made by Grahams mum)
Cheesecake

followed by Coffee and the offer of more food declined by all.

After dinner we all opened presents (continued from our morning opening before we got there) in all I received the following:

Money (my usual supply)
2008 calendar
socks
Torch
Vouchers
3 books
backpack
T-shirts

All in all so far its been a good week, my girlfriend is joining me in Scotland for New Year and arrives on Saturday to meet my family.

Changing seasons

The weather here is slowly starting to look a bit more Christmasy and a bit white. OK as ever there hasnt been any snow here yert but a hard frost this morning has left the cars frozen and also the grass a bit white. Bring on the snow

My 5-a-side football team aslo won the Championship this week and so have been promoted a division

Been a Whle

Once again it seems to have been a while since Ive posyted on my own Blog. Ive not been hiding totally as Ive been Ghost writing on another blog, yes it is completely possible to do that. In fact I actually post first hand to at least two other blogs in adition to this one.

My other blogs:

1) surreyb.blogspot.com which is my Jamboree units blog, its getting 20+ hits a day and has been for most of the year.
2) Im the ghost writer on jungle-diary.blogspot.com after all I dont think that a cuddly lion can write a blog or use the internet

Anyway the past few months have been quite mixed. work life is still rather crap to be honest with the place dealing with two outbreaks and being wrongly accused of one of them. Socially things are quite good, especially with Andrea who Im seeing every couple of weekends on average at the momnet although over the next couple of month that will be slightly less due to Xmas and work etc but she is coming to visit the family over the New Year period.

Scouts is going quite well my section is up to 20 or so who are all turning up on a weekly basis and all seem to be enjoying themselves with everything that they do and are all very keen. Ive also kept my involvment with the county both at Bentley Copse camp site and with the International team.

The family are mostly well with my sister planning her wedding for next October so everything seems to be going OK for that.

Jambo over

Well Ive now been back from one of the biggest events that I have ever attended in my life and am still trying to recover. After 2 years of preparation the two week long Jamboree has now come to an end and Im slowly trying to catch up on sleep. The two weeks were absolutely fantastic on the whole despite a few problems along the way.

I hope that they few pictures below give an idea of the fun and size of the past few weeks. there was about 40,000 people there (most of whom were the 14-18yr old participants) from all over the world parting and having a great time.


Personally I had the time of my life and was quite sorry to have to come home on Wednesday. Hopefully however I have some more projects that I am ready to do that will keep me busy over the next few years creating even more challenges for Scouting.

Waiting at Check-in before heading to the site

Sub-camp Mascot (Rory)

The Gateway

Our Gateway

Will I go?

Ive found out this weekend that my pace at the WSJ is in doubt as my CRB for is yet to coem back. nobody is allowed on site without it and as mine hasnt come back there is a chance thhat I may not get to go.

I however will do my best to ensure that I still get to go otherwise the past 16 months will have been wasted.

News Update

The past day has been quite hectic here in the UK. London came close to seeing 2 terror bombs go off in the centre of the City. Today this has been followed up by a attack on Glasgow's International Airport. None of the family have been in either area that I know of, and therefore are all safe and well.

Busy life

Well once again it has been a while since I last added a post to this. Why? Im not quite sure Ive been fairly busy with things. The Jamboree is still taking over much of my life and there is now less than a month until I go and there is still quite a bit to do before we all depart.

Life here as I say has been fairly busy, work is ticking over as normal with some late finishes and some slightly quieter days like today. Socially Im up to the same old stuff, Scouting takes up a huge part of my life at the moment mainly with the Jamboree but also with my Scout section. Last weekend we spent a rather wet weekend camping at one of the local campsites a great weekend was had by all. Our catering team did a fantastic job topped up with cups of tea and juice whilest feeding 110 people for evening meal on the Saturday.

Romance is manageing to creap in to the fray as well which is quite nice although Andrea live 200 miles away so we tend to chat over the phone or computer rather than seeing each other but things are quite good and Im off up to Manchester to see her for a few days so that will be quite good, then Ill see her at the Jamboree for 2 weeks also as she is one of the other Jamboree Leaders too.

As for the flat Ive now been in there for 4 months and not too much has changed, the DVD players speakers are still lying on the floor waiting to go on the wall, boxes still need to be sorted and emptied. However give it another couple of months and with the Jamboree out of the way Ill be able to ouch up the paint in the bathroom (which I have done) and start doing those DIY jobs that I keep meaning to do.

Brownsea Island

On Saturday I spent the day on Brownsea Island with my Scout Group. Brownsea is the birthplace of Scouting and is where Badden Powell spent 9 days camping with 24 young boys introducing them to the outdoor life that to this day is extremely strong throughout the World nearly 100 years later.

Had a great day but in my rush left my camera next to my PC at home so photos maybe a bit slow to arrive on the site as only took a couple on my mobile phone

Football Crazy

This week I have had mixed fortunes on the football field. On Monday night my fives side lost by 11 goals to 2, not a nice start to the new league however we was a bit short of players.

Tonight however we managed to win by 3-1 over the Company that shares part of our site at work in a 11 a-side game. Much better than Monday so an improvement in moods this evening. Just sorry that I let the one get past me tonight.

Easter Fun

Well this year I did something quite different for Easter. Usually I spend it with the family however this year I went away with some friends to the Isle of Wight (just off the South Coast of England) on an over 14's Scouting Camp. Split into trwo groups those over 18 and the rest under we took part in a range of activities that usually ended in drinking round the campfire whilest singing songs, some slightly ruder than others.



However with perfect weather (well atleast during the day) in the 20's (thats C not F) although the nights got a bitr cooler with a little frost. However it didnt freeze those spirits and we all had a fantastic weekend. The theme was Bond 007 (after all it is 2'007 this year) so below are a few photos.



1) Special Ops night

2) Masqurade Night

Bad phone

At the moment I dont seem to be having much luck with my mobile a coupe of weeks ago the outer cover screen cracked in my pocket and now less than 2 months since I got it the mic has also desided that it doesnt want to play ball. Who said that phones were getting better

Down at the Track

Well having been at the dogs last night I must admit that I am now a bit poorer than when I started, having not won a single penny on the Totes. Luckily I wasnt betting too big so didnt loose too much

Two months of ownership

Well Ive now been the proud owner of my new flat for nearly two months. In fact two very busy months, so busy that I really havent done much work on the place since the last photos were placed on. All Ive done is put up two wooden blinds and painted the kitchen an apple white. Lat weekend my new sofa-bed arrived so Im no longer kipping on an airbed but now in a more proper bed, next delivery will be the real bed but that wont go in until teh folks come down in mid-May to give me a hand.

Ive jsut spent the week in Manchester at the annual conference on Microbiology. This was definitely the worst one that Ive been to. Have come back absolutely knackered so am looking forward to a quiet weekend, that is after Ive been to the Grayhound racing tonight with the folks from work. However I have a feeling that Ange was tryig to convince me that I will need a night out over the weekend so that all depends on how weak I am!!!!

Resident for 1 week

Hi all

Ive now been living in my new flat for a whole week, so far its going OK. I dont really hear the trains in the middle of the night, the station is only 200 yrds away.

Problems Ive encountered so far:

1) Deficit of £32 on the electricity key meter, left by the previous occupiers
2) Still waiting for my sofa/bed to arrive so am sleeping on a blowup air bed, must blow that up in a minute or two to get the firmness back in it.
3) No curtains or anything perminant over the windows so my leki poles and an old curtains along with some bits of wood are doing a grand job at the moment.
4) Dont think that the heater in the room works as it gets a bit chilly overnight, have ordered some instructions so hopefully they will arrive soon.
5) Still got lots of DIY to do but just dont seem to have the time to do it all. So is more important than others so have to sort the order thing out. The place however is starting to look quite nice and a bit homely (put my first picture on the wall today)
6) Have cuts all over my hands where Ive missed what Ive supposed to have been cutting
7) Apparently they are doing engineering works on the station platform for the next two evenings starting about 2330 so as not to disturb the people using the station, shame they dont consider the few hundred residents that live above the station isnt it.

The benifits

1) Its my own place
2) Ive got broadband fitted so can communicate with you all, although not sure which box me camera is in hence the lack of photos
3) I can sit on the computer, watch TV and keep an eye on dinner cooking whilest sitting on my bed (well almost)
4) I can do what I want when I want and not have to worry about anyone else being in the way or putting themm out.
5) All the DIY Im doing is for my own benifit (but huge thanks should actually go to my mate James as he has helpt with loads of it as well as my folks)

Well its late so Im off to pump up my bed

One week in

The past week has been fairly busy. During the week I have painted the studio room, put on a couple of undercoats in the bathroom to get rid of the purple. Today has been spent laying down the floor in the main room which apart from a couple of pieces round the Kitchen door and also the section of hall way it was all done, thanks to my mate James who came round to help me.

Own House

At last I have finally manage to join may of my friends (and sister) on that high rung of the property. although not the largest place in the world my top floor (therefore penthouse) flat is the start that I have been looking for. Im sure that with a bit of work and a couple of coats of paint the place will start to feel a bit like mine and I will settle in quite quickly. One of my friends lives just round the corner so Im not miles away from everybody. The next week will be spent painting, sorting the bills to the address, informing everyone of my new address and settling in a bit!!!

This is how it looked on Saturday morning before we did anything

Flying South for the Spring

Well the holiday season is finally over and Im heading back to the South tonight so that I can go back to work in the morning (well thats what Im supposed to do) I might delay it abit as Im expecting a couple of parcels to be delivered sometime during the day so have to be in for that.

I have managed once again to survive another Christmas and New Year at home, this year we were battered with gales and rain for the new year lets just hope that the weather improves a bit by the time that the Jamboree come around in the summer. I dont fancy camping for a week in the rain.