Home life

I’ve been home just short of two weeks and feel like I’ve been back months! How does that happen? Well I’ve kept myself busy is how …

After I arrived back on the 7th I popped into Guides, then on the Friday night Alex treated me and my mum to dinner at La Tasca (I LOVE that place!) and then we went to see Wolverine and on the Saturday night I had my welcome back drinks in Theos. That was a good night. There was a nice bunch there, even Joel who I haven’t seen since new year 2007/2008.

By Monday my routine was back in order … I went to Scouts Tuesday night (we did archery over at Condovers … that place still plays havoc on my hayfever!), then Wednesday night was Network where we built bivvywaks at Hillside. We managed to fit 5 of us in our teams effort, that was hilarious!

Thursday Alex had his hair cut off! It’s all gone now and he had blue bits added in as well, I like it still so that’s a plus

Thursday evening was Guides and the group there are working on the environment, particularly rubbish and what it can do to affect wildlife. I got several hugs from the girls welcoming me back, isn’t that nice. Will have to start planning my Canada night soon.

The weekend brought plenty of fun and games with it. I went to see Angels and Demons with mum (it is brilliant! Ignore the reviews it has no links with Da Vinci Code except Tom Hanks plays Robert Langdon again … lol) and then went over to see Dad’s new house on Sunday. It’s a three storey place in Tilbury, not too far from the station or from Asda, so a better location than their old place. Then Sunday evening Alex and I went to Bingo with his sister Madeline and her boyfriend Ian. That was a laugh! There was an old lady in the row next to us who held up a sign saying “F*** Off” whenever anybody won (hers wasn’t *’d out like that though…). We were in stitches!

Then in among all that I did all my washing … very slowly as all it did was rain. My clothes were on radiators and airers all through the house! I also changed my bedroom around to make way for my new pooter! (will upload piccy at some point). And … I have been chosen to attend a selection weekend in June. If I’m successful there I’ll be on the Media Team for the Guiding Centenary Jamboree next summer!

I have to get to Yorkshore for the camp though … some station called Horsforth. Luckily National Express website new what I was on about and offered me an online discount, a return ticket for about 40 quid … considering without my young persons or that online discount it would have been nearer £90 to get there! WOH! British Rail travel is expensive …

It’s Tuesday again now … Scout night. Tonight we’re planning the rest of the programme in among some games, so shouldn’t be too bad. Last night I went to welcome Jason home (a Networker who was away as well) and there were loads of the Networkers I hadn’t seen yet, so that was a nice evening, we all watched the Waterboy while winding Jen up about her hatred of feet.

The rest of the week is nicely planned so far. Tomorrow afternoon Kim and I are going to the cinema with Orange 2 for 1 Wednesdays, so that’l be nice and cheap. Then Network tomorrow night is about teaching power rising (or bokking or bouncy stilt thingys … whatever you call them) … I can’t do this and don’t really want to try, but I may go along for the laugh and to lend a helping hand.

Thursday I’m going to finish my packing for the weekend … then Thursday night is a sponsored walk with the Guides to raise money for Breakthrough Breast cancer. Friday I am off to Allhallows Haven Holiday Site on the Isle of Grain in Kent (the other side of the estuary) to spend the bank holiday weekend with Dad, Sue, Gemma, George, Daniel and Kim. Apparently all drinks and food costs are covered by dad … bonus!

Anyways that’s enough ramblings at the moment. I’m going to go and start packing for said weekend away now and then have dinner before Scouts tonight. Wonder how the Scouts in Canada are doing … they’ll meet this evening too …

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Five: home again

The second flight was good to. I got four seats to myself, so plenty of space to stretch out. The in flight entertainment wasn’t as good as the flight out. It wasn’t on demand like the journey out, it kept running in the background and so if you wanted to watch something from the beginning you had to wait for it to start.

So I watched a few TV programmes and then played on the DS while I waited for a film to start. Dinner was a tasty chicken and pasta dish, but I kept the chocolate cake for Kim at the airport as I didn’t really fancy it. I watched ‘He’s not that into you’ and it was actually pretty good. After that I decided to try and get some sleep … I laid across all four chairs and put a blanket over my head … just as I closed my eyes they turned the lights on.

I had a short kip until we were told to put on our seatbelts and then we started our descent. As usual we were hovering above Heathrow for ages … always stuck in a queue there. But the plus side of that was that I had dozed off and missed the landing again, wooop!

It didn’t take me too long to get through customs (I chose a fast queue) and then waited for my luggage. It wasn’t last off which was good, it wasn’t first either though! So I had to wait for that. I had grabbed a trolley and when it came through I just threw my stuff on there and braced myself for seeing mum, Kim and Alex again. The walk through the gates was … daunting. There were loadsa people stood the other side, but directly opposite the door were my crowd … holding a string of toilet paper saying my name …

I was seen off with a pillow case and welcomed home with loo roll … nice, hehe. I gave mum and Kim a huuuge hug and thn Kim started crying, so she used the toilet paper to wipe her eyes. Silly people, crying on my return. Next I gave Alex a big hug and a kiss and held onto him as we all headed for the car. Alex pushed the trolley and mum and Kim were telling me about the journey there (mum actually drove at the speed limit instead of under).

My first day back was strange. I was tired from lack of sleep but awake as I was excited. Mum, Kim and I went to the carvery round the corner for lunch (I do love that place!) and then I had a nap before popping along to Guides. I didn’t stay as I was feeling a little too tired, so I said hello and then went home. We watched Taggart for the evening and then I went to bed … twas a good first day back in all. Night!

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Four: time to go …

Starting my journey back today … scary thought. I’m excited about going home. But I’m going to miss this place and the people, especially Brent, Jonas, Tiina, Stuart and the Scouts. I made a real connection with that lot here.

I woke up at 8am and went to say goodbye to Jonas before he went off to school. While Brent was taking Jonas to school, I loaded up lappy to check my mail and facebook and had a wallpost from Stuart saying that we should have done that every Tuesday after Scouts. Looking back, it would have been nice, but I’m glad that we at least had that drink later rather than never. Brent then came back as he was working from home so that he could take me to the airport. We had omelette and back bacon for breakfast and then while he did some work I had a shower and shoved the last few bits into my hand luggage for the flight.

Before we went to the airport, we went to the Scout shop as I hadn’t seen it yet. I got myself a Scout’s Canada badge and a mug up badge for my camp blanket. We also managed to look around the museum and the two guys in there were such characters, one of them named Alan Griffin was a fighter pilot in the Second World War in London, so he was telling me all about that. The museum is packed with artefacts from scouting through the years, including uniforms, books, badges and figurines. That room was full of it all!

After the Scout shop we grabbed some lunch in Subway before heading over to the airport. As predicted my case was 1kg overweight so I took out the camp blanket. The lady then tagged the bag ready for flight and gave me some US custom declaration forms to fill in. Apparently it’s all done there so that I don’t have to go through customs in America, makes sense to me … so why didn’t they do that on my flight over?

He told me that my ‘dad’ could help me so Brent and I went and sat on a bench … while over there I put the blanket back in my bag … what were they going to do now? So at least that didn’t have to be carried anymore. I then filled out my customs form saying that I had no meats or fruits or money in excess of $10,000 … I wish! Once that was done I gave Brent a huge hug goodbye and thanked him for everything he’s done for me. I really don’t know what I’d have done without his help. After that, I was gone … on my way through security and out of sight.

Security was … the usual. Had to practically strip … well take off my jacket and shoes, as well as lay my laptop down and out of the bag. After that was customs where I had to show the form I’d filled and he put it all in my passport, along with another stamp. Once I was through security and heading to the gate was when it all hit me that I was actually going … so I had a little teary moment and pulled myself together before getting a bottle of water.

I found out I could get 15minutes of free wi-fi access and by this time I only had 20 minutes before boarding, so I did that so that I could update my Facebook status and send Brent a message that I’d left him some money … he can’t say no now hehe.

The flight was practically empty, only around 15 of us there, so I got a window seat and had a spare seat next to me as well. Take off was easy, I flicked through the magazine in the chair in front. Once we reached altitude it was a little bumpy, so the pilot lowered a little and it was fine. I played on the DS for the flight and when told to turn it off not too long after (the flight was only an hour long) I relaxed and closed my eyes … I was jolted awake when we touched down, so I must have fallen asleep pretty quickly. At least I slept through my most unfavourite part!

Next was a couple of hours wait in Dulles International airport, Washington … I finally found my gate and sat there until someone arrived so that I could get my boarding pass, as it couldn’t be issued in Ottawa. At least I didn’t have to transfer my luggage, it was done automatically this time, bonus!

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Three: last day of Scouts

My last full day in Canada and my plan was to go to the War Museum, so I did. I woke up just before 8am and went downstairs to see Brent and Jonas before they went out. When they went I pottered around, packed some more bits, using all my strength to pack out my rucksack as much as I could. I managed to get its weight up to almost 21kg! I was impressed.

 I also found out my final grades! I got AAB: an A in Personality Psychology (my final essay in the exam got me 48 out of 50 and a final percent of 82), an A in Television Journalism (well I assume, I got 81% and it says on the website that above 80% is an A) and a B in Forensics, which I already knew. So I’m pleased with those.

Just after lunch I headed off to the museum. I walked to the bus stop and caught the 16 to town. I popped into the Rideau Centre and bought some boiled sweets (called hard candy here) for the flight and then walked all the way down Wellington Street to the museum. It’s a lovely building, the roof is sloped so you can walk part way up, which I did afterwards.

 

Inside there are several exhibits running through many different wars as well as home life before, after and during. They were really interesting to see. There was even a room full of vehicles from different countries and different wars.

After my self guided tour I walked to the war memorial where I caught the 16 bus back to Main Street to walk to Brent’s house. Jonas was already home when I got there and had a friend over called Mike. So I left them to their X-Box-ing and went to pack my last few bits. I’m all packed now. My case is going to be the problem child … it’s just under a kilo overweight. But my camp blanket weighs a kilo, so that can easily come out. 

Brent dropped me off at Scouts tonight as he had to get Stuart and Tiina to fill out some forms for records. Tiina wasn’t staying at the meeting, so once they all left Stuart and I ran it. The plan was to debrief camp, find out what they liked (food, activities and the fort type thing) and what they disliked (the outhouse) and then practice putting up and taking down the tents before a race to see who was fastest. That was a funny activity! One group were so slow and were just not co-ordinating themselves well, taking almost 20minutes to put the tent up. We spilt them into oldest vs youngest for the race so that we knew the younger ones could do the tents too. The oldest put up and took down the tent in 6 minutes; the younger ones were not too far behind with just less than 9 minutes. See they can do it … eventually.

After Scouts Stuart and I went out for a farewell drink. We went to a restaurant/bar right next door but I can’t remember what it was called. I had 2 glasses of a cider called Blackthorn as well as a plate of nachos while I was there. But we talked so much about everything and anything for a good few hours. It was a lovely evening and a nice relaxing final evening in Ottawa.

I didn’t look at the time, but I think it was somewhere between 11.30 and midnight we left the restaurant and had a good bye hug before heading back. Stuart said that he’s useless at keeping in touch so I would have to make the effort if I wanted to, which I definitely do, so hopefully all will be good there. He then cycled off to his place and I walked back to Brent’s. It was a lovely walk. It was a nice warm night and even though I went the long way round again and walked to the end of Sunnyside, at least I knew the way back. 

I was as quiet as a mouse when I let myself into Brent’s, locked the door and went up to my room. And after getting changed for bed I crashed right out. Night!

Update …

I changed my blog header yet again … have to keep it fresh and all that. This time the picture is of some of the tulips from the Tulip Festival

Enjoy!

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Two: so many tulips to see

This morning I woke up after others gone out, I must have been tired last night. I had a breakfast of Shredded Wheat and then went and sat out in the garden to write up the weekends blogs in the sunshine. It was a beautiful day. All the tulips are in bloom (well most) and so I took a few pictures of the ones in the garden before getting the bike out and cycling down to Dow’s Lake to see the Tulip festival.

 

It was an interesting ride, but I found my way eventually. A smart thing to do would have been to look at a map before I left, but I didn’t … so I got to Main Street and went the wrong way. I ended up at the canal anyway, just a long way up from the lake … so I enjoyed the cycle back and once there … realised I was on the wrong side of the canal. I went back up the canal slightly and over a bridge … but the bridge had no ramp the other side, so I had to carry the bike down some steps.

Once at the festival the flowers were lovely, most were in bloom and they were all different colours too! I walked around the park looking at all the different tulips and then settled myself onto a bench to give my knee a rest and to read my book.

 

After what felt like a short time, but was probably much longer I jumped back on the bike and headed back. I didn’t want to carry the bike back up the steps s I went along the canal to the Bank Street bridge and crossed there as that lead up to Sunnyside and along to Brent’s house. Except if I’d have looked at a map I’d have known that it wasn’t a direct route … so I ended up asking for directions and found my way back in the end.

Once back I sat out in the glorious sunshine and read some more of my book, but then it started getting really warm on my arms so I came inside to finish reading. The book was great and had a twist I really wasn’t expecting. I guessed a few chapters in advance but still was shocked. Once I finished the book I closed my eyes just to rest for a little bit and fell asleep until Jonas came home. I had enough time to change my shorts into jeans and brush my hair as Brent and Jonas took me out for a leaving dinner at Malone’s Lakeside Grill.

I had the lasagne that I had when we went back in January and it was tasty! I also had a glass of wine, but had forgotten my ID, however after studying me for a while she brought the wine over anyways, wooop. Brent had chicken penne and Jonas had a huuuuge pizza, the waitress wasn’t kidding when she said it was big. 

The view out the window was amazing, back in January it was all frozen over, now it was a lake full of water and people were in boats on it. After dinner we went to see some falls where the Rideau River meets the Ottawa River and they were pretty, it’s in a secluded place and really is a beautiful place. We then went up to the Rockliffe lookout which overlooks Gatineau and the river, pretty!

 

We then came back afterwards and before I went off to bed I gave Brent some of the pictures I’d taken here, as he likes the pictures I take. So after that I went off to bed, I was feeling tired regardless f the nap I’d had this afternoon. Night!

Day One Hundred and Twenty-One: last day of camp already ..

Last day of camp already, but it was a busy one as usual. Wake up time was 8am, but a lot of us were up earlier than that. I got up around 7.15 and Tiina and Stuart were already awake, as well as a few Scouts who were helping them build a fire to keep us all warm. I was lovely and toasty last night, so no worries for me there and none of the Scouts complained they were cold either, so that’s a bonus.

For breakfast, one leader from each pack had to go to a different troop as a guest. Tiina and Stuart both voted for me … so at 9am off I went to 1^st Aylmer Troop who were next door. Before I went though (as I had just under 2 hours) I had a bowl of oatmeal and jam to get me through. At the other site I had a huge breakfast! As many pancakes as I could eat, as well as bacon and a sauce called Fancy Molases (very thick and very sweet) They also had potatoes and beans to offer me, but as I don’t eat them, the Scouts finished them off.

Opening horseshoe was at 10.30am, where we had Scouts Own and the guests for breakfast had to give a short report about how it had gone. One leader was greeted by waitresses and a menu written on birchwood and another leader had performances by egg jugglers.

After Scout’s Own the Scouts lashed together a travois (a square with a cross through it) and then raced these. Our troop came third out of 5, so this wasn’t bad, considering their rope broke and the rider flew off mid race.

 

Next up was lunch where we started to take down the site before closing horseshoe at 1pm. Of course we didn’t get everything done by the time closing occurred, but we came back and finished it after. At the closing Tiina went into the middle and said the group were privileged to have a leader from England join their group for the past four months … cue my redness! Then she called me into the centre and gave me a Scout activity t-shirt (in one half of the troops colours) that the whole group had signed … cue tears. Awww, it was so sweet. I’m going to miss these guys so much when I go. But I’ll see them Tuesday at the meeting … my last meeting too.

 

At 2ish we left the site and Marilyn was again bringing me back to the church. We went on a small detour on the way back to see the covered bridge, but didn’t get out as I was so tired. Once back at he church we all unloaded the gear and put it back in the Scout locker before Tina gave me a lift back to Brent’s. I gave both her and Stuart a hug to thank them, Tiina a bigger hug as she won’t be at the meeting on Tuesday and then took my stuff into Brent’s house. First thing I did was have a lovely shower and as usual the tan went. Then I used a proper toilet … yeah forgot to say, it was outhouses all weekend for me and they are freaky! Even Stuart agreed that the place gave him the creeps.

Before dinner I had a quick chat to Alex as we haven’t been in contact all weekend. Dinner was corn on the cob and BBQ’d burgers, mmm. I didn’t think I was hungry, but I must have been, I ate the corn and two burgers … well I say ate, I practically inhaled them.

After dinner we all watched a few episodes of Dead Like Me, but by 10pm I was shattered and went to bed. The weekend had caught up with me. Night!

Day One Hundred and Twenty: camp camp camp camp camp camp!

It’s camp time and as usual I’m in my element. After packing up a few cars to get all 9 Scouts, 3 leaders and gear to the camp we finally left just before 6ish. The drive was about an hour and a half and I was in Marilyn’s car (Reid’s mum) for the journey. It was an interesting ride, we saw several animals and lotsa nature on that journey. We arrived at the site at 7.30pm and were the first lot from our troop there. So we parked up and wandered down to see the field. It was beautiful, and had amazing views of Kent Lake.

 

Unfortunately I received no signal up there so it was the first weekend that I was completely out of contact with those back home, but that was ok, I had plenty going on around me to keep me busy. When the others arrived we chose a spot and then set up the camp as it was getting dark. There were three Scout tents, each with three Scouts in, then Stuart had a tent and I shared with Tiina.

At 9.30pm we went to the entrance of the camp and met with the other four troops who were there this weekend (around 40 Scouts). Here we had a mug up (for those of you who do not know this term, it is just a hot drink to warm you before bed). Mug up was hot cider and it was tasty, definitely warmed me through. We stood by a fire while drinking this and taking amongst each other until the leaders were gathered together for a short meeting to brief us on the camp.

During this meeting I met a few leaders who I had previously met at Klondike, so it was nice to see the again. Afterwards we all went back to our troops to find havoc had broken out … one troop, we don’t know who, had been throwing wet toilet paper around the field … lovely. So we calmed our guys down and got them to bed. Quiet time was from 11pm, but who is ever quiet at quiet time on camp?

I slept pretty roughly that night; I was warm (apart from my nose and toes) but just couldn’t get comfortable. I’m sure I saw most hours go by, interspersed with the odd nap. By the time my alarm cock wet off at 7 the next morning I was bored of lying in bed, so got up straight away. We had until 9.45 to get breakfast and get them ready for the opening horseshoe … but they still weren’t. We missed the opening and the four Scouts who were doing the washing up did such a bad job that they missed the first activity of pioneering because they had to do the dishes again … and again, until they got it right.

Stuart and I took the rest of the Scouts to the first activity and watched them build an A frame from logs lashed together and then walk this frame around … it was interesting to watch, but as usual the Scouts were just not listening to each other, so their walking did not look much like walking.

 

Next activity was called Forest Management where the Scouts were given roles to come to a decision about an area of land. Should they harvest the forest, conserve it or make it into a recreational area. I must say they came up with some pretty interesting ideas … some Scouts from another group managed to change it so that they would kidnap Obama and another suggestion from them to solve the problem was to genetically mutate everyone into sea turtles … interesting indeed.

The last of the three morning rotations was Forestry Maintenance. This is what they were looking forward to … thinning the pine plantation, by cutting them down. Where they were so close together this wasn’t too bad, as they didn’t fall over completely and needed to be pulled from the thick of leaves above, making it safer for the Scouts.

 

Lunch started at 12.15pm and the Scouts had pizza cooked on the embers of Stuart’s fire (he was so proud of himself for making that) and us leader’s had tuna sandwiches and a home made Caesar salad. It was tasty! Then at 2pm the next lot of activities started.

This time there were four rotations of half hour and they included the pitoun toss and plant a log, log rolling and a pillow fight, two-Scout sawing, and finally lumberjack games such as arm wrestling, leg wrestling, high kick and tug of war. Tiina, Stuart and I ran the lumberjack games over by our site and the Scouts seemed to really enjoy them, we set up small competitions to find a winner of arm and then leg wrestling, then we used a long log and held it up to set up a limbo like high kick tournament. Those Scouts were Kung-Fu throwing themselves at that log to kick it down … and didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned that there was no crash mat to land on. Brave!

 

One of the leaders, Scouter Mike came over to see how the activity was going and mentioned his book, “Working Effectively with Youth and with Youth with Disabilities”, it sounded interesting from what he was saying and should be a very useful resource, so both Tina and I bought a copy to read.

By 4pm Troop time started so that the Scouts could rest a little bit and then start making dinner. They had burgers, while us leaders had Venison Stew. I’ve never had Venison before, but it was very nice. We had a bit of a flour disaster when we tried to thicken it up, but all was saved and it ended up being very successful, for camp food anyways.

After dinner the Scouts had a pancake flipping relay race … this was funny! Each group had to bring down a stove, pan and flipper. The Scouts had used up all their weekend matched by now, just playing about and wasting them, so in order to get some more ,they all had to sing I’m a Little Teapot, with actions in the field. They had to do it three times as one Scout claimed he didn’t know it. After giving them the matches, each of us leaders reminded them to grab the matches to take to the race, but did they? Nope. Once they arrived down there they all looked at each other and asked who had them. So one had to go back and collect them.

The race went well, unfortunately one of our Scouts has a sever gluten allergy so couldn’t run the race. He got a bit upset by this but managed to get through it. At 8pm we all had a campfire where each troop performed skits, songs and cheers. They were new songs to me, so I found that rather interesting. To close the campfire we sung Koom-by-ya before walking over to the mug up while humming the last verse. It was lovely. Mug up this evening was hot chocolate, and tasty hot chocolate at that.

After the hot chocolate, Scouter Mike gathered us all by the fire for stories. His first story wasn’t scary, it wasn’t happy, it had a moral to it. It was pretty sad too, about a boy who through peer pressure did something that in the end meant the doctor couldn’t get to his dying father in time. To make the solemn mood a bit happier, he told another story, perfectly punctuated y the little dog on site who barked in all the right places. This story was about a young boy who was looking after an old mans monster, he had to give the monster steak with salt and pepper on for three days, but the monster escaped on the final day when the boy was getting a bit lapse on his work. The boy was chased all through town by the monster until he caught up with the boy, who was very scared at this point, tapped him on the shoulder and said he forgot to put the pepper on the steak. Stuart said he had heard a similar story before called the It Monster).

Quiet time was again at 11pm, and until then Tiina, Stuart and I were stood outside looking up at the stars. The clouds were bowing aside quite quickly to reveal a beautiful night sky. One of our Scout’s sleeping bags had broken, as the zip came off, so to keep them warm Stuart offered to switch bags for the night as he had clothes that could keep him warm inside the broken bag, where as the Scout didn’t. I lent Stuart my camp blanket as an extra layer in return for some thicker socks to keep my toes warm tonight. Sharing works when you both have something the other could use. So off to bed we all went and hopefully we would sleep better and not feel the cold so much tonight. Night!

Update …

New blog header from the walk in Kingston
Have a lovely weekend!

Day One Hundred and Nineteen: my day of rest before camp

I had a lovely sleep last night! I seem to have it programmed that I wake up at 5am first though, because for some unknown reason I did again. But I fell strait back to sleep and got up about 7.30am.

Had breakfast of eggs and bacon (mmmm) and then once Jonas had gone to school and Brent to work, I set about sorting my stuff for camp. I weighed my case and rucksack out of curiosity and the situation isn’t a disaster. My case is 24kg, so just 1kg overweight and my rucksack is only 18kg, so 5kg underweight. So a lil bit of a re-jig and it’ll be perfect! Yays to me.

After I gathered my camp stuff together including my coat and an extra jumper just incase, I had the most wonderful bath ever! Maybe it was just because I haven’t had a bath for so long (not because I wasn’t washing, but because there was only showers at uni). I used my Sanctuary bath soak that mum sent over for me and relaxed with my book. I was there until the water was cold. So worth it.

Next I helped out by emptying and reloading the dishwasher (no comments mum, I do this at home too hehe) and then made some lunch and my supper for tonight at camp. Yes it is camp this weekend, woooop. I can’t wait.

Other than that I read a book, had a nap and that was it. Before I knew it, it was 4pm and I was nearly off to camp, so will update when I’m back, yays!

CAMP TIME!