06 08 07

Today is our last day at 'the office'. John Magrath greeted us at the Maintenance compound with a box of Harrogate Toffee each - He's a Yorkshire Man! First job was to have a brew and then do a Water Run around the site. I want a Golf Buggy for Christmas!! The little buggy have been hired to help get people and kit around the site and we used one to tow a small trailer around to the various activity sites off loading bottled water. Back to our compound via a check that the transport team had enough water in their boiler - and we had to make sure it was hot enough to make tea - we had lunch early as we were to go and start dropping flagpoles as soon as the afternoon participants were on the water. Unfortunately everything ground to a halt. I Scout had been knocked unconscious at the rafting area and was taken to the Dam Wall where he was met by a first aid crew; who called for an Ambulance; who called for a Helicopter Evacuation. This meant we had to keep all the kits well away and off the water whist the helicopter spectacularly landed on the dam wall. The good news is that there was no major problem and the Scout and his leaders were actually discharged from hospital later and made it back to the Splash! site to be able to join the afternoon coaches back to site. After the drama we started to drop some of the flag and banner poles but too soon 4:30 was upon us and we returned to the compound to have a team photo and get a certificate of thanks from the Splash! team.

05 08 07

Today was a quiet day 'work' hover it was very very hot. So we set off around the Splash! site delivering bottles off water - freshly produced from the treatment works and bottling plant at the bottom of the dam wall!!. Anglian Water the site owners have been very good in supplying pallet loads of bottled water and on had been left on a large trailer near the entrance. Unfortunately as the area is still open to the Public, it being a Sunday and it being hot the place was packed! and they were thirsty. Our pallet load of water was being depleted. So we were given the envious task of getting the trailer in the shade and guarding it with our lives - which Shaun and I did with inimitable skill by rearranging the bottles and falling asleep for 1.5 hours on top of them :) Golly gosh it's 4:30 pm and home time, another stressful day at the office.

04 08 07

Today was my day off! woo hoo. Had a nise leisurely breakfast with Haydn Worral, then we walked down to the main plaza area in the centre of the camp to wait for Ellesmere District to arrive. As we were early wealled in at the Dutch Food House for a coffee. Many of the countries here have set up Scout Food Houses. These are to show off foods and drinks from theiw own areas Each has their own tent or marquee and dresses it up in their own style. It's a bit like the xmas markets in Manchester but on a grander scale.
Our guys finally arrived just before 11am and we took them to the day visitor section first. And let the Cubs run wild in here first. This was a part I didn't know existed until today. A corall of tent had taster events running of thing on the main site.
Just before 1pm we set off down to the main arena to watch a show which was a combination of the opening and sunrise ceremonies condenced down. Had a chat with phil here. Next we all took the long route back to the site so that they could all get to appreciate the size of the jamboree.
Is it me... or is it cubs... Or is it cub leaders??!! How many times we had to stop and count people then stop and put sunscreen on then stop and get water arrgg.. Only to be asked why was it taking so long to get to the badge shop... double arrgg!
Eventually we got there. Horray
By now it was around 4pm so I left the District to wand around the Plaza area and headed off down to 'Aquaville' and 'Terraville' these we two huge areas set aside for participants to try a skill, craft or tradition from virtually evey county at the Jamboree. I had to find one of the Manchester IST who I had promised I would vist. By the time I got there - its a long walk - they had just finished, but he showed me round the 'Scottish' area he was working at. They were getting the Scouts to make little stuffed Nessie's and Holding a Burns Night Supper every 2.5 hours complete with Haggis, Tatties&Neaps and Irn-Bru!
Walked back to my tent did some sock washing, had a shower went for tea, had a beer, a long hot day but it was good to see Phillip here along with the rest of Ellesmere District.

03 08 07

Today I got to Splash on time. Hooray the buses actually worked AND they got all the participants there on time as well.
We also had our first 'dirty job' today - cleaning out calcification blockages in the U-bends of the Urinals -nice - especially when you have to do it with a tent peg, modified bog brush, disinfectant and warm water. With this job done we retired to a well earned brew and lunch. The rest of the after noon was quiet for us so we took advantage of it and drank more brews and enjoyed the views of the lake in the glorious sunshine.
This evening was Andy Reed and Heather Baker's birthdays both from the West Manchester IST contingent. So we had a bit of party in the bar area. This was the first time we had all met up together in one place since arriving at the Jamboree way back on the 21st. I was good to get together and chat about what was going on, who was where, and how we are going to get home next Thursday. 7 pints later erm was I supposed to do something tomorrow? I know its a day off so a lie-in is in order. zzzzzz

Thanks for all the comments!

Thanks everyone for your comments sorry I cannot reply individually but it would cost me a fortune in internet charges. Please keep them coming it's nice to know people are reading this. If you've not done it yet below any blog message like this one is a line similar to
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Click on the word 'comments' and you can leave a message - you don't even need to sign up to blogger.com.
Cheers
Mike

Jamboree Tales & Ales

I'm planning to go to the Greyhound for beers and a chat possibly even some food on Saturday 11th around 7ish onwards
All are welcome.

02 08 08

Back to 'work' today. Met up at the Main Bus terminal at 8:30am as previously arranged only to find that the plans had changed yet again! We were not now required as coach guides and should have gone to the other bus stop at 7:30am eek! No problem they said to the 28 of us that did not see the small notice that had gone up at 9pm the night before. Good News - We could get on the participants busses. Bad news only 20 of the 40 required turned up - big error, unfortunately half the morning participants were told the weren't going to go to Splash! After waiting for 2hr at the bus stands. Scouts and Leaders were not happy. One good thing that came out of the wait was that I found some Guides from Pune, India and I exchanged contact details with them. **Hint to 'real work' - now I definitely need to go back to Pune, I have a campfire to run!!**
Eventually got to Splash! At around 12:30pm with the afternoon participants Shifted a trailer, fixed a loo & weighed up a fencing job then it was time to come home.
Major issue tonight - The Real Ale bar ran dry, They are shifting 20 barrels a night and the new batch had not settled. The situation should be normal for tomorrow - phew!

31 07 07

As usual the day starts early ... Too early for me but there you go. Note to friends at work: I am NOT getting used to this so don't expect any miracles on my return ;-) Down at the 'Roundabout Bus Stop I have to check all the IST getting on the busses for wrist bands. The reason for the wristbands is lots of people are getting the bus to Splash! 'cos they think it's a free day out - it's not, and we only have just enough seats for the 150 IST staff. Not good when 200 extra people turn up for a jolly. So having got the right staff on the right bus at 7.30am I walk the 15 mins across site to the Main Bus Stop. This is where 99% of arrivals and departures are done. It is essentially a long straight drive-way into the parkland along which about 20 coaches at a time can stop to load. Here we have literally 1000's of Scouts all going off to up to 3 different locations. This is where people have to to become carefully hearded 'sheep'. I say this with no offence meant - sorting 2000+ departures to Splash/Gillwell on a strip of grass barely 20yds wide is erm... Interesting. Once we eventually got to site there were not many jobs on, apart from put up 6 flag poles for the offsite teams sunrise ceremony.

01 08 07 - Sunrise Day

Today is Sunrise day and belive me we were up in time to see it. Up at 5am!! We had to meet at the stage on the Adult Arena at 6am then walk down to the Main arena for 8am - this took about 1.5 hours to do. The sunrise ceremony was very well done. (apart from the Chief Scout apearing to forget the Scout Promise - apprently he was doing the 'World Promise' not the UK one and it confused the heck out of everyone at Hylands) The rest of the ceremony involed music and dance interspersed with prayers and readings from all the major faiths. I wouldn't say i'm over religious but it was very moving and way better than the opening ceremony. The night before we were given a pcked breakfast to eat before the ceremony . A cup of coffee would have been good though! Along with the breakfast we were given a pen and a yellow kneckerchief. At the end of the ceremony we were all told to go amongst everyone and collect 100 signatures from other participants. I strted to work towards the stage and exchanged signatures from Scouts from places as wide apart as France, Nepal, USA, Brazil, Austraila and many, many more (see pic). Later on (it was now gone 11am) I wandered around the site untill 2pm when we had a world food fair. All the different countries were encouraged to offer samples of traditional foods. I tried a Chillian type of doughnut bread with a goats cheese and fried locust's from Mexico! - they were actually very nice - a sort of rich meaty taste with a hint of chile.
In the evening some of us met up and went back to watch the Concert at the main arena. The line-up included 'Kylie', My Winehouse, 'Robbie Williams', 'Coolplay' & the 'Commitments'. Yes I have spelt them right - they were all cover acts, but vey good ones. In fact I was down the stage earlier when they arrived to do a sound check. I think they were all slightly gob-smacked when they walked out on stage for the first time. I'm sure 'Robbie' mouthed 'F#@% me!'. According to one of the stage crew I was chatting to most of then have only played clubs and bars... Its not often they get the chance to play to a 30,000+ croud. As it was, by the time 'Robbie' came on the place was really buzzing. The show ender around 10:45 with a big firework display done to the Jambo Song.

What a fantastic, but long day. Back to 'work' tomorrow.

30 07 07

Spent today writing out wrist bands for all the staff onsite. Then had to walk the whole site trying to find over 100 people. Got back to site on the last bus - 4 of us on 53 seater. In the Evening went to 'play radio' and operated GB100J contacted 4 other amateurs in the UK,France & Oman

Here's where i'm working

29 07 07

To day was the first proper 'day at work' got the bus out to splash at 7.30am .As I'm on the maintenance team - 1st job of the day - tea break - I like this job. Next job make/fix the barrier to the works compound. Lunch and tea break . Then we watched an RAF search & rescue helicopter buzz the reservoir at about 100ft then we had a brew then we went home. I love my job. In the evening walked down to The Black Magic Tent. This the German Scouts Food house and it is the most amazing canvas structure I have ever seen. Over 30ft tall and 40ft in diameter at the centre, it has lots of small rooms, hidden off to the sides, it is a pioneering and black canvas marvel.

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Unfortunately I don't have any facility to upload pics from my camera only from my phone and its rather expensive. Will have to upload them to flickrcom when I get back home.

28 07 07

I've tried to upload a pic. Of the opening ceremony. 1st time I've tried it as uploading via email.

Today was the opening ceremony. You may have seen it on TV! All went well I think. We had to queue for over an hour to get into the main arena, however the weather was fine and sunny. The ceremony had been split in two because HRH could not attend later. I think this was better as the formal bit went on a bit. Later on there was a concert with all kinds of music unfortunately it started to rain around 9pm'ish so I never saw the end as I had no rain coat with me. Found during the opening ceremony that I should have been at a meeting at '9 o'clock' , unfortunately as I had gone to bed early (I'm full of a cold) I had not seen the notice the night before and did not get up till 9:30 - it was my day off! Oh well. And anyway, when is '9 o'clock' am/pm today/tomorrow? Went to meeting at 5.30 about escorting Scouts on coaches to the Splash! no doubt i'll be picked one day. Good thing is you start 1hr later and leave 1hr earlier.

27 07 07

Today - the rest of the world arrives! We have spent the day escorting new arrivals from the Main Bus Stop on site to thier respective sites. They have come from everywhere and many have literlly landed at Heathrow and come straight to Site - very tired. We have had to guide them to thier sub-camps - in some cases a 20 min walk from the bus stop in hot weather - I think I have walked another 10 miles at least today. And to cap it all I think I am coming down with a cold

26 07 07

Today we took the Bus out to Alton Water where I will be working at the 'Spash!' zone. I managed to quickly get out of litter and bus patrol and onto the Site Ops team which is good as I will be doing anything from fixing plumbing to comms lines to repairing boats - eek - I know nothing about boats apart from they're not supposed to sink! Baisically I think we are the 'Bodge it and Scarper' team - there is about 10 of us from everywhere. Today we were erecting Signposts around the site to guide the participants . Alton Water is about 1hr drive from the jamboree site so chance for a nice kip in the morning and evening. The up side is when back on site the evening is our own the down side is having to get up really early.

24 07 07

24 07 07

Today is the day the rest of the IST arrive. About 8000 of them. I was asked to goto the check-in at North Weald about 20 mins by bus away. There I was to help on the PC's but there were too many people so I went out and helped with coach reception. This involved jumping on a coach as it arrived, giving the driver a parking bay then welcoming the IST on the bus at explaining what they need to do here - in English & French ...& Italian,Spanish,German,Korean,Turkish,Chineese,Dutch and loads more countries. This was the biggest buzz yet the atmosphere was electric. We had arrived at checkin at around 9am (had been up since 6.30am - Queues) - and now it was 9pm!! We had spent 12hours running up and down a dissused airfield saying 'put it in bay 8 mate' to the driver then shouting 'Welcome to Jamboree' to which the coach usually erupted. Absolutely Brilliant; absolutely knackered.

25 07 07

Not much to do today, walked around the park with Haydn Worral. Dashed back to the Island Hub for a Meeting with our working teams at 2pm only to stand in a queue for 2.5hrs to be told get a bus at 7.30 tomorrow to Splash. Party time tonight. Disco on the Island Hub stage .

23 07 07

Today I've been allocated a job for the start - registration - however not starting till 3pm. Bumped into comms manager and offered services so ended up sorting out Cat5 cable boxes at the wherehouse, then faulting 4 phone lines across the site , then pulled in and repaired a fibre that had been damaged. Rigged up support ropes for the cabling of the plaza admin marqee buy this time it was 2pm!
Left to walk back to my tent to change gear and then down to Gate 5 this took 1hr.
At gate 5 volunteered to work on registration of the arriving people this meant validating photo ID printing a badge of and giving them the good news that they now had a 20min walk to the adult area in heavy rain - oh and most didn't speak english, finished at 9pm went for tea. Good news of the day - the real ale bar has opened - bad news is I'm on shift back at registration at 7am cheers see you all soon

22 07 07

"Day 2 in da big campsite"
BIG cannot describe is it is huge, a 45 mins to walk from one side to the other!
Let me put this in perspective(for the Manc's) it takes about 30 minutes to walk from Piccadilly station to Salford station in Manchester!
Today I have attached paper plates to bike wheels - don't ask - went to check in another 2hr Queue - decided to come back later as Checkin now open 24hrs, got lost trying to find the only 'real' building on site (Hylands House) then ended up using a chop saw to build a porch for the 'English Garden' Tea Rooms. Then is was time for tea. Damn, another 30 mins walk.
Queued for tea. Now the bar is calling... argg! left glass (you only get one!) in my tent, 20 minute round trip to get glass. Ahh beer. Darn Bar shut 10.30pm. Bright idea go and check in, 30 mins walk later (NO kebab/pizza shops enroute - bad management) arived at checkin, horray no queue, first time since erm.... 30 mins walk back aww... Alas all is not lost, 'being prepared' I have supplies with me due, to a very good GRANT'S offer a few weeks ago. Good things never come in ones - not often anyway - but a Minibus stops and asks if we need a lift to the Island Hub However I'm sure it was something due to 'The GRANTs' we offered to buy the bus that helped. On climbing in it was naturally propper to offer the hand (bottle) of friendship to all... Unfortunately all 17 passsengers were rather big mouthed and there ain't much left of our 'GRANT' See you all soon.

21/07/07

So, Day 1, well we all me t up at Manchester Piccadilly and for once I was early (thanks Janet!) The train down to London was on time. £1.40 for a cup of tea though... Is it me? come on! At Euston we had to get down to "the taxi queue" - little did we realise this was the first queue we would have to negotiate. To get to Chelmsford we had to go to Liverpool Street Station and to be honest the Black Cab was the best option across London and it ensured we had time for a fag and something to eat (well BurgerKing). A train then took us out to Chelmsford Station where we found a notice stuck to a phone box telling us a number to call for a bus to site... so we rang it.. and said there were ten of us for pickup... by the time the 'mini'bus arrived there was around 40 people there from around 20 different countries! A sign of things to come - me thinks! Any way the very obliging driver pulls up then has to back up to let a disabled driver out and promptly back into another car - oops. So whilst she did the necessary with the details we quietly loaded the minibus with 17 people and kit - as quietly as 17 excited Scouts can.
Arriving at the the site we were dropped at the 'Build HQ' (this is where you register if you are there to help set up the Jamboree) unfortunately we were there to join the International Service Team(IST) and that registration was a trek away. So we trekked. On finding the the IST tent we joined 'the queue' after 1.5 hours for queueing we had to write our names on a piece of paper to be told to 'camp over there past the big tent, tomorrow we are not needed but we should go for a registration meeting at some point and we need to register again at Gate 5 before 6pm - oh- and we should go for tea before pitching the tent as it shuts soon. So we left our bags in an empty marqee and went to the canteen. To say is is huge is an understatement, the IST canteen is the largest free standing structure in Europe - ever - apparently. Guess what we queued abate only for 5Min's. The menu was burger and chips or fish and ships. I lie the was also salads and new pots and rice and fruit and cake and juice and more and all free!! So refreshed by the meal we all pealed off to our designated 'over there's ' to pitch our tents and agreed to reconvene in the bar around 9:30. Walked what seamed like 2 miles to my pitching area and put up the tent only to have to walk back to the bar at 9:45, queued again to get a pint pot (plastic) and beer tokens to go to the Bar to get a... Boddingtons Bitter and only £2.40 a pint. Cold but it will do, went back for a 2nd pint and they had run out so had to 'force down' a Guiness - 60p more, then no sooner had I bought it the bell went for last orders AT 10:20PM ON A SATURDAY NIGHT. Now I am simple chap - but o call last orders at 10:20 and not even on a Sunday ... well that completely through my Planning. (Note to self; start early tomorrow). So downed pint double quick and back to QUEUE for the last one of the day.
Mike

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I wrote this at around 11pm on the 21st in my tent and up loaded it to here as soon as I could.
I'll uploaded more as soon as I can .
PS
I will not be looking at my email much as Internet access is dear at £3.50/hr here - even via WIFI!!! Please respond if you want to by clicking on the comments button below and type a message or response. Note 'comments' can be public so only leave nice messages cheers Mike

A quick post

I have a very quick chance to post a note - I've found a PC with web access that shouldn't - I will post a full report of my escapades very soon

By The Way - It is raining woo hoo.

Scouts on TV

Check out http://www.communitychannel.org/content/view/1486/75/ for details of the Jamboree Live on TV on the Community Channel

Packing Time

Hi all, I've not set off yet infact I've not even stated packing yet...
Might be a good idea to start as I leave in less that 24 hours.


I'll try to update as often as I can

Cheers Mike