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