Lochearnhead Scout camp 27th July - 7th August 2013

Well, I'm finally home from a fantastic trip to Scotland with the scouts. It's taken a while to get this up as after getting back from Scotland, I was off to Wales and since then I've been doing all my homework and getting my folders organised for school. I can't believe year 13 starts in just 14 days! I've hardly had a chance to sit down (except to write this)!

DAY 1 - 27th July

I arrived at the station at 8:20am with my luggage ready for a brilliant summer camp, I placed my luggage onto the trailer that the coach was towing and then climbed onto the coach (a double decker) and found a seat upstairs near the front.

We finally set off at about 8:45, at this point I only knew 2 people on the trip and I watched the Hitchikers guide to The Galaxy on my ipod.

I also read my book and listened to music, we stopped twice along the way, once at the M6 toll services and then again at Carlisle services.

Stirling Castle

We finally arrived at Lochearnhead at around 5:30pm where the scouts unloaded the trailer and carried all the bags up to the station. 

We were then assigned our cabins and went to get settled in before dinner at 18:30.

After dinner we were told what each clan would be doing the next day, I happened to be going on a 3 day hike so I had to pack my rucksack after dinner in preparation.

Then we sorted out who would be sleeping on which bunk before eventually going to bed.

Our cabin

Starfishing

DAY 2 - 28th July

Got up early today to finish packing for the hike and then went to flag break at 8:55 before breakfast at 08:00. After breakfast I collected my lunch for the 3 days and then we had to collect our rations, we finally piled onto the minibus at about 09:15, once dropped off, we set off in search of our camping ground, we found it at around 17:00, there were 3 clans on the hike and each clan had to find a different spot to pitch the tents, after pitching our tents and sorting out the problem with numbers (we ended up with 3 girls in a 2-man tent which was tight) we cooked our dinner, I had curried rice.

After dinner we sat around chatting for a while before climbing into bed for what was a rather uncomfortable night.

Dinner!

The view from our pitch

DAY 3 - 29th July

Set off around 09:00 today to climb Beinn Challuim, it was tough, but we made it by 14:00 and got back to the tents around 17:00, by this point it was pouring with rain and we couldn't cook so dinner comprised of half a packet of chorizo, fridge raiders and some cereal bars, then we went to sleep.

Almost at the top

DAY 4 - 30th July

The rain had made the river to high to cross so we couldn't climb the second mountain, instead we hiked along the hills to a nearby town where the minibus picked us up and took us back to the station.

On arrival, we fought with the younger scouts for the showers (Well, we hadn't had one for days) before flag down and having a lovely hot meal for dinner.

We went to bed somewhat early, although the scouts on the bunk above had an argument about sleeping arrangements that didn't cease until around 23:30.

Halfway to the town

DAY 5 - 31st July

Got up at 07:30, flag break at 7:55, brekkie at 08:00.

By 09:00 My clan (MacNeil) and MacPherson were grouped around the mountain bikes. We hopped onto the minibus to get to our starting point and then cycled along the old railway line for about 7 miles before leaving the line for the remaining 8 miles, here it began to get quite hilly with some steep climbs and a VERY scary, VERY steep zigzag trail, brakes were on the whole way down!

The fate of one explorer after mountain biking

We got back to the station around 15:00 where we showered, had cake and then went to flag down at 18:35 and dinner at 18:30.

DAY 6 - 1st August

Today was sailing and the weather was DISGUSTING! Unfortunately I was ill in the morning so had to watch everyone else, after an hour though I started to feel better so decided to get in on the action after lunch. However, everyone came off the boats for lunch shivering, they were absolutely freezing, so we bailed out and got the minibus back to the station at 12:30. As we were back so early, I decided to sort out all my stuff seeing as we were off to Meggernie the next day. Once that was done we played cards for a bit, then I went and sat on the windowseat (under the heater), this didn't turn out well as I fell asleep and then fell on the floor, landing on my hip (which hurt for the next 7 days). 

After what seemed an eternity, it was time for flag down and dinner, it was VERY welcome!

Playing with Daisy (The dog)

 

DAY 7- 2nd August

KAYAKING! So, today was kayaking, it was sooo much fun, and the best part...despite how AWFUL I was (couldn't go more than three strokes without spinning), I didn't capsise, not even down the rapids and into the swirly water, I was so proud of myself! :D

It was warm and sunny today so we dried off quite well before heading back to the station for showers and food.

At 8pm, 34 Explorers and scout patrol leaders piled onto the minibuses to go to Meggernie outdoor centre, our home for the next 4 days. It was an hours journey and my minibus managed to get a puncture, but because the track was so uneven, we couldn't change the tyre so had to drive on it and change it when we got there!

On the plus side, the tents were already up (the first group had put them up on the 27th July), and ours was an 8-man with 5 girls in. However, we also had a bit of a leak, we managed though.

DAY 8 - 3rd August

Canoeing, but 2 of us were ill today, so we chilled in a hotel for the day (it was actually extremely boring and we were asleep most of the time).

We had a bat walk in the evening, which was fun.

DAY 9 - 4th August

Began with archery, where I came soooo close to bursting the balloon I was supposed to, I missed by millimetres! Then we went onto frisbee golf, grass sledging and finally traversing. 

Despite the mix of activities, it was a nice and relaxing day, and we didn't have to go off site.

We had a campfire in the evening and had a blast.

Missing the balloon

DAY 10 -5th August

Today we built a swing, cooked on open fires and did some orienteering, another relaxing day, but enjoyable nonetheless.

DAY 11 - 6th August

Back to Lochearnhead today, took the tents down and packed up Meggernie (and made friends with some of the Danish scouts) and got to Lochearnhead around 2. 

As there were no cabins available, all of us that had just come from Meggernie had to sleep in one big mess tent, it was chaos finding a spot!

We had a traditional dinner with someone on the bagpipes and then we all had some haggis (I personally quite liked it).

To round off the last night, each clan had to perform in a talent show, which was highly enjoyable.

DAY 12 -7th August

Up at 6am today to get everything packed away, so we could be on the coach by 9, then it was a simple 11 hour journey home (there were a few accidents on the roads), filled with music, sleeping, and a vague sadness that it was all over.

I made friends with one of the scouts though and found out he'll be starting my school in September, so I'll have to look out for him and be an unofficial buddy. :)

Work experience, University visits and summer

Well, It's been a busy couple weeks over here, I was on work experience at Paradise Wildlife Park from 17th-2st June 2013; monday-Wednesday I was on Farmyard which was loads of fun, I was cleaning out Rabbits, Guinea pigs, sheep, goats, pig ducks, tenrecs (and cuddling rabbits!).
Then Thursday and Friday I was on Paddocks with Zebra, Camel, Alpaca, Tapir, Wallaby (I wanted to take one home!), fox, deer....

He's a big bunny

This is Boris

Tiny Tenrec (called Puff)

Russian Hamster

Here Mousey Mousey

Boris liked my shoes

And the shovel...

Foxyyyyyy

The following week had a severe lack of lessons as well, Monday and Tuesday were business as usual, although my history teacher was not in, then on Wednesday us year 12's were bundled onto a coach to the University of Essex for a higher education fair, this gave us a chance to talk to people from hundreds of universities across the UK (and made me realise that it may not be a good idea to drop geography) and get some freebies too - a definite high point!

On returning home I headed off to Explorers for a game of real-life where's wally! This consisted of one of our leaders hiding "somewhere" in the town and we had to text questions that he could only answer yes or no to. My team was 2nd to find him so didn't win the prize for finding him first, but we were the first team back to the scout hut by quite a long time so we won a box of lindor chocolates to share. :D

Then on Thursday I headed to Bristol with my Dad for the university open day, the sun was shining, it was warm and I fell in love with the city.
The Archaeology even has a fleet of landrovers for transporting students to various dig sites!
I used the trip to get some photography in, so here's a few of my shots:

Welcome to the Open day (Victoria rooms)

Clifton suspension bridge

View from Clifton Suspension bridge

I think it's a very photogenic city and I could definitely see myself living here and spending summer days sitting in one of the parks with lots of books, working the day away.

I'd best be off, I need to get some work done if I'm going to get the grades to actually get in here! :D


Alons-y!

Decisions, decisions....

Well, today was a day full of decisions: "Do I take up the EPQ or not?", "Do I buy chips tomorrow, or save my money?", "Which bus stop should I go to?", "Should I do a revision post or save it for tomorrow?".

In case you are wondering, I haven't yet made a decision on EPQ, I'm saving my money, I went to the second bus stop and i'm saving the revision post for tomorrow.

I really like the idea of the EPQ, but i'm having diffiulty choosing a topic, my intesets include psychology, dinosaurs and scouts....is there any way I could combine those? "Do scouts have a similar cognitive ability to that of dinosaurs?" I think that'd be pretty difficult to research somehow....

I've also been improving greatly at my time management recently (hence why I have time to write this blog), I read my textbooks on the bus and do as much homework as I can in the mornings before school - I work best between 7 and 10am for some reason, that generally leaves me with quite a few frees, which I use to do revision in the library, and sometimes I do some more work for 20 minutes after school as my bus doesn't arrive till around 4pm. This means that while I do still do work at home, my load is lighter and I can relax a little more, it's taken me 6 months to get into this routine!

Obviously, this time will decrease once I start being a young leader, and i'm planning a lot of charity events at school, but I think i'll cope, just about.

We had a speaker come into school today about independent living, it got me thinking about having my own bedroom again if and when I go to Uni - I live in a one-bedroom house and after 3 years of having the bedroom and my parents having a pull down bed in the living room, I got kicked into the attic, but we discovered that it's impossible to sleep up there in winter so i now sleep on a tiny mesanine floor, which is too small for me to do my work effectivey as it's impossible to keep tidy, but downstairs is too noisy.

Hopefully, my room at uni will look less like this:



My old room - messy

And more like this:

Note the big window - lots of light!

Not that i'm excited to have more independence or anything....
Just as a heads up, I won't be posting friday or saturday as i'm away, I may post on sunday though.
I shall probably do homework friday evening till around 10pm, then watch a film/play on xbox.
Then saturday I'll get up at 8/9 depending on whether I have any homework left, I'll work till around 11, either on homework or revision, or both (I'm such a model student...) and then I'll probably run into town to buy a couple of birthday presents, get back and settle down to make some bracelets for the afternoon, perhaps meet up with a friend, and watch a DVD in the evening while pigging out on mini poppadoms, sausage rolls, cocktail sausages, chocolate and scotch eggs.
Much the same will follow on sunday, minus the DVD and pigging out, and if the weather is ok, i'll nip down the tennis courts to burn off all those calories from the night before, and get picked up around 4, arriving home by 4:30pm.
This is generally how a weekend spent at my nans is spent, I quite enjoy them, but I'll probably be staying less often now as work mounts up and I need the internet over the weekend.

Off now to get ready for explorers - 3 course meal to be cooked on a makeshift wood-burning stove! I'l ttry and get some pictures. :)

Alons-y. x