Quote of the day from Ben

I have the showers the waters gone off!

Quote of the day from Louise

We got on radio, yay!

A Quote of the day from Jess

They're trying to swap me for a fortune cookie!

Quote of the day from Andrew

Don't get scamed when badge swapping!

Quote of the day from Sam

Henna takes ages to dry!

Jess on TV

This is Jess being filmed for BBC

To the end.

The end of another busy day. I seem to have blogged loads today, but it's also been a busy day. Although this whole Jamboree has been very busy and tiring, the friendships forged have been solid and the times unforgettable!

It's Tim's birthday

According to Tim, the pic on the blog was quite boring. So here's tim's entry!

Quote of the day from Ben and Louise

Actually they were MIA when i went. Apparently they had gone to the sub camp hub to the party. The pic is of the spice girl bus. Anyway off tim's birthday.

Quote of the day from Andrew

Um, ah, uh. I can't think of one!

Quote of the day from Jess

We need toilet paper!

Sam's quote for the day

We need more ruffidge, i haven't been for days!

More loopiness!

This was another italian in the red hair being silly. If's was being an old man for some reason. Anyway, the first day me Trash opening was great. A teething problem or 2 before we started, but in the end all went well. This evening was mainly spent in the bar speaking to and American called Chris. In bed now tho! Hi to all times who emailed me. Special hi to the wedges, the clipstones and liz. As for the question about the rest of the site. I hope to get round it on sunrise day, aug 1st. Good night all

Loopy italians!

This is Luca on the mic during lunch today. He's from a town near milan in italy. At the time he was ringing along to Girls Wanna Have Fun. Great sense of humour!

The weather rock!

On my way to Trash i spotted this. A rock suspended from a tripod made from sticks with a note saying: Weather Rock! When it's dry it's sunny. When it's swinging it's windy and when it's wet it's raining.

Been busy!

Yesterday, our day off, was really busy. The opening ceremony was huge. I was then called by jude to hang a curtain and a number of other jobs include fix a pc. Left there at 9pm, had tea and headed to the bar. Just before midnight the heavens opened and the resulting river covers half the camp site. This time the water has sat on the surface so it's more water than mud. Today is the first day the Trash opens to both the public and the Jamboree contingents. The queue for breakfast is huge and i've currently got about 40 minutes to have breakfast and get to Trash. Bye

Scouts from around the world. . .

The opening ceremony

Day 4 in the Big Brother Campsite. . . .

Firstly, thanks to all those who have sent me emails and left comments. Ie lesley and paul and 2 others recently. If you leave a confou it would be ace to know who has sent it. If you could leave you name or imitals on the blog it would help. As for today it's been another busy day. Most of the Trash site is finished. We did however finish at 8ish. The weather has been great. I'm burnt on my head, but it's just started to rain lightly. And the 5 day weather forecast is great. Hopefully the opening ceremony will be excellent with prince william. I'm very tired, speak tomorrow. Ttfn

Birmingham 007

Found the other birmingham unit. Here's sam. They're a bit wet after being drenched yesterday both in birmingham before they left and here when they arrived. Apparently 2 bags fell out me the coach on the way down but i didn't get to the bottom of whose bag it was. With the exception of a few teething problems everything is going great for both units. Off to Trash now. See you soon.

Found Birmingham 006

Found 4 enigma explorer scouts, ben, andrew, jess and louise. They couldn't stop talking about liberty x and lamar concept last night. Now to find birmingham contingent mk 2.

Oklahoma?

Well, actually i was going for 'Oh What A Beautiful Morning'. The weather seems to have taken a turn for the better. I saw this view from my tent as i got up. One problem so far is that when i got up at 6.05 according to my alarm clock, the shower was running really slow, but it was nice. However returning to the tent a good half an hour later i noticed it was still 6.05. It seems my new alarm clock has lost the ability to tell the time. Note, the second hand is still spinning! Looking at my watch i must have been up at about 5 this morning! So sat having a relaxed breakfast and i might even be able to see the two birmingham units before work starts. Bye for now.

Argentina. . . . .

At the end of a relatively uneventful day, it's nice to sit down with your work chums and quietly chat. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. Next to us was the Peru contingent and opposite were the argentinians. As Peru finished their meal they had a chant where they all got up. This was followed by a round of applause by the whole restaurant. The argentinians then chanted Peru, To witch peru clapped. Then they chanted argentina with everyone joining in. This was then followed by The argentinians chanting england as we were clapping for them. And finally to leave the room they did a dance which looked like the conga. Great fun had by all. The evening was spent listening to liberty x on the Jamboree radio station which was broadcasting from the UK contingent party. For anyone who might be interfsted, a have heard both explorer units have arrived on site. I will see if i can find them tomorrow. Good night.

Day 3

With the exception of half an hour yesterday afternoon, it's been dry. Most of the site has dryed out and there are only a couple of mud baths left. I'm currently walking from the adult camping area to the Trash site to start the day's work. My legs are aching slightly, and are very stiff. We are walking a huge distance every day. Today is when the UK contingents arrive on site. I hope to see if i can find then later. I assume this is all coming out as a single block. Unfortunately i an unable to add space lines in. Bye for now

Happy birthday jude!

The photo is taken in one me the IST bars. We've all met because of judes birthday. In the photo is jude, bottom left. Next tim, then gary then geoff. For those who know gary or gareth, the computer system has name wrong. Hence Gary. Ttfn Fitz

Ahhh breakfast!

An hour wait this morning for breakfast. But all good in the end. The pic is of one of the 2 food halls we're eating in. The whole structure is two of these tents long and 3 wide. It's huge!

End of day one

It's the end of day one. In bed, in a peaceful field in Essex. This afternoon, as we didn't have any thing to do, we offered to help the catering team out. After 6.5 hours we finished. Made a few new friends. Bernard and michael from surrey, a bloke frOm Bristol area and 3 ladies from finland called kaiser, jonna said yonna and Sirpu. Apparently not said as it's spelt. I don't think british international relations are going well! And note for future. English humour doesn't translate well. Ttfn

---- 
Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

The tent's up!

I've arrived on site. And pitched my tent. Although it doesn't look like it, I spent ages organising it. The site has some come dry bits and some very muddy bits. I'm about 100m from the toilet and shower block and about 300m from the farther north left hand corner of the site. I'm about to change into shorts and go exploring. I also need to fine out what my job 'On Site Programme' is doing. Also dave and laura have good to their site down on the map from me. I think I've put a link on my web said to a map of the site. If not it's on the Jamboree website. Anyway, catch you all later.

The entrance

Well kinda. H'll try and erod the actual have at some point. 30 minute walk now to site

Check in

Ready to leave

Just time to take a photo before we go to site.

Shhhhhh!

Look, 6am and sun! Hopefully it'll stay like this!

The first night camping

After a great meal at the farm we set tents up. This is a very poor pic me the tents. They are set up in a barn. This means when we're going to Hylands Park the tents will be dry. Currently sitting in a sub about to head back for a sleep until we go to site at 6am tomorrow morning.

What a day!

We got up this morning at Blackwell near Bromsgrove. After a short stop at Tewkesbury and a chat to the Lod parents. Then on to Essex. Rain rain rain all the way. Arrived at auntie and uncles farm as they've kindly let up stop over. One problem i noticed is that i can't post more than one photo so maybe there will be multiple posts like today. Anyway the pic is of the millennium stood at my auntie's house. It's a 12 tons.

Not a mower!

A microlight has appeared. On with the game.

Time for a quick game of Kubb

Currently i'm winning all looking good tho. There seems to be someone mowing a lawn with a very loud lawn mower!

I used to be a field.

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain . . . .

. . . . . telling me just what a fool I've been.

Friday 20 July WEATHER WARNING Torrential rain is expected to fall today across Wales, the greater Manchester area, the Midlands, East Anglia and southern England as far west as Dorset, Somerset and Devon. The heavy and prolonged rainfall could lead to 20-30mm in many areas, with the potential for as much as 50-70mm in some places. This could lead to flooding and there is a high risk of disruption to transport in some areas. Valid until 2007-07-21 0300BST.

Oh great!!! I decide to go camping for 3 weeks in this!!!

So where is Essex?

Nice weather for ducks tho!

Items Packed:

Scuba Gear - Check
Wet Suit - Check
Snorkle - Check
Flippers - Check
etc . . . .

Hey-ho

And our survey says. . . . .

YES! All in. I'm packed apart from a couple of little things. All ready to go! 5 days early too! I'm so impressed with myself.

Space to fit this in?

The question is, do i have enough space to fit all this in? Plus 3 weeks of clothes. . . .

Hmmm . . . .

Atleast the rain held off for the BBQ

Rain, Sun and Thunder!

So, today the weather has been a little changeable. And the long term forecast is pretty poor. Still no news on what IST job i'm doing. But i did hear a rumour that they've filled the toilet cleaning team. Which could mean TBA next to my name for the job, doesn't mean Toilet Brush Army! Off to BBQ tonight, and then maybe some packing! Bye!

One week to go!!!

Arrangements have finally been sorted.

Firstly, before the Jamboree, I'm camping at Blackwell Court, Bromsgrove. After final discussions with Junior and Lodders (Laura and Dave!) we've decided to all meet up on Sunday evening at Blackwell and camp overnight there.

Monday morning, the plan is to leave at roughly midday. To get to London, (or should I get into the lingo, Laaandan!! <-maybe not!) we will be going via Tewksbury, a nice straight route, NOT!

After a short stop at Mr & Mrs Lod's house, it's off to Laaandan, sorry London and then to Billericay, Essex. We're all stopping over at my Auntie and Uncle B's house. Actually in their garden in tents. It'll be like a huge adventure!! 3 weeks and camping at a number of different locations. Great fun. The rain should help too!!

Tuesday morning, hopefully, with a quick trip past the site (as it is on the way to North Wield), we will head to the start of the 2.5 weeks. After some time booking in and faffing, we should be able to make our way to the actual site, walk for 45 minutes carrying all our kit, and arrive at the IST Adult Camp site. This will be home to the 10,000 people who will support the Jamboree.

From there, we need to sort out selves out, set tents up and so on. The tents will be set up depending on where we are working. Unfortunately, we don't know what we're doing yet. Hopefully we will find out before we leave!! So watch this space!!

After getting ourselves sorted, and a number of meetings, the first meal on-site we are to have will be on the evening. In the "largest structure on site", 135m Adult restaurant. And the menu, looks like a nice varied menu. It's making me hungry already.

Then from there, we don't know what we're up to. Depending on what role we've got and where we are working, depends on what we're up to.

As for this past weekend, the plan, seeing as I wasn't doing anything, was to pack. I managed to sort out most of my clothes, they are now washed, not packed tho! I also sorted out some of the other bits and bobs I'm planning to take. As for packing, not much got actually packed, infact, nothing did! Well, that'll be a job for sometime later in the week. I did however go to a great BBQ on Saturday night. Excellent fun.

Tonight, Explorers, we should be making video's to teach a child colours. Interesting concept, but requires a long explanation!!

Speak soon,

ttfn

My Addresses at the Jamboree

For anyone who wants to send me anything via snail-mail here is my postal address at the Jamboree:

Mr David Fitzgerald
Adult Camping Area
21st World Scout Jamboree
Hylands Park
Chelmsford
Essex
CM2 8WG

If you want to email me while I'm there, use:

ISTFitz@Gmail.com

I hope to be picking these up while I'm there. Please don't send any attachments, I won't be able to see them!!

As for my mobile phone, that will probably be off most of the time.

2 weeks to the Jamboree starts!!

Loadsa stuff to do between now and then.

Hopefully, I will have most of it done this weekend. After a little tidying up (and removing stupid items!), I've got 83 out of the 91 items I wanted to take.

But before then, I need to pop to Kinver. Looks like someone (that be me then!) forgot to give the key back to the duty warden. Oooppss!! So need to pop that back.

But it's OK because I played with my poi last night. Great fun!!

ttfn

Poi poi!

Woo-hoo poi poi have arrived!

Time for a pic!

In less than 2 weeks I'll be off to the jamboree. It suddenly got kinda scary at the point i realised it was all going to Be over in a months time! Should get car back today with everything fixed. Tonight is the Pathfinder debrief meeting. Last night was the fellowship BBQ. Sam was a little tired. Hence the pic. And lastly, i hope my poi arrive today. Poi are balls on string that tricks are done with. For more info see www.poipoi.info. See you soon.

IST job allocations have landed!!!

But before we get onto the job allocations, there was last weekend.

District Camp

By the end of last week, the Jamboree seemed months away. With setting tents up Thursday night, food ordering Wednesday night and arriving out at District Camp Friday night, it was all a little confused!! By Friday, my car was more than a little dead. It's making a really horrid scraping noise. I think it's either the clutch or the gear box. Not a nice noise!!!

I've just found out that the gear box has gone and the clutch is on it's way out. A new clutch and a second-hand gear box is going to cost me about £260. Nice piece of information for a Monday!

Explorers

This weekend, once again the Explorers have been excellent. They've had great fun doing loadsa different things. I think the highlight of the weekend was when they took Sam on the bouncy castle and they all played with him very gently so that he could enjoy it. Sam loved it!!

IST Jobs

So, which brings me on to IST jobs. Claire came over to see me over the weekend and informed me that the jobs had been listed on the internet. Unfortunately I couldn't remember my number. When I got back, I had a closer look and found my number. I'm TBA. To Be Allocated. So is Lod, however, we did both put the same things down. Makes sense that we are both TBA!!. I've spoken to Junior and she's on Food and Trading. The title kinda gives it away!!.

So, basically Lod and I won't probably know until we get down to Hylands Park. Kinda makes it more exciting, but you can't plan to take certain items depending on the job you're doing.

Time for Explorers soon, apple pie making this evening, so ttfn.

Checked post and there's a letter . . . .

As I got home, I checked under the door and there was a number of letters. One of the letters was from the IST Team!!! Yippee!!!! It looks like I might actually find out what I'm going to do, but my hopes have been dashed!!! The letter was just talking about stuff I've actually foundout on the website.

Anyway, so this evening, we've done the £300 shopping for District camp this weekend to feed 40 people.

Going to setup our tents for District camp tomorrow night.

Still no news on job . . . . .

I raced home last night, well, within the speed limit's anyway, to see if any news on which job I'm doing at the Jamboree. I did hear a rumour that I'm on bog duty for toilets numbered 10,352 - 12,634. Only joking, but still haven't heard. In fact, no-one I know has heard. I've checked the Jamboree website today, and it says that they are sending out in "dribs and drabs". It also doesn't help that there wasn't any post yesterday due to the Post Office strikes!! However, I had forgotten about this!!

Yesterday the Jamboree song was launched. It's available from Tesco's via the below link (and find it from there!!)

http://www.tesco.com/entertainment/

The ideas is if loadsa people download it may get to no 1. I think the top 40 would be an achievement. The song Jambo isn't too bad and I quite like the other song One World One Promise which are on the £4.99 CD. I've yet to get my copy, but I gave Claire a lift home last night and she'd bought it.

Explorers last night they started to make a DVD on colours for Sam. Sam (Steph's Son - See Steph Blog) has Down's Syndrome. He is doing really well with signing. Everyone's working on colours at the moment. Next week the Explorers will video it. We'll see what they produce.

Current counter on my Jamboree list is:

Got 62 Items
Not Got 31 Items.

Anyway, ttfn, tonight is getting the food order sorted for District Camp this weekend.

Failed at the first hurdle!!

I'm not doing too well at this. Last week I decided to try to blog each day. Unfortunately, I only managed 2 days out of 6. Last weekend, Pathfinder, went excellently, even with the rain!!!

Friday, the Explorers worked really hard to get the camp together. Fantastic job. Followed, closely by the opening ceremony. After which was the evening activity. Each unit had a box of bits and they had to create a device to fire a bean bag/tennis ball a distance. Our unit's attempt is shown below (The upsidedown table!!):



Unfortunately their actual firing attempt managed -2 inches. They all laughed at it tho. It was quite funny especially as they didn't have a practice attempt because they took too long setting it up!!! So, basically they spent about 20 minutes setting up to accidently fire backwards.

Saturday saw Explorers on activities and me sorting disco equipment out for the evening do. While I was checking all lights were working, I took this picture:



Disco was brilliant. Unfortunately, someone (not sure who!!! :-) ) put the Birdie song on. But all the Explorers danced to it!! It was a great atmosphere.

Sunday came with the 3rd day of camping in the rain, but luckily everything dried out in the afternoon when the sun came out. Laura (Junior) was also in camp with her Explorer unit and my close friends Julie and Adam. Unfortunately on the Saturday morning she twisted her ankle while Skiing, so her Explorers drove her round in a trolley all weekend:



Very funny!!! It was time to sleep by the time we had got the minibus away and all the kit. All in all, a great weekend tho.

Tonight is Explorers. Not sure what we are doing yet!

ttfn,

F.