Washing Dishes and Rhododendron

I spent the weekend at Barnswood Camp (that’s the view from the gate at the top of the page) with our Cubs and those from Berry Hill. This is our traditional yearly camp with them, although we are a couple of months late this time!

This camp I spent my time on the cooking team and was, what seemed to be, constantly washing up! If you’ve ever catered for over 60 people you’ll know that they create a LOT of dishes! However, despite my dish-pan hands, I had a really good time, and more importantly so did the Cubs!

The odd thing about the campsite now is that they’ve had to remove all their rhododendron bushes due to disease. The site was surrounded with rhododendron and now its all been removed, the camp looks oddly open. Each camping pitch used to be quite secluded. Now you can even see the camp properly from the road, which you’ve never been able to do before! The character of the site has changed somewhat, but it’s still a great place to camp!

On Stage

Last week, the Scouts were given a guided backstage tour of the Regent Theatre in Hanley by our Assistant Scout Leader. There was no show on, so we were able to go to areas the public never see. We even went the top of the stage – 21 metres high!

While we were on the stage, I was able to present one of our Scouts with his Chief Scout’s Gold Award.

After which he got a huge round of applause from the rest of the Scouts sitting in the auditorium!

That’s probably the first and last time that I’ll be standing on the stage of a major theatre and get a round of applause!

Nick & Kiff Discuss:- Should Girl Guiding UK & the Scout Association Merge?

As I mentioned last time, Chris and I have had another discussion this time on the topic of “Should Girl Guiding UK & the Scout Association Merge?”.

This time it’s on Chris’s blog, Jabbering All Day Long. Have a read, here, and tell us what you think by leaving a comment. We look forward to hearing what others have to say.

I Do Wonder Sometimes…..

Last April, the Scout Association launched the My Badges App for the iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad. This app has all the requirements for all badges, from the Beaver’s right through to the Queen’s Scout Award. And very useful it is too.

At the time, I was not too impressed that it was just for the iDevices and not for the Android platform. The Scout Association said an Android version would be coming soon, er later in the year, no early in the new year, when pigs fly etc.

So today, you can imagine that I’m not overly impressed to read that the SA are releasing a game app for both iDevices and Android called Secret Island Adventure. Now why are they releasing a game for both platforms when they have yet to release the badges app on android? I’m guessing the game app won’t be free.

The badges app, I would buy for my phone (when it eventually comes out), but a game? An app that will be very useful seems to be being ignored for the sake of a game. I do wonder sometimes……

On a happier note, after last September’s discussion between me and Kiff, we were both keen to do another, but we both got a bit distracted by additions to our respective families! However, after Kiff has done a little housekeeping on his site this weekend, he will be publishing our next discussion. Watch this space!