Haven’t posted another day of Jamboree in a while…been really busy. Hope you enjoy and if you went it all brings back some memories! :D

Today was an even earlier wake-up call than the days before – We had to be up to leave for 8, so we were all up at 6 this morning for breakfast at half past. We were awoken by knocking on the door but instead of Alan this morning it was Kevin. Once we were all up we hurried down to breakfast to get some energy for the day, we also snuck out some bread and jam to make sandwiches for the day.

When we got back up to the room we found Ethan sat outside on the window ledge waiting for a leader to come upstairs and help him; as when he was in the shower he had sliced his elbow on a metal strip which, as we found out later in the week, he had cut almost down to the bone. He was bleeding so much. Luckily not long after we got their Anna arrived and helped him clean it up and put a huge plaster on it. We all packed up and dragged our huge bags down the stairs and then went back up to double check our rooms and get our day sacks.

We all gathered outside the hotel and waited for everyone to get there and at around 7.30 we set off on our “half hour” walk to where we were catching the buses from. Once here we all dropped our bags on the floor, and sat around chatting as we had quite a while some people were led around on their bags everyone was tired and because of how bad our bags are most people’s backs hurt.

We ended up waiting for AGES for our coaches and when they finally arrived everyone cheered! We all moved the bags over to our designated coach and started loading them onto the coach. I put my day bag on a seat in the coach so no-one took it and got back off to help finish loading the bags on…that’s when we reached the dilemma – There wasn’t enough baggage space for everyone’s bags…this was worrying. Everyone was told to get on the coach apart from those of us helping load the bags and we started putting them down the corridor of the us, however as it is in the UK, this was illegal so we had to put our bags onto the different coaches and collect them at the other end.

The rest of us then boarded the coach and we were on our way! We had some of the Cambridgeshire unit on the coach with us and they had brought some DVD’s, so on the way to Jamboree we watched Kick ass. After the film was over I decided to just chill, I put in my headphones and was looking out the window at the beautiful countryside of these 2 countries. To get from Denmark to Sweden you have to drive across the Øresund Bridge, this bridge is 7845 metres long and connects the 2 countries together. It almost seems like the Severn Bridge between Bristol and Wales, but on a much larger scale!! As we were going across this bridge we could see a huge wind farm in the middle of the sea, but also that there was a sinking boat, I wonder if that will be there on the way back?

The journey was about 3 hours long and about half an hour before we arrived we saw the first Jamboree sign, and then we kept looking out for them and saw more and more, we turned off the main road and onto a country lane going past farms and huge posh looking farmhouses. Eventually we turned off this road and onto the airstrip (The Jamboree site was a military airbase). We pulled up into a car park with loads more coaches in rows and the leaders got off to sign our unit in. Some of the boys got off the coach to go and use the urinal, these were very public and if they didn’t stand close enough you could’ve seen anything! A member of the Jamboree team then got onto our coach to wish us an enjoyable Jamboree experience and we were sent on our way to bus stop 10 of about 40. We were now on the main runway which had all the bus stops down the right hand side.

Our bus stop was very near the end as it was the closest to winter’s sub camp; yet we were still one of the furthest units away from anything. We were greeted by some Swedes when we got off the bus and they helped us find the bags from off the other buses. It was absolutely boiling when we got off the bus; this was when I knew setting up camp was going to be awful!

We started our treck to our home for the next 2 weeks…After what seemed like an hour we FINALLY go there! Once there we all sat down to have a drink and some food (That we’d taken from breakfast at the hotel before). Once we’d rested for a while we headed down to camp HQ to empty our crate and start bringing everything back to site. I helped to setup our dining shelter – a large, round, white thing…with no sides. If it was going to rain I could see us getting really wet! However seeing as every unit in the jamboree go one of these I don’t think we’d be the only one’s getting wet…

Once the tent was up and we’d secured it to the best we could, with extra poles and some ground sheets around the edge to make it a bit more protected from the elements on the inside! We started setting up the kitchen. This took us ages to get right as we all had different ideas. In the end we had our crate on its side as a surface for cleaning and somewhere to store things. We then had a visit from some of the scout leaders and we went off to explore the sight…it was HUGE.

Once back at our tents we didn’t really do too much, we’d had such a busy few days we just chilled out, played some cards and chatted with the leaders. Me and some of us decided to head to bed a bit earlier than others as we were so tired and it had gone quite chilly.

Tomorrow was going to be a busy day!

                                                  It’s time to PARTY!

So again this morning we were awoken by Alan constantly knocking on our door until someone answered it…breakfast was at the same time today too. So once all up and dressed we headed down for the same things as yesterday. Once down in the breakfast room we were told that the day was ours to do with it what we pleased. Today there was the opportunity to go swimming in the river that runs all the way through the city. We decided not to do this, and thought we’d go on the sightseeing buses and see as much of Copenhagen as possible.

So after breakfast we headed upstairs to get our bags ready and met in the hotel lobby again. It was me, Alice, Kathryn, Meg, Gary and Sam that were going to spend the day together. We’d found out where the neatest bus stop was and wondered down to the stop to get on the city sightseeing bus. We weren’t sure how much it would be for the 6 of us and also whether the driver would speak English to help us out. Luckily after a not too long wait the bus turned up, AND the bus driver spoke English, everyone was too shy to speak to him so I asked him how much it would be and he did a group ticket which cost us something like £2 per person for the whole day on any of their buses. This was a bargain!

There were 3 buses and we started off on bus A…this took us on a route which showed us the zoo, the Carlsberg Factory and loads of other stuff. Once we’d done this route to the city centre, we changed buses to bus C, this one showed us all sorts of things around the city and took us to the outskirts a bit more and showed us some of the beautiful countryside. Once back to the town centre on this bus we decided to stay in the centre and get some lunch – we’d been given those awful vacuum packed things again, and instead of picking out of them, we just didn’t take them- so off to McDonalds it was! I had some chicken nuggets today, and another magnum Mcflurry, they were too good!

After some lunch and having pictures taken with some Chinese people…this was weird. We boarded the third sightseeing bus and saw the last part of Copenhagen! I really enjoyed the bus tours, it gave us chance to all chat and see some amazing sights around Copenhagen that no-one else in the unit did. On this route we saw the wealthiest hotel in the City which was also the biggest casino in the City! This was an incredible building so modern and glass, it didn’t really fit into the rest of the surroundings, but still a nice modern building.

Once this route was over we boarded back onto bus A, and saw the last part of the tour on our way back to the stop we got on from, it was nearly 4pm at this point so we decided heading back to the hotel and getting ready for the UK party was the best thing to do. We walked a different way back to the hotel to the way we’d walked. It was through this “park”, which was more of a big lake with paths, either side of it. It was a nice place to walk and almost seemed as though you weren’t in this big city.

Once back at the hotel we were told to meet in the lobby at 5pm, this gave us an hour to get changed and ready for a night of fun and surprises. So once we were all showered, changed and rested, we went downstairs to meet everyone for the walk to the place where the SportsOrama people had been the day before. When everyone was there we were all given 3 drinks vouchers each and we set off all following Ethan, so if we get lost we shall blame him! Okay so he didn’t get us lost and once there we were met with an entrance of balloons and our leaders took us all over to the side.

During their free day they’d been to visit the Carlsberg factory and had got us all a can of Carlsberg. Well maybe not actual Carlsberg as that would be irresponsible, they got us Carlsberg sport. This was almost the Danish version of an energy drink, but tasted so much better than the ones we have here. We were then told where to meet at the end of the night just in case we didn’t see any of the leaders until the end. Once inside there was a young lady, maybe around 18-20 (?) Who was playing guitar and singing her own stuff, she was amazing and had such a nice voice!

We were only 3 days into Jamboree but already fed up of burgers; so guess what we had for tea? “Build a Burger” Just like at Tivoli. There was a bit more choice here though and it was nicer, the burgers were proper meat not cheap stuff. We were all given a free drink token and a glow stick and after chilling eating tea, and then meeting new people from all around the UK, the doors opened and we could finally go inside. Me, Kathryn and Alice went to the front and were on the front barrier which was brilliant!

We’d been told earlier in the day that everything at our UK party was a surprise and that we’d only find out who was going to be performing for us when they went on stage. There had been loads of rumours going round about who would be our special surprise performer at the end. But I don’t think anyone guessed who it was. Me, Kathryn and Alice found out who it was before anyone. They’d tried to hide everything showing who it was, but they’d forgotten to cover the guitar case which said… “Alphabeat”

I was so excited when I saw this as I love Alphabeat! I just hadn’t listened to them in a long time, but this was amazing! We had quite a few things before hand and it started off with a magician…He was okay and all the boys in the room were wolf-whistling his assistant, but as most were quite far away, she wasn’t THAT pretty, just wearing something very revealing.

After The magician we had Mike Parkes (the UK Contingent leader) come on stage and talk to us all about Jamboree and introduce our hosts for the night – Matt and Darren (Formerly Max and OB from Hollyoaks). After all the introductions it was time for the next act, they were The Copenhagen Drummers from “Denmark’s got Talent”. They were awesome; they had snare drums around their necks to start with and kept changing around what they used, for one song they even used big wheely bins and metal dustbin lids!

Next were the “Kings ov Leon” a tribute band to the kings of Leon. During their set I was getting really excited about seeing Alphabeat…it felt weird though, as this was the first band I was seeing that I hadn’t been with Tarrant or Katie. As I expected Alphabeat were brilliant, they truly did exceed my expectations. I would definitely see them again if I got the chance! The girl has such a powerful voice.

After Alphabeat had finished their set, we headed outside for some fresh air as it was boiling inside the building. After cooling down we decided to go sit on a table with the leaders and just chill and dance around there. It was much cooler and there was loads more space. The last of the performers for the night were “the Kaiser Monkey killers” a local English band, that was most of the people from Kings ov Leon, that covered songs by the Kaiser chiefs, the Arctic monkeys and the Killers.

Mike Parkes came back on stage and we applauded all our performers and everyone that had organised such a great event for so many people! He wished us all a great Jamboree and would see us soon. We all met up after this and walked back to the hotel, down a street full of rubbish, homeless people and drug dealers. Once we were back at the hotel we were told we needed to be leaving the hotel at 8 tomorrow morning as we had to catch the coach to Jamboree at half past. So we all headed to bed tired and dreading the even earlier wake up call.

Today started off early…7am wake-up call from Alan continually knocking on our door until someone got up and answered it…We were all awake, just no-one wanted to get up and answer the door. Eventually Alice got up and opened the door to say we were awake and getting up. Breakfast was at half 7, so after getting up and dressed we all headed down. The room was large and yellow and had mirrors all down one side of the room. We queued for breakfast which was things like cereals, toast, bread and drinks. We were all given a notebook to record our thoughts and things from the whole Jamboree experience. Once fed and full, we went back to our rooms to get ready for our first day in Copenhagen.

We all met in the hotel lobby, where we were told that our first “surprise” was a boat trip and it was a “short” walk away. We were also told that when we get to a set of traffic lights we MUST wait for the green man as it is illegal to ‘Jay Walk’, which means to cross without the lights saying it’s safe to. We soon set off on our short walk; this ended up being an hour and a half walk, however although it was long we got to see a lot of this beautiful city and the last part of our walk was along the river leading into the sea which was lovely. When we arrived we found out that our surprise wasn’t just a river boat ride…we were going speed boating!! It had started to rain so we all got waterproofed up, put our bright yellow bag covers over our bags and put them in a pile under a tree.

Waiting in the queue - speaking to those Scouts and Guides that have already had their go – and we were all getting more and more excited. Everyone was wondering what to expect and some people were starting to get nervous as they don’t like boats. I was looking forward to this! We were split into groups of 12 and given our life jackets. I was the second group to head out to sea; I was sat behind the drivers and next to Anna (Leader). Once sat down, Anna realised the seats had suspension, so she started bouncing up and down and shouting “Go Horsey Go!” As we were sat behind the drivers we could see how fast we were going…at the top speed we went about 175 km per hour, this is around 109 miles per hour!!!! It was such an adrenaline rush and I really enjoyed it, going round corners the boat was tilting so much I could nearly touch the water. It was a very long boat trip – They had a lot of scouts to take out to sea. But it sure was amazing!

Once back on land, we all tucked into our vacuum packed lunch boxes…Again I didn’t eat one thing out of it. Luckily I still had food left from yesterday that I’d brought with me so I ate some cookies and watched Dan eat his lunch. None of us could understand how he could eat it, but hey he did. After everyone was back we wondered down to the famous “Little Mermaid”, the story of this mermaid was the basis of the Disney movie. We had some group pictures here and one with the dinosaurs to post of their journey.

We continued to do some sightseeing along the river and then came across a fountain of a women whipping a couple of bulls and riding on a chariot, we took more pictures and went to look around the Copenhagen army barracks. The entrance was this amazing archway and once you were through it was almost like going back in time, the houses were wonky and uneven just like old houses in the UK. Walking down past the houses there was the parade square where everyone was running around on and trying to spell out Avonasaurus, until 2 scary looking Army men came and told us off for being on the square…So we moved to the grass in front of this posh house and spelt out Avonasaurus with our bodies.

After looking round the Army Barracks we headed into the centre of Copenhagen, when we reached the square opposite Tivoli we bumped into some of the Australian Contingent and chatted and did some badge swapping with them. After this all of Avonasaurus and The Australians sang happy birthday to Ethan and gave him a card and cupcake with a candle to blow out.

Once we said our goodbyes to the Australians, Alan took the people that wanted to do “SportsOrama” to the sports centre and the rest of us that didn’t want to do the sports headed into Tivoli. Once we were let into Tivoli and given our wristbands we went to the toilet as it was the first we’d seen since we’d left the hotel at 8.30. They were decorated like a farm yard, with each door being a different animals “house”. It was brilliant and I’d never seen anything like it.

Once everyone had done that everyone from the unit split into groups of who we wanted to spend the day with and we all got on with our own thing. I went around with Alice, Kathryn and Sam. We decided we were hungry, so headed to the McDonalds we’d seen on our way into Tivoli to get some dinner. I some chicken nuggets and a Magnum Mcflurry – Wish these had come to England!

Then after some lunch we headed back into Tivoli to go on some rides! The first thing we went on was a spinning one, maybe not the best thing straight after lunch…Luckily for me I don’t feel sick on rides! Some of the people I was going round with didn’t like rides that much, so we went on some of the ones for children as well as some of us going on the faster ones. We went on a spinning ride, where you are on your own arm which was fish based and you could control if you went up or down…that was funny, childish but it was fun. We also went, quite a few times, on a roller coaster that actually had a driver!!

A bit later on we were wondering round and we met up with some of the others, and we saw our leaders on Vertigo, I can’t really explain this ride really, but I will try: You are in a plane, the bit you are sat in spins around, the plane spins on the arm and the arm spins round…It was extremely high and fast…You start off spinning around and then when you stop spinning you know it’s going to get scarier. This is when the speed goes up to 5G’s and you just spin around 5 or 6 times, now even though its going that fast it seems like you are on it forever! We waited in the queue for over an hour to go on it and it was so worth it! I went on with Ellie, Catrin and a Scottish Scout. It was an incredible ride and I’m so glad I went on it, no matter how nervous I was beforehand! After this ride we went back to the roller coaster that someone drives to show some of the others that hadn’t found it and went on it a few more times. Tivoli was full of scouts by this point from all different countries around the world.

We had been told earlier in the day to meet at the aquarium for dinner at 6, we thought we’d be getting a nice meal sat down in the restaurant. Turns out we were given a ticket that was valid for 1 burger, “chips” – Packet of crisps and a can of drink. For our food there were lots of tables set out in the aquarium which was nice but if we stood around to look at the fish we go told to move on and get out. The tables had plates of burgers and salad, there weren’t any plates to have it on and we were pushed into a huge queue before we’d properly finished making our burgers. This huge queue was to go up 2 flights of stairs and collect our crisps and drink. We weren’t impressed to say the least…we’d been given rubbish, soggy, mouldy lunch boxes, and then burgers for tea. After tea we were all hungry and wishing for some proper food.

Also when we were in the queue some Yorkshire Scouts started their chant – YORKSHIRE, YORKSHIRE YORKSHIRE… and so as not to be beaten Josh started ours off – AVON ASAURUS, AVON ASAURUS, AVON ASAURUS!!!! Okay so we won!

We all got told by the leaders that Tivoli was closing at 11, so to meet them at hard rock café outside Tivoli at quarter past 11. And so we had the next 4 hours to continue exploring and going on rides. This was great! We were wondering round after tea and we came across a “Joe and Juice” which was a smoothie and juice company that had a van at Tivoli. I had a strawberry, raspberry and banana smoothie which was amazing! I was craving something healthy and this was perfect…it quenched my thirst, was healthy and filled me up.

Once we’d got our smoothies and juice’s we joined the queue for the runaway train roller coaster…The queue was moving quickly and not long after we joined became massive. We tried to sneak some people in by us because they had got left behind when we were heading to the roller coaster, but some of the staff noticed and they had to leave to the back. This roller coaster was awesome! It’s a shame their proper big roller coaster wasn’t working because of the rain, that one looked the best.

It was getting late at this point so we decided to go and look around the souvenir shop where I bought 4 more BUD ducks. These were a School Professor, a Cheer Leader, A Geek and A paparazzi duck. I’d never seen these before so thought I’d buy them when I saw them. After looking around the shops and just chilling with everyone it was closing time so we all headed back to entrance to meet the leaders. The park looked amazing all lit up, and on the way back was the posh house thing that had loads of lights on and look fantastic all lit up!

We didn’t have to wait long at hard rock café for everyone to turn up and then we all headed back to the hotel together. Where we chilled in our rooms and after not long went to bed as we had had a brilliant but busy day today and tomorrow was our choice as to how busy it would be.

But for now, it’s time to sleep, zzzzzzzzzzz

After 6 months of being home from Jamboree I am finally typing up my Jamboree experience So here goes….

So today I’m feeling quite nervous, excited but also sad…From about half past 12 today I won’t see my family and Tarrant for 18 days. This is going to be hard! All packed and ready to go, mum’s running around and stressing, I think she think’s I’ve forgotten something. I’ve triple checked my bad I and can honestly say I think I’ve got too much and haven’t forgotten anything! Grandma and Grandad turned up around half 9 as they were coming with me, mum and Jon to see me off from Woodhouse Park.

Finally after checking I had everything like my passport and EHIC we were ready to leave, all that was left to do was lock the house and leave for Bristol. On the way me and Grandma were doing some last minute stitching on my scout shirt, as Jon had given me some more badges at explorers the week before and I hadn’t had chance to sew them on yet.

As we were travelling up we forgot that we hadn’t brought Alan a birthday card, so we popped into Asda in Cribbs causeway and got him a birthday card and some lunch. Then realising we’d taken so long in Asda we were now running late. So finally when we arrived at Woodhouse it was about 11 and I was one of the last to arrive. When I arrived Kathryn checked that I had my passport, EHIC, and that my bags weighed less than 23kg…mine was 21.6 kg. So as it is Alan’s birthday, when I got here everyone was stood around giving Alan birthday cards and presents; these included a blow up Zimmer frame and Avonasaurus branded boxers.

After the birthday celebrations we all gathered around the flagpole for some group pictures for our parents and some local papers. After this it was time to say our goodbyes to our families and move all our bags down to the coach. When moving all our kit, we realised how badly designed they were and how uncomfortable they were to carry. Once our bags were in the coach we got our seats…I wasn’t sharing but that didn’t bother me too much…I could still talk to everyone around me but with more space! We said our final goodbyes and boarded the coach ready to leave. At this point mum and Jon got a big sheet saying “good luck and Have fun” that they had done themselves…that was embarrassing, nice but still…

Waving goodbye to family and Kathryn was hard, knowing that I wouldn’t see them for 18 days was sad; but I could contact them when I was there so it was okay! And now…

The Adventure Begins!!

Headed for London and everyone is excited! The coach is loud and everyone is chatting away. On the way we stopped off at reading services (This is our favourite!) It was only a short stop of around 45 minutes so people could get some food, stretch their legs and chill in the sun; and soon we were on our way to Heathrow Airport Terminal 3. Our first glimmer of Heathrow was the roundabout leading to the different terminals which has a model aeroplane on it. Once at terminal 3, we got off the coach and unloaded all our things and got into our “Buddies”, mine were Harry Lewis and Meg. Walking into the airport and it’s full of scouts; quite a surreal view really. We joined the queue to check in and in front of us were another WSJ unit from Cambridgeshire, who’d we later find out would be on the plane with us.

After check in, we had some free time around the airport before going through customs and into duty free. We went upstairs and into some of the airport shops including a UK souvenir shop where I brought some more rubber ducks. There weren’t many shops to look around so after not long we just ended up sitting down the edge of the corridor chatting and writing in our diaries about what had happened so far this morning. After a while we all met up and went to security, I got through fine but a lot of people didn’t. Dan got checked because he is diabetic so they had to check his kit to make sure it was insulin and not drugs or anything; Alan also got checked because of his hip replacement.

Once through security we all went into WHSmiths and brought drinks and sweets as we weren’t allowed to take them through customs. Somehow me, Kathryn and Alice brought some sweets and we shared the cost evenly in a self-scan machine; and we got most of our money back. So instead of paying £3.50 we paid about 70p!

At 18.10 it was time to board the Plane, and 5 minutes later we were heading to the run way for take-off. In front of us was a TV, it was showing footage of us taking off from a camera on the nose of the plane. It showed us in front of the plane whilst we were on the ground and then when we started to take off it showed below us, so we could see the run way getting further and further away and before long we were seeing tiny fields and the sea. Once the seatbelt sign came off I moved and went and sat near Alice, I ended up sitting on the floor in front of the emergency exit…probably not the best place to sit but hey I could then talk to Alice at least. I sat here for most of the plane journey and got up to speak to others around the plane occasionally. It was a brilliant atmosphere with loads of scouts chatting away…I don’t think the public were too impressed, especially as we had split some families up because of the way we’d all been placed around the plane.

After 2 hours we started to descend into Copenhagen! The landing was really painful for me, but it was a very smooth landing really and we all clapped the pilot…I’m unsure as to why we do that? Once off the plane and into the airport we could instantly see how much nicer this airport was compared to Heathrow. Straight through the airport and into passport control…they didn’t stamp my passport which I was quite disappointed in because I was hoping to get loads of stamps this trip. Everyone got through without any problems and off to baggage claim…there were no trolleys so carrying our bags was hard as we were all tired but we all worked together and moved everything outside to wait for our transport to our hotel.

After a short wait our coach turned up, we then had to move all the bags again from the pavement to the trailer of the coach. Once there we were given a Danish cereal bar and a bottle of water… it was, um, interesting… We were on a double decker coach and once the journey had started we had a “welcome to jamboree” video which included people like Stephen Fry, Richard Hammond, David Attenborough and of course the obvious, Bear Grylls. They all wished us well and told us to have a brilliant Jamboree.

Our coach trip was short and sweet, we arrived at “The Cabin Express” within 30 minutes where we were all assigned rooms and told we couldn’t change them around because it’s illegal. I was sharing a room with Alice which was cool, and just as we had started to get settled Anna and Rosie (Leaders) came to our room and told us we were moving rooms and would be going upstairs and sharing with Chloe and Meg too; as they needed separate rooms to the other leaders they were supposed to be sharing with because of all the important documents and other things they had. So we then had to haul our bags up another flight of stairs into a room on the top floor.

The room was set out oddly…There were to single beds on the floor, above one of them was a bunk and then above half the room including the bunk there was another bed… odd layout but it was okay. We went down for some late dinner…a soggy sandwich, mouldy fruit and a cake bar. Okay so I didn’t eat this. It was disgusting. We were told when breakfast would be and we all went to our rooms to chill and get some sleep. We probably went to sleep about midnight, ready for a busy day tomorrow!!

myeyesarecold:

• Communicate: Talk about things, the good and bad.
• Build trusts
• Be honest
• Be faithful
• Be there for one another.
• Make time for one another.
• Leave the past to the past, which include ex’s.
• Know that having arguments are normal.
• Know that you won’t always be happy.
• Don’t expect change.
• Appreciate the flaws.
• Appreciate each other.
• Become best friends.
• Lastly, love each other unconditionally.

mynameisntreal:

Yes, I realise the irony and hypocrisy that posting what I want to say on this website/the Internet in general. But it seems to be the only way some people will listen. Or more, read.

Whatever happened to the spoken word?

In the days of old, words were always written in books or spoken with our…