Colchester Castle

Today I started off on a footsteps activity at Colchester castle. The Jamboree bussed out two coachloads of Scouts to us and we ran two half day activities. In the morning it was Footsteps, taking them up to the castle museum and letting them explore. I think we could have done with encouraging them to try the interactive part of the exhibits more, as we were out and eating lunch fairly early.

In the afternoon I stayed with my coachload of Americans, Spaniards, Japanese and Devonites, and went on to the Starburst activity. The Japanese troop sanded down one of the park buildings, while the Americans and Spanish set to work with wire brushes on some rusty iron gates. The Brits were handed some gardening tools and set about attacking an overgrown corner of the park with great enthusiasm.

Patrick (aka Granville for those that know him) observed “If ever you need a fence painting, you need to get some Azerbaijani Scouts”. Said scouts had apparently got through their allotted task in the morning with great speed. But today I can’t fault any of the Scouts who all did as they were asked without slacking or complaining.

On return to the site, many of SAGGA were back at Hylands catering for a Starburst reception. I collapsed and fell asleep, being slightly dehydrated, and dozed until half six, nearly missing my dinner, but arriving in time for a large portion.

And now, having showered, it’s time to relax. It’s nice to catch up with friends.

Links Update

I’ve updated the sidebar. James C has moved his blog to a new domain name, and tactfully reminded me on Wednesday. I had already updated the SAGGA Blogs Digest, and my own digest page on bloglines, but forgot to update the sidebar.

Also, given it’s been in the news recently, I’ve included a link to the Lib Dem page about the BAe bribes scandal. You can still catch Monday’s Panorama on the subject at the BBC Panorama website.

Apologies to Kinja Readers

I had changed the settings to alter how this blog is listing in search engines. Trouble is Kinja doesn’t rely on feeds like bloglines, but sends virtual robots out to read blogs in the same way as a search engine. What that means was I’d stopped people who’d subscribed through kinja from reading my blog. But- if I jam this stick in this gap in the template and heaaaaaaaaaave.

Oh dear, sorry about that looks like I’ve just released a backlog of posts. Normal service will resume soon, I promise!

Travel

I’m so excited!

I have booked flights for not one, but two excursions abroad this year. In April Sarah and I off to Sardinia for 5 nights. Over the last couple of days, the hotel bookings were finalised. It’s going to be great.

I’ve also booked a flight to Olso in July, and will be staying a night there before meandering down to SAGGA Summer Camp by train. I have 2 weeks off, so I’m not sure where I will be going on to at the end of camp. I need to start negotiating with people travelling by car ferry as to how my tent will get home.

I did get raised eyebrows when I revealed I would be flying RyanAir both times.

Life is sweet, I’m very happy at the moment.

Photo controversy

SAGGA AGM 2002
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Amy’s comment lead me to disbelieve when this photo was taken. I thought it was on the trip to Southport during the SAGGA AGM at Bispham Hall, but on further reflection it could have been on a SAGGA summer camp some years earlier.

Can anyone help?

SAGGA Saltaire day

Arrived late only to find I was the first here. After a brief tour of the settlement went to see the David Hockney exhibit in Salts Mill with Amy Lewis and Sue, as it was somewhere I wouldn’t normally visit if I was on my own.

Back in Yorkshire

Back from a few days off, using up my unused holiday allowance from last year.

Thrusday night was spent in London in a pub with some Doctor Who fans. Having not been able to visit monthly for a few years, I found I knew hardly anyone there. Some people I did know plainly didn’t want to talk to me, but there you go. There were others there I recognised more than knew, including a couple of guys who wrote for the new series. One of them is a lovely guy, very talented, but seemed to be a bit overwhelemed by the interest of his fellow fans. As you would. On the whole I think I enjoyed catching up with the people I caught up with so it was worthwhile.

Friday I had free, so visited Watford to help out there for a few hours. Then up to Norfolk for the SAGGA AGM. It was nice to catch up with everyone, and I only had to put up with a few hours of meeting to do it.

On the way back I called in at Hesley Wood to pick up a brochure, and found that the site is not available for the weekend booked for the district explorer camp. But hey, we’ve only had it in the diary 12 months, and we decided on Hesley 3 months ago, so I’m really getting ahead of myself by going behind the person responsible’s back and trying to book myself.

At the SAGGA AGM it was remarked that I havn’t updated this page much recently, and was that because I’ve been away. Well yes and no. I have been busy, but also havn’t had much to say. Despite ocasional flashes of opinion, this blog stays firmly in the “I had egg and chips for tea” category. There were also one or two difficult conversations. Outside this blog I keep my two (three? four?) lives separate. When a good friend says “I’m bored of this general election.” I have nothing to say. Especially given her opinions on the alternatives offered to her sitting Labour MP, which seemed to me to be pretyty valid. I don’t know what I can say either, I’m more of a worker when it comes to… well anything for that matter. Another mentioned the fact that his Lib Dem MP was standing down, so they have a chance for a change. A third friend turns out to be the daughter of a Labour MP, and wished me happy campaigning whilst warning me off turning up where he’s standing.

I returned home, to find for once messages left on the answering machine. I don’t find a speeding ticket from when a camera flashed me a few weeks ago, so maybe it was a little sensitive.

A Day at the Races

A fun weekend spent mostly with Birmingham SAGGA. Yesterday I cleared out the bulk of my remaining stuff from Nicola’s leaving me with a few bare essentials. Clothes, food, a PC…

After eating at my parents it was off to Andy & Het‘s in Tutbury for supper (pizza) and a DVD (Mystic River). I was introduced to their tilting chair mechanism, and fell asleap until just before the denouement.

This morning after a lazy start and breakfast, we headed off to Utoxeter race course. 14 of us in total all arriving in different car parks, and using the wonder of the mobile phone to get together at the entrance. (For those that know who I’m talking about they were: Me, Andy & Het, Wendy, Mad & Rob, Hugh and Jo, Sally Jon and the children, Lizzie and Dan.)

I did OK on the first few races, with a place, a win, a loss, and another place, putting me at having won about as much as I had lost on the betting. Then all my horses in the final two races lost, leaving me going home out of pocket.
Some of us came close to breaking even, and one (Hugh) even made his entrance fee back. All in all it proved betting on the horses isn’t a very easy way of making a living, but a fun pastime nonetheless.

The Countryside Alliance were present with their misleading “59% support hunting” posters, sticking stickers on children, attempting to collect new members, and equally dishonestly collecting money on the pretext it was being used to protect “country sports like horse racing”. I was tempted to say something, but as usual I didn’t.

Still they weren’t so prominent as to spoil things, and I left looking forward to November’s Birmingham SAGGA event. All in all a good weekend.

Water Weekend

A relaxed weekend spent with friends from a good crossection of SAGGA members, some children of SAGGA members, plus one or two GaSCiT staff. We had a fair few boats out including a GP14, a couple of Picos, a Lark, Granville’s Firefly and Claire’s Mirror-Mirracle. Oh and Jessica the large cabined sailing dinghy. We also had a few canoes out and Claire W and Charlotte P had a go at honing their windsurfing skills.

Saturday was overcast, so we started late, but I got to go out twice, once in the Mirracle, and once in a Pico. The sun came out later so everyone ventured outside to read and watch the children and the boats.

In the evening it was improvised barbeque time as the old fixed barbeque had been taken out with the hut. Then a campfire around which there was chat and gossip about life and the state of the Associations.

The next day was wet, but I managed to get out and canoe for about an hour. Most people stayed inside and talked. Lunch was a lamb casserole, and then it was time for everyone to go out in the drizzle to bring the boats in.

So a nice social weekend with some boats. Well done to Gill and Roger for organising, I will be back next year.

Messing about on the… water.

OK it nearly fitted.

Anyway tonight after work I shall be heading off to Staffordshire for the SAGGA Water activities weekend. A relaxed weekend spent rowing, sailing, canoing, and lazing about on the side reading.

Catch you on Sunday.