4TH August 2024 - Red Rose Jamboree Days 1 and 2
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I have headed off on a Jamboree, a Scouting term for a large camp in
the lake district, England, UK. The event is called Red Rose.
Day 1 was spent travelling and setting up camp. We left Birmingham at
9ish and arrived by half 1. Not bad fot a speed limited minibus.
Driving tbat thing is odd, uncomfortable but oddly fun too. Setting
camp was simple enough. We packed so everyone had the same plastic
bag. It made life so eaay. Standard bags can be packed easily and
swiftly. No surprise 5 bags for one person either. After camp was set
up, we had an opening ceremony.
The best part of a Jamboree is getting large groups in one place.
There is a huge buzz and atmosphere from getting 3000 people to join
together. There are Scouts and Explorers from Northern Africa, Norway,
Ireland and various parts of the UK. We have Scottish, Welsh, Northern
Irish, English and Manx representatives. Only need some from the
channel islands for a full sweep. I love this buzz. There was music,
dancing, costumes galore, balls being thrown around and organised
chaos. It makes you feel alive. These ceremonies tend to be naff. This
mostly involved a speech from a winter olympian and some count downs
to unfurl banners. The ceremony does not matter. Only the getting
together matters.
After a long day, the kids went to bed qhickly
Sadly all the groups ariund us had other ideas. Earplugs to the
rescue. Well sort of rescue.
After a patchy sleep, I ended up waking up at 5am. Not good. I headed
to a ahower and made thr grim discovery that these were cold water
only. Sigh. One of those weeks. No wonder they were mostly free. After
a hurried and focused wash, it was time to wake the young people up.
Yhey were grumpy slugs who took a good hour or so to emerge from their
pits. Ah well.
We were off to Liverpool for a culture day. That was to be done by a
monopoly run. Living monopoly where you visit places and take photos
to prove your visiting. Liverpool is an odd place. Deprivation and
then sudden industrial but art deco buildings galore. We had a long
walk around, visiting landmarks and making silly faces for tbe photos.
It was a fun day even if we were panicking at first. Turns out that
there were riots the day before. A stabbing occurred at a dance school
last week and the bastard who did it was UK born with Ugandan
heritage. A prime target for the far right to march. Thankfully plenty
of counter marches appeared and so riots occurred the day bwfore. We
saw nothjng. We expected to sewm broken glass and burmt out cars but
thwre was nothing. Good stuff and it enabled us to have a great time.
I did have to twll my explorers off for visitng a hooters. It was the
first one I had seen in the UK so a surprise for me too. Liverpool
remained an odd mix. I have the feeling that the areas around the city
are what makes the city.
A
Both evenings have involved discos in the evenings. Strange sov
ber events where thwre is so much cheese played. The young people
enjoy it though.
Weird siggt of tbe day: 40 young people suddenly doing the macarena as
one. All it took was a bar or 2 to set them off.
Tomorrow should be a global day. All on site. Ot has been raining lots
and i expect that to continue.
Sorry for typos. Phone typing. Will correct later.
