Scout Expedition challenge - Glasgow 2015

The first person we met was Jermain, he was beautiful.  He was in need for a munch so we fed him cheese and crackers; we even learned that pigeons don’t like ham. ;D

At Xscape, before we did the Sky Walk/Sky drop we all had a go on the “Robo Coaster” which is the only coaster in Britain controlled by a robot. Then just after that we met are second person of our challenge called Blair. Blair seemed like a cool guy as he was our skywalk instructor. Blair called us fun names such as: 7up, Bacon Hater, Fin and others. We also had to do the sky drop which involved jumping off of a high platform.  

We also met Alan, Alan was a cool guy but really creepy.  He asked to take our bags and probably tried to steal our possessions. He works at the Tall Ship museum and is a form of Security guard and was 35. He also claimed he was a scout when he was younger.

After we had had a long journey and after noon at Xscape, we then headed back towards the Tartan Lodge Hostel. Before we got there we stopped off and bought all our shopping at the Co-operative. Then we all walked over to the Hostel. As we had finally reached the Hostel we lost half of our Wotsits and cried for the rest of the night. 

As soon as we arrived at our hostel we connected to the Wi-Fi before we even got in the door. The man who showed us to our rooms was very nice and he had a very Glaswegian accent.

We unpacked our bags and headed down to the kitchen to cook spaghetti Carbonara with chicken and steamed carrots. It was delicious. We went to our rooms at about 10:00pm. We woke up and made Sausage baps.  

At about 9.00am we left to go to the necropolis to do a treasure hunt type thing. We completed the hunt quite quickly so we had time to go to the cathedral.

We got on the tour bus to go site seeing and sat on it for at least half an hour.We got off at the Riverside museum and did the global Treasure app which was a series of different quizzes each place we went to.

We visited the Mitchell library but it was very boring so we left very quickly. After we got on the bus and went to McDonalds and we sat there for an hour and a half.

When then headed down to the Glasgow bus station and waited for our bus ride Home. We had a slight panic, when we looked at the bus size and glanced back over at the amount of the passengers there were. We didn’t all sit together on the bus as three of us sat in a row the other one sat by themselves a couple rows ahead.

We arrived safely home in Inveruire.      

Scout Burns Ceilidh

This week at Scouts we had a burns night ceilidh. A few dances later we got sat down for our burns meal. Some of the Scouts Addressed the Haggis and said the Selkirk Grace, this counted toward their Scottish Challenge Award. We enjoyed some haggis, neeps, tatties, carrots and black pudding as well as some IrnBru. Although I think giving 40 hyper young people IrnBru could have been a mistake...

Some more Burns poetry and highland dancing to wrap up our night.

We did hand out the shed load of badges which were due out - almost everyone has now achieved their stage 3 emergency aid and many challenge badges were handed out as well.

Scout pioneering games

This week as we returned to Scouts we started with a great game from Gordon. After learning some pioneering skills, in the middle of hut we strung up bags of chocolate coins. The aim was simple - retrieve them for your team - but should they hit the floor the leaders get them!
Given four staves, two frying pans, two candles and few other items the teams had to burn through the string and catch the chocolate coins.

Awards and Investitures

Sorry for the late posting but Harlaw cubs really did have something to celebrate on the last night of the autumn term.
 Four beavers were invested into cubs.

And then 8 (yes 8!  a record for us) cubs achieved the highest award available in Cubs.  The chief scout Silver award. To earn this badge cubs must earn the 6 challenge badges.  Don't worry there are still plenty badges you can earn.

Well done cubs!  Keep up the good work.

Dalguise Adventure Weekend

Four days at PGL Dalguise for a weekend of adventure with the Cubs and Scouts.

Friday
The bus picked us up as the hut we set off, the Scouts at the back having a wee party - cubs at the front having a chat. We stopped off at MacDonalds for some chips and a stretch of our legs.
As we arrive at PGL we met Adam our groupie. He is the guy who looks after us between activity and plays games with us in the evening.
We were split into teams and had to come up with names. Much deliberation later and one team came up with half of a double act name - the big spoons. Our little spoons were nowhere to be found and instead we have team 007. Team chants planned we spent the rest of the day singing songs and playing games.

Fish or meatballs for dinner followed by a questionable sponge cake... Everyone went mental for the salad bar of course...
The evening activity was a huge game of Ambush. One team hid in the grounds of Dalguise - which in the dark was very scary! They left pointers for the other team to follow and when they found them we would ambush them! Team 007 won by a mile ! The big spoons tried some "inventive tactics" by phoning Linda and hoping her phone would ring in the dark!
Bed time was a challenge with 21 highly excitable kids, eventually we all got a good nights sleep in our lovely indoor chalet.


Saturday
Early rise this morning for a full breakfasts in the dining hall.
The activities in the morning were challenge course : an assault course in the mud, with some more mud added in for extra muddy-ness! This finished off with a crawl though the TUNNEL OF DOOM - a pipe in a river!
Trapeze : climbing a huge tree before jumping off and trying to touch the big orange ball hanging in the trees. Nerves of steel and a head for hights required for this.

Lunch gave us a break and a chance to wash all the mud off.
The afternoon was filled with raft building and fencing. Our rafts were super easy to build and surprisingly sturdy! We had a paddle round the lake to test them out - a few people make a little splash - Lesley made a big splash!
Fencing was a new sport for most of us, we got to play games before getting kitted up in full combat gear. Everyone enjoyed challenging each other to duels - by slapping them round the (masked) face with gloves! En-garde!

Dinner was lamb curry and chicken with amazing toffee Belgian waffles.
Lots of new little games were played that we can take home. Ninja, splat, cut the cake, Rock Paper Scissors cheerleader and moo train - which is hilarious for the leader to watch!
The night was finished off with a giant game of cluedo in the dark.
The leaders all dressed up as characters in the game and PC Adam briefed the detectives. The suspects were lined up and questioned before hiding around the Dalguise estate. Each group had to find the suspects in the dark and complete a task for each one before getting clues awarded. The nasty Maggie Mop, as played by Lesley our GSL, was the criminal so got wet-secuted !
That busy day was finished off with a hot chocolate in the leaders social room of our chalet, the cubs went off to bed and the scouts helped write out this blog.


Sunday
Morning showers on a camp - still a great novelty for everyone. (I'm still impressed by a roof!)
Another hearty breakfast set us up for the day ahead, which started with mountain biking and jacobs ladder.
Bike skills and learning how to mountain bike started us off - then we set off into the trees, down hills and through rivers! A few of us face planted and went for a swim!

The jacobs ladder was a chance for the young people to work together and get each other up as high as possible! One of the scouts just scuttled right to the top like to ninja! When on climbing everyone else had a go at belaying and cheering on the climbers. The kids all loved watching the leaders trying to clamber up, watching Lesley Scott and Lee was very funny!

Lunch let us catch our breath and have some games all together with Adam.

Quad biking were a bit underwhelming - the scouts wanted more power. But the little cubs enjoyed there first time driving!

Zip wire was great - flying down the 100m wire high in the air. Fentons terrible/funny jokes and being thrown off the tower by Becky down the zip wire made this most peoples favourite activity.

Great fun snapping Regie the wedgie penguins neck.
After dinner we had a campfire run by Adam and Craig, they had all the Cubs believing they were telepathic. Learned a few new songs and claps - but we all agree one thing - Scouts are kings of campfires! We sing louder and make bigger fires!
We finished the day by packing up our kit in the dark as there was a power cut! More hot chocolate before bed.


Monday
We started the day by packing up ready to leave our lovely little chalet. Fraser took our bags down in the pickup so we didn't have to trail them all down the giant hill!
Another great breakfast before a morning of activities : rifle shooting and giant swing.
Rifles was aiming at little paper targets and scoring points - then in round two we shot at different styles of targets and spinning spoons. Scott was the champion with 37 points and 4 spoons!

Giant swing was a favourite activity of most people. Two people strapped onto the swing and everyone else heaving then up high, before one swinger pulls the cord to release them and weeeeeee!

Some more games with Adam and it was the final lunch. We gave a BRAVO to the catering team and the senior managers who were visiting - think we made their day!
The bus ride home saw us signing all the way - fuelled by sweeties as we were all in need of a much needed nap!

So a great weekend was had by all - huge thank you to Linda for organising it for us.

Going for Gold!

Scouts from all round the district were at Daviot for another district run camp. The theme this year was going for gold, so a mix of the old tv gameshow and the commonwealth games challenges.

The weather wasn't great so board games and DVDs made up the evening activities - then Saturday was a hoot!

Activities were a mix of traditional back woods and two man saw, indoor Wii and baking, fun bouncy castle and bungee run as well as others!


Sunday was when we were actually going for gold - teams competed to gain gold stars in a variety of short games, getting sweeties at almost every base!

Food was all cooked by the district and Blair chef Duncan - it was pretty special!

A video of the bungee run is coming soon!

Scouts Circus Night

This week at Scouts we were learning our circus skills.
Starting with big top parachute games, then on to acrobatics, face painting and circus skills.

Plate spinning, batons, streamers, juggling and diablos were all flying around the hut.

If you would like to get your circus skills badge then check out the scouts website for more details about what the requirements are - or check in with a leader.