Saturday, March 27, 2010

Roventure

The theme of Roventure 2010 was 'Superhero Bootcamp'. Although it took place over the entire weekend, Matt, Sam, Travis and I only attended on Saturday 27th March.


After having breakfast at McDonald's, me completely in costume, we arrived at BP Park, Samford, in time to sign in and make our way to the opening parade. Unfortunately, I was one of few people in costume for most of the day.



As Rovers, we were given bases to run. Our base was called 'Learn to Fly', which meant the Venturers had to 'fly' as far as they could before splashing into the pool. We saw belly flops - ouch! - bombs, high-fives mid-air, and other fancy maneouvres which were all scored out of 10 by the three judges. Travis also entertained everyone with group water aerobics sessions. There is video footage of this out there!


Since it was my first time to BP Park, I asked a Rover from Samford, Michael, who I also work with to take me on a tour and show me the other bases. I kind of wish I was a Venturer on this camp!


That night there was a jumping castle to keep everyone young at heart, and a band called Innerflection playing. I believe one of the band members is a Rover. Sam enjoyed some of their songs, as I noticed from his head-banging and fist-punching actions!


I later saw that on Sunday 28th March, each attendee wore their white Roventure T-shirt and had a coloured paint fight, which made the T-shirts look pretty cool! Definitely seemed like a fun camp!

- Rachel -

Friday, March 26, 2010

Scout Visit

Matt and I joined the St John's Wood Scout Troop on Friday 26th March for their 'Going Up Ceremony and Contruction' night. This provided us with the opportunity to actively observe what happens at Scouts and share our knowledge with them.

We started with an opening parade, which included the investiture of two Scouts. Then we went back inside for the introduction of the construction night. There were three bases: a planning base; a base with the game Jenga; and a base involving constructing something with a weak point. I helped on the third base.

For the third base, the Scouts had to tie rope around one large wooden block which acted as the weak point, and built a structure on and over the weak point. Once all the blocks were used in the construction over the weak point, the rope was pulled, showing the Scouts what happens when the weak point of a building is compromised. They enjoyed it.

Next, there was a going-up ceremony for two Scouts. Once they finished the first part with the Scouts, the two Scouts headed across to the Venturers to be welcomed. Since there weren't many Venturers there that night, Matt and I stood in as honourary Venturers.

The final activity for the night was a chariot race. The Scouts were separated into two teams had had to construct a chariot using any available wooden poles, thick sticks and rope. Matt's team elected to transport him on the chariot, whereas my team chose to transport the two smallest Scouts. My team built a chariot in an A-frame shape and used lighter wood. I was able to share some of my limited knot knowledge with the Scouts. Matt's team built a large reinforced square with thick pieces of wood. Although they put more effort into building their chariot, in the end, they could not carry it, decided to drag it along the ground like my team's chariot, and ultimately crossed the finish line last.

The Scouts and their Leaders seemed to enjoy the company of two Scouting members of a different section, and I definitely preferred watching the chariot race from a distance as opposed to riding on one!

- Rachel -

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Joey Visit

On Thursday 25th March, Kerry and I joined the St John's Wood Joey Scouts for their 'Australian Animals' night. The aim was to teach the Joeys something about us, and learn something from them for part of our Squire training.

After the opening parade, we played a kookaburra relay, which involved the Joeys walking quickly from the start of the line to about eight metres away where Kerry and I were standing to 'catch' a worm to eat, in other words, using a fork being held by their teeth to grab a lolly from the ground, then they quickly walked back and another Joey came out to 'catch' a worm. The fact that the lollies were briefly on the ground didn't stop the Joeys from eating them!

Then we headed inside where the Joeys cut out and decorated Australian animals. Some required our help cutting out the animals as the goannas had small feet and the echidnas had many spikes. This is when Matt and Travis joined us.

While we waited for the Joeys to finish their creations, we discovered that we would be singing 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport' next, Travis tried to make a wobble board, but the piece of wood was too thick, so Matt used his orange pipe didgeridoo as a musical accompaniment instead, which the Joeys enjoyed. The song was played a couple of times, and by the end, the Joeys were able to sing the chorus and identify the animals in the song.

Next, the Rovers ran a game. The Joeys stood in a line side-by-side and we asked them questions about themselves and Australian animals and depending on their answer, they took one, two, three steps forward or even one step back. The aim was to get every Joey from one side of the room to the other.

The night ended with a story about how the kangaroo got its pouch, final parade and Joeys running around like crazy kids like they did at the start of the night!

I think the Joeys enjoyed our company and I know the Leaders appreciated it!


- Rachel -

Elections

The results of tonight's elections were:

Crew Leader - Sam (Re-elected)
Scribe - Travis
Treasurer - Matt
Quartermaster - Kerry
Squire Master - Chris (R.A.)

The next election to be held in late August/early September.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Operation Archer

Operation Archer is a competition night initiative course organised by Moreton Region. Venturer Scouts navigate around a mapped course negotiating bases consisting of First Aid, Initiative, Construction, Map & Compass, Scouting Knowledge, for example. It was held on 20th-21st March, 2010 at Mulgowie, nearly two hours away with 24 teams participating. The SES also helped out on the night, mainly communicating scores via their radios.

Sam and Stephen C. arrived first and met with Iain, the organisers, and Chase and Laurie from Queen's Park Rover Crew for lunch at Mulgowie Pub, then began setting up the bases. Emile, Matt, Travis and I arrived later in time for the opening parade.

For Operation Archer, we ran a construction base and Iain, Chase and Laurie ran the initiative base. The construction base involved teams building a tripod base for a ballista in 15 minutes, being judged on planning, team participation, leadership, personal attitude, and skills displayed. We had two separate sites set-up for construction in order to accommodate two teams at once.

Our base was in the middle of the course, so at the beginning we had to wait a little while for the first few teams to arrive, and then later in the night, many teams arrived all at once, so having two sites set-up allowed us to get through everyone more quickly. In the quiet moments, we were able to do some Urban Challenge planning, which was good.

Some Venturer teams were quite entertaining and we learnt some interesting things about one of our Rovers *cough*

We weren't sleeping over that night as we had to return to Brisbane for various reasons. The hike finished at 3:30am and we were able to leave then, stocked up with biscuits and energy drinks for the drive home. I ran over two cane toads on the way back, so I felt like I was assimilating well!


- Rachel -

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Rachel's Glorious Squire's Hike

On Friday 12th March, D'Aguilar National Park welcomed Rachel - former Girl Guide from Victoria - and her sponsor, Matt - occasional environmental vandal and estimator. For Rachel's Squire's Hike, around 17.5 kilometres was covered by foot over two days to see Greene's Falls and Northbrook Mountain, near the township of Mount Glorious.

I had never attempted an overnight hike in the past, so it was already going to challenge me before I even started. With the help of Matt, a log of my Squire's Hike was kept.



Friday 5th March

13:00 - Slightly panicked about my Squire's Hike just one week away, I drove to the Walkabout Creek Visitor Centre where I met a friendly lady. She called other staff to get tips for me, allowed me to use her phone to book the campsite and sold me an invaluable topographical map that included where I wanted to hike and more.

13:30 - Relieved and excited.



Wednesday 10th March

15:45 - Went to Coles with my sister to buy food for my Squire's Hike. I had to keep in mind that Matt doesn't like shellfish (that's okay, my budget wasn't endless) and he couldn't drink tea or coffee due to Lent (that's okay, I wouldn't be drinking them either). Win-win.



Thursday 11th March

17:30 - Before I left for Rovers, I placed the chicken, bacon and a bottle of water in the freezer, and searched for most of the things I needed to place in my backpack. I also mixed together dried fruit and unsalted nuts (my theory being salt makes you thirsty = carrying more water) into two snack bags each, and removing vegetables from cans and putting them in snap-lock bags to reduce weight and rubbish.



Friday 12th March

8:00 - As I packed my backpack, I realised I should probably add a waterproof jacket, you never know what the weather will do. I looked everywhere and couldn't find it. Not having one to borrow, I added an extra polar fleece top and a black rubbish bag (!) to my backpack. I thought I'd be more miserable hiking wet than wearing a black rubbish bag in the presence of Matt, and potentially other hikers.

10:25 - Finally left to pick up Matt from his house, after finding out NAB Ashgrove doesn't have a coin counter and Matt had to sit there counting and bagging lots of coins from the Crew reunion a week earlier! Nearly at his house, I realised I left the tent behind...so I had to quickly, within the speed limit, return to my house to get it. We had allowed a generous amount of time, so the delay was no issue.

11:00 - Waved goodbye to Matt's house

11:45 - Arrived at the Greene's Falls carpark where we would start the first part of my Squire's Hike without our backpacks. We grabbed our cameras and a map, Matt did a great job at estimating the camera angle for the timed group shot (although, where's Emile when you need him!), and then we started the hike. On the way, we met three park rangers who told us that a large tree had fallen over in the Rainforest Circuit and they couldn't continue past the tree and along the path. We took a mental note to prove those park rangers wrong on the way back! Later, we found another tree that had fallen across a creek. Naturally we walked out onto it, and then heard, as Matt called them, yahooligans, three young guys making a lot of noise. Matt thinks they went quiet when they saw his 'serious' hat.

12:20 - Reached the platform at the top of Greene's Falls, then walked to the bottom of the falls, where we scrambled across rocks sitting in the water's path for the opportunity to take better photos.

12:45 - Departed Greene's Falls.

13:10 - Found the tree the park rangers said had fallen down in the Rainforest Circuit. Matt stood up on it with minimal effort, but as I tried to sit on it and swing my legs over, I slid down the trunk a metre! Then we checked out where the base of the trunk had snapped. It's amazing how a tree that wide could just break away from the base and not slide down the hill very far at all!

13:35 - Arrived back at my car. Actual walk took 15 minutes longer, probably due to checking out the tree that blocked the path. Had a brief lunch then headed to the start of Lawton Road.

14:15 - Began the second part of the hike - backpacks, tent and all this time - in search of the designated campsite.

15:30 - Drinks break number one on the mother of long hills. Had a good chat about Europe.

15:35 - Drinks break number two.

15:40 - Drinks break number three.

16:00 - Reached the top of the hill and the intersection with England Creek Road. Marked '29' (71769 77894) on the GPS as there was a full water tank.

16:20 - Came across another intersection, this time with an unknown road, and marked '30' (70979 78201) on the GPS. We then realised that we had passed the designated campsite, so we turned around.

16:35 - Found the discreet unmarked Northbrook Mountain campsite. It didn't look that nice, so we decided to camp by the water tank.

16:40 - Finally arrived at our chosen campsite, smiling. As soon as I put my backpack and tent down, I suddenly had all this extra energy! I started pulling out 50-100cm tall weeds so we could have a flat clear area to have a fire and a small path from the fire to the tent. I placed the tent over some weeds so it could act as extra cushioning. As the weeds weren't being pushed down too easily, I rolled across the flat tent like a 10-year-old child! And yes, it was mildly amusing! As I put up the tent to prove that I could pitch and strike a tent, Matt collected firewood. Then it was time to build and light the fire. For the record, I didn't have any newspaper or fire starters, just matches. The first match was placed near the centre and died quickly. As I was striking the second match, it broke. Undeterred and not wanting to waste the match, I lit it anyway. The flame quickly reached my fingers and I dropped it. To my amazement, it landed in just the right spot and the fire began!

18:00 - Time to start dinner. The chicken was still frozen in places! We had to cook dinner in two batches as the frypan was not a family-sized one and wouldn't fit everything at once. The chicken sat in the frypan for a while, defrosting, and then the Chicken Tonight Curry and vegetables were added. After eating Dinner Part 1, we eagerly cooked Part 2. This time Matt had the good idea to add cashews to the mixture. After eating Part 2, I think we determined that I got most of the cashews despite Matt being most excited about the cashews. Better luck next time, Matt! By now it was well and truly dark, and the fire had to be maintained in preparation of dessert. I had planned my version of a s'more. S'more is a contraction of 'some more' and is a popular campfire treat in the United States of America, consisting of toasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of graham crackers. It's origin is unclear, although the first recorded version of the recipe was published in 'Tramping and Trailing with Girl Scouts' (1927). My version involved us toasting our marshmallows and slightly melting three squares of Cadbury chocolate and then sandwiching them between two teddy bear biscuits. We had two s'mores each and vowed to make these on all future Rover camps. Yum!

21:00 - Washed our dishes with the water tank water, put out the fire and moved everything to the tent. As the tent was being zipped up, the rain started. After a chat, we went to sleep.


Saturday 13th March

8:15 - I had been awake for a while, but finally got out of bed as Matt was dressed and had been wandering around. I had heard cyclists stop near the tent, talk and then continue on. Matt later told me that the cyclists had caught him with his pants down! For breakfast we had

bacon and egg muffins, which came in a packet that had an English flag on it - to remind us of our duty to the Queen of Australia - and little 20-cent packets of tomato sauce too. Matt enjoyed the bacon! No matter how wonderful his openfire-cooked porridge was on his Squire's Hike, I was pretty sure bacon and eggs was better! Our bags were packed and the tent came down.

9:35 - Departed the campsite. With Matt holding the GPS and me holding the map, we went off to hike to the top of Northbrook Mountain.

9:55 - Arrived at the top of Northbrook Mountain, at an altitude of 659 metres, marked '33' on the GPS (72641 77874). There were even permanent markers letting people know it is actually the top. Took several photos, including another well-estimated group shot, but as we continued along the rocky outcrop, the quality of the views were getting better until eventually there were almost no trees blocking the view out to the west, and then we marked '36' (72925 77722) on the GPS. Matt found a particular kind of plant that makes great lightweight walking sticks, so he tried to break the stem from the base of the plant like an environmental vandal, but in doing so, split the stem in half and had to throw it away!

11:15 - After scrambling over the rocky outcrop for ages and not gaining a lot of ground, the rocky outcrop ended and we started our descent to Lawton Road, and marked '37' (73319 77604) on the GPS.

11:35 - Lawton Road was in sight, so I was happy again, and marked '39' (73678 77738) on the GPS. But the smile was soon wiped off my face when I had to slide down a short steep section at the bottom of the hill and dirtied my light coloured pants in the process. Light colours always manage to get dirty! Now I had to walk up another long hill and by now, my legs, feet and lungs didn't like me anymore.

11:55 - Drinks break number four.

12:00 - Drinks break number five.

12:05 - Drinks break number six.

12:25 - Arrived back at the start of Lawton Road and packed my car. My smile was the biggest it had been the entire hike! Changed my muddy pants and shoes while I stood beside my car. Despite trying to be really quick, I had almost finished getting changed when a car drove by and the passenger was looking in my direction! So separately, Matt and I both got caught with our pants down over the course of the day haha!

12:30 - Enjoyed scones with jam and cream at Maiala Restaurant and Teahouse. Matt paid for it as I paid for everything else. He chose a strawberry and vanilla milkshake with malt. An interesting combination I must say.
13:30 - Arrived back at Matt's house where he flagged down his family's car behind us so he could get a lift up his steep driveway with his backpack!

13:45 - Finally reached home as it started raining again. I didn't have to use my polar fleece and black rubbish bag combination after all! Yay! I had a nice long shower and put my legs up for the rest of the afternoon, and attempted to write this post.

Final thoughts:

Plants I became familiar with:
  • Lantana
  • Orchid
  • Staghorn
  • Bunya Pine
  • Another one I don't know the spelling of, but it makes great lightweight walking sticks
Insects that bothered us:
  • Flies
  • Mosquitoes
  • Ants
  • Leeches (just Matt, thankfully not me!)
Things I would change:
  • Work out how to better carry the tent
  • Learn how to use the GPS before I leave
Things I learnt:
  • Basic use of a GPS
  • Hiking 17.5 kilometres is not as far as I imagined
  • Matt sticks his tongue out when he concentrates
Things I accomplished:
  • Walking 17.5 kilometres on my first overnight hike
  • Seeing parts of Queensland that I wouldn't have seen if I didn't join Rovers
  • Not getting baptised by Matt


This will not be my last Squire's Hike, as next time I will be the sponsor. Hopefully I have learnt enough from my own hike in order to offer good guidance to someone else. I think further use of the GPS, and finding my waterproof jacket would be beneficial. With a bit of luck, the other Squires will see that the former Girl Guide could complete an overnight hike, and be encouraged to plan their own hike in the near future.



- Rachel -

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Cleanup Australia Day!

An army of Rovers arrived at Walton Bridge on a bright Sunday morning at 7AM. The army consisted of Rovers, Steve and Jono, and Steve's friend, Nicole, who, though not a Rover, is worthy of note. Thank you Nicole.

This year, Cleanup Australia Day was organised by the Rotary Organisation. We were able to catch up with some of our Rotary friends who we had assisted in their Santa Sleigh endeavour in Ashgrove, in late 2009.

Our mission was to scour the bush surrounding the Gap Past Time Football Club for litter. After one and a half hours of bush bashing and determined trash-busting we had finished and headed back to base for some water and, thanks to Steve, a trip to Brumby's.

Other groups working on the project were tasked with cleaning up much of Payne Road and Walton Bridge. Overall it was a good effort and, although we returned back to base early, there was already a large pile of bags containing unwanted trash, ready to be disposed of. It was good to see!

It was a great opportunity to do our bit for the environment and, once again, work alongside our Rotary friends.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Den Clean up continues

Following the huge clean up of the Q Store, Sam and RA Chris loaded the second load of rubbish into the trailer and took it to the dump.

Rover Reunion Summary

This is a brief summary of the presentation I gave at the Crew Reunion last Friday;

Welcome to the 50th Anniversary History of the St Johns Wood Rover Crew. This CD is a prototype – an extract of the full Monty. The finished CD will probably run to about 650 meg; is point and click friendly, and you’ll find yourself in there without a great deal of difficulty. It is a CD, not a DVD.

Depending on your computer screen, appearances may differ slightly.

The Opening Screen is the Home Page and is straight forward. It sets out the Welcome and the 4 volume structure of the CD.

The Welcome section typically has an Introduction, Acknowledgements, Foreword and Contents. The Chief Commissioner, Maurie Law has written the Foreword, which arrived by email last Wednesday.

The Contents give more detail on what’s in each of the Volumes.

Volume 1 is the Twenty-Five Year Booklet; 1959 – 1984, with corrections to my earlier errors. It is reproduced as written, but paginated to this CD format. I have recreated the cover from the original art work done by Ian Webb and Russ Davie.

Each Volume has a side bar, listing the point and click index of “chapters” as I call them. This can be changed to a page index – or removed altogether.

Volume 2 is, “The Next 25 Years – 1984 to 2009”, and is in the same mould as Vol 1 – but a bit longer and with a few more photos.

Volume 3 continues the story, covering The St Johns Wood Fellowship, Crew Sponsorship, SOFA, and Annexes depicting Who’s Who of the Crew, a Crew Chronological Tree, an Annex of Lists for the trivia buffs, and of course a section dedicated to deceased members and associates.
Both SOFA Logs are reproduced in full in Vol 3 – which shows I hope that there is life after the Crew.

Volume 4 is “The Saints Pictorial”, a photo album covering the fifty year period – again using the “chapter” headings used in the History. [I’ve included photos of thirty two of the thirty four investiture sites that the Crew has used, captioning the name and year of each Rover’s investiture at that site].

There will be a Volume 5 containing multiple Slide Shows. The slide shows will be structured on the “chapters” used in the History. There will also be an additional file listing each photo in the slide show. It is hoped that this file will be able to be printed out, even though the rest of the History will be locked.


URGENT URGENT URGENT
I’m still putting these slide shows together, so if there is a particular photo or photos that you would like included, please email (or snail mail) it/them to me ASAP with details of when, where, what and who. (max 5 per email please). Cut off date is Friday April 9, 2010

The first booklet ran to some 50, ½ xA4 pages; 10000 words, and 8 B & W photos – 4 colour separation was rather expensive back then.

A printed version of this 50th Anniversary History will run to more than 300 pages; 72000 words and at last count 750 photos and images, excluding the slide shows.

The whole thing should be done and dusted and ready for launch by the end of July.

Rob Bruce

Friday, March 5, 2010

Rover annual reunion 2010



Thanks to our RA Chris Goninon's catering and financial efforts, this year's annual rover reunion was a great success, with multiple generations getting together for a beer, or nine, food and a great slideshow and presentation collated by our resident historian. The entry fee was $5 at the door that went into the costs of catering (and of course bash car/maintenance funds!). Iain spent the night on the door shaking older Rovers down for this cash.





The current Rover Crew (all 14 of us) would like to thank our older Rovers for turning up and providing us with some very interesting conversations. Additionally, the reunion resulted in the return of memorial photos of deceased Rovers, which now hang proudly once again on the wall.



After the reunion the plan was to sleep over at Emile's place and then the next day go out OP-shopping for the St George's Ball, but since it was postponed to the 9th of October this year (due to a double booking) we decided against the Op-shopping. Half the rover crew still packed Emile's shed, however.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Q-Store gets a clean.

On the 4th of March, approximately 10 Rovers congregated at the den ready to clean out the crew Q-Store. What a daunting job! Sam and 4 or 5 other Rovers were constantly in the Q-Store sorting everything into a "Bash Car", "Keep", and "Toss" pile outside.

Ex-Rover Owen Downes also came down to help on this night to sort out the Bash Car stuff from the other miscellaneous rubbish in the den (as he, primarily, was the Rover in charge of Bash Car maintenance).

Meanwhile, the remaining Rovers did the finishing touches on the main part of the Rover den and prepared for the Rover reunion the next day. Unfortunately, not all the debris from the Q-Store could be disposed of before the Reunion, as RA Goninon's car was having some troubles getting to the dump. The remaining Rubbish was concealed with a tarp in front of the garage door.

As a result of this evening, you can actually now walk through the Q-Store! Astonishing! We also finished cleaning about an hour earlier than expected (as we started at 6:30 instead of the normal 7:30, where we expected to finish at 10:30!), and Sam departed, exhausted, at 9:30, while others stayed to talk.

Sam