Secret Santa Scavenger Sillyness

Pete Crouch organised a Secret Santa Draw and present shopping night at the annual 24 hour Chermside Shopping Extravaganza.

Pre-drinks, kindly gifted to the Crew by Travis, were had at Kristy's House of Naturism at Stafford, with HJs, prior to departing. The secret draw and ground rules were set down in Kristy's basement.

Cars were seen skidding around the carpark in the rain. Battling others for parks and generally being silly. More pre-drinks were had in Matt's car.

Upon arriving the A-team had coffee and then all separated.

Rendezvous was two hours later in the DJs furniture section. After only gifting one present the Crew was kicked out of DJs and relocated to the new-Chermside foodcourt. All gifting was done. Highlights included Travis' Mankinini.

Munchies were made at 2-in-1 bakery and the Crew departed by 12:30am.

Attendance: Pete, Trav, Emile, Yanni, Kristy, Iain, Lucy, Libby (associate Crew member, from The Gap), Stephen (for pre-drinks only) and Matt.

Santa Sleigh Break-up at The Gap Tavern

St John's Wood and The Gap Rover Crews shared dinner at The Gap Tavern to celebrate the end of Santa Sleigh 2011.

Pete Crouch started the ball rolling on a Secret Santa Scavenger Hunt During The Great 24 Hour Shop. Much interest.

Matt came directly from a meeting with the AJ2013 Camp Chief Director. Much Jamboree discussion ensued.

Santa Sleigh 2011: 3 Dec - 11 Dec

Group Christmas Break-up at the Den, and Lunar Eclipse Party at Emile's

The Group Christmas Break-up was attended by the majority of the Crew. Emile, Eleri, Stephen, Lucy, Kristy, Pete, Tom, CL Iain, RA Mick, Matt and Jordan (for a time), all attended. Jordan had to leave early as she was especially invited to be one of The Gap Rover's date a function (undisclosed). RA Mick was under the weather due to being too much of a party animal.

The newly renovated Crew garage saved the day as the wet weather alternative for the BBQ cooking area.

The Crew ran a trivia night for the Group. Special thanks to Emile (French) and Eleri (obscure) for organising the powerpoint and questions, and to Lucy Endicott (language), Peter Crouch ("Rugrats") and Kristy Butler ("science", read: nerd) who contributed questions.

Afterwards, the Crew retired to Emile's for drinks and to watch the Lunar Eclipse. We also sang along to Paul Simon (and discovered Emile's lack of good music to sing-a-long to) and watched "the Inbetweeners" (a movie about the younger members of the Crew).

Straddie 2011: 26 Nov - 3 Dec

Investitures

At Stradbroke Island, Jordan Lores and Yanni Dubler were invested as Rover Knights in the St John's Wood Rover Crew at sunrise.

A comprehensive steak burger Crew Dinner was held beforehand.

Talks by the fire were thorough and meaningful.

Matt Ray conducted the ceremony. Crew Leader, Iain Laing, and RA, Mick Bain, assisted.

Venturers-Rovers Nerf War Night

Emile, Travis, Iain, Matt and Mick attended the Venturer organised Nerf War night.

Pizza Capers pizza was eaten and foam bullets were fired.

The Venturers enjoyed the interaction with the Rovers and had many more way-cool guns than the Rovers.

Lucy's Squire's Hike

On 19-20th November, Matthew Ray and I drove to O'Reilly's/Lamington National Park to complete my Squire's Hike. After getting stuck in Schoolies traffic, we eventually arrived at O'Reilly's and set of on the track just after 3pm.

The walk to Bithongabel bush camp was pleasant but rather uneventful. The steady stream of day-walkers completing their days walking soon came to a stop the furt

her into the bush we walked. After about 45 minutes, Matt and I stopped to

look at a big tree, have a break and look at the map. Having arrived at camp at 4.30pm, we set up camp before walking down the track a little further to Toolona Lookout. From there we had a

lovely view of the valley (and mobile reception!). We walked back to camp and started co

oking dinner around 6pm. Dinner consisted of

dehydrated mince, salsa and burritos, whilst dessert was marshmallows and Lady Grey tea (courtesy of Matt, naturally). During the meal,

Matt noticed that we were surrounded by glow worms, which we took some time to look at. I

tied a few knots - using my little piece of ribbon

because we had no rope. The sun now well and truely set, it was decided that it was time for us humans to also turn in for the night (though we did remark that 7.45pm w

as a rediculously early bed-time)! also had to porve my campcraft skills to Matt by

I woke up at 7am, started packing up camp, then woke Matt up soon afte

r. Breakfast, which was Up'n'Go, muesli, tea and apples, was had and camp was soon completely packed. Just before

leaving camp, Matt noticed a couple of Eastern Rosellas, which were very beautiful to see. We left camp at 8.15am, a whole 15 minutes ahead of schedule - or so we thought. When we arrived at the Treetop walk (which Matt had never

done before), I noticed that it was 8.30am, which was impossible because the walk from camp took 1h30. As it turns

out, I cannot read analog clocks early in the morning, a problem that caused us to leave camp a whole hour earlier than planned. (As it was, it was a good mistake.) The Treetop walk was very exciting, as was the climb to the top. The view was quite spectacular/relaxing (as relaxing as one can be

~30m off the ground)! Continuing on our way, we were able to complete the short remainder of the hike quickly and exited the forest just after 9am.

All in all, it was a lovely couple of days. Thank you to Matt for driving and a good weekend!

Guy fawkes

Guy fawkes night at the den. Burning things galore! Looking forward to the end of exams...

Easy exams Den night

JJ and Yanni presented their Squires' Hike Reports.

General talking.

VL Tex came and talked about a joint activity.

In attendance: Cptn Iain, JJ, Emile, Pete, Trav, Maddie, Eleri, Yanni, McBain, Jake ("the Greenie") and Matt.

Jordan's Squire Hike

After 2 years I finally finished my squire's hike and my squire training :)After much consideration, Charlie Moreland was chosen at the destination. After arriving we took off on the Little Yabba track that lead to the Piccadeen Circuit. After walking for 2 hours Iain (my stand in sponsor) and I rolled back to camp and a delicious potato bake. The next morning we woke and went for a bit of a bush bash and finally packed up and came home. A good time was had... THE END

Wonargo

Travis organised tickets to see the 40th Wonargo Revue. Matt, JJ and Trav in attendance. Sat in front of Sockie and Shari. Some sneaky nuts were seen on stage.

Favourite items were all items with Shaun, especially Ballet Skirmish with Captain Cam, and a cross-dressing Shaun.

"You can't stop the beat" was the finale, that seemed to go on forever.

Mt Cootha Walk

Stephen organised a Mt Cootha walk. Walked from JC Slaughter falls carpark on a short 20 minute loop. Back to cars then to Milton Maccas ftws.

Stephen, Lucy, JJ, Yanni (on his bike with Siri--bastard), Tom, Maddie, Joe (who is in Yr 12 at Terrace and knows my cousin(s)), Trav, Cptn Iain, McBain, Matt, Emile (+Eleri?).

Yanni’s Squire Hike

After a few weeks planning Emile and I completed my squire hike in Brisbane Forrest Park from Friday 21 October to Saturday 22 October 2011. Upon arrival at our drop off point on Mt Nebo Rd we hiked into our sleeping spot and set up camp.

In the morning, after a nutritious breakfast of nutrigrain, we headed along Centre Road to South Boundary Road. Here we had a nice view towards Kenmore.

We followed South Boundary Road until the end of Payne Rd where a nice lunch of tuna on wraps was enjoyed. The hike ended up being easier than first expected and Emile and I always kept moral and water levels up so we had an enjoyable hike.

Stephen's Ramble Presentation and Programming

Stephen presented photos from his Ramble. Ken Ansell, OM, joined in on the food and festivities.

Then we programmed. Boring. Rather. Emile's for chai teas.

Rochedale Revue

JJ, Emile, Trav, Matt and his entourage (Sinead -his gf, Susie - his sister, and Catchy - his cousin) saw Rochedale Revue.

Travis was extremely rude.

Many Rovers in attendance. There may have been some texting of commentary during the performance. A great national anthem was sung.

The show featured much frivolity, with the dancing midgets the favourite item.

Approx. 30 cast on stage. A great year for Fi Little and Shane Alexander who had some great sketch roles.

Den Clean-Up: Part TWO - waking from a nightmare

Den Clean-Up: Part One - the awakening of a dream

Agoonoree Games Night (and QBRE..)

Emile (+Eleri?), Trav, JJ, Pete, Matt (+Sinead - his gf, + Alex - his housemate) attended the Agoonoree Rover Games night.

Kookaburra Cafe & Room 60

After a long week at university Stephen, Lucy, Emile, Travis, Yanni, Emma, Mick & Kristy enjoyed a party pizza at Kookaburra Cafe at Paddington. This was followed by Emile, Yanni, Emma, Eleri & Kristy going to Room 60 at Kelvin Grove to try their deconstructed cocktails, chilli beer and fine wine.

Census Party

Travis hosted a Census Party at his place at Indooroopilly.

The Crew filled out two eCensus forms with our interrelatedness being "ROVER" unto each other.

JJ's occupational tasks were recorded on the National Census as "attending to poonamis".

Inductions

The Crew inducted new Rover Squires: Maddie Arber, Kristy Butler, and GL Sue Barker.

The ceremony was conducted by Matt Ray.

Squires have been allocated as follows:

• Maddie Arber, Sponsor Travis Jordan
• Kristy Butler, Sponsor Stephen Endicott
• GL Sue Barker, Sponsor Emile Victor

WWI Night of Fun 'n' Games

Welcome to the Western Front!

Tonight was all about WWI, as it was the day that the Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on July 23.

The activities of the night included: assassinating the Archduke (darts), pin the moustache on the Archduke, and preparing for war (obstacle challenge/dressing race).

Those who attended include, but is not limited to: Iain, Peter, Mike, Emile, Yanni, Tom, Jordan, Stephen, Eleri. Possibly.

Urban Challenge 2011

Was held on this weekend. Nuf said.

German Sausages

This evening started with Stephen, Travis and I at the butcher at the Gabba, where we bought some lovely German sausages, sauerkraut &c. We then proceeded to the German Club for some End-of-Financial-Year discouned imported beer (yay!).

The main part of the night was held at the top of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, where we had a BBQ. We enjoyed the sights of Brisbane from the top of the cliffs, which was very beautiful indeed. Jordan and Mike, amongst others, also joined us. Thank you to everyone for an enjoyable (if not freezing!) German evening!

QBRC AGM

At Karingal: Travis Jordan (QBRE Promotions) and Matthew Ray (QBRE Awards, outgoing & UC2011 Chair) attended, together with Sinead Argent (QBRE Treasurer, outgoing).

The Crew received special praise from the Chief Commissioner and the QBRE Chairman in their reports, for the Crew's great efforts in organising Urban Challenge 2010.

Mirrabook Rovers Annual Trivia Night

Stephen's camp oven night

Being part of the scouting movement, we decided to do something more traditional and have a good old fashioned Thursday night camp fire with a traditional cake. Although the fire was very successful (even more so after some liquid encouragement) but the cake did not quite go to plan, due to the fact that the outside was over cooked and the inside was undercooked (it also probably didn't help that it was a Homebrand cake :/)

Despite the issues with the cake, a great night was has by all in attendance!

Dude Where's My Bash: 29 Apr - 2 May

St Georges Ball 2011

St Georges Ball 2011 was held on the 9th of April (which was coincidentally, SJW Squire Lucy Endicott's 18th Birthday!) and was held at the The Sebel Citygate hotel in the city. The crew had a fantastic turnout purchasing a full two tables of ten people each! SJW Rovers in attendance were: Matthew Ray, Emile Victor, Peter Crouch, Yanni Dubler, Stephen Endicott, Lucy Endicott, Tom Arnold, Natasha Hazeldene and Travis Jordan. The rest of the places were filled by linking member, partners and friends of the crew (Sinead Argent, Maddie Arber, Sam Ludinski, Kerry Marnane, Steph Crawford, Emma Clarke, James, Sonia Lamb and Nicole Jenkins)

Before the Ball we met at the Home of Emile Victor for professional photographs and a glass of Champagne (or two or three) before letting the ladies in the group get driven in to the event, while the gentlemen took the bus. During the night we ate, drank and had many a merry time, and during the night Lucy received a surprise in the form of an over sized Birthday cake! Later in the night, during the annual Rover awards ceremony the crew was honoured by being awarded (the much deserved) crew of the year!!! At the conclusion of the ball the party moved on to the Embassy nightclub to continue on partying the night away! St Georges Ball was most definitely (as it always proves to be) one of the highlights in the crew calendar for 2011!

Sam & Chris' Farewell Night: New Scouting Year's Eve

Design and Drawing Night

OzMoot 2011: 30 Dec 2010 - 12 Jan 2011