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ianwilkins

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Everything posted by ianwilkins

  1. It was on a list of "bad" statues. The local (not scout) council was told it was on a list by the police. The council decided to temporarily remove it to protect it. Then they changed their mind and have boarded it up I believe while locals have been there protecting it, and the council have put 24 hour security on it. It's deflected the news from the cause of BLM in the UK. If one was a conspiracy theorist.... I *think* he's some sort of world ambassador for scouting as well as being UK chief scout. So let's say he's yours too.
  2. I believe in countries where the left hand is used instead of toilet paper the tradition of using the left hand to shake the hand of a fellow scout never caught on.
  3. Not 10% of a Nigerian Prince's fortune is it? I think that was promised to me already.
  4. and just launched, a stay at home virtual version of the Worldwide Scout Ten Pin Bowling Competition... http://jambowlree.org/index.php/jambowlwii/ And the face to face version of the 2020 competition is now going to run until end of December 2020. Which seems logical.
  5. We honeymooned in Cancun and toured the Yucatan. Amazing, just amazing. Of course, being 5* all the way probably helped. Only 23 years ago so I'm sure my experience is entirely relevant.
  6. Are they turning off the internet and no one's told us yet?
  7. Trouble is, it's kind of human nature. I don't know anyone with it. It feels like hype when they're banging on about it on the news and the numbers are tiny. We were kind of feeling the same when UK scouting stopped, a week before we'd gone up to London and had a grand day out running round the place and jumping on and off tubes and buses. We felt like we were right and okay and not panicking and not being big girls blouses about it all. I still don't regret doing it. We wanted to carry on, "let's do outside activities instead" sort of thing, just like your SM. Trouble is, you are in the dark
  8. This. Totally agree. There is no reason why the contagion rates will be any different in any part of the USA than any other developed country. Just about every country is following the same path and pattern. Cases increase slowly, then exponentially upwards at which point most go "must do something!" and start self isolating, lockdown, shut schools etc etc. Too late. This is not media hype. This is not hysteria. Calmly prepare to spend as much time as possible over the next few months away from as many people as possible. Sounds like one of the "oh it'll be fine don't be such an old wo
  9. Random words to confuse the ad algorithms. Can you be unscoutlike to computer code?
  10. Oh, something got lost in translation UK->US? I wasn't meaning it to be rude honest, so if that's your interpretation (I'm not assuming) that's on you.
  11. Badger meerkat sixpence magic twist knocker.
  12. Hello and welcome, I would say though scouting is global, all scouting is local, and while it looks more or less the same from the outside, you can only really see if it's a good fit for you if you try it. I'd recommend you to go find your local group and see how it feels.
  13. UK status report: As of Tuesday, UK HQ stopped all face to face scout meetings or camps of any kind from now on until advised otherwise. Same with Girl Guiding (Girl Scouts). All three campsites I know locally have shutdown, no third party hires, no volunteer maintenance crews. Scout groups that own their own buildings advised to not sublet to any non-scout groups, presumably to avoid having to have people go in to open up or clean, and to avoid liability issues if someone catches covid-19 while there. Unsurprisingly, many (most) large camps and Jamborees right through until July hav
  14. Our Scout County were going to have a gathering to try and break a World Record...most number of handshakes at once..."The Big Handshake". That they've cancelled it was the least surprising news I've heard today.
  15. On Saturday we had 50 Explorer Scouts and leaders go up to London and take part in a Monopoly Run (visit all the places on the UK (London) Monopoly board) with about 4000 other Scouts and Guides. Every single Explorer that was booked on came. Speaking to the organiser enough teams pulled out at the last minute that made him wonder if he'd made the right choice to carry on with the event, but govt advice here is basically "Keep Calm and Wash Your Hands". So we did. Yesterday a large (10,000 participants) County run international Jamboree being held in July was cancelled as the financial ri
  16. The friendship knot, especially tied loose like those will come undone very easily, you only need to pull one tail out and the whole thing falls apart. I blame the World Jamboree of course, all those foreign degenerates with their casual unit t-shirts, friendship knots, and gaudy patches, leading your fine upstanding smart Boy Scouts astray, and now they've taken the trend back to their units, spreading the abborance like a virus.
  17. What you need is another couple of adults to sit round poking the fire and chewing the fat with until a normal bed time. Last time I went to bed at 8:30 I was probably cub age, or ill. And pack a good book for the next trip to pass the time. Having 3-4 hours "me time" on a weekend campout? That sounds amazing! Of course, the amount of stuff for the trip that's on you will also make it harder to sleep, when you wake up at 2am and start running through things you need to remember in the morning, or things you should have said, or tomorrow's plan...it doesn't help you sleep at all
  18. Distance. Actually, google translate suggests french have Kilométrage, and the Spanish kilometraje, so you're right I think, kilometerage.
  19. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I always sleep "straight" on my hammock, I can't see how I'd do it at a 30 degree angle in my hammock, which looks much like 69RoadRunner's, but without the mozzie net. I'm a side sleeper though, and so I tuck my knees in one side, and feet on the other, and works for me, I'm not bananaing at all, in fact the curve of the hammock helps my head stay level. I'd always assumed that the "30 degree rule" was for those tropical island hammocks with a bar at each end holding it out, but as always happy to be shown the error of my ways. Last time I hammocked, on Brow
  20. And the Spanish scouts prefer a really tight and small friendship knot, while in the UK it's more of a bulky affair. [the rest of this is true but tongue in cheek] Then you gain another necker, and the special way of rolling two neckers together is taught, two separate points at the back and it looks "half and half", tied with a tiny friendship knot of course, and some of the kids start wearing it like a sash. All going to hell in a handcart clearly. And when they wear slides in the UK...they don't even call it a slide...degenerates. [US slide = UK woggle]
  21. I've been called a member a few times so, for info... We don't use the term key three. Not sure we have that concept at any level, it's certainly not named as such. I mean, they are the head honchos, you're right in that, though interestingly of the three only Matt Hyde is in a salaried role, the other two are volunteers and only get paid expenses. Bear's role is mostly ceremonial and promotional, glad-handing, dropping in on scout camps, making pronouncements about scouting that the press are less likely to ignore (because it's Bear) etc etc.
  22. I saw this, thought of you...bit of a long read, but a good one I think... "... nearly 45,000 Americans who killed themselves in 2016. Even at a conservative estimate, that was twice the number of homicides that year. According to data published last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national suicide rate rose 35% between 1999 and 2018, rising in all states.... And the increases are most acute in America's adolescent population, outstripping all other age groups. According to the CDC, the rate of teenagers and young adults taking their lives rose 47% in two
  23. For info, this is the original scout law as written in the 1908 Scouting for Boys by Baden Powell... 1. A SCOUT'S HONOUR IS TO BE TRUSTED. If a scout says "On my honour it is so," that means it is so, just as if he had taken a most solemn oath. Similarly, if a scout officer says to a scout, "I trust you on your honour to do this," the Scout is bound to carry out the order to the very best of his ability, and to let nothing interfere with his doing so. If a scout were to break his honour by telling a lie, or by not carrying out an order exactly when trusted on his honour t
  24. Indeed. Our scouts learning that you can rub along while disagreeing on some things is a valuable lesson for life indeed. I respectfully disagree. In the UK we're offered a set of alternative promises for different faiths and atheists in which you promise to "uphold our scout values, to do my duty to the Queen" instead of "do your duty to god, to do my duty to the Queen" or "On My honour… or In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent the Most Merciful… ...duty to God and to the Queen or ...duty to Allah and to the Queen" or "duty to my Dharma and to the Queen". And hey, while we
  25. Lots of good stuff you've already thought of. A scout group I'm involved with had their 100 year celebration in 2011. The only thing I can think of that they did also was to pull together as much history as possible and package it together into a binder for people to look at, and be "presented" to the group to keep. Obviously the more recent history was much more detailed, especially as some of the leaders they'd contacted went back 30-40 years. If getting press involved, it's also important to focus partly on "we're still here and we're still doing it and it's still great" rather th
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