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.