Saturday, April 9, 2011

County Venture Skills Overnight

Hey everyone. We had the County Venture Skills Overnight last night/today, in Blarney Scout Hall/ Iniscara. Seven different Venture troops were represented, including The Lough, Ballincollig, Ballinora, Blarney, Bishopstown, St. Finbarre's and our humble selves.  
 Firstly, there were First Aid bases, (encompassing 'Emergencies' on the One Program.) These were run by trained EMT's, which were very engaging. Maybe even Heather learned something new! This was followed by ice-breakers, and a quiz, with .....interesting questions. 20 wrong questions later, a new game was invented, frisbeeball. Think clay pigeon shooting with half inflated soccer balls. This brought us right up to around 2.30 a.m. so people decided it might possibly be good to think about considering going to bed. 

Up nice and early in the morning, for some fruit, iffy blueberry muffins, yops, and half-hearted frisbee before heading out to Iniscara for various other Skills bases. Different groups went out on the lake, sailing, or tried their hand at kite-flying with Declan. 


                                                          


We successfully built a friction bridge, there was some lava that needed crossing. As a reward for not killing anyone with the sledgehammer, we all got burgers, kindly barbequed by Lucy Kay, which were subsequently eaten in Stephen's Trance Gallery. Thanks to Eoghan from the Lough and Declan from Ballincollig for organising the weekend! 

Bagpacking Mahon Point

Hi everyone. Over €2000 was made over the weekend in Mahon Point, thanks to everyone's hard work! Props to Yvonne too for getting us the weekend itself.
Good job, everyone involved!

Sunday, March 20, 2011


Meeting and Bowling 2011

After a brief meeting discussing the upcoming super Venture Vietnam trip it was off to the Mardyke for a spot of friendly bowling fun.
It was quickly visible that both Calszer  and Kevin were quite good, vying for the lead from the outset and that Ian was awful, remaining firmly at the bottom of the leader board.
 As per usual Deidre arrived an hour late due to a mix up in the programs (the special Deidre edition never   materialised).
Yvonne, Heather and Nicole all gave a wonderful show of bowling  skill but none could match Conor’s flourishing shots.
Great fun and pizza were had by all but unfortunately the time ran out and no winner emerged, however all were humbled by the score of an eight year old in the next lane. Besides the fact he couldn’t get a gutter ball he played  a fantastic game.
(Super Venture Vietnam countdown : 150 days )

Chip Run

When we met in Fitzgerald’s Park at 12, we thought we would not have enough people for a proper chip run, which according to the International Handbook of Rules and Sanctions for Chip Runs, is 10. Fortunately we managed to scrape together a mish-mash of competitors from various units around the county, St. Finbarrs, Ballinora, Togher, and our good selves.  For those of you who don’t know, a chip run is a competition where teams of 2/3 have to get pics of themselves outside various chippers in the city, and score points accordingly. 5 points for a proper, chippery chipper (Lennox’s), and 1 point for  other establishments that sell ‘chips’ (McDonalds). A great time was had by all, and at the end, teams received a complimentary bag of chips as per the rulebook, with a extra-nice meal for the winners. Bon appetite.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Ventact 2011





Down to Kilcully for about six or so. And then up with the tents. Awkward, Jake asking me to hand him the blue beta. But Kevin saved the day and explained it was a tent and not a code for something. On the plus side, the badly put up girls' tent didn't effect me at all, Deirdre's bag absorbed all the water that leaked in, thanks Deirdre! 

Wild evening the first night, the lack of atmosphere in the barn/shed was made okay by the wonderful band, who cares if they only played the same few songs. Over and over... Punctuated by looking for sponsorship for Calszer's beard shave of course. Conor must have some charm and charisma in there somewhere, he got a lot more money than Iollann and I did. Then we got our tickets for activities the next day. Tears were shed, swaps were made, lies were told, bargains were struck and everyone ended up happy. Except for some people obviously, would you prefer canoeing with Nathan or Jerry like? Powerfighting and fireboating for me! Or the other way around. Boats and hose!

 Up at an unholy hour in the morning for a nice bowl of coco pops, courtesy of my mother, the cereal definitely makes up for how delighted you were to be rid of me for the weekend. Firefighting was definitely a laugh, however it must be said that the fireman outfits suited some of us more tha nothers. Back that evening for a free burger and chips, nice healthy scouting way of life. Now for a really wild night, disco time! 

Spent the whole night in my onesie, pyjamas all the way. Once again geting sponsorship but also sending people to get mocktails, fundraising for Vietnam baby! The thick layer of grease on my hair definitely made the bubble machine at the disco totally worth it... Or not, who plans these things for discos? Having to wash your hair at two in the morning under an outdoor tap, not nice. Had to be back at our tent for around two. Deirdre arrived early, shock! However, in true form, she left so that she could re enter after the assigned time. Well played Deirdre! 

Up bright and early again to the sounds of Robin Williams wishing everyone a Good Morning Vietnam, time to clear the site, drag ourselves to the bus and home. You know you've had a good weekend when you go to bed at two in the afternoon and sleep until the following morning. Thank God it was a Monday. What would I have done without a long day of school after a very long weekend.

-Heather