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Mon 21st Dec 09 With it being 4 days till Christmas (OMG I’M SO EXCITED) it was time for us to bring in our Secret Santa presents! The week before, the Leaders told us, as a joke, to come in fancy dress, only one boy took the leaders words seriously, and came dressed up in a Buzz Lightyear outfit. Haha genius! |
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So we all sat around, and each of us received our presents. These included a light up tiara and wand set which was for Queeny & a blender (?) which Carrie received. My well thought up present went to waste as I had bought a box of Sugar Puffs for Keith, who regularly wears a t-shirt with the Sugar Puffs monster on, but did he turn up? No. So someone ate them... Secret Santa is probably one of the best traditions at Centurion ESU, ‘cause so many people buy the others such strange things and it just makes it hilarious. |
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Mon 7th Dec 09 I didn’t really have anything written down on the 7th of December in my diary, (to be honest the whole of that week was blank...) but I found some photos on my camera which means we must have done something. The photos show us attempting, again, a human pyramid, and also attempting some other weird acrobatic skill which involves everyone standing a circle, whilst leaning on each other... (The photo explains it better...) |
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I remembered (with help from the photos) that we played this game, where everyone laid down on the floor, and somehow by rolling all together in a certain direction, a person could travel from one end to the other... I do have a video of this which may be put up on YouTube at some point in the future so watch this space… |
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Mon 23rd Nov 09 So, following on from Kids Kingdom, we had a night of ‘Giant games’. We made ourselves a long Twister mat (coloured paper plates attached to the floor) which meant pretty much the entire unit could play Twister at the same time. It was pretty lol-worthy (laughable for those who aren’t equipped with the power to speak the language of the Internet) to see about 20 people playing Twister at any one time. We edited the game a little, so not everyone was doing the same moves, so things like “People with brown hair, left hand yellow!” were added in. We also had some giant Jenga blocks and a giant Connect Four. It was a pretty amusing night, playing all these normal games, but on a hooge scale. Excellent. |
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Mon 9th Nov 09
Although at Explorers we are aged between 14 and 18, it may or may not be surprising to know that all of us love Kids Kingdom! We spent this Monday night, with the other Explorer groups of the District, at Kids Kingdom, where we relived our childhood memories, constantly commenting that “This place used to be a lot bigger when I was younger!”
I think we spent most of the night running around like lunatics before some proper games of run-outs were set up. I’m thinking the Explorers need to visit there again because it was so much fun. I was hoping my school would have Kids Kingdom has a PE option, but sadly they didn’t...
Mon 19th Oct 09 Sedan Chair was fast approaching, so it was wise for our one and only team to start building their chair. The theme decided upon this year by our team was MP’s expenses; so many plastic ducks sacrificed themselves and were nailed down onto our Sedan Chair. Meanwhile, whilst the Sedan Chair team cracked on (you’ll see what I did there in a minute) the rest of us were split into 3 teams, and had to use whatever equipment we could find in the container (mostly cardboard boxes & tape) to make something that would protect an egg (get it now?!). The designs varied, from huge things to small compact designs. Once the contraptions were built, the opposing teams would have to throw a tennis ball at the egg protecting units and try to break the egg. I’m assuming (as I forgot... again) that whoever managed to break the egg gets the points for their team... Either way, we had fun! 8D |
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| Mon 12th Oct 09 Autumn has arrived which means we find ourselves with lots of conkers... and what do we do with conkers? Have conker fights of course! The conkers used were drilled and had rope put through them on the night (I believe) before the fights took place. I doubt there was any sort of arrangement in the way fights took place (or perhaps there was and I just wasn’t paying attention? (Sorry guys...) If anyone remembers from that far back who won then let us know? |
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Mon 21st Sep 09
Centurion ESU found themselves at the District AGM this Monday night. After all the formalities had been dealt with, we had the chance to give a little talk about our experiences in Russia. But the night was mainly for the benefit of Dragon ESU who had recently been on a trip to Gambia. Most of the trips Centurion has been on have been to countries within Europe (sort of) so seeing a presentation about a country outside of Europe was interesting. If only I was young enough to go on the next international trip... :’(
Mon 7th Sep 09
This Monday brought us the first ever (in my knowledge at least) Centurion ESU Talent Show! The acts varied from enactments of popular YouTube videos to playing guitar to doing teddy bear rolls.
First up was the girls with their version/copy of the popular YouTube video “The Mysterious Ticking Noise” (Potter Puppet Pals) which earned them a place in the finals. Some of the following acts included Andrew C. playing a violin which hadn’t been played for years, Jarvis and James doing some teddy bear rolls and Pinto singing a song about the awesomness that is the Starry Starry Nanny.
But the winner of the show was Matt King, with his renditions of a selection of songs from the film Team America. (Mainly because the girls didn’t want to repeat the Potter Puppet Pals sketch... (I’m not biased at all...)
Starry Starry Nanny lyrics!!! After Pinto (2009) Based on an adaptation of Navigation Training Weekend ditty:
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was a Starry Nanny, I saw that Starry Nanny, I prayed to Starry Nanny, I heard that Starry Nanny |
See the Human Potter Puppet Pals is action on YouTube! |
Mon 17th Aug 09
As the summer was coming to a close (almost, perhaps) the time had come for Centurion ESU to have a barbeque. For this year’s food fest we had managed to get our hands on a proper gas fuelled BBQ, so the usual charcoal ones were unnecessary (hooray!).
After the food, there
were plans for ‘Maggot Wrestling’ (wrestling where all persons
involved are in sleeping bags...Don’t ask...) but when it came to
it, the idea of jumping around having eating a few burgers didn’t
seem so appealing, so we turned to what we do best, having a cotch.
| July – August 09 I thought I’d put most of July and August together as we spent almost every Monday doing what we look forward to all year... Working out the back! Every summer we begin to do work outside in the area behind the hut, and every summer when we begin it’s in the same state as the beginning of the summer the year before. I believe that no matter what we do to that area, it will ALWAYS end up in the same state as when we began. Vicious cycle much? |
Our group hard at work behind the back... otherwise known as “Let’s climb on top of some containers!” |
Mon 29th Jun 09
In many attempts to clean up the back of the hut, it was now decided that we would put up some bird boxes, but first they had to be made...I missed a bit of the bird box action whilst having a chat about Dragnet (which was only a few days away) but from what I saw afterwards, it was quite simple, and most people had managed to create one successfully. It seemed all you needed was about 6 pieces of wood to be nailed together, and then a hole for the bird to get in through drilled into the front.
But of course there were some exceptions; John decided to create a rather abstract, Picasso style bird box, whilst others with a rather cruel mind decided to make a bed of nails at the bottom of the box. Don’t fear!!! The box was not allowed to be put up, so no birds were harmed in the making of this entry!
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| Mon 22nd Jun 09 Tonight things got a little bit creative just using a pair of tights, some sawdust and some grass seeds...of course! We were making some of those grass heads, which we would water and grow some grass from. Various designs emerged; including an emo, Gandhi, and one which was supposed to be Jarv. Some people didn’t
get the idea that you had to put the sawdust and grass seed to grow
the grass in the tights, not put your own head in the tights and
hope for the best, but overall everyone managed to create their
own grass head successfully, some have even managed to grow! |
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Mon 15th Jun 09
Neil Buchanan would be proud. As children of the 90s, every one of us had dreamt of creating one of those giant art attacks that Neil did using salt on a black floor, so that is what we did.
Of course, being members of Centurion, the best picture of us to draw would be one of the Hog. First, the area which the picture was going to be in was marked out on the floor and we were each given a little square which we were responsible for. Once the Hog was sketched out in chalks, and everything looked a-okay, we proceeded with the salt!
The result looked pretty awesome, even though I’m a bit biased...
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Mon 8th Jun 09 Who thought finding random objects on a scavenger hunt would be so much fun? Some of the items on the list included an unusual hat, to 5 different bottles, to a battered toy...whichever team turned up with as many of these items as possible, or as many interesting answers to the things on the scavenger hunt list, would win. In a failed attempt to find the objects, our team resorted to using the internet to find pictures of them instead. We cleverly found (made) a picture of Calum with his OAP friends and cunningly found (made) a bus ticket for a certain date...the internet is obviously the way forward! We topped off our scavenger hunt by taking Chris’ amazing turkey/bird hat. Another part of the hunt was to take a picture of a team member eating a disgusting sandwich |
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| which consisted of something like marmite, chocolate, tomato sauce and so on. Only James and Looney actually brought the sandwich to the hut to eat it in front of Pinto, which was rather disgusting if you ask me... So after spending many hours gathering lots of pointless objects, the winners were announced, which was Izzy’s team. |
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Mon 25th May 09
As it was a Bank Holiday nothing much was planned for this evenings meeting, although we managed to entertain ourselves with many games of football and a dangerous game of Poison Ivy (which included chairs). Although this may have seemed like a boring Monday night, I do know that something historic actually took place, if my memory and diary serve me correctly...
Tom Spencer Jarvis actually paid subs for the first time in around 2 years!
It was such a spectacle
to witness it could almost be called a miracle. Even though we didn’t
do much that night, I believe that this information alone deserved to
be written down as it is such a rare event to be seen!
| Mon 18th May 09 Something we often do at Explorers is get people to dress up, whether it is in actual clothes or in random objects is another matter. A selection of materials were given to us this night, including tin foil, crepe paper and jay clothes, as well as some stolen cardboard from the container. The task was to dress someone up as a monster that could be featured in Doctor Who. I think the most interesting design included anything and everything being sellotaped to one of the new explorers who had just come up from scouts (he seemed quite used to that treatment though...) Judgement time finally arrived; a panel of older and “I’m-not-creative-enough-to-get-involved-with-this-madness” explorers joined Pinto and judged the entries on qualities such as home planet, language spoken, entrance into the room and weapons. The monster’s names ranged from Dame Gertrude, to Mega Cheese, to something along the lines of Chewbacca’s toilet roll... I believe the overall winner was Mega Cheese for his inventive home planet (the Moon) and his interesting catchphrase as well as other qualities which won him the title. Everyone else won the sheer enjoyment of dressing up for the night and pretending to be a monster from Doctor Who. |
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Mon 27th Apr 09
As usual, in the more summery months, we planned to be out on the field for most of the meeting. But as rain hit during the beginning of the night, many soaked explorers hurried their way into the hut. I seem to recall a night like this every year in the summertime.
After horseshoe and other matters were attended to, we split into teams, (not 4 surprisingly) and got out tables ready for a game. The name of the game escapes me, but the aim was to write a piece about a topic, where 3 truths were hidden. If another team guessed a truth they would gain a point, and if they guessed a lie, then they would lose one. The topics were strange and different, varying from science, Friends (the TV show), mobile phones, and ourselves. Some interesting lies appeared and many truths were well hidden. During the game, a chair managed to break; it was fixed then cunningly given to Alan, it was then tampered with, and so he would sit, breaking the chair, resulting in laughter from everyone. Genius. (No one was hurt, don’t worry.)
The second round of this
game was cut short as the clock struck half past nine, the scores were
hurriedly read out, the tables and chairs put away, and everyone went
homeward bound.
Mon 20th Apr 09
It felt like we hadn’t met up for a while, seeing as last Monday was the last day of Easter Camp, so there was no meeting. The nights were now beginning at half seven, so we could make the most of the sunshine during the summer (if we ever have a summer in England, that is).
We started off the night by hanging around the field, or by playing with the frisbee and football. After a lot of untangling, the volleyball net was set up, and a mini volleyball competition was to begin. Naturally we were split into 4 teams, and the games went on. As the sun was almost setting, the final game was devised; the leaders vs. all of the explorers. Somehow, the leaders managed to win. I think some cheating must have been involved!
A serious note was called whilst in horseshoe, when the issue of our group flag was brought up. As our flag didn’t currently follow the regulations, it meant that it couldn’t be used at St. George’s Day Parade, which was the following Sunday. We had two options, keep it, and make a new one which followed the rules for next year, or change it and use it this year. The votes were so close, but it was decided that we should make a new one for next year.
To cheer up the ending, gifts in the form of food from our Russian friends (who had spent the last 3 days in London) were split up amongst the group. No one can be angry with a star biscuit to munch on.
Mon 9th Mar 09
A group of twenty or so Explorer scouts making 4 catapults. Whoever thought this would be a clever idea?
We split into 4 teams (yet again); each team was given the task of building a catapult which would actually work. We had a week to build it, and somehow had to get it to Thriftwood. We were going to be up against the other Explorer units and the other teams in our unit. There were prizes for the best overall Explorer unit, the best overall team and best decorated weapon. If you know us well enough, you’ll know we wanted to win them all.
We were all pretty geared up for the competition. Many people had rushed home to get tools and other equipment which would help build their weapons (we came unequipped, so much for ‘be prepared’…). Others preferred to use what they could find in the container including plastic cups… Many different designs were popping up, and many different methods of building them; Izzy’s second attempt at nailing in a screw failed.
By the end of the evening, there wasn’t much to show for a hard night’s work, a few bits of sawn wood and a few screws around the place. But hopefully by next Monday, we will all have a fully working catapult, ready to win the competition. We can only hope…
Mon 9th Feb 09
With a less than a week left till Russia, it was time for our bags to be checked and weighed. Quite a boring part of the night, but you realise that visiting Russia is only a few days away!!! Once all the bags had been looked at, it was time to play some crazy golf!
We had half an hour or so to build our own crazy golf courses using anything we could find in the container, including cardboard and plastic straws... The finished designs ranged in size and difficulty. One team even managed to build a working windmill! We then had the chance to have a go on all of the courses before most of them ended up being destroyed. The points were added up and a winner was announced (who wasn't someone who plays golf regularly (haha) before the end of the night and the results were put on the Unit’s notice board. That night we went home, remembering that next Monday, we would be in snowy Russia.
Mon 2nd Feb 09
With the 6 inches of snow which fell overnight, and the continuous snow fall throughout the day, what better way to spend a Monday night, than preparing for Russia. This could be called our Russia Test Run.
After getting the snowball fights out of our system, we started to make an Igloo. We started by burying some gear (rucksacks and a water barrel, if you’re interested). Once we had buried them deep enough, or made the ‘walls’ thick enough around them, we then dug them out. Where we dug them out from would be the entrance. Eventually, after some hard work, we managed to fit at least two people inside it! We didn’t know whether we would be able to do this in Russia yet, but at least we would be prepared.
I went to visit the Igloo the next day, so I could take some photos of it in the light. Only to find that it had been destroyed, by none other than us (as I was told later).
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Mon 19th Jan 09
It had come to the time when we had to learn some first aid. We were split into 4 groups and visited 4 different 'bases'. At each base we learnt CPR, how to use bandages, about what should be in first aid kits and what to do in an emergency. These were lead by Mick, Alan, Pinto and Jarvis who all did a great job. After we had crammed as much info about first aid into our brains as we possibly could, we were instructed what to do in the case of a fire.
After our health and safety start to the night a game was then devised which involved wrapping a team member in one roll of toilet paper, the results were pretty funny, although some teams did cheat!!! As the persons being wrapped in the toilet roll where helpless, it was the perfect time to take embarrassing photos, sorry! At the end of the game, a fire drill was called; a few team members had to burst out of toilet roll to get out, and the rest of us ran as fast as we could to the fire point.
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Mon 12th Jan 09
This week's Monday night
was filled with some interesting food games. We were split into four teams
and we had many games to participate in ranging from moving frozen peas
from one bowl to another just using a straw, to how many Custard Creams
you can fit in your mouth. Other games involved spaghetti and crackers.
The cracker game was the classic format, which involves eating a select number of crackers in the quickest time without having any water. To add to the torment of the cracker game, opposing teams sipped water in front of the participants, excellent.
Overall the night involved team spirit and eating, which is two things our group is good at. It also got many of the newbies which have recently joined involved.
Mon 5th Jan 09
As we were told to line up from 'Tallest to Tish' and were handed balloons; confusion began to spread across our faces. It soon became apparent that the night was going to be filled with balloon popping antics. Various games were run, including a 'Protect the balloon game' which got quite dangerous after a while, (bundles in the corner of the room must have resulted in some injuries).
The night went on, more balloons had been popped, and then someone had the genius/stupid idea of filling the balloons up with water...you've probably guessed that a couple of people ended up getting soaked. So with a few soaked explorers and a wet floor, why not play the game Poison Ivy! (Sensible, we're probably not, but entertaining we almost definitely are).The game began and many spectacular falls and skids were witnessed.
The night came to a usual end with some news from the Executive committee and the leaders whilst in horseshoe. What a balloon-tastic start to the year for Centurion ESU!
© Centurion Explorer Scout Unit 2007, Registered Charity No. 303669