chris_is_lost7

Right so the last thing that I posted was from ages ago even if it doesnt look like it.
I am now in Ireland and having an alright time. Nicole and I have gone our seperate ways and I have met up with Emma from the mannor and stuff.
Thats about all that I can be bothered writting so I will some back later

Hey everyone sorry that I havent been writting much, have been really busy.
So sadly I have finnished my time at Fairthorne manor and have begun my travels. I had a great time at the manor, when I finnished my time at Isle of Wight I continued doing what I had been for the last few months and loved every minute of it. I caint really remember any specifically cool inciednts except that the pig fell in the drain and we had to call 3 fire trucks 2 vets and some other people to get it out so that was cool. The rest was jsut day camps but with the summer staff they were better than all the other ones. Um we had a big party when we left and it turned out like all the others ones. Annalies had gland feever thing and was quite sick for a while but I hear that she is on the mend and the girls are heading out to travel now.
I met up with NIc in Cardiff and we moved on to London and now we are in Berlin but I dont feel the greatest. I have a cold at the moment and I have been feeling a little home sick and believe it or not a little Fairthorne sick as well. But things are getting better slowly, I had a good time on a riding tour of the city today and have plans to go to the museums and do some shopping tommorrow and then we want to go to one of the old concentration camps just out of town the day after.
We have booked a train and accomodation in Prague after that so I guess that is where we will be heading.
Miss people heaps

I found the internet!
Right so here I am on the Isle of Wight, it is three weeks after YCF and my second week here. I have to say that it is absolutely great!!! There is a washing machine that works!!! I get to cook most of my own food, the people are great and it is really nice to have a break from the guys at Fairthorne (not that I don’t love them). The place is called Winchester house and it over looks the beach. I arrived by train and ferry (that was fun) on Sunday and got given the tour by Gwylem, this place is like a maze and has heaps of history to it (it was used as a hospital during the Second World War). For the first week we were staying in the Lodge, self catering, single rooms, TV and a bath (total luxury). I met the gang on Monday Matt the chef (good bloke), Gill the house keeper (mother hen) and Ollie and Andy the kitchen hands (like and old married couple). Well weddings and weeds. As you may have guessed we were preparing for a couple of weddings the first being on the Saturday. All I can remember of the first few days was weeding the area in front of the chapel (if I see another weed again…) and doing other garden work. We did some other cleaning up and then began to take deliveries, ALCOHOL. I have never seen so much alcohol in my life we spent a whole day sorting through it and then moving it and then trying to find somewhere to put it. We ended up running out of room, the first wedding is over and we still don’t have enough room for it all. So day of the wedding and it was nuts, we started at nine and finished at 1am. Gwylem and I got to be chefs for the day (uniform and all) and we ran the BBQ with Matt and then later helped to move stuff, we move lots of stuff. It was long and hard but went really well and for once it didn’t rain, at all. So now it is Monday, Gwylem had gone and Penny has come and we are preparing for yet another wedding, let you know what happens with this one.

Ok so when I left off I think that I was at the end of Saturday. Well you know how I said that we had to run the bouncy castle in the rain, and pack it up and that it got really muddy. Well guess what we got to do on Sunday! It was raining again so what did we do? We went inside and got wet by cleaning the really muddy bouncy castle. It was great fun! After my very muddy team challenge birthday party Karl handed us some mops and buckets, pointed to the back of the van (and the sports hall cupboard) and said wash them all. 4 Gapers, 5 bouncy castles, 3 mops and lots of water, what do you think happened. Penguin sliding, mop battles and general stuffing around, Karl got really frustrated and that made it even better (we got him wet too), it was one of the best wet days that I have had in ages.
So it is now Tuesday, I am all dried off, YCF preparations are in full swing and nothing much has really happened. So I think that I will come back when something does (aka YCF).

Right just looking at the calendar and it tells me that is has been a while since I last said anything. So I am going to do the best I can with the memory that I own. So I think that the week after the DT group I linked with Alex for the whole week. From what I remember it was a really fun week, working with Alex was great. We had heaps of sessions together and they were all fun, he makes me laugh all the time and we get on really well, he even started calling me Miss Chris and I was calling him Alex the lion so the by the end the kids were really confused. The group itself was really good, all of their teachers had been here before and that meant that they knew what they were doing and Alex and I could just relax which was good because Alex needed his energy for flirting with one of the younger teachers. I remember that we got a really great review; campfire was Oliver’s show and a good one at that. Oh and the disco was super, we hit the spot with all the music and there were star performances from Alex, Emma (NZ) and Adam. Right I cannot remember that weekend really well but we went out to an 80s bar called reflex one of the nights but I ended up coming home before we got in because Annalies could not get in with her NZ 18+ card, so I ended up walking her home that night. I think that, well my bank balance thinks that we went shopping again on the Sunday; we were just going to go and look at the museums in Southampton, no chance. So with no money I was off to London top meet Nic on the Monday. We did the whole tourist thing and wandered around for a while, and we did the whole walking on dead people at Westminster Abbey. That place is so cool and so creepy all at the same time, there a tombs everywhere and all this history. The highlights were just as the pamphlet said, the tombs of Elizabeth I, Henry VII, the coronation chair, poet’s corner, oh and we saw the tombs of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. So as that as my day off I spent the rest of the week working, I linked with a special needs group on the Thursday and Friday. That was painful, lets just say that one of them had an obsession with grabbing hair and you know my hair, so he got me a few times but other than that, oh and a rather dramatic tantrum at raft building they were really cool. They were from a place called Hill House which is a residential school for boys with autism; listening to the leaders stories was really interesting. So good reviews all round, I even got mentioned in some of the other schools reviews for the disco and the campfire so that was cool. So this weekend we got to go on a road trip with the bouncy castle, Rob Kitty and Adam to Portsmouth. There was a foot ball tournament and we were running the assault course, so what should happen in typical English fashion? It rained, and stopped and rained and stopped and rained some more and kept raining we had to take the thing down every time due to the electricity. We managed to make a little money and we even got to have a few races but by the end we just called Brian and ran away. Gotta go.

Ok so the DT adult group was quite cool. It was basically a big race with different teams, so I was on abseiling all day which was quite cool. They had to get water from the ground to a pot halfway up the wall, funny. Oh and Searle and I got to drop them off the rock wall for abseil as well. They had heaps of other challenges all morning to complete but I had nothing to do with them. The afternoon saw Alex and myself in charge of the climbing on towers. Again they had to get water to a pot about halfway up the wall and let’s just say that everyone got wet. All in all it was a pretty cool day even though it was really hard work, we scored real!!!! Food at a barbeque for dinner and real dessert and we got to watch these computer nerds make complete fools of themselves, fun hey. That night we managed to overcome our tiredness and make it to walkabout for a good but rather strange night, I will let you know when the others remember some more of it. Sunday was even more expensive, we went shopping in an outdoor shop. I found the best pair of reef shoes and a heap of new singlet’s and shorts. Plus I finally found a south East Asia book that is really good. So all that said I best be off before the other people in the internet room shoot me for being to long.

Ok so a few weeks have passed and I have been trying to put this up for ages but fate just had other plans so take 14.
Um….ok the week after I had the teacher from hell I just floated around on all the sessions. We had a huge group of girls in on the week end and they were cool. I cannot remember what happened which week so here is what I remember in no particular order. Friday night everyone went to the railway and got smashed including Sarah and Adam. That was a very funny night, I found out that Tim is from this tiny town in the midlands, he was the only person in his year to go to uni and he is considered an outcast because he left and he has a lazy eye. I also discovered that Sarah cannot dance when she is drunk and we found out the truth about why we are not supposed to do anything social with the permanent staff- “supposed to”. Um Andrew went away to France ok and it was kind of weird not having him around. The disco was good even though the lap top was not there and hence the massive library of music was not there we managed to get it cheesy enough for Fairthorne. We managed to scrape together some cheesy stuff and one school went nuts with the bon jovi song. I had heaps of 6th sessions that week um Dan went to the Isle of Wight. Um oh the second weekend that I was back there were 400 rainbow girl guides in and that was the same day that Andrew left. We had climbing towers together and he spent most of the time running off to finish packing his bag. Um last week Emma was sick so I got to do heaps of her linking stuff and I had this same group over and over again but that was not so bad cause they were kind of good albeit a little slow. Um this weekend almost everyone had a double day off, I scored the Saturday afternoon off too and went for a paddle down the river with Sam and Elliot. So heaps of people went to Brighton and London and Craig even went to France for the night but there were a few hiccups getting back. Simon didn’t show up at all on Monday and had to get Jodie to do his link work for him; he was supposed to go to Eastleigh but ended up in London instead and Craig missed his flight out so he showed up ½ ways through today.
Maria, Emma and I went to Bath, it was so cool! We saw all the Roman ruins and the abbey; we also saw the museum of costume and number 1 royal crescent. It was so cool looking at the different styles of architecture and stuff. We also went to a glass blowing museum and did the usual shopping; we tried to stay inside it rained the whole time that we were there. We also met up with these 4 boys from Adelaide who were going cheese rolling in Gloucester they were quite cool.
So the week that we got back was a very eventful week of day camps. I was on activity club again with Tom (Mot) and Maria. I got the cool kids most of the time so that was quite good and it also meant that I had quite a bit of fun given the events of the week. Now on to the major event of the week, Rachel dropped someone off the aerial runway!!!! She was sending off a teacher and the Malian was not done up properly. The teacher went off upside down and the Malian bent open so that the sling fell out. She landed on her back and was rushed to hospital. The teacher is now ok and there was no lasting injury which was luck for Rachel. They suspended her to do an investigation; the conclusion was that the incident was due to operator error and that Rachel would be put on probation. Frightening!! So all week we were worried about what was going to happen, now they are going to introduce new equipment for the runway and until we get reassessed only the seasonal and full time staff can send off on aerial runway.
So that was the last, last week, plus all the usual stuff like a boring campfire and a not so good disco, if you request a song that no one else will like at least get up and dance to that song. Oh and I had sleepover with the day campers again. We got to stay on the tent site with the residential people. I think that Zach, Matt and Clare have been together for a little too long. We got to tell ghost stories (I made a kid cry) and go on night walk and sleep in tents. It is so cold in those tents it is not funny, not that I spent all that much time sleeping anyway.
So the weekend was the same as usual, most people decided to go off site for their 2 days off, but I got to work. We did go out on Saturday night but we didn’t really go anywhere and the night ended with me trying to direct a lost Rachel through Southampton via Jodie’s mobile, FUN. Oh and we went to see pirates of the Caribbean 3 one night too, it was strange but cool.
Right on to this week, I had a link group with Alex that were so cool. They did everything on their own, they were on time for stuff, the kids listened well, they did everything. We had the best kayaking session ever (they all fell in and rescued themselves), they listened well on all the activities making them all really good, even eco water and search and rescue. Campfire was great, Oliver is really good at running it and the disco went off!!!!!!!!! So all in all it was a really, really, really good week. I have development training with an adult group tomorrow which sounds like fun and then I get to spend Sunday shopping with Liz yay.

Oh what a week! So after my holiday, did I tell you that I did a “go ape”? Well granddad and grandma took me out to the Dolby forest on a drive and we found one of the “go ape” high wire courses so I had to have a go. It was the best fun ever! It was like some of the stuff that we do here at the manor but it was all in the forest trees and all of it was 35ft up. There were aerial runways (the longest in England), rope bridges, Tarzan swings and cargo nets and it is supposed to take about 3hrs but I did it in just over 1 ½ hrs (new record for the course).
So now back to this huge week that I am having. Sunday it was a huge open day and I had no idea what was going on because nobody thought to tell me. Also we had heaps of groups in at the weekend so it was really busy in the morning too.
Now at the open day I met the leader for my7 link group on Monday, only I dint know who she was. I was carrying a box of teas and coffees from the kitchen tent to the guys on the towers and she came up to me and asked if I worked here. Duh I am wearing a uniform that says YMCA Fairthorne manor. She then informed me that she was with a group coming on Monday and she had a few things to say. “First I have just been down to the campsite and had a look and it is not tidy, the tents are not laid out to my plan and…..
I stopped here there, of course the tents are not set yet and it is not tidy the other group that was staying there only left 20minutes ago and we now have a ground full of 200+ people. I smiled and I pointed out Brian by the fence and told her to talk to him knowing he would say the exact thing that I was thinking.
Well imagine my joy when I found out that I was linking with that group and that they would be here at 9.30am on Monday FUN!!!! The kids were so cool but the teachers were one of the most, no the most demanding that I have ever had. She arrived at like 8.00am and was almost banging on the door of eco; “the site has not been cleaned, the tents are wet, the children will be here soon, when are we going to have our briefing….” She even started to harass Paige when she dropped by to deliver the leaders passes and the key and lock box while Adam and I were waiting for the min bus up on the road. They came by car!!!! In all the conversations that we had with her that morning and all the times that we mentioned that Adam was waiting for the bus at the tree, she did not tell us a thing about cars! Then the demands for a briefing went on and the demands for a site tour and then there was a huge fight with them about their dinner time. They had wanted 5.30 and that was what was written on my sheet but on the wall it was 6.05 because on the special needs groups had to eat at that time. So I thought that all I would have to do was go down and explain that there would be change in the times and that this was why. I get there and she throws a huge fit about how the children (not kids) had an early lunch at that the extra ½ hour was too long for them to wait. “All our plans are based on a 5.30 meal time and I think that the children will really struggle if they do not eat at that time. Also we don’t want them to be eating their sweets from the Tuck shop before their dinner”. We didn’t even know that they wanted to go to the tuck shop!
So when I told them that it could not be organised or changed for that day they took themselves off to dinner at 5.30 anyway. They were lucky that Sarah and Maria had actually done a deal with one of the other schools and they had done a swap and were just on their way to tell me. So they were all happy that they got their dinner time but now they wanted tuck shop and that was supposed to be at 5.30 too. So I had to do some more dealing with schools so that they could get through the tuck shop line.
I think that that teacher thought that her school were the only ones here, a school of 16 total when the other schools had up to 80 and there were 2 special needs schools too, that lady was whacked!!!! Well I was lucky that they gave a good review with the only negative being a late pick up for a session and they left Wednesday morning yay! But then I got chewed tonight for not doing my link pack up but I would like to point out every time I see that I have a free session to go down and do it I come in the next day to find my name pencilled into the programme because Ted walked out on the newbies and they cannot do ropes by them selves. So I am doing 5 sessions a day and I have been on duty since the school left and the only time that I have had for me has been late at night when all the buildings are locked anyway so I cannot do it then either. So there is that and I am shitty about the disco and posh nosh tonight and the campfire last night. Kitty was supposed to be running the campfire last night but was “too sick and tired” to so I got it with about 1minutes notice, nice guys there are heaps of you that are linking you could do it, but no. It was not too bad because it went quite well though it was not my best it was still good, but then today with the disco, now I am shitty! I had to serve for posh nosh, it took us 2hrs to serve up 300kids and disco starts at 7.30. I was supposed to be down at the marquee with everything set up and ready to go by that time. I don’t have a transport device it was going to be tight as it was. Then I had to go and find the lap top and all the connection cables, still close but not dead yet. Then I get there and it is not even set up properly, Brian had said that he sent the free gapers to do it 4th session and that they told him it was set up. Stuff that!!!!! So I thought that I would just play the cd that Karl made till I was set up and then switch to the lap top from there, NO CD! The kids were already there and we had nothing, Brian made Andrew come down and do something but there was nothing we could do cause someone had taken his adaptor and not put it back and then the magical cable (our because Fairthorne could not be bothered to buy one of their own) cut out and we had to get his. So I ended up running from the marquee to Omar and back twice while he bullshitted up something. We would have been alright if the CD was actually there. Then get this one we got it going he still was not happy. He wanted more cheesy songs and we didn’t have any! The kids had given in a sheet of requests and that was what I based my play list on and when I put on the cheesy stuff they all went out side. Brian is talking about taking it back to the CD (the one that they cannot find that was supposed to be there that we haven’t touched so it wasn’t us) because it is more child directed and easier to set up. 1 that CD is no more cheesy than what we play, we play most of the stuff on that anyway and the stuff that we don’t play is the stuff that the kids had not heard before. 2 yes it is slightly easier to set up but then you still have to have someone who knows how to play it (when we asked Brian just to press play on the CD player while we set up he had no idea and neither did anyone else that was there except for Andrew and I). 3 the DJ system allows us to play the songs that the kids request and not just a set programme. It shits me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That and I am very tired because I have up to 5 sessions a day at the moment and almost no sleep.
In other news we are only going to get busier this week, Gwylem is really sick, a child has just gone to hospital with a head injury, Annaliese and Courtney have gone to the isle of white, the ferret had babies, the ducks are bigger and there are 3, um……..there is a new system going up at towers, I missed linen day again, ½ the staff had no idea that I went on holidays, Ted walked out on the newbies assessment and stuff the whole programme up, Oliver got back from holidays, Andrew is going soon, the girls booked a flight to Spain, I have to do washing, I have triple climbing tomorrow, and I have only had junk emails for ages.
I cannot think of anything else to say so I had better go, I will be back when I think of something new, wont be long.

Hello again this time from the town of Fiely on the Yorkshire coast!!
I have been quite busy since I last wrote. The school that I was linking with have gone and left me a very nice review and offered me a place to stay in Bristol should I ever head out that way. I managed not to kill Rachel so I am very proud of myself and some of the others (some were coming close to killing her also).
The weekend was kind of dull but fun, it was Sarah’s duty week so that is always fun. There were only a few birthday parties and 3 groups in so we basically got to ride around in the mules and do maintenance work in preparation for the open day this coming Sunday (Yay I come home just in time). Oh!!! I forgot! Two of the ducklings have hatched and they are so cool, they have officially been named Wiz and Woody by Matt and Zac so I hope that they survive (the chickens didn’t). http://www.telacommunications.com/nutshell/music/keyboard.htm
Remember this site (message for me)
So now I am on holiday up North with Grandma and Granddad and Mollie and Ken. It is very quiet but nice, Ken likes to drive us places so we have been to Scarborough, Whitby, there is a nice rundown abbey there. We also went to Robin hoods bay that was cool it is a little fishing village that was used by smugglers and it has all the little windy streets that make it intriguing. We also went out to dinner with Heather and Peter, Laura and some other relatives that I don’t really know but is was a nice chance to meet them.

So last time that I wrote something I was just heading out to greet the oldies. Well now the oldies have come and gone and it is almost holiday time, YAY!
Having Grandma and Grandad visit was really, really nice. It was nice to see them and catch up on the news from home and it was nice to show them around here and to have them meet some of the people that I work with. It was a nice day and we had a nice walk, it was just nice.
So since then I have had a week of after school club, “fun”. Technically I didn’t have to come in till 10 each day but then I was told that I had to be at the 8.30 morning meeting so basically I ended up starting at the same time anyway. Then I got to do random odd jobs all week cause I was only put on the roster for 2 sessions all week and they were both short because they were with a special needs group. You know I scrubbed the slip way again, I fixed the aerial runway blocks and the foot bridges. I reorganised the kayak shed and was a crash test dummy for a new towers system (they wanted a kid but there weren’t any so they used me instead). So after all the random jobs I got to go to after school club where I got to play games with kids and get treated like a 2 year old. This week is much better though, I am linking with a pretty cool school and I have five sessions a day! Now all the others know how I felt last week, they all have the odd jobs this week. Well better go, I am really, really tired so if what I just wrote makes no sense I am sorry.

You know I just realized that I haven’t written anything since we went to London. So what has been happening? Well we had new Gapers arrive on Monday the week after we went to London. Actually lest put this in order. After we got back from our lovely trip to London we had to go back to day camps but it wasn’t so bad. I got a cool group in activity club, they were slightly older than most of the other groups. I even had Jess the designer jeans girl from the last day camps and we actually got on quite well. So I had a pretty chilled out week with just the usual activities and the weekend was the same as always. We were all broke after London so we didn’t go out and I cannot remember anything specific that happened, actually that was the weekend that Concordia left YAY! No more annoying people, most of them were actually pretty cool individually but as a group they were a pain in the butt.
So we finally got rid of one group of volunteers only to get 15 new gapers on Monday. They seem to be a cool bunch of people though I haven’t really met them properly yet. I was in the kitchen this week so at first they all thought I was just a dish washer but they get the idea now that I am just like them.
I have to tell you about kitchen, it is really boring and you don’t realize how much you Miss Sessions and kids till you have nothing to talk to but the dishwasher. I had to start at 6.30 in the morning every day but that wasn’t so bad because Giles was there every day except Friday, it is very creepy to get to work at 6.30 and find a cackling Carolyn smiling at you. I got help with breakfast and then it was on to dishes till 12 when I had a 4hr break, with no money, nothing to do and nowhere to go the break usually consisted of sleeping or bumming round the river. Then it was back to dishes and cleaning the dinning hall till about 7.30 pm and that was about it for each day. The part of the day was the times around breakfast and dinner when every one was putting plates and stuff away and I got to talk to them and kind of get to know the new gapers.
They are an interesting bunch there is one Australian girl named Page and she seems cool but a bit snobbish, then the rest of the girls are from NZ oh except for Emma (another one) who is from South Africa. All the girls seem cool though some of them are very quiet and some seem to have no idea why they are here, its all party and no work in their eyes. Now the boys are a bit different, there are a couple of characters in that bunch; there is Oliver who we reckon is Andrew Rows Australian twin, they are so much alike, same attitude and they are both clueless about almost every thing. Then there is Simon from Aus he registers on the creepy scale in another way, and I am not quite sure how he just does, he like Rachel heaps though so I don’t think that I will have much to do with him.
Moving on there is Ben, he is the tallest, biggest dude ever, we call him big Ben or tiny, then there is Adam, Gwylem, and Alex and they are just cool chilled out guys, and then there is Anthony. He is yet another character, he is emo (kind of) but he is ver hyper active and always has energy and in general seems not to care what anyone thinks and just likes to have fun.
We went out to Jesters last night and he was very fun and bouncy, though we all were it was Jesters. Well I have to go and greet the oldies so I will come back later and finish this.

Guess where I have just been!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LONDON!!!!!!!! We got back yesterday evening and I am still buzzing. So here is the minute by minute account.
Right Friday morning 4.45 in the am and we nutty people were out of bed finishing last minute packing and fighting over the showers. We managed to be the first group to meet the waiting taxies and once we had agreed on where we were going we were actually going. We arrived at the terminal with about an hour to spare, that hurry up and wait rule is coming in to play again, so we sat around and ate our lunches that Carolyn made for us and we gave Matt heaps for falling asleep on the toilet. The bus ride (double Decker) to Winchester was quite exciting, lots of photos to be taken, but by the time we were left Winchester we realized that we were actually tired and all slept till we arrived in London. So straight of the bus and we were already stuffed, we (meaning Andrew S) had no idea where exactly the hostel was. So after a few arguments and a trip to the information desk we took a very nice and round about walk through Hyde Park to end up only a few blocks from where we started, but at least we were at the hostel. So that after noon we went our separate ways, the others went to investigate piercing of the tongue kind and Penny, Emma and I went for a wander. We took another nice walk through Hyde park and then we headed down to Harrods’s, where we felt very out of place with our baggy clothing so after a look around we moved on to other shops where we felt more at home. Upon discovering that we had spent much money we decided it would be a good idea to head on down and see the sights so that was what we did. After a healthy walk we found ourselves at Buckingham Place, not all that exciting, don’t get me wrong it is really cool to be there and the design and feel of the building was cool but other than that it was kind of boring, we missed the changing of the guards so not much was happening. Oh I forgot to mention that we passed through the Wellington arch and walked down through St James Park (I think) on our way to the palace. We then walked through another park and came upon Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately due to lack of time we were unable to look at the inside much but we do have many, many pictures of the outside. You know the thing with healthy walks, they turn into really long walks at the end of the day but we made it back to south Kensington in one piece and discovered that the others were cooking dinner without us and had actually done nothing for the whole day. By the time that the three of us had our dinner the others were close to drunk and getting naked so we decided to head out with Matt, Zach and Craig to the London walkabout. Now that was something different, the music was good the building was cool and we just had a great night, I even met someone who lives in Duffy YIKES! Coming back we discovered that everyone in the 10 bed dorm was fast asleep, so we decided to wake them up with a camera flash, fun, fun, fun. Then we received a visit from the night person at the hostel looking for a lost bed, it was kind of funny cause there were two people on some of the beds and Dan had his mattress from the other room in the middle of the floor and all she said was “I’m not worried about him (pointing to Dan) he has his bed with him, I’m looking for the person who belongs to the other bed in 31”. It was funny at the time.

The next day we discovered that we 3 girls were sharing a dorm with 2 girls from Spain, a dude from Vietnam and a Brazilian neurosurgeon and that they like to get up early, ouch! It was good though because Penny went off to get her belly button pierced and the rest of us from the walkabout last night headed off to the Camden markets. They are the biggest Abby markets that I have ever seen! We went on to spend even more money but it was worth it. Again after spending much money we ran away to try and see the boat race but were interrupted by a text demanding that we meet the others at Big Ben, so we ended up chasing them round because they could not stay still long enough for us to catch them and missing the race altogether, bummer. Chasing them around was good for sight seeing, we saw Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, many streets from the Monopoly board, I have to get that out and mark off where we went, Trafalgar square and some of the museums. So getting back late again we discovered that the others wanted to go out again, so we did and where did we end up, up you guessed it the Walkabout. It was still a good night, made better by the fact that I met up with Charlie from home afterwards and we went to a jazz bar ner the center of town, I think, and danced till the morning light. Sunday was the day of rest for us mainly because everything was closed so after a very lazy morning Penny, Rachel and I went off to Noting Hill where we investigated the Portabella road markets and spent even more money! That night everyone was so tired that we did nothing but sleep and the next day I was still tired so all I remember is lost more walking and more site seeing. I think that we saw the south bank of the river Thames and the Tower Bridge oh and we saw the tower of London but did not have the time or the money to go in. the trip home was mostly uneventful except for the freak out at the bus station when the bus driver wanted to go and we only had half the group there but it was cool in the end. I think the highlight of the trip was coming back hungry and finding Sarah waiting for us in the kitchen with food and ears to listen to our adventure.

Lara is gone!!!!!!!!!!! I feel so sad, I didn’t even get the chance to say a proper good bye, I was stuck up the towers with a crying kid when she left and had to settle with yelling as she walked out the front door. I did sign her flag and get her address so you never know I might see her again soon, I know that I will defiantly miss her heaps. So we did actually go out on Saturday for Lara’s last Saturday in England. It was a big night, the kitchen flat girls all got pissed before we were even out the door. We had a big walk around trying to decide which club to go to and we ended up at Jumping Jacks (not the walkabout for once). I liked the music but they kept stopping the dancing so that they could have mini stage shows by the staff. But other than that it was really good, Dannie from Brazil came and Jenny and Elliot showed up and we even ran in to Tom there so it was a good night and the best thing is that Lara enjoyed it. Oh and I agreed to let the girls straighten my hair and it actually looks really cool, everyone had to do a double take when they saw it the first time, I am really considering getting it done properly.
So Sunday was a killer day, Penny and I had Towers, Burma, Team and Raft with a group of kids from a not so well of neighbourhood so that added to tired was not so cool. The kids were kind of ok, we had heaps of help controlling them because they came with a group of police officers, so once we got them doing the right thing they were good, still and very long day though. What else has happened? Oh day camps started on Monday and I am linking with a group this week. Nothing seems to be going right for me this week, it started well they were on time and they only have one session a day so I looked like a cake walk but then! We had eco as our first session and I was late to get them because I was up the tree with Courtney and the session ran long and then she left me to pack it all up (not totally her fault, but still a pain in the ass). Then I discovered that I was running the session (yay) and that though they are not demanding other times this group are very demanding on sessions.
Annalies is linking this week to and her first day was crap so we took out our frustration on the bouncy castle in the sports hall along with the volunteers from Europe, Craig likes the French girl.
So after the fist day I thought that I would be fine today with only one session with my group and the rest day camps, was I ever wrong. First I had three kids cry on towers abs and then I got stuck with the idiot for archery, then I was in the tuck shop all lunch and serving my group, wait it gets better. When I took the group down to Arial runway for their only session I found out that they were 4th session not 3rd and that my time table was wrong so we ended up going on a random walk after I apologised for screwing up. Then when I brought them down again (on time this time) no one else showed up and one of the leaders had to go to reception and get them to radio Brian and find out what was going on! Huff at least games night went well, though I am still shitty cause I cannot unlock my phone at the moment. So that was my day I think that I will go and do my washing and then go and read up on London and think that there are only three days to go.

So another day off and another week had passed. Last week was nothing special, I didn’t have to link with a school, I was only on duty once and we went to the pub (lots). We had a really demanding school in during the week so it wasn’t the best week. The teachers were really anal about having the kids completely involved and all that crap so the sessions were really boring and talk based. But the other school that was in was pretty cool; I had a good time with one of the groups from that school because I almost always had them for sessions. So that was basically my week though we did have ropes assessment at some ungodly hour on Friday morning. Ted came in again and assessed us on the abseiling, climbing, towers, Burma Bridge and aerial runway. Penny and I were the only ones to pass the assessment fully so that means that we will be put on heaps of ropes sessions so that will be cool. Andrew the strange just walked in and is complaining about Rachel not helping out on kayak sessions (like he can talk). His attitude is really starting to shit me up the wall; he has developed a superiority complex ever since the new gapers got here. He acts like he knows everything and he makes out that he has been marked off on heaps of stuff but he really hasn’t. The funny thing is that out of all the old gapers he is probably the least competent and has been marked off on almost nothing, so I am just waiting for someone to get pissed with him and put him in his place.
So that’s over on to today, we (meaning Penny Kirry and I) went to Winchester. It is quite a nice place, lots of different architecture, some great old churches but all we really saw was the main shopping streets we didn’t go any further. I did some serious shopping today, I bought a new phone (number will be coming out in the next few days), I also bought a Balrog from the games workshop and the rest was books, food and the other essentials so I think that I spent about 100pounds today and will are still planning to go out tonight. So that was my week so far, not much but that is it.

I am now free!!!!!!!!!! No more house keeping, the rest of the week was like the first half. Sweep and mop the kitchen after breakfast, clean up after the groups in the mornings. General cleaning in the afternoon or linen counting plus we had huge coffee breaks right through the day. In general it was one of the most boring lazy weeks that I have had here, thought the polish girls are very nice and Sheena reminds me of someone that is about all there is to it. So yesterday was my day off and I spent the morning up here in the internet room having a really long travel conversation with Nicole, I love you Nic. We decided that we are leaving London on the 6th September, we booked flights and all. Then we want to spend 8wks in general Europe and then we want to fly to Singapore spend 7wks in Asia and then come home on the 30th December. I am really tired we went out last night (Nic I found the best club, it screams Abby, I will have to tell you later). Well I have more to say but I am late for the morning meeting.
I am back and it is a brand new day, now back to it.
Well I spent the rest of Sunday trying not to fall asleep, Penny and I had a towers session which was fun cause there were heaps of scared people and I basically spent the entire session walking between the towers or just hanging around on the wires. We then had an abseiling session with the same group the most exciting thing was that I got to belay oh and Brian was late because he forgot to move his clock forwards. So Penny and I were setting up and Adam come running with a huge grin to tell us that Brian would be late and then half hour later we see a little Brian running across the field looking a little flustered, it was all kind of funny. I got to spend the afternoon seeing of the group we had on towers and working with Annalies, Andrew and the autistic group, it wasn’t so bad we were just really tired. It was movie night that night but I think that almost everyone slept at some point which was good because today was busy.
We had three schools in today, one was older kids that were just in for the day, I had them for raft building and it wasn’t too bad minus the fact that I was with Andrew the strange. I worked with the two behavior problem boys for archery today and that was actually quite cool, though not that exciting. I think that the funniest thing was that Andrew the weird had a canoeing session and was the first person to fall out, in front of Karl, Brian and Martin, they were not impressed, I think that he is in trouble with Martin too so we will have to wait and see what happens with that. Well I better go it is poker tonight at the dolphin and the others want to go.

I am so bored! I am house keeping for the week and it is so boring. When I first saw on the roster that I was house keeping it was just after my group had left and I was feeling a little stressed. I thought that it would be a nice change a chance to relax and take a breather, it was like that for the first hour then it was so totally boring that I was falling asleep. The first day Monday, Sunday was birthday parties, Dan and I were almost on our own but Karl was coming in and out. Oh I have to tell you about Sunday, I got up in the morning and walked out the door to find that the farm was without sheep! Turns out the University that were in decided that it was cool to open all the gates in the farm, this resulted in pigs in the wrong place, a chicken in the well and Karl walking out his door to find Lawrence the sheep at the bottom of his stairs, we had a rather busy morning. The rest of that day was spent on the birthday parties and I basically ended up running both cause Dan caught the Gap tummy bug and was really out of it. So back to Monday, it really was not that bad cause I cleaned for about 1.5 hrs and then it was coffee break, then it was time for me to go to session because there was no one else. So I ended up doing sessions for the rest of the day. Yesterday was kind of the same because I had second and third sessions and Sheena gave me the rest of the afternoon off so that was cool. Thinking about this I haven’t really done that much cleaning and I am already bored, wander why that is? Today was kind of bad though there was heaps of excitement this morning. We had started to clean Pembroke when Sarah came bursting in yelling my name and asking if anyone had seen me. turns out that I was supposed to be on a towers session first thing but no one had told me, so that was exciting (that was the only excitement for the day). I got to count linen for the rest of the day, did you know that we moved and counted almost 1200 separate pieces of bedding today? What fun!!!!!!!!

So today is Saturday (my day off) and this is the first time that I have had the chance to sit down and actually write something. So I think that I got as far as Tuesday and now I cannot remember anything that has happened. I think that Wednesday was just normal sessions with nothing exciting happening, I suppose that if I cannot remember it was not that interesting. Campfire was a big hit with this group, they loved the banana song and boom chick boom oh and they were even singing Alice the camel for the rest of the week to. Thursday was the ITS incident day. The day was going well with Arial runway and towers going well and then after lunch I had A and B for IT’S and it just collapsed. The kids were being silly and Courtney and I felt as though we had been hit by the same bus and had no energy to control them but we tried. Then randomly the teacher stepped in told everyone to drop the rope and told them that they would be going back to the accommodation, huh? She ended up taking ¾ of the group and leaving me the rest to continue the session, it was not a normal ITS session. Then when I got back to the accommodation all the ones that were naughty came up and apologized to me, it was kind of strange. The disco went off quite well, it was in the cone marquee and Andrew and I got to play DJ. Oh and Zack got out danced by a 9 year old that was funny. So now the kids have gone, one cried when I said good bye on the bus, and aside from a really sore tooth and a continuous blood nose I fell really good.

So today has been a very, very, very long day! It has been fun packed and drama filled, we had three separate accidents in 24hrs and nothing seemed to go right. Last night there was a boy that managed to spill hot chocolate all over himself resulting in a very stunned kid and very minor burns. Games night was not too bad; drama does it again though Dan’s kids were not so enthusiastic. This morning I slept through 3 alarms but thanks to Courtney I managed to pick my kids up on time, nice save Courtney. Double Burma Bridge was actually quite good even though I felt like I had been hit by a bus; I think that bus is coming back. It was during this time that I was informed over the radio that one of my kids had been hit in the head with a kayak paddle and was on her way to the hospital, oh yay! It was all sorted and she was fine but better safe than sorry, she has a really coole bruise. Kayaking was typical with 4 kids going in today but it was with Sarah so it was fun. Oh did I say I ended up in the tuck shop today? My group went through and there was only one lady there so myself and Tom ended up in there too, I am kind of glad that I still remember my Calwell canteen stuff. Sailing was strange, 2 girls cried and I got to ride the orange with Adam who gets bored very easily, that was actually fun till I had to help tow the kids in and deal with a crying Megan. So after having to deal with a lost teacher on her way back from the hospital (I had to cal Karl with the duty mobile and have 2 conversations at once. Why do they ask the Australian for directions in England?), I had to deal with another injury, I was only gone 20minutes and then we got to jungle escape. 1 board for 50 kids, I think that Andrew hates me at the moment to because I had to keep ducking out for other things and leaving him alone with all the kids. But my day is over yay, time to head out to the railway with the new gap people and have a drink.

Yay my new group arrived today! Actually kind of boring at least they are more organized than the last lot. I got marked off on the obstacle course today which I was very proud of considering that I had a double group. The morning was spent prepping for this group yay and I got to do checks on the activities they trust me to declare it safe to run, I feel special. Oh I have to tell you about the water after noon. There were almost 90 people on the river at the one time this afternoon. There were 2 double groups canoeing and one double group sailing and at least 10 instructors on the water all at the same time. My entire school was on the water, and get this I left in the canoe with 2 nervous kids at the start and at the end I came back with 2 completely different kids and towing a sail boat. Andrew is currently sitting next to me and we are looking at the 05 gappers photos and movies. They have given us some really good ideas for pranks, we want to pull one on matt tomorrow. Oh the new gapers got here today, I have only had a chance to talk to John and Craig cause I have been linking and I only got 20 minutes to pop down to the golf club before games. They both seem like cool guys, Zach apparently asked for drugs off Andrew and co at lunch and has smoked and entire packet of cigarettes since he landed so he is not looking so cool at the moment. I haven’t had the chance to talk to the others the girls are all kiwi except for Maria from South Africa. The others have talked to them and they all say that they are nice so I cannot wait for the chance to meet them properly.

Yay day off tomorrow!!!!! I had a grand total of 3hrs sleep yesterday and I had to work all of today, but it wasn’t too bad. We got tipped at the birthday party, I didn’t have to work with buzz, we all got to use the radios and run sessions on our own and we got to eat the leftover party food. Oh and Caroline even gave us a choice for dinner tomorrow, we get curry yay!