14th Cambridge Cubs

Today we had an apple press to make apple juice.

I had picked some apples from Lois’s garden and several Cubs brought apples to the meeting including a big plastic basket of them from a new Cub. 

The Cubs had a relay race to collect apples from under the tree. They then cut the apples in chunks on tables set up in the HQ.  The Cubs used plastic knives and a few still ended up managing to cut themselves!  Fortunately just a small cut in each case and no real blood loss to contaminate the apples!!

Ready to press the apples pulp!

Peran helped by keeping an eye on those in the HQ when they started to bring chopped apples outside. The press was outside with pegs into the ground to ensure it did not move! I stayed with the press and crusher whilst the Cubs put the chopped apples into the crusher.  They each got to turn the handle 10 times, in reverse order of seniority i.e. newest first and sixer last. The crusher could easily crush Cub fingers if Cubs decided to mess about with it, so the Cubs could only turn the crusher when I said so, then go to the back of the line.   They then went to get another apple each to cut up and crush. 

Apple crusher - Ready to go!

Apples or Fingers in here?!?

   Got the press very full and removed the crusher to find that the mesh had come off the sides and so I had to fish around to pull up the mesh and get the crushed apple inside the mesh!!

The Cubs again formed a line to try moving the press down.  Juice came out quickly and got about 2 litres before parents started to arrive and we had to go inside.  It was just starting to rain at this point. After Grand Howl the Cubs lined up to have a sample of the juice.  I used a small measuring glass to measure it so there were no complaints.  However they could join the queue for seconds (and thirds!)

When I got back downstairs, Peran had applied more pressure to the apples and got another 1 litre from them.  It put all the stuff into my car to clean up at home as it was raining more heavily by this time and dark outside. 

When I got home I decided to reassemble the press using the crushed pulp and was able to get another 1 litre out overnight.  This apple juice is very sweet, and so different to cartons of juice from the supermarket. 

After cleaning the press it went back to HQ and the Beavers used it at their meeting.

The District leaders decided that we would have a Cambridge District Cub Christmas Party this year.  This was the first Christmas party we had organised for many years.

The party was held at Milton Community Centre as there were over 150 Cubs from all over the District.   Leaders arrived from 3pm to help prepare the food for the Cubs.  A couple of leaders had been busy food shopping earlier in the weekend, as well as ordering and wrapping all the presents, ready for Father Christmas.

It was quite a challenge to ensure there was food suitable for several Cubs with special diets and food allergies and kept marked and separated from main food trays.

The Cubs started to arrive for 4pm and were able to go into the main hall for the disco.  Quite a few Cubs were happy to chat to friends in their own pack or friends who are in different packs.  There were 12 Cubs from 14^th Cambridge.

Teatime was about 5pm and all the Cubs had sandwiches, crisps, cake and drinks and were allowed to go back for seconds once everybody had got their tea. 

After tea there was a magic show by “Jezzo the Magician”.  Jezzo also ran the disco and party games after the magic show.  Jezzo is very good at getting the audience to help with his tricks, and got the Assistant District Commissioner to help by putting his neck into a guillotine!

After the magic show, the cubs had a challenge to race each other to unroll a loo-roll and sit on the pile of paper! This game was enjoyed by the Cubs.  We then played games in small groups of about 15 Cubs.  The Cubs then had another short disco session, getting leaders to demonstrate classics such as YMCA, before getting a surprise visit from Father Christmas.  He chatted to the Cubs then each group was called up in turn to receive a present.  Most Cubs unwrapped their present as soon as they sat down again. 

As Father Christmas left, parents had started to arrive to collect their children. As the leaders tidied and swept the hall, Jezzo packed his disco into his van then headed off to give another magic show that evening.

Sunday 14^th November dawned as a dull and cold day.  Charlie Brown, Akela at 18^th Cambridge Cubs, had again co-ordinated the Cambridge District Scouts to attend the Cambridge Remembrance Day Parade, at the War Memorial at Hills Road & Station Road junction.

All the participating members of the District met at Demeter House car park in Station Road.  We had about 60 participants. There were Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers, Network and Leaders from many groups. Only 1 of our Cubs attended with Chris Neech and Akela plus other leaders and Scouts from 14^th Cambridge.

After getting into order in the car park we followed the Army Cadets onto Station Road where the parade was formed.  At 10:45am the Parade marched down Station Road and then formed a line from the Memorial, along Hills Road in the direction of town.  There were then a few readings, including Grantchester Meadows by Rupert Brooke, and then the 2 minute silence, which was marked by a distant cannon boom.  The Poppy wreaths were laid at the memorial and the parade formed up again and marched along Hills Road and back up Station Road, for inspection by the Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire.

It was a moving event for participants and reminds us of all the victims of wars and those killed this year in Afghanistan during the current conflict.

Tonight we had a visit from Gail and Claire, from Cambridge Pets at Home, with some of their pets.  Pets at Home are sponsoring the Animal Carer Cub Activity Badge.  They have a workbook for the Cubs to work through.  

They brought two rabbits called Flopsy and Mopsy, and two rats called Adrian and Ben, and a little hamster.

Flopsy & Mopsy meet the Cubs!

Hamsters are cute.

They explained that it was important to be quiet, so the pets do not get frightened.  The pets were happy to be petted by the Cubs and were inquisitive.  The Cubs were allowed to hold the rats and they were quite happy sitting in the Gail’s shoulder!

The Cubs asked lots of questions about looking after small animals. 

Cubs need to look after their pet for at least 3 months and show they know how to care for their pet.  If they do not have a pet at home they can work on some of the other optional clauses.

The time flew past, and then the pets had to be taken back to the store for the night.  They left us lots of advice leaflets on pet care and also the workbooks and balloons!!

On 16^th November, Akela prepared some “Thank you” cards, as an activity.  The Cubs drew pictures of animals on the cards.  Akela took the cards to Pets at Home, and Gail and Claire thought they were really good!

Our "Thank You" Cards

Akela

Tonight Cubs packs from all over the District met at the Scout Camp Site at Abington.  Cubs arrived about 6pm and we got sorted into small groups.  

 We had 7 Cubs and Akela and Jordan’s dad, Stuart.

We want to start the hike!!!

We joined 13^th Cambridge Cubs who had 6 Cubs with their Akela and 4 parents.  Some packs had up to 20 Cubs participating.  Each group set off at 5 minute intervals.  We walked on footpaths through the village and on footpaths across fields to Granta Park.  We then followed the cycleway/footpath round Granta Park. 

On the way we had to stop at an incident point where we had a challenge to do. 

Blindfolded Monster Food Test!

The Cubs were blindfolded and had to identify various bowls for mixtures, with such titles as Goblin Slime, and Monster Slurry.  After all putting their hands into the bowls they were able to wipe off the mess and gather round the Scouts running the base to identify what they thought they had felt.  The mixtures included cold custard, baked beans

We continued round Granta Park, and then followed a path back to Abington village.  We returned to the campsite via the village church and park, were there was a second incident point.  This involved getting everybody across an area which was marked out as a grid.  Some of the squares in the grid were ‘mined’. If a person stepped in a mined square, there was a bang and the person had to go to the back of the team and let the next person start to cross the grid.  The Scouts running the challenge had balloons which they burst when a participant stepped into a ‘mined’ square!  Each member of the team had to remember which were the safe squares and follow the safe route found by trial and error by the first members crossing.

We continued the hike across the park/playing fields and when we got back to the Abington Campsite HQ, about 8:00pm, we were given hotdog and soup supper.

After finishing supper, the Cubs played a wide game of Sardines, whilst waiting for parents to arrive to collect their children. 

Although, the hike was damp in places, all the Cubs enjoyed themselves, and slept well that night!!

Akela

District Cub Camp was at Abington again this year.  There were more packs (11 packs) this year with a total of 225 Cubs plus 65 leaders.

The Cubs all arrived on Friday evening, about 7pm, to find that our tents had been put up on the Thursday evening by Akela and Langdon.  They had managed to erect the tents before it started to rain!  Fortunately, the light overnight and early morning rain had stopped and the site and tents were dry.  This year the 14^th Cambridge Cubs were camping in the Bombhole area along with packs from 18^th and 26^th Cambridge.

We had one six in each tent. Ailwyn, Ben L, Tomer, Ethan and Alex (Ben H was ill) in one tent and Charlie, Daniel, Erin, Ben G, Connor and James in the other tent.  Once settled in our tents we had to make sure we put out our sleeping bags ready for later.  Then it was time to chat to friends in other packs and explore the site.

We had Grand Howl at 8pm and one of the Cubs from 18^th Cambridge was invested in front of all 225 Cubs! We had the site rules explained to us about where we were allowed to go and that if we were found playing in the stream at the bottom of the site we would be sent home!  We also had the meal sittings explained and Akela told us we were Group B.

Next we played a Wide Game.  It was based on Cambridge Monopoly, and we had to go, in groups of 2 or 3, to leaders walking round site and get a property card from them.  We had to get sets of property cards and then take the sets to the banker to get tickets for the sets. There were Chance Cards which gave us extra property cards, but could also be like ‘Go to Jail’ and we lost our properties.  There were even ‘Get out of Jail’ cards.  It was a good game and we all had to walk a lot to find different leaders.

It was soon time for supper (10pm) of cake and hot chocolate, then we got ready for bed.  We had a chance to talk and had a midnight feast.  Akela said we had all fallen asleep by about 11:30pm.

Akela said he was woken at 4:20am by some Cubs in the woods and the bird’s dawn chorus! We heard other Cubs in the woods and decided to get up as we thought it was soon breakfast time.  Akela got up and said it was only 5:30am and breakfast was at 8:30am from B sitting!  However, as we were all awake Akela said we could go exploring whilst he sorted out activities for the weekend.

The Breakfast Queue!!

Breakfast was sooooo good!!!

After breakfast we had to wash-up our own cups, plates and cutlery, and tidy our tents before Grand Howl. We did not tidy our tent as well as we should have done, so did not win the ‘Best Pack’ competition! After Grand Howl we went of to do one of the 11 different Activity badges being run that morning. Our leaders ran the Global Conservation badge over Saturday and Sunday morning, and planted trees with Cubs as well as recycling.  None of us did this badge as we wanted to do different badges each day and so get 2 badges over the weekend!  We did the Cyclist, Navigator and Scientist badges today.

We had lunch and were first sitting this time. We had to wash up again after lunch! Akela told us off if we did not wash our plates properly.

After lunch we went to different activity bases run by leaders.  To make numbers more even, we joined up with cubs from 12^th Cambridge as we went to each base.  The bases were activities from the different countries in the World Cup. Our Leaders ran a base about Spain and Cubs played with Piñatas.  We did not do this but were able to do it as an activity at Cubs the following week.  We did activities base on Italy, Brazil, South Africa and Scotland.  It was good fun.  We had time to play with friends before we had dinner and then we had a Campfire.  We then had supper and went to bed about 10:30pm.  Akela said we were all asleep by 11pm.

On Sunday morning we did not wake up until about 7am in Charles tent and some of Ailwyn’s tent had to be woken up at 7:30am so we could have breakfast at 8am.

We then had Grand Howl and got our kit packed then went off to do different Activity Badges for the morning.  We did Artist, Chef, Local Knowledge, Map Reader and Navigator badges today. The Chef badge was good fun and we got to make meals and eat them.  We had lunch of very nice burgers, and could have cheese and salad on them.  The Cubs who did the Chef badge could only eat one burger, but a lot of the other Cubs went back for seconds and even third burgers!

After lunch we had a Tug of War competition between the different packs.  The 14^th Cambridge Cubs got to the semi-finals but were beaten by the 18^th Cambridge.

The leaders had finished taking down our tents and it was time for Grand Howl and time to go home.

It was a great weekend and thanks to all the leaders, Akela, Chris N, Martin, Langdon and Matt, plus Craig Claydon and the camp team and caterers who helped make it happen.

This year the District St George’s Day celebrations were held on Sunday 25^th April at Queen Edith’s School.  Cubs arrived at the school for 10:30am for a morning of Sports Activity Bases.  We had seven Cubs come this year, although one Cub had to leave at lunchtime for a family event.

The Cubs were split into age groups, being 8, 9 or 10 and each age group split into smaller groups of about 8 to 10 Cubs. As it had rained overnight, we did not use the field for the bases so we did not get Cubs slipping on wet grass.  The groups then went to different bases to participate in 50 meter dash, throwing a cricket ball, skipping race, sargent jumps, shuttle runs, football dribbling, and others.  Everybody then did a mass run round the playing field, as the grass was dry by this time.

Points are awarded for first, second and third places on each activity, to the pack that the cub belongs to.  An allowance is also made for the number of Cubs participating from each pack.

After we had our lunch, games for a short time, then went into the main hall along with Beavers and all the leaders.  All the groups brought their flags into the hall and they were all put upright at the front of the hall.  We had a short talk about Scouting and helping others with good deeds each day, and keeping the Cub Scout Promise.  Each section then renewed their promise, Beavers, Cubs, and Scouts, Explorers, and Leaders.

There was then an award ceremony.  Leaders are given awards for completing their training and for long service or special work they have done.  Our Akela was given a certificate and badge for 15 years as a leader.

The winner of the District Cubs Sports Day was then announced – and the winner was 14^th Cambridge Cubs.  We were very pleased as it is the first time we have won the Sports Day.

Today was a gathering of Sixers and Seconders from Cambridge District for an activity day at Abington Camp site.

George, Luke and Becky were the 3 Sixers who met Akela on Saturday morning at 9:00am at St Luke’s to go to Abington.

The day was dry but cloudy with some sunny periods.

As Cubs arrived they were split into different teams, so Cubs got a chance to meet other Cubs from other packs.  There were 5 groups each of about 9 Cubs.

Once all the Cubs had arrived, there was a safety talk about where Cubs could go on site and where the limits are.

We then had a wide game as part of getting to know other Cubs in our groups.

Next the cubs worked in teams to make the longest paper chain in the available time.  Some Cubs made chains but did not think as a team to put the short sections together until given a hint from a leader!

The Cubs then had a group session to give reasons why sixers and seconders were important and their role within a pack.

We then split into 2 groups with Group A doing some games that do not need any or much equipment. The sixers and seconders could run the games at their own pack.

Group B talked about what makes a good wide game and then played a wide game outside.

We then had our packed lunches, and explored the site for a while.  After lunch, Group A and B swapped for a session.  Next the Cubs went to different activity bases to learn activities.  One base was about flag break and how to roll a flag. Some of the leaders found this helpful as well as the Cubs!

Another base was origami, one was mini pioneering, one was team building and finally knots!

The Cubs then worked in their teams and built outdoor shelters in the woods.  To test the shelters had been well made, a leader poured water over each shelter when each was being evaluated.  This caused great amusement, even though the Cubs were outside their shelter when it was tested!

Some of the Cubs, including 14^th Cambridge Cubs, had to leave after the shelter building.  The rest of the Cubs stayed on site and built fires to cook baked beans, sausage and potatoes followed by cooked banana chocolate. This is always popular.  The Cubs then had a Campfire before being collected by parents.

A fun day for Cubs and a chance to meet other Cubs from other packs.

This afternoon we went to The Junction (J2) Theatre to see the Christmas show ‘A Merry Little Christmas’.  This was a show by a local theatre group called Gomito Productions. (http://www.gomito.co.uk/)  The story is about a young girl who has decided she is too grown up now and no longer believes in Christmas.  However on Christmas Eve, whilst walking in the snow in the garden, she hears a noise, and finds a very weak and tired Christmas fairy.  She is joined by a group of Christmas Trolls who explain that The Christmas Fairy has been so busy trying to instil the true spirit of Christmas in people that she is completely exhausted and needs help to return home.  She sets out on an epic journey to get the Christmas Fairy back to her Christmas Tree home.  Enroute, she travels through snow storms and meets some wonderful, friendly life-size puppets, as well as some not so friendly characters, too.  She completes the journey, with help from the Christmas Trolls, and realises just how important Christmas is, to people of all ages.  The Cubs enjoyed the magical effects of snow and starlight as well as the puppets.

Tonight the cubs went Ice Skating at the outdoor ice rink on Parkers Piece.

We met from 6:30pm, and went inside to get our skates on about 6:45pm.  There were 20 cubs, 2 young leaders and 5 adults for our group.  After we got our skates, it got very busy with members of the general public getting skates on.  We were allowed on the ice just after 7pm. We had a wide mixture of abilities in our group!  A few people were reluctant to skate too far from the edge barrier, and other who were able to get a good speed on the way round.  One of our cubs fell over close to me, so I went to help him, and then fell flat on my back.  The Ice Stewards were with us immediately, and our cub was off skating quickly.  I was rather slower to start skating again, but was OK after about 10 minutes.  However, I felt rather sore on my back and coccyx for several days after the fall!  We had to leave the ice by 8pm and met parents, to go home.  A fun evening was had by all.