Charnwood 2019

I've been to camp again recently, with 5,500 campers from the worldwide family of Scouts and Guides. It's the ninth camp of this sort I've attended (only the eighth I've camped at.)

(You can find out about my long association with Charnwood International Scout and Guide camps here, and what I did in the 2016 camp, here. And if you want to see a more general history, check out the Charnwood website too.)

The site was HUGE - the biggest yet, as you can see from this aerial photo. Look closely - you might see the wind turbine. Not Bib Bob, I hasten to add - probably a distant relative though!

Main sub camps to the right and bottom, staff subcamp to the left,
main arena with the biggest marquees! 

Those two marquees? Breathing Space.

I was part of the Breathing Space team, who were tasked with providing a quiet and faith space for campers, run along similar lines to the Channel Your Thoughts tent of 2016. The success of CYT meant that this time round, our presence was advertised and promoted well before the camp began. We also ended up with more space; in 2016, we were in one large marquee. This time, we were spread across two marquees, both individually about three to four times the size of the 2016 one. And again, we were in the central area, available to anyone.

Our Breathing Space logo...in 3D. Provided a great photo opportunity...

...and our distinctive team neckers, complete with
Breathing Space Challenge Badge

We had three zones across our marquees: Sshhh, Haven, and Reflection. Sshhh provided quiet, mostly self-run activities such as colouring, Lego, puzzles, games, a few crafts which changed daily, a small library of books and Beano comics, and a stitched banner. It also housed our friendship postbox and the Worry Monster!

Haven was an area of the second marquee which had some similar quiet activities for campers who either needed a smaller space and fewer people to feel comfortable, or who needed someone to talk to if things got too much for them. And Reflection was the rest of the same marquee, which housed our team 'office', a large area for specific faith services, thought for the day sessions, and on site trainings, as well as a private prayer space. It worked really well to separate the areas, not least because we didn't have to reorganise the tent at any point.

Well, not until Tuesday, but I'll get to that in a moment.

We opened on the Saturday afternoon as campers were arriving on site, and were pleased to see leaders bringing the young people who they thought might need us to the tent straightaway to orient them and introduce team members so there was a familiar face when they next popped in. Our 'triage' approach worked well too - we were able to identify campers who might need a little more TLC than others and direct them to Haven rather than Sshhh.

And then it started raining. Now, rain on camp isn't usually a problem, but it came down in buckets. The campsite quickly became extremely muddy or was under water in several places, and some sub camps were left fighting to keep liquid mud from running through their sites.

Standing water...

...which turned into slurry as thousands of folk
all walked the same way to their activities

It rained on Sunday, too, and camp conditions deteriorated so much, I sent Mr Squidge to a well known camping store to buy welly boots, as it turned out that my walking boots were not in the least bit waterproof.

Not very clear, but my very muddy and wet boots,
just before I got into my sleeping bag!

(He was ready and waiting when the shop opened on Monday morning - they only had large sizes left as there'd been something of a run on wellies because some international groups had arrived without suitable footwear. Fortunately the lovely shop assistant rummaged round the back and found a pair of size 4 pink wellies so Mr Squidge snapped them up and brought them over to me. Dry feet! A luxury!)

Monday, the sun shone. It began to dry out some areas of the site, but sub camps were still pretty bad. Friends who were camping with their units were cooking while standing ankle deep in water. I saw photos of others scraping the worst of the liquid mud up with baking trays to try to keep it from entering food prep areas.

I hadn't seen camp conditions like this since Charnwood 80, which started muddy and then dried out.

That wasn't to be the case this time. It began to rain again. And it kept on raining. We didn't realise at the time that Leicestershire was having a month's worth of rain in two days. Hay had already been put down on Sunday in the worst places to try to mop up water. Now it was bark chippings in the car parks to prevent vehicles getting stuck, and trenches being dug to try to re-route running water. Some groups went home with wet gear that night to dry off and come back the next day...

And then on Tuesday night, after relentless rain all day, we got the order to strip out our marquees to provide communal dry sleeping space for campers who were flooded out of their tents. And still the rain kept coming down...

We woke on Wednesday morning to the news that camp was going to have to close early. The conditions were simply too bad. To my knowledge, it's the first time an international camp in this country has had to close in this way due to weather conditions. It was very, very sad - but the best decision under the circumstances.

The Breathing Space team were asked to stay on. We were working just in one marquee now - the other had people sleeping in it - and we couldn't provide all that we had planned to. But we kept the space open for those who needed us and what we were still able to offer under challenging circumstances. And we stayed until Friday lunchtime, one of the few tents continuing to offer activities for campers - particularly some of the international visitors - who couldn't leave on the Thursday.

In some respects, it was the hardest camp I have ever been on. Even without the weather, we were busy from the moment we opened our marquees at 8.30am to the moment we shut them up, around 10pm (later if someone still needed us.) We had a lunch hour so we could eat, and we protected our evening meal times as far as we could, but other than that we never stopped. And we waded - literally waded - through mud, in the dark, back to our sleeping tents (which stayed standing and mainly dry, despite the awful weather).

In other ways, it was the best camp I've ever been on. Everyone pulled together. The longest shift we heard about (Facilities and H&W were literally working non-stop) was 26 hours, as folk battled to keep the site working, and the spirit of Guiding and Scouting - the 'do your best, have courage in all difficulties' - was very much in evidence. The young folk still had a brilliant time. Breathing Space was enjoyed and appreciated by those who needed us. And I had the privilege of working in an amazing team who supported each other just as much as they supported anxious or tired campers.

I met some incredibly inspiring young people, and was blessed to witness several moments of deep spirituality within the services and inter faith sessions I helped to provide.

I was in the camp newspaper twice, (!) and met many international campers I probably wouldn't have met if I'd been a guider-in-charge looking after a unit.

The Taiwanese scouts were a lovely bunch

Very proud of our interfaith prayer space  - it was used several times.

Yes, I was tired, and muddy, and sad when I got home, but on balance, it was a brilliant camp. Here are a few more photos - with thanks to fellow team members for letting me share their pics, because I took so few of my own.

What camp looked like in a rare sunny moment, with all the flags flying

Our psychedelic colouring wall after it got dripped on!

Big Knit hats. You might spot my pencil, a couple of
funky chickens, and my frog's eyes...

My 'haul' of badges; now need to sew them onto my camp blanket!

And the next one? Due in 2023. We're already thinking about it...

Winner, winner, Chicken dinner!

It's official! I am a winner - apparently.

Here's the update if you don't believe me...

16/4  - 173

17/4 - 0

18/4 - 1315

19/4 - 1219

20/4 - 828

21/4 - 1579

22/4 - 1729

23/4 - 889

24/4 - 1855

25/4 - 1879

Total words at final count - 48025 (Target was increased to 48K from 45K about a week ago)

I realised that the end number of words, when added together, might not match my final total, because some days I went back over short sections of what I'd done the previous day - especially when I was writing rather than editing near to the end. But ultimately, I have completed a first, fairly well edited computer draft, of a 48K fantasy novel. 

I'm not going to say I've finished, because I know I haven't. I need to rest this story for a while, then come back to it with fresh eyes. It's never really finished until it's in print. (If it ever reaches that point).

And I have to say that although I'm pleased, I don't feel like a 'winner'. That implies I've been racing against others to get my project completed, but I don't like to think of myself as being in competition with folks on the writing front. All of us in our Camp NaNo cabin made progress on our projects, so in that sense, we're all winning, even if some of those projects won't be completed by the end of the month.

The best lesson of this whole intense writing camp that I'm taking away is that I have proven to myself that I can be disciplined enough to write a little (sometimes a lot) every day if I need to. That alone is worth the win.

So what's next? Book 3, of course! And finding beta readers for numbers 1 & 2. Any takers?

Camp update 4

Well, things have been a bit up-and-down over the past few days. Had another no writing day, a very low word day, then a couple of good days.

12/4/19 - zero.
13/4/19 - 690
14/4/19 - 3460
15/4/19 - 2285

Total to date: 36366 words edited.

Actually, what I've produced over the last couple of days is more like first pass writing, because I'm at a part in the story where I got stuck before. VERY stuck. So it's all written in note form, without formatting; I'm having to do a lot of filling out and formatting as I go.

I also increased the word count I'm aiming for, because my original estimate of 45K for this novel seems a little low. So I increased it to 50K. I may not get that far, but I'd rather be working up to it realistically than looking like I've gone over and above my target if I set it too low at the start.

Onwards and upwards - like my word count.

Camp update No 3

Camp update:

7/4/19 - 3256
8/4/19 - 2754
9/4/19 - 1167
10/4/19 - 0 (Zero. Nada. Nowt)
11/4/19 - 6456

Total words edited to date: 29,931

Yesterday was a busy day, church wise. I DID write, but at NIBS, not on the novel. So it wasn't a word-free day, just a non-novel day.

Today was a good writing day, as plans changed and I didn't get to do what I'd intended to this afternoon (the not so good bit) so I edited instead. I was also working on dialogue, and I can whizz through more of that in a session because there's usually less editing required here than on descriptions or action sections. (I think I must have a knack for dialogue - it comes easily in the first instance. It's all the rest of it that slows me down!)

I'm also very aware that I am getting close to the place I got stuck on for so long (until I wrote something really simple and passed over it for more exciting bits!) I'm fully expecting my pace to slow down noticeably then, as I'll be editing much rawer material.

Probably a good job I've already had a good day today, eh?

Camp NaNoEdMo update 2

So the 'update every day on the blog' thing isn't working... it's working out as every few days instead. But I'm still glad to be doing camp NaNoEdMo, because I've discovered that even an hour a day is enough to get anywhere between 1100 and 2500 words edited.

And it's not proving so hard to find an hour. Today I've done the hour early in the day, because we're cooking dinner for friends tonight and I need to get a lot of tidying and cleaning done before I even start going near the kitchen! More usually, I'm editing in the evening, when everyone else at home is doing their own thing.

Maybe being an almost-disciplined writer isn't completely beyond me...

Here's the update so far:
4/4/19 - 2483
5/4/19 - 1157
6/4/19 - 1902
Grand total edited so far: 16296 words.

My aim is for 45K words by the end of the month. I'm on track. Happy Squidge.

Camp update 1

I forgot to update yesterday... I had a cold and was feeling a bit rubbish, then a quarter of one of my teeth broke off. So I was not in a happy, blogging place.

Instead, I'm giving you a double update today:

2/4/19 - 1365
3/4/19 - 1533

which takes me to a grand total of 10,754 words edited.

Mind you, it's taken me this long - and the assistance of my cabin buddies on camp - to work out exactly where to update my stats on Camp NaNoWriMo. At one point I was minus 9K words!!

Onwards and upwards...

Camp NaNoEdMo and Project Black Ruby

I mentioned the other day that I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo as Camp NaNoEdMo this month.

I'd already started working on the edit over the weekend, and I figured that I'd include those figures in the camp totals, as I'm aiming to have completed the edit of Project Black Ruby by the end of April.

So on the first day of camp, I have posted 7856 words edited. I was honest - said that that's three days' worth - and I am planning to edit something every day until I'm done, even if that goes beyond the end of the month.

In fact, I think I'll post my stats on here every day too, to prove to anyone outside of my camp cabin that I'm making progress. It's not something I've done before, but it might help to keep me motivated. Especially if you all keep encouraging me!

So, for Project Black Ruby so far:
30/3/19 - 4924
31/3/19 - 1697
1/4/19 - 1253
Total: 7856 words edited.

Charnwood 2016 - Part 2: Channel Your Thoughts

(Read Part 1 here)

The start to Charnwood 2016 was a little...frantic. We arrived home from Menorca at 10.30pm on the Friday and by 10.30am on the Saturday I'd finally packed my bag, the car was loaded with three lots of kit and activity materials and we were on our way. We arrived, the kids tumbled out of the car and I had a very bumpy ride in an ATV over to the tent I'd be working in before off-loading my kit to the Noisy Nineties subcamp where I'd be sleeping and eating.

Noisy Nineties orange!

There were six sub-camps, each given their own colour and a decade, because the theme was 'Entertainment through the Decades'. The Squidgelings were in Non-Stop Noughties, and lime green!

Beautiful skies over the campsite

My role at camp was that of a team member in the Channel Your Thoughts Team. Our job was to provide a safe space for campers of all ages who needed a bit of quiet time or a break from activities or who struggled to cope with the overwhelmingness (is that a real word?) of a tented village that was home to 5000 people from 22 countries. We also had a remit to provide for the faith needs of the campers, offering a quiet space for prayer or contemplation should it be needed, as well as more formal services for different denominations and a Scout and Guide's Own.

Our rainbow tree outside our little marquee

Our days began with prayer for those who wanted it - just 15 minutes to prepare us for the day ahead. A team dingbats session followed once the activity tables were set out, and then we waited for whoever needed us.

Team dingbats...don't think we ever got 100%!

Each day we had a theme and decorated boards with 'Thoughts of...' They began to fill up later in the week as our visitors got used to doing them. It was interesting to see what the young folk added; some weren't always obvious. For example, on 'Happiness', there were a couple of faces with lines through them. At first glance this looked as if someone had deliberately sabotaged the picture - but it was all planned, because the artist told me it was a sad face with a line through it to show happiness meant no sadness.

Our last day...and we weren't needed so much!

Over the course of the week, we offered a listening ear, a drink and a chat for many folk. Word spread of the work we were doing so that unhappy campers, when spotted, were reported to us so we could make sure they were OK. If they weren't, they were invited to the tent so we could try to help. Thankfully, most of the issues we encountered were easy to deal with or passed on to others, and the next day we'd see a much happier face once the issue was resolved. Our distinctive neckers (made by yours truly) with speech bubble patterns made us visibly different from everyone else, and as one leader remarked when sharing some difficulty with me 'it's those neckers - I know I can talk to you!' But as that was what we were there for, I didn't mind in the least.

One of our activities ongoing during the week was knitting smoothie hats for Age UK. The innocent big knit donates 25p for every hat knitted - we aimed for 100 and got 200! Some hats were collaborative efforts, with folk who'd never knitted before adding a few stitches or a couple of rows or making mini (and in some cases, not-so-mini!) bobbles to decorate them. We even managed - with our left-handed team member - to teach a fellow left-hander how to knit. One of the CYT team, Craig, decided he wanted to knit a hat; we taught him from scratch and it took three days, but here's the finished item (which Craig reckons must've been worth at least a tenner for the effort it took to make!)

Criag said he didn't find it a very relaxing past-time - he was gripping the needles so hard and was a VERY tight knitter - and someone joked he'd be happier knitting on a pair of screwdrivers. Squidge was happy to oblige...

The hardest stitches I've ever knitted! I;'m back to needles...

The full 200 on the last day

We also had a jigsaw on the go - 1500 pieces of British history. Turned out there were actually 1499 pieces, as we discovered when we completed it on the last day.

Fiendishly difficult!

The missing piece

It was a real privilege to work with certain young folk who kept coming back to us. Over the course of the week, we watched their confidence grow until on Friday, we had our quietest day. It was almost as if the children and young people knew we were there, but didn't really need us any more. For me, that was a massive blessing, to be able to share in their growth over the course of five or six days. My lasting memories will be of the young man who faced his fear of water to take part in several water activities off-site; sharing a game of boccia with another from 'Ull; knitting and chatting with several young ladies, and the Malaysian Guides who came in every day to knit, work out the Suduku challenge and sleep!

I managed to embaress the Squidgelings quite successfully too, by dressing up in as much bright orange as I could find for the Opening Ceremony and dancing around in the middle of the main circus tent while the stewards got all 5000 campers seated.

Oh - and if you wondered just how big the marquee was to get 5000 campers into, take a look at these:

The CDC - a tent big enough to house ALL the campers

Inside the CDC - I'm about two-thirds of the way back
so there are even more folk behind me!

Back to the Squidgelings...They avoided my 'Poala Fisch' impression at the street fair on Sunday more successfully...in fact, most of the people I approached didn't know who on earth I was, in spite of my sunshine stickers and shouts of 'Scorchio!' (And if you don't know what the heck all that means, check out this youtube clip of the lovely Caroline Aherne R.I.P on The Fast Show.)

(I did have a couple of 'proud mummy' moments though: Squidgeling T entered the 'Charnwood's Got Talent' competition and made it through to his sub-camp semi final with a group of friends singing Pompeii by Bastille. and Squidgeling J did so well at poi swinging with iCircus that she was invited

to try it with flaming pois - and ended up on the stage doing a fiery routine at the closing ceremony!)

And to finish, here's me with two of the amazing stilt walkers from Stilted, run by Rainbow Dave. The whole group dress at all times in this flourescent yellow and orange, so they stand out somewhat! Could have done with a pair of stilts of my own to bring me up to size!

I got home exhausted, fed up of orange clothing, and probably a stone heavier from the fabulous food served in Mel's Kitchen. Would I do it all again?

In a heartbeat.

Here's to Charnwood 2021.

Oh - and one last thing. I was approached at camp by a Guide who recognised me; I'd been to her school on an author visit earlier this year. We got talking about StarMark - I had a copy with me, so I lent it to her to read. On Thursday, she brought it back, saying she'd read it all and loved it! Needless to say I grabbed a pen, wrote in it and gave her the book to keep... I LOVE it when people enjoy my writing! Here's hoping Barbara shares her enthusiasm for StarMark with her classmates in September.

Charnwood 2016 - Part 1: A long association

My involvement with the Leicestershire Scout and Guide International camp began many years ago, as a just-thirteen year old guide.

I have some very deep rooted memories of Charnwood 1980, held at Bardon Hill. Portaloos in segmented marquee toilet tents. Deep mud from heavy rain and international visitors walking through it in bare feet. The American Scouts selling ash from Mount St. Helen's - a volcano that had erupted earlier in the year. The swarm of bees that took up residence on a bench in the staff area. People laughing at our sub-camp name (Uranus - back in the days when folk said it properly, even if it did sound rude). The Finnish guide, Marjatta, who stayed with my family for a week after camp, and the black wigwam tents of - I think - the Germans.

From L to R: Squidge, Louise, Deborah and my sister Helen.

I loved it! And thus began a long story...

Charnwood 1985 was at Stamford Hall. I was on the service team as a Ranger Guide and a lot of my male friends were in Ventures. I remember tearing my shorts while climbing over a stile on a hike with younger campers, wielding a post-helmet to drive posts into the ground the day before campers arrived, sleeping in the souvenir tent as 'security' one night and backfilling urinal trenches once everyone had gone home. I also remember my friend, Spock (Simon) riding his Vespa scooter round the marquee that the service team slept in on the last night...and most importantly, meeting Mr Squidge and 'getting together'. I can't find any photos of this camp at all...

By Charnwood 91 (a six year gap this time because the 0 and 5 years clashed with Peak, Derbyshire's international camp) I was a guider, and if I'm honest, I don't remember a lot about this camp. My first international as a leader looking after maybe 30 guides was a constant battle to get the girls up in time for activities and do all the camp chores (washing up and bedding rolls) that they didn't have time to do. We were Tasmania from Australasia, I think. It might have been this camp when the necker wave was invented - a whirl of colour around the dell that served as our stage area - and where, at the closing ceremony, a bagpiper played Taps from the roof of Stamford Hall and made me cry...

'91's gateway

The infamous necker wave...

...which moved round the dell.

Charnwood 96 had a new venue - Belvoir Castle - and we were in Cartoons subcamp. We hosted a party of Canadian Girl Scouts and dressed up as Dennis the Menaces, which was also our group's theme. We had a mid-week Christmas party (hence the reindeer antlers) and we'd bought three new tents and spent ages coding the tent pegs and poles so we could keep everything together.

A menace of Dennis's!

Christmas at camp?

Charnwood 2001, we were back at Stamford Hall. Mr Squidge and I were married, Squidgeling J was almost two...and Squidgeling T was a bump due to arrive during the week of camp. As much as the Guide motto is 'Be Prepared', I didn't fancy giving birth in a tent, so decided not to participate. However, Squidgeling T made an early appearance and I spent a day at camp with him in the pram - just long enough to buy a set of sub camp badges and visit my guides!

Charnwood 2006 saw a move to the grounds of Whatton House, thanks to Lord Crawshaw. This was a family affair when Mr Squidge and the Squidgelings came too. We were in Tudors and Mr Squidge made a rather convincing Shakespeare while the Squidgelings were fairies from A Midsummer Night's Dream and I was one of the three witches from Macbeth.

Our Tudor mansion gateway

Within a year, I'd decided to leave Guiding for a variety of reasons. So when Charnwood 2011 came round, and Squidgeling J was camping as a guide, I have to admit to feeling rather disappointed at missing a Charnwood. That's when I was asked to help out, as the district I used to guide with needed an extra pair of hands. I had a blast, though it was difficult to not be guider-in-charge, and I knew that any future involvement would have to be outside of the unit camp. Highlights of 2011 were seeing all the guides dressed as Smurfs and dressing up as Charlie Chaplin myself for celebrity night. Oh - and the Oceania gateway water cannon going off every hour to cool down some very hot guides and scouts! I also spent some time in the faith tent, because they were knitting squares for blankets for Age UK...which is where some seeds were sown for 2016.

A mixture of Forest District Guides and Kenyan Scout Smurfs,
with a couple of paparazzi press and Charlie Chaplin...

Granny blanketing!

I was far removed from Guiding by the time plans were being made and bookings taken for Charnwood 2016, but I couldn't bear the thought of missing it. Camping was always my favourite part of being a guider, and so, knowing that both Squidgelings would be camping, I offered my services as staff, specifically in the faith tent which had so impressed me five years before. They said yes...and that's where I've been this last week.

More to follow in Part 2...

Holiday time for Squidge and StarMark!

Me and StarMark have been on our holidays!

First up, a family holiday in Menorca, learning how to be competent crew on a sailing boat. 

Overlooking the harbour in Mahon

A quiet moment whilst sailing

Everyone needs something to read on the beach...

The black lizards of Isle de L'Air preferred
eating tomato to books...

Returned home and within twelve hours, was packed and off to Charnwood 2016, the Leicestershire Scout and Guide International camp. 

Bedtime reading...though not for long!
Find out why in a later blog.

I will blog about both separately, but at the moment I'm still catching up on:

a) the washing that only a seven day camp can create (x3 - me and the Squidgelings) 

b) sleep and 

c) emails and news about Kingstone.

Catch you later, once the washing's done!