When I was studying at the University of Central England back in the early 00’s the surrounding area was full of Victorian factories housing businesses. Now it’s all gone and mostly small heaps of rubble and rubbish have replaced them. And they’ve replaced them with what … Absolutely sod all is what.

and yes my name was spelt wrong on my room booking and name tag.

First up we got to meet the members of the contingent management team and the contingent support team.  We had a presentation from two young spokespersons who had attended the 2007 Jamboree.  They where just brimming with useful tips on how to engage with the youngsters who will be making up our units.

Fika

We will be actively encouraged to participate in Fika …

Now calm down and put the yellow cards away, Fika is the Swedish term for coffee and cake with friends.  It’s Swedish for tea break one of my favorite hobbys.  I look forward to coffee and cake at unit meetings, leaders meetings and every possible ocasion.  I intend to devote my fullest attention to Fika.

Workshops

We took part in a number of workshops during the weekend

• Preparing for the WSJ
• Culture
• Fundraising
• Unit Leadership
• Selection of Young People

We now have a resonable idea of what we could expect to encounter at the Jamboree and how we are likely to get there.  We know we are flying to Copenhagen where we will be staying for a few days before the Jamboree and then travelling by coach and overnight ferry to our home hospitality then flying back to the UK a few days later.

Oh and we got issued our unit leaders handbooks.

The Swedish government will give 15 MSEK to the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Sweden 2011 – announced in the state budget today.

So 15M Swedish Krona is something like £13.5 Million.  That’s the sort of government support of Scouting we’d all like to see more often.

I’m still a bit in shock really the big part of the meeting last night was mostly talking about selection of the youngsters to form the unit and being given wedges of paper to read through.  The other big shock was of course the amount of money we need to raise to get the unit to the Jamboree, it’s not a small amount but we do have something like 677 days to do it so I may be swinging by with a begging cup at some point.

Theirs not a lot to do really until after the unit leaders meeting in Leistershire on the 3rd of October, we’ve got two places for the unit so i’m going along with Steve and hopefully there will be lots of useful stuff dished out at that meeting.  Rumour was that they will even preview the kit we are going to be issued.  How early is that.

I’m going to try and keep this site updated with my goings on as part of the unit so I have a record of what happened in the run up as well as the actual Jamboree like I did for the 2007 Jambo.  It’s going to be a long journey I hope you’ll join me.

I’m heading home tomorrow and I’m going to have to continue my search for a frame for my bargain bombproof touring bike frame on the Internet.

MiniCard Box

All 10 Designs

MiniCards in Supernana holder

I used the option on the Moo site to create cards with text instead of pictures on the color side.  I created 10 different cards with a selection of Engineering, Cycling, and a Scouting quote.  In no specific order the quotes are.

“Very nice sort of place Oxford, I should think, for people that like that sort of place.  They teach you to be a gentleman there.  In the Polytechnic they teach you to be an Engineer.”

“To the optimist, the glass is half full.  To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.  To the Engineer the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.”

“The most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing”

“The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong.  It usually turns out to be impossible to get at and repair.”

“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”

“When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not dispair for the future of the human race.”

“On a bicycle you consume a fifteth of the oxygen consumed by a motor vehicle, and expel no pollutants.”

“The bicycle is a curious vehicle.  Its passenger is its engine.”

“Cycling has encountered more enemies than any other form of exercise.”

“In all of this, it is the spirit that matters.  Our Scout law and promise, when we really put them into practice, take away all occasion for wars and strife among nations.”

One could say I’ve paid my dues with the company as over the last ten years I’ve probably spent no less than £4560 just based on the lowest priced contract I’ve held. The figure is probably higher when you add data services, paid handset upgrades, calls outside of the contract and so forth. It’s a big number in these days of people switching operator every 12 months.

So when I call up and report a fault with my Blackberry, why must I be sent from pillar to post over what is a warranty exchange. The call I made should have taken no more that 15 minutes to resolve but instead it took 3 phone calls and about an hour and a half. That’s 90 minutes of my life that I could have done something far more productive and useful.

On the first call the customer service representative took my details, diagnosed my fault and then told me as I had collected the phone from an Orange store that I would have to visit the Orange store again so they could return (Note not replace but return) it for repair. When I asked why couldn’t she organise the exchange I was told it was because the Orange store is not part of Orange. Thats right Oranges own stores are not part of the same company as Orange.

Getting nowhere fast with the customer service department I rang the store who informed me that I could either ring 150 for the customer service department that I had just spoken to to organise an exchange or I could visit the store and they would … ring the customer service department for me and arrange a replacement.

So for the second time I called the customer service department and explained the fact that I was somewhat upset at being given the run around. After a little discussion the representative arranged for a courier to swap my handset tomorrow morning.

While I’m under no impression that any network operator is any better when my contract comes to an end or any loophole becomes available in my contract I’m off somewhere else. I’m getting sick of being treated like a second rate customer by a company that I’ve spent an awful lot of money with over the years. Maybe someone else will finally give me the handset I ask for rather than making a pile of excuses why they can’t and then fix it quickly when it breaks without any hassle.

Now while I feel that following the rules of traffic are important especially when cyclists are demanding equal treatment most of my fellow cyclists it appears are not. Now I’ve heard all sorts of arguments for not stopping such as “It only affects cars”, “We didn’t need traffic lights before motor vehicles” and the one I heard yesterday which was “I just don’t care” but the fact at the end of all of this is that the law says you must stop. It’s not a guideline it’s a law and subject to a penalty should the old bill come your way.

I’ve taken my fair share of abuse while out on the bike but nothing gets another road users back up more than sitting at a red light and watching a cyclist breeze straight through without giving it any heed whatsoever. The key to responsible road sharing is equality, while cyclists ride through red lights without a thought a collection of other road users will use that to defend their atrocious driving habits towards us.

What really makes me laugh about this, the chap that rode past me and through a red light last night wasn’t even going that fast anyway. When the light went green I caught up with him in a hundred yards up a slope on a Brompton so it’s not as if stopping would have delayed his journey that much anyway.