WI and the Rest of The Week

 I hadn't been to WI for months, since April in fact, not sure why really, but July was the Garden Party - and I'm not a fan and August when I'd lost my voice after talking too much at the Bacton Fayre a couple of days earlier!

But as I was down on the rota for cakes and kitchen I thought I'd better turn up for the September meeting and anyway the speaker was talking about Scouting. Then the President rang and asked me to give the vote of thanks as she knew I'd been very involved in Scouting in the past so I really had  to be there.

The speaker was Stuart - a local man - he is one of the few people paid to work in Scouting. He is based at Scout HQ - Gilwell Park, North of London in Epping Forest, where he is in charge of risk assessment. He told us all about his involvement in the 25th World Scout Jamboree (WSJ) which was held in South Korea in 2023.

Postcards that the Scouts were given for sending home and to people who had sponsored them. It costs £4,000 each for people to attend - Leaders fund themselves, Scouts have to raise money from sponsors and holding fund raising events and are often aided by their group or District.

About 43,000 young people and their leaders attended from 158 countries. He told us how his group of 36 Scouts - aged 14 - 17 and 4 leaders were chosen from Essex Scout Groups and the preparations they made in the 16 months up to August 2023. 

The WSJ got some very bad publicity, as after just a few days flooding on site then a heatwave, poor preparation, lack of sanitation facilities, lack of drinking water and the approaching Typhoon forced the participants to be moved off site to Hotels in Seoul. The UK contingent were the first to evacuate followed by the US and then many other countries. But thanks to the Korean officials who worked to organise different events and visits, Korean people who had heard about the problems,  Leaders and the Be Prepared motto everyone had a brilliant time.

Stuart was also involved in organising Scouts to help with the Laying in State for the late Queen and again for the Coronation for Charles.

It was a very interesting talk and slides.

And later in the week it was so good to hear who is the new Chief Scout. There's never a shortage of boys but always a shortage of leaders, perhaps he will inspire more adults from different backgrounds to get involved.

I've really enjoyed watching the Paralympics all week - it's been amazing to see all the medal winners. Sarah Storey getting an 19th Gold - incredible! The 19th won by an inch! So pleased to see Alfie Hewitt and Gordon Reid get the Gold in the wheelchair tennis, they've won many, many grand slams but this was their third try at winning at the Paralympics. The wheelchair basketball was really good to watch too, the men's team in the finals today after beating Germany 71/43 on Thursday and so many medals won in the pool and on the track.

 Encouraged me to look and see if there were any suitable times for swimming and I found a session that will later be used for schools but wasn't this week due to them only just being back. Hadn't forgotten how to swim despite it being months since I went and it might be a while before I go again as the other pool in the area at Diss is still closed for refurbishment until at least December so making Stradbroke extra busy and schools use the pool a lot this term and next. The few lane swimming sessions are really busy and public swimming sessions are very early or very late - neither are any good for my tired old body!

 

Tomorrow would have been our 46th wedding anniversary, we only made it to 38. 

Goodness me, how I miss that man.

Have a good weekend whatever you are doing - I'm planning a church visit and a Macmillan Coffee morning and perhaps a car boot sale.

Back Monday

Sue