Scouting is awesome!

Busy busy busy!

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:50:00 +0000

Life on the site is rolling on in a most hectic tempo! I still haven't managed to get a run in, and this is only my second blog entry!

The second dining hall has been erected, and today 6 articulated lorries and 3 ordinary ones (European size) are bringing the kitchen equipment. Walking back from breakfast we saw some volunteers rolling off cupboards for hot-keeping on mass at great speed.

We are now approximately 130 people checked into the system, plus that we have 30 teens, employed by the town council who have been placed here for a summer job. Most are out in the field, building the tents, some is working with electric installation, and some in the kitchen. Appart from that there are a couple of British engineers that are working on the water heating system, and some plumbing specialists still, but people are arriving all the time.

Earlier I had a conversation with a very clever person, who was constructing a device for messuring the flow of eaters in the canteen, to be able to make accurate prognosis on the amount of food needed every day, and to work out the staffing needs of the canteen within a few days. The cost of the system will be paid for in less than a day, and hopefully it will save the kitchen thousands and thousands of krona.

More and more volunteers are arriving from ... everywhere. Yesterday, a young man arrived from Pakistan, and just half an hour ago two scouts from a near-by town, who wanted to do a good turn in the kitchen showed up at my door. My son Mike, who is staying with me this week, helped Lizzy from the English contingency to put up her tent next to ours, and swopped a super nice badge for a cub pin and toggle. He was super happy!

Yesterday we got our super smart staff outfit, exclusive for the Site Crew: Snickers pirate trousers and a polo with very handy pockets for may 2 (two) function phones and com-radio. Pictures will be included when I have time.

Gotta run! Lunch is being served in a few moments, and then Mike and I will have the afternoon off to explore Kristianstad.

Pre-jamboree notes

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:37:00 +0000

Amazing, I've been on site for three days, and my aim was to blog and publish a few pictures every day, but it's been mad!
When I arrived on Saturday, we spent the day in the army barracks with loads of members from the planning team, trying to get heads and tails on things. When the Site Service HQ was up we moved up here. Not that it was ready, it still isn't, but there are so many other priorities, and still very few hands. Anyway, now the rain and the wind isn't blowing through the gaps between the modules anymore, but we still don't have any water which complicates matters a bit.

This week we are responsible for not cooking but serving three meals and three snacks a-day to our crew of mainly plumbers and land surveyors and their helpers. At the moment there are about 40 people on site. Today the kitchen is going up. Stupidly, I thought that the humungous tent that was being set up on Saturday was the kitchen and that the two dining halls would go up either side. But this morning I found out that that massive tent WAS one of the dining halls, and an even more humungous tent is coming up beside it and THAT's the kitchen!

We are also responsible for setting up routines for checking in all the functionaries and specialists. We've stacked the temporary tuck shop and tomorrow we are going to build and furnish the builder's recreation area. Signs to be printed for smoking areas, assembly points, emergency plans, caravan places and lots and lots more. Yesterday I was working for 16 hours. Tonight is the first time it's fairly quiet. As I'm alone on the Support Team, I have to put the evening snack out too, but then I'm going to bed early.

I'll try to Bambuse a little bit as well at some points. And one of the guys here have made a great film of how the big kitchen is being put up, that I'm hoping to be able to link to some time in the future, but the connection at the moment is less than brilliant. Hopefully, we'll get a better connection on Monday....

Now it's only three months to go!!!

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 06:18:00 +0000

Jamboree TV

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 16:50:00 +0000

Changing the world- the official Jamboree song

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:10:00 +0000

The Swedish/Ethiopian singer Daniel Lemma has written the official jamboree song for the 2011 Jamboree in Sweden. Daniel was very much surprised when he was asked, as he has no relation to the scout movement, but he wrote the song, picking up on the idea of solidarity in the movement.

It's a great song, isn't it!?

Crisis management

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:19:00 +0000

The meeting this week was about urban survival, or less dramatically put; crisis management. Almost 6 years ago, just after the Tsunami hit Thailand and a relatively large number of Swedes had to struggle for survival in Thailand, a violent storm hit the south of Sweden with unbelievable devastation as a result. Boats and piers were smashed to smithereens, roofs and sheds were lifted off the ground, and in some places electricity was gone for a week or more. Eight people perished in the storm, several farmers went bankrupt in the aftermath, some tragically committed suicide. The material damage has more or less been restored, and most of the forests replanted. Six years later the saw mills have finally managed to take care of most of the fallen logs.
Even the urban areas were hit hard, with black-outs and blocked roads. The scouts, now between 15 and 19, remembered the event very well; one of them told us how they huddled together in candle light in one room to keep warm, and how everything in the freezer had gone off, another how his cousins for two weeks after the storm had come to visit to use the shower and wash their clothes as their power hadn't been restored.
So we talked about how to prepare for a similar event, and the scouts are now going to evaluate how well prepared their households are for a new crisis, using the official guidelines.
Water is a big issue in a situation like this, and the scouts were asked to prioritize the usage of the minimum amount of water per day, estimated to 5 liters a day per person. A huge, and sometimes heated discussion led to that 2,5 liters were saved for cooking and drinking water as "it's better to be well and in your right mind so be able to make good decisions than to have clean underwear", 1 liter for personal hygiene, 1 liter for washing up and half a liter for washing clothes. Thinking about that too many people in the world have only this amount of water, or less, for survival, and not only clean water, also led us to talk about how to save water in our everyday life (An average Swedish household use between 400-500 liters of drinking water per day, 184 liters per person per day in 2008! where of 45 liters of hot water!)
It is usually easier to recruit Cubs than Challengers, but perhaps it is only because we don't do enough recruiting... this term we've had two new recruits! One of them is completely new to scouting, one has been a scout in her old homeland and, I hope, will bring new perspectives to our group. Now we have to rise to the challenge of making them feel included, welcome and keep the meetings interesting enough for them to want to stay on!

JOTI in progress

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 17:13:00 +0000

About 30 scouts from two groups got together to chat with others over the net. After some slight initial shyness most chatted away.
Both my PC and MAC came to very good use, but I spend more time doing ITC support. Got a few words with our mate Nick from Porthill who managed to find my daughter online! what are the odds?

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AGM and democracy

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 11:07:00 +0000

Autumn is ATM time. First for all groups, then districts. The observer who came last year, who is also on the national committee, criticised us for the lack of motions from the active.members. It hit home, and we felt a bit ashamed: Every year we ask the scouts to sit in on the AGM and also vote. They are usually not particularly amused. So this year we decided to do something new.
The first couple of weeks this term I visited the older Cubs, the scouts and the Challengers. I explained the structure of the movement and the scouts wrote motions: The younger ones on big pieces of paper, some with illustrations, the slightly older ones on ordinary writing paper, and the challengers sent their by e-mail. Some of the leaders took the opportunity to write some too. All in all 14 motions were handed in to the committee.
At the AGM we took care explain the lingua and the proceedings as they happened. The scouts were much more active and questioned, voted and discussed the motions and the budget. The AGM lasted for almost 2 hours, but at the end of it we had a new vice chairperson (27) and two other members under 18. We also decided to build a tree house at our campsite (motion from the older Cubs), to buy some new tents (motion from the Scouts), to start sorting the rubbish at the hut in fractions for recycling (motion from the Challengers) and to buy an electrical chain saw for the campsite (motion from the Rovers).
Now I'm on the train to my first WSJ meeting. Exiting!

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Survival of the hungriest?

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 17:30:00 +0000

The theme of today´s meeting was Edible things. The Challengers were given 30 minutes, a flora and a book about fungi and were let loose in the park. They came back with some nice stuff to cook on the can kitchens they made last week.

In the end, we had a three course "meal" consisting of fungi, cooked in their own juices, pine needle tea and rosted rosehips. We weren´t that full up. Edvin, Anton and Johannes also had some ants. I couldn't bring myself to try any, but they said they were really nice and tangy, and that they only tickled the tounge for a moment.

Yes we did it!

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 17:08:00 +0000

As you may remember, part of our centinnary celebration was to host the national Scout Forum. And we did. 478 people were checked in, they all had coffee in the cafeteria tent on average 4 times a day, they discussed, they ate, they learnt, they danced and they had fun.

We had fun too, but we were awfully tired afterwards. Thanks to all and everyone in our neighbouring groups that helped out, all the parents and scouts that came in to do a shift in the café, kitchen or as night watchpeople, perhaps specially our "mayor" (we haven't got mayors, but chairpeople of the council) Mari-Louise Wernersson, who took the time to not only do the early morning guard shift, but also stayed to mingle and oversee the opening ceremony.

Many thanks also to
Christer Borg Entertainment for all the help setting up the equipment and friendly advice
Jan Wolfhagen for immitating His Royal Highness so well
Magnus Bengtsson for the wonderful fire show
The County govenor Lars-Eric Lövdén for comming
Soda Pop for making us dance all night, and Gustav for making sure the sound was brilliant with short notice
Falkenberg Town Council, for making all this possible!

And many many more!!!

In times of need

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 12:28:00 +0000

Today I feel rather helpless and hapless... Just got word that the group in Varberg lost their house in a fire last night - 50 years of history up in smoke.

Of course we will all pitch in to help as much as we can, but the greatest challenge is to help people not to lose heart in all this, and to see the possibilities. The group has been struggling for a while, with finding leaders and finding funds - hopefully this won't break their backs, but make them stronger!

We feel for you!

Time to having your say!

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:52:00 +0000

The autumn is AGM time, for groups, district and on a national level. Also, there is a general election in a couple of weeks. It is important to make sure that the scouts are involved in the decision-making, and this year we put a little extra effort into it, as the new program stresses the empowerment of the scouts from a young age.

At the older Cubs first meeting for the year, we had a quick run through of the organisation of the movement - from WAGGGS and WOSM to group level, recognising the different symbols which reminded the Cubs about what the various badges on there uniform represent and that they are a part of something big! Then the brainstorming began - of new ideas for program, and various projects and ideas for how to do up the hut.

Then the Cubs wrote a "formal" motion to the group committee on a large sheet of paper, and some added illustrations to make their point. Some of the parents were very impressed. Now we've handed the motions to the chairman to be referred to the AGM. I do hope that the meeting decides on doing a sleighing hike for the whole group, because as one Cub put it: "Leaders and Challengers are sometimes very childish too."

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Ten Days To Go

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:07:00 +0000

Just ten days to go until Scout Forum. Yesterday, we had a last meeting with the project group from the Scout Ascociation to iron out the last creases. There is such a lot to get ready, but it seems as if we've got most under control.
I will try to blog live from the event, that is to be held in the park in town, which means that we will have lots of exposure and hopefully we will get lots of curious people that take part in the festivities.

The benefits of knowing scouts

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:55:00 +0000

Early this spring I was contacted by a aquintance who was going to recieve a visit from an Australian family. He is a confirmed bachelor, and was a bit worried how to entertain the ten-year-old in the family, but knew that the girl was a Cub and her mother a Cub leader. I put him in contact with one of our other leaders, who I knew had been Down Under, and I thought might be interested in trying to arrange something. We figured that Cubs would be slightly to young, as their English isn't that good yet, so the younger scouts were invited on a short hike and sleepover.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to go, but it was reported that all had a great time, even though it rained on the lightweight shelters, they had to fight off mosquitoes the size of aeroplanes, one or two wasps and quite a few flying ants, and now we have a great, new mascot: A cuddly Aussi Roo, with a cork hat and a lovely necker with Aboriginal artwork on it!

I'm sure we'll stay in touch somehow, and I look forward to getting the opportunity to fight of some Aussi mossies at some point!

Tomorrow term starts for most children in this little town, and most schools in the country start sometime around this time. For some it's a greater change than others, moving up from one stage to another, both in school and scouts. The daughter of a good friend, who is a very talented musician, has been accepted to a music sixth form in Gothenburg, almost an hour and a half away. My friend has been looking to find lodgings for her, but it's not easy as Gothenburg is a popular place to live, and you nessecarily don't want to house a 16-year-old in any crummy flat, or room, to fend for themself for the first time. She was at her wits' end when she went to pick her younger daughter up from summer camp, and found herself sharing a table at the farwell feast with a family from Gothenburg.
-I thought I might as well ask, she says. The greatest risk I took was getting a no for an answer.
Instead, she came home with an adress and new friends. Their oldest daughter had just flewn the nest, and their youngest is a year younger than my friends daughter.
-And it feels safe. They're lovely people, and as they are scouts I know what values and standards they have. I'm sure it will be great!

In scouting we have a great web of contacts. As any contacts they are not to be abused, but do not hesitate to make use of them! The only thing you are risking, asking for a favour, is getting a no. And most people are willing to lend a hand if they can, because we know we'll get a good turn back - at some point.

Old treasures

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:42:00 +0000

In my work with the new material I spent a little time looking back at available program materials from various times of Scouting's past, mainly from it's Swedish hayday, the 50ies. Mostly, I was looking for good quotes, and skimmed the texts, but a few days ago I finally had the time, and the peace, to sit and read properly.

One of these books is Patrulledaren Pricken och Ekorr (sic!) patrullen (Patrol leader Spot and the Squirrel patrole), published by Svenska Flickors Scoutförbund (The Swedish Girl Scout Association) in 1955, written by Gunnel "Humpe" Weidel and illustrated by Karin "Kluddas" Hollström; a charming naivistic story about 13-year-old Inger, who gets appointed patrol leader, and the reader gets to follow her work with "her" girls, her woes about not being a good enough leader, her pride when the Squirrels win the district competition due to the good group spirit, and her thoughts about dividing her time between school, family and scouting, and also about God and at the end, about love.

It is a lovely, naivistic story, very much of it's time, in parts reminding me of Enid Blyton's. The reader gets her own space to fill in information about her own group and it's activities, make notes and reflektions, and tips about games and activities for the girl scout patrole. In some parts it is also a document of a time, not far away, when quite a few people in Sweden were reliant on the charity of volonteers. One of the girls gets help by the group master when she can't meet the subs.The girls have a "Christmas Child" whom they help, not only with Christmas presents, but also by collecting handmedown clothes and collecting money for shoes and helping the boy's gran to pick the apples (and make apple sauce to sell to get her a new winter coat). The Girl Scout tests included map reading, knots and darning socks, a task that the group leader takes very seriously. The discipline is an imparative, but it is upheld with support and gentle guidance, and the 13-year-old has an enormous responsability, but gets wise support from her mother and from Akka, the group master.

What strikes me is that times, and equipment, and people's circumstances may have changed, but the program stays amazingly similar, as does the woes and worries of young people. What also strikes me is how empowered these girls seem to be, and how competent. (That is also why I think that Famous Five books are great for reading at camp or for a quiet time at a Cub meeting.) Children can do anything, by themselves! But we rarely let them. Scouting is better than most clubs, and scout parents are better than most parents, but still we coddle our children too much, and sometimes scare them from taking initiative and from being industrious entrepreneurs. It's a fine line between supporting and protecting and smothering and protecting. Now, this is a work of fiction, but as always there is a smidgeon of truth in everything, judging from what I've heard from older scouts and relatives.

Oh, sorry, got thrown off track here... The point of this post was originally to share some of the great games the book describes, and which I tried a few on yesterday's meeting. The Challengers are a lot older than the original target group, but what is good about scouting is that you get the opportunaty to keep playing games, and "my" Challengers really enjoy that. So yesterday we played knotting games:

One handed knots
The scouts pair up and put one arm around eachother's waists. With the free hand they do the knots on a communal rope. Practises knots, communication, coordination and colaboration

Hot Knot
The scouts sit or stand in a ring. The leader decides on a knot and gives the group two ropes. When the music stops the people who holds the rope has to make the decided knot, swiftly and correctly. When both people have produced a correct knot, a new knot is called and the music starts again. The book suggests that the loser has to step out of the ring, but we played it with points instead. 5 people made a slightly too small ring.

Group Knot
With a long rope the whole patrole makes the knot together, everybody holding both hands on the knot at all times. This is fairly simple with the reef knot, but gets fun and more complex with a sheet bend and really difficult making a nice hitch around the flagpole.

The book also suggests practising knots with thick mittens and in the dark. We didn't try this, as our winter mittens are packed away in our closets and it is only really dark between 11 PM and 2 AM at the moment. There are a lot of other fun games and activities that I'm going to try at meetings and share with my collegues. It is imortant to look back at traditions, and remember our past. And old materials are good for new ideas.

Summer activities

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:24:00 +0000

Schools in Sweden have been out for more than a month, and as July is a traditional holiday time, it is somewhat difficult to get everyone in one place at the same time. The Challenger scouts did however opt for not taking a break during the summer, but to have semi regular meetings on the usual day and time.

The Explorites are, as mentioned in the previous post, home, but Isak has been away for a walking holiday in the Swedish fells, today Alice is leaving for a three week hike with Scouts from all over Sweden, and next week Victor and I are off for a family holiday in the Alpes (with a possible short stop at Kandersteg, that unfortunately didn't have any vacancies for camping (good for them!) :-( ) And at this week's meeting everyone was in a bit of a hurry, due to other commitments in the evening - but we had a great time!

The cooking challange got shrunk from a three course meal to a pudding, and while the very sweet blackberry and apple cake was baking in the reflector oven we practised our knots in various colaborative games, which I will discribe in the next post. Then we sat in the sun, eating the sweet, sticky cake and just revelled in the summer warmth.

For your pleasure, I adapted the recipe that the Scouts of course improvised.

Blackberry and Apple Cake

2 eggs gets beaten to white fluff with

1/2 a cup of castor sugar

Mix in 1 cup of flour and the juice from
1 small lemon
Pour into suitable container, we used the frying pan from a large size Trangia, lined with butter and rolled oats.
Sprinkle appr. 1 cup of blackberries on top and decorate with the apple slices.
Bake in the oven of choice.

The adventures are back

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 09:23:00 +0000

Have just picked up my son and his friend in Malmoe, after their completion of Explorer Belt. They've obviously have had a marvolous time, and made loads of new friends and lots of experience.
After a long hike, with difficulties getting places to stay and ended up sleeping in various hotels, scout huts and in a Catholic church, eating mainly pasta and pizza they have been to the opera in Verona to take in Madame Butterfly, bought masks in Venice, and know everything about olive oil production.
And they earned their belts, but don't want pasta for dinner tonight.

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noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:07:00 +0000

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The best park garderners there is

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:53:00 +0000

Our town garderners are fantastic! Every year they work hard to decorate the town and the park areas around the whole council area. This is a big job. They work all through the year and also grow their own material. We told them about our centinary and they did this. We salute you!

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Now finally!

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:13:00 +0000

Finally, the book has gone to the printer's, after lots and lots of debaccle about things not showing in PDFs, pictures that weren't right and little bits and bobs. My friend, whose sister is in the publishing business tells me that this is always so, but it has been nerve wrecking!

Of course, looking at the PDF that was sent to me, I find things that I would have liked to address, but now I just have to settle with the fact that WE'VE DONE IT! We have produced a great publication, almost entirely using volonteers and it is very, very nice! (I just hope that everyone else like it too...)

In a few weeks' time, the finished product will come in the post, together with the books for the other age groups. I will then have a good critical look at them, and present reviews here on the blogg, together with some pictures. "My" book will have to be reviewed by someone else, I'm afraid.

The royal wedding

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:33:00 +0000

It was just like a fairy tale: The Princess met the one boy who made her happy, and he just happened to be a common gym owner. Now he is Prince Daniel and he was joking in his speech about how he, albeit perhaps hadn't been a frog, but far from a prince when they met, and that the first kiss didn't change that.

The father of the bride is the Swedish Chief Scout and scouts were of course a part of the festivities. Our own District Commissioner, Marcus, was invited to a dinner with the royals before the wedding, and on the day scouts from Stockholm lined the streets to pay their respects.

"
Kronprinsessans bröllop 2010-06-19 - Images by Scouts in Sweden

Thank you!

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:13:00 +0000

And thank you, Bear, for being such a great role model!

Off to Explore

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:27:00 +0000

My son and his good friend left for Italy yesterday, to hopefully earn their Explorer Belts. I so wish that the Internet had been around when I was a kid! Things like this were rumours and legends in our group back in the 80ies.

Posing for the camera

For those of you who aren't familliar with the EB, it originated in the UK in 1962 and there are a few countries that still do it, in spite of insurance and security paranoia. The Swedish EB pretty much follows the original expedition plan (more information about EB in the UK can be found here) and the Scouts hike in pairs, for about 100 miles over ten days, in unknown territory, solving a number of small tasks that involves making contact with the locals.

Ida's granddad has laminated an emergancy note, with the condition that they will have had to starve for three days before using it.

It is ever so exciting even to us, left at home, as we have no clue to where our kids are off too either! We've been promised that an itinary will arrive in the post this afternoon, with a program. That will be very interesting. Even if my son is 18, this is his first really independent trip, and I'm so glad that he does it with Scouts, rather than partying in Turkey or Spain with his classmates.

On to the train bound for Malmoe, where they will meet up with the rest of the expedition for a 24 hour bus ride to Italy.

Centenary Camp 12-15/5 2010

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Sat, 29 May 2010 12:06:00 +0000

Clever scouts by their camp kitchen.

The group's annual camp had a centenary theme, with classical scouting activities. Chief of the Camp was Eva, who sported a lovely, handmade Guide Leader uniform from the early 60ies. The scouts listened tentatively when she told them how scouting had developed in Falkenberg since 1910.

Eva, missing her hat, in the middle of the camp reception area.

We also had an inaugeration ceremony for our latest Gilwell leader, Marcus. Some of our oldest active scouts from the district participated and we were told old memories of among other things a football match in the summer of 1947, where among others the Swedish Crown Prince Gustav Adolf and the UN Secretary General Folke Bernadotte played on the Scout's team against one of the leading Swedish football teams of the time. A few months later, they were both dead in plane crashes.

Marcus, our latest Gilwell leader. Well done!

On Thursday evening, after having lowered the flag for the night, the scouts walked quietly in the sweet dusk back to the house for their hot chocolate and were met by the booming voice of B-P, and a pack of Cubs from a century ago, a recording found on The Scouting Pages. This made a big impression on most.

Tom, from 22nd Oxford, and Victor, getting ready for Kim's Game on the trail.

On the Friday we celebrated the centenary with a BBQ buffet, with appr. 80 out of our some 120 members present. The weather was with us, and the sun stayed until the end of the campfire, when the scouts again walked together in the dark, on a light trail, where qoutes and messeges on paper bags, lit from the inside by tealights, expressing the scouting spirit lit their way, together with sweet smelling insense soothing music, jingling chimes, mirrors, candelabers, chinese lanterns...

For once, there is pop at camp! You can't be healthy always, and when there is a party there should be pop, shouldn't there?

On Saturday morning it was time to pack up in the pouring rain. But just as we got together to lower the flag for the last time together and say goodbye, the sun broke through the clouds and we went home dry after all.

Pioneering in the rain.

Still not gone to the press

noreply@blogger.com (LottaN) — Sun, 09 May 2010 12:11:00 +0000

The books are late. Which is ok, but annoying. Today, I've done yet another read-through-check-headings-missing textsandwhatnots. There are still things not right. I expressed my frustration to a collegue at work, who just laught and said: "Did you think the job would be done just because you'd finished writing!?" His sister is in the publishing business and he says that she has a mild nervous breakdown everytime a project comes to the publishing phase, due to the millions of little knacks and knicks that need addressing before the finished product goes to the press.

Never mind. I enjoy this type of work. Perhaps this is what I should do? It's a bit difficult working on two computers at the same time though; keep clicking the mouse on the one trying to get results on the other....

I applied for two Scouting jobs, and got called to interviews, but for different reasons nothing became of it. It's nice to know that it's not me, just my geographical location, that is wrong.

A bit stressed out at the minute, and there is a risk of entries not being very regular for the next month as national course tests, grading and other pressing engagements in my other life will have to be prioritised.