The show is in English, except for Dr Van Helsingør from Elsinore; who speaks a mixture of danish and english, which causes a lot of confusions as he directly translates the danish into english, giving sentences that make no sense, or mean something completely different, which is always extremely hilarious.

Despite the show being very good, it was also very nice to see Christian again,
it had been way too long since we had last seen each other.

But other then that there isn't much to report, just school and work :S

This time around, the song is my all-time favourite song.
[See post to listen to audio]

One of the not so interesting days. I woke up early so that I could get my 
tent down and eat breakfast before I hitched a ride with Mr. Roberts Roberts into town (Chelmsford) where I took a bus to the airport (Stansted). There was no hiccups or anything, I just got my ticket, waited for the flight, boarded the plane and landed in Copenhagen Airport, where my father picked me up. Later in the day him and I went to see the Simpsons movies in Imperial, which is the best Danish cinema. When I went home to sleep I felt good. I had enjoyed some time with my father, I had just returned from the biggest scouting event ever, and tomorrow... I was gonna go to Australia.

Do you know what it's like waking up and having forgotten to take your contact lenses out? Well it damn well hurts. And I had managed to do just that… Now isn’t that clever? Never the less I had to get my gear together, find Sameer (the dude who pushed me off the wall) so we could get a ride with Mr. Joe Roberts Roberts. Because this was indeed the day that we would go to WSJ (for me it was the second time, but still).
Going to the jamboree we stopped by Chelmsford to get some food (ended up at Burger King *sighs*) mainly because Mr. Roberts wanted to buy alcohol. In the end we ended up spending more then an hour in Chelmsford, which we all agreed to be rubbish, especially as Mr. Roberts in the end just bought alcohol from a store outside Chelmsford.
When I finally arrived at the camp I limped over to my tent which was still there (and limped, as my poor leg had been in an awkward position for a very long time). But as soon as I had arrived I walked around finding people I know. I first found Ben Lommelen and talked to him, I then staggered off to the opposite end of the camp, (HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE camp) to find Kristian Lund, encountering Kåre on the way, where I also met Elin Paulsen. By then I did feel mighty hungry, and went back to eat some food where by chance Kåre was with his gang of Finnish people and his Finnish girlfriend. After that I had to go back to the dummy Big Ben to find the other staff people from Brownsea Island. When I got there I discovered that I had left dinner to go far away, just to be told that I had to go back and eat dinner (we had to gather so we could go eat dinner, lovely right?).

On the way to the closing ceremony we walked by a band who knew some people from the brownsea staff (and most likely they knew them), resulting in them playing the empire tune from star wars, followed by the theme to the Austin Powers movies. Onto the main arena it was a long wait before the show kicked off, and just before it did, we were told to move somewhere else and went to sitdown (AW, MY LEG) close the scene, and just after we had sat down it started raining; in fact not just raining, it started pouring down.

But I must say that the show was a very varied experience, some parts were good,
such as the show from the Hong Kong contingent, while the indonesian and the mexican measured quite low on my scale. A lot of short clips from around the Jamboree (and 1 music video) were also shown illustrating what some scouts had been doing (Please note that it didn't happen in this order). Thencame the ceremony where England passed on its duties as host for the WSJ to Sweden
which will be hosting it in 2011, a very nice ceremony where the built a big wooden bridge in almost no time and lit some torches (the wooden type).

Then came what I dread most onto the stage... First that chump Peter Duncan
came onto the stage to talk to the various swedes etc. followed by the Italian Eduardo Missoni, who annoys me even more. He is the leader of WOSM and his English
is worse then that of a 10 year old Danish child, and then just the way he speaks, and what he says there is in plan for scouting worldwide. I do know that scouting is about leaving the world better then we found it, but he takes it to such impossible extremes... Those two just make me sick, and luckily for me (not.... really) they are the two main people at the 21st WSJ.

After the show the entire camp just shut down and everybody went to bed, 
I must say that I had expected the IST people to be very lively all night long, but people just want to bed. I remember in Thailand after the closing ceremony, the camp just exploded into a giant fury of a party, so much better; but memories usually are.

For the night I slept outside the wooden building everybody else was sleeping in. Due to no circulation it felt more like a sauna then a place to sleep; well that and Adam Sankey snored so loud, it sounded as if someone had stuffed a jumbo jet up his "arse". After I went outside, first a couple of mosquitos came around, but I soon killed all of them, or somehow chased them away. Now you would think that was all that is necessary to have good nights sleep, but oh no... It started raining.. Yep and since I was outside, it started raining on me. So I had to get up and move all my things under a bit of roof sticking out over the adjacent building, to shelter me from the rain. But anyway when we woke up and went to breakfast, something very nice was waiting for us... Yup, we had scramble egg for breakfast; I was oh so pleased. Never the less I developed a nasty headache, and unfortunately I had run out of headache pills (which George or Karen had given me anyway). So Helge and I walked back and after some guerilla warfare tactics, I managed to extract his rucksack from the truck and he found his headache pills, which I heartily swallowed... It was actually quite a lot of fun (not swallowing, but getting them). When we came back up to the white marquee it had been taken down where we did a final litter sweep and went for lunch.

Now for lunch there were lots of lunch packs left, as this was the last day on the island and a lot hadn't been eaten. So after having eaten our first the catering crew comes out and asks if people want any; after which I quickly run up and grab one, triumphing with my extra Freddo, and very quickly it catches on... So the crew start throwing the lunchbags around to us, on a shouting loudest, first served basis. But as I am getting as many as I can, a bag hits my head and Georgia snatches the Freddo in it which is rightfully mine. As I thrust my hand around her to get to the Freddo on the other side, Sameer snatches my Freddo bar out of my hand, after which I get up and start charing towards him (there is where it all goes wrong), but as I am wearing my big boots and standing on slippery bricks, my feet are not really stuck well, so I slip and fall down with my leg first, resulting in: THIS; thank you Sameer...

After hanging around for some time, trying to get the pain to get away I limped down to the ferry where we were taken across to the mainland and to the scouthut where we would spend the night. Once we got there, JP (Jean Paul, not John Papworth), Helge and a Welsh guy whose name currently eludes me. We went to a Wetherspoon pub and I had fish and chips while the 3 others enjoyed some beer.

In the evening the major dinner started, the most delicious meal in my entire stay in England (not much of a compliment really, but it was actually good). It was a three course meal with potatoes, meat and all the regular stuff. However once we had finished eating and all the speeches etc. had been given I went back to get some sleep since I wasn't feeling to well. But once I got back I had some water and felt better, which resulted in me walking back and talking with some different people and saying goodbye to those who weren't coming to the WSJ closing ceremony, some of those people being Jane, Katty, Graham and Dave . However eventually I did go back to sleep, but maybe I should also mention that throughout this entire day my leg had been hurting so much it was hard to believe, but such is life. At a later point I am also going to upload a picture of Adam doing... What Adam does best.

The wakeup after the party was rough... Joe Roberts Roberts started singing... Oh misery.
This was also the day that the Hispanics and Panu went to the Jamboree and left the rest of us the take down the rest of the camp... So they get to enjoy themselves while we work... And the leaders agreed to that? I am offici8ally disappointed.
Anyway the day was very uneventful we just packed down the place, and tried to do it in a relaxed tempo, as the participants were gone, and most of us felt more like relaxing then anything, which also resulted in Dec, Lola and me sitting under a tree talking after having done our litter sweep, instead of returning to fine some more work... But don't tell anyone.
We ate lunch at pottery pier where Graham had a swim and the rest of us just ate our food. Recently me and Georgia developed a deal where she got the innards of my sandwich (I prefer eating a bread sandwich) and I got her Freddo. I love this deal and it went on until the last day (tomorrow) from the day before today (12th). It was after the lunch that we went to do the litter sweep, after which I sat down with Dec and Lola, and Helge slept in the grass. In the evening I went down with Malcolm to the Quay to send off some stuff, and spent almost two hours sitting down there talking to whoever would talk with me, it was very nice and relaxing, exactly what I needed.
The dinner was some chicken stuff as far as I recollect (I am writing this on the 25th, 20 days after) after which I went to sleep, and didn't sleep well as it was FAR too hot inside the wooden building (no air circulation) and when I went outside to sleep, it started raining lightly... How lovely.

Last day with participants, it was a sad farewell to the last participants but a jubilant crowd of staff shouting "NO MORE YELLOW CARD" once the participants were out of ears reach. Back at the tent when I wanted to start writing todays entry (I wrote them during the day) I was overwhelmed by the sight of the internet tent having been taken down; but there was much work to do and I got on with it. Which included taking loads of tents down because of the severe weather warning... What severe weather warning? It was sunny all day long, including the next couple of days following (silly brits; "IT ISN'T RAINING! SEVERE WEATHER")! As the day went on, rumours started spreading about meat for dinner; now if you want the attention of people who haven't eaten meat for 2,5 weeks, that is a good way to get their attention. Lo and behold, what was for dinner? Lovely crips sausages with dreamy chips (not crisps but potatoes, for those non-English people). For dinner there was a large party etc. with all that goes, and all that goes includes me going to bed.

Also the area for us to sleep in had been questioned all day long. We wanted to sleep in the wooden building that had been used for the media center, and was a part of the new tourist centre or something silly. But unfortunantly the fire alarms weren't functioning properly (because the ones in our tent are FAR better???), anyway we didn't give a grey squirrels ass about that (we did give a red squirrels ass about it) and slept in there anyway... Hooray for anarchy!

It is really getting obvious that the camp is nearing its end, at least for the participants. We are all (the subcamp staff of wolves) taking it more relaxed, trying to fill in for each others so we can get some rest, and my voice has suddenly started recovering (I think I missed mentioning on the 1st of August that my voiced disappeared). Today we had chain reaction which involved setting up lots of pipes that a ball had to run through as slow as possible causing a chain reaction that would eventually pull a tennis ball out of a hole so that water would fall from the bottom of a bucket and the staff member sitting underneath (not me) would get very wet. The first group did a long run of pipes eventually pushing a tennis ball filled with outwards facing pins tied to a piece of string, so that it would fly in a halfcircular motion, hitting some ballons that carried a heavy bucket, resulting in exploding ballons and the bucket pulling out the tennisball in the bucket by the use of counterweight and a very wet George (haha). The second group however went an hour over time (not a problem as for today we for some reason or another had 3 hours for lunch), but unfortunantly it didn't work as well and wasn't spectacular in any way. After a 2 hour lunch break we went off to make stuff for the carnival which took 2 hours where I didn't take part in anything, but just threw away a screw for Graham's watch and got hit in the groin by a flying melon... How often does that happen? Afterwards I had a jacket potato for dinner, had Jane sign my necker and write in my songbook. Having eaten dinner and hung around for talking we needed to get the carnival going, so we went to the site of the replica camp, got the scouts dancing and singing up to the Ford Marquee and Laura Bettinson and her band started playing music. As they had gotten in, the 3 guys dancing around in costumes started fighting and playing with each other and with Adam, now THAT was fun :)

Wow, 10 days? Time sure does fly, at least it really feels as if it has gone fast, if anyone had asked me, I would never had said 10 days.

But today was special because as there are a lot fewer participants for this camp (the NCC camp) then the others, so only half of the staff is necessary, therefor I had the morning off, and tomorrow I will have the evening off, and I can't describe just how good that feels, to actually have time off... Anyway as you may have noticed A LOT of posts were made today, so try and guess what I have been doing today until lunch.
Yesterday lunch was changed to some more fancy sandwiches, which makes it harder for me and Simon (curlews subcamp leader). The difference is that now it is harder to pick everything out and just eat the bread. But afterwards the scouts managed to be approx. 20 minutes late for their sound activity as the first part of canoeing had been cancelled due to bad weather (it was pouring down). After a half hour or so of the sound activity we went down to canoeing where I took some pictures and walked off for an icecream which turned into some double chocolate biscuits as they didn't sell any good ice-creams at the Brownsea island shop. Once back I relaxed a bit on the bench and just waited for the activity to be over so I could go to the computer cafe and write a bit on my blog. Also while writing this I have rememberd a funny incident at lunch, Adam (who has a slightly annoying laughter) started laughing at his own laughter, and as you might imagine that is a sort of locked circle where he just went on and on and on etc... But it made the rest of us laugh, in fact we found it hilarious and Declan even recorded it. I sat for a long time in the internet tent before I went in for dinner, just to return to the internet tent as soon as I was done. After some more time in the internet tent I went into the main tent (ford marquee) to do a little barndancing but it was so chaotic that I immediatly left (well, after half a dance). But I would like to congratulate the band for their performance back in 2005 when I was a participant here on Brownsea Island, because they played on the night of my first kiss, so I guess they did something right.

On another note I saw Adam (bulls subcamp) and Jane (curlews subcamp) kiss today which made me ponder on the inside, as Jane had told me that Adam was always going around with her and sitting next to her in an anything but nice voice, but as it turns out persistance makes a difference.

I do believe that this was very special, but it was sort of killed off by the media, because UK scouts feel that they need more media coverage... Scouting as at its biggest ever and it is still growing.

"Jens,

Thank you for all the talking, you have reminded me of things I had forgotten or just accepted. You've given me hope again, I cannot tell you how much it has meant that you knew about my country and have broadened my horizons. I hope that now I will open my eyes to the world.

Thanks, (participants name)"

If it is not clear what is being talked about, it is the political situation in the country of the participant and the relation to other countries; the participant in question comes from a poor oppressed country.

And as a postscript this quote followed:

"Those who dream at night, in the dusty recesses of their minds, awake to find all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men lest they make their dreams possible." Which I believe is T.E. Lawrence (okay I googled it), where the original quote showes up at:

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”

I like the first one best, how about you?

Day 5 (28th of July):

A morning like so many else, except that on this day the first camp (the Patrol Leader camp) was to end. So the day was without activities and focused mostly on getting the scouts from the island to the mainland in an orderly fashion, after which 16 of us (including me) would be bestowed the honour of going to the jamboree for 2 nights. Do once we had dropped off the scouts 16 of us settled into a 16 man minibus (not counting luggage which stood in between us, in a total chaos of luggage). So the drive was supposed to take 5 hours, but due to the amazing driving capabilities of our driver it took a mere 3,5 hours. But upon arrival we discovered that we hadn't been properly registered in the jamboree database. So after a lot of hustle we finally got signed in under the responsibility of someone else, also known as the shortcut. We then had to wait in a big pavillion tent while our ID tags were printed (which took an eternity), and having to eat dinner and all the trivial things that English people love to do. So by the time we were ready to head out into the camp, it was 21.30; so instead of heading out to see Elin Paulsen and Ben Lommoeln I went to the bar to meet some of my Danish friends that I had met during dinner, but who didn't turn up until 10.20, so after talking to them for a while and a really hot Finnish girl called Wimppu (nickname), I finally went to bed (but not before getting her calling card). Late addition; on the way to the Jamboree I beat Jane 7-5 at airhockey (she plays regular hockey) at a roadway stop/shopping center/eateria.

Day 6 (29th of July):

This was the busy work-day for the 16 who went to the jamboree, which was to compensate for the privilige of going to the jamboree. We got up and ready to work by 9 in the morning, although only 4 of us were on time. But as we all scrambled down to another English tent where we had to pack plastic bags with free merchandise for the participants of Sunrise Camp, which didn't take that long despite it being 340 bags that had to be packed with approx. 12 items each. After that we had a 45 minute break where I walked around to the pavillions of other nations (we did the sorting in an area just behind the English tents) where amongst other things I found information on really cool scoutcamps I want to go to, and the specific subcamp that Elin is on (I knew which one Ben was on). When we came back from our break we got another half hour to walk around, in which I walked around with Helge the norwegian subcamp staff member and looked at more tents, taking some funny pictures (which will be uploaded at a later point). Upon returning from that extra time we were all assigned to the subcamps where we had to pick up participants the next morning from the Sunrise Camp, and cunning as I am, I made sure that I was assigned to Tundra where Elin lay in camp (which wasn't that hard since it was the furthest away and nobody wanted it). And to give us even more spare time, we were given plenty of time to get there and back (it was meant as an extra break). So I made it to Tundra and found the camp Elin was in, but lucky as I always am, she was more or less the only one who wasn't there; and the story was identical with Ben, except that his entire camp was empty. So by the time I got back to the meeting point our next job was getting started (I wasn't late though, I never am). Now the next problem was that a lot of countries (but less then half of all countries, and primarily African countries) hadn't selected which scouts were to go to Brownsa Island. I was assigned to go check up on Ghana, who unfortunantly weren't in their pavillion, in fact their pavillion was entirely empty, not set up in the least yet. So I went straight to my next duty of advertising the Brownsea tent to visitors and showing the around (we had 1 hour shifts). And as cunning as I am I only invited pretty girls in, and them showed them around (the tent). As my shift was ending Kaare came by (a Danish friend of mine), and after he had waited for my shift to be done, we walked around for a long time chatting about all the stuff people who haven't seen each other in 2 years. As he was heading into the IST camp I was running out of time, and had to return to the tent because we had to do set up a huge marquee for the reception that we were going to hold for the Brownsea Island participants. So when we were done with the helium ballons, the banners etc. we headed off for a nice dinner (the food on the jamboree is far better then on the "island"). Once haven eaten we went back to the marquee where obviously certain people were 30 minutes early and wanted in. But eventually the time ran out and the reception began with registration (19.30) and the presentation and introduction of the island (20.00), in between which we were supposed to mingle wit the participant, whom were also supposed to mingle with each other. But as per usual with events planned by English people it absolutely went bollocks, so that instead of people ending up in the subcamps they were intended to, they were just split at random, and all had to write down their names, gender, age and nationality. Granted some of the countries hadn't given the necessary information, why couldn't it be only them that had to write it down? However, many more things were to go wrong because of the planning in the following days, but I won't be writing about it much. It should also be noted that at this reception I gained fame with my co-staff as I asked Peter Duncan who he was, as I had no idea he was famous in the UK. So the presentation was in English and went fine, even including an English-French translator, followed by a video showing activities from Reloaded (a camp in 2005) accompanied by Hoppipola by Sigur Ros which is by the way my favourite song of all time, nothing puts me into a better mood. However it was really cool to meet all the scouts that would come out on the island, something you will read more about at a later point. However it did finish, after which we took some ballons with us and ran around the camp with (trying to trade ballons for services, unsuccessfully). When we finally made it back to our tents it was 10 o' clock and I showed 10 ballons into my 2 man tent (tight), and I headed to the bar to meet up with my Danish friends. When I got to the bar I found Anders in no time, and started talking to the two hot Danish girls he was there with (Leese who was a miniority Dane from Germany and Marie from Ribe) and talked with them for almost an hour before they ran off to find Faroese guys and Anders went to bed (I also shortly met Kaare). When the girls ran off I did indeed go to bed after tying my ballons to my tent (on the outside)

Day 7 (30th of July):

Bad start.... VERY bad day! Karen (my subcamp leader) forgot to wake me up at 4.20 (we had to leave really early to get the participants on the bus and away at 6.30), so instead I was woken up at 5... So as a result I was rushed upon and had to leave behind the expensive tent my father gave me, that I REALLY didnt want to leave behind. Anyway I got the subcamp in which I was supposed to pick up the participants about 30 minutes too late. But they were there and in good mood and some of the African scouts were packed in so tightly in clothes that it looked like they were supposed to go skiing, but I suppose the climate is extremely different and it was before sunrise. When we got there (to where the busses were supposed to leave from) the elements of English planning appeared again as the subcamp designation had somehow been changed and we had to go around asking everybody where they were from and what their names were, all of this being greatly delayed. When we finally left the jamboree, we were an hour late, and by the time we got to Poole we were an hour late. However the busride was very quiet as most scouts were sleeping (except for the Finnish scouts who were chatting away the entire 5,5 hour bus-trip because they were so excited), but when we arrived in Poole to get the ferry across to Poole all the scouts woke up and we had a very lively trip for which I got to pack down most of the bags into a little bag rocking about so hard, bags almost fell into the water, despite being packed securely. Once on the island we went to the Africa world tent and started making instruments for the carnival the same evening, which went really well, and didn't sound all that bad. On the funny note I found a guy from Sudan who was packed in really hard with big gloves and a thick jacket, while I was hiding from the sun (I went into the shadow) wearing a tshirt and shorts; he was very cold and I was extremely hot. When we got back from the tent we went to the subcamps and sorted people into tents (we ate lunch before going to the world tent). Once it was 18 o'clock we went for dinner and upon returning to our subcamps we prepared ourselves for the carnival and walked in a long (and loud) procession up to the Ford Marquee (the big tent where we eat and party), where there was a party all night long with the lovely Laura Bettinson who played in front of a nationally more diverse crowd the The Beatles, Queen, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones all combined ever did. And unlike the participants at the PL camp, these participants really loved the music (as did I) and it continued late into the night, and as with before I was up dancing all the time untill I went to bed; except for some short breaks where I talked with Kristian from Sweden and Minninguaq from Greenland. I should also mention that on this day (and before) I talked a lot to the two Swedes, the guy Kristian is 16 and has a huge fullbeard (making him look a lot older) and the girl Marie is 16 or 17 and really pretty.

Day 8 (31th of July):

This was the day of activities for the international team in which I had been allocated Zimbabwe, Ascension Islands and some more countries that elude me right now, but I should be able to add them later. There was a girl from Zimbabwe whom I talked A LOT to about the situation in Zimbabwe, the problems and the contrasts with Europe and what she preferred in Zimbabwe and here, and what I felt were the important differences, something I felt was really good. However our activities were first Archery (freaking awesome, and led by two Welsh guys) followed by Healthcare which was a GDA (Global Development Activity) which is a relaxation activity so the participants aren't too exhausted and learn about how the system works in other areas, how fortunate they are, or how it is better in other countries, so they can help improve the situation in their countries. After that we went for Corical making which is the art of making boats in an old traditional Welsh way which Baden Powell did with the scouts in 1907, it was really interesting to see them make a boat of sticks and plastic (originally the Welsh used cow hide); but as per usual at this point of the camp, the media comes along and interrupts the activities and asks us to do other stuff that will look nice for the tv, and I felt that it was annoying that the activites were interrupted but we have to put up with it, and besides the presenter was cute, so I couldn't refuse her (girls, learn that weakness in guys). But we were able to return the activity and finish it before lunch. After lunch we were 4 activity groups going on the same activity, so I was allowed to get off for the first 1,5 hours so I could check my flighttickets as I might wanted to change them to give me more time, but the price was ridicoules, approx. 92 pounds to change y flighttime, so I would rather take my chances on the flight. When the 1,5 hours were up I returned to my group and helped them cut down the rodondendron that is strangling the natural growth on Brownsea (and by help, I mean I watched), all the while which I talked to the temporary extra Wolves subcamp staff Marcella from Chile, who just happened to be really nice to talk to. Afterwards we went to the Replica Camp to build the bridge agian that we built on day 4 (duh), but we stopped just before it was completed so it would look like they finished it on the 1st of August for the BBC cameras. Afterwards we went to dinner, ate dinner, returned to our subcamp, walked back to Ford Marquee and had another party, where I didn't dance much and went a lot earlier to bed, after talking some to Minninguaq and the Danes, Swedes, Finns (hot girl), a girl from Luxembourg (hot) and a girl from Malta (hot).
Late addition: I was just reminded of a very funny incident. I was talking with Scott (a member of staff) and an american participant about religion, pollution (and effects of pollution) and the creation of the world/universe. Anyhow as I am a secular agnostic who believe we can still save the planet, I was passionate; so was Scott who is a secular atheist or agnostic, except he believes that it is too late to save the planet; and the american was halfway presbyterian and halfway scientific. Anyhow, during the discussion I said that I had never been touched by a greater being (about religion) after which Scott reacher forward, touched me on the shoulder and said "now you have me".

Day 9 (1st of August):

A BIG day for scouting, started with us getting up at 4 o' clock (oh the misery), and we didn't even get to watch the real sunrise as we had to herd the scouts around, waking them up at 4.15 (and of course my contact lenses for playing up), first for first breakfast which was a chocolate muffin and some water to drink. We then got ready in our uniforms (actually we did that before we went for breakfast) after which we waited for a long time before walking to the Replica Camp in a big carnival procession waving all the flags of the world, making noise and dancing all the way to the live BBC broadcast. The ceremony itself was slow and boring with Peter Duncan blowing a horn which people found entertaining, and the horrible band The Promise played 3 songs (oh, misery) and a lot of noise with people playing on plastic tubes (lots of people actually), lots of pictures being taken, and all the scouts crossing the bridge as a sign of entrance into the new scouting centenary, followed by a lot of speeches about the great prospect of scouting, after which we all danced back to the Ford Marquee. Back there we had second breakfast and recieved our sunrise camp neckers and sunrise camp badges (staff already had those). The next 30 minutes or hour went with people running around signing each other's neckers, and I also had the participants I had been talking to sign my necker. Before we left we had our lunch, and then walked down to the boats, sailed to Poole where I swapped a Brownsea shirt for the 12 super cool Hong Kong contingent badges, and we then said goodbye. But the next crew which arrived today was ready, so I hastily grabbed a Jumbo Sausage and Chips and ate it in a hurry, before I got on the ferry back to Brownsea Island with the new scouts for the NCC (New Centenary Camp). Once on the island we had second lunch (my fifth meal of the day) and walked out to the Inter-America tent where I fell asleep and slept for 1 hour (accident) while the 3 other wolves subcamp-staff people took care of the participants. Afterwards we just walked back to the subcamp (we were supposed to go to another worldtent, but there was no time), sending scouts for dinner, where the media demanded the wolves (scouts) for some tv shoot, where I told that they could if they wanted, which they all did, and some participants from other subcamps also tried to sneak into the shot. Afterwards we went down and the participants got their silly hats for the scouting birthday party, where I am sitting outside the Ford Marquee in the internet cafe updating my blog right now, after which I will go to bed... Goodnight.

Florida: Day 9 of the total of 8 days:

I know it sounds odd with a day 9 out of 8, but I didn't get home until monday, so the trip actually took 9 days. The food on the airplane was horrible, something that they liked to call chicken. And when I finally got home, instead of trying to stay up to my normal time as to avoid jetlag, I went straight to bed, and my sleeping patern has been messed up ever since (4 days ago today).

I do believe that everything else I did on this has no impact on how I will remember the day at all, but here goes. For breakfast we went to the Jerry's Famous Deli (I had eaten lunch there previously) and for breakfast I ordered an omelet with ham, cheese and bacon on the side (potatoes came along for some reason). Both my father and sister had an All-American breakfast. We then went out to Bayside market and looked around in different stores, including a gadget store, a Disney store and a candy shop (oh my how they do it in America). We also bought some drinks each, I drank water (the only thing I drink), my sister and father had some blended freak thing they really liked, Pina Colada (no wave over the n on English keyboards?) or something like that. After that we took a monorail around the area, it was a very uninteresting and dull view, but it beat walking around the silly Bayside market doing nothing. We then went back to the car (we drove to the Bayside Market) and drove around little Havana where the skies opened and water was pouring down very hard, and after leaving little Havana it stopped completely... Weird, right? However we drove out to a big shopping mall to find an Abercrombie & Fitch shop (on my sisters behest). Some clothes were bought and we headed back, and it was at this part that my father decided that some hitting was in order. On the rest of the way back not a word was said (except for my father telling my sister to take down the GPS when we arrived). And except for that not a word was said before I was back in my room with my sister and she attacked me (verbally) for, as she claimed, making my father hit me, and then not apologising... WTF? Anyway I went out for some stamps (got them) and I then headed for an internet connection to get in touch with my mother (she hasn't replied yet, but then it is after midnight back home). So guess where I am now? That's right, I'm sitting at the hotel's computer and typing. So what do I expect to happen? Well I am gonna go out and buy some pizza, and then tomorrow I'm (with my "family") I am heading back to Denmark.

So what do I think will come of this? Well for a very long time I have disapproved of my father. He left my mother when she needed him most (she had just started her own business); he started his affair with my stepmother when my mother was in her old job, and he started the affair because he couldn't cope with my mother being the more successful of the two, earning more money in a better job. He then underfunded my education when in Spain (leaving my mother to pay by far the most with my stepfather), and when my sister moved down there, he stopped funding completely and underfunded my sister. Completely against the law, but there really was nothing to do about it. My father is an excellent lawyer, and by the time the lawsuit would be finished and settled, my sister and I would be far above 18, and the costs themselves for the lawsuit would be high. But that isn't the point; what kind of wealthy man (like my father) refuses to pay for his children's school? And then claim that he does in front of them, something I know isn't true. My mother has given me complete access to emails and banks statements proving him 100% wrong. And after the divorce he refused direct contact with my mother, so I was used as a messenger, and in these affair, the messengers DO get shot. So while I always felt that I was giving him one more chance to better himself, he thought he was giving me one more chance to better myself. And after the events today, there is no road back. As soon as I come home to Denmark, I am gonna pack my rucksack and head to my mother and stepfather's Danish summer cottage and stay for a week before my plane to England departs (World Scout Jamboree). I would love to go back to Spain, but by now and with 1 days warning, the prices are beyond outrageous, and even worse, on the 24th I have to go from Spain to England, that one is gonna be beyond impossible. So either I stay at my mother's summer cottage for a week (which is alone, in the middle of nowhere) or stay for another week with my father, which just strives against my every principle. But I am going to get in touch with my mother first, I might not even be able to get into the summer cottage. And in that case I won't know what to do...

Some vacation, right?

After that we just walked around again, visiting the harbour and finding a nice place to eat some seafood dinner (I am actually planning to have fish and chips), and looked at different tours for snorkeling out at the Key West nearby reefs. This has truly been an uneventful day with my father and sister still not letting me go for having bought scented candles; and I still haven't been able to find anything worthy of a picture. Everything just looks so fake, dull or "over-touristy".

Day 1 (July 8th):

Got up at 4 to check in at 5.05 to fly at 7.10 for 2 hours to Paris, where I waited for 2 hours before I could board my 9 hour flight to Miami, which turned out to be 1½ hours late. And when we finally got in the air, I (and my family) were seated behind the rudest people, and to be expected, they were from a Spanish speaking country (Honduras). They immediately leaned their seats back the full way. When asked polite to put their seats up, they did so... For about 15 minutes before putting them all the way back. Upon arriving in Miami, there was some security control and an eternity for the baggage to turn up. The car we had rented, a big Pontiac SUV with great air condition and a built-in GPS turned out to be a crummy little Jeep with a horrible tag along GPS and a not so great air condition. So far so good, right? The hotel (Doubletree Hotel on Collin's Avenue 1717) is admittedly quite nice, although everything is expensive; 6 dollar water, 12 dollar Internet etc. Once settled we went out for a little sightseeing with my father as a guide (who referred to everything as "exclusive") and eating some Italian dinner (pizza Margarita). Upon having eaten our dinner we went to bed at 21 o' clock. As we got up at 4 CEST and to bed at 21 EST we were up for 23 hours, nothing I haven't tried, but the flying etc. made it a lot worse.

Day 2 (July 9th):

This is where the good stuff comes (not really). We started out with the hotel breakfast which wasn't bad, scramble egg, sausages, American pancakes, milk, bacon and so on. But then my father wanted to show me and my sister far more of the city, and my sister wanted to shop. So we trudged around Miami for way to many hours, during which my father told me to bring my Canon 400D which is annoying to drag around for so long, looking at Art Deco buildings not worthy of a picture and going through bookstores for my father. And even worse, listening to my fathers patronising at me, joking at me, telling me off and just being the idiot he usually is. Although he did manage to secure us a great lunch at a place called Jerry's Famous Deli on Collins Avenue (where the hotel is), where I had the greatest ham and cheese omelet. Following that we had more horrible walking/sightseeing with absolutely no interest to me, but remarkably enjoyable for my sister and my father. But once we made it back to the hotel, my sister and father went for a swim (and as usually my father tells me off for not wanting to swim), so I watched History channel for 3 hours, concerning the Death Road in Bolivia, the building of the Russian Empire and the George Washington Bridge in New York, although my sister and father didn't go swimming for 3 hours, it did take 3 hours before we headed out for dinner, and once again ended up at an Italian restaurant, where I had Fettuccine Bolognese. After that we all went back to the hotel to sleep.

Day 3 (July 10th):

Today (the last two days were written from memory) we first ate the hotel breakfast, then headed out for a drive towards a shopping center in Boca Raton (rat's mouth), but first we stopped at a (as my father would put it. "exclusive") shopping center only with ridiculesly expensive shops; but once past that we had to stop at the Lynn University where my stepbrother went for a year, before finally making it to the center. It had 1 computerish shop we sucked total tit. I did manage to buy two scented candles for which my father and sister went stop calling me homosexual, while they both chased down black Converse all star shoes in size 4½ for my sister. But as the center was very large they didn't manage to find them and settled for size 5. At one shop they could only find the left shoe, and at another they could only find the shoelaceless model (which my sister didn't want). So we wandered further and found an Abercrombie shop where my father bought a shirt and a sweatshirt, my sister bought a pair of pants and two tops, and I bought a shirt and two tshirts. But just before going to Abercrombie (and trying to buy shoes) we went to eat lunch where my sister had a half size pizza Margarita, my father had a club sandwich grande (what isn't "grande" in America), and I had an omelet with cheese and so much ham that I would feed the entire third world for 2 years. After leaving the shopping center, my father took us for a drive to look at the "exclusive" placed he, my stepmother and their friends stayed at the last time they were there. Once back home, I'm here in my bed typing, while my sister and father are out taking pictures of Art Deco buildings. And as usual my father has been a total and complete idiot towards me (but not my sister). For dinner we went to a place called News Cafe where my father had pasta with chicken, my sister had pasta with tomato sauce and chicken, and I had a good New York steak with a horrible baked potato.