Curiosity killed the Cat.

Our BB joined up with another company for a summer camp of fun and frivolity.  All in all about 14 lads between 11-18 years of age and 7 officers.  Which was a massive difference to the BB camps back home where 3 churches youth groups of BB and the Girls Brigades unite to make an 80+ strong camp.   But it was still great fun although there were some who had problems.
There was one Kid who was quite young and got it in the neck a lot.  He wanted loads of answers and would constantly ask questions.  This annoyed the man in charge who would shout for him to put his hand down and consistently criticised the boy.  Then one of our boys decided to criticise him as well, one of those people that gather a following and soon everyone was joining in.  There was no real malice in it but it soon got to this boy.
He had a camp way about him and gay jokes became non-stop by half way through the week.  It ended in tears.
The lad who'd started it came over to everyone one lunch and made a gay joke too far, nobody laughed.  I saw the boy behind a bush crying, i don't think anyone else noticed.  I'd gotten to know him a bit by then and found myself sitting next to him, a situation which i'm getting far too frequently these days.  I'm not fond of speeking to anyone in that state, but he needed someone to give him a leg up.
He told me what had happened.  This innocent kid had let slip that at points his eyes often wandered whilst in the toilets.  Now puberty is a difficult stage for most people, especially if you're as curious as this one is.  But telling people something like that is just foolish especially on the current popularity of gay jokes.  He spoke without thinking.

I told him that not one person had laughed, they'd also seen me with him and i could see the guilt when they saw him crying.  We talked about it and i joked about it with him before he wiped his eyes and we headed over to the others who guiltily tried to cheer him up.
But the jokes continued soon after.
I spoke to them all that night about my experiences with bullies as a kid, when i was once a small lad who got picked on.  It was more about dealing with bullies then anything but also how people can change.  They understood it at least.  But more then that, i gained respect for it, which they'd also gotten from seeing me helping out the crying boy.  A different type of respect to the main officer, not through fear.
I caught up with the ringleader before bed and we had a chat.  Several of the others joined in and i discussed how they'd feel on the other side of the bullying, or what if one of their friends was gay and saw them making jokes.  Rationalising a situation is often better then disciplining.
For the rest of the week the boy received no bullying from the boys.  The camp got along perfectly.  When someone said a gay joke they were told off, not by me though, but by the ringleader.  A u-turn.
People can change!

The Beam Engine

I went for a ride the other day around the island only to find something new.  A beam engine, open and running.  Eastney Beam engine.  A steam Powered Giant!

There were originally several of them to pump the cities increasing sewage away.  A dirty job, but one beautiful engine.  Restored to its condition in 1887, they've done a terrific job.  The building houses 2 engines although only one has been fully restored but it runs near perfectly aside from a squeaky seal.
Very late on in the era of steam it's designed perfectly to make it as efficient as possible.  A condensing engine using a mixture of Newcomen's original vacuum powered pistons by pulling the low pressure piston and James Watt's expansion Pushing behind the high pressure piston giving even more power and efficiency.  The steam is produced in a boiler in the room next door by burning coal and water is superheated through pipes before being sent to the cylinders.  Each engine has 2 cylinders, one high pressure where the steam is first expanded, before the steam is exhausted to the low pressure where air and water is jetted into the cylinder to cool the steam quickly creating the vacuum to pull the piston.  Each piston is also double acting so once the steam pushes the piston one way, the superheated steam is allowed in at the other end pushing it back again.  Using as much of that heat energy as possible and turning it into work to pump the sewage and water below.  The Watts link keeps the piston shaft perpendicular to the cylinder with beautiful movement attached to the massive beam above which is then attached to a flywheel to keep it going and a governor keeping the pace steady.
But the Victorians took pride in what they did and not only was it powerful but built as a showpiece of engineering, a thing of beauty.

Get straight back on the horse

Back on a my first week at CHICKS and I've got yet more to say.  Just so much goes on throughout a week.
This time i want to tell you just how happy the kids get when you get them riding high on the back of a pony.  Chicks has a running contract with a local stables and all the kids get the chance to go horse riding.  Something i sure didn't get to do when i was a kid, in fact even now I've never got riding lessons aside from donkey rides!  It really does give them something special, to talk about forever.
They each mounted a pony and the volunteers, i.e. me, took the reigns to lead them round.  It was one beautiful day.  But i got the rebellious pony and it really wasn't too excited about getting out and about on this day.  I was leading a young girl who was very nice and to my surprise made a complete fool out of me on the football pitch when i first met her.  Not that I'm that good at football, but 8 year olds rarely have great ball control.
Anyway, we took the kids up to a soft floored riding area and begun to get the basics.  We had been pre-warned the night before about the slightly eccentric style of the lady in charge but it didn't stop all the volunteers from giggling the whole way through.  She walks like a cowboy from a western and sings the instructions to the kids in time with the horses.  I'll admit it works perfectly however is rather humorous to the point where we were still laughing when we made it back to the home.  However part way through and i admit i was being tested.  As i said I've never had the chance to ride a horse and the basics i know are from theories I've heard and very primitive.  So when the horse began to play up, i struggled.  It started by stopping for a snack whenever it liked.  Then it would get slightly excited and drag me forward for a bit before i pulled it back in line.  It seemed to be going alright and the girl was doing very well and loving it when we reached a part where i had to let go of the reigns and just walk along side...

It went fine in and out of the cones as she controlled it till it got round the end cone and thought it had lost me, so it bolted and started cantering off to my bewilderment.  I had to chase it down and being in wellies that was no easy feat.  But i grabbed the leading rope and stopped the runaway before it made it too far.  The girl loved it, i however, did not.  That was on the worrying side!
That marked the end of the first set of kids and i was boiling over from the heat.  We walked back to the stables and the Kids dismounted.  They had really had fun.  What's really great is just how much they had actually improved and gained control.  I however had gotten no better, proven by the pony stamping on my foot, wellies aren't made for protection from lumbering oafs.  I swear it did it on purpose as well.
We got some water on and although talk had been made to change my pony we still ended up heading back out with the same annoying pony with another kid mounted upon it laughing as the pony made a fool out of me.  Immediately it was playing up again.

Realising i was at the point of melting and loosing control as the pony rebelled one of the supervisors relieved me of duty and took command, i felt better when she struggled as well though.  However the worst was yet to come.
Toward the end there was a race of sorts, the volunteers all pondered round as fast as they dare but it came down to 2 french stable hands who were leading the larger horses and they were up for a race.  They cracked the whip out and got some speed up.  But when one of them turned, the boy on board didn't follow, he rolled off the horse and fell to the floor...
The supervisor ran over to his aid.  The lady in charge walked on over, looked him up and down and said "right then, back on the horse".  I don't think he even considered what she said when he found himself back up on the horse.  Well that was easy.  He was fine.  But we were pretty shocked!  That's one heck of a life lesson!

Going Sobre!

Lent is upon us and somehow fasting entirely seems rather difficult.  So things i like:

• Chocolate (its been done before, not really that hard despite the amount i eat!)
• Engineering (Now that is just silly)
• TV (But formula 1 starts half way through!!!)
• Bread (hmm no , dad's doing that)
• Meat (i would probably be left with plain pasta and rice, vegetables are rare in my cupboard)
• Bike rides (my only exercise?)

So many difficulties, let's ask the Kids at BB what they're giving up.

• Reading
• Homework
• Math

Hmm, i don't think they quite got the point there!  An hour later with games and discussions with them and we came up with a plan:  They would give up being bad (hahahha), alright well they'd try to be good, if they saw a kid on the playground alone they'd go and play with them or they would tell teacher if someone was being picked on.  You get the picture, trying to be nice.  However i don't really see that passing for me.  That all sorta comes under the being a christian thing.  Something more challenging...

I'll think about it over a pint...  Ah...  hmmm... not sure.

Me and my friends go drinking maybe twice a week or so depending on which sports are currently running, i.e. F1, Rugby and several others.  We also play a lot of pool and a bit of snooker, all drinking sort of activities.

Well it would prove a point, and drunkards are frowned upon heavily in that big ole book.  OK, can't be that hard!

It may be harder then i first thought!  My course friends are Atheists and are the main people i hang out with, they understand I'm a Christian but this sorta pushed the bar.  They weren't fond of my reasons and put me to the test.  For the last 2 weeks I've been oh so tempted for a wee drop of Cider, whisky, Beer, anything!  But no.  Sure and steadfast the anchor holds.  I'm by no means an alcoholic but this has turned out to be a real test.  Like helping out a friend the other day, what did i receive but a bottle of White Wine.  From a church friend no less.  Yes, God definitely has a sense of humour.

Worst of all, the other day my Grandma passed away.  Some things just knock you down.  Quick as a flash within a night of being in hospital to meeting the big man.  Last time someone i knew died, a friend, i hit all the whisky and bourbon i could find in our local and wished the night away.  That's just how I'd come to deal with things.  I don't know quite if I'd do the same this time if i wasn't on lent.  I must say i still sat and played the blues for a time.  Music heals the soul.  But the first thing i did, I've never done before, was turn to that book on my side table.  The Bible helps you out from time to time, Mathew 5:4 opened and it ricocheted round my mind.  At that point i had God sitting at my side.  I went to the Pub that night.  However nothing but a pint of coke passed my lips.


I have no idea why bad things happen, but when they do your strength is only as strong as your Faith!

The Longest 15 minutes...

I went to Boys' Brigade one night, as I've said I'm a volunteer or warrant officer and help them out when I can.  So i turned up once more when i got back to Uni and helped out a couple weeks.  But things had changed, there was unrest in the ranks!

There's one Kid who no one quite gets, he's got what they call ADHD i believe.  Albeit I'm not fond of the diagnosis it describes the sort of symptoms.  He's Hyper most of the time and difficult to get through to at points and has that knack of annoying the officers and leaders.  From what i hear he's getting 1 to 1 teaching at school to help him out.  But really, this Kid is pretty smart, incredibly creative and i liked him near immediately!

But i turned up after holidays and he had turned, not once in the first weeks i was back was he enjoying the meetings.  He wouldn't get involved in games and he'd get annoyed about anything!  He had been a little bit of a bully the last year, he was now getting his comeuppance, him and his brother were under fire from another set of brothers who were taking the mick.  He really couldn't take it.  By the time i came back his Dad was getting worried, his son came back annoyed every week, starting to despise the BB nights.  His dad complained to the captain and i must admit i agreed with him.  The next week on and the boy exploded...

I'm not sure what triggered it but he got angry and stormed out into the corridor.  I stood for a second and took it in, 4 officers had given up, they would have been fine if he stopped coming, that just doesn't cut it for me.  One of the older boys helping out when into the breach with me out into the corridor.  There the boy sat, head resting on his knees.  We learn life is unfair quickly.  This 9 year old was not enjoying life.  I slid down onto the floor opposite him.  "What's Up?".  Nothing, like he'd slammed a door and was pretending no one was home.  "I can't help unless you let me know what's wrong".  I could see a feint light through the window when he murmured for me to go away.  Like he was deciding whether to open the door or not.  My mind considered the the next move for a few seconds.  "Everyone else is enjoying themselves, what's wrong?".  The metaphoric door creaked open a crack with 'Doesn't matter'.  "Well it obviously does if you've ended up like this".  Nothing the door was shut again.  I sat a couple minutes, i had my head on my knees as well at this point.  I sighed, then gave up.  I gave the older boy who sat watching the scene a look of hopelessness as i got up and walked away...

I've learnt from CHICKS and elsewhere that that's just what happens.  People give up.  The children face their problem alone.  No one has the time to listen.  I made it around the corner before stopping and putting my face in my hands and contemplating banging my head against the wall since it felt about the same.  I couldn't give up.

About turn, 3 paces and i was back where i had been sat down on the floor head against the wall mirrored by a 9 year old boy opposite.  I got comfortable for the night.  I saw that thought go through his head when i came back when he and i were both sure I'd given up, but I'd come back.  A few more minutes of me taking stabs in the dark at what was wrong before i broke through.  He'd calmed down a bit when a small sniffling voice finally layed out his worries upon my shoulders.  The real problem, he was in trouble at school and had been told off by school and mum and dad.  Strange how things pile up on your mind whether you're 9 or 39 and when something annoys you it all just cracks.

We sat talking for a bit. We shared our woes, I can't remember quite what i said but something hit a chord.  I like everyone have had my share of problems.  When i was younger and now to be honest, i always believed the boys' brigade nights to be a time to forget about everything else and just have fun.

A little smile showed upon his face for a second and we got up.  Regaining our composure i followed him out into the fun.  He was a 9 year old again.

The next weeks his father said nothing, his son was at peace with us again.  The boy, I'll call him Martin, came to me at the start of the next weeks showing me a new toy each week that he'd brought along.  Although i did have to confiscate one when i nearly stamped on the speeding toy car he fired across the room!  Luckily he got over it and collected it at the end.  But one week he came to show me his Pokemon cards, I'm not really a fan but indulged him by letting him tell me all about his favourites until another boy noticed and immediately started up a conversation.  The start of a new friend, i snuck off as they became heavily involved in which cards were best and my challenge was completed.

It's better to share the load then try to hold it alone!