Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Opn Barbarossa




Next week we will be embarking on an expedition on canoe. This is a first for the SVS in recent times! The expo will take us to paradise bay, Mellieha, Fekruna, Mgiebah & Comino where we will be exploring various sea caves and practicing our canoeing technique and ultra- lightweight camping! This is sure to be one of those weekends to remember... that is unless the weather forces us to postpone the activity!
Mo$es

Sunday, October 26, 2008

"Fire... every beast lives in deadly fear of it...."

Me enjoying the fresh air at Mosta Valley

...Except the Sliema Cubs, who had an exciting day of hiking and fire & cooking together with our Venture Unit yesterday!

Cubs & Ventures during the hike

The Unit organised a day out for the cubs which involved a hike in the region of Mosta Valley followed by a session of fire building and cooking - lunch included burgers and sausages amongst other delights.

Keith and a cub cooking burgers and simultaneously eating them with their eyes!


After lunch we played some fun games in Mosta Valley including prisoners and had some instructions organised by the Pack leaders and Ventures. It was quite an adventurous and fun day for all.


Rubei giving instructions to the cubs while Cremona touches his toes

Luckily the weather was quite good yesterday and had the activity been held today instead we would be holding tests for the swimmers badge in Mosta Valley!!

ATTENTION SLIEMA CUBS!!!!! The first one of you to send an email to sliemaventureunit@gmail.com with the name of the book and author from which this post's title was taken will win a special prize curtosey of the Sliema Venture Unit!!


Abela in possession during an exciting game of prisoners with the cubs

Our next activity should be a canoe expo being held in conjunction with Rugged Coast Adventure, throughout the weekend of 6th-9th November but this is highly weather dependent! Throughout the weekend we will be exploring various sea caves along the Northern Coast of Malta and Comino.

Yours in Scouting,

Mo$es

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

We didn't start the fire....


...ok maybe we did, but it was all planned out and everything. For ou last Tuesday meeting we met up in a secret outdoor location to practice out fire lighting techniques. This was carried out after a suggestion by the new CXO (who until a few weeks ago was the one before the old CXO) Ian. This meeting kind of broke the monotony of our usual indoor meetings during which we usually settle alot of admin work but don't get to do much of those outdoor Scouting Skills which we like ever so much.

George doing the honours

As with our regular meetings the attendance was sky high and about 14 of us met under the clear star filled sky that night. Apart from the fire lighting, tea brewing and marshmallow roasting the meeting was similar to one we'd have at HQ. The agenda included the written tests for those ventures which hadn't as yet had a chance to carry them out and an SPI (spiritual) exercise organised by our Spiritual Director Alan.
Ellul, Cremona, Llama, Corrieri & George by the fire
more of the ventures by the fire...James, Haidon, Zack, Alan, Terrence, Keith and Ellul

The fire was organised and designed by George and it sure did keep us warm!

Ventures laughing and singing while admiring the fire

Sam has been in contact with Akela David, planning a joint activity with the cub pack which is to be held this coming Saturday. The activity will include a hike, in the region of Mosta Valley, a fire and cooking exercise and various other games in which the Ventures will mix with the cubs for hours of mayhem and adventure.


more coming soon i'm sure!


Mo$e

SVS - Back to School!!!

Hi all,
The meaning of this post's title is twofold. The obvious meaning is the fact that it's now been about a month since the Unit members (and leaders got back to their school routine). The new guys have just started their adventure in post-secondary school (jc, naxxar and the like), some others have started second year and will soon sit for their A-levels while the older guys have started out their university days in various courses at tal-Qroqq. I am no longer a student (unfortunately) but for how much longer did you think I could live the student life? Isn't it enough that I've got three postgraduate degrees and an honorary degree from Harvard??


The second meaning is that our last activity was done in conjunction with St Edward's College - we attended the College's Fair and set up various gadgets for the use of the visitors.
George, Alan, Zack, Chris and Andrew

The weekend of the 17th-19th October was one of those weekends when all three of the sections of the Sliema Group have activities. The Troop leaders set up a network of pcs at HQ so that the Troop could participate in the JOTI (jamboree on the internet) which is held once a year. The Pack also participated and our HQ was used as a Hub for the rest of the North District -- some other Scout Groups visited our HQ to use our facilities.

Although the Joti was a fantastic experience it's another story all together- my story involves the Unit at the St Edward's Day fair. On Friday evening we set off for the College grounds together with Skipper Timmy and QM/ASL Mark.
Cubs enjoying themselves on Sunday morning (trying to catch the wet sponges??)

Under the cover of darkness we set up an obstacle course and a catapult which were to be used the following morning. After an entertaining dinner party we used the college grounds for a night game -- Tango & Delta . Some of us bivvied amongst the trees while others sheltered close to the class rooms. The night was quite uneventful and the weather (which was forecast for thunderstorms) had kept except for the lightening which could be seen in the distance.

Corrieri & Peter trying to take a good photo for their MSN or Facebook profiles while Ellul foils their plan!

We awoke bright and early on sunday morning and were joined by Akela/AGSL David, ACSL/Riki tiki tavi Kirsten, ASL/QM Mark and a bunch of excited cubs who got to be the first people to try out the obstacle course. The course was quite challenging and although all of the ventures could finish it the best time was reached by our own llama with a time of 1min7secs.
Alan on the tyre swings

People soon started arriving at the school and after mass (which was held at 10:00) our stalls became crowded with interested kids and parents. The highlight of our corner of the fair must have been the catapult from which we fired soaking sponges--- we had some very energetic targets (the cubs!) that kept running around making it difficult to hit.
A cub firing the mighty catapult!
The Ventures taking part in Tug of War


The decent weather lasted until the early afternoon when a savage downpour commenced. We had to strike everything in the rain and leave ASAP.

Striking in the pouring rain

The activity was quite a success since our corner attracted quite a few kids who may interested in joining our ranks.

I've got more updates to make so keep your eye on the blog!

Dr Mo$es MBA MA MSc LLD PhD