Clare's Rebel Badge Blog

I shall mostly be helping out at County Scout events with Scout Active Support Unit. Corf Scout Camp Open Day 15th May 2022 The day began at crack of silly when the entire island was woken by the most enormous clap of thunder. The weather didn't improve! I spent the day helping make hot drinks for cold, wet children and their parents, and later cooking burgers to help keep up with demand. A chilly, damp but fun day. Wood Badge Training Weekend 20th - 22nd May 2022 Friday evening was spent shopping with Linda for all the food we needed for the weekend as we were catering for approx. 20 leaders and trainers. We arrived at Corf Camp at 7.15am the following morning, put the water urn on to heat (and the kettle!) and began preparing breakfast - cereal, toast and bacon, eggs, sausages and beans. People arrived and food was eaten. We then cleared up and prepared lunch, and the vegetables for dinner. I had a mad dash home to collect slow-cookers as we were not convinced the oven was up to ...

Clause 1 Trussell Trust  run food banks in Cowes, Ryde, Newport, Freshwater and Sandown. They are currently desperate for coffee, sponge puddings, deodorant, shampoo, washing up liquid, laundry powder or liquid, toothbrushes and toothpaste. They have donation points at most of the local supermarkets around the Island as well as other shops and some churches. They need volunteers to collect food from donation points to take it to the warehouse, help sort food, prepare clothing and textiles for resale, help with people using the foodbanks, and with their monthly events. The foodbank also encourages collections for Harvest Festival in September, and runs a reverse Advent Calendar collection in November. I applied to be a volunteer, have had an interview and will start training later this month (subject to references)!  Aspire Ryde have a free food stall as well as providing meals for locals in need from food donated donated by local businesses and individuals. Clause 6 and Clause...

  Random Acts of Kindness have included: Providing a large box of chocolate biscuits for colleagues after a challenging week. Telling a colleague about some free online lectures that I thought she might be interested in. Allowing an elderly couple to queue jump ahead of me for the loo. Allowing a grandmother and her toddler grand-daughter to queue jump as the toddler looked like she would wet her pants otherwise! My Talents Badge completed. Complete a Wellness badge: Good Habits Two Global badges completed: Animal Lover Rebel Buddy Make or do something for someone else as part of a creative or grown up badge. I have made a needle case for Rachel using cross stitch, for the Craft Badge.

  To claim this patch I need to earn 3 badges from: My Brand  (June 2022) My Collection (April 2022, backdated) My Goals (October 2022 completed but too personal to blog about) My Roots (October 2022. Completed over about 30 years! Again, too personal to blog) My Style My Talents  (May 2022) Patch Claimed: June 2022

  To claim this badge I needed to complete at least 6 of the clauses: Defrost your freezer.  I defrosted and cleaned the fridge-freezer at work as it had more ice and dirt than was healthy. We'd all been putting it off for a LONG time! I then defrosted my big freezer at home. Very satisfying. The car has had water and windscreen washer topped up, and the tyre pressure checked. I haven't checked the oil but this gets done at the service and I know how anyway. I have noted when MOT, tax and insurance are due. Lawn: I mow the lawn at least twice a month and store the mower safely. It gets cleaned when necessary. Make your bed every morning. Doing it! Game changer! Sheets washed regularly but I refuse to iron them. Life is too short. Wash up every night. Mostly doing this. Makes the kitchen look much less intimidating when I return home. Laundry. Done every week, dried, folded and ironed when needed. It does get put away but I need to keep working on promptness. Areas of chaos are...

  Clause 1: I found out where to turn off the water, gas and electricity (knew already to be fair!) Clause 2: I have to change all the lightbulbs in this house. Clause 3: Change a tap washer. Well, none of my washers needed changing so I watched a YouTube video for future reference.  Clause 4: The plug on the tumble drier needed changing, and my daughter wanted practice so I supervised her doing it and double checked it afterwards. I have changed quite a number of plugs over the years. Clause 5: Tumble drier kept tripping the fuse box, which is why we changed the plug, so I had to keep flipping the switch. Clause 6: I have a large toolkit, and know what everything is for. It contains hammers, screwdrivers, spanners, wire strippers, allan keys, paintbrushes, sandpaper, screws, nails..... Clause 7: complete 2 projects: Decorate a wall: bathroom wall prepared and painted, and stairwell, and study, and main bedroom over the last three years. Upcycle: Front door was prepared and re...

To claim this badge I needed to complete at least 4 clauses. Some of this badge has been backdated, as I have done many things over the years! I bought my first house a few years ago and have been gradually redecorating it. In the years prior to this I built a LOT of flat pack furniture, have more allan keys than I know what to do with, and rarely need assistance now, so I claimed Clause 4! I don't have any furniture that needs upcycling (Clause 1), nor do I really need more furniture, so rather than upcycling something for the sake of it I decided to paint my front door. The whole porchway needs a makeover, but the wooden door was faded and the paint was flaking off and either needed replacing (expensive), or repainting (cost of a small tin of paint, some sandpaper and brasso). The door was painted glossy racing green, the door furniture was removed, thoroughly polished and then replaced. So shiny! Next project is to repaint the porchway as orange and green don't really go tog...