Scouts, builders and cats

Summer holiday is almost over again, but I had some great weeks! At 26th of July, our "Scoutbands on Tour" massed Dutch Scout band shipped to play in Great Britain and especially on the World Scout Jamboree. We had rehearsed a few times together but did not really know eachother, so it was quite exciting to go on this trip for 10 days with 50 musicians and 20 participants. (pic made by Joop Weseman) But it appeared to be great! We played marching gigs and concerts in Colchester, Cambridge, London and Chelmsford (were the Jamboree is), and of course we played on the Jamboree. First, we rehearsed together with Irish and English Scout musicians, this was an orchestra of more than 100 people. At the 1st of August, we played at the anniversary of 100 years Scouting. At 7 in the morning, we played a concert on a big stage in the central arena of the Jamboree site. We had an audience of about 40,000 people from all over the world. There was a great athmosphere while playing some movie music and some golden oldies like YMCA and Love is in the air. And when I played a small jazzy solo, I was even filmed and shown at the big screens on the field! After the ceremony, all 40,000 people went around and wrote their autogrammes on eachother's scout scarves, which really gave a special feeling! Then we marched along the Jamboree site and played at several spots, and we even made a picture with the grandson of Baden Powell, the founder of Scouting. After that, we played as a "party band" at some spots, e.g. we went with a big Dutch delegation into the German "Bierstube" (were they only sold Karamalz and alcohol free beer...). In the leaders' dining tent, we played some tunes for more that 1,000 people!

At the end of a very busy but great week, the 70 people learned to know eachother very well, we really became one group and that was another great experience! We even had some funny coincidences, like losing our "disabled" cook Piet at the Jamboree site and finding some of our Scout group members in a crowd of 40,000...

As I returned from the UK, my sister and her boyfriend had the good news that they were finally able to start building their wooden house in the Ardennes in Belgium. So I promised to help them building a bit and I drove to them. This was very nice and interesting as well, since I don't have that much building experience. Their house is like a scale modell: they have all the wooden beams laying around, all numbered, and they have a big book of numbered drawings to know where to put which beam. But before we could start putting the beams together, we first had to finish the concrete cellar parts, which was great work to do. One day, it was 30 deg.C and the other, it was pooring with rain... At the first pic, you can see the beams waiting to be put together; Geert, my dad and me building...

After finishing my contribution, my sister and Geert had a great present for me: they had three kittens of which I got two! Now, they are getting used in my house, demolishing everything up to 1m and having fun playing around, then sleeping and then of course shitting, which they are very good in as well. I called them "dames" ("ladies" in Dutch). One is more or less white, which is called Dame Blanche (after her mother Blanche as well, and of course after the famous icecream) and the other one is white and black, so she is Dame Noir. It is really great to see how they jump around!

Well so far this was the news. Tomorrow, Torsten and Ulli from Freiburg will visit me for a few days, so I'm studying on coffee shops and other typical Dutch culture at the moment. And monday, forestry calls again...

Bye! Jeroen