The Kit video is here!

Finally! It's here! After a week's worth of intensive shooting, editing, and cursing at the editing software because it won't behave itself, my humble video about what to take travelling with you is ready! I hope you enjoy watching it, and any scout leaders out there might find it an amusing way to gently introduce the topic of packing at a meeting one evening.

 

 

 

Of course, there are other things that I will be taking. I'm taking my Powermonkey, a nifty little gizmo which will charge most electrical appliances (phones, cameras, etc) and can be charged through the wall, via USB, or even through solar power (something I hope to have in abundance in Mexico!) 

I will also be taking my trusty penknife, and also a longer hunting knife. Of course, the hunting knife will only come out when I am in the wilderness or on a scout camp, because apart from the fact that wandering around a city with a knife on your belt is, incredibly dangerous and invites more harm than it will keep away, it also looks stupid. A bit like someone turning up for a day's paintball in the woods wearing full army gear, including blast helmet designed to stop grenade shrapnel.

It's the woods, why did you turn up in desert camo?!

However, a larger knife could be very useful out in the wilderness, should I need to whittle some sticks, gather some woodshavings to start a fire, or even skin or gut an animal for dinner. I'll be honest, I would be a bit out of my depth if I was gutting the wildlife of the Mexican jungle for lunch, but the old Scout method of "cook it until it all looks like charcoal" should keep the worst of the food poisoning off.

 

Another very exciting piece of kit I have been donated is.... a SIM card! For the uninitiated, a sim card is the bit in your phone which allow you to make phone calls, and is identified by your phone number. And I have been given one made by a company called Truphone. Truphone specialise in getting the best value international calls by giving a simcard multiple numbers; for example, if I call someone in the USA, they will see my US number. If I call someone in the UK, they will see my UK phone number. I won't pretend to understand the ins and outs of how the technology works, but it's a brilliant idea. And they have very generously donated me a sim card... with $100 of credit on it! So thank you very much Truphone, and stay tuned to find out how useful this little bit of gear will be to me as I travel around the world!

 

Right, enough said. I've just finished work for the next third of a year, I have to go and try to get another scout shirt from the scout shop to swap with a scout group, then get in a game of FIFA with some mates, then go visit an Explorer Scout Unit in Pangbourne, and then drive up to Leeds for some indoor skydiving, a foam party, and a friends' birthday celebration. It's a hard life, but someone has to lead it!