Week 2 - Thurlby YHA

Hello everyone!

We had an amazing time at Thurlby YHA this week with lots of fun and games and plenty of planning for our project and learning new skills.
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves throughout the week.

I will put Photographs on the blog next week, in the meantime here is a diary written by Rebecca Routledge and Laura-Jayne Walker about week 2 of NCS Resi 2017...

Rebecca Routledge

Day 1- Monday 12^th June 2017

We arrived at Thurbly Youth Hostel in Lincolnshire at 1pm. Two members of staff had gone to arrange our rooms, while we were outside eating our lunch and enjoying our McDonalds milkshake, which tasted really refreshing and enjoying the beautiful view of our garden. After lunch we had then settled into our rooms and unpacked our suitcases and chosen which beds to sleep on. Later on, we had gone shopping to buy breakfast things such as bread, cereals, Tea & Coffee etc, food to make our lunch and games to play in the garden. When we got back to the Youth Hostel after shopping we had some down time and talked to our friends while we were playing games. Claire and Nicky got us nice fish & chips for dinner, it tasted really delicious.

Day 2 – Tuesday 13^th June 2017

We made our own breakfast on Tuesday morning. After breakfast clean up we talked about our aims for the day and began an ice breaker game called pass the can, we however had made our own version of filling up the cups with water and using our fists to carry it over to a bowl and pour it in. We had been put into 2 groups to complete this challenge this was a lot of fun.

We were then given a task to individually design a shield and to present it to the rest of the group, once that was completed we had then gone into groups of 3 and then designed 4 parts of a bigger shield to make our logo. After lunch we talked a little bit more about who we could help in the community and then was given a fun task to go into 2 groups and walk around the local village to find things that could be helpful towards the community. We had found things such as a Post Office, a map of the village, sign posts. Notice boards, park, church and ect. After this activity we went out to dinner at a lovely Restaurant where we enjoyed the food very much and the staff there were really nice. Later on back at the Youth Hostel we had filled out our daily worksheet and came up with things that we’re good at and what we could do to help the community. We had then had some chill time and watched Madagascar 2 the film, which we really enjoyed.

Laura-Jayne Walker

Day 3 – Wednesday 14^th June 2017

For today we made our breakfast and also our lunch as we were going out for the day and then was given aims for the day on what we were going to do, we also had a visitor from the NCS named Gavin he was really nice, he wanted to see what we were doing and if we’ve been enjoying our 2 weeks so far, which we are. Claire had then given us a fun photo challenge, where we were given riddles of things to look for and then had to work as a group and take pictures of the objects or items we had found for the riddles given. This was a really fun group activity. After this activity we talked a bit more about who we could help in our local community of Bedfordshire and what things are there for us to do. Later on we had got ready to travel to the railway to have a ride on the famous historical steam train. This was an enjoyable afternoon out and the train was really comfortable to sit in.

Day 4 – Thursday 15^th June 2017

Planning and finalizing our project.

Today was about coming up with ideas for our project and finalising them, we were put into groups of three to come up with ideas on how we could help areas in our local community of Bedfordshire to make a difference. By seeing who we could help and what we could do to help. And made a decision on what our project is to be.

We also as a group had done our own shopping to cook dinner for everyone later on in the evening.

Everyone enjoyed cooking their own dinner. Most people chose pasta meals but Ben enjoyed eating lots of prawns with chips and Kieran enjoyed sausages and peas with his pasta.

After filling in feedback on our targets for the day we chilled out and watched a Star Wars film in the lounge. We all enjoyed this a lot.

Well done ladies, you have done a lovely write up about what we have all been up to.

Claire 

Day 4 at PGL Liddington - Thursday 8th June 2017

Thursday 8th June

Aeroball

We had a fab time doing Aeroball, our instructor was really friendly and helped us to learn what we needed to do. 4 of us at a time were each bouncing in a little pod that was like a trampoline and we had to shoot hoops in each other's net. Kieran scored 5 which was really great! We all had lots of fun. Ben was really good at throwing 4 balls all at once... Very clever!

Trapeze

We really enjoyed doing the trapeze challenge, our PGL instructor had given us safety instructions before we started so we had to listen carefully. In order for us to get to the ledge to jump onto the trapeze, we had to climb up a telegraph pole. It was really challenging at first but with the support of my team mates, staff and our PGL insrtutor we got there in the end. It was an amazing experience and we would do it again.

 

 

 

 

Jacobs ladder

Jacob's ladder was a challenging activity especially in the wind, some of us was a little nervous to climb up the ladder but wanted to try for the experience. It was a lot harder than it looked but with the support of our team mates we done as far as we could go. And then jumped of, it was  really fun. We also had the support of our team mates belaying the ropes we were attached to which made it safer for us.

Survivor

Survivor was instructed by a PGL instructor that looked like Justin Bieber he had taught how to make fire using cotton  and lint, all of us had lit a fire successfully after a few goes of trying. We had to some great videos of all of us making fire.

As well as making fire we had to build a shelter that we would be able to survive in.  Each of us in 3 different groups worked well as a team to present 3 different types of shelters, it consisted of table and chairs   all made from logs and branches and leaves from decorations. A shelter with a log for a chair and a fire place. This was an  a really good experience and we learnt a lot.