Happy New Year!

G'day everyone!

Hope all is well. Everything in the land of Oz is back into normal swing.

To pick up where I left off, I will indulge you in some fun tidbits of my current position. I'm the National Contingent Leader of Canada for this event. It's quiet awesome on one hand, and quiet the stressful on the other. Yesterday was a prime example of the stressful side.

The high of the day was 41. UV index of 14 (that's super bad, back at home it only gets up to 9, and that's a simply atrocious day). There was rumours of an evacution that started to circuilate. All the contingent leaders were asked to calm the panic. We did. Next thing we know as we start to sign up for our offsite activities, a lovely alarm buzz rips threw the air. I knew then.

We were given all of 10 minutes to get a day bag ready. Not that big a deal. I was pulled into a Contingent Leader meeting, and briefed. Away I went to check on my 7 remaining members. They had to have their passports, any flight details, valuables, and wallets on hand. Aka, if the worst thing happened, they could still go home.

That took a while to get sorted, as I had two staff members in my contingent. Both of whom where busy bees getting everyone their lunches, and shutting down a cafe.

I had to dash to pack myself once I had done 4/7 members. I designated someone else to keep an eye out and to ask them if they had their passport.

As luck would have it, 7/9 of the contingent was on a bus. This bus got diverted to do some service, and unload the bags from the coaches. I can only imagine Tyler and Karen's feelings when we were about an hour late getting to the safe spot.

So, it ended up being an impromptu day at the beach. The contingent went to a watering hole and enjoyed some of the local music. To make it a real beach day, we had to quickly run down to the beach, stand in the water, and then get back on the bus to head to our dinner's location. Around 8 pm, after relocating around 10 am, we made it back to Camp with no harm done.

We started the New years celebrations shortly afterwards, since the first ones to have the New Year would be the Kiwi's (New Zealanders).

In the middle of it all, I asked the Camp chief if the Canadians could enter the bar early at 6:30 our time, to celebrate the last of the New years. Every other Contingent has a plan, and we have about 2. At 3:20 we will meet, have some Crown and Coke (of course), to welcome the New year in Ontario where 3 of the members are from. At 6:20 we shall return to the bar, have some champagne, and celebrate the BC New Year, and the last of the celebrants for the world. HUZZZAH!

In other news, I will be off-line till January 7th. (that's January 6th back home). I depart tomorrow for my Rock Climbing expedition, and then when I get back, I believe there will be a Kimmynapping of epic proportions from what my Contingent has led on.

On January 7th, I will be off-site doing a service (like beach clean up)
January 8th, I hop onto a shuttle and head to the beach to surf it up.
January 9th, I will be heading threw a few sanctuaries, meeting a local painter, and doing a brewery tour. (Pretty fab way to spend a day if you ask me!)
January 10th, I will be in the middle of a field off-site Land Yatching.

Then, Last but not least, is January 11th, with the closing of the Moot.

January 12th we will be shipping off the Adelaide airport to head into Sydney to finish off the last days here in Australia.

Till next time,

Yours In Rovering,

Kimberly McGilvray
xox