yfc johnny cowling evening

A good gang of us popped down to Wadebridge last night for a county-organised Jonny Cowling evening. For those of you that haven't seen him before, he's a very funny chap, and I guess he's Kernow's best comedy export since Jethro.

Launceston bore the brunt of a few of his jokes, including Paul "Jerry Springer" Burder, Paul White (who sat right by the stage), and Tim Kenyon, who found that sprinting off to the toilet when the comedian's back was turned wasn't a good idea, and on his return had a big welcome!

Jonny is big on crowd interaction and was always getting us off our seats, or wandering around the crowd. Excellent evening.

having a brew

I thought our brewery visit would be the busiest club night of the year for some reason, but in the end only 23 of us went down the St Austell Brewery for a tour around. It was interesting to see how old the brewery was - still using the original buildings and some original machinery, much older than some of the other breweries I've visited. 

Unfortunately unlike those nice people at Skinners & Sharps, St Austell would only give us one pint each on completion of the tour, despite us paying £8 each and them having about half a million pints in stock! Oh well, at least its good stuff!

bee positive

Last night a few of us popped down to county office for a talk by Jack Russell, a motivational speaker. It was tied in with the NVQ leadership course Pip, Sarah Ed and myself are doing through YFC, but was open to anyone. I encouraged club members to go over the past couple of weeks but now I wished I forced them, he was that good!

He did some exercises, played some videos, got people up to do demonstations and encouraged people throughout the evening to be positive and encouraging both in your work, yfc and personal lives, instead of focusing on the negatives, and the benefits of stepping out of your comfort zone. Sounds a bit new age? It wasn't, it's just hard to put into words. Needless to say everyone left the building very happy and positive, and may even have a new outlook on life!

So when they organise a similar talk next year, GO!

homeleigh

Many thanks to Rob & Lisa Broad for showing us around Homeleigh Garden Centre last thursday night. I forgot just how big it is these days. Rob pulled out some very interesting facts and figures, a load of stories, showed us around and we finished up with a nice little spread in the cafe afterwards. Most shocking part for a few including me was seeing the size of Fiona the boa constrictor in the pets/aquatics department, she was a monster of a snake!

I'm Off!

I'm leaving first thing tomorrow morning, just wishing you all the best of luck in all competitions and such forth whilst I'm away.
Oli

motivational talk

OPEN TO ALL - FREE! Cornwall YFC have booked a speaker called Jack Russell for NEXT TUESDAY EVENING (23rd March) who sounds like a very interesting and accomplished chap, speaking at the Pavilion Centre, Royal Cornwall Showground. Please let Pip/County office know if you'd like to attend.

From county office: "We have invited renowned Leadership & Motivation expert, Jack Russell to speak to you. He has a very impressive CV having taken part in an expedition to the North Pole and having done talks for the BBC, Orange and the Royal Navy amongst others.

If you attend one training event this year - make sure it's this one, especially as it's FREE!

All Club Development Programme participants are expected to attend as part of the NVQ but it is open to all members/family and friends - just please let us know who's coming so we put out enough chairs!!!! 7pm for a 7:30pm start"

the girls entertain the boys

The males of Launceston YFC walked out of Trebullet hall last thursday feeling a little more in touch with their feminine side thanks to the efforts of our girls who, as you'll see below, put on a fun evening containing everything you'd never normally pursuade the lads to do!

We had:
Bryony - nail painting
Zara - edible flower making
Lynette & Helen - bun decorating
Tamsyn - card making
Laura - dancing
Charlotte - quiz

Thanks all

You lot wait 'til boys entertain girls. You just wait! (PS- we all had a lot of fun really)

south west area

Well what a weekend! Over twenty of us made the trip to Torquay for the annual South West Area convention, staying at the Rainbow hotel as ever. Aside from all the usual SWA antics, we also competed and did very well in a number of competitions which we'd qualified for previously.

• Brainstrust - well done to Oli Stephen. He got picked for the county team a few weeks ago on his first public speaking competition, and along with three Helston chaps won Brainstrust and are through to the national final!
• Debating - experienced speaker Jo Maynard was picked for the county team, who also won this event and are also through to national. Good work Jo!
• Hockey - our team of Kirsty Martin, Jer Blake, Nick Brookham, Tam Bartlett, Ed Humber, Jonny Shute and Steve Butter (plus Claire and Fleur Worden from Lostwithiel YFC), worked hard to get through to the final, but were beaten in the end by Devon YFC, who appeared to have some experienced regular players on the pitch, so well done team.

Although things got lively at times throughtout the weekend, everyone behaved themselves and hopefully the national AGM should go aheard in Torquay as planned. Not that anyone from Launceston is actually going...

update

So after months of practice, we went down to Penzance St Johns Hall for the Drama final. Despite all being confident of a Launceston win, it was not to be, with Praze YFC going though to the south west final. Well done everyone; it was a great performance, and lots of fun getting there. Many thanks to Rose Hill - our director - for all the time and effort she put in to help get us where we got to.

The next day we met at 9am for our Annual Dung Run in Launceston. Despite not having many orders the week before, we ended up selling everything we had, and went to do a quick bagging of another 100 on sunday afternoon, thanks to the Blakes for the short notice!

Well now that drama's over, we've got enough time to replace it with something equally punishing... see you at Tug of War training later!