Our last day and home safe!

The sun was still shining, this is our third year of Phab holidays with no rain.

Last night we enjoyed a great disco and some fabulous performances in 'Phab's got talent' show, very late night for all.

This morning it was time to say goodbye to Calvert and head of home on our lovely coach.

We were well into our journey, with the volunteers sleeping it was time for the kids first film, Toy Story 3.

We then stopped at Bristol for lunch. We made good progress on the journey back and before we knew it we were on the M25. Some rather tired Phabbers, but also a few still very lively. So for those awake it was time to watch Hairspray for a good Phab singalong.

Then it was onto the last leg of our journey and then home to Epsom.

A great big thanks to all the leaders and young volunteers and the kids for a great holiday. Watch out for our thoughts on the holiday coming soon.

Day Three - Bring on the fun!

"I did rock climbing and it was really fun because I got right to the top of the climbing wall", blog from Rhea.

Today started with lots of certificates being awarded for daring, entertaining and helping. Everyone works hard to get those Arthurs, Carries & Edgars....oh yes, and then there's the Rodneys!?

Pictures speak a thousand words, so here are a few pictures....and words:
Some intrepid adventurers.









Then a leisurely paddle around the lake watching the jumping fish. Imagine the tranquility, except of course for the famous "Singing Phabbers"!!

"The L'oreal Moments! We had to dunk our heads into the Reservoir, whilst counting to a certain number to get ready to your head really fast above the water when you would be saying when you get above the water "Because your worth it!.", blog from Meghan.

Plenty more team work.









"Today we did crate stacking. Me and Liz got to 15 in 10 minutes. My favourite bit was when it fell.", blog from Sophie.












If you go down to the woods today.









"Today I did archery, it was good fun, I didn't get a gold, but I got all the other colours", blog from Charlie :)









Oh yes.....and then there's the unusual possibility today of a rare double Rodney (yes indeed a double Rodney!!)!? Always ensure you wear more than a towel if you are going to lock yourself out of your room...ooh Phil.












Thanks to all todays bloggers.

A Sunny Second Day Full of Adventure

After a good nights sleep, all awoke, ready to embark on our first Phab holiday adventure!

Wow, what a day! All had great fun in the lovely Exmoor sunshine - abseiling, climbing, canoeing, archery and building forest shelters.

Then it was time to cool down with a Swim. Just to cram even more into the day there was a quiz and an egg drop.

Hhmm, I wonder if there will be any eggs tomorrow of the chocolate variety??......please Easter Bunny??

At the end of the day there were many tired but happy faces yet again.

Happy Birthday to Phil, what better way to spend your 20th birthday!! Thanks to you and all the other young volunteers for your help.

Nite nite till the morning.

A fantastic first day!

The journey started early and we had an easy coach trip down to Devon, lovely sunny weather.









Everyone enjoyed Exmoor Zoo The 5 teams were given names : meerkats, wallabies, gibbons, lemurs and penguins.









Some people got a chance to hold a snake.









The groups were challenged to take a photo of their animal at the zoo and they all succeeded. Here are the Wallabies lookie likeys!?








A short journey round the narrow lanes and we arrived at Calvert. Everyone found their rooms then it was into the swimming pool .

After tea there were games in the sports hall, fun on the playground and even a sensory room. Happy but tired faces all round and many asked to go to bed and there were no problems getting to sleep.

Looking forward to another busy day tomorrow.

This can't be the end.......

Hi Tec central has gone to bed but the kids have the password!

It has been such a great holiday. The weather was fantastic and let us do everything we wanted. Some of the best bits - new indoor activities (sports and party hall, indoor caving, chill out room), being able to jump into the lake twice (it wasn't actually that cold), all the Bendrigg staff were fantastic as usual, the teams worked really well together, it was jokes, excellent party (Go John!)
After we'd all cleared up we even had another load of goes down the tube slide. We watched Cool Runnings then The Simpson Movie on the coach. We stopped and bought drinks and sweets at a service station then watched Grease and the end of Mr Bean on Holiday. The journey went so quick and then we were in Epsom.

Can't wait for a BL09 reunion.

Night all, Courtney Luke and Zoe on behalf of HiTec central

Day 2 & the sun is still shining!

The day began in glorious sunshine with our customary after-breakfast award ceremony where Arthurs, Edgars & Carries (No Rodney’s yet!) were handed out to all those who achieved successes yesterday.

Reporters from each team (Twitters, Facebookers, Bebos & Myspacers) worked together to bring you the following news in poetical form:

“Ashleigh conquered the zip-wire but George went down the Sssshhh-wire. The campfire was warm & bright, and we sang and stayed up all night. Ali was very clumsy (reported in an earlier twitter), she fell in the water, when she got out she only had one wellie & her other foot was smelly. The tuck shop finally opened today & all the kids shouted hip hip hooray”

Malcolm from the Facebookers told Hi-tec central that they had done canoeing & kayaking with members of the team who were dry, choosing to jump in. Congratulations go to Phil who successfully completed a forward role along the plank between the two canoes

On the new indoor climbing wall the Bebos & myspacers tackled the Chris Bonnington Challenge and completed a free abseil in the sunshine. Nadia was particularly courageous on the vertical challenge.

As the sun went down over Kendal, both Georgia & Amy reported to Hi-tec Central, that the camp fire “was the best! It was the greatest”. Ronan, who had led some great songs around the fire, said the camp-fire “was real fun!”

Another great day ended with a sing-song all the way back to the lodge. Updating tweets will continue throughout the day tomorrow, so be sure to check in on Twitter. Our blog will also include coverage of day 3 of Epsom Phabs Holiday 2009!

2 Days to go

How exciting is this? 2 days to go and we are ready to go.

Hi-tec central has unplugged and closed down ready to be transported and set up at Bendrigg. Well all is unplugged except this one communication portal. We have to stay connected to blog and tweet tomorrow!

Social networking is the name given to how lots of people stay in touch using the internet. So things like, facebook, msn, twitter & bebo are all social networking sites. Manuy of you will be using facebook to chat with Epsom Phab and now we are on twitter too.

A blog is like an on-line diary to share words and pictures of what you've been upto or things that you've been thinking about. Once you have written it, you can post it (without the help of a postman!) onto the web so that everyone can read it and find out what we have been up to!

Twitter is like a mini-blog, it's a quick way to put a short messages onto the web so people know what your up to. Many people 'tweet' (the name given to your message) from there mobile because it is quick and easy to do and it keeps your 'followers' up to speed with your adventures, perfect for our holiday!

I wonder which group I'm going to be in? Only 2 days till I find out!

Testing our new holiday blog

With only 4 days to go, we are all getting very excited here at Epsom Phab's Hi-tec control centre. We leave from Epsom on Thursday and head North to our friends at Bendrigg Lodge in Kendal located at grid reference 581892, to be specific. We have a packed program of fun and activities to look forward to and this years theme will be certainly colourful and very up to date with the latest web social networking craze.

We will keep everyone up to date with what we are doing as Epsom Phab go hi-tec with all the latest news as we enjoy our Holiday 2009 at Bendrigg. Lets get packing!

If that isn't enough there will also be shorter messages (or tweets) over on our very own Twitter page (see the link for this to the left).

It's all very exciting and the countdown is now on!