Page 228 - Demo
P. 228
224marriage, particularly as we were renovating our own house at the same time. Unfortunately, we had totally under estimated the work involvedbut once we had started we had to finish.I moved from being Balloo, a cub leader to being Skip, a scout leader. This did involve a couple of weekend courses which again did not help Gabby and my relationship. When I became scout leader I took the Scouts to the Lake District where we went walking, canoeing and hill walking. I had an assistant Scout Leader, Helena Richmond, who was grossly overweight but good fun. Her husband, Ted, was our local policeman. One year she passed out in the evening and we called her an ambulance to take her to A &E. I had had actually given her artificial respiration for a bit and was very worried. Her son was with us and so was one of my students who had been a scout and came along. He went with her to the hospital but they both came back at about 4am. She was diagnosed as having hyperventilated and having fainted. I took the scouts to the Lakes 3 times I think. We took girls towards the end and Alex and her friend Jo joined together with some others. We had asked the boys if they minded girls joining and the majority were happy about it. A couple who realised their sisters would come were not so keen but it all worked out in the end. I carried on Scouting until 1989 when my life was turned upside down. But you will have to wait to read about that.Towards the end on 1984, I realised that I had not actually taught a student any of the basic exercises that I was testing the QFIs on for some years. I would teach the odd exercise from time to time and give instruction while testing students but I had not had to look after one. Standards Squadron was upstairs above one of the basic squadrons. It was a bit of a place of dread for the students as they only came up to us to be tested or to have a Senior Supervisor Check which was a precursor to suspension. I decided that I would like to teach a student as his

