Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Am-eeeeeeer-i-ca! (Part 2)

Due to many circumstances, I have now decided to change my trip to America a little, so this is what is happening now…

Of course, I am still going!...but I have decided to travel out with my good friend Alex accompanying me. August was starting to get very busy for the two of us, so we have changed the date to July instead.

I officially finish my placement year July 17th however, I have some spare holiday which I am saving for the last two weeks. This will mean I actually finish around the weekend of June 30th, a very special weekend (see 96 Mile Race for Charity!!) and plan to fly out on the following Monday 9th.
We aim to return on July 23rd, as Alex has to be back for August 1st for work etc. This will give us a good two weeks out in America, with time to visit NYC and Pete in North Carolina.

Obviously, now we only have two weeks in America, I am not planning to travel the whole country!!...but may leave that for next year! Instead, we are going to stick to having a week and a half or so in NYC and then cruise on down to see Pete for a few days when he is free. This just seems a little more manageable and it will be great to travel with a friend. It also gives me a bit of a taster for America and if I like it, I will probably go back out again.

So what to visit?…I am planning a small list of things to see while in NYC (any other ideas are welcome), which looks something like this:

  • Empire State Building
  • Statue of Liberty – I want to take a photo from the crown!
  • Buy an I♥NY T-Shirt
  • Go to a baseball/American football game –Yankees or Mets, Jets or Giants…not sure of the difference…
  • Visit Central Park!
  • Madison Square Garden
  • Times Square

I am not a big fan of TV programs such as F.R.I.E.N.D.S so I don’t know the city very well! But if you have been out there and/or can recommend anything else to do, it would be much appreciated!

Also, does anyone know of a good, cheap hotel to stay in for a few nights? I am a little unsure as to the best area to stay in as there seems to be so many, but Manhattan is the most appropriate at a guess!

Anyways, that’s the update for me today. Please don’t forget to donate for our charity 96 mile canoe marathon, its well worth it!


Tuesday, May 01, 2007

96 Miles For Charity

•• PLEASE, PLEASE EVERYONE DONATE! ••
4 men (3 brothers), 2 boats, 1 night and 96 miles!!


Along with my two brothers and Kayaking Coach, I am participating in a 96 mile canoe race for charity this summer! We aim to raise £2000 for 4 special charities:


Please do your bit to help us and these good causes by donating at www.paddlathon.co.uk or via a sponsor form, available from one of us.

¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨˜"°º•۝• Thanks! •۝•º°"˜¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Its been a while!

It has been a while since I last posted, I think I have forgotten how to write, so please bear with me and my speling!

Ok, so this is really a little update as to what I have been doing over the last month or so.

Firstly, I must say goodbye and good luck to Chris and Paula, who have both left Femcare for new jobs this month. I know you will both do fantastically well and I hope you enjoy yourselves as much as I did with you around at Femcare.

As for me, work over the past month has been a little dill, with limited contact with my new manager and projects. I have taken to writing my dissertation, which I am pleased to say is almost complete, although I am a little sick of it now!

Now that the boring work stuff is over, I can write something a little more interesting! I have really started to get into squash recently, with Tom and Ali joining in regularly. We have all defiantly improved and are now playing with a professional ball and having some amazing rallies!...

…What else? Emm, on the kayaking front, I feel my fitness is coming along in leaps and bounds. With my weight almost at an optimum, I have begun stamina training as well as skipping to help my aero and anaerobic respiration. I will try to take my kayak to Southampton with me for some much needed practice during the coming months.

Don’t forget, my brothers and I are undergoing a sponsored 96 mile race in June and have 4 charities in mind! We are hoping to raise a lot of money, so please be generous!! Watch this space for details coming soon!

My brothers and I enjoyed a wicked beer making weekend a couple of weeks back, for our Christmas present from Mum (for some reason I get the feeling she wants us to become alcoholics, so thanks for that!). As the title suggests, the weekend consisted of tasting as many different types of beer as we could manage and the creation of our own, favourite type of brew (with what we had tasted in mind), all followed by drunken poo sticks in the local brook!

Drinking!

Some more drinking!

I think this is drinking...!

A little more drink

Trying to write after all that drinking!

The idea of our beer seemed great at the time…from what I can remember! We managed to make a monstrous 47 litres of the stuff and named it “That”, so I hope it’s good!

Testing the temperature of the beer. It is vital that it is correct...and it was!

Left over malt (for the chickens)

The beer!!

Other than that, I haven’t been up to much interesting…I had a bit of a last minute road trip last weekend driving Pat home, he told me he couldn’t get home unless I drove down to pick him up or he came up to collect the car and drove down himself!...strange logic….anyhow, I enjoyed going home and had the delight of seeing Monty dog, Sue and Mum (in that order!). And, I managed to win the first, long awaited squash game Pat and I played together…woohoo!

I am taking a much needed holiday for 2 weeks before I endure my move to Southampton, so I will try to write more often.

Big shout out to Val! I hope you are having fun working in London and are looking forward to you ‘work trip’ to Alicante!...I am so jealous!

Adios!

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

The American Dream – Planning (Part I)

I have to say, this is actually starting to look like a reality, a month and a half long trip to North America this summer…I can’t wait!!

I was delighted to speak to Pete again this weekend (great to hear from you again!) when we were able to have a chat about planning the trip, rough dates and things to do. We are aiming to travel the coast of America, heading South to Mexico before my birthday and travelling back up the West coast after my birthday (so we can drink!).

6 weeks is probably not going to be enough time, so I am trying to make a list of the key places to visit and best things to do when over there!...any help with this would be much appreciated!...A couple of things I have thought of so far include,

Places to Visit:

  • New York
  • Florida/Miami
  • Mexico
  • Las Vegas
  • Los Angeles/California (OC!)
  • San Francisco
  • Salt Lake City?
  • Vancouver?

Things to See:

  • Super Bowl/American Football game
  • Washington White House?
  • Statue of Liberty (and I♥NY T-shirt!)


I dunno no…! I need some help. What should I visit on my route? I know there is so much to do, so I will have to plan carefully. Maybe I will be able to go again another time to do the things I will miss!

This is hopefully the first of many posts on the trip…and I hope to continue posting throughout my visit as well!

Sunday, January 21, 2007

A Rollercoaster Week

It has been a strange week with all that has been going on.

Ken officially left Femcare on Friday, which was a rather emotional day for all involved. Next week Des Miles will be taking his place as the new production manager, until they finally close the factory at the end of March. Good luck to him, because from what I can gather from the guys, he is going to be eaten alive!...they don't like him much!

I played football on Friday after some persuasion from Clem and ended up having to pull out 5 minutes into the game after feeling a twinge in my ankle. I think I pulled my Achilles tendon, but I hope it is not too serious. I ended up playing in goal which I think is my new favourite position!

I also have to say thanks to James, Ally and Sally for a wicked night out on Friday. It was great to see you all again after ending up on placement at different ends of the country! I got to learn some new groovy dance moves and mastered the one legged hobble dance with my bad ankle! I don’t know if I liked the new kick name of “Limpy” though, my dancing is bad but it's not that bad!! Although Sally’s camera was rather unpredictable at taking pictures we did manage a couple of photos, which I will post as soon as I get my hands on them, so watch this space!

It is also the big match today, with Man U playing Arsenal, so I can’t wait for that! The house is going Varsitys to watch it and with Rob and Ali supporting Man U, it looks like I will be on my own in the Arsenal corner! But I am sure* there will be a couple of Arsenal fans there to back me up!

Off to the gym now for a much needed workout. I hope all you guys have a good weekend and enjoy yourselves.
Talk to you soon.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Business Trip or Spot The Celebrity!?

I thought I would add a couple of new photos I took last week on a business trip to Wesley Coe. Doesn’t look much like a business trip, I know…but I promise it was! The R&D results were a bit rubbish, so I thought I would forget that and show something useful instead!

It was a beautiful morning, with a fantastic sunrise, so I just had to take some photos!...and these are the results.



Driving back, we were followed by this groovy Ford Mustang...it was very shiney!...I took a picture as drove past I am so sure it was Rio Ferdinand in the drivers seat! check it out for yourself...If not it was a very good look-a-like!!...


I hope everyone is well and enjoying the start of exams!? I am sure you will cruise through them, because you are all very clever!

Good Luck!


Wednesday, January 17, 2007

So This Is It

Well, hello! This is my first 'real' blog…I won’t count the one before as that was more of a test and intro!
It was officially announced today that Femcare-Nikomed are closing their Nottingham branch at which I work. My thoughts go out to the fantastic team, Ken, Chris, Steve, Simon, Carl, Stuart, Fred, Pete and Paula, who have made my placement at Femcare such an enjoyable one. Special thanks to Ken Reed, who picked me for the placement and taught me so so much.
When the factory closes at the end of March, I am to move down to Southampton to finish my placement which ends 17th July. No doubt I will be posting about this when it happens!

I wish the ‘true’ Femcare team all the best for the future, I am sure you will all do very well for yourselves!

Keep in touch.

P.S. Keep all the briwyant dabs going! I expect to hear them when we all meet up again!!