A weekend in Guernsey

Puffin Air

It was off to Guernsey this weekend to spend time with Rosemarie and Nick. What a great weekend we had. I was immediately impressed with Aurigny, the airline with whom we flew, because their symbol is a Puffin, one of my favourite birds. We didn't see any puffins this weekend but apparently there are plenty of them on island, so next time i come, i'll definitely have my bins on me!

Nutters!
Rosemarie and Nick were as wonderful as ever and it was brilliant to spend some time with them. They took us to their favourite fish and chip restaurant where the fish very much lived up to its reputation. The restaurant had a great sense of humour. On the menu were the words: Food may contain, be cooked by and be served by nuts! (and enjoyed by us nuts too I might add..) We then went off for a brisk swim in the ocean, an important landmark as it was Nick's first dip in the Guernsey sea.

What a lovely pair of Scollops
Saturay nignt, Rosemarie and Nick went out to watch Shrek some friends (which they loved) but we opted for a quiet evening together. Went to a quaint pub restaurant for local scollops (delicious) and Ally wore a new dress. Lovely she looked...

A Sunday Stroll

Sunday it was off for a brisk stroll. As you can see, the roads in Guernsey are very narrow and quaint. The island really does have a delightful atmosphere, especially with it's mix of English and French influences.

The Navigators

We left the important role of navigation to the girls but never found the elusive reservoire we were heading for. But never mind, we found something far more exciting and historic...

The German Bunker

A tiny gap in the hedge piqued our interest. Nick and i being the boys we are dived in to explore - and found it led to a brilliantly disguised second world war bunker set deep in the thicket. It was fascinating to explore a slice of history. Guernsey was occupied by the Germans during the war and the island is riddled with German defense structures. If you look at the photo on the left, you'd never know there is a bunker set in the hedge. The view through the peep hole was panaramic; you could understand why the Germans chose this spot...

The intrepid explorer

To get into the bunker, we had to climb up a small "chimney" Here's Nick making his way back down. The girls stayed on the road and let the boys be boys...

Guernsey Castle

After a delicious lunch (we haven't eaten so well in a very long time!) where we met two lovely friends of R&N, we went for a drive around Guernsey and got to see some great views. Here is a view of the local castle. We look forward to exploring the island in more detail in the future. Thanks to R&N for a great weekend - they always make us feel like family.

Trip to Salzberg

Good Bavarian beer

On Wednesday night I flew to Salzburg in Austria. On arriving, I met some colleagues at a local beer garden. What a great invention - drinking your beer in the fresh air without cigarette smoke everywhere. The guy on the right is Andreas, a colleague of mine from Duxford - a great chap with the most infectious laugh you ever heard. He's just completed a triathlon in London (which I wimped out of!) and he's getting married in just over a week. Peter on the left is the IT manager of the Austrian dealership - the chap who we came to see about CRM (customer relationship management!!)

The hills are alive

After a very full day on Thursday, i escaped into the hills above Salzburg. What a beautiful city! I was here earlier this year in the winter and loved it then too. This is where Mozart was born. It's got beautiful mountains and high hills everywhere which i really miss in the UK. Lots of lovely old buildings too.

City View

The castle on the hill in the background forms a lovely backdrop to the city. It's a relatively small place - only 150 000 people. I always love to see a city from high to get perspective. It's also enlightening to watch all the people rushing around, heads down, frantically busy, busy, busy - and realise that I'm one of them most of the time too...

The Cathedral

Salzberg's most imposing cathedral.

Through the foliage

I took this photos because I liked the way the foliage framed the shot. I'm back to my small "snapper camera" which is lovely and compact but I do miss the bells and whistles of the Volvo camera I had over the weekend.

Another tree

Well, as you may have gathered from previous blogs, I love trees - and photographing them. Problem is they never come out as beautiful in a photo as in real life. I really liked this one, growing with gnarled roots on top of a very old man made wall. Must have been built a very long time ago based on the height of the tree.

From the lion's mouth

This is why I love Europe. This little water fountain was tucked away in the hills in the midle of nowhere. Sprouting gorgeous drinking waters. It's little touches like this that give Europe its special flavour.

Yes, that is snow you see!


Here is a photo of me in Salzberg earlier this year. I came out to do training for all the internet editors of the "Bavarian region" and it was a multicultural fest. In my class, there was an Austrian, a German, a Croatian, a Slovakian, a Hungarian, a Czech and a Swede! Six languages between them and not a whole lot of English... An interesting challenge but it actually went really well and was a lot of fun.

My wish list (Ally)

Graeme is always complaining he's not sure what to get me for birthdays and Xmases, so i thought i'd create a wish list for his benefit which i'll keep updated. Who know, it might come in handy for others to! So here it is:

• Pretty but small phone book
• Palm which acts as a phone as well
• DVD – Beaches
• DVD – Bridget Jones Diary
• DVD – Calendar GirlsDVD – Nottinghill
• DVD – Four Weddings and a funeral
• DVD – Monsters IncDVD – Thelma and Louise
• DVD – Cider House rules
• DVD – Bagger Vance
• DVD – Somethings Gotta give
• Different things to make cards with

Graeme's List

• Band of Brothers (DVD)
• Garmin GPS

Just in a days work (Ally)

Today started off as fine and sunny apart from the alarm going off…. Belted down to London to start my turn at doing World Challenge operational duty. Basically ensuring the people in danger or have problems on our expeditions get helped. There the team are merrily helping challengers get home after appendix operations, ensuring teams got looked after robbed at gun point etc - and then all of a sudden, the heavens opened with thunder and lightening cracking all around us.
We know every year that the road we look down onto from our office has a huge dip and this gets flooded in a down pour which it duly started doing. We all lined the windows and watched (as only a crowd out of the rain can do) as the cars slowly went through the water. But also in wonderment as the water level rose and rose as the hail storms continued to fall. (Small digression – this is the height of summer!)

It rose and rose – about a foot in five minutes. Cars were turning back and so started a traffic jam that would last well into the night; in fact i'm still stuck here at work at 9 pm as i write this. One car decided that he was man enough (we did not know it at the time but it could only have been a man - sorry chaps we love you, but…) to drive through. So he revved up and hit the water at about 30 miles an hour much to our disbelief which quickly turned to amusement as we watched the water swallow the wheels and slowly rise. The wheels at the back started to float and then the front left the bottom and the car floated around and around.

So there we were, an emergency operational room, watching in awful fascination as this car floated around a little lake in a London Road. Suddenly it dawned on us that the guy might actually be in danger as the water level was continuing to rise – so swiftly it all turned to action. So, we called the fire brigade and so job done, all went back to their work stations …

But then a cry went up and we looked out the window to see two of our chaps out in the rain, throwing a rescue rope and swimming in the lake/road to get this chap out of his car as it was starting to sink badly. They dragged the car toward the fence where they could help him out (themselves chest high in water) and got him out of the car. The rescued chap spent the next three minutes not thinking about how close he had come to drowning - but beseeching the boys to save his car. They put up a valiant fight but had to be told to just leave it - and it promptly sank! I'm embarrassed to confess that a great cheer went up from all the offices. After clothing the wet heroes, it was back to work rescuing challengers off the top of mountains

Then the fire engine arrived...

The photos

Ally told the amazingstory about the flood outside her work and the rescuing of the man from his car. Well, here is the pictorial evidence! Taken by a happy snapper from World Challenge while the rescue was taking place. Here's how the road looks when it's not flooded.

The rescue

Here's the World Challenge team recuing the chap from the sinking car. Look at all that water. This photo appeared in the Evening Standard the following day with the story - but not as entertaining as Ally´s version.

Trying to save the car

Sinking

They were not successful and soon the car had sunk beyond retrieval. Within 5 minutes of this photo, the car disappeared completely from view. Needless to say, it was a complete right off...

It's Mr Wynne!!

Mr James Wynne is passing through town on his way back to sunny SA. We met up with him for dinner at Amanda and Jonathon and had a wonderful evening - apart from my atrocious cold that's making my nose and eyes stream. In fact, to be honest, i'm not too nice to be around! I'm glad to report that good old James has lost nothing of his naughty sparkle and we all shared many great laughs. A very special evening indeed. It was the first time i got to see Amanda and Jonathon's new garden. What a great job they have done. Shame, we were all rather boistrous out on the patio - Amanda and Johnathon have some making up to do with their elderly neighbours... .

Friday Night Skating

Ever since i heard about it, I've wanted to do the Friday Night skate throught the streets of London from Hyde Park corner to Picadilly and back. It is one of my life goals. 13 miles of exciting skating through streets that are normally packed with taxis and buses. Check out this video taken by a fellow skater. It captures the whole vibe really well.

Bridge Crossing

Crossing one of the bridges over the Thames. As you can see, it's getting dark. We left at 8 pm and the skate only ended at 10 pm. We did have a bit of a break at half time - much to the delight of the caffee owner at the spot where we stopped. He must have sold his entire week's quota of cool drinks in 10 minutes.

At the finishing line

Me at the end of the 13 mile skate. Sore, stiff ankles. More exhausted than i've been in a long time. Wet with perspiration. And totally exhilerated. Can't wait to do it again!

A great day out in London

London Bridge

We decided to spend Saturday doing touristy things in London. One of Ally´s life goals was to walk across London Bridge so that was the first thing we did. Caught the tube to Tower Bridge and it was a short stroll from there. It was a gorgeous day; close to 30 degrees.

Another View

Another view of London bridge. I borrowed our camera from work (a £900 gadget with all the trimmings) so it was nice to have some optical power. The zoom on my little camera is a little limited - but then it is a tenth of the size!

Big Ben

No tourist trip through London would be complete without a photo of Big Ben so here it is - snapped from the top of our double decker bus as we whirled past (we used one of those hop on - hop off tourist buses to get around.)

Hamleys

Ah, aint the little one adorable! The little doggie is also quite cute... As you can see, next stop was Hamley's in Regent's Street. 6 floors of wonderful toys, enough to bring out the child in anybody.

The Royal Coach

We visited the Royal Mews where they keep all the horses and coaches for use in the Royal processions. The highlight was this Golden Coach immortalised in such grand processions as the Queen's inauguration and the 50th Jubilee. It was very impressive.

The coach is so heavy it can only be pulled at a walk by eight horses. The 24-foot long, four-ton coach, was built in 1760 for the then-astronomical sum of £7,562. Despite the expense, it's apparently not very comfortable if this BBC article is anything to go by.

Dinner with Sally at Belgo´s


After our sight-seeing, we met up for dinner with Sally in Covent Gardens. I haven't seen dear Sally in a while so it was great to catch up. She's working at the moment at Kew Grill as their "dessert specialist" (chocolate and almond spring roll is her most recent creation - mmmmm!) having completed a cooking course in Ireland.

Lobster!

Belgo's specialises in lobster, along with it's other Belgian delicacies like muscles and waffles. I haven't had lobster in years so succumbed to te temptation. Delicious and fun digging all the flesh out of the legs and claws with the special tool they give you.

Go, go Joseph!

After dinner, Ally and I went to watch "Joseph and his Technicoloured Dream Coat" at the New London Theatre in Covent Garden. Watching Joseph has been a life goal of Ally ever since she listened to the record as a little girl. I'd already seen the musical a couple of times but was delighted to see it again as it is one of my favourites; especially since I got to play the part of Pharoah in a school play. The show was fantastic and we both loved it. Joseph was played by H from the band, "Steps" who Ally thought was deliciously cute...

Visiting Sanjay

After Joseph, we went to visit Sanjay - a good friend who I met hiking in the Himalayas in Nepal back in 2001. He's a wonderful guy who always makes me laugh. Sanjay is a doctor specialising in Pediatrics at a local hospital. It was great to see him as always.

London times (Ally)

Congrats Bronwyn!

After a hectic weekend I headed off to London much to my dismay. The last thing I wanted to do was be away from home. Bron had arranged a dinner with Sally and I on Tuesday evening which turned into a celebration as we heard that she has just been promoted and is now Assistant Marketing Brand Manager! It was a lovely dinner and I got to talk all about our holiday.



Dinner with Kerry

Last night we went to Ker's for dinner - delicious chicken and salad where I got the talk about our holiday again! There was much laughter about my photo where I am swimming - they all reckon I just need a set of whiskers and I would look like a cutie seal. Not sure if that was a compliment or not. It was great to see Puds again and now we are all looking forward to Ker's birthday celebrations in mid August.



The Three Musketeers

Re-united again...

Using Dreamweaver to create my first web site

In 2004, I used Macromedia Dreamweaver to create a home page and extended pages for Life Trove. 

Jessie gets maried to Greg

On Saturday, we went to the wedding of Jessie (my cousin) and Greg. The cereremony was held in a church right next to Norman and Wilga's beautiful house in Leamington Spa. It was a lovely service - and the pastor was a real character. Jessie looked absolutely gorgeous in her beautiful wedding dress. She had two very young flower girls - one was cute, little Camilla, Emma's young daughter. Greg also looked very dashing in his morning dress.

Mum and daughter

Here is Wilga, Jessie's mum. She too looked lovely and very happy to see all her kids now happily hitched. William got married to Clair in September last year. The reception was held in Norman and Wilga's beautiful garden. We enjoyed some sun (the weather played ball for a change!), with champaign and appetizers.

Looking very smart

Here we are, resplendant in our wedding garb. Ally found a very shapely dress just days before the wedding and looked lovely in her hat. The English love their hats at weddings and no wedding outfit is truly complete without one.

The Young Ones

Here are Emma's little ones and some of the other cute kids at the weather. They all seemed to really enjoy themselves.

Now I ask you very confidentially, aint she...

Well, here is a full length shot of Ally so you can properly see her dress.

Dinner and speeches

A Marquee had been set up in the garden and that's where we had dinner. A delicious buffet of chicken and fish, roasted vegetables, tossed salad, new potatos and gorgeous home made mayonaise. Then strawberry icecream, lavender biscuits and fresh berries.

The speeches after dinner were excellent. Norman made everyone laugh with some great comic lines. Greg made all the girls misty with some very heart felt sentiments about Jessie. He is a lovely, genuine guy and absolutely adores Jessie - a perfect match. The two best men then told some hearty stories about Greg's formulative years. They showed us some hilarious photos - here are two of them showing the transition of Greg from little school boy to hell raising teenager.

Getting down on the dance floor

After the speeches, we got to dance. The music was great and Jessie and Greg put on a good display in their "first dance". It's wonderful to see Jessie and Greg so happy and obviosuly in love. They are off to Africa for their honeymoon - Victoria Falls, Okovango Swamps in Botswana and Islands off Mozambique.

Ally didn't dance exclusively with me all night - she was enticed away by another very cute young guy

It´s Mike! (or P Stain as coussin Jessie likes to call him!)

Michael Clarke (Colleen's flame for many years and a good friend of ours) was at the wedding and it was awesome to see him again. He's still living in London and has just started his own company (he's left his previous job where he built the site for "My Voice") - so is working very hard. He's as fun as ever and we had some good laughs. Hopefully we'll see him again when we spend the weekend in London at the end of this month.

Staying at Chateau Kenilworth

We stayed over at Carol and Gus. Gus has recently returned from a trip to South Africa where he did the comrades - a life goal of his.   He has become a passion ultra marathon runner and lapped up the Comrades Course in bronze medal time.  He's written a great article on the race which you can download in PDF format.

Carol is looking extremely good with all her walking and gyming.  She is still looking after "Chuckie" the hedgehog (remember him?)  who is doing very well.  He's three times the size and living in a hutch in the garden until he's mature enough to be set free in the garden. The local hedgehog society is so impressed that they want to give Carol more orphan hedgehogs to raise!!

Gus and I get on very well as we share some similar passions - computers in particular.  He gave me some good tips on how to create an online database - my next goal when it comes to site building.  Over the next couple of months, i aim to  teach myself some sequel and .net.  It'll hold me in good stead for my job and will let me do all kinds of exciting stuff online.

Just before leaving for Cambridge, we met up with Norman and the family for a walk at Kenilworth Castle.  It was great to have so many of the family together.  I had a good chat with Robert, my uncle, and his kids - they're all really nice. They've been here for three weeks and had a very enjoyable 10 days in Ireland. The weather deteriorated towards the end of the walk but we Brits are used to a bit of rain so it didn't dampen the spirits.  Refreshing, actually, after those 40 plus degrees temperatures in the Sinai!!

Affirmation (Cambridge life: 2004 - 2005)

 

The Blog

• Take photos of colleges etc.

Ally

• Finding apartment in Cambridge
• HR plan: "I just want to say that I have the best husband in the world! He kept me calm, was unbelievably supportive and when the chips were down he came through for me. G, just in case I haven't said it enough times you are fantastic!"

Volvo CE

• Dealer website presentation and roll out
• Used Equipment project (Mascus)
• Sales & Marketing Master Plan (Volvo)
• Selling in dealer sites
• E-business strategy ppt (Volvo)
• SPM presentation  (to managers, in Mindmanager)
• Managing budget (pivot table)
• Technical Director job description
• Building Violin for Europe
• Matt's marketing role strategies (in Mindmanager)
• Mindmanager

Volvo praise

• Steve Johnson and Charlie - mature beyond years
• Mats - say so much in a sentence
• Asa - I'm your greatest admirer!
• Caroline very impressed

Personality

• Naughty Santa at The Hardcore Hiking Club Xmas party

Life Trove

• I stumbled upon your blog... …and just wanted to tell you how absolutely beautiful it is! The photography is breathtaking. It only fuels my lifelong passion to visit the UK. Thanks for blogging.
• Your blog is incredible, as is this post! Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Louis (size of universe)  
• I love your home- page. It's the best one I've ever seen, and the spiritual vibes vibe totally with my own. I've been dreaming about my home-page for a while and I imagined something like yours (before I saw it). Unfortunately you're 35 years in front of me, so I can't catch up. Definitely your friend.
• Robyn:  Love your photo's. Love your news of outings, sightings and family. Thank you over, and over again, for keeping everything posted and up to date. Visiting your blog is one of the highlights of my week.
• Robyn:  Have brought my Dad in to see your blog. Ally is taking him though the site showing him a bit of everything. he is amazed by the technology and the fact that you will have this scrapbook for your children's children. Reminds me of the Egyptian belief that, if your name is kept alive, then you are immortal.
• Tony Carlyon:  I just have to say that I have never been so impressed with either a blog, photographs, or someone’s life in general. I am amazed by everything you have done, and even more amazed that you have documented it so scrupulously, and have been kind enough to share it with everyone else! Thank you! 
• What fun to surf here, it must not have been a mistake since I enjoyed it so much! Best wishes from Michigan, USA

Ally's upate (23 / 07)

Wow what a fantastic holday we had!   I was a bit nervous about diving as I remember diving in the pool as a small kid and being dazzled by all the equipment.  But thankfully diving has come a long way in .... 20 years ... oh my god it can't be that long surely.  I must admit to being a bit nervous when first putting my face under water but soon learned to relax when I knew I could trust the air to keep coming.  I so enjoyed the first course but my ears got blocked and become quite sore.  I went deaf so when people were speaking to me I ended up making diving ok signs much to the amusement of everyone except me. SO I had to visit the doctor at the Hilton (the only advantage of staying there is they had a decent doctor).  Well he took one look at my ears and tut tutted away!   They were full and I mean FULL of wax. To cut a long story short he cleaned them but it was very unpleasent and rather embrassing.  So I have now decided that I have to get it done every five years. The bonus is that I can now turn the volume down on the TV - probably much to the neighbours relief. As they were sore after this, I did not want to push it and had to make the decision not to do the advanced.  It was heart wrenching to see the others off on their dives and hear their stories about the fish they had seen.  I went off snorkling on my own.  I felt like I was back in India or Turkey where a women on her own is fair game.  I had a Mohammed want to come snorkling with me.  He had no chance!!  Maryanne stayed in our flat while we were away and she had terrible weather compared with our 39C.  But I think she had a good time and it so good to see her and catch up.   Back to reality of work and 3 days in I have a sty in my eye - very telling.  So have got a temp in to help me which is great as I now I feel that I can breath and sleep at night. We are looking forward to the wedding on Saturday.  I have spent the last five months trying to find a hat that will match my dress but can't find one so will have to go without one.  The weather is predicted to be good which I am so happy about for Greg and Jessie.  My aunt is thrilled we are coming to stay so that she can see us all dressed up. 

Design improvements

If you click into other sections of this site, you'll notice it now all looks completely consistent with this page.   I've been learning all about external style sheets which allow you to completely separate design from content.  If I wanted to completely change the design of this site, i could make a couple of tweaks on one page - an it would automatically update the entire site.  Nifty stuff.  The next trick i want to learn is how to set up an online database and some online forms.   Once i've done that, i'm ready to make millions.  Only thing remaining will be to come up with a killer commercial idea.  Mmmmmm.  Any ideas?