Well, another trip to the Alps is unfortunately over, but what an experience it was.  This time I was working as a rep. at half term for a school group from Bournemouth.  It was the usual setup of coach across, ski for 6 days and coach back, but I had an awesome time.  The group consisted of 36 11-16 year-olds, 5 teachers, 2 drivers and myself which was a nice manageable number.  With a planned outward trip of 25 hours, I got the feeling it was going to be an eventful week when it eventually took 37 hours to get there:

 

- delays in heavy snow in France

- delays in heavy snow in Germany

- breakdown at a service station in Germany for about 4 hours

- delays in heavy snow in Austria

- a hair-raising ride up the snow-laden valley to resort with Gerry "The Legend" (driver) exceeding all expectations of how far we could get without snow chains

 

The whole group were absolutely amazing without a single complaint about the journey or anyone asking when we were going to get there ... I'm just glad the teachers had taken along a massive stack of DVDs and that we manged to fix the DVD player.

 

My group was staying at a youth hostel attached to a fancy hotel in the resort, along with 2 other school groups which were also repped by colleagues from "Sloping Off".  The 3 reps stayed in an appartment just down the road and got on amazingly ... I'm just glad Jonny didn't take offence at being the butt of most of the abuse during the week - SCHWULE POWER! (he's only young, he'll get over it).  The photos I've uploaded in the photo section say it all ...

 

Throughout the week the kids had 2 ski lessons each day and all seemed to love it, even those who had the odd trip to the hospital for X-rays and a bit of patching up (thankfully only 2 hurt themselves and neither were too serious).  The evenings were entertaining as well with quizzes, skittles, pizza, a race night, table-tennis, ski race, presentations, a disco and the odd beer or two.

 

The skiing was amazing with huge amounts of snow falling before we got there and again at the start of the week.  We were even treated to a whole day of sunshine mid-week so made the most of it with lunch outside a great Ski-Alm in the next resort over from Zauchensee.  The off-piste was by far the best I've ever done and helped by the fact I kept (stupidly) following fellow rep Simon (a ski instructor) through the trees.  Was I scared?  Most of the time!

 

The journey back was much less eventful than the outbound one and we arrived at the port with plenty of time to spare so had a bit of a look around Ouistram.  I'm now starting to try and get my head around the fact that as of Monday I'll be back in a "proper" job and will have to wear a suit and things.  That said, I'm hoping they'll have me back next year for half term so we'll wait and see .....

As most of you are aware, I popped the big question to Vicky whilst on holiday last week.  The place I proposed is in the photos and after her dropping her crutch, crying for a bit and me getting a rather cold knee, she finally said yes (apparently she forgot that this was what she was supposed to do in such a situation).

 

With a huge smile on my face, I decided to let all my friends and family know the happy news (mainly by email, but what else would you expect from me).  The congratulations were warm and heartfelt, although I thought I'd share a few of the more amusing comments with you ...

 

"I wish you all the best with plenty of Red haired babies" (Bex)

"Oh my word,so you found the courage at last" (Scouting World Ma & Pa)

 

Thank you all so much for your kind words (including those above which really made us chuckle), they mean so much to us.  More news as and when we deicde what, who, where, when, etc. ... there are some photos on the right ...

Another end of the sailing season and another great rally - my 101st sailing trip and 23rd time as skipper.  This year there were about 70 people and 9 yachts taking part in a weekend of sailing, eating, drinking and making-merry.  I had a boat full of great friends without much sailing experience so we turned it into a bit of a training weekend instead of participating in the racing.

 

After dinner in the Castle, when eveyone else headed off to parties on various boats we decided to go and 'make' our outfits for the next night's debauchery.  You've never seen grown adults having so much fun with paint pens!  I think the photos bear testiment to the professionalism with which the task was undertaken (?).  for the record, the table below summarises who was on board, our sailing nicknames and our flag letters (plus descriptions).

 

Oz	Ginger Skipper	X	Stop carrying out your intentions and watch for my signals
Vicky	Fish Feeder	D	... I am maneuvering with difficulty
Angela	Maritime Matron	V	I require assistance
Alan	Galley Slave	U	You are running into danger
Martyn	Bilge Rat	O	Man overboard
Richard	Leading Light	K	I wish to communicate with you
Roland	Spare Spinnaker Pole	Z	I require a tug
Jacqui	Ballast & Buoyancy	B	I am carrying dangerous goods

 

Before even leaving our mooring on Saturday morning, Angela (my very able mate) and I had been through the different parts of the boat with the crew, practised getting sails in and out and done a safety brief.  With the wind forecast to be in-between Force 5 and 8 for the whole weekend I'll admit it made me slightly nervous, but everyone focussed on what needed doing and we had an awesome time.

 

Taking it in turns on the helm and practising various manouevres, I think we did more tacks than I've done in the past 3 years of sailing.  After a great day on the water (and an interesting parking manouevre on a boat which really didn't like steering in astern) it was time to get dressed-up and head to the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club for dinner.  I'll let the photos speak for themselves ....

 

Sunday proved to be a much more relaxing day than forecast with a pleasant downwind sail back to Haslar and the end of a fantastic weekend.  Roll-on next year.

Last week I was fortunate enough to be invited to see my father honoured with an MBE for many years of service to the community in Essex.  The day started ordinarily enough with an early start to get into London.  I thought that leaving 3 hours to do the 35 miles to Buckingham Palace was a little excessive .. but what did I know?  By the time we'd done a little tour of Docklands, ignored the Sat-Nav several times as it wanted to go the wrong way, and negotiated the good 'ol London traffic we arrived precisely on time.

 

Having been directed into the inner-courtyard to park alongside the others who had chosen to drive (including a rather nice Roller from the Ritz) we were then ushered in the main entrance and to our seats - father with the other recipients and us as a family in the Banquetting Hall.  Looking through the order of the day, it turned out that Dad was to receive his MBE towards the end which was nice as it kept us awake in what was a somewhat repetitive ceremony ... 109 people were receiving awards that day.  As the Queen was busy Googl'ing and preparing to host our magnificent Olympians later in the day, Prince Charles presented the awards - I thought it rather nice for Dad to receive his gong from the future King.

 

As we checked where Dad was in the list, we noticed that he was immediately after Paul O'Grady (with the daytime show and him of Lily Savage fame) - aparently he was quite amusing to stand next to in the queue and was desperate for some toast having missed breakfast.  The presentation itself took a minute or so with Charles having a nice chat to Dad ... about Scouting aparently.

 

After the ceremony was completed there was a grand photo shoot and then we went for a fabulous lunch at Rules in Covent Garden - what a feast.  The food, the wine, the service and the company were all superb and I can thoroughly recommend it for those special occasions.

 

All in all a fantastic day to remember and a lifetime of pride in my father's achievement.  We weren't allowed to take photos during the ceremony, but I've uploaded a few from the photo session afterwards in the photo area.

 

I was sailing on Zebahdy, an Oyster 49 filmed during the regatta from helicopter ... can you spot me ...

 

  

 

Generally the wind was good making the racing exciting.  Seeing the 82's go screaming past was always a buzz, especially when the whole fleet of 34 yachts were flying chutes or spinnakers.  At one point we touched 10 knots which felt great.

 

The evenings involved dinner and wine at some great restaurants and even a club in a cave which saw us partying until the early hours.  There was a great mix of people - young and old, owners and wannabe owners, relaxers and partyers.  As well as spending the time with the owners of Zebhady I also got to know loads of great people as well as catching up with old friends Marco and Jill who run Palma Maritime, a yacht management and charter company based in Palma.  Oh yes, couldn't forget Toby, Marco and Jill's Pointer who has worked out that he can use the lilo's in the pool to try and get his dog toys that have gone astray.

Well, I've done it and I'm now living with Vicky in a (currently) very wet Sheffield.  I've been here a total of about 4 days now, but am making the most of my time by clearing the shed, fixing the gutters, sorting out some electrical bits & pieces and installing a new compost bin!

 

We've just returned from a fantastic holiday in Austria - we went to Saalbach where I was working a couple of summers ago and it was great to see all my old friends out there who made us extremely welcome (including Bobby and Bobby's Bar as we didn't leave until 04:30 on the first night).

 

Before that was the Essex Jamboree which was also a huge amount of fun - there's no better feeling than throwing a small child off a perfectly good tower and all in the name of 'outdoor adventure'.

 

Check out all the photos on this site as they say way more than I could.

 

I'm now looking for a job somewhere near here, preferably something to do with the outdoors / environment so I'll keep you posted as things progress ...