Richard old ramblings

Time to go Twittering and Tumbling

2007-04-30T13:46:00.000+01:00

Yeah, I've finally admitted that I never get round to updating this blog. Sad but true.

These days you'll find my daily happenings on my Twitter feed. This feed, along with other collected posts, videos, pictures etc are now collated into my Tumblr blog.

If you want to keep up with my latest news, head over to one of these places. I'll be winding this blog up and archiving it soon.

Thanks for reading

Richard

Monty Python and the Dalek

2007-02-06T09:59:00.000Z

Saw this on YouTube...a really funny combination of the French Taunter from MOnty Pyhton and the Holy Grail and the "Dalek" episode from Dr Who series 1.

Made me laugh out loud..

OK so I'm a geek...

2007-01-31T21:09:00.000Z

...but I just had to visit the Wales Millennium Centre, home of Torchwood.

More pics here

Into the rft...

2007-01-29T10:28:00.000Z

Made it back from my German excursion ok on Friday. It was great to be back - I was so pleased to see everyone. This traveling lark certainly doesn't get any easier.

Saturday we went down to see my sister to have a party for my nephew Daniel. He's 2 today and is really growing up. He's into cars and trains - just like Joe at his age. I managed to get a rare few minutes with him on my own this time, which was lovely. Normally I take a back seat and let the kids all play, but I spent a few moments making up a Thomas the Tank Engine story for him all about his birthday. It was a nice time to connect with him - he's such a sweet boy. And Christopher, his brother, just never stops smiling - such a happy boy.

Sunday it was down to Lincoln for the christening of Lisa's nephew's little girl. The service was at 1pm and, oddly enough, there was a disco afterwards. It felt a bit strange having a disco so early in the afternoon, but generally good fun was had by all. The kids all loved it - especially Joe, who showed just how confident he is in himself by being up and dancing pretty much all night. Molly had great fun throwing herself about as usual (why do dancefloors seem to ignite everyone's desire to slide on their knees?). And Rosie managed to relax from her teenager posing to eventually join in the fun.

And now I'm heading over to Wales - Caerphilly to be precise. For the week. Bugger.

I'm sure I'll get used to being away again, but I really hate leaving everyone behind.

But at least there's one thing -I'm staying in a hotel in Cardiff so I may spot some aliens falling from the rift :o) Maybe I'll stalk the streets at night seeing if I bump into the filming of Torchwood series 2...

I'll be contacting the paper today to get our house in the classifieds. We're going to put it in privately for a couple of weeks to see how we get on - Healing is a really popular place to live so we might just be able to save ourselves up to £5000 in estate agents fees, which would be very useful. At the christening party several people were telling us of a poll they had seen in the paper - apparently the UK came out at number 36 in the list of "Best places to live". Which country came in at number 1?......yup, it was France! More proof, if any was needed, that what we are doing is a good idea.

Deutche Dumplings

2007-01-25T15:29:00.000Z

Oh it's okay, calm down...I made it to Munich in the end. I arrived in the hotel about midnight on Tuesday/Wednesday. That was quite a journey...

The hotel is nice enough - a good sized room, although the pillows on the bed are a strange square style, and are not the comfiest ones I've ever had. I wake up each morning with one wrapped round my face - most disconcerting.

Had a lovely meal out courtesy of our new General Manager. He was over with some of the other management team to meet the folks from the German office and so extended the invitation to Stuart and I as well. We ended up at a very nice restaurant opposite the opera house in Munich. Menus available in English, thank goodness, as there was a lot of Game and other dodgy stuff on there that I may have stumbled upon. Ended up having some kind of pork, which was really lovely and dumplings - they really like their dumplings here!

Work has gone well and we got finished earlier than expected, so today we're visiting the German office. I'll be heading back to the airport at lunchtime - I'm so looking forward to getting home.

Here I am , LIVE from Munich Vienna

2007-01-23T20:20:00.000Z

Ah, yeah...slight hiccup in the travel plans. My flight to Munich was cancelled, so I managed to sneak on a connection via Vienna. Never thought I'd make it to the home of the Viennese Waltz, Viennese Whirls and Viennettas (um...possibly). But here I am. Sounds very nice, but, as usual, all I get to see is the inside of a departure lounge, so I might as well be in Doncaster as Vienna :o(

At least the enlightened Austrian folks have provided FREE wi-fi in the departure lounge, so that's making the time go a bit quicker...oh, did I mention that my flight from Vienna to Munich has been delayed? Grrrr.... it's going to be so late when I get in. I was hoping to get there in plenty of time to meet up with Stuart (PM also on this gig) for a chat about tomorrow, b ut it's not to be. Ah well, at least I can add another European city to the list of places-I-have-visited-but-not-really.

Apparently it's snowing in Munich and very cold, so it should look nice in the morning.

Right, well my battery is nearly shot, so best go. Fingers crossed I reach the hotel before tomorrow!

Valuations...how confusing

2007-01-17T18:29:00.000Z

Well, we've now had 3 valuations of our house by local estate agents. And it's so confusing, as the 3 valuations differ by about £70,000!

I do wonder how 3 estate agents, all supposedly experts in the property market, can be so wildly different in their views. It's not like the difference between £1 million and £1.07 million. Then I could understand it. £70,000 is a large proportion of the asking price for us and now we're really confused how much the house is really worth. Looking at the market, I think we probably fall somewhere between the middle and the top of the range we have got, but it's so hard to be sure.

So, just for good measure, we're getting a fourth valuation done to see if we can settle on a good average. We need to get selling and quick!

A house in Healing and Bellac is best

2007-01-15T21:42:00.000Z

...the house-selling process has begun! This week we are getting valuations from the local estate agents - we've had 2 round so far, one was excellent, one was quite the opposite. We've got another coming round later in the week and then we'll be going for it.

I figured out today that we actually have a lot more floor space than most of the other properties on the market in Healing for under £250,000, which is a real selling point for us. I really hope we get people in the door, as I think the house will sell itself from the inside. We have a great big kitchen - the heart of our home, and 4 double bedrooms - this is quite rare. There are lots of 4-bed places around, but most of them have at least one bedroom that is very small. All our bedrooms can take a double bed comfortably. We are in such a great area too...our road is nice and quiet, the back garden is very private and secluded, and it's south-facing. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it has been known to be 10 degreed hotter in our back garden than in the front. It's such a sun trap. I just hope we can find something in France that compares.

Bellac certainly seems to be the place to be. Several websites have picked it out as the up-and-coming place to live. Prices are still low and it remains fairly undiscovered. We have found several places with 4 bedrooms, an attic to convert and lots of land, for around 180,000 euros - about £120,000. Lets hope there's still the same choice when we are in a position to buy. There certainly seems to be plenty going on in the area - tennis clubs, lakeside beaches, watersports, theatre, shopping... it's quite hard to not get excited about it, though I know it's way too early...there's so much still to do and so much that could go wrong.

Work-wise it looks like I'm going to be travelling about a bit for the next few weeks. The project that I have been on for the last 4 months or so has paused for a few weeks, so I'm now going to do other stuff for a while. As of now, I'm going to Munich for 3 days, London for a day and Caerphilly (wales) for a week! It will come as quite a shock to us all I think, although it's probably a good thing, as I'll no doubt be away a lot when we finally get to France. Getting used to me being away more will be part of the process of accepting the change for all of us.

Those Ewoks could write a great tune

2007-01-12T09:22:00.000Z

It's not all France on here you know...

For instance, check this out:

Possibly the greatest movie song of all time...?

I'm back - and boy, have I got news...?!

2007-01-11T19:57:00.001Z

Yeah, it's been ages, but it's worth the wait.

At the end of 2006 I got the go-ahead from work that we can move to France! Yes, at last, finally, after almost 2 years of waiting, its finally going to happen. We still can't quite believe it's true, but it is. Like most people, we had pretty much given up hope of it ever coming off...but my new boss has been amazing and really pushed this through the company. Basically, the company are not relocating me (never expected they would), but they will allow me to remain in my current role, provided that I can maintain my present level of commitment to customers. So, I need to ensure I am near enough to an airport to get back to the UK as and when required. This is fine by me - it makes it easier for us all to get home, and, probably more importantly, for people to come out and visit us!

Me and Lisa are just ecstatic and it...we've dreamt about this for so long and finally it's within our grasp. We're not going into this blind however. We have spent the last 2 years thinking things through, planning in our mind how we're going to go about it, where to go, what to do there, how things are going to work. There's going to be so much to figure out still, but we're well on the way.

And the kids are all really positive too. We felt they might be a bit reluctant, and I think Rosie was especially, at first. But since we've been discussing it more and pointing out all the good stuff we get out of it, not just the bad, I think she's joined the other two in being really excited about it.

Reaction from our friends and family has been mixed - from great excitement to stony silence - but again, we expected that to some extent. Hopefully it will just take a little time for people to get used to the idea, and then they will all start to be very positive and supportive - I think we'll really need that, especially for the children's sake.

So.....what do we need to organise? Well

Selling the house

We are putting the house on the market, so if you want to buy a lovely 4-bedroom detached house in a quiet part of Healing, then let me know. We're hoping that the extra work we have had done in the last few years will make a big difference and we'll get lots of interest. I think it's a good time to advertise as anyone buying now would be in in time for the new school year in September. Healing Comp have done really well in the exam league tables again - the highest state school in the area behind Toll bar - so hopefully that will get people wanting to move into the area. Seriously, if you know anyone who wants to move into Healing, leave a comment and I'll get in touch.

Find a house in France

Of course, we will need somewhere to live! We were originally looking in the Charente-Maritime region, as we have spent many lovely holidays there and love the area. But, although there are 2 airports in the region, neither one fly to East Midlands, which would be the most convenient airport for folks back home to fly from. So we looked further afield, and back to an area that we looked at some time ago - the Limousin. This area remains pretty undiscovered, with prices still the lowest in France. This is ideal for us. Specifically there is a town called Bellac that seems to have the right combination of factors for us:

Close to Limoges airport (about 40 mins away)
Small enough for us to feel part of a community, but large enough to have all the amenities - shops, doctors, banks, schools etc
A small English contingent, allowing us the possibility of meeting some folks without the language barrier - we don't want to be surrounded by Brits, but its nice to know that there are some out there if we need help or just to socialise without having to struggle with small-talk in French
A train station with links to the TGV at Poitiers (about an hour away)

We are scouring the web to find houses and joining all the discussion forums we can to get the low-down on the area. We're hoping to get out to France in half-term to have a scout round for places - should be exciting!

Learn the language

I really need to motivate myself to keep up my language studies. Although I will still be mainly working in the UK, or on English-speaking projects in the UK, life is going to be so much easier if I can improve my skills. So I am aiming to do a set amount each week from my Linguaphone course. Lisa is hoping to get on an Adult Education class this term, so she can get better too. After all, she'll be having to cope with life during the week while I'm working in the UK, so it's really important for her to be confident.

A million and one other things

There are really so many things to do I can't think...I should start a list I guess, make use of my project management skills :o). Like clearing out the loft, getting a french bank account, finding schools for the kids, getting a French car, organising Tax stuff, Insurances, removal agencies....so much to think of.

So there you go, that's the big news.

Other stuff going on -

Disneyland Paris

Our Christmas present to the kids (and my parents) this year was a trip to Disneyland Paris. We're going in the Easter Holidays, staying in a caravan park on the edge of Paris for 6 night and we'll be in Disney for 3 days. And Kathryn and Sam are coming with Daniel and Christopher for a few days as well, so it will be really good to get everyone together, especially there. I've been to Disneyland in Florida with Mum and Dad years ago, so I've got a good idea how great it will be, but I don't think the kids really appreciate what they're in for. It will be magic.

Healing Hotspurs

Molly kicks off 2007 with Healing Hotspurs tomorrow - she has proved herself to be the star defender, and even a bit of a star goalie as well when required. The team are doing really well and riding high in the league. Here's hoping the gale-force winds and torrential rain die down before Saturday, otherwise we're in for another good soaking on the touchline!

Music

In the music department, The Phil did their Christmas Concert back in December - sadly I had a chest infection for ages so I missed a lot of rehearsals and therefore couldn't take part in the concert. I was upset at not being able to do it, but glad that I got to be there, as it was fabulous - by far the best Christmas concert I have been to. Next up is the St Matthew's Passion, not one I've heard of but it's meant to be good. I'm hoping to take part in it again, but as usual it depends on the work situation. After all, it could be the last one we do.

Molly passed her grade 1 piano this month, which is great. We're very proud of her.

In the piano concert which Heather, out piano teacher, holds each year, all three kids played something and all did very well. Special mention goes to Joe for getting up and playing the theme from Star Wars, after only having had about 3 lessons - he was brilliant!

School

Rosie continues to blossom at Healing school - she's doing really well and had a great end-of-term report. It's amazing the difference in her over just one term compared to how she was at the Primary - she just has so much more confidence now, it's lovely to see.

Molly and Joe are also doing very well and just go from strength to strength.

Well, I think that's about enough news for now, I'm determined to keep up to date, now I have something to write about, so keep coming back for more, and please leave a comment.

A bientot!

Richard

Last.fm...what a good idea

2006-11-02T13:21:00.000Z

Just stumbled upon Last.fm - a kind of social networking site based on music. Its pretty cool..you can download a plugin that "listens" to whatever music you're currently playing and sends the details to the Last.fm site. They call this "scrobbling" for some bizare reason, but its pretty neat. In this way the site builds up a true picture of what music you like to listen to and can suggest other recomended artists. There are also discussion groups and obviously you can build up a "friends" list by searching for people with similar tastes as yourself. All pretty groovy. I've looked into some other networking sites before and couldn't really be bothered to fill out all my likes, dislikes, rants and raves etc in order to find some comonality with other folks. But as this will sit there in the background doing all the hard work, this might just work out nicely.

You can see my profile here http://www.last.fm/user/aragornsbeard/. You'll see there that I have been listening to Damien Rice's new album "9". Its another work of genius from the man, full of the same kind of beautiful, heart-renchingly wonderful songs as his previous album "O". I love it and you will too.

I'm going to Guildford this afternoon...what a strange cathedral they have there....

Aliens in Cardiff....?

2006-10-26T17:07:00.000+01:00

Well, I saw the first two episodes of Torchwood on BBC2 last night - wow, what a great programme. The whole family have enjoyed the new Doctor Who series, but this spin-off is definitely aimed at adults. It follows the character of Captain Jack Harkness as leader of the mysterious Torchwood organisation, who spend their time chasing down aliens from their base in Cardiff. Hmmm...Cardiff seems like an odd choice, but I'm sure there is a good reason for it (perhaps because Russell T Davies has a house there). Anyway, its a great show and I really enjoyed it - I had seen John Barrowman in Strictly Ice Dancing and on Maria and, perhaps obviously, felt he was slightly camp. It was good to see him in an acting role and lose that.

The supporting roles all seem to be very well cast and I'm intrigued to see where the characters will go with their stories. And the set is very impressive too. The Torchwood hub is under the Millennium Square in Cardiff and the set designers have done a great job of creating a believable underground-station-like HQ for them.

Check out the Torchwood site on bbc.co.uk/torchwood - its got some great behind-the-scenes clips, interviews with the cast etc, and a preview of the next episode.

Oh and did you know that Torchwood is an anagram of......Doctor Who?

Well now you do!

Ambition #2.....Carmina Burana....Check!

2006-10-25T15:44:00.000+01:00

Well that's it, another musical ambition taken care of. Saturday saw the Grimsby Philharmonic concert where we performed Bob Chilcott's "Songs and Cries of London Town" and Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana", something I have wanted to sing for as long as I can remember.

It went really well. We were accompanied by the hugely talented pianists Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow, who also contributed 2 sections to the proceedings. Their choices of 3 Yiddish dances and Jupiter by Holst were just right - not too long and jolly enough to keep people interested.

To finish the first half, we performed "London Town". This is a modern piece by Bob Chilcott that draws on traditional cries from old London, mixing them with poems by Dunbar and Wordsworth, while throwing in an arrangement of Oranges and Lemons for good measure. I think we all really enjoyed singing this one...the first and last movements are both very upbeat, accompanies by bongos and are very jolly. The middle section is very haunting, with some beautiful words. We were joined on stage by Sue's Scunthorpe Cooperative Junior Choir and when they sang "London Bells" it really sent a shiver down our backs.

After the break was the main attraction - Carmina Burana. For this we had a full percussion section on stage - timpani, snares, gongs, cymbals, tubular bells, xylophones, glockenspiels and even a triangle! This, added to the 2 pianos and the 2 choirs made the performance just as great as I always hoped it would be. Carmina has such a lot of good parts for the men, and I think on the night we really pulled it off. Reports were that our "In Taberna" was the best it has ever been. I think were were inspired by the baritone soloist there, who performed his "Ego sum Abbas" perfectly as a drunk spinning a yarn in a pub.

I thoroughly enjoyed the night and it was a great feeling to have achieved yet another goal in life. There are not many more left to do now, so I better get thinking of some more!

Here's what the telegraph had to say about the night - A Combination of youth and experience delighted audiences at a musical event. I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in the report - no analysis of the programme or highlighting areas for special mention. Time and again the Phil suffers this fate - seemingly marginalised in a paper that prefers to focus on crime and sport. It's such a shame as the Phil continues to produce fantastic concerts and we are so lucky to have Sue Hollingsworth as our musical director - she's a world-class MD and could be doing far more important, higher paid things than putting us through our paces. But she does, and what a great job she does of it. We should really be celebrating this fact and the impact it is having not just on the Phil, but on music in the whole area.

The one good thing about the report was that it shows a wonderful young tenor in full flow...you can order your copies here at the Telegraph Photo Archive....I'll even sign them for you ;o)

At the moment I am...

2006-10-18T15:29:00.000+01:00

listening to...
Razorlight, The Zutons, The Feeling, Keane, Radio 1: The Live Lounge, BBC Podcasts. All constantly on my playlist at the moment.

using...
Google Reader. This is an RSS reader (billed as "Your Inbox for the web") from the lovely chaps at Google. Its really very nice indeed and I recommend it for anyone who regularly visits lots of news sites, blogs, podcasts etc. I used to spend time visiting dozens of different sites to keep up to date with stuff I was interested in. Now it all comes to me, nicely tagged and organised by Google Reader. I can even share articles that I think you might find interesting...there's now a permanent link to these on the left-hand side - take a look.

surfing...
Lifehacker - tips on cool websites and downloads to make life easier, as well as life-tips to help you work and play better.
Digg - social bookmarking site bringing together links that it's 330,000 members think are worth reading.

playing...
Air Monkey online.
Enter the Matrix on the PS2

waiting for...
Terry Wogans Janet & John Stories CD - These just crack me up, and all the money goes to Children in Need.
Lego Star Wars 2 - On Joe's birthday list...let's hope someone gets him it!

looking for...
An intensive French course - just got the nod from work that they will cough up for one, so I'm getting quotes.

Les Mis 21st birthday report

2006-10-12T09:54:00.000+01:00

The BBC has a report from the 21st birthday party for Les Miserables here: BBC - Les Mis takes long-running crown. Click on the "Video and Audio News" link in the top right to see some clips of the show and an interview with Michael Ball.

On a related note, The Phantom of the Opera also notched up a birthday recently, reaching 20 years. Here are some photos from www.thephantomoftheopera.com - shame about the annoying background music, but you can turn it off. Don't you just HATE sites that do that?

Such bravery

2006-10-06T12:27:00.000+01:00

Link to ABC News: 'Shoot Me First,' Amish Girl Said to Ask

Being a complete atheist, I often struggle with stories of people and their faith, but this latest article about the horrific Amish school shooting made me stop and think.

Apparently the eldest of the girls, only 13 herself, asked the gunman to shoot her first in an attempt to buy time for her schoolmates.

How incredible that in one room there were 2 extremes of humanity...one extreme evil, prepared to execute defenseless schoolchildren...the other an innocent young girl prepared to lay down her life for the sake of her friends.

What a world we live in.

Bon Anniversaire Les Miserables!

2006-10-06T10:09:00.000+01:00

I remember the torture of sitting in the back of my Dad's car when I was young, being forced to listen to this god-awful tape of some musical that he was mad about. Quite honestly I was pretty sick of it back then.

Now 20 years later and that same musical now plays in my car (no tapes anymore...) and ranks up there in my top 3 shows of all time. How times, and tastes, change...

This weekend, on October 8th, Les Miserables celebrates it's 21st birthday and officially becomes the longest-running musical in the world. Quite an achievement for something based on a very long, hard-going book, first published in 1862. The show was recently voted the nation's favourite in a poll by Radio 2, winning with 41% of the votes.

Our children have all grown up listening to it. We have some embarrassing video footage of Rosie and Lisa recreating that touching moment when Cosette pleads with Madame Thenardier "Please do not send me out alone, not in the darkness on my own"....only Rosie's version ends with "out in the dumpers on my own". LOL! Poor Rosie, though she was only about 4 at the time :o)

I have seen the show several times, but I never get bored of it. My next goal?....to go see it in Paris.

It may just happen!

Long time no post - lets catch up!

2006-10-03T15:27:00.000+01:00

Well hello! Its been a while hasn't it? Since March huh?....wow, that's pretty bad of me. Ah well, here I am, back again, with something to say at last!

So what has been happening in my life just recently? Well...

Holiday
We had another fantastic holiday in France this year. We were in a gite in the dordogne and it was simply wonderful. Quite quiet, out of the way and maybe a little too remote, but we had an amazing time. We went to Bergerac - didn't see John Nettles unfortunately, but DID see Cyrano. We visited La Dune du Pyla - the largest sand dune in europe...blimey it's big. About 120 meters I believe. And we had our first boring but quick journey on the EuroTunnel. It was so different to going on the ferry (obviously, being under the water not on it....). We normally spend a very long uncomfortable 5/6 hours on the ferry, but this was 40 minutes sat in the car as we were whizzed under the Channel and deposited right on the motorway in Calais. A far better solution we felt.

Music
On the musical front, there have been no more big shows for me...no time any more to do those things. BUT, I have been getting to the Grimsby Phil quite a lot. In a few weeks we have our latest concert in which we are performing "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff' and "Songs and Cries of London Town" by Bob Chilcott.
Carmina is a very famous work that has been used in many films and TV programs. The opening number "O Fortuna" is the most well known - back in the 70's it was the theme to the Old Spice advert...these days it's heard every Saturday night when we are introduced to the Judges on X-Factor. For me, Carmina is up there with Jesus Christ Superstar as something that I have dreamt of being part of one day and to have acheieved both of these goals within the last 2 years is pretty amazing.
Songs and Cries is a modern work which calls on traditional London cries, and poems by Dunbar and Wordsworth to create an exciting and beautiful work.

We recently went to see Starlight Express at the Grimsby Auditorium - what a great show that was. It's one that we had never seen before, and indeed never really knew the music either, so it made a really nice change seeing something totally new. The singing was superb, and of course the skating and dancing was really impressive.

Moving to France
Well, I don't want to say much on this subject, but I am very close to hopefully having some VERY positive news! I got a new boss at work a couple of months ago and he is really supportive...wheels are in motion that might just take us to France after all....watch this space!

Other stuff
Other things that have been happening....
Yesterday was my birthday! Yay! 35 at last...finally I am nearer 40 than 30, which is quite sad. And 35 is half-way to 70, which is really, really sad! But hey-ho, while there's wine theres still hope for me ;o)

Rosie started at Healing comprehensive school in September...she's doing really well and enjoying herself - lots of out-of-school clubs and things going on. We're really pleased with how she's getting on.

Molly and Joe are now officially Football mad. They both attend Healing Hotspurs football training, and Molly is even in the girls under 10s team. So far they have drawn 1-1 and last week they won 3-0! Molly is the star defender -following in her dad's footsteps in the back four :o)

As a final note, I heartily reccomend checking out Andrew Lloyd Webbers new site. Its a personal site with lots of news, photos and information about what ALW is currently up to, including all the news about Connie in The Sound of Music. I had a conversation with the webmaster who was good enough to look through my blog, so you never know, Lord Andrew might even get to read all about my expoits in JCS! (Just in case...it starts here in May 2004, and runs up to November 2004.....well, you never know!)

Slight hicough

2006-03-01T16:23:00.000Z

Had some problems with the site, so bear with me. normal service will be resumed asap.

My travelling soundtrack

2006-02-08T23:09:00.000Z

It’s a very lonely existence, this consulting lark…always on the move, trains, planes and automobiles. One thing I couldn’t do without during all this is my trusty mp3 player. It provides a soundtrack to a large portion of my life, so I thought I’d share it’s present contents with you. I don’t know what my selection says about me, but its seen me through some pretty long and arduous journeys, so it can’t be all that bad…

Click here to see the list on my MySpace site

Back in Blighty, at last!

2006-02-08T22:50:00.000Z

So I made it to Sweden eventually...4 hours later than expected. It was about 2:00am when I arrived in my hotel room, totally knackered and fed up. Oh and this was after finding out when I arrived at the hotel that they didn't actually have a reservation for me. Bang went my preparation time. Not to worry tho as my 2 days went really well. Thankfully my journey home wasn't quite so eventful and I'm now back in London, ready to head off to another customer first thing in the morning.

Sweden was a great place - it had snowed the night that I arrived and it was really thick - about 3ft in places. And the people there weere all really nice - all spoke very good english and were very friendly.

bugger...its a bomb scare

2006-02-06T20:45:00.000Z

Oh great. Well as if it wasn't bad enough that i have to in away to sweden this week, now i have to contend with a bomb scare at heathrow. I was waiting in the security queue when suddenly we were all ushered out of the area and forced out of departures all together. Its now 10 minutes past my flights departure time and i have on idea what's going on. No-one has told up anything. I don't know if my flight is waiting or if it's gone. And has my bag gone with it? What a nightmare this is.

Another week, another trip

2006-02-03T11:32:00.000Z

So this week i have been in cornwall...Truro to be precise. Its a lovely part of the world and its been a successful week. I didn't feel like writing about it though, as all this travelling is really getting to me now. Its really killing me every time i have to leave lisa and the kids behind. I just don't seem to have any time to catch up these days...I'm under such pressure to be doing billable work all the time. I don't know how much longer i can keep this up...
Thankfully i am now on my way home. I left truro at 5.45am and i will get home at 2.30pm. Yes, thats nearly a whole 9 hours folks! Oh joy!

Don't mention the war...

2006-01-24T17:11:00.000Z

Hello all once more. I'm on my travels again...today's destination - Hannover in Germany. M journey started this morning on the train, then down to Gatwick to catch my flight at 19:50. It's gonna be 22:30 by the time I arrive in Germany and its bloody cold over there at the moment. I really don't feel like going this week, as Lisa's still ill, the kids are all coming down with colds, and, quite frankly, I'm not too impressed with work at the moment anyway. But I guess it's an experience, so I should try to enjoy it. I'll try to take photos and post some on here.

Wot no Channel 4?

2006-01-19T21:18:00.000Z

Of course, I forgot...in Wales they don't have Channel 4, they have the dreadful S4C - welsh language station. How am I supposed to keep up with Celebrity Big Brother? It's simply not fair :-o There's simply NOTHING on telly tonight, which means there's nothing stopping me from working, which is a real problem. I should have brought my "Lost Series 1, part 1" box set to keep me distracted...

The only consultant in the village...

2006-01-19T07:34:00.000Z

OK, so I got home OK after my suicide-induced delays last week. In the end I got back about 3 hours late - good job I had parked my car at Doncaster. If I had needed to get the train all the way home I would have been stuck at Doncaster.

That was last week, and now here I am in Cardiff, South Wales, the only consultant in the village! LOL. This time I have taken the car all the way here - I'm not going to let delays keep me from getting home this time. Lisa is quite poorly at the moment so I need to make sure I'm back at a deent time.

My journey here was surprisingly quick and easy - I had expected a 5-hour trip at least, but it turned out to be a little over 4 hours door to door, which was great. And there was no traffic to contend with either. I'm staying at the Quality Hotel which is a fairly decent hotel, although the shower has just nearly blasted me out of the bathroom! It's either a trickle or a blast it seems. Looks like I'll not have any trouble waking up.

I had some excellent news this week - The Phil are going to be doing Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in October. This stands alongside JCS as one of my all-time-must-sing works. I simply love this, and if you've never heard it, get hold of a copy - it's one of the most exciting pieces of music you'll ever hear. In fact, I'm sure you will have heard the opening number countless times - "O Fortuna" is always being used in TV and films. It was the music that the judges walked out to at the start of the X Factor shows, for instance.

So I'm hoping to be able to manage my schedule to allow me to take part. It's a fabulous work to hear, but it would be just amazing to take part.

I'm back...and I'm mad!

2006-01-12T20:18:00.000Z

OK, welcome back to me. I decided that I should try to get back into blogging again this year as I have been totally useless at it for the last few months. Mainly as I've been busy working and I've not really done a lot worth writing about, but also mainly coz I'm just rubbish.

So anyway, I'm back for now, and, yes, I'm mad. Why? Well, because, once again, someone has taken it upon themselves to commit suicide by throwing themselves under my train. I've been stuck at Biggleswade station for the last hour and a bit while the police give us the all-clear to move on. It's 8.30 and I still have another 2 hours travelling ahead of me once we get going. And I was doing so well. Got finished on time, got to the station in plenty of time, got myself a decent seat. And then this. Bugger.

I know it's very sad when people get into such a state that they feel they can't go on with life, but *PLEASE* don't involve a train full of people in your demise. Do do something quiet in the comfort of your own home/fast moving river/vat of acid. Not in front of my train! Its just so selfish.

Anyway, what's happening in my life right now...? Well, here goes:

As I said, I'm really busy with work. Upcoming trips include Germany, Sweden and Cornwall. All jolly nice.

Lisa has just had her final assessment for her HLTA (Higher Level Teaching Assistant)qualification, which I'm sure she has passed. She's worked really hard at it and she really deserves to get it as she is a fantastic TA. She is now contemplating starting a Foundation Degree which will lead her into becoming a qualified teacher, something she has always dreamed of being. So its wuite an exciting time at the moment.

The kids are all doing very well at school still. Rosie is starting the dreaded SATs, so the pressure is really on for the next few weeks. Molly continues to thrive in her class, and Joseph is very proud to be Bench Monitor this term!

The French question still remains unanswered...however, if Lisa does decide to go for her Teacher training, we will be staying here while she does that - another 3-4 years - then moving after that for definite.

Ah well, this seat is really uncomfy now, so I'm gonna stretch my legs. They're coming round with free tea & coffee, so maybe time for some refreshment. (Not too much tho, as we can't use the toilets!)

So, toodle-oo for now.

R xxx

The perfect gift idea

2005-09-20T08:57:00.000+01:00

I know, it must be hell trying to think of something to buy me for my birthday on Monday 3rd October...but fear not, just send me an Amazon Gift Voucher to judas at richardbarley dot com and that will be just lovely :o)

I'm back...of course

2005-09-14T08:50:00.000+01:00

Ah yeah, I got back from France, sadly. Oh how we wished we were still there. We had just THE BEST time, we feel so at home there. Of course 18 litres of wine can have that affect, but I think its more than that :o)

Once again we have come back even more determined than ever to move there by hook or by crook. Things don't look great in terms of work sending me out there, so I may have to make alternative plans. But one way or another, we will get there.

TTFN

2005-08-17T12:04:00.000+01:00

Ooops, nearly forgot to keep up to date.

So Anthony won Big Brother. Yay! And Makosi got a really bad reception. Yay! there is justice in the world.

Um, well we're off on holiday soon, so this will be it for a while. I think we're just about ready. Gotta leave plenty of room for wine stocks on the way back :o) The weather doesnt look too great - warm but cloudy, but I'm sure it wont spoil anything.

Collar bone update: I've got about 80% movement back in it now, so thats good news. I'm hoping that lots of swimming in France will improve this and I'll be fighting fit by the time I get back.

So it's "au revoir" from me for now. Byeeee!

Top telly night

2005-08-11T14:48:00.000+01:00

Wow, what a top night's telly it was last night.

First up was was Big Brother with the (not much of a) shock eviction. And, oh joy of joys, it was Craig who left! Hu-bloomin-rah! It was sooooooo funny to see his face when he was told he had 30 seconds to say his goodbyes - right in the middle of his chinese takeaway! LOL...he never even had time to finish getting dressed. And the "Boo"s...oh how marvellous! Shame Davina and the crowd were so nice to him tho, considering he's a psycho bunny-boiler. And he had the gall to still insist that he didn't fancy Anthony. Jeeeeez.....

Then we had the first episode of "Lost". This was fantastic...a really really gripping drama about a bunch of people stranded on an island after their plane crashed. lots of interesting characters and lots of intricate plots by the looks of it. And, even better, one of the stars is Dominic Monaghan, who played "Merry" in The Lord of the Rings - a great young british actor.

Not quite dead

2005-08-09T15:59:00.000+01:00

In fact, I'm getting better!! Went to the hospital yesterday, and i am now officially sling-less! Woohoo! So now I have the job of persuading my lifeless arm muscles to start working again, after being unused for the last 6 weeks. I'm trying to use my arm normally now and its feeling pretty wierd, but I'm getting there :o)

So what else is going on at the moment? Um..... well the move to France is all a bit up in the air. Richard, my ex-boss, left and I discovered when he had gone that maybe things weren't quite so geared up for a move to France as he may have suggested. So, it appears that it is still going to happen, but no-one can say when just yet. This is a real pain in the ass, as we were preparing ourselves to be going at the end of the year. But now we're gonna be in limbo-land for a long time yet...not good.

But, talking of France, at least we are gonna be heading there soon on our holidays! Yay! Of course, I was supposed to be driving, but thats no longer an option, so poor old Lisa has to take on the arduous drive (5 hours to Portsmouth, 7 hours through France) and I have the job of navigating and entertaining the kids. Should be fun!

What else....? Well, I'm looking forward to the Big Brother final on Friday (sad giffer that I am). Go Anthony! Makosi is far too arrogant, self-centered and egotistical, Craig is just a bunny-boiler, Eugene is nice but dull dull dull, Kinga is just a looney.

Um....I went to see The Fantastic Four last week. It was a fun film, pretty short on plot, but big on effects...and hey, its Jessica Alba in her underwear, who can argue with that? ;o)

Ah well, I guess that'll do you for now. More updates soon, I promise!

Errrrmmmm.....

2005-08-03T17:19:00.000+01:00

um....ok, so I kind of havent said anything in ages....again.....

ah well

hey, I broke my collar bone!

Quite a long way from Cairo...

2005-06-21T14:58:00.000+01:00

Well dinner last night was very pleasant...fried herring and mashed potato, all washed down with a glass of house red and some local bread-type-stuff. Oh and not forgetting the Eurovision-style Finnish "music" being piped into the empty (except for me) dining room. Quite an odd experience...

Work went well today. The customer was only about 10 minutes walk round the corner, so I had a very nice stroll in the sun (which, incidentally was still shining weakly at 1am this morning!). The chaps I was training were very nice and thankfully there were no language problems. Lunch was baked sausage and potatoes, very tasty, then back to work till 4. I'm now back in my room finally able to get net access to catch up with the goings-on at work :o)

Here at last

2005-06-20T18:26:00.000+01:00

What a crazy day - a 7-hour chase across Europe! I was hoping to catch up at each airport, but there was no connectivity anywhere (my rather pathetic 3G card is refusing to play). So I am finally here in the Hotel Silveria, connected on Wi-Fi at last.

So... a quick rundown of my travels so far
Copenhagen looked nice from the air - quite industrial. There was a big bank of wind turbines across the river and a very intriguing big long bridge that ended up just heading into the water...very strange. As my first experience of the Nordic people I found them most pleasant and spoke English very well (thank goodness - I hadn't even attempted to learn any Danish, Swedish or Finnish!). I had about half an hour before boarding, so took in the sights of the airport...lots of shops, but I had no idea what the exchange rate was between GBP and the Danish Krona so I had no idea how expensive anything was. I had just decided that I was hungry and should grab a sandwich or something, when it was time to board. Dang! The plane was pretty decent and I had an aisle seat so I had plenty of room.

Stockholm was just breathtaking from the air. Just trees, fields, lakes and rivers as far as the eye could see...literally. As we circled the landing strip all I could see were forests and water. It was simply beautiful. i just wish I had had the camera to hand to take a picture. There was some confusing message from the Pilot about having to pick up our baggage and re-check it in. I was under the impression that my bag would be forwarded on to Finland, but this had made me nervous that it wouldnt. So, I went down to baggage reclaim, waited a while, then decided that my bag wasnt going to come out, so I trusted to luck and went off to find my plane. Good job I did as they were waiting for me to arrive before bussing us out to the plane! And off we went en route to Vaasa, Finland, without much chance for me to enjoy Sweeden (other than appreciating the highest concentration of blonde people I had ever seen in one place!)

Finland was similar to Sweden in terms of landscape. Vaasa airport was small (Humberside kind of size), but very clean and well organised. I rang for a taxi (who thankfully took credit cards as there was no cash machine for me to get any Euros out). The hotel was only about 10 minutes away and I was soon ensconced in my room (which sports rather blank decor and 3 single beds - a different one each night!). I'm writing this as the TV pumps out lots of American and British programmes with Finnish subtitles (The 70's Show or Bad Girls anyone?) quite bizare.

So now I'm off to sample the Finnish food. Should be an adventure in itself!

On the road again...

2005-06-20T10:01:00.000+01:00

Yeah I know...long time no post. Well, I've been busy, alright? ;o)

Thought I'd better get back on here as I seem to be heading out and about a fair bit right now. At the moment I'm in the departure lounge of Birmingham International Airport, on my way to Finland for a couple of days. My day started at 4.30 this morning (well, 4.38 actually, as Lisa woke me up coz the alarm hadn't gone off >:(

A far-too-cheery-for-that-time-of-the-morning taxi driver took me to the station, where I caught the 5.21 train to Birmingham. Shortly I'll be boarding the plane to Copenhagen, where I will change onto a flight to Stockholm, where I will change onto a flight to Vaasa (Finland). 3 countries in one day - not bad huh? I'll arrive in Finland at 19:00 local time (I think they are GMT+2 over there), so it will be a bit of a long day. But, hey, another exciting adventure!

Oh and I am pencilled in for a visit to Iceland at the end of July! I am obviously Mr Cold-Places at the minute.

Ah well, I hope to have photos from my travels so will post them when I can. I think I forgot to pick up the lead for my camera, so may have to wait till I get home, but never mind.

Eek...b oarding in a minute, best go!

Nuthin much to say.....

2005-05-07T10:16:00.000+01:00

Ah, yes. Just thought I'd better post to say that I'm still here, but I've not really had much to say just recently. My most exciting work trip was to Slough (not actually exciting at all...). It was nice to see everyone in the office again tho. Met up with Kip and Mark to remember the crazy time in Bozeman :o) Other than that it's been really quiet...not a lot of work on at the moment. Next Friday we have a "team-building" night out in London - A trip on the London Eye, followed by a river cruise up the Thames, followed by a meal out somewhere - which should be rather pleasant!!!!

Pops and Pans

2005-04-25T11:09:00.000+01:00

Last night was the Operatics concert - "Pops and Pans" - and what a concert it was. i was so impressed by the quality of the singing, the control and expression was excellent.
They started off with a Carpenters selection. There were all the old favourites in there, nice for the kids (who had all come along fir the first time) as they knew most of these. They were all sung very well...my only slight disapointment was that I felt it could have done with a bit more harmony in some of them. But this is a minor point really, considering the job Caroline has done.

Next came the Sinatra Showcase, one which I've done several times before, so was singing along (quietly!). Again, it was done really well and always goes down well with the audience.

Then came the "Pans" secttion of the concert - the Grimsby and Cleethorpes Youth Steel Band. It was really nice to hear something totally different...I'm sure not many people in the audience would normally have gone to hear a steel band, so it was great for them to be introduced to something new. And, although I felt maybe they did one too many numbers in the first half, the stuff they did was really great. Such a good range, from Jamaican traditional, to Atomic Kitten, to Swan Lake. I was particularly impressed by the classical pieces.

Then we had the break, and the kids were very excited to go down and see Lisa briefly.

The second half kicked off with a celebration of the 60th anniversary of VE Day in the form of a selection of war-time songs. There were some lovely ones in this section, including some beautiful solos (my favourites of these being Ellie Weston's "A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square" and the young Daniel Clift singing "The White Cliffs of Dover"). The choir's performance of "Rose of England" was just superb - big 4-part harmonies and full of expression and emotion.

Then the Lindsey Community Steel Band did a selection, which was very enjoyable again. To finish, the choir did 3 Michael Jackson songs. "Will You Be There" - the theme from Free Willy, was done with the steel band accompanying, and sounded amazing - building up to a great gospel crescendo. "She's Out Of My Life" featured solos by Pete and Don, and finally "Heal The World" was a great way to finish.

Overall it was a really excellent concert - the sound and controll of the choir was great...Caroline has done an excellent job. And I was so proud of Lisa doing it. She has enjoyed it so much, and this always comes across when she's singing. The only negative thing I could say about the choir would be that it needs a lot more people to actually look like they're enjoying themselves. There was such a great sound last night, if it had been matched by 60 smiling faces, it would have made a great concert outstanding. But again, this is a minor quibble. We all thouroughly enjoyed it and I think the rest of the packed house did too. I was quite sad that I hadn't been able to take part, and I know Lisa is very sad that it is all finished. There is no way she can realistically do the show, and by the time the next concert comes around, we will hopefully be in France, so that's about it for us and Operatics - what a great experience we have had with them.

Next for Lisa is "The Armed Man" with the Philharmonic. We've got the CD for this and it sounds amazing - I was close to tears when I first heard it. I think it's going to be a very moving concert, so look out for that one. As for me, well I have to make do with singing in the car these days, which is a bit sad, but never mind...it will all be worth it in the end :o)

A bit of a "do"

2005-04-24T14:35:00.000+01:00

Operatics had an after-concert "do" at the Lynton on Friday night, and I went along with Lisa. It was really great to see everyone again. Scarily it only seemed like 5 minutes since we were there for the JCS after-show do. No-one had changed very much...apart from losing their beards and trimming their hair! I still got shouts of "Judas!" from certain quarters (thank you Martha & co.). I know Lisa has really enjoyed doing this concert with everyone. There is a really good atmosphere in the society and there doesnt seem to be the bitching and one-upmanship that exists in other societies. I think she's going to miss it.

We gave Nadia a lift home (to the posh-end of Wybers... ;o) ).....she's just bonkers!

Who to vote for...?

2005-04-22T09:38:00.000+01:00

Not sure who to vote for in the upcoming General Election (May 5th)? This site might help you make up your mind.

I'm Back!

2005-04-21T17:03:00.000+01:00

Ah yes, I know, I know.....I've been most slack in updating the site since my return....but I've just been soooooooo busy. Since I got back, I've not really stopped for a breath. I've been tearing all round the country with work, and it's all been so chaotic. So far I've been to Leicester, London, Cambridge, Falkirk....Stoke-on-Trent next week and Poland some time in May...I'm certainly getting around a bit!

The job is going really well. I'm just loving it so much, it's really the best job I've ever had. I think I'm already making quite an impression - I've had really good feedback from customers and all the project managers have been really pleased with me. I've just been a bit of a girly swot and said "yeah, i'll do that" to any jobs that come up...but I think its working :o)

So what's been happening outside of work...? Well, not a lot really. The kids went back to school after being off at Easter for what seemed like a month! We got a trampoline! 8ft, with an enclosure. It's such good fun, the kids are on it all the time. When we had a family party for Rosie's birthday, all the adults were on it too....lts of embarrasing photos there!

This Sunday it's the Operatics Pops and Pans concert, so I'm looking forward to seeing that. They are doing a pre-concert-concert on Friday, with a bit of a do after, so I'm going to go along to that one as well...give me an opportunity to catch up with everyone.

Oh, and I came back from Scotland today to find that some goon has been sending out a virus using my email address as the Sender address. If you got an email from me in the last few days with the subject "Good Day", which contains a dodgy attachment, please delete it. It's not from me and I had nothing to do with it. There are BAD people out there who "spoof" email addresses to make it appear that they are coming from a legitimate source, and one of these people decided that my "Judas@..." address would be a nice one to nick. So, I apologise if you got this, but it was out of my hands.

Anyway, I reckon that will do for now. I'll try to keep a bit more up to date now I'm settled in the job. I'll certainly take my camera to Poland and fill you in on my time there, if that all comes off.

:o)

My last view of Bozeman

2005-03-18T10:33:00.000Z

The snows return

The journey home

2005-03-18T09:39:00.000Z

I woke this morning at 5am, convinced I was going to sleep through the alarm. It was too late to go back to sleep then, so I got up and finished packing. It wasnt long vefore I was all set, so I went and stored my bags with reception, checked out and went round the hotel taking some pictures of the surroundings. It had snowed overnight, so everything was looking very pretty.

At 9.00 the hotel shuttle took me to the airport. Waiting for the plane I felt pretty strange...a bit like I did at before the last night of JCS. I'm so excited to be going home and seeing my family again...it seems like months rather than weeks that I've been away from them. But my excitement it also tinged with a little sadness that the whole adventure is over. I've had such an amazing time here, done stuff I'd never have imagined doing, met some really wonderful people and, I think, made some really good friends. And what lies ahead? More time on the road, actually having to put into practice what I have been learning for the last 3 weeks. How will I get on? More change!! What a time we're having....

The flight out of Bozeman was fine. It was quite empty, so there was plenty of room. It is only an hour and a half to Denver, so not too long to sit. Once at denver, it was a short stop...just enough time to ring home, then we baorded for the flight to Chicago. Again, it was a good flight...comfy and fairly smooth. We arrived slightly early at Chicago. It's a huge airport - took me about half an hour to find the International terminal - had to take a train to get there. I just HAD to double-check that my luggage was following me...I get so paranoid that it's not going to turn up at my ultimate destination...but everything seemed to be OK.

The flight to Manchester was OK to start with. It was nice to back on an English plane. I was seated right at the very back, next to a rather fat lady, so I was pleased to see that I had a spare seat next to me. I moved over after dinner to give us both some room. Once dinner was over (3 glasses of red wine later!....i wanted to make sure I fell asleep) I got wrapped up in a blanket (it was soooo cold on that plane) and tried to get to sleep. Unfortunately, my efforts were in vain...I just could not get comfy. So I tossed and turned all the way over the Atlantic! I must have finally dropped off brifely at around 6.00, as I woke with a start feeling really sick, not really knowing where I was...it was so wierd. I kind of stumbled up to an air hostess and she guided me down to the toilets. She said I looked a really funny colour! I wasnt sick in the end, and managed to get myself sorted out, but I was still soooo cold. I returned to my seat and drank some water, wrapped in 2 blankets. And that's pretty much how I stayed for the rest of the journey. I just know I'm gonna feel really bad today.

I'm now sitting at the train station, waiting for the train to take me home. I guess I won't have much time to post anything else today, so I'll make this my last one for today. As it stands at the moment, I cant really think straight about the future. I get the feeling something has begun now that has a momentum of its own and we're all going to have to make sure we're on the ball to keep up with it. It's going to be hard work, but if we can do it, I think it's going to take us wherever we want to go.

Training: Day 17 - the Exam...the end

2005-03-16T22:20:00.000Z

So, today was the certification exam.... We were in the usual room and Jen just handed out the papers and let us get on with it...all pretty relaxed. As it turned out, the exam was pretty easy. A lot of the answers were in the on-line help for the product, which made it easy to check when I wasnt sure. I finished first and I'm fairly confident that I've got a pretty good pass mark.

And that was that...the end. I still have some configuration to so on my test site, which also makes up part of the certification, but that shouldnt take long. I can do that next week sometime.

So that was the end...I went and parked myself downstairs somewhere while I waited for Mark to finish and Kip to leave his meeting. I went round and said my goodbyes...quite sad to be leaving the folks here. They've all been so good to us and really friendly. You don't get the impression that this is a head office of a multi-national company, they still have the feeling of a small local business. It's great to be chatting with the receptionist one minute, then the Sales director, then mabye say Hi to the CEO in the carpark! Rob even gae us each a RightNow Technologies hat!

When Kip had finished, we headed out for the last time. We called in at some shops on Main st., then went back to change, before heading out to the Montana Ale Works, one of our favourite spots. We met up with some of the folks from work for drinks, eats and some pool. It was a nice way to end our time here.

By 9.30 we were back at the hotel, and I was packing my bags. An early night being required, I went to bed pretty soon after.

Training: Day 16 - Last day of training

2005-03-15T22:11:00.000Z

So today was the last day of training. We had a talk about upgrades this morning, a "working lunch" with the people who organise travel and expenses, then we split up into groups in the afternoon. The tech support folks were supposed to meet with their managers, but they were in a meeting. Us professional services folks met with a PS guy, which was really interesting. Then after all that, we were free to go. It's the exam tomorrow, so I did a bit of checking through things, making sure I was happy with everything, then we went back to the hotel.

We went out for a couple of drinks and something to eat later, but none of us felt like a big night with the exam looming ahead of us. I'm not too worried about it. It's multi-choice, so should prove to be easy enough. I know I've taken in most of the training, plus we get to use our laptops to refer to documentation, try stuff out in the product itself and stuff. So I'm pretty confident.

Training: Day 15

2005-03-14T22:30:00.000Z

The end is in sight now. only one more day of training, then the exam, then I'm on my way home!

Today was mainly a day of reviewing stuff for the certification exam, which confirmed my view that I've pretty much got most of it sussed. A nice surprise - Rob had printed off a map of the ski resort we went to on Saturday, using the data from his GPS unit to show exactly where we had been, and framed copies up for the 3 of us. He's been really good and looked after us well. He took us out for dinner tonight to the Montana Rib and Chop house in Livingstone (about 20 miles out of Bozeman). I had a very nice pot roast - couldn't face any more slabs of meat. It was delicious. We were back at the hotel by 10:00 for another early night.

Shooting Photos

2005-03-14T05:27:00.000Z

I got the photos today from the shooting evening. Here area a selection:

One man and his gun

Warning...sniper

The guys

Getting dark

Training: Day 14 - Big Mike

2005-03-13T22:47:00.000Z

After a strange night, full of wierd dreams, I woke early this morning. I couldn;t get back to sleep as, no matter which way I layed in bed, something hurt! I had aches all over...neck, back, shoulders, arms, hands, legs, feet....what a wreck!

It was a lazy morning, breakfast followed by washing, drying and ironing some clothes to keep me going for the last few days here.

After going out for some lunch (crispy chicken salad), we decided to head to the Museum of the Rockies. It's only 5 minutes from the office and was supposed to be really worth a visit. Outside the museum is a life-size T-Rex skeleton, they call "Big Mike"!

The museum itself was really good, especially considering that Bozeman is a relatively small town. It covered a lot of topics, including the original Lewis & Clark expedition which discovered the area, the history of the region's Native population (Indians to you and me), the history of transport in the area, and a large area on the landforms and lifeforms of the area, from 520 million years ago.

There was also a planetarium, which showed a presentation about the stars and how the constelations we are used to today were seen by the Indian tribes. It was fascinating to watch, and hear how the stories differed between the different tribes. It also gave me some clues as to finding some of our constellations in the sky, something I have wanted to be able to do for a long time.

It was an enjoyable afternoon and was just right in terms of the amount of energy required, as I was still totally shattered from yesterday's skiing!

Training: Day 13 - Skiing!!!!

2005-03-12T20:06:00.000Z

Skiing day today!

It all started with an early breakfast, then off to meet Rob and Curtis at work for 7:30. We made the decision to follow them there in our car, rather than go in Rob's big 4-wheel-drive wagon, as we thought that would give us the option of coming back early if we got tired or fed up. This is a decision we would somewhat regret later on!

Snow was forecast for today, and as we headed up into the mountains, we started to see it. The resort we were heading to is called Big Sky...and what a place it was. Absolutely amazing scenery, tree-lined slopes, huge mountains, ski runs all over, and snow falling heavily.

We arrived at about 9:00 and Rob very kindly paid for all our tickets and equipment hire. A free day's skiing! After getting kitted up with boots, skis and sticks, Kip, Curtis and I headed for what Rob had indicated was an easy slope - "Lower Mr K". Curtis used to be a competition skier and said he would give me a quick lesson to get me going. So we jumped on the lift - what a great view you get from up there - and headed up the slope. Jumping off the lift at the top was the first time I had ever skied on snow (the only other time I had skied before was a long long time ago on a dry slope). It was quite exhilarating when my skis first touched the snow and I slid off toward the slope.

Curtis gave me a quick rundown on the way to turn and slow down (very important!), and we started down the slope, me traversing the route rather slowly. It only took a moment before I fell over for the first time. I seemed to be okay heading across the snow, but when I came to turn round I started going faster, panicked and fell over! After a while I got the hang of turning slowly and we continued down the slope. We soon realised, however, that the slope we were on was NOT actually an easy slope. It was very long and had some quite steep bits. So here I am, first time skier, already belting down the mountain like a looney. Some of you may recall a similar situation last time I skied! At least this time I could steer a bit!

But I fell. About 8 times. And rather spectacularly in one instance, which involved me going face-first into the snow, resulting in a bloody nose! After a short foray into some trees (!) I started to get better. Kip and Curtis were both quite impressed that I was doing so well. Apparently you don't normally do stuff like this till about the 5th day of ski school, so I guess I was doing pretty well, albeit intermittently!

I started getting so tired. Its amazing how many different new muscles you discover trying to ski. It was just such hard work trying to keep turning the skis, keep leaning forward, looking up, avoiding other people....and when I fell down, it took such an effort to get back up - having to reattach the skis to my boots got harder every time as my legs got more and more tired. But I made it in the end, sliding down to the bottom really quite gracefully I thought. What an experience! I was absolutely shattered. It had taken about half an hour, but it felt like I'd been at it all morning! I staggered off the snow and went to sit in the restaurant to recover. I was shaking, both with the adrenaline rush, but also from he sheer effort I had had to put in. I think I stopped shaking about 2 hours later! By this time, the rest of the guys were coming in for lunch, so we ate and rested for a while before heading out again.

I was determined to do another run, despite being totally worn out. The rest of the guys were going down some of the harder slopes, so I headed off to a slope that had been recommended by an instructor as an easy one - no messing about this time! Rob had brought walkie-talkies for us all, so I took one of these in case I needed to summon assistance(!) and headed off to "White Wing".

I started well, falling over as I slid off the lift ramp. Not a good start! but I got better. I made my way across the mountain to the start of the run and headed off, traversing quite well to start with. I got a little more confident on a flatter bit and just went straight, with parallel skis. That was fun. I really picked up speed. I must have covered a third of the run in that mode, until the speed I was going at started to worry me a bit, so I started steering up the slopes at the side to slow down. This worked, but, of course, having gone up the slope, I had to come down again, which set me off accelerating again! I only fell once during these maneuvers tho. I think because I was more relaxed, I was more conscious of my balance. As I was shooting down the run, I felt really good - one heck of a rush! I could hear the theme from Ski Sunday in my head as the trees went flashing past me!

As I stood on the final section of the run, preparing for the run-in, it made me think about how unreal it was that I was there. 4 months ago I was in a job that I hated, going nowhere, and now I'm stood on a mountain in Montana skiing for nothing. It was quite a moment.

Anyway, I made it down to the end of the run intact, felling very pleased with myself that I had done it. It's quite an achievement I think, having had no training, to manage to survive two ski runs with nothing more than a bloody nose and an aching body.

So I was now totally shattered and headed back to the restaurant to wait for the others. As I waited I watched the all the people coming and going. It was so nice to see families coming together, with the kids as young as 3 or 4 strapping on skis and getting about. It really made me homesick though, seeing the families all together. I so wished that was me.

Eventually Kip turned up, looking worn out, so we went and took some photos and took our equipment back - we had both had enough for one day. We sat in the bar and had a drink to toast our skiing successes, joined shortly by the others. And at about 4pm we headed off home.

Now, this is where we really regretted not taking a lift in Rob's car. Our little toyota was going to struggle a bit to get through the snow. It had been snowing quite heavily on and off throughout the day, so the roads were covered. And the roads down from the mountains are naturally very twisty and turny!! It was a bit of a hairy ride, but we made it OK and, once back on the freeway, we could relax.

What an experience we've had here. Everyone has looked after us so well and just given us some amazing memories that will stay for us for years to come.

Training: Day 12 - Crazy Cowboys

2005-03-11T22:55:00.000Z

Well, I made it to the end of another week!

Usual stary as far as training goes. It's all going pretty well - I'm picking it all up OK. Lunch today was at "Burger Bobs" - actually the first real burger I've had since I've been here. Not bad really, considering its the USA.

We finished early, so we went back to the hotel for a while, before heading back out. The guy in charge of Professional Services took us out for a meal at a "real Montanan place". The food was good...traditional stuff for round here - steak, tuna, bufallo. The bar was full of cowboys though. And I mean real cowboys, with the hats and the swing dancing. There was a small band in the corner chirning out the country songs (yeah...my favourite ;o) ). But it was a good night. Everyone seemed highly amused by my exagerated version of an American accent. At one point I thought I was about to be accosted by two cowboys for taking the mickey, but they just wanted to hear me say "beer-can"......Yeah.....crazy cowboys!

Training: Day 11

2005-03-10T09:58:00.000Z

Early start today - it was Rob's 7:30 Thursday morning briefing, at which he previewed some of the photos from yesterday's shooting expedition - they look really good. Hopefully he's going to send them through.

The training was another quiet affair, with salad for lunch. It was a beautiful day so we sat by the lake to eat it. Very civilised!

We went for dinner to a place called Mint in Belgrade, the next town along the freeway. (Yes, it was named after the Serbian capital by the Serbian guy that founded it.) It was really nice...I had a lovely veggie pasta dish, which is quite a rareity round here. They guys had steak, which looked pretty good, but I was glad to have had the pasta - I felt much better for it.

Then it was an early night for all. I think we all needed it.

Training: Day 10 - Sushi and Shooting

2005-03-09T12:17:00.000Z

It was a big day today. Rob had been threatening to take us shooting ever since we got here and today was the day. The training went OK as usual. It's not too bad this week - the stuff we're doing is fairly easy. After my training is over, I have to go out on a site-visit shadowing another consultant. I found out today that I'll be going to a client in Cambridge after Easter, which will b e quite good as I'll hopefully be able to call in on my sister Kathryn.

At lunch we decided to go out for a change, and the consensus was that we should have sushi. Now, I have never had sushi before so was not too keen, but thought I'd give it a go. I took Kip's recommendation and ordered some kind of Tuna roll. It eally didn't do anything for me. It was so fiddly and the leaf that it was wrapped in was quite tough, so I ended up gettin rice all over the table! And it was very salty....just not my thing at all. I managed 3 rolls, but that was all. Most disappointing.

As for the shooting, we headed off with Rob and Curtis, his second-in-command, up into the mountains with a boot full of weapons! We ended up taking a narrow, winding, icy road through a canyon up to a clearing about half way up the mountain. Rob and Curtis set up some boxes with targets on and a row of tin cans about 80 meters away. They had an array of rifles...we started with a smaller one (a .22?) which was quite easy to handle (although i dont think any of us hit a target with it to start with!). We worked out way up to shooting something quite a bit bigger, which had a mini bi-pod at the end - you had to lay down sniper style. The noise this one made was phenomenal - such a loud boom...the ground shook!

We must have been shooting for about 2 hours, until the light got too bad to see. It was actually a really good time. I think we had all been a bit apprehensive, as Rob can be a bit overpowering sometimes, but he was fine and Curtis is a really nice guy. At the end, we set up 3 targets, one each, and took some shots, so we could take our targets home to show our success (or not!). I think I did just about the best, with 5 shots on target, and a couple fairly close to the centre.

It was a bit hairy getting out of the clearing and back down the canyon, with light fading and temperatures dropping. But we made it out and went for celebratory drinks afterwards. Rob had been taking photos of the shooting, and I'll hopefully get some copies and post them here when I can.

Overall, a pretty good day.

Training: Day 9

2005-03-08T20:09:00.000Z

Another pretty quiet day today. Training went OK, nothing very exciting.

Kip wanted to go home and detox(!) after work, so Mark and I went out to the "movies". We saw "Constantine", with Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz. It was a little scary in places, demons and stuff...but quite deep in a theological kind of way(!). It was nice to go and do something different for a change.

Training: Day 8

2005-03-07T18:36:00.000Z

A quiet day today. We had a new trainer and we were in a new room, which is a proper training room - much better than the broom cupboard we were in last week.

An exciting moment was when it started raining! Haven't seen any sort of precipitation since we got here, so it was so nice to have a bit of a change. Made us feel at home!

We went out to a Mexican restaurant for tea (think we've pretty much done them all now!), then got taken out by Rob for a late night of drinks.

Training: Day 7 - Buffalo Jump and Ghost Town

2005-03-06T23:33:00.000Z

Today was Mother's Day in the UK, so I rang home this morning to speak to Lisa. It was really nice to talk for a change.

We headed out for a journey to explore the west of the area today. We left at around 9:45 and drove for about an hour, till we came to a place called "Buffalo Jump". This is where the indians (sorry, "Native Americans") used to drive the buffalo over the cliff to kill them. It was clearly much easier to persuade them to jump over a cliff than to hunt them down individually. It was odd, but looking at the cliff, you could just imagine it all happening before you.

After driving back up the rather precarious dust track, we carried on down the main road, heading for some "ghost towns" that Kip had read about.

We were travelling through gold-rush country (we even saw some real tumble-weeed!). There are several old towns that were set up just for the people that came over to mine the gold, silver and gems that had been discovered in the area. Then, when all the treasure had gone, the towns were simply abandoned. The one that we eventually found, after what seemed like an eternity driving, was called Virginia City (they use the term "city" rather loosely in the States).

It was a real old cowboy town, and it was fascinating to read the history of all the different buildings. Some were original, some had been restored and some had been transferred from other similar abandoned towns to be restored and added to those in Virginia City.

After Virginia City, we continued on until we reached a small town where we ate some lunch - a very stodgy Chinese. We then headed back on a very long journey to Bozeman. By this time I was feeling a bit fed up of mountains and plains. Kip and Mark were interested in going to the Bozeman Hot Springs, but I didn't really feel like it, so I went back to the hotel for a rest. My laptop had crashed this morning and, as this is pretty much my only link with home, I was keen to get it working. After a while, thankfully, I got it going again.

Dinner tonight was at "Famous Dave's BBQ" - a huge selection of stuff served on a dustobin lid, quite bizarely. We had ribs, chicken wings, coleslaw, beans & fries...good job we're only here for another week and a half!

To see all of todays photos, click here. To see them as a slideshow, click here.

Training: Day 6 - Our Yellowstone Adventure

2005-03-06T05:56:00.000Z

Today was to be our big adventure to Yellowstone national Park...unfortunately Kip was living up to his name and could not get out of bed due to a monster hangover. I had got up at about 8:30 and gone for breakfast, then Mark surfaced about 10:00. There being no sign of Kip, we thought it best to leave him to his recovery, so we went off for a walk around the shops near the hotel - nothing very exciting. Mark went in to get his hair cut and I went back to see if Kip had emerged yet - he hadn't. By the time it got to 12:00, we were both starving, so I rang Kip to get him up. Eventually he appeared and we headed off.

First thing on the agenda was food - we all felt like just some quick and easy junk food, so looked out for something suitable. It seems that every junk food restaurant we found was either too busy, too fancy or too odd. We must have visited 4 or 5 places, before finally getting a KFC drive-through. I don't think we really noticed what we were eating after that, we were just so hungry.

Fully fed and watered we set off for Yellowstone. It's about 90 miles from Bozeman, so it took us nearly 2 hours to get there. Near the entrance we stopped in the very small town of Gardiner - it made Bozeman look like New York! We picked up some water for the journey and went on our way.

The scenery at the park was just stunning. Huge mountain ranges, wide plains, deep snow, thousands of trees....just beautiful.

Before long we began to see some of the wildlife in the park. We saw Bison, buffalo, elk, deer, coyotes...no bears tho, as they are only just waking up, and there are wolves, but they are very hard to spot - people come with high-tech scopes just to look for wolves. The most numerous of all these was the bison though - loads of these all over. They wander across the road and you have to be careful not to knock them down.

Here's a small video of one who got a bit close!

It took us about an hour to drive through the park. Most of the roads are closed in the winter, so we could only see a small part of it - we probably saw only 15% of the whole thing. When we got out the there side of the park, we were in another 1-horse town called Cooke City. They may only have 1 horse, but they have dozens of snowmobiles. And perhaps we should have been riding one, because the road out of Cooke City, and the only way back to the motorway other than going through the park, was still covered with 2-3 feet of snow! So, after confirming with a local that we would have to travel back all the way through Yellowstone, we decided we should eat something to keep us going. So we had some more just food at the local diner, then filled up with petrol and set off back through the park.

As we drove back through the park, it was starting to get dark and we were conscious that we had come totally unprepared for any emergency. They recommend you bring a mobile phone (ours don;t work round here), some warm clothes (we were in jeans and t-shirts!), food (we had half a KFC left...), water (we had some - yay!), and much more. It just goes to show how little we appreciate what life is like over here.

The trip back though the park seemed much quicker than when we went through in the other direction, although the journey from the exit back to Bozeman seemed to go on forever. It was dark and Mark (who was driving) was tired enough from the night before, without having to drive long distances as well. It was a long ride home, but eventually we arrived back at about 8:30. We all went straight to our rooms for an early night!

To see all the photos I took on our adventure today, click here. To view them as a slideshow, click here.

Training: Day 5 - The first week over

2005-03-05T15:47:00.000Z

It was good to reach the end of the first week today. It was a fairly easy-going day and we got to finish at 4pm, so it was a nice gentle end to the week.

I think we are all agreed that the whole hyper-positive american enthusiasm for everything is starting to get a little tiring, especially in the comfines of our small training room. So it was good to see that we are moving up to the proper training room next week.

Lunch was a ceasar salad, which was very nice for a change. All the previous lunch offerings have been a bit dodgy. It was quite light as I knew it would be a big meal at night - which it was! Rob (Tech Support Director) took the three of us out to a place called Boodles, which is reputedly the best place in Bozeman. We all had steak which was beautiful - just fell apart...no need for steak knives. It was a lovely meal in very nice surroundings, so we had a great time.

From there we then went on to a couple of bars down the main street in Bozeman. There aren't that many to choose from so we didn't have far to go. Quite a few beers later, we headed "home", glad to have finished our first week of training

Training: Day 4

2005-03-04T05:35:00.000Z

Early start today - there was a briefing at 7:30, so we were all in the office for 7:15. As it turned out, it wasn't really much of a meeting and only lasted about 15 mins, which was a bit of a shame.

The rest of the day was spent in our usual broom-cupboard (although we are scheduled to move up to a bigger room for next week). Another fairly easy day for me. Kip is starting to lag behind a bit, as he is torn between wanting to spend time making links with the tech-support team here and wanting to learn about the product. As tech support manager for europe, he's in quite a tricky position.

Lunch today was chinese. I ordered Garlic Chicken Strips with rice, thinking it sounded nice. When it came, it was just 6 small chicken drumsticks, and there wasn't much meat on them. And no rice! Not what I had hoped for. By the time 5pm came around I was getting very hungry. Luckily, we had a meeting after work to fix some of the tech support issues that have been left unfixed while Kip and Mark are over here, and pizzas were provided. I had a slice to keep me going. It was a good session, giving me a good insight into the sort of issues that tech support have to deal with and how they go about fixing them.

After all this, we got away about 7:30 and decided to head to the Italian restaurant close to the hotel. i had a salad and we all had much-needed beers. It had been a very long day .

Training: Day 3 - Mountains and Plonk

2005-03-03T04:11:00.000Z

More of the same today...technical training all day. It's going OK - I pick things up fairly easily, and, compared to Siebel, that I was using at BT, it is a doddle.

We ate in for lunch - we had ordered tacos/wraps etc from a local deli, which was nice, if a bit stodgy. We (us brits) have been invited out by the Tech Support director on Friday night, which should be fun. And tomorrow we have a long day - there's a tech support get-together at 7:30am and a fault-fixing get-together after work till who-knows-when. As the other 2 guys are both tech support, which should be quite useful for me in getting a view of tech support issues.

Straight from work today, we decided to take a trip to the Bridger Bowl ski resort, about half an hour from Bozeman. It is supposed to be quite a fun place, with bars and restaurants, which we thought would be a good night out. Well, it was a nice journey, up through the mountains. But when we got there it was empty...about 3 other cars and not another person in sight! Not quite the apres-ski atmosphere we had hoped for! So we looked around, took some photos and went back to Bozeman.

Bridger Bowl landscape (wmv 2.4mb)

The Bridger Bowl Ski Resort

The Bridger Mountains

Kip and Mark - "Where's the action?"

We ended up having dinner at a place called "Plonk", which had pretty much every kind of wine imaginable (of which we sampled a nice Pinot Noir and a Corbiere). The food was really nice too, not at all like we have had elsewhere - quite small and simple dishes, but really tasty. The atmosphere was good too, and, as always in this country, the service was excellent.

So, tomorrow will be a long day...don't think we'll get out anywhere, then we're out on Friday. At the weekend, I think we're going to head off to Yellowstone Park, which should be great.

Now you too can treat your pets as well as the Americans do, with the following pet products from SkyMall:

The "Stay-Fresh Feline Drinking Fountain"..."continuously circulates, filters and aerates your cat's water supply", removing all those impurities and "odour-causing particulates". Huh?

The "Pet Staircase" helps pets climb up onto the furniture and is "skid-resistant"....don't even go there!

The "Lightweight Pet Stroller" and "Double-Decker Pet Stroller" are easy to push and fold easily for storage. They're designed for dogs and cats and keep them, "safe, ventilated and shaded".

The "Pet Playpen" is "the largest available" (that's goos coz I was so frustrated at the size of all the other pet playpens I've seen...) It's got PVC mesh walls and floor, and even has a "zippered door". Lets just hope your dog is good at doing zippers...

Training: Day 2

2005-03-02T01:57:00.000Z

Today was the first day of the "real" training. It had snowed overnight, which was a really nice surprise when I opened the curtains. Apparently Montana is in the middle of a 7-year drought, and so they're just not getting the amount of snow that they used to. So I think everyone was a bit pleased to see some.

After a decent breakfast (coffee, cheerios, bagel, juice) we got into the office for an 8:30 start. As I mentioned, the room we're in is really small and very cramped with all 12 of us in. We'll all be good friends by the time we've finished!

The morning's training was OK...and I was able to chat briefly to the family on MSN in the breaks, which was really nice. At 11:30 we went out for a "team" dinner to a very nice bistro in town. The food was delicious - I was nearly tempted to try an elk sandwich, but opted out and plumped for chicken instead. I must try it before I go tho...that or buffalo. It was a very nice lunch and gave us a good chance to chat to the other people on the course as well.

When we returned to the office, I had an email from the Tech Support director inviting Kip, Mark and myself to a "team-building skiing day" on March 12th. He had been threatening to take us skiing when we met him yesterday, despite our assertions that none of us were skiers. Not sure if we're really up to it as I gather he's a bit of an expert...although the message seemed a bit more of a request, rather than a simple invitation. We'll have to see.

We started actually getting hands-on with the software this afternoon, and I was well ahead of the game as I'd been working through the exercises for the last couple of weeks. Think I'll be OK with it - looking forward to getting back home and actually using it for real.

Tonight we're heading back into town to try to find somewhere to get something to eat. I don't think any of us are all the hungry after our very American-sized lunch, but we will need to find something as the hotel has no restaurant.

The "Sleep Sound Generator"
This small white box emits a "gentle whooshing sound" that blocks "continuous or annoying sounds", thus helping you sleep. Now, I don't know about you, but I could do without any whooshing while I try and sleep. And if you are bothered by "cointinuous or annoying sounds", perhaps cotton woll in your ears would be cheaper than a $50 box.

Tomorrows featured items: Pet drinking fountain, Pet Staircase, Pet strollers, Double Pet Strollers and a Pet Playpen!

Bozeman sights

2005-03-02T01:48:00.000Z

This was the sight that greeted me from my bedroom window this morning.

.

And this is the view from the RightNow office car park.

(Click on the images to see bigger versions)

Not bad huh? I really wish Lisa and the kids were here to see it...

Training: day 1

2005-03-01T04:53:00.000Z

So, the first day of training went OK. It was basically an overview about general HR stuff... It started with an opening by the founder and CEO, Greg Gianforte, which was actually pretty good. He's got a good vision for the company, and conveys it very well. Although us English folk were slightly taken aback with his stories about hunting bears and eating them... Not quite what we're used to!

It was followed by presentations of varying quality, but generally it was a good day. We had pizza for lunch, which was OK, although a bit stodgy and I couldn't really eat that much.

I started to feel very tired after lunch and relied on much coffee to keep me going! By the end of the day, me, Kip and Mark (the other 2 guys from the UK) decided that we should probably go and eat before going back to the hotel, as we'd probably fall asleep if we chilled out for a bit first. So we ventured down the main street in Bozeman...and realised how much of a one-horse town it is. We couldn't beleive how quiet it was. We finally came upon a bar that someone had recommended to us, so we pulled in and had food and a few beers. Later, some of the american guys from the course turned up, so we played some pool ( I think we wone overall...) and did our bit for anglo-american relations.

Tomorrow we're in a pretty pokey room, 12 of us, which will be nice and cosy! At least we get to use our laptops, so I will be able to access the net, which I couldn't do today (my training PC was playing up).

I mentioned the excellent on-board shopping magazine that I picked up in the flight here. Here's today's feature item:

"New! Turbo-Clipper - the power tool for a man's nails - cuts clean and
traps flyaway clippings!"

Sounds good huh?

"Our innovative Turbo-Clipper easily cuts fingernails and toenails with
hardened steel clippers...neatly directs all nail clippings into a
compartment...no more flyaway clippings!...Comes with deluxe microfibre case."

Don't know how I've managed with out it for so long! Featured item for tomorrow: "The Sleep Sound Generator"

The longest day...

2005-02-28T07:49:00.000Z

Blimey, what a day! I've finally arrived at my hotel in Bozeman, only to discover that there is no mobile coverage for either Vodafone or O2 round here, so I'm going to be well cut off. Good job I have MSN!

Here's a brief summary of how I got on on my journey...

The flight from Manchester was good. We got "Take It Easy" packs, containing eye-masks, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a ped and small pad and some flight socks! There was a large school trip on the flight and when they saw these packs they let out a collective "Coooooool!".

What was cool was watching the tv screens in front of each seat. Throughout the flight you could select one of 2 cameras mounted outside the plane, to get a "pilot's eye view". This was really good, especially on take-off and landing. After take-off, I tried to access the Games on the TV, but it crashed! Bloomin dodgy Windows error!

I had a nice meal of Chicked Korma, rice, salad, cheese & crackers...and a mini Toblerone! :o) All washed down with a glass of CHardonnay, which was rather nice.

Things took a bit of a downer when I discovered a family with a little girl a few rows in front. she must have been about 3 or 4 and seeing them with her made me witsh I had my kids with me, so I got a bit sad then :o( But then, thankfully, Little Britain came on the TV, so I watched that (as did everyone else, by the sounds of all the laughter). It was the first episode from the second series, which was really good to see again.

We had a piece of Pizza and a small cake at around 6.15 as our tea. It was a bit soggy, but it kept me going. I was busy watching the stunning views of the Appalation Mountains on the TV screens as we passed over Canada and into the USA. We eventually passed over New York, although I couldn't quite see if Mary-Kate and Ashley were there for Rosie (!).

My neck was killing me - I had had a fitful night sleep and had really cricked my neck. Spending hours on an aeroplane was doing it no good at all.

We eventually landed at Washington, where I had to go through the stringent security checks, get my fingerprints taken, photo taken, take your shoes off, coat off, take your laptop out etc. etc. It's a bit of a pain, but I guess it's making sure we're all safe, so I shouldn't complain. I had a couple of hours till my flight to Denver was due, so I grabbed a bite to eat (spent my first dollars!) and waited by the gate.

The plane to Denver was quiet different the the previous one. It was set out in a 2-5-2 arrangement, and I was plonked right in the middle of the 5. Great. And the guy in front of me insisted on having his seat reclined, so I kept sticking my knees in his back till he moved ;o)
Take off was delayed by about 20 mins for some reason, which was a bit boring, but once we got up it was a decent flight - 4 hours long. I was starting to feel really wierd by now - my body thought it was 18:45, but actually it was only 13:45. Very odd.

So I finally arrived in Denver, dashed off to find my luggage , only to find out that I didn't need to as it would be transferred to the Bozeman plane for me. I had, by this time, gone out of the departture lounge though, so I had to go back through all the security again...shoes off, bags emptied, laptop out etc. , then get a train back to the departure lounge. I was rapidly running out of time so I sprinted as best I could, dragging my trolley case behind me, and just made it onto the Bozeman flight with 10 minutes to spare. This was a much smaller plane, just 2+2, although it is a relatively short hop of 1.5 hours from Denver to Bozeman. I spent this time finding some really funny things you can buy in the in-flight magazine. I'll tell you all about these another day!

In the end, we landed in Bozeman a bit early. I collected my bag and called the hotel to arrange a pickup (they do a free transfer service). I was fretting a bit tho, as there appears to be no mobile signal out here. I have had no problems in Washington and Denver, but it looks like Bozeman doesn't come under any roaming agreements with O2 or Vodafone - there's just no signal at all. This is a real pain, as it means I'm limited to MSN, or costly hotel telephones, when sometimes just a quick text would do. Grrrr......

Anyway, I got into my room and rang Lisa to tell her all was well. When the kids got up they all went on MSN, so I had a nice chat with everyone and we got the webcams working at least (no audio tho :o[ ) I miss them all so much already. I don't know quite how I have managed to be so brave, coz all I wanted to do today was cry and cry all day, but I toughed it out and managed to control myself, for the sake of my fellow travellers!

I'll now finish my unpacking and get some sleep. I think its gonna take me a good few days to get back to normal, so I hope there's nothing too strenuous in the first few days training!

My carriage awaits

2005-02-27T11:20:00.000Z

After the most difficult goodbyes I've ever done, I'm now waiting to board my plane for washington. It's the start of a very big adventure for me, not just for the next 2.5 weeks, but for the rest of my life as it heralds theproper start of my new job...and ultimately my new life.

USA here I come!

2005-02-25T13:47:00.000Z

This is probably the last chance I'll get to post before I leave for the states on Sunday, so I thought I'd just say farewell. I hope to keep posting while I'm over there, with news and photos of what I'm up to.

I'm feeling really wierd now...quite excited about going, but so sad to be leaving everyone behind. I'm going to miss them all so much. I'm so not looking forward to saying goodbye, it's gonna be awful :o(

JCS on Radio 2

2005-02-23T09:42:00.000Z

On Elaine Paige's Radio 2 show on Sunday, she had JCS as her featured show. She played "Superstar", "Herod's Song", "Everything's Alright", "Gethsemane" and "I don't know how to love him". You can listen to the show again on the BBC Radio Player until next Sunday. If you can put up with Elaine's rather annoying voice and unfunny jokes, it's actually quite a good show, with a good selection of songs from film and stage. It's on from 13:00 till 14:30 on a Sunday.

Montana webcams

2005-02-22T09:19:00.000Z

Well, the time for my departure to the USA is approaching fast - only 5 more days then I'm off :o(

I've been checking out the weather conditions over there by using these 2 webcams:
This one is on top of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle building, and this one is on the Montana State University campus. Both of these can be controlled by the user, so you can pan around and zoom in and out to your heart's content, which is quite fun. Remember that Montana is 7 hours behind tho, so there's not much to see before about 2pm our time. When the sun does come up tho, there are some amazing mountain ranges all along the horizon, which are worth a look. For the stalkers among you, you could alternatively park the camera outside the Student Union building and snoop on the students going in and out!

Another new look

2005-02-18T15:48:00.000Z

Yes, its true...I decided on another make-over for the site. I felt the other template wasn't really working too well, and stumbled across this one, which I thought was rather funky. Hope you like it.

Slight change of plan

2005-02-14T16:30:00.000Z

It seems my flights and hotel have been changed for my trip to the states. I am now flying into Washington, then from there to Denver, then on to Bozeman. This is better as my flight now leaves at 12 noon, which gives us time to get to the airport without having to get up at stupid-o-clock in the morning. And I now have my seats reserved, so I can see that although I have to make do with travelling Economy class, I am on the aisle, so at least I can stretch my legs out.

And they've changed my hotel to the Wingate Inn, which looks much nicer than the other one. Rooms look much bigger and more comfortable. There's still free net access, which is great, and it also means I'll be there with the other 2 guys from work who are visiting at the same time.

As for the new job, well, it's going vey well. I'm getting into it now and getting to know the software. I'm working from home this week, really getting my hands dirty with the product, but then I'm hopefully going out on site with another consultant next week for a few days. Then, it's off to the states the week after!

A new start

2005-02-08T08:22:00.000Z

So, yesterday was my first day working for RightNow. It was a good day, everyone here is really friendly and pleased to see me. I've got a nice swanky new laptop, and a smart mobile phone is on order! It was quite a quiet day, spent looking through documents and internal web sites, getting acquainted with the systems they use here. I think it's all going to work out really well.

Even the Travelodge I'm staying in is pretty good (as Travelodges go), and, best of all, it is literally just across the street from the office - 15 seconds walk from door to door! Now that's the sort of commute I don't mind doing!

And of an era...and top show news

2005-02-04T18:18:00.000Z

That's it, the end of an era...today was my last day with BT and I am now officially unemployed! (until Monday!)

I thought I'd feel really overjoyed as i left the building in Leeds for the last time, but I actually felt quite subdued. I think my excitement at leaving BT has been tempered by my anxiety over my new job. Don't get me wrong, I'm so looking forward to doing it, it's just going to be a real test for me, for Lisa and for the kids. I have to get used to working really hard again! I don't seem to have done that for quite some time now! And Lisa and the kids will have to get used to me not being around much, which is going to be really hard. It's going to be a strain on all of us, but we have to keep focussing on the final goal - the move to France. That is why I'm doing this job and that is why we will all make it work.

Another good thing - we won the "Best Show" award from NODA for JCS! I think we all hoped that we would, but it is nice to hear at last. Personally, I'm also holding out for the "Best Suicide in a musical" award....

A proud Uncle

2005-02-01T17:23:00.000Z

Uncle Richard
Originally uploaded by aragornsbeard.

Daniel

2005-02-01T17:21:00.000Z

Daniel
Originally uploaded by aragornsbeard.

What an angel...

And finally....

2005-01-31T09:19:00.000Z

And so the waiting is finally over...today I received details of when, where and how for my new job. The big news is that I won't be going until 27th February now - I thought I was going next week, but they've moved the training back. So, next week I'll be heading down to the office in Slough (David Brent country) for a few days to get acquainted, pick up my laptop, phone and stuff, then I'll be back working from home for a little while.

As for the trip to the states, I'll be flying from Manchester to Chicago (duration 8hrs 30!), from Chicago to Denver (duration 2hrs 32), then from Denver to Bozeman (duration 1hr 41).
So that makes a total time in the air of 12hours 43 mins. However, as I have to wait around for connections, my total travel time will be 18hours! I'm going to feel a bit frazzled by the time I arrive I think.

While there I'll be staying at the Microtel Inn Bozeman, which looks fairly basic (unless they are kind enough to give me a suite - which looks a lot nicer!). Although I have seen somewhere that they all have wireless net access, so I'm hoping that's true. Think I'll need that lifeline being away from my family for 3 whole weeks.

The new arrival

2005-01-30T15:25:00.000Z

Still nameless but sleeping peacefully, my new nephew is just perfect.

Update (31/01/05 8:30am)

...and finally he has a name: Alexander Jack Ward

2nd Update (31/01/05 7:00 pm)

Due to some kind of "mix-up" it appears that he is actually called Daniel Jack....for now. If there's any further change, I'll be sure to let you know!

Waiting over at last (almost)

2005-01-29T18:54:00.000Z

Well, at last, the longest wait is over. Kathryn had a baby boy at around 1pm today. Weighing in at 8lbs 13oz, he was not about to give up his lodgings easily and took quite some persuasion to come out. But come out he did, and I am now officially Uncle Richard in my own right (I inheritted lots of nephews & neices when I married Lisa!)....and a very proud Uncle I am. Unfortunately, making decisions is not something Kathryn and Sam have ever been good at, and this extends to chosing a name...up until 3 weeks ago they have a "shortlist" of 16 names for boys - and as I write they have still not decided. Hmmmm.....must have words I think! Needless to say I am overjoyed. They have waited so long for this to happen and I'm just totally thrilled now it has. The trouble now is finding the time to go down to see them (they live near Bedford). Going away on the 7th means there's not much time for me to see them all, so it could be a quick dash down next week. Hopefully they'll have a name by then!

And the wait was also finally over for my car - picked it up today at last - a Citroen Xsara Picasso. Just right for all the kids and very nice to be back in an MPV again.

Still no more details of my job however, but hopefully that will come on Monday.

Waiting...and waiting...and waiting....

2005-01-28T17:24:00.000Z

I hate waiting....

I've been waiting over a week to get my new car.

I've been waiting over 6 weeks to find out just what I'm doing when I start my new job.

I've been waiting 9 months and 2 weeks for my sister's baby to arrive.

It's getting silly now and I'm fed up :o(

New look

2005-01-28T10:59:00.000Z

Hi, yes this is the right place! I just felt like a bit of a change, so here's the new look "What's The Buzz?". It's a bit brighter than the old one, but still the same old stuff.

Enjoy!

More JCS galleries

2005-01-26T10:04:00.000Z

Found a couple of new JCS production galleries for your perusal.

This one by the Cheltenham Operatic & Dramatic Society looks pretty impressive (apart from Mary, who looks soooooo wrong next to the Brad Pitt-lookalike jesus). Oh and it seems they also employed Lilly Savage as Herod.

This one from CAMUS Productions ("Over 37 years of musical theatre for the people of North West Surrey") is quite bizarre...quite largely because Jesus looks remarkably like a girl. Hmmm...an interesting interpretation! Seems like they took inspiration for much of their staging and costumes straight from the DVD as well...not sure if that really worked very well. See what you think.

This is quite a large gallery, including rehearsals and back-stage stuff, from the Basingstoke Operatic Society. Looks like they had fun.

A busy time ahead

2005-01-23T09:46:00.000Z

Looks like my 3 weeks in montana is going to be all work and not much play...

Got my itinerary through the other day - 8:30-5:00 every day filled with training, demonstrations, lectures, workng lunches, shadowing..... And the scariest bit - "Evening Assignments" and "Weekend Assignments"!!! OMG! I'll be shattered by the time I get home I reckon.

I'll be flying from Manchester...hope to get my flights and hotels confirmed on Monday. Then it will all seem very real. Only 2 weeks to go and I still can't quite believe it's gonna happen!

JCS flashback

2005-01-20T10:47:00.000Z

It was nice to see a flashback to last November in the paper the other night. There was a piece all about the charity concert that our very own Peter Finnegan is headlining, alongside the photo of Pete, Caroline and Myself (where we're trying not to giggle!).

The concert is on 4th February at the Waltham British Legion and is in aid of the Dr Mack equipment fund. Peter will be joined by other local singers as well, so please go along and support them, it's for a very good cause.

You can get your tickets from Peter Hogarth and Sons, The Kings's Head at Waltham or the British Legion at Waltham.

Born again...

2005-01-17T21:25:00.000Z

It's a miracle. After a near-fatal problem with my Blogger template left the site empty for a while, it has now been reincarnated, using a slightly older backup version. Hopefully it won't happen again.

Top weekend in the woods

2005-01-10T20:46:00.000Z

Just had a fantastic time at Center Parcs at the weekend. We haven't been for a while and I think I had forgotten how relaxing it is. It's hard to believe that somewhere only just over an hour away can feel like the most tranquil and peaceful place. We had such an amazing time, the kids loved it and all got on really well. We went swimming, bowling, played table-tennis, went for long walks in the forest. And my sister and her husband came up to see us for a day, which was a really nice surprise. All in all a great weekend. If you've never been, I would really reccomend it.

Finally - my official job offer arrives

2005-01-06T08:54:00.000Z

At last I got my official job offer through yesterday. I had had several emails and phone conversations saying that I was being offered the job, that the letter was "in the pipeline", but nothing was forthcoming. However, I finally got the emailed copy of the paperwork through yesterday, with the printed version to follow shortly. So I took great pleasure in writing my resignation letter to BT this morning and sent that off - a very nice feeling!

As of 7th February I shall officially be employed by RightNow Technologies. I don't hgave any more details of my trip to the States as yet, but presumably that will be the first thing I do. Now it's all a bit scary! I've got to buy a car, coz mine is a company one, which I always hate doing. And the countdown is now ticking to my 3 weeks away. It's so exciting, but I'm so going to hate being away from my family for so long. I just hope I have a decent mobile reception and internet access where I am, or I'm going to be totally lost!

Happy New Year!

2005-01-02T08:53:00.000Z

Happy New Year to you all. I hope your 2005 is a great success and filled with happiness.

Here's to an exciting 12 months!

A time for giving...

2004-12-30T15:06:00.000Z

While we're all enjoying our Christmas and New Year festivities, let's not forget the more than 110,000 people who have been lost in the horrendous disaster in south-east Asia. We should all do our bit to help out, so please go here and make a donation.

It's the best Christmas present you'll give this year.

A quiet Christmas

2004-12-29T10:34:00.000Z

Well, I hope you all had a really fantastic Christmas. We had a nice quiet one, which made a change as we're normally dashing around all over.

Christmas Eve we had friends round with their kids. The children all entertained themselves, which took their minds off the fact that it was Christmas Eve. Christmas Day started very quiet. Joseph decided to lay in till 8:00, so the girls were getting very impatient as they had been on our bed since 7:00 desperate to open their presents! When Joseph eventually woke up we opened our pressies, then got ourselves ready and spent the rest of the day, and most of Boxing Day, round at Mum & Dad's.

We cam back on Boxing Day afternoon as we had a mass of presents to find homes for. The kids had all been bought TVs for their rooms, so I had to set them up as soon as we got back. It seemed strange not to be out anywhere , but it certainly made for a more relaxing time.

So now I am back working for a couple of days, until New Year's Eve. We're out most of the day and round at some friends for the night, so, again, it should be fairly relaxing. We have had parties for the last few years, so it's going to be nice to be out somewhere else for a change.

Anyway, let me know what you got for Christmas, what you're up to in between, and what your doing for New Year, and I'll be in touch again soon!

Richard

I'm Google number 1!

2004-12-23T16:26:00.000Z

How cool is this?....type "richard barley" into Google right now and you'll find my Blogger profile is the number one result. I don't know what black magic Google use to decide what goes where, but I'm pretty chuffed to be the number one Richard Barley in the world right now!

(here's a screenshot, just in case I am ever deposed!)

So much for a white Christmas...

2004-12-22T11:34:00.000Z

Look North predicted a white Christmas a few days ago. Doesn't look likely now :o(

Oh, and dont forget, Operatics xmas gathering at the Lynton tonight, 8pm.

Happy Christmas!

2004-12-22T08:50:00.000Z

I just want to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a prosperous new year.

It has been quite a strange year for me, being more and more fed up woth my job, but at the same time getting to achieve my goal of playing Judas. And it all culminated in such a fantastic week, topped off by getting a new job soon after. I've made lots of new friends and I can't quite believe that 12 months ago I didn't even have a website ;o)

So, it's been a rollercoaster ride for me, and next year may well be just as exciting. A trip to America, my sister's new baby, travelling round the country with my new job, another holiday to France in the Summer, then hopefully emigrating out there at the end of the year. THere's going to be lots for me to write about, so I hope you all keep coming back to see what I've been up to. And I hope your 2005 turns out to be as great as I hope mine will.

Merry Christmas!

Richard

Montana here I come...

2004-12-17T17:38:00.000Z

On the job front, I've just heard that I'll be starting my new role on 7th February. First off I'll be heading to the head office in Bozeman, Montana for my 3 solid weeks of "on-boarding" (so they call it - "induction & training" I call it). It's right up in the mountians near the Canadian border, so in February it'll be nice and cold.

Thermal vests for Christmas please Santa!

UPDATE:
See just how cold it is right now!

Swindon JCS gallery

2004-12-17T12:11:00.000Z

Today's hillarious JCS gallery brought to you by the Swindon Amateur Light Operatic Society. Nice to see Lilly Savage taking the role of Herod in this one...

No, really!

The Blower's Daughter

2004-12-16T17:15:00.000Z

Go here, listen to the most beautiful song ever, then go buy the best album ever.

Good luck to CAST

2004-12-16T14:49:00.000Z

Just a note to say "good luck" (sorry, "Break a leg") to all those involved in the CAST panto at the Central Hall tomorrow. Let me know how it goes.

Philharmonic Farewell

2004-12-13T16:40:00.000Z

Last night's Phil concert was great. It was a really varied programme, including old favourites like "The Holly and the ivy" and "The 12 days of Christmas", alongside some beautiful new songs like "A Time Of Snow" and "Scots Nativity". We had the EYMS Brass Band with us, doing a few numbers (although we felt they went on a little too long in the second half) which made it all feel even more festive than normal.
And of course we had solos from Rachel Robinson, who sounded amazing. Such a beautiful pure voice. Very well done Rachel.

This performance was a little sad though, as it marked the end of my singing for the forseeable future. I'll just not have the opportunity to do any serious singing with the new job, so it was a bit sad to think that this is it now for a long time. I have really enjoyed my year at the Phil. Susan Hollingworth, the conductor, is a total inspiration. I could not have sung as I did in JCS if I hadn't spent the 6 months in the Phil beforehand. I would urge anyone who is interested in "proper" choral singing to give the Phil a try. Susan makes it all great fun, she is so full of life and energy and it;s not at all stuffy and boring. Next concert is a Jazz concert and will be totally unlike anything the Phil have done before. Men, especially, will be welcomed, seeing as how they have just lost a tenor. Please give them a try!

Harwich JCS gallery

2004-12-09T13:36:00.000Z

Today's JCS performance photos brought to you by Harwich Amateur Operatic Society. (You have to click on "Jesus Christ Superstar" on the left - above the review - then click on "Gallery" next to the god-awful spinning cube/JCS logo thing.)

Pics are a bit dark and site is a bit slow, but it's interesting to see what they did. Herod and his harem are particularly...*a-hem*...different!

Buying music books?

2004-12-08T13:11:00.000Z

If you're looking to buy any sheet music, exam books, books about music, dvd's/videos about music, music software, music accessories etc, may I heartily recommend Musicroom.com. I have ordered quite a bit of stuff from there and it has always arrived really quickly, and they do FREE delivery on all orders.

Plus, if you go there by clicking on the ad under "Recommendations" on the right and buy something, they will send me a few coppers for referring you. What nice people!

Feeling energetic....?

2004-12-07T13:21:00.000Z

...engage in some YetiSports.

A quiet AGM

2004-12-07T10:49:00.000Z

After a busy Phil rehearsal, I arrived at the AGM last night just in time for the buffet. Sounds like I hadn't missed a huge amount tho....no stirring speaches or exciting arguments to spice up the evening. Just the usual stuff. I was hoping that at least the NODA report would have been read out, but it seems we don't have it yet, which is a shame.

Still, it was good to see folk again...the men all looked very different without their beards and long hair (and hair extensions in certain cases!). Seems like it was a pretty quiet night all told. A few of us went to the pub after for a quick tipple, then that was it.

The Christmas "do" has been cancelled, by the way. But people are now meeting in the Lynton on the night of Wednesday 22nd December for drinks. Hopefully I'll see you all there.

Monday morning musings

2004-12-06T09:16:00.000Z

You have to see "The Incredibles"...we took Joseph and his friends for his 5th Birthday at the weekend and we all loved it. It's a bit more complex than Toy Story and Nemo, but this just adds to the enjoyment for us (almost) grown-ups. It's such a good film...I especially liked the cameo from Samuel L Jackson...so cool.

You have to hear the soundtrack from "The Woman in White", Andrew LLoyd-Webber's latest musical. It's a bit "Phantom", a lot "Sunset Boulevard", a touch of "Aspects of Love" and even a smattering on "Les Mis", with a very subtle hint of "Martin Geurre" for good measure. But altogether it makes for a very emotional, passionate performance. You can see an 8-minute clip of the show (be warned, its about 38mb, so will take a while if you're not on a decent broadband connection) on the official website. It gives a good flavour of the show and includes most of the big numbers. Michael Crawford and Maria Friedman are the stars and both give stunning perfomances I reckon. It's interesting to see that they don't use a normal big set, but instead have a curved screen along the back of the stage onto which they project computer-generated images of the verious scenes. Sounds a bit dodgy, but from the clip It looks really effective.

On the subject of Lloyd-Webber, you also have to see the "Phantom" movie when it comes out at the end of this week. It's a show I've never had chance to see, but have always loved the music. Having recently acquired the soundtrack for the movie, I was keen to see how it had changed, and I was pleasently surprised by how good it sounded. The trailers I've seen look stunning as well, so I reckon this should be a cracker of a film.

On the job front, I have heard that I will be starting on the 7th February...no doubt going straight out to the states for my 3 weeks training. This is a bit later than I had hoped - I didn't really want to have go back to BT after Christmas, but at least this way I will get to go to Centre Parcs and see my sister's new baby, both of which will (hopefully) be happening in January.

Don't forget everyone, it's the Operatics AGM tonight...hope to see you all there.

look in the eyes...the eyes...not AROUND the eyes...don't look around the eyes, look IN the eyes...*snap*...and youre under.