Present and correct

On my birthday itself, there was first of all, a hell of a lot of cleaning to be done! My parents then came round and we had a spot of brekkie in the garden. Then, it was present time. I had some great gifts - lots of wine, a TKD bag and.........a new iPod Touch 32GB from SJ. This is seriously cool!!! We then had to take the doggies to the kennels as we needed to travel back down to Radlett in order to get our flight from Gatwick the following day. It's always a shame leaving them but the kennels do a fantastic job with them. They're called Bankhouse Farm and are well recommended. After dropping them off, we carried on down to Radlett. We then packed our stuff and went to Va Pensiero for our evening meal. All in all, a very, very, very good birthday - in fact - the best!!

33 and still going strong...

So, the birthday...

I went to see my Grandad in hospital on Saturday (12th). Whilst I was there, my mom had set up a little party to celebrate. I didn't realise that she'd done this because my Grandad wouldn't have been able to attend the real party....

As SJ wanted to see her parents (or so I thought) I'd had a lift with my parents to the hospital and back. Well, when we arrived back in Rugeley, SJ asked us to go round the back as the drive was being finished (another story). So, I walked round to the back garden and...................blow me, if there wasn't all of my friends & relatives all standing there wearing Karate Kid headbands!!!! It was a complete surprise - I had no idea!! It was a brilliant party, the weather stayed good and we were able to keep the BBQ going for about 3 hours! Lots and lots of drink, food and music...twas excellent. I should also point out the detail that they'd gone into...the cake was modelled on a photo of me and my TKD suit! They'd even photographed the badges and logos and put them on the cake! Everyone had headbands like Karate Kid (hand-drawn by SJ and two random blokes on the train the night before!). I must say a big thanks to all who came. Most importantly though, thanks to SJ and all those who put it together...X X X

Been a long time...

So this is the first post in over two months!!! I've just been so busy that I've not had chance to update this as often as I would like. Anyhow, I'll do a brief update of the last few months and then upload some piccies...

Well, we arrived back from Cannes safe and sound and may I say, what a cool trip that was...we're so lucky to be able to do these things...I then went up to Scotland for a couple of days with work. I also had a Golf day at a course in St. Neots...blowed if I can remember the name now though...

I started Tae Kwon Do as well at the end of May. I used to do Karate for quite some years when I was younger but like most things, I got bored of it. I got up to a brown belt which is only one away from black. I've been wanting to take up some form of interest for some time now and I found this one on the internet and its only round the corner. Its called Spirit TKD. I've been going for 2 months now and have just completed my first grading. I'm now a white with yellow tags (I had to start as a beginner again).

We attended the BBC Summer Festival in June at the NEC. That was really good - is basically a combination of the Good Food Show, Ideal Home Show and the Garden Show. I bought a new plant - an Acer.

My parents went on holiday as well in June...can't remember where to though now! My grandad was also taken ill. Basically it transpires that he's had a series of mini-strokes and his left side has now been affected. He was taken to the Manor in Walsall and as of writing he's still there, 7 weeks later...

From a work point of view I gave a couple of lectures, one being in Stratford at the Profibus Conference. My role now is EMEA based and it gives me more freedom to do what I feel is necessary. At the moment, I'm still UK-centric but I'm starting to spread out a little now.

We went to watch Kung Fu Panda at the IMAX. It was a HP/BMI thing so was free. It's actually not a bad film. I quite enjoyed it...

I also had to get a second passport in June. Because I'd been to Israel and therefore gained an Israeli stamp, it meant I may have difficulty in entering certain countries, namely the Middle Eastern ones. It was actually quite painless, I thought it would have been quite difficult but it wasn't.

We met up with some friends at a pub called the Carpenters Arms. We'd been meaning to go there for a while as the chef is the brother of our friend. Food was really good...we'd definitely go back.

Heading into July, it was my nephews 18th birthday and so we decided to hold a party on the 5th. Good night although we did have to miss going to the Severn Valley railway trip.

The following weekend was my birthday and wow...what a birthday! I'll write a separate entry about this as it needs more explanation!!

The last couple of weeks in July we were in Cuba, again I'll write a separate entry...when we came back, we had a couple of days and then SJ's friends's came over from Sydney...I'll write an entry about that as well and we should then be up to date!!

Cannes...

On Sunday morning we flew out of sunny Luton into sunny Nice. We were off to the Cannes Film Festival again!!

We were picked up at Nice airport in a Mercedes and driven back to our hotel - the Majestic Barriere. This was a different hotel to last year, closer to the red carpet! We arrived around 11:00 and headed onto the private beach area for lunch. It was a completely free event with as much food and drink as you wanted.

We met up with SJ's customer's who'd arrived on an earlier flight and watched the world go by. We headed back to the hotel to get ready as we'd got an appointment with a Harcourt photographer before our premiere. Harcourt is a style of photography pretty much exclusive to France. Click on the link and you'll see what I mean...

After our session we headed for a couple of drinks before making our way over to the Palais des Festivals for our premiere...and what a premiere...we had tickets to the world premiere of Indiand Jones and The Crystal Skull! The crowds were amazing and the amount of photographers!!!! We made our way inside and watched as the celebs came up the red carpet. There were loads there - Goldie Hawn, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Lewis Hamilton, George Lucas, Salma Hayek, Cate Blanchett, etc, etc. They were seated just below us in the theatre. The film itself is OK...nothing special though. If it wasn't the fact it was an IJ movie, it would probably flop.

The following day we had a wander round Cannes, picked up some pics, had some lunch and then made our way back to the airport for our flight home...brilliant time had by all!!

North or South?

On Friday we headed back up to Rugeley as we had to drop the dogs off at the kennels for a week. On Sunday we're off to Cannes...yay! We actually come back on Monday night so its a short trip, but on Wednesday I'm in Scotland for 2 days. I thought it best therefore to put the doggies into kennels for the week, picking them up next Friday.

Sales Meeting ...

For the last three days I've been in a Sales Meeting at The Node Conference Centre. It was a little strange without some of the guys in the BU being sold off, but I was glad that I finally got my contract and am officially staying put! I had to sign a dew forms in terms of the legalities but apart from that its now all done. I think the deal will eventually go through next week but I'm definitely staying where I am.

Cannes preparation...

If you've been reading this blog since its inception, you'll remember that last year SJ and I got to go to the Cannes Film Festival. Guess what...we're going again this year!! It's through SJ's work...as long as a customer is taken, she and I can go along as well. Well, we're heading out next Sunday for two days and I can't wait! There is one hitch though...we have to get a new dress...

SAturday was spent on Oxford St trying to get SJ a new dress. It was looking a little desperate for a while but Debenhams came up trumps and in the end there was a choice of two! SJ went for the brighter one in the end and it looked amazing! The rest of the weekend was quiet really - I think we were both a bit tired...

Busy week...

This week has been pretty non-stop - it was Yarmouth & Norwich on Tuesday, Central London on Wednesday, Essex & Camberley on Thursday and Central London again on Friday...busy, busy, busy!

I'm doing a lot of presentations and demonstrations for a new product my company is selling - hopefully this will continue if/when I get my contract sorted out. I've still not had anything official as yet...

On Wednesday night as well, we went back to Venture in Knightsbridge to have a look at the portraits that we'd had taken the week before. They're really good and although we said we weren't going to get any - we did. they should be ready in 4-6 weeks...can't wait!

Back in the saddle...

Well it's been a Bank Holiday Weekend and the weather was great! On Saturday we got the bikes out for the first time this year...what a pallaver! First of all, the tyres were a little flat so I spent about 30 minutes pumping them back up before we went anywhere. We arrived at Punchbowl and had been gone for around 5 minutes before my front tyre was completely flat! I could not believe I had a puncture so spent the next 15 minutes or so, pumping like fury to get this tyre inflated. It didn't help that the pump we were using was knackered and was tiny. In the end I gave up and trudged back to the car park pushing my bike. We took it round to Mammoth Cycles (just round the corner) and they were fantastic, replacing the innertube within 5 minutes. the valve had torn away from the innertube - there was no way that was going to be repaired. We then headed back over the Chase and continued our ride. We started at the German War Cemetry and headed downto Sherbrook Valley and then back up the single track the other side. Not bad considering we hadn't been on the bikes for a few months.

Busy week...

This week has been pretty busy. It was Luton on Monday for a meeting, then Sheffield on Tuesday, London on Wednesday, home on Thursday and driving to Rugeley in the evening. Not a lot has happened although I did manage to lose SJ's umbrella! This was an umbrella she loved and there's a little story in how she bought it...anyway, it was raining so I asked if I could borrow it - yes, as long as I didn't leave it anywhere! Well, of course I did! I know why I did though as I also bought a new laptop bag that day, therefore giving me something else to carry as well as the umbrella. Anyway, suffice to say SJ was not happy about said umbrella...All was not lost though as we managed to procure 2 identical replacements, as well as the customer emailing me to tell me I'd left the brolly with them! We now have 3 identical umbrellas!