Monday 26 May 2008 – Sunday 1 June 2008
Bank Holiday Monday and Tuesday is spent putting two long days in at the office writing reports and keeping on top of e mails whilst Wednesday is little different although the morning is spent in a meeting in Coventry finalising the arrangements that will go into a formal proposal for Members to consider on 1 July. In the afternoon I have meetings with the Credit Union and my portfolio holder and other lead members around forthcoming customer access and post office closure issues guaranteeing another long day and night in the life of a Local Government officer.
This is again repeated on Thursday with other key meetings with the CAB and the Management Team before getting home to pack in readiness for a three-day visit attending the TEGOVA general assembly in Warsaw. This is a meeting attended by most of the European nations chaired by our very own Roger Messenger.
J and I arrive in Warsaw in the afternoon taking in a late lunch at a streetside restaurant where eating traditional polish fare of a pizza we meet up with David and his wife Liz who are on there way back from visiting the Old Town. Never one to miss opportunities we catch up with some institute business over a coffee before enjoying a absolutely lovely evening dining in the former King of Poland’s summer residence (the floating Palace) wandering amongst the peacocks pre dinner before we are serenaded by a string quartet playing Chopin over a dinner starting with more traditional Polish fare of royal herring (have to say I’m more of a pizza man), However the rest of the menu is excellent as is the company as we are joined by Junior Vice President, Geoff Fisher and his wife and Tambet Tiits and his wife (no cheap jokes here please. As well as a leading valuer in his nation, he is a former Olympic wrestler)
Saturday is spent all day in the meeting attended by representatives from over 25 nations sitting behind their national flags discussing the key issues around developing common valuation methodology. Interspersed with presentations ranging from the UK’s David Tretton to sessions for the purists around the impact of land tax in Russia, the highlight of the day is the election of officers which takes on Eurovision song contest dimensions. The upshot of all is that Roger is returned to the chair for 3 further years.
The evening is spent very informally enjoying some of the best desserts imaginable and Roger being given the biggest birthday cake I have ever seen to celebrate the passing of 50 years (or as he put it the 29th anniversary of his 21st birthday) and being entertained by a traditional Polish dance troupe. This was followed by a “sort of” euro karaoke of folk songs from a variety of Baltic nations which in all honesty seemed like they had the same melody ! The British contingent definitely stayed quiet on this one however back at the hotel by midnight, Geoff Fisher led the evenings singing with what seemed to be some common ground of Abba songs and tunes from the Sound of Music although J and I departed by then (although without the “so long farewell Auf Widersein goodbye send off)
Sunday, David and I meet for a breakfast meeting before we are joined by J to finalise the Institute’s education consultation paper contents. We meet in the Old Square for lunch wandering back in brilliant sunshine before arriving at the airport only to find our plane home is delayed two and a half hours and instead of flying out of the newly built terminal we are flying out of the pre 1970 prefab with no duty free, a café selling only 2 types of drink and hot dogs and with only 200 chairs for the 500 people in the departure lounge! Maybe a glimpse of the Poland I was expecting but it has to be said its exceeded my expectations, been a really enjoyable 3 days and we will definitely return to explore more in the future maybe during next years international conference.
Monday 2 June 2008 – Sunday 8 June 2008
Monday is a day of meetings kicking off with an early one with the Chief Executive, some ICT training on a new corporate system and an afternoon getting on top of things as I am out the rest of the week. Finish my presentations for the week ahead leaving the office last in what is becoming a habit this year turning the lights out as I go.
In very early on Tuesday having been up since 5am and on the road by 11am as I give a presentation in Bristol to the Northgate User group at 1.30pm before getting back in the car arriving in Hampshire at a hotel we may use in the future. Spend an evening catching up on some work, on the phone discussing some conference details with Gary Watson before leaving very early after an express breakfast to arrive at Fontwell race course by 9am where the Wessex association are holding their AGM.
Following a mornings meeting where David Airey and I split the two papers, I stay for the first two races, getting a winner in the second and I quit whilst ahead as I need to get back to the office before the M25 gets too busy and arrive by 5pm to put in a night shift !
It’s a very long day on Thursday and in all honesty I am grateful when we cancel a planned meeting with Coventry in the afternoon as it allows me to get completely back on top of things.
In early on the Friday, I join Equita at the Forest of Arden for an afternoon on the golf course and along with my teammates we enjoy a victory as well as raising over 600 pounds for our joint charities in the evening.
Saturday morning sees J’s dad, brother, brother in law and me out on the Coventry canal (road testing or is it raft testing) the sea worthiness of the raft we are using in Stratford. Built by Julies dad we venture out with only 2 oars and a combined age of over 200 years (we should know better – see the pictures) but it is a success and having avoided two barges we return to the bank safely. Game On for the 22nd !
Do some shopping and visiting in the afternoon before spending Sunday partly in the office and the rest soaking up the sunshine in the garden.
Monday 9 June 2008 – Sunday 15 June 2008
After an early start, hold a couple of staff meetings on Monday to update on shared service proposals and performance levels and finish the day off with an evening meeting with the board of the credit union.
Up Tuesday, I pack for the 3-day presidential visit to Belfast before popping into work early for some meetings before leaving early afternoon to drive to Birmingham for the short flight to Belfast. The evening is spent as guests of John Gandley, owner of Gandlake who are sponsoring the following days Northern Ireland conference.
The Northern Ireland conference is a great success and having presented my paper in the morning, spend the next few hours working in my room before rejoining the conference and the final papers of the day. Catch up on some e mails before we head into town as I am hosting members of the Northern Ireland association and speakers in a local restaurant. J flies in and joins us just in time for dessert.
Up for a breakfast meeting on Thursday before we head off as a delegation (David, Julie Holden, Pat Doherty, J and I) to meet with senior officials from the LPS who administer the billing collection and processing of benefits for the whole of NI (some 720,000 dwellings). As civil servants many are fairly new to the R&B discipline and we have a very productive meeting sharing experiences and ideas in a meeting co facilitated with Alan Bronte, our NI Council Member.
The afternoon is spent on the Belfast eye looking at some of the new developments springing up across the city and J takes advantage to visit some of the latest retailers to set up in the city and helps support the countries GDP! The evening is spent at the now traditional yacht club venue for the association dinner which celebrates their 40th anniversary of the association.
Friday and having had an early meeting with David, we enjoy 18 holes on the fairways of Royal Belfast and a one hole victory before meeting up with J and Liz for the trip back to the airport and then home spending two full days in work on Saturday and Sunday catching up on the weeks events.
Monday 16 June 2008 – Sunday 23 June 2008
Down in London for a number of meetings at HQ with Gary and David around the conference I am met at the end of the street by loads of police and have to be personally escorted to the door. Why ? Well Mrs Bush is in town with another president, some guy named George and she is visiting the Dickens museum also located in Doughty Street !!! What a waste of public service resource for what turns out to be fleeting visit (Members will be pleased to know that I don’t get such treatment). In the afternoon, we are joined by a number of reps from the associations who run IRRV courses to discuss the provision of next years certificate qualifications and some proposed changes to the syllabus to be recommended at our next Full Council round in July. Gary and I meet up with one of the speakers lined up for the annual conference to give them a brief in the early evening before grabbing something quickly to eat before we head back to Doughty Street and continue with our meeting from earlier in the day.
Gone are the days of hard and fast living on the town and having concluded our meeting about 10, we retire to the flat on the top floor and spend the next hour or so looking at some of the archives stored in the flat which cover the last 80 years or more of the Institute. The 1930 annual dinner looked a rip roaring affair and the conferences of that era were wholly male dominated from the black and white memoirs !!! We even seek out one D L Magor’s and P K Doherty’s student records which confirm they were both fellow prize winners. I proceed to have a very good night’s sleep but Gary is woken in the small hours of Tuesday morning by the sound of clanking cups. Assuming it was me washing up he is perturbed to look across to my bed to find me fast asleep ! Bravely or foolishly, he investigates only to be confronted by a large west Indian gentleman in marigolds. Apparently the IRRV’s normal cleaner is off and he is standing in for her. I don’t know who is most surprised but that’s London for you, a real 24/7 city.
Tuesday morning is again spent in a number of meetings including taking in lunch with Tim Savill from the Audit Commission. Heading back home, I get into work by 5pm to clock in for the late shift finishing by 8pm before getting my golf stuff sorted for an early start.
Out by 5 30am, I arrive at the Grove situated just outside London, do some work in the car park before grabbing some breakfast and joining CAPITA colleagues for an enjoyable 18 holes (I win again somehow) before making the long journey across to Wales to arrive just in time for the main course at the pre conference dinner hosted by the IaIn Marshally and Nigel Morse as respective North and South Wales presidents. Deliver my paper in the morning and stay until lunch before heading back along the same single track out of Wales I went in on arriving back at the office for what is now becoming the familiar “4 hour twilight shift”.
Friday, sees J and I back in London initially to assist in running the capping workshop organised by the LGA for all affected Councils before heading across the road to the House of Lords for a lunch reception hosted by fellow Council member, and past IRRV President, Tom Dixon who is the current President of the Rating Surveyors Association. It is a great do hosted in a great venue before we meet up later for a couple of sociable drinks in a local hostelry before heading back home on the train.
Saturday sees me spend another day at the keyboard (although I don’t mind as its peeing it down outside) having first got up to watch the 2nd test between England and New Zealand (we lost) before making final preparations for the raft race the next day that we are doing for charity.
Sunday is brighter but much windier and having collected the low loader from the Councils depot at 7am I pick up the raft arriving in Wasperton by 9am to a field full of other deluded souls prepared to row as we find against the tide and what seemed an 80 mile an hour wind to try and row the seven and a half miles into the centre of Stratford
Well needless to say we didn’t quite make it as my final posted captains log records and the pictures below show.
“On a what was a very blustery day rowing against the tide and as difficult what seemed an 80 mile an hour hoolee, my final captains log will say "we sank"
As they said in Belfast "The Titanic was ok when it left us" and that is the case with the IRRV boat but in our post race inspection, the diagnosis of the sinking was put down to a punctured barrel and gave Mr Watson and Ms Cutler sitting above it a pretty uncomfortable ride. At one point, we were actually going backwards up the river despite all rowing forwards and having lost 3 men overboard into the River Avon at different times and despite attempts to lighten the weight by taking off Messrs Stewart, Traynor, Watson and the captain off, we were still sinking and fighting a losing battle. As such, in true British style we reboarded and despite our best efforts the raft went down and the captain was last to leave ship reappearing covered in mud. Mr Traynor lost a big toe nail in hauling the raft to safety so the team literally gave blood for the cause which with your help we have raised nearly £1000 and in spite of us not finishing we hopefully can increase on this figure if you still feel we deserved it. Needless to say if our luck had matched our effort and enthusiasm we would have finished but as they say "you learn more from failure than you do success" (horrible management cliche) and I am sure we will be back again with a six barreled raft having learnt from the North Warwickshire raft that skippered by Steve Barber and rowed by all my revenues and benefits staff plus Justine from Bristows finished the 7 and a half hour race in a magnificent time of just over 5 hours in the most difficult conditions the race organisers have experienced in its 25 years.
They were truly magnificent as demonstrated by the pictures on a raft built by the depot and I am sure they are feeling the pain today but have the satisfaction of completing it.
Thanks to everyone's support on what was a brilliant day
If you still want to donate you can do, the NWBC team did it for the organisers sponsors the Princes Trust and they will be coming around work with a bucket later (emptied of any water out of the River Avon). If you haven't donated, please give whatever you can to what was a brilliant team effort
As for the IRRV team and its management team of the great and good in revenues and benefits, it was a case of "better to have tried and failed than not try at all" and donations can still be made via the following website to the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance if people want to support remotely
http://www.justgiving.com/irrvraftrace
Some pics of the day are attached which we will all remember for different reasons but the key winner is the charities and if you still wish to give you can do so by accessing the above website. All donations very gratefully received.
Having retrieved the sunken raft from the riverside having driven across a few fields to bemused looks from a few sheep and fisherman late on the Sunday afternoon, I have a long soak in the bath to contemplate how it all went so wrong !!!!!
Monday 23 June to Sunday 29 June 2008
In early on Monday, for a day full of meetings and explanations but contributions generously keep flooding into the website. I leave late afternoon for a meeting with former Olympic runner and British Athletics CEO, Dave Moorcroft who lives near me and is to speak at the Manchester conference before making the long 6 hour drive to the deepest depths of Cornwall picking up David Magor en route as we are running a unitary workshop for them the following day.
Having stopped off for something to eat, we arrive in Camborne by midnight to get up deliver the 60-hour workshop before getting straight back on the road by 4pm and home by 9pm (a 600+ mile round trip in 24 hours – oh well at least it was in a car and not a raft !).
Spend a full Wednesday catching up on e mails as my only day in the office this week before repacking the bag as I am away again but not off to Glastonbury where most of the people on the same train are heading but a combination of Reading, London and Newbury.
Thursday is spent at the Madjeski stadium where the re-launch of the Thames Valley association takes place. I install Jon Dearing into the chair, deliver a paper on the institutes future education strategy before dumping the car and getting the train into London as along with David we are guests of Civica at the MJ awards. Good news though is that the police authority have escaped being capped so that’s one less thing to worry about in August.
Up early after a very late but enjoyable night, we head back to Reading before driving onto Newbury for a meeting with Gandlake, who are key IRRV sponsors this year before a frustrating journey home bumper to bumper up the A34. Pop into my mum and dads to pick up a rug I have ordered from e bay before popping into work for a late one which I repeat on both Saturday and Sunday. Very sad !!!!!
Oh well, another busy week ahead and as it’s the inter association golf tomorrow so I best get off and get my golf stuff ready.
I launch my next charity event tomorrow so it’s a case of watch this space next week.
I am determined not to leave my updates so long next time. I am getting older and the grey matters setting in so recalling everything is getting ever more challenging. Oh well only 13 weeks to go and as I enter my last quarter it looks no less busy.
Remember the closing date for nominations for council elections is only a few weeks away so please whether a corporate or technician think about standing. Details can be found in last months insight and on the website.
Take Care
Bob
Bank Holiday Monday and Tuesday is spent putting two long days in at the office writing reports and keeping on top of e mails whilst Wednesday is little different although the morning is spent in a meeting in Coventry finalising the arrangements that will go into a formal proposal for Members to consider on 1 July. In the afternoon I have meetings with the Credit Union and my portfolio holder and other lead members around forthcoming customer access and post office closure issues guaranteeing another long day and night in the life of a Local Government officer.
This is again repeated on Thursday with other key meetings with the CAB and the Management Team before getting home to pack in readiness for a three-day visit attending the TEGOVA general assembly in Warsaw. This is a meeting attended by most of the European nations chaired by our very own Roger Messenger.
J and I arrive in Warsaw in the afternoon taking in a late lunch at a streetside restaurant where eating traditional polish fare of a pizza we meet up with David and his wife Liz who are on there way back from visiting the Old Town. Never one to miss opportunities we catch up with some institute business over a coffee before enjoying a absolutely lovely evening dining in the former King of Poland’s summer residence (the floating Palace) wandering amongst the peacocks pre dinner before we are serenaded by a string quartet playing Chopin over a dinner starting with more traditional Polish fare of royal herring (have to say I’m more of a pizza man), However the rest of the menu is excellent as is the company as we are joined by Junior Vice President, Geoff Fisher and his wife and Tambet Tiits and his wife (no cheap jokes here please. As well as a leading valuer in his nation, he is a former Olympic wrestler)
Saturday is spent all day in the meeting attended by representatives from over 25 nations sitting behind their national flags discussing the key issues around developing common valuation methodology. Interspersed with presentations ranging from the UK’s David Tretton to sessions for the purists around the impact of land tax in Russia, the highlight of the day is the election of officers which takes on Eurovision song contest dimensions. The upshot of all is that Roger is returned to the chair for 3 further years.
The evening is spent very informally enjoying some of the best desserts imaginable and Roger being given the biggest birthday cake I have ever seen to celebrate the passing of 50 years (or as he put it the 29th anniversary of his 21st birthday) and being entertained by a traditional Polish dance troupe. This was followed by a “sort of” euro karaoke of folk songs from a variety of Baltic nations which in all honesty seemed like they had the same melody ! The British contingent definitely stayed quiet on this one however back at the hotel by midnight, Geoff Fisher led the evenings singing with what seemed to be some common ground of Abba songs and tunes from the Sound of Music although J and I departed by then (although without the “so long farewell Auf Widersein goodbye send off)
Sunday, David and I meet for a breakfast meeting before we are joined by J to finalise the Institute’s education consultation paper contents. We meet in the Old Square for lunch wandering back in brilliant sunshine before arriving at the airport only to find our plane home is delayed two and a half hours and instead of flying out of the newly built terminal we are flying out of the pre 1970 prefab with no duty free, a café selling only 2 types of drink and hot dogs and with only 200 chairs for the 500 people in the departure lounge! Maybe a glimpse of the Poland I was expecting but it has to be said its exceeded my expectations, been a really enjoyable 3 days and we will definitely return to explore more in the future maybe during next years international conference.
Monday 2 June 2008 – Sunday 8 June 2008
Monday is a day of meetings kicking off with an early one with the Chief Executive, some ICT training on a new corporate system and an afternoon getting on top of things as I am out the rest of the week. Finish my presentations for the week ahead leaving the office last in what is becoming a habit this year turning the lights out as I go.
In very early on Tuesday having been up since 5am and on the road by 11am as I give a presentation in Bristol to the Northgate User group at 1.30pm before getting back in the car arriving in Hampshire at a hotel we may use in the future. Spend an evening catching up on some work, on the phone discussing some conference details with Gary Watson before leaving very early after an express breakfast to arrive at Fontwell race course by 9am where the Wessex association are holding their AGM.
Following a mornings meeting where David Airey and I split the two papers, I stay for the first two races, getting a winner in the second and I quit whilst ahead as I need to get back to the office before the M25 gets too busy and arrive by 5pm to put in a night shift !
It’s a very long day on Thursday and in all honesty I am grateful when we cancel a planned meeting with Coventry in the afternoon as it allows me to get completely back on top of things.
In early on the Friday, I join Equita at the Forest of Arden for an afternoon on the golf course and along with my teammates we enjoy a victory as well as raising over 600 pounds for our joint charities in the evening.
Saturday morning sees J’s dad, brother, brother in law and me out on the Coventry canal (road testing or is it raft testing) the sea worthiness of the raft we are using in Stratford. Built by Julies dad we venture out with only 2 oars and a combined age of over 200 years (we should know better – see the pictures) but it is a success and having avoided two barges we return to the bank safely. Game On for the 22nd !
Do some shopping and visiting in the afternoon before spending Sunday partly in the office and the rest soaking up the sunshine in the garden.
Monday 9 June 2008 – Sunday 15 June 2008
After an early start, hold a couple of staff meetings on Monday to update on shared service proposals and performance levels and finish the day off with an evening meeting with the board of the credit union.
Up Tuesday, I pack for the 3-day presidential visit to Belfast before popping into work early for some meetings before leaving early afternoon to drive to Birmingham for the short flight to Belfast. The evening is spent as guests of John Gandley, owner of Gandlake who are sponsoring the following days Northern Ireland conference.
The Northern Ireland conference is a great success and having presented my paper in the morning, spend the next few hours working in my room before rejoining the conference and the final papers of the day. Catch up on some e mails before we head into town as I am hosting members of the Northern Ireland association and speakers in a local restaurant. J flies in and joins us just in time for dessert.
Up for a breakfast meeting on Thursday before we head off as a delegation (David, Julie Holden, Pat Doherty, J and I) to meet with senior officials from the LPS who administer the billing collection and processing of benefits for the whole of NI (some 720,000 dwellings). As civil servants many are fairly new to the R&B discipline and we have a very productive meeting sharing experiences and ideas in a meeting co facilitated with Alan Bronte, our NI Council Member.
The afternoon is spent on the Belfast eye looking at some of the new developments springing up across the city and J takes advantage to visit some of the latest retailers to set up in the city and helps support the countries GDP! The evening is spent at the now traditional yacht club venue for the association dinner which celebrates their 40th anniversary of the association.
Friday and having had an early meeting with David, we enjoy 18 holes on the fairways of Royal Belfast and a one hole victory before meeting up with J and Liz for the trip back to the airport and then home spending two full days in work on Saturday and Sunday catching up on the weeks events.
Monday 16 June 2008 – Sunday 23 June 2008
Down in London for a number of meetings at HQ with Gary and David around the conference I am met at the end of the street by loads of police and have to be personally escorted to the door. Why ? Well Mrs Bush is in town with another president, some guy named George and she is visiting the Dickens museum also located in Doughty Street !!! What a waste of public service resource for what turns out to be fleeting visit (Members will be pleased to know that I don’t get such treatment). In the afternoon, we are joined by a number of reps from the associations who run IRRV courses to discuss the provision of next years certificate qualifications and some proposed changes to the syllabus to be recommended at our next Full Council round in July. Gary and I meet up with one of the speakers lined up for the annual conference to give them a brief in the early evening before grabbing something quickly to eat before we head back to Doughty Street and continue with our meeting from earlier in the day.
Gone are the days of hard and fast living on the town and having concluded our meeting about 10, we retire to the flat on the top floor and spend the next hour or so looking at some of the archives stored in the flat which cover the last 80 years or more of the Institute. The 1930 annual dinner looked a rip roaring affair and the conferences of that era were wholly male dominated from the black and white memoirs !!! We even seek out one D L Magor’s and P K Doherty’s student records which confirm they were both fellow prize winners. I proceed to have a very good night’s sleep but Gary is woken in the small hours of Tuesday morning by the sound of clanking cups. Assuming it was me washing up he is perturbed to look across to my bed to find me fast asleep ! Bravely or foolishly, he investigates only to be confronted by a large west Indian gentleman in marigolds. Apparently the IRRV’s normal cleaner is off and he is standing in for her. I don’t know who is most surprised but that’s London for you, a real 24/7 city.
Tuesday morning is again spent in a number of meetings including taking in lunch with Tim Savill from the Audit Commission. Heading back home, I get into work by 5pm to clock in for the late shift finishing by 8pm before getting my golf stuff sorted for an early start.
Out by 5 30am, I arrive at the Grove situated just outside London, do some work in the car park before grabbing some breakfast and joining CAPITA colleagues for an enjoyable 18 holes (I win again somehow) before making the long journey across to Wales to arrive just in time for the main course at the pre conference dinner hosted by the IaIn Marshally and Nigel Morse as respective North and South Wales presidents. Deliver my paper in the morning and stay until lunch before heading back along the same single track out of Wales I went in on arriving back at the office for what is now becoming the familiar “4 hour twilight shift”.
Friday, sees J and I back in London initially to assist in running the capping workshop organised by the LGA for all affected Councils before heading across the road to the House of Lords for a lunch reception hosted by fellow Council member, and past IRRV President, Tom Dixon who is the current President of the Rating Surveyors Association. It is a great do hosted in a great venue before we meet up later for a couple of sociable drinks in a local hostelry before heading back home on the train.
Saturday sees me spend another day at the keyboard (although I don’t mind as its peeing it down outside) having first got up to watch the 2nd test between England and New Zealand (we lost) before making final preparations for the raft race the next day that we are doing for charity.
Sunday is brighter but much windier and having collected the low loader from the Councils depot at 7am I pick up the raft arriving in Wasperton by 9am to a field full of other deluded souls prepared to row as we find against the tide and what seemed an 80 mile an hour wind to try and row the seven and a half miles into the centre of Stratford
Well needless to say we didn’t quite make it as my final posted captains log records and the pictures below show.
“On a what was a very blustery day rowing against the tide and as difficult what seemed an 80 mile an hour hoolee, my final captains log will say "we sank"
As they said in Belfast "The Titanic was ok when it left us" and that is the case with the IRRV boat but in our post race inspection, the diagnosis of the sinking was put down to a punctured barrel and gave Mr Watson and Ms Cutler sitting above it a pretty uncomfortable ride. At one point, we were actually going backwards up the river despite all rowing forwards and having lost 3 men overboard into the River Avon at different times and despite attempts to lighten the weight by taking off Messrs Stewart, Traynor, Watson and the captain off, we were still sinking and fighting a losing battle. As such, in true British style we reboarded and despite our best efforts the raft went down and the captain was last to leave ship reappearing covered in mud. Mr Traynor lost a big toe nail in hauling the raft to safety so the team literally gave blood for the cause which with your help we have raised nearly £1000 and in spite of us not finishing we hopefully can increase on this figure if you still feel we deserved it. Needless to say if our luck had matched our effort and enthusiasm we would have finished but as they say "you learn more from failure than you do success" (horrible management cliche) and I am sure we will be back again with a six barreled raft having learnt from the North Warwickshire raft that skippered by Steve Barber and rowed by all my revenues and benefits staff plus Justine from Bristows finished the 7 and a half hour race in a magnificent time of just over 5 hours in the most difficult conditions the race organisers have experienced in its 25 years.
They were truly magnificent as demonstrated by the pictures on a raft built by the depot and I am sure they are feeling the pain today but have the satisfaction of completing it.
Thanks to everyone's support on what was a brilliant day
If you still want to donate you can do, the NWBC team did it for the organisers sponsors the Princes Trust and they will be coming around work with a bucket later (emptied of any water out of the River Avon). If you haven't donated, please give whatever you can to what was a brilliant team effort
As for the IRRV team and its management team of the great and good in revenues and benefits, it was a case of "better to have tried and failed than not try at all" and donations can still be made via the following website to the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance if people want to support remotely
http://www.justgiving.com/irrvraftrace
Some pics of the day are attached which we will all remember for different reasons but the key winner is the charities and if you still wish to give you can do so by accessing the above website. All donations very gratefully received.
Having retrieved the sunken raft from the riverside having driven across a few fields to bemused looks from a few sheep and fisherman late on the Sunday afternoon, I have a long soak in the bath to contemplate how it all went so wrong !!!!!
Monday 23 June to Sunday 29 June 2008
In early on Monday, for a day full of meetings and explanations but contributions generously keep flooding into the website. I leave late afternoon for a meeting with former Olympic runner and British Athletics CEO, Dave Moorcroft who lives near me and is to speak at the Manchester conference before making the long 6 hour drive to the deepest depths of Cornwall picking up David Magor en route as we are running a unitary workshop for them the following day.
Having stopped off for something to eat, we arrive in Camborne by midnight to get up deliver the 60-hour workshop before getting straight back on the road by 4pm and home by 9pm (a 600+ mile round trip in 24 hours – oh well at least it was in a car and not a raft !).
Spend a full Wednesday catching up on e mails as my only day in the office this week before repacking the bag as I am away again but not off to Glastonbury where most of the people on the same train are heading but a combination of Reading, London and Newbury.
Thursday is spent at the Madjeski stadium where the re-launch of the Thames Valley association takes place. I install Jon Dearing into the chair, deliver a paper on the institutes future education strategy before dumping the car and getting the train into London as along with David we are guests of Civica at the MJ awards. Good news though is that the police authority have escaped being capped so that’s one less thing to worry about in August.
Up early after a very late but enjoyable night, we head back to Reading before driving onto Newbury for a meeting with Gandlake, who are key IRRV sponsors this year before a frustrating journey home bumper to bumper up the A34. Pop into my mum and dads to pick up a rug I have ordered from e bay before popping into work for a late one which I repeat on both Saturday and Sunday. Very sad !!!!!
Oh well, another busy week ahead and as it’s the inter association golf tomorrow so I best get off and get my golf stuff ready.
I launch my next charity event tomorrow so it’s a case of watch this space next week.
I am determined not to leave my updates so long next time. I am getting older and the grey matters setting in so recalling everything is getting ever more challenging. Oh well only 13 weeks to go and as I enter my last quarter it looks no less busy.
Remember the closing date for nominations for council elections is only a few weeks away so please whether a corporate or technician think about standing. Details can be found in last months insight and on the website.
Take Care
Bob
