Monday 21 July 2008 – Sunday 27 July 2008
After a couple of hours in work on the Monday, drive up to Crewe where the West Mids team are playing its annual match against our Lancs and Cheshire counterparts. On what is a hard fought afternoon played in good spirit and good weather, we come second out of two which levels up the score at 4 of all the games played over the last 8 years.
Tuesday is spent in work in the morning, and at a CRM partnership meeting in Warwick in the afternoon before returning to work for a late session into the night.
My diary for the rest of the week or so will be a little vague as I am out and about with David undertaking performance award inspections which is something I look forward to every year as it gives me a chance to visit the some of the best examples of good practice in the UK and learn. As I write, the panel has recently met in London to agree the finalists which does see a few Councils we visit being eliminated at this point proving the rigour we attach to the visits and proves that to make the final is a massive achievement. As such I will not expand too much on where we have been but needless to say over the 10 days of visits I have driven over 2,500 miles (and all without a sat nav!)
Wednesday, sees me up at 4am to drop J and Louis at the airport as they are off to Spain to see our grandson but me regrettably staying behind in this very busy year for me. Don’t go back to bed and do a few hours e-mailing before setting off to a Midland location for an early meeting and Lincolnshire in the afternoon. We travel in separate cars as I need to return to home for a late evening meeting which means I don’t get to bed much before midnight and am back up again by 4am as I need to travel back up to the North East for two further visits meeting up with David just in time for breakfast at his hotel.
Travel back home early evening in the 80 degree heatwave we are experiencing (sods law as am stuck in the car) arriving back at just gone 9pm and straight to bed as I am up for an early morning in work before leaving at lunchtime for the long journey down to Canterbury for the South Eastern dinner in the evening. Call into a local college on the way in Coventry we are thinking of using for our IRRV certificate course from October. Having made excellent progress everything grinds to a halt on the M25 behind caravans and lorries heading for Dover meaning I arrive at Broome Park as people are gathering for pre drinks. A quick change sees me joining them before a very enjoyable evening hosted by SE President Andrew Stevens and sole sponsor, Chris Rundle. It was lovely to be able to award a certificate of service to recently retired and SE stalwart Jim Coules. The evening ends with a casino night and for some a “ghost walk” around the old house which I pass on preferring a game of snooker with Allan Traynor.
Up at the crack of dawn I am away to avoid the holiday traffic and get me home early where I spend the day partly working, partly relaxing and doing a quick house tidy as I am away when J returns on Tuesday. Up nearly, I do some reading for the forthcoming week’s visits before David arrives just after midday and we repack my car and set off on a long 9-hour but picturesque journey to Scotland. They save us some dinner to put in the microwave before I hit the sack.
Monday 28 July 2008 – Sunday 3 August 2008
Up early, we do our visit before driving 3 hours around the lochs of Scotland to our hotel and an early evening game of golf. We do two visits on the Tuesday both to Councils north of the border before driving back south arriving at our next destination in Lancashire just after 9pm. A quick late dinner and we are up early the next morning for our final visit before heading across to Rawstenhall where we get our heads together, agree our thoughts before meeting up with Dave Chapman for a game of golf in the evening as we are guests of Rossendales in their golf day on the Thursday.
The golf pretty much matches the weather, mixed, although my team celebrate its afternoon success over dinner before we set off on the journey home arriving back in the Midlands by 11pm, I work from home on the Friday before spending the afternoon with my sister and her kids who shortly go back to the USA after their 4 week annual holiday in the UK.
Pop into work for half day on the Saturday and the rest of the weekend just catching up on day-to-day run of the mill stuff be it institute or other.
Monday 4 August 2008 – Sunday 10 August 2008
Back into work on the Monday through to Wednesday catching up with a series of meetings both in and out of the office with a number of partners which are wide ranging from evaluation of a couple of pilots we have been asked to get involved in by the DWP, developing and costing some outreach customer service options and catching up with my managers to catch up on where we are in terms of service plan commitments. They have been truly magnificent to date in running their services without my constant drive (or is it interference)
Thursday is spent in a series of meetings in London with the SIA and DWP before catching up with Gary to sort out some conference details. I walk up to Waitrose in the evening for a sandwich, some ice cream and strawberries (you can see I go for convenience over cordon bleu when it comes to fending for myself) and I spend a night in front of the television as I am “shattered” (gone are the days of real hard living stuff!).
After an early morning meeting on Friday, the performance awards panel meets for most of the day. See the special section of the website announcing the finalists for Manchester 2008. Congratulations to everyone who has been taken through as a finalist, and I look forward to seeing everyone in Manchester . Back on the train by 5pm which is delayed part journey for a few hours allowing me to catch up with e mails and some reading.
Spend Saturday in work and sorting out a few jobs I have not had chance to do around the house and in all honesty being a real couch potato as I enjoy a weekend of sport with the Olympics, cricket and golf all featuring.
Monday 11 August 2008 – Sunday 18 August 2008
On the early train down to London for a series of meetings initially with the MoJ and in the afternoon to finalise the syllabus changes to next years certificate course and 3 days of internal meetings and working from home for a morning as I have to wait in for a Reebok engineer to call to repair the exercise bike recently delivered which hopefully will see me lose some of the extra weight I have put on over the last year in time for the wedding ! .
Friday is spent in London working against that agenda by hosting staff from the VOA for a lunch hosted by the President each year which is a very enjoyable affair. See pictures courtesy of Paul Sanderson who is never without his camera.
Less than 6 weeks to go and counting.
If you haven’t already, get your booking in for Manchester as it promises to be better than ever with the programmes all confirmed so hope to see you all there.
Also if you feel inclined it would be great if anyone wishes to sponsor me in my last charity event of the year which starts on the 29 August and incorporates 4 days of golf on some of the best courses in England, Scotland and Wales along with Equita who are sponsoring the event. It will only cost you a minimum of £3 so read on
By making a minimum donation of £3 could see you win an all expenses night away at the very luxurious Forest of Arden Golf Club in Meriden including a game of golf and dinner for 2. A great prize worth over £350.
To date through various events and the very kind support of EQUITA on my final event, we have already raised over £5,000 which will keep the air ambulance which wholly relies on charitable donations to serve the busiest networks of motorway in Europe going for just over a say. It is a great cause so hopefully you will dig deep my following the instructions below
IRRV /EQUITA CHARITY GOLF CHALLENGE
Following the sinking of the IRRV raft in my first attempt to raise money for my chosen charity, the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance in July we raised over £1500.
A successful IRRV Association golf day at Worksop Golf Club raised over £1,000 and the raffling of an England signed cricket shirt (won by Mike Shaw), raised over £600.
The final leg of my charity fundraising will see me team up with one of the IRRV leading sponsors, Equita who are again supporting the President of the day in their aim to raise money for two charities, mine and the “Big C”, in memory of Brian Dale.
This will involve two teams of 4 players one representing Equita and one, the IRRV playing past and forthcoming Ryder Cup venues over 4 days in 3 different countries starting on Friday 29th August 2008 at the Belfry situated in Bob's own North Warwickshire area, on Saturday 30th August 2008 at the Celtic Manor near Newport, on Sunday 31st August 2008, at West Lancashire on the North West coast and concluding on Monday 1st September 2008 on the Kings Course at Gleneagles. Although not part of the event, Bob will also play on Tuesday 2nd September at the Crieff Golf Club at the Institute’s Scottish Conference Golf Event which takes place on the day before its 2 day Scottish conference.
How can you donate money? I would ask that you donate a minimum of £3 (more if you can spare it) by pledging the amount via the website www.justgiving.com/bobtrahern.
Alternatively, if you do not like to enter debit card details online, you can send me a cheque payable to R Trahern at 7 Walnut Drive, Mancetter, Atherstone and I will raise one cheque at the end of my presidential year to my chosen charity, the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance which is a fantastic course (oops I mean cause !).
By supporting me and the air ambulance, as a special bonus you could win yourself a night for two at the luxurious Forest of Arden hotel in the heart of North Warwickshire by guessing the total number of stableford points that will be scored by the 2 teams over the 4 days (i.e.) 32 players will on average score anything between 15 and 36 points each, therefore achieving a minimum of 320 points and a maximum of 1152 points. Just make a guess at a number between these two figures and who knows, you could be lucky!
For a £5 pledge, you can have 2 guesses and for £10, five guesses. Whoever guesses the nearest or is spot on (in the event of a tie we will select one person out of a hat) will win. Guesses should be sent to me at bobtrahern@northwarks.gov.uk and will be announced at the IRRV conference on 2 October.
I know the credit crunch is biting but please sponsor us whatever you can afford.
Many thanks in anticipation of any support you can give.
After a couple of hours in work on the Monday, drive up to Crewe where the West Mids team are playing its annual match against our Lancs and Cheshire counterparts. On what is a hard fought afternoon played in good spirit and good weather, we come second out of two which levels up the score at 4 of all the games played over the last 8 years.
Tuesday is spent in work in the morning, and at a CRM partnership meeting in Warwick in the afternoon before returning to work for a late session into the night.
My diary for the rest of the week or so will be a little vague as I am out and about with David undertaking performance award inspections which is something I look forward to every year as it gives me a chance to visit the some of the best examples of good practice in the UK and learn. As I write, the panel has recently met in London to agree the finalists which does see a few Councils we visit being eliminated at this point proving the rigour we attach to the visits and proves that to make the final is a massive achievement. As such I will not expand too much on where we have been but needless to say over the 10 days of visits I have driven over 2,500 miles (and all without a sat nav!)
Wednesday, sees me up at 4am to drop J and Louis at the airport as they are off to Spain to see our grandson but me regrettably staying behind in this very busy year for me. Don’t go back to bed and do a few hours e-mailing before setting off to a Midland location for an early meeting and Lincolnshire in the afternoon. We travel in separate cars as I need to return to home for a late evening meeting which means I don’t get to bed much before midnight and am back up again by 4am as I need to travel back up to the North East for two further visits meeting up with David just in time for breakfast at his hotel.
Travel back home early evening in the 80 degree heatwave we are experiencing (sods law as am stuck in the car) arriving back at just gone 9pm and straight to bed as I am up for an early morning in work before leaving at lunchtime for the long journey down to Canterbury for the South Eastern dinner in the evening. Call into a local college on the way in Coventry we are thinking of using for our IRRV certificate course from October. Having made excellent progress everything grinds to a halt on the M25 behind caravans and lorries heading for Dover meaning I arrive at Broome Park as people are gathering for pre drinks. A quick change sees me joining them before a very enjoyable evening hosted by SE President Andrew Stevens and sole sponsor, Chris Rundle. It was lovely to be able to award a certificate of service to recently retired and SE stalwart Jim Coules. The evening ends with a casino night and for some a “ghost walk” around the old house which I pass on preferring a game of snooker with Allan Traynor.
Up at the crack of dawn I am away to avoid the holiday traffic and get me home early where I spend the day partly working, partly relaxing and doing a quick house tidy as I am away when J returns on Tuesday. Up nearly, I do some reading for the forthcoming week’s visits before David arrives just after midday and we repack my car and set off on a long 9-hour but picturesque journey to Scotland. They save us some dinner to put in the microwave before I hit the sack.
Monday 28 July 2008 – Sunday 3 August 2008
Up early, we do our visit before driving 3 hours around the lochs of Scotland to our hotel and an early evening game of golf. We do two visits on the Tuesday both to Councils north of the border before driving back south arriving at our next destination in Lancashire just after 9pm. A quick late dinner and we are up early the next morning for our final visit before heading across to Rawstenhall where we get our heads together, agree our thoughts before meeting up with Dave Chapman for a game of golf in the evening as we are guests of Rossendales in their golf day on the Thursday.
The golf pretty much matches the weather, mixed, although my team celebrate its afternoon success over dinner before we set off on the journey home arriving back in the Midlands by 11pm, I work from home on the Friday before spending the afternoon with my sister and her kids who shortly go back to the USA after their 4 week annual holiday in the UK.
Pop into work for half day on the Saturday and the rest of the weekend just catching up on day-to-day run of the mill stuff be it institute or other.
Monday 4 August 2008 – Sunday 10 August 2008
Back into work on the Monday through to Wednesday catching up with a series of meetings both in and out of the office with a number of partners which are wide ranging from evaluation of a couple of pilots we have been asked to get involved in by the DWP, developing and costing some outreach customer service options and catching up with my managers to catch up on where we are in terms of service plan commitments. They have been truly magnificent to date in running their services without my constant drive (or is it interference)
Thursday is spent in a series of meetings in London with the SIA and DWP before catching up with Gary to sort out some conference details. I walk up to Waitrose in the evening for a sandwich, some ice cream and strawberries (you can see I go for convenience over cordon bleu when it comes to fending for myself) and I spend a night in front of the television as I am “shattered” (gone are the days of real hard living stuff!).
After an early morning meeting on Friday, the performance awards panel meets for most of the day. See the special section of the website announcing the finalists for Manchester 2008. Congratulations to everyone who has been taken through as a finalist, and I look forward to seeing everyone in Manchester . Back on the train by 5pm which is delayed part journey for a few hours allowing me to catch up with e mails and some reading.
Spend Saturday in work and sorting out a few jobs I have not had chance to do around the house and in all honesty being a real couch potato as I enjoy a weekend of sport with the Olympics, cricket and golf all featuring.
Monday 11 August 2008 – Sunday 18 August 2008
On the early train down to London for a series of meetings initially with the MoJ and in the afternoon to finalise the syllabus changes to next years certificate course and 3 days of internal meetings and working from home for a morning as I have to wait in for a Reebok engineer to call to repair the exercise bike recently delivered which hopefully will see me lose some of the extra weight I have put on over the last year in time for the wedding ! .
Friday is spent in London working against that agenda by hosting staff from the VOA for a lunch hosted by the President each year which is a very enjoyable affair. See pictures courtesy of Paul Sanderson who is never without his camera.
Less than 6 weeks to go and counting.
If you haven’t already, get your booking in for Manchester as it promises to be better than ever with the programmes all confirmed so hope to see you all there.
Also if you feel inclined it would be great if anyone wishes to sponsor me in my last charity event of the year which starts on the 29 August and incorporates 4 days of golf on some of the best courses in England, Scotland and Wales along with Equita who are sponsoring the event. It will only cost you a minimum of £3 so read on
By making a minimum donation of £3 could see you win an all expenses night away at the very luxurious Forest of Arden Golf Club in Meriden including a game of golf and dinner for 2. A great prize worth over £350.
To date through various events and the very kind support of EQUITA on my final event, we have already raised over £5,000 which will keep the air ambulance which wholly relies on charitable donations to serve the busiest networks of motorway in Europe going for just over a say. It is a great cause so hopefully you will dig deep my following the instructions below
IRRV /EQUITA CHARITY GOLF CHALLENGE
Following the sinking of the IRRV raft in my first attempt to raise money for my chosen charity, the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance in July we raised over £1500.
A successful IRRV Association golf day at Worksop Golf Club raised over £1,000 and the raffling of an England signed cricket shirt (won by Mike Shaw), raised over £600.
The final leg of my charity fundraising will see me team up with one of the IRRV leading sponsors, Equita who are again supporting the President of the day in their aim to raise money for two charities, mine and the “Big C”, in memory of Brian Dale.
This will involve two teams of 4 players one representing Equita and one, the IRRV playing past and forthcoming Ryder Cup venues over 4 days in 3 different countries starting on Friday 29th August 2008 at the Belfry situated in Bob's own North Warwickshire area, on Saturday 30th August 2008 at the Celtic Manor near Newport, on Sunday 31st August 2008, at West Lancashire on the North West coast and concluding on Monday 1st September 2008 on the Kings Course at Gleneagles. Although not part of the event, Bob will also play on Tuesday 2nd September at the Crieff Golf Club at the Institute’s Scottish Conference Golf Event which takes place on the day before its 2 day Scottish conference.
How can you donate money? I would ask that you donate a minimum of £3 (more if you can spare it) by pledging the amount via the website www.justgiving.com/bobtrahern.
Alternatively, if you do not like to enter debit card details online, you can send me a cheque payable to R Trahern at 7 Walnut Drive, Mancetter, Atherstone and I will raise one cheque at the end of my presidential year to my chosen charity, the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance which is a fantastic course (oops I mean cause !).
By supporting me and the air ambulance, as a special bonus you could win yourself a night for two at the luxurious Forest of Arden hotel in the heart of North Warwickshire by guessing the total number of stableford points that will be scored by the 2 teams over the 4 days (i.e.) 32 players will on average score anything between 15 and 36 points each, therefore achieving a minimum of 320 points and a maximum of 1152 points. Just make a guess at a number between these two figures and who knows, you could be lucky!
For a £5 pledge, you can have 2 guesses and for £10, five guesses. Whoever guesses the nearest or is spot on (in the event of a tie we will select one person out of a hat) will win. Guesses should be sent to me at bobtrahern@northwarks.gov.uk and will be announced at the IRRV conference on 2 October.
I know the credit crunch is biting but please sponsor us whatever you can afford.
Many thanks in anticipation of any support you can give.
