Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Durham

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 Posted in Personal Lives, Travel | No Comments »

Last week I headed up to Durham for the day to help out at the Durham University Humanist Society’s Reason Week. The society are doing some really great work up there and so I was glad to go up and give them a hand, though I may have swallowed up more of their time than I actually spent helping lol!

In between events Ellis even managed to provide me with a tour around the city and many of the college bars too including Castle Bar which is built in the basement of the castle’s keep! Drinks up there are significantly cheaper than Leeds too so it’s a fantastic place to drink as well as absorbing the sights.

How I met Richard Dawkins

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 Posted in Personal Lives, Travel | No Comments »

I was down in London last week for the press launch of the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies (thankfully abbreviated to the much shorter name, AHS) to which I sit on the board of trustees, as we made ourselves known to the British media.

We managed to rack up an impressive line of speakers including AHS president Norman Ralph, British Humanist Association president Polly Toynbee, Professor A. C. Grayling and Professor Richard Dawkins (described unknowingly by Lil as “the posh old guy with the banana”). It was all very exciting, I said “what type of microphone would you like” and Professor Dawkins replied “a lectern will be fine.” That’s my Richard Dawkins story .

We got coverage by The Guardian and The Independent (who were impressed by our president’s “sharp suite and trimmed goatee”) as well as plenty of donations so the future is looking bright for the AHS. All eyes on our national events now.

Pictures: Richard Dawkins poses with myself and other members of Leeds Atheist Society, myself asking people to take their seats for the second round of speeches (ha, how glamorous) and Polly Toynbee delivering her speech.

GOOD/BAD/REALLY REALLY BAD/GOOD/GREAT/BACK TO NORMAL

Friday, December 12th, 2008 Posted in Personal Lives, Travel | No Comments »

Phew! Confused? So am I!

First it was Queen in concert in Madrid – GOOD NO GREAT! Because of the company, time away from the kids and work with my wife and best friends and a lot of laughs albeit just for a couple of days.

BAD – missed the kids (first time without them) and had to catch up at work after!

REALLY REALLY BAD (In fact it doesn’t get worse!) – Scarborough, North Shore, Zero degrees surfing, 14’ + swells and a big long sea wall. Thanks to the coastguard, RNLI, passers by and especially Brett and John (big big balls) for risking yourself – it really shit us all up! Physically + psychologically not a good thing to do.

GOOD – made the effort to go in the sea again albeit with another board now, not in the UK in Fuerteventura, with expert assistance in 5’ waves to start!

GREAT – confidence back, happy family, cool time with Oscar (Hotzone) – Thank you, you knew what was in my head – demons not gone but under control – more than a healthy respect now. Reef surfing, cool tunes, great surf and fantastic tips and support plus time with loving family.

Work has been solid for 2 months now, so has the team and odd seems to be growing in confidence and ability – keep it up please!

Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year to all. My parting message for 2008 – I love my family, friends and life even though it might not show sometimes but no more big scares in 2009 please I’m getting too old!

London town

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 Posted in Personal Lives, Travel | No Comments »

A weekend in London for me and 21 of my close friends? Sounds good to me.

As part of my society’s annual weekend away we headed down to London at the very end of November for a few days of eating, drinking and partying (and maybe even some educational activities too). We found a number of great watering holes hidden away in back streets and alleys as well as a selection of good clubs as part of London’s legendary nightlife.

While we were there we also got round Conway Hall, the Natural History Museum, Speakers’ Corner (at which I got up on a ladder and did some preaching myself) and the Church of Scientology so, having picked up a copy of Dianetics, I will soon be ready to cleanse those pesky engrams from the reactive minds of my colleagues back in the office.

Back to business

Monday, October 6th, 2008 Posted in Online, Personal Lives, Proximity Marketing, Travel, Wake Boarding, Work | No Comments »

I’ve been back a while from my fantastic trip to Croatia and I’m still revelling from what an awesome trip it was and can highly recommend taking a boat out for a week in the sun. Not quite the boat that Dean likes to play in, but none the less one of the guys still managed to get a wakeboard off the back!! 

So, back to work. We’ve had an interesting couple of weeks since I came back with some really good ideas starting to evolve from the online side of the business. We’re starting to develop some products relating to “proximity marketing” using blue tooth technologies, it’s a little bit hush hush at the mo but as soon as we’re ready to launch it we’ll have a lot more to tell you.

Our resident programming guru, Chris, is polishing off our spangly new and improved online tools which really rock! The new Content Management System has been greatly improved and we’re really looking forward to applying this to the new builds we’re on with at the moment.

This weekend coming I’m heading off to the Lakes to meet up with some University chums for a bit of walking, boozing and no doubt some shenanigans, fingers crossed for some good weather!

Angels of the North!

Friday, October 3rd, 2008 Posted in Personal Lives, Travel | No Comments »

I’ve just returned from a relaxing break on the Northumberland coast with my partner, Chelle, and our 17 month old daughter, Ella. It’s the first time I’ve been upto that area of the country and was very impressed by how beautiful it was. 

Long stretches of deserted beaches, scenic roads through idyllic villages and (what seemed like) a kingdom of castles!!!

Most importantly, it was great to spend some quality family time together. Ella is at a real fun age at the moment, full of energy, curiosity and plenty of laughter. Those initial months of parenthood and all its late night feeds and nappy changes (honestly… I did my share!) now seem a distant memory. 

Whilst passing through the North East we stopped at the ‘Angel of the North’ for a quick ‘photo opportunity’. The sight of the Angel as you enter Gateshead is genuinely iconic. Judging by the photos though, Ella didn’t seem too impressed, perhaps she thought only ONE Angel should be getting all the attention! Ha.

A Good Year

Thursday, September 25th, 2008 Posted in Personal Lives, Travel, Work | No Comments »

As first-time blogs go, sitting deciding what to write about is quite a daunting task, for me anyway. A thousand different things come to mind. Then, trying to home in on a particular subject or event to write about, proves difficult. And I think the reason for this is that I’ve not had time to fully digest the last year that has gone by. On reflection I think back and I have to say that it has probably been one of the most eventful years of my life. Where everything seemed to move at a steady pace before, things have suddenly stepped up a notch, which is a pretty good feeling in itself.

I’ve been in Leeds for just over two years now, having relocated from Kent (My reasons? Well that’s different blog altogether, I’ll save it for another time perhaps) … But anyway, as I was saying, I’ve been in Leeds for just over two years and I’ve felt that this last year, on a personal level, has been a defining period.

This time last year I had just moved into a new apartment with a new flatmate and was warmly welcomed into his circle of friends, who are a great bunch of lads and remain some of the best and closest friends I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

I joined a gym (which I still frequent 3 times a week).

I was made redundant from my previous job (Bad times). But offered a job in London (Good times), which I declined due to commitments in Leeds (Good times) …. And I say good times because this decision led me to pastures new at Open Door Design, where I work with an amazing team. And where, creatively speaking, my personal and professional working abilities have improved immensely.

I went on a mini-backpacking holiday to Italy, which was a massive deal for me. Apart from being a quarter Italian myself and having a large amount relative connections to Italy, I had never been to another country without my parents in tow. Well not since a school trip to Paris at least. I’m not that well traveled by any means… But I had such a great time and have certainly felt the bite of the travel bug. We spent 9 days in Florence, Rome and Lido… moving from Hostel to Hostel, seeing all there is to see (The Duomo, Sistine Chapel and Trevi Fountain being the stand out places we visited) and seeking out some of the most amazing restaurants Italy had to offer. One of the eating highlights wasn’t what you’d expect. Not Pizza… or Pasta… or Ice Cream (Although the Ice Cream was amazing). It was a dish known as ‘Bistecca alla Fiorentina’. A Three-finger-thick raw steak (and I’m someone who likes his steak well done). It set us back 50 Euros per Kilo and we ordered 2kg’s. It was an event in itself, even for the restaurant staff. A few bottles of Chianti later we then coined the phrase “what a Bistecca to make-a”, which was sadly banded around for the remainder of the trip.

I also had the pleasure of experiencing the Team Dread Slider Jam 2008 a few months back, which gave me a little insight into the world of wakeboarding. A great weekend spent with Nick and Dean, amazing atmosphere and great people.

So that’s, new apartment, new friends, new job, holidays, wakeboarding and raw steak covered…

So far so good then… And technically the year isn’t even over. I’ve got a months worth of birthday weekends to contend with, a few gigs to go to (namely Elbow and Kings of Leon) and to top it all off I’ll be attending the Leeds Film Festival in November, for 7 full days of movie-going.

All in all its been a good year.