I'm back!

Aha! I've managed to get back on the blog. I'm not sure if people are still looking at it, indeed some people looked less than others anyway! But in case anyone is still out there I'll tell you about our day out last week. Me and S treated ourselves to a day in recognition of our 25 years wedded bliss, and off we went at 5.30am in the snow and ice to London, Victoria to board the Orient Express to Bicester. After a delay setting off due to the icy tracks we enjoyed champagne breakfast. From Bicester we had a coach with tour guide to Blenheim Palace where we had a tour of the Palace, time in the shop and tea and cake. Then back on the coach to the station. On the journey home we had more champagne with our luxury dinner, complete with Christmas crackers, finally getting back to Victoria at 7.30pm. It was a fab day out.

Schloss Neuschwanstein

Hello everyone,

After quite a few months of surviving without a computer, I finally have one, so I thought I'd add a much belated post to the blog.
At the beginning of December, Kieran and I went to Munich for a few days to stay with a mate of his. It was a great time to go as we were able to visit many a Christmas market and it was snowy...though nothing compared to Luton!

The highlight of the trip had to be visiting Schloss Neuschwanstein (the castle in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). Despite it being in my Munich guide book, it was a 4 hour journey (comprising of a tram, train and bus ride) to the Bavarian Alps to see it! We went for a tour around the inside of the castle and saw a bridge on the mountainside. Apparently this was the place to go for the best view of the castle so we made our way there only to find it was 'closed' due to the snowy conditions. Having come all this way, the barrier wasn't going to deter us from going onto the edge of the bridge and we eventually got the photo we wanted :- )

Rachel x

Centenary Update

I've been busy since Christmas with more and more paperwork for our Guiding Centenary events. I've had 2 Fridays in London doing a test run for our WOW day in May and am now happy with our route. Getting 55 of us around on the underground is going to be a chore so I wanted a route with the least amount of tube possible. Our big WOW moment that weekend will be a sleepover on the Golden Hinde. Everything else is still top secret so although I could tell you here I'd have to shoot you after, so you'll have to wait until I've told the Guides!

On Saturday we all had a great time at our Thinking Day Celebrations, along with 18,500 other members of Guiding in 10 different locations in the country. The day was called '1 World, 1 Beat'. We had fun with Optimusic, African Dance, Circus skills and Samba drumming. I'll ask S to add a picture here of some of the girls enjoying the day - I'm not as clever as Suzanne and can't do it myself! This coming Sunday is the Division Thinking Day Celebration, this year to be held at Ashcroft High school as we couldn't get booked into our normal venue at Stopsley Baptist. The theme is 1910 to 2010 and each District is looking at a celebrity from 1910 and one from now.

Sometimes me and S have time together and yesterday we walked in the snow to Telegraph Hill (okay so it was to plan a hike for the Guides!). It was lovely and we even had sunshine in the afternoon. A few weeks ago we visited Paul and had a good wander around the town and then a lovely meal in his local pub. Before meeting him we visited Kenilworth Castle which was really good and worth another visit on a day when it's not so cold.

I'm a little scared about the snow because in just 8 weeks time I shall be at 'summer camp' with the Guides (at Easter because we can't fit in a camp any other time this year!). Hopefully there will be a sudden weather change and we'll have to start worrying about sunburn, one can but hope!

Hope to see you all soon, Dx

A New Year!

After another fantastic Christmas, I am already halfway through my second year at Warwick....wow its going quickly. This term is a busy one as well with my group software project taking up most of my time. Each groups of five is made up of mixed ability and degree discipline. My group has 2 Computer scientists, 1 Computing Systems and 2 Business with Computer Science students. Our task has been set by Deutsche Bank and is to do with inter-bank fixed & floating currency transers. Our job is to design and build a software solution for their problem - in less than 9 weeks might I add...!They'll take the best few solutions and take ideas or adapt them for their own developers to create the final solution. The winning group from Warwick will also be awarded a cash prize along with fast track onto DB's internship program. Exciting stuff but huge amounts of work to do before the end of term.

Mustn't forget the Warwick Ale Festival in a months time either. Not that we need any more ale - my house mates and I have been brewing our own beer :D Weve been experimenting with a few different bitter recipes but last night we started Lager so the whole place smells faintly of malt. Not sure when the lager will be done but its going to be more than a month before we can drink it.

I am still riding into uni everyday so am saving a fortune on bus fairs. It also makes getting in training miles lots easier as its nearly 10 each way to campus. Training is going ok so far this year but have still got a way to go before I am properly race fit again. First race of the year is in about 6 weeks so I havent got long!

Hope everyone is doing well.

Paul.