| The first WTGC lad's weekend in Norfolk. |
| Our first AGM weekend
in Norfolk went with a bang! We all drove up on Friday 20th
April: Dan, Hamid and Nick arrived first, and got stuck into
the champagne kindly left by the owners of the hall. Tim, James
and Mat arrived next, with Dave, Craig, Nathan and Max bringing
up the rear. |
| Introductory sherries were consumed, and
the party assumed their drinking attire of black tie, with festive
headgear required at all times. Nick Sherwin forgot his DJ and
ended up in underpants and a shower cap! |
|
Nathan Holt's festive headgear consisted of a pair of Dan's
boxer shorts! |
| Friday evening continued with a very drunken
game of poker (Tim & Hamid cheated but no-one was in a fit
state to notice!) and wound down at about 4am once people had
degenerated to the 'ernest conversation' stage. |
| Saturday morning was hectic as we had to
be away to paintball by 08:30. Chilli sandwiches and Sunny Delight
for breakfast... Dave had to be dragged out of bed by Craig
& Dan. Mat provided the entertainment on the way to paintball
when he colourfully recycled his Sunny Delight! |
|
Mat Thomas produced this most memorable spectacle of the
weekend on the way to paintball on Saturday. |
| Paintball with Skirmish in Swaffham was
excellent - a larger site than last year, although ground cover
was sparse so there was less sneaking about in the bushes. Dave's
immortal line to the young female marshall when she asked if
there were any questions: "Would you like to make love
in the trees?" had everyone in stitches. |
| After paintball we returned to Woodrising
for a barbeque; Nathan and Nick took a canoe out on the moat
in the grounds, while Dave tried to water the charcoal from
an upstairs window, but missed, thankfully! After dinner, we
all chilled out - either with more cards or listening to comedy
Dave talking about evening primrose oil (you had to be there!)
- then watched the boxing at 4am. |
|
Dave 'The Machine' Butler doing his thing with our sausages. |
| We elected the chairman, treasurer and secretary
on Saturday: Dan, Dave and Nick respectively. Two other posts
were created: Chief Sneak (who sorts out the winter meal) went
to Max, and Lady Weights & Measures to Hamid. |
| Finally Sunday morning was a relaxed affair,
with coffee and papers in the sun, and a nice barbequed lunch.
Then we all departed for home. Dan, Dave, Vanessa & Zanna
ended up out for a curry in Sutton that night... |
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James Coupe, Nick Sherwin, Hamid Tehrani and Tim Hucker at Woodrising
Hall on the first AGM weekend of the West Tytherley Gentlemens'
Club - guess who forgot their black tie... |
| Barbeque on Saturday 9th June! |
| Our next event will be a barbeque at our
place in Canterbury, starting at 2pm - it's our last chance
to have one of these bashes before the nipper arrives! There
should be a good bunch of people there, and the plan is to continue
on through the evening. We'll be able to put people up for the
night, as long as they don't object to sleeping bags and cushions
on the floor! |
|
The last time we had a barbeque - 22nd July 2000 on the
day after our wedding. That turned into a whole evening of
debauchery and carnage as well... |
| We'd be grateful if everyone could bring
a bottle of wine or some beers, and a small amount of meat to
cook on the barbie - don't go too mad, as we nearly always end
up with a pile of burnt meat the MAFF would be proud of! We'll
give everyone a ring closer to the time to check numbers... |
| Vanessa's trip to Portugal in March
|
| On the 21st March, Vanessa flew over to
Portugal for a week to see Jo, James & Oliver. The
girls are both pregnant so they were able to waddle round Cascais
together and do a lot of shopping! Vanessa managed to
time it just before the airlines start to get nervous about
unexpected mid-air deliveries. |
|
Vanessa at the Music Bar in Cascais, on the phone to Dan, as
it happens. Even in March the weather was warm and sunny! |
| Jo and James have moved since we last saw
them, so Vanessa was looking forward to seeing their lovely
new house in Cascais. Oliver had his fourth birthday while Auntie
Nessa was visiting - she hasn't missed one of his parties yet.
Jo & Vanessa had always talked about going through their
pregnancies together, but with Jo in Portugal now, this means
a little more travelling than normal. Still, with a place like
Cascais to visit, we certainly don't need to have our arms twisted! |
|
Vanessa and Jo in a little bistro in Cascais, indulging
themselves in some chocolate cake. |
| We've already booked our next trip to Portugal
- for two weeks in September. Not only will we spend some time
with the Groombridges, but Filipa & Max are getting married
in Faro, so we'll drive down to the Algarve for their wedding,
stay in the Ria Park Hotel in Vale de Lobos for a few nights
and take part in the festivities. It's a hard life... |
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| Baby update: only four weeks to go! |
| Things have come a long way since the last
journal entry in March. Vanessa will be 36 weeks pregnant tomorrow
- everything is fine, and the baby has even decided to get its
head down (finally). Vanessa starts her maternity leave next
week, and is already going to parentcraft sessions and yoga.
We've got the nursery ready now - the cot, pram and wardrobe
etc are in place, but we still need to get a moses basket. I
can't tell you how excited we both are about meeting the little
one in June! |
|
Vanessa at 36 weeks and looking great! |
| Crash Course 2E |
| Work on the second editions of the Crash
Course series is finally starting to pick up. I've completed
the outlines of five of the books already, and we have the re-writers
of the first seven titles ready to go. |
|
Crash Course Anatomy. |
| Now that things are starting to happen,
I will shortly be opening the Crash Course section of this website
- a password protected section for developers of the series,
where outlines, text and diagrams can be distributed, and a
forum for discussion will be set up. I should have this
online within the next week or two, in time for the first planning
meeting. Look out for the button below on the home page of this
site... |
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| Dan back at the K&C |
| I'm back at the Kent & Canterbury Hospital
again, doing a Care of the Elderly job for six months. I finished
my three-month GP placement (which I enjoyed immensely)
and began two years of hospital experience before I can get
out into practice again. It took a while to get used to being
back on a bleep again, and as for the nights on-call... still,
the good news is that I see all the old crowd again. In November
I move on to Paediatrics, followed by Psych and O&G. |
| Lunch at the Red Lion with Nick, Ruth
and Nathan... |
|
Nick Sherwin in the Red Lion with Charlotte and Melissa Holt. |
| In early April - two weeks before the Norfolk
event - Ruth, Nathan and Nick visited one weekend and we had
Sunday lunch at the Red Lion. Here's a wonderful shot of Nick
looking decidedly nervous when landed with two young ladies!
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