Back after a long abscence

Can't believe or understand how I have left it so long to return to my blog.....

Anyway I am back and intend to keep on top of this, even if it's only myself who ever reads it!

Not a lot has changed really, Laura is spa manager at Clarins and progressing well though the company, Emma has finished her posting in Germany, I managed 2 visits whilst she was out there. So glad I did, Germany is beautiful and I feel sure that had Emma not been living there I would not have visited. Liam is doing fine after a brief spell of ill health in 2008. He is working part time and his plan is to follow his sister into the military.

As for me I am still with Lombard, RBS and trying to keep my head above water having survived the last 12 months which were the hardest months that I have ever worked. My private life is great right now, since I met a lovely guy last October, Paul, who brightens my days just by being there. Consider myself really lucky to know him! xx

Right I have made a start, will post photos soon. It's great to be back.

Gliding high over Oxfordshire

Today I was fortunate enough to be able to try my hand at GLIDING.
I was given a Red Letter Day gift from my employer Royal Bank of Scotland and opted for the gliding experience at Windrushers Gliding Club, in Bicester Oxforshire.
I have to admit I was pretty nervous when I woke this morning, but Liam, my sister Sarah and her daughter Faye accompanied me, this helped me settle a bit. I was however gobsmacked as we approached Bicester and saw a speck rising into the sky. My Mum's words came back to me, "Why can't you just do a spa day like every other woman?"
There was no going back, I was going to do it. After a short safety briefing during which I was told I would be wearing a parachute, (what! I did not think of that! Now I was scared!) we went to inspect the glider. Much smaller that I expected and very basic but there was no chickening out now. A small light aircraft was attached by way of cable and the "slack was taken up" and we jolted forward and soon gathered speed. The glider left the ground prior to the aircraft and we climbed to over a 1000 feet before the cable was released. It was an incredible feeling to be flying in such a small machine, very little sound just the air rushing by and the view over Oxfordshire wonderous. I was incredibly relaxed once airborne and enjoyed everyone of the 25 minutes we were gliding. Liam managed to keep his eye on us from down on the ground, we flew over the air field a couple of times. Eventually me made a rather bumpy landing and came to rest in virtually the very same spot that we had departed from, and all without an engine. It was a fabulous experience that I will never forget. Thanks RBS!

Summer Holidays, July 2007

On 30th June Liam and I set out on the gruelling drive to Northern Germany to Herford, to meet with Emma who is stationed there. It actually was not as bad as I had anticipated and the excitement of seeing Emma in her own surroundings was incredible. We took the ferry from Dover to Dunkirque, then motored through Belgium, Holland and finally Germany. 575 miles. We managed to drive without any missed turnings right until the last 25 yards, when we drove past the top of Emma's road only to see her on the mobile directing us in. Funny really and with a quick divert round the block we were all together. We spent a week camping just a half hour's drive from the barracks at Rinteln. Germany really impressed me, it is beautiful, very clean. The weather let us down badly that week and fair to say we were paddling in mud, but we did not let it get us down and we had many a laugh together, not least at the lack of our linguistic skills. I had expected the Germans to speak English and that Emma would know some basics. How wrong could I be, yes Emma can order Ein bier and zehn Chicken Mcnuggets, and the Germans seemed to enjoy watching us struggle. ( I am sure that the sight of Emma and Liam doing the goose step around the camp did not help our plight!) We did a lot of travelling around, visited Hameln, famous for the Pied Piper, we know it as Hamlin. Little white rats were painted on the pavement floor to show a path down to the river. The week went too quickly and the usual flood of tears arrived when we had to return Emma to her base. It is always hard and seems to get harder when we part, however Liam and I travelled east to Amsterdam, which was actually a bit of a disappointment; so many people, bikes, trams, cars. After that we drove back into France and headed for Normandy. I had visited there as a child and wanted Liam to see the war memorials. He wants to return but with Emma. It's a place we should all visit and take stock of the terrible cost of war.
The last few days of our holiday were nice but it really was a bit flat after Emma left us so we headed home on 11th July for a couple of days at home to dry out and rest. After all in 12 days we had covered an enormous 2225 miles!

White Water Rafting

Lombard Coventry and Warwickshire office took to the rapids on 8th June 2007. We were making an attempt to raise money for Great Ormonds Children's Hospital and Breast Cancer care charities.
9 of us made our way to The National Watersports Centre in Nottingham. The first obstacle was to don wetsuits, boyancy aids and helmets. After a short safety briefing when we were told that if the boat capsized and we were trapped under the raft we were not to panic. At that point I panicked! I am a banker get me out of here!
As with all team building events, I was too scared to back out now.....
We started with a tranquil few minutes on a small lake, getting the rhythm of rowing together sorted. In our raft we had Kevin and Lisa at the rear, and I am convinced I was set up when I found myself at the front of the raft, together with Doddy. However no going back now.....
I have to say I have never experienced anything quite like the plunging into fast flowing rapids, and with any luck I will not have to experience it again. Most of the time I had my eyes tight shut in order to preserve my contact lenses! If they were washed away I would be in trouble!
Needless to say after numerous scary and wet moments disaster struck. We capsized, and I found myself swept away from the raft. Shouts of float on your back from the instructors were hopeless, I was not able to change position, the current just took me. However I was eventually scooped from the swell, after an embarrassingly high number of attempts from a burly guy who struggled to lift me, (shit did I wish I had done that diet!)
It was a fantastic experience as you will see from the photographs, but I never ever want to repeat it again! Even for charity.......

Laura is OK

Laura hosted an event in River Island in Birmingham. It was also in conjunction with OK magazine, so you will see from the image attached that Laura is now a Covergirl.
She is also to be congratulated since she has received promotion and will be managing the Clarins Spa within Selfridges.

Liam, his first driving experience, of a car that is!

Liam spent the day at Rockingham Race track, courtesy of Laura and Emma, to have a first drive experience. He loved it and it came as no surprise that he scored a massive 98% on the end of day assessment. Next he will be wanting the Mini Cooper S that was his for the day!

Liam takes to the road! And so does Jane!

March 1st 2007, sees Liam's 16th birthday, and he is about to take to the road. He has bought himself a smart looking 49 cc Gilera scooter. Being the responsible mother that I am I felt it very necessary to test the bike out. The primary obstacle was to get over my fear of claustrophobia and put on the crash helmet. Have you seen how small the opening is on one of those things?!!! I can only say that I now know how a baby feels prior to being born, when he is faced with the squeeze though the vagina. There was no way my head was going to get through that small space. But it did!

Next was to climb on, "You sure you are going to be OK Mom?" Liam said nervously.

Vrrrrrrrrooommm I was off, this is great I thought, no problem until I realised I did not know how to stop nor turn around. Liam saw his Mom disappear into the distance. I am sure he was more worried about his bike than me and who could blame him. I motored on, laughing in hysteria wondering how much fuel was left, how long before I could get off. After several pathetic attempts to stop I managed it and turned the "beast" around and headed back to home to find both Liam and Emma waiting anxiously on the drive, "Mom! where have you been!!!" I have not laughed so much in a very long time, another fine mess I had got myself into. Needless to say Liam has now hidden the ignition key!

Emma runs Tough Guy

For those of you who know my youngest daughter Emma, it will come as no surprise that she has once again astounded us but not only her level of fitness and endurance but also her absolute lunacy.
In January this year she travelled back to the UK to take part in an annual event known as Tough Guy. Please take a moment to have a look at the link to appreciate the immensity of the task. Emma completed the course in a time of 2 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds. She says it really was one of the toughest events she has taken part in and was near to exhaustion when she crossed the finish line. But Emma is one Tough Gal, and was not beaten. Well done again to Emma.


http://www.toughguy.co.uk/srch-results.php?search=6440

Introducing Mollie and Max

Time to introduce the new members of the household. Two rescue kittens Mollie and Max. We think that they are around 4 months old and have had very little human contact. They are semi- feral and although very cuddly they are very scared and not at all tame. It's going to be a long haul training them, but after the death of Millie, I decided to re-home a kitten. When it came to it, Mollie and Max who are sister and brother were the last two in the sanctuary and I could not split them up, so took them both!