Hey, This Ball's an Odd Shape.

And no I'm not talking about Simon! ;-)

So this weekend is one weekend I've been looking forward to since the middle of the year. Earlier this year I managed to get hold of tickets to see the American Football. This was after spending 45 minutes going through various pages on Ticketmaster (at work no less). And for once, I didn't have to leave these shores. This is because the NFL was coming here, they were staging a regular season game outside America for the first time. American football was coming, to wembley no less!

Just so you get some idea this is the equivalent of the Premier League, taking a league game to America. The teams coming across were the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants. This technically was a home game for the Dolphins, although they were a long way from home.

Notice I mentioned tickets. I had also managed to drag Simon, Dave and Mike into this adventure. Although drag isn't really the right word. Mike is a very big American Football fan, Simon and Dave aren't big fans, but were interested all the same. And for the three of us, it would be our first ever trip to the new Wembley Stadium.

I'll say it now, Wembley isn't the easiest place to get to, it's badly situated if the truth be told and is only where it is now due to nostalgic reasons. After failing to get National Express (coach) tickets, earlier in the month, we (Me, Simon & Dave) had hatched a plan involving me Driving, A Train and the Tube. And then last Monday, I tried the National Express Website just on the off chance and managed to get Tickets. I count myself very lucky.

Because Simon had to be at work on the Monday we started/ended out journey at his house. I drove across to Stoke-on-Trent, picking up Dave on the way on Saturday Evening. On Sunday, the journey begins. The first leg was to walk from Simons house to the Coach station, which takes about 45 minutes. When we started out it was raining lightly. After about 10 minutes this turned into an absolute downpour. By the time we got to the coach we were completely drenched. All our clothes were soaked and some of our possessions as well. I had a number of books in my bag for the journey and they were all completely soaked. One is still not dry even now.

We left Stoke about 11am and the coach took about 3 hours to reach Wembley. This was the first time I'd been on a coach for over 10 years and my first time on a National Express Coach. The journey seemed long, but went off without incident. We met Mike outside Wembley, and after having all our bottles of drink confescated, were allowed to enter the Stadium. We took our seats quite early as there was very little to do inside the stadium (unless you drink).

Here is our first view of the Stadium from the inside. At this time it is very empty. It's a very impressive stadium and the Newness hasn't really had chance to fade yet. We did take our seats rediculously early. Although some people were completely the opposite and there were whole tiers that were sparsly populated with just 5 minutes to go.

Which is a shame, as one thing you get with American Football, over Football (I refuse to call it Soccer) is the Pre game. Here we get to see the New York Giants warming up.

And here we have a medley of Songs by the Band "The Feeling".

Finally with the Razzmatazz the Americans are none for the Miami Team take to the field. Cue the customery Fireworks.

The teams had honorary captains for the day. Martin Johnson, represented the Dolphins (and got a loud cheer), John Terry the Giants (Solidly booed) and the coin was tossed by one Lewis Hamilton (a very loud cheer).

The game was on.

Highlights of the game include the atomosphere, which was brilliant. We got that English tradition the streaker (sorry ladies no pictures I'm afraid) and also that the Dolphins brought there Cheerleading Squad to a very Wet London. Surprisingly I did manage to get one picture of them. ;-)

The game finished Giants 13 - 10 Miami. I wish the game had a higher score, but most of the points were scored at our end of the field so we did get to see quite a lot of action. The game finished abour 20:15 (after starting at 17:00). We got to our coach quite quickly, but had to wait for others to arrive, so we didn't leave until 21:15. We also had to negotiate a Crash coming out of London as well, so we didn't get back to Stoke until half past midnight. Factor in the walk and we didn't get back to Simons until 01:15am.

Poor Simon had work to go to (thankfully just a teacher training day). I however, had managed to take the day off and slept soundly until mid-morning. Was it worth it, I would have to say definately Yes!

Life has a Sense of Humour.

At times life can be a complete pain in the rear. In fact at the moment it is definately a complete pain. My boss has unfortuantely had to go on a business trip to holland for the rest of this week. This leaves just me in the office to "Man the fort" as it were. I'm really hoping that there are no disasters this week. I'm behind enough with work as it is at the moment without having one of these rear there ugly head.

And then there is the otherside of life. As part of our installations we insist on a seperate telephone line to allow us to provide remote support for the machinery. Now you know the sort of places we deal with. Well when I enquired if one of our new installations had a line installed yet, the person at the other end of the went a little quiet. They then informed me they had, but they wanted BT to change the line before we could use it.

When I enquired as to why it was because the number they were given wasn't suitable. When I enquired what wasn't suitable about it they eventually told me that it ended with 666. When they complained BT obviously relented and decided to give them a new number.

Something that put a smile on my face at the end of last week.

Twelve of Twelve

I must give a thousand apologies for this. I believe this my first 12 of 12, not actually written on the 12th. Nothing wrong with that I know, but still I can't help thinking that I have failed in my mission somewhat. ;-) Still I must get over this months laziness and get on with the show.

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01. 07:15

Breakfast. I don't think this will ever change. I've never been the sort of person who can face a day without it. I've grown rather partial to Museli and banana's so I don't think I'll be changing this anytime soon.

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02. 08:15

I'm at work already. I left this leaflet by my phone as a reminder to me that I'm expecting a delivery today. It's be a private delivery firm thankfully, with all these postal strikes I'm not expecting the usual mail so any post is welcome (except maybe bills).

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03. 09:00

This is our testing area. We like to test each of our cremators as thoroughly as possibloe before they leave the factory. However there is one obvious way in which they cannot be tested in the factory. However we have in the past tested our machines by filling a wooden box with lard and water to simulate the consistancy of the human body.

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04. 10:15

As part of the control system for each machine we use a flue gas analyser to test the oxygen and CO content of the gases leaving the cremator. We use these figures to control the cremation process and to try and keep it as environmentally friendly as possible.

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05. 12:05

Although I'm expecting a parcel, I'm actually sending more than I recieve. These 2 parcels are both destined for our engineers in the field. I'm not very good at packing parcels as anyone who has recieved a birthday or xmas present can probably attest to. However there should be enough parcel tape on these to see them through there journey.

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06. 15:45

This is the cremator we saw earlier being loaded for it's journey to it's new home. They all travel by lorry as they weigh upwards of 20 tonnes. Those going to far off countries also travel by container ship. We've sent machines to as far as America, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

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07. 16:25

My delivery finally arrives. No very big I grant you, but it contains some very important items. These are my tickets to see the Miami Dolphins play the New York Giants at this months game at Wembley. Myself and 3 friends are going to the new Wembley for the first time.

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08. 17:15

My gas boiler that supplies all of the heating and hot water for my house. The covers off so I can see if it is currently lit or not. Every year I've lived in this house the heating has failed every winter. So far so good, it's holding it's own this year.

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09. 17:16

I have a bit of time before I have to go to Cadets, so I break out the book I'm currently reading. I've read this so many times I've lost count. But it's one of my favourites and I haven't given it, it's annual airing this year.

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10. 19:25

It's a friday night and we would usually be playing sport at cadets. However it coming up to exam time for the cadets so tonight we're back at our HQ for lessons. The cadets all take part in subjects to do with aviation, the ATC and the RAF. Usually I teach subjects such as Principles of Flight and Air Navigation. However it's not my turn tonight so instead...

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11. 19:30

... I find myself doing the paperwork instead. You would not believe how much paperworj there is to keep this organisation going. Risk assessments, forms for this, forms for that. If this organisation went paperless I think whole forests would breath a sigh of relief.

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12. 20:45

Paperwork is finished for this evening so I go to watch one of the lessons. This is CWO Alsop (the highest ranked cadet on the squadron) giving a lesson on basic navigation. This is how to use a map and compass when hill walking. For some reason it also has a section on clouds.

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Well that's it for another month. Hopefully there will be some extra special pictures for next month. But you'll have to wait until next month to find out what they may be. If you're wondering what possessed me to do this. Well it's all the idea of a man named Chad Darnell. Hop over to his blog to find the instructions on how to take part and find other blogs of a similar nature.

Dead Products Society

Am I just to rough with things? That's the question I find myself asking after I look back at the last fortnight. The first thing to break (again) was my car. But this time rather than breaking down at a convenient time (like when I'm at home or at work), it instead decided to strand me on the hard shoulder of the M1.

I'd just got onto the M1 and then took a look at the engine temperature gauge. It was quite quickly heading to the red zone so I had to stop on the hard shoulder. I opened up the bonnet to be greeted with the comedy cloud of steam. Looking at the coolant level and it was just non existent. Somehow it had disappeared somewhere.

One quick call to roadside assistance later. And I'm stood on the M1 awaiting an engineer. Boy was it cold. You're not supposed to sit in the car while it's on the hard shoulder (in case of accidents) so instead I was stood in the freezing wind, with no shelter.

For an hour.

Finally the engineer arrives, and tops the coolant bak up again. But we can't see where, the coolant has gone. So I restart the engine only to find it starts to pump the coolant directly out of the bottom of the car. The pumps cracked. So I then need to be towed to the nearest mazda dealership. That was a new experience for me. I've never been towed before in my life. It was a very tiring experience as I had to concentrate much harder than usual.

It took the dealership a weekend to fix my car (mainly because they had to wait for a new pump), but thankfully they sorted me with a loan car for the weekend and I was able to keep up with my planned rendevous with Simon & Dave, all the way in Sunny Stoke-on-Trent.

Next to break was my PDA. No matter what I try to do it just won't turn on. You never know what you've got till it's gone. I now know how much I've come to rely on my PDA to let me know what my plans are in the coming months. It's all stored on the outlook on my office PC, but I can't take that with me. I'm having to use my brain again at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to find somone who can fix it for a reasonable price.

The final thing to break was the interent. I have been without a reliable internet connection for the past week. However I discovered this was not due to my ISP. Instead this has been due to my wireless hub. It seems fine now, but I have no idea what caused it to have so many problems last week. I'm suspecting windows has something to do with it. I find that if all else fails, it's windows fault.

All I need is for my central heating to have it's yearly breakdown and then the circle of life will be complete.

Last week was also a very ATC intensive week for me. Tuesday found me escorting cadets as we participated in a door to door collection for the RAF Association. This is the organisation that supports former members of the RAF. We particapate in 2 collection nights a year to help raise funds. It's amazing the characters that you meet on these collections. They range from the generous to those that just peer at you from there living room window.

Thurday found me in my best uniform for the Lord Lieutenant's Cadet presentation. Each year a cadet from each of the services is nominated as the Lord Lieutenant's Cadet for the next year. The Lord Lieutenant is basically the Queens representative in North Yorkshire and the cadets can act as his escorts for various functions throughout the year. This year the award for the ATC went to Flight Sergeant Jade Lawson, one of the cadets from my Squadron. It was an excellent evenign and we are all rightly proud of her.

Friday found me as the adult supervision for a cadet night out. We took the cadets out bowling and also to play laser quest. Although I didn't particiapate it still can be quite a handful looking after 25 cadets. Luckily I was supported by other members of staff.

Finally Saturday found me in a local Morrisons supermarket, packing bags. Yes, we took part in that great fund raising tradition, the bag pack. I have no idea how much we made during the day. All I know is that I didn't have as much change in my bucket by the end of the day as the rest of the cadets.

I blame the fact that I'm not as cute as the cadets! Especially in uniform!!