12 of 12, March

It's March, which means we are nearly a quarter of the way through the year. My god where has the year gone. And the only answer I can think of is "In front of us, or behind us, depending on which way you are looking". Which I think is quite a good way of looking at things, but I can't remember where I originally heard that line.

Obviously one of those little bits of information that has decided not to stay in my head and make room for something more useful. For example the story of a Russian air hostess who got blown out of an aircraft at 33,300 ft and survived. Why I remember that one I don't know, it's just been with me since primary school.

Maybe that's why we blog, so we don't have to remember.

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1. 06:35
Always the first dilemma of the morning, which tie to go for. I'm a big fan of the colout blue, so that colour features prominantly in most of my ties. In the end I selected the left hand one.

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2. 07:00
This photo didn't come out as well as I intended. It looks just like some random outdoor shot. In fact at the time I took the photo the tree was leaning over quite heavily due to the gale that was blowing around my house. Unfortunately the picture was from the wrong angle. Well we live and learn.

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3. 07:25
Again a work photo before anybody else gets in the office. This is my current test rig for testing software at my desk. The hardware doesn't look that technological advanced, because it isn't. It's part of an older system that I'm modifying for a customer. I go to site next week to install it, here hoping it all goes smoothly.

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4. 16:15
Time for some shopping. This week I'm helping to run a practice expedition for the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh group at Cadets. So I need to pick up some camping supplies and some food for the group for the weekend. This is Blacks, its one of the biggest camping retailers in the country, also one of our cadet instructors works there so he slips me a discount.

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5. 16:45
Now for the food shopping. Asda, part of the Wal-mart family. I'm looking for stuff that's easy to cook and will keep in a rucksack. Preferably boil in the bag stuff. I know it's rubbish but for just one night the stuff will do. And you can always eat more of it if you are hungry. The best thing about expeditions is that as well the boil in the bag stuff you also get to eat a lot of sweet stuff. Hiking takes a lot of calories, about 2 - 3 x as many as a normal days intake. They recommend lots of high energy foods to help sustain this. Especiallyas you can't stop every hour to cook bowls of pasta.

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6. 17:45
I think I may have gone a bit mad with the shopping. There are 16 boxes of boil in the bag meals there. The boxes looked too small to contain a good meal so I bought at least enough for 2 boxes each. Also the boxes were 8 for £4!!!!! So going overboard didn't cost me that much. Also notice the packets of biscuits and chocolate, they're also for the expedition.

I can't wait.

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7. 18:00
Something else I bought for the weekend, this time for me. It's a head torch, useful for keeing your hands free, in the dark, for example while trying to cook. I was looking for some cool light effects with this shot, but the lense flare I could see on the screen didn't translate to the actual picture. I'm learning all sorts of things this month.

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8. 19:25
Tonights entertainment. The book I've been reading on/off for the last month. With the amount of studying I've been doing for my expedition leaders course Finding time for me has been difficult. After my assessment that should hopefully change. Oh and guess what, my assessment is on the 12th April. You know what that means!!

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9. 19:55
I don't know why, but I always seem to be doing a stirfry whenever I'm taking pictures for 12 of 12. I can cook other things, honest.

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10. 20:45
Do you remeber the picture of the food for my expedition? Yep, it's the same bar of Toblerone. I just couldn't resist. Especially as I'm about to curl up on the couch in front of a DVD. It's actually a "fruit and nut" Toblerone, which is actually a bit of a con. It's actually just a Toblerone with Raisons, still very nice.

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11. 21:30
DVD watching. Generally when watching a DVD full of episodes I'll skip through the ending credits. Having seen them once you generally don't repeatedly watch them over again at the end of each episode. However this series (Trinity Blood) has such a nice ending song, that I generally don't skip it. It's sung by a Japanese artist (I don't know who) in english. I think the song is called broken wings.

Oh and the lights were on, the photo just came out very dark. That's three photo's inone sitting that weren't quite right. If things come in 3's that should be the last of them.

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12. 22:00
I still had a little bit of studying to do before I went to bed. I was looking at an Ordenance Survey map (a company that provides all types of maps in the UK) of the area we are camping/hiking in this weekend. The map is a 1:50,000 (2cm = 1km) scale map of a type suitable for hiking (it shows terrain as well as paths).

I'm actually looking at it on my PC as I have a number of these maps on my PC making it easier to plot routes. During the weekend we have to teach the cadets to plot a route, however using the old fashioned method of paper map and compass.
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That's it fdor this month. For adventurous photo's you'll have to wait for next month. If you've been reading this and wondering why I've done all this then visit Chad's blog and all will become clear.

Join us!

12 of 12 February

Well this year I decided I wanted to go one better than the 11 out of 12 that I managed last year. I didn't get off to a good start. January's 12 of 12 (falling on the 12th) fell into the Weekend I started my BELA (Basic Expedition Leader Award) course. This course teaches the basic skills required to take young people out walking in lowland countryside. It also teaches you about your responsibilites. It is a minimum requirement for takling cadets out hiking.

The problem arose due to the location of the course. It was on a Royal Air Force Air Base. Being a military installation, security is pretty tight. However this particualr air base is currently home to one of the heirs to the Throne aka Prince William. He is currently in residence undergoing his pilot training. As you can imagine being seen with a camera, let alone taking pictures gets you a big frown down the barrel of a gun.

Still no one around to stop me this month so without further ado.

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1. 06:55

Having started my new job in January, I find myself having a much earlier start on Morning. I actually start work at 07:30 am which is an hour earleir than my previous job. This morning it's very foggy and I can't see very far down the street. It's also very icy and I almost go flying walking down the steps to the path.

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2. 06:56

It's so icy my car has completely frozen up on the outside. It will take me a good few minutes scraping off the ice you see here. In the meantime I get much colder wishing I hadn't got out of bed this morning.

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3. 07:25

My desk at work. It's nice and clean at the moment as I haven't had too much time to accumulate the years of crap my last desk had. The second reason is that it's only a temporary desk as there's an office move in the works. Thirdly (and finally) the desk is right next to both my bosses, so I can't escape there gaze.

Note: Unfortunately photo's from work will be few and far between as they take security and privacy very seriously. However as I'm one the first few people in the office on the Morning I should be able to get one or two. Also for those not in the know I finished my job with the Cremation industry at Xmas and started one with the water industry in the New Year. So I've gone from Crematorium to Sewerage Treatment Works. It's a good job I have a bad sense of smell.

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4. 16:10

The one good thing about starting early is I finish at 15:30. I can be home within 30 minutes and now I suddenly find myself having more of the day to play with. Also the new job no longer has the option of going to the canteen for lunch (and I refuse to pay shop prices for Sandwiches all week) so I make my own. Lunch usually consists of a Sandwich, 2 slices of Malt Loaf and a Cereal bar. I also have a fruitbowl full of fruit stashed in my desk draw for when I get peckish!

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5. 16:25

Tonight is a Cadet night and there is now time before I go out to have a shave. As I am in uniform I must be clean shaven (you can only grow facial hair under exceptional circumstances) and I'm glad I no longer have to rush before travelling to cadets. And yes that is my bald head you can see just in the bottom of the mirror. ;-)

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6. 17:00

As part of my evening preparations I also need to polish my shoes as part of the uniform. Only the toe caps need to be polished, but the rest of the shoe needs to be clean and scuff free. I usually spend about 1 hour a week polishing them, however this is currently not giving me the shine I want so I may have to find the time to do another hour somewhere in the week.

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7. 18:00

There's just time to check my emails before I leave. This is my new Laptop which I've had for about 3 weeks now. My old laptop has been on it's last legs for the last 6 months now. It was really slow and had no battery life, but at least it worked. However just before Xmas it welded the power lead to the back of the laptop due to excessive heat generated by the charging circuit. At that point I decided it was too dangerous to use anymore. The new laptop is silver with a white outer casing. I had my choice of colours, but I went for white as it seems to be the fashionable colour at the moment.

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8. 19:25

I've arrived at the Squadron headquaters. It took me a bit longer than usual due to the fog coming backas the evening wore on. I've been a uniformed memeber of staff on the Squadron for 6 months now and I'm starting to get the hang of it. However having been a member of the squadron for a total of nearly 14 years probably gives me an advantage in that respect.

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9. 22:20

Back home for the night and as you can see the fog is still on it's way back. It's not quite as bad as it was the morning, but I still can't see all the way down the street. As I live on a hill I have to say it was much worse at the bottom of the hill, rather than where my house is.

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10. 22:25

For the next part of my BELA training course we are doing a camping skills weekend. I've borrowed a couple of tents from the squadron for this part of the course. However, I know one of the tents is missing a few pieces. So I need to put up both of these tents sometime this weekend to see which one is the complete set. I think I'd fail my course if I turned up with the wrong one.

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11. 22:30

Just time before I go to bed to get some reading in. Well I say reading, but I've gone for the option of a Comic Book this time. This is a Japanese Comic by Mamoru Nagano called "The Five Star Stories". It's a Science Fiction epic (that should be EPIC) and even though it's a comic I wouldn't call it "light reading". It's also printed in the original Japanese format, so you read if from right to left and back to front, compared to what we are used to in the west. My favourite thing about this series is the art, some of the drawings (especially the colour ones) are simply beautiful.

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12. 23:10

Okay before I go to bed, one more picture. Yep that's a picture of somebody in a uniform. Sorry I couldn't resist. Also that Beret, to get it that shape, you have to soak it in warm water and then wear it on your head in the correct shape until it dries in that shape. That was an uncomfortable few hours I can tell you.

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Well that it for the first on of the year (how I wish it was the second). If you've been reading this and wondering why I've done all this then visit Chad's blog and all will become clear.

Join us!

Twelve of Twelve

Well another year is almost over, with this it'll be 11 from 12 this year, which I don;t think is half bad dor my first year at this. Hopefully I'll manage a full house next year. I can certainly promise no more "Cremation" pictures next year. I start my new job on January and that'll just be doing work for the "water" companies. So from Fire to Water, there's definately an elemental nature to all of my jobs.

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1. 07:15 Approx
At this time of year, the sun gets more of a sleep-in than I do. So I wake up to this grey half-light when I look out of my window on a morning.

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2. 07:30 Approx
No you're not having a flashback. This is honestly yet another different picture of my breakfast (museli and banana). Thinking you may be getting bored of this by now, I decided to spice it up by taking the picture upside down. Maybe next month I'll set it alight or something.

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3. 07:45 Approx
As well as being dark it's also bloody freezing this morning. Not only am I cold enough to bump into a Yeti, but it was also cold enough for the windscreen on my car to freeze up. I hate scraping the ice and frost from my windscreen. I just want to get from my house and into the car (with a heater) as quickly as possible.

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4. 08:30 Approx
First things first when I get in the office, get the kettle on. The office hot water urn is currently broken so we have to share this kettle for the water for our tea/coffee. I try and get at it first before the queues form. I need a cup of tea when I get in to help me warm up.

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5. 10:00 Approx
The office outside door security system is playing up again. We have a number of doors into the building that can be only accessed by a swipe card. We built the system ourselves as my boss didn't want ot pay a professional company to do it. So when it goes wrong I have to fix it. Today the cards either won't let anybody in, or the doors are letting anybody in off the street.

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6. 14:00 Approx
It's 2pm in the afternoon and I still have the heater on underneath my desk. I hate the cold weather.

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7. 15:40 Approx
Nearly 4pm and the security system is finally fully functional again. As I've been so bust this is only my second cup of tea of the day. What is the world coming too?

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8. 17:15 Approx

This year at work we all decided rather than give out christmas cards to each other, instead we'd donate the money to charity instead. But as the number of ever increasing cards on my windowsill shows, some people have gone ahead and done it anyway. I always feel the need to reciprocate, so I'm having to up the estimated number of cards I'm going to need this year.

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9. 18:40 Approx
At home any recieved cards sit on my fireplace. I haven't yet had any cards land on the doormat just yet. All of the one you see here actually turned up at my old address, luckily my parents still live there!

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10. 18:55 Approx
These are the first and last of the christmas decorations that need to go up this year. It may not look it, but within the hour this'll be my christmas tree.

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* 11. 19:30 Approx
The tree's finally up. It's like one of those Rubik's puzzles, there are a number of different pieces that can only fit together in one way. Needless to say when I first put it together, I had the middle and the bottom the wrong way round. Apart from looking a little lobsided it's managed to survive a year in the back of the garage.

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12. 20:00 Approx
The finished product. I initially the lights wouldn't work, but after replacing a bulb, htye look like they'll be good for another year. They actually twinkle once they've warmed up, but I can't make em twinkle in a photo unfortunately. I did try taking some photo's in the dark, but they all turned out green as if they were taken through night vision goggles.
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So that's it for another month and for another year. I hope you've enjoyed the 132 pictures that have made up this year. Next year maybe 144.

If you have read all of this and have no idea why I did this, then pop over here and read Chad's blog.

Clearing my Head

Can you believe it has been nearly 3 weeks since I last posted? I can! It has been, well lets just say it's been quite an interesting time.

Now, you've all heard my various storied from my job. Some interesting, some gory, but most of them seem to have gone down well. You've also probably heard me complaining numorous times about certain aspects of my job. Well, it's been a good few months since I complained to the hierachy about the problematic aspects of my job and do you know what has happened.

Nothing.

The pressure of supporting customers has increased over the past few months and I have actually done very little of my actual job. In fact over the past few months my job has been almost unrecognisable from what it was when I started. The worst bit was I just couldn't see anything was going to change in the future. In this situation I can quite honestly say I wasn't enjoying my job anymore.

I have always said to myself that when I constantly found myself not enjoying the job, then it was time to consider my options. However this time I didn't really have any options, so I decided to create myself some. I posted my details to a couple of recruitment sites, emailed a couple fo CV's and just waited to see what happened.

And it wasn't long before I had two companies offering me an interview. I arranged both interviews for the same day. The first one was in Leeds early in the morning and the second one was in Nottingham, mid-afternoon. Both were for positions within Leeds, but the company in Nottingham didn't actually have an office in Leeds yet!

Both interviews were actually very similar in tone. Half of the interview was spent with the interviewer trying to sell there company (and the job) to me. As always the interviews turned out to be not half as scary as I imagined them to be. It turns out that there is a shortage of people with my job skills (and my wage bracket). I think being in demand made things easier.

The day after both interviews I was told I had made the second round of the Nottingham interviews and I was offered I job from the early morning Leeds interview. Although the nottingham job was slightly more money and was working from home, I decided to discount that one. It would have meant working in Nottingham for the first few months and then I was unsure as to the support when I was working from home. If they had a leeds base it would have been different, but they didn't so I decided no.

The other job was more tempting, it's actually only a couple of miles from where I currently work, but the job is slightly different. It's actually writing software for the water industry. So going from opposing elements fire to water.

I didn't accept the offer at first. I actually went to my boss and told him I'd had an offer, just to see what would happen. I've never seen the office move so fast, I think the world must have shifted. After I explained my reasons, my boss went to see his boss and then they pulled me up into a meeting to try an convince me to stay. And fair play to them, they have tried to set thigns in motion to try and pul my job back to closer where it started from.

However in the end I couldn't see it changing as much as I wanted it to. So on Thursday I excepted the job offer from the Leeds based company (Saftronics if anyone is interested) and I told my boss I wasn't staying. I intend to hand my notice in officially on Monday.

It's good to have a clear head again. This has been at both the back and the front of my mind for a while now. This has certainly reduced my worries, I think I'm really going to enjoy the Christmas holidays this year.

So this is the start of my final chapter with Facultatieve Technologies. Overall I've enjoyed it and I've definately picked up lots of memories both good and bad, that includes lots of stories to share with everybody. The new story should start in the beginning of the New Year and I'm definately looking forward to it.

Twelve of Twelve

Well if you believe the shops it's already Christmas, but I don't, for which I am eternally thankful for. It's only November and that means we have 2 more twelve of twelves left for the year. This is one is slightly different from most, as it crosses over slightly with another 12 of 12 being typed across from me as I type. It's a very odd experience.

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1. 07:30 Approx
The obligatory breakfast shot. The only thing that differentiates this one from last months 12 of 12, is that there is no milk in this bowl and there are 1 1/2 banana's accompaning it.

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2. 07:45 Approx
My car boot needs a good sorting out. A lot of it used to sit on the back seat and in the footwells, but because I had a car full of cadets last Friday I had to quickly dump it into the boot. I also dumped it in there to make my car easier to search, (which it sometimes is) when we go through security to get onto our local Airbase.

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3. 08:10 Approx
Monday morning Traffic. It's the worst traffic of the week and I really hate it. I find it just an utter waste of time to sit in a car and not go anywhere. What makes it worse is the traffic is not just caused by there being more cars, but due to the very bad design of the junction.

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4. 10:30 Approx
First task of the day is to sort out parts for those machines that have broken down over the weekend. This is a display for an operator, that seems to have died over the weekend. Poor choice of words I know considering the type of machine it is going to be attatched to.

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5. 12:00 Approx
This is another thing that has broken down over the weekend. I'm actually setting up this PC to go out a crematorium on the Swiss/Italian border. Fortunately this version of Windows is in English, but the software is in Italian.

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6. 15:00 Approx
It's over to the workshop for an afternoon of testing various machines. First to be tested are the cremulators. This is a machine that we like to like to test rather thoroughly as they tend to take rather a beating at the hands of customers. The final test is to put a brick through the machine to test the anti-jamming measures. This simulates an artificial hip joint being put through the machine along with somebodies remains. The brick doesn't always survive the test.

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7. 16:30 Approx
I know it looks complicated, but this is one of the more simple machines that we do. This one isn't for humans though. This one is an animal incinerator, although I think it looks like a bank safe from the front. It's designed to a whole cow or even a small horse. And if you're wondering how we get one in there...

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8. 16:31 Approx
... this is it. This is a loading box for an animal incinerator. It is basically a large trough with a hydraulic ram at one end to push the "animal" down the trough and safely into the machine.

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9. 17:05 Approx
Work is over, but I don't leave straight away, that would mean sitting in more traffic. So I usually bob around the internet and wait out the traffic. At the moment I am playing a game of online scrabble against my boss. I'm winning, just, but he is clawing some points back in these final few turns.

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10. 18:33 Approx
Standing in the freezing cold at Micklefield Station waiting for a visitor. Who you may ask? Well you'll just have to search the other 12 of 12's to find out. Although it's probably not hard to guess. Yes I am mean like that!!

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11. 20:45 Approx
This is the table which sits by my door. It's my "Too Remember" table. I put things on it that I need to take with me to work, or to other places. For tomorrow I need to remember to take these Jaffa Cakes into work, so my boss doesn't go hungry. I've got Wednesday through to Friday off and he'd jsut starve if I didn't stock up the biscuit urn. It is also where my wireless router sits, because I haven't got a long enough telephone cable for it to go anywhere else.

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12. 22:15 Approx
Boy she moves quickly. You go to take her picture and by the time you've got your camera she's gone. Sorry folks I wasn't going to make it that easy. ;-)

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BONUS PIC: THANKFUL

Digital TV. ;-) The best place to find re-runs of TV programs you can't stop watching again and again, like Top Gear. I've lost count how many times I've seen the same episode from the show, but I don't care, I still find it funny.

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If you have read all of this and have no idea why I did this, then pop over here and read Chad's blog.

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!