Dan's BoardFree Blog

BoardFree 101 - Class of '06

2007-02-04T00:16:00.000Z

Today is my last day in Australia. So I thought now would be a good time to write a blog! The journey has been over for nearly 2 weeks now and the time since has been spent relaxing at kind friends houses. I would like to thank the Cleator family for looking after us in Hope Island and for making us feel at home. Thanks also to Alex and Connor Gardiner for housing us in Sydney.

This trip has been a great experience and one which I have learnt many lessons. It has shown us that there are still people in the world who will go out of their way to help others. The hospitality and generosity of the Australian people has been unbounded. Thank you to everyone who has helped make this journey an amazing one for everyone of the team.

No one has taught me more on this trip than my fellow team members. We have spent the last 6 months together, in close confinement and still managed to come out friends at the end! I think this an achievement in itself! From each of these special people I have learnt valuable lessons for life.

Dim: Dim taught me not to judge a book by it’s cover. He is the perfect example of this, although he may look like a hobo he’s actually not that bad! He has many philosophies, some I agree with and some I don’t, but I respect his strong principles.

Si: Simon has taught me to always think positively and see the best in everyone and every situation. Simon is one of the nicest guys around and treats everyone in the manner he would like to be treated. No one can find a bad word to say about Simon.

Holly: Holly has shown throughout this trip, do what you feel like, don’t worry about what other people think (if you feel like dancing like a lunatic, then do it!!). You shouldn’t let other people’s opinions hold you back. Before I was guilty of caring to much about other peoples views about me but now I feel less confined. Holly may be only 20 but she can talk some sense!

Kate: Kate is the opitimy of the saying blondes have more fun. I now count Kate as one of my closest friends, someone who I can continuously joke around with. She has taught me that making people laugh is a valuable tool, especially in difficult times, and she isn’t afraid to do so often at her own expense!

Becki: Becki has taught me to have enough courage to stand up to your beliefs. During this trip she showed enormous strength of character in the face of adversity and this is something I truly admire. She has also shown me that some people are so focused on helping everyone else that they often forget to look after themselves. Look after number one!

Bev: Good things can come in small packages! I love Bev’s spirit and drive to see the lighter side of situations. Her determination and dedication to whatever she focuses on is second to none and I’m sure this will bring her great success. I think we both share similar outlooks on life and how to live it.

Laura: Laura has shown us that everything is worthy of its own theme tune! From Garfield the cat to hamsters, nothing is too small and insignificant! In BoardFree, Laura has found a passion which she has been able to totally immerse herself in. It has changed her life and given her a new direction.

Pete: Pete has taught me how to spin a cricket ball, although I’m not very good at it! He has a spooky (almost geeky) knowledge of films that no one I know can rival. Dimitri comes close but will never deny that Pete is the king! Pete is good at what he does and enjoys his work. I hope to be as lucky as he is in the future.

And last but not least;
Dave: Dave has shown me, and everyone else that anything is possible if you just put your mind to it. If you really want something, if you have a dream, then all it takes is some determination and a little hard work. Pain is just a figment of the imagination, a feeling, not a state of mind. It is something you can conquer and not something which should rule over you.
I can’t thank Dave enough for giving me this opportunity.

So this is my last blog in Australia. It has been a wonderful adventure, one which I will never forget. I hope that I can improve and grow as a person through the lessons I have been shown. Some of the team are already back in the UK and I will miss everyone after I fly home today. Never has a better group of people travelled behind a guy on a skateboard across a continent!
Thank you guys!!!!

Melbourne!!!!!

2006-11-16T23:38:00.000Z

We are in Melbourne! We rolled into town yesterday and are staying at some kind peoples house who stopped and donated on the road. Thank you Jon and Jo!! You know what else is in Melbourne!! Neighbours! The most exciting thing happened yesterday, Dave got a txt from an unknown number saying "please call Alan Fletcher" so he rang back the number and it was his own personal mobile!! He had just flown back in from the UK and is trying to sort out an appearance for dave on neighbours! I hope he can get us all on as extras!! That would be amazing. We are hopefully going to meet him on Monday or Tuesday.

Since Adelaide, a new part of boardfree has started. The surfing side. We picked up 2 mini-mal boards kindly given to us by real wiiings (http://www.realwiiings.com/) and since then have been surfing our way round the south coast! It has been awesome fun and a great way to wind down after a day on the road.

Here in Melbourne, there is no surf but there are alot of people and that means more oppurtunities for fundraising. We will be picking up a new team member at the airport, Laura, tonight. She will be helping us fundraise at the skate comp we are going to tomorrow, sponsored by quicksilver.

Fingers crossed we can raise our total significantly in Melbourne (and get on neighbours of course!)

Adelaide – The Beginning of the End?

2006-10-16T13:21:00.000+01:00

A lot has happened since my last blog. We have crossed the Nullarbor in a faster than anticipated 18 days, seen some amazing views and wildlife, met some amazing people (and monkey’s!) and had more than a couple of dilemmas along the way.

We had an amazing time across the Nullarbor, not many people get to stop at every single roadhouse on the Eyre highway, and not many people get to see the Nullarbor at the speed at which we travelled. Before we started this journey so many people commented on how boring the Nullarbor was and how much of a challenge it would be. On the contrary, the whole team were amazed at the beautiful views offered by the ever changing scenery as we whizzed by at 15km/ph. Another thing we were told about the Nullarbor is that at this time of year there should be prevailing winds blowing Dave along. We were lucky to get a couple of days with a tailwind but apart from those the majority of the time there were strong headwinds forcing Dave to shelter behind the vehicle! Despite this, Dave still managed to finish ahead of schedule and break his record for the longest day of skating, twice!! On two occasions Dave managed to surpass the unthinkable 100km in a day milestone, starting from Eucla and Wudinna respectively.

We met many kind and generous people during our time on the Nullarbor, some stopping to chat and donate, others offering us accommodation along the way. Ken and Yvonne from Clare stopped us, bought BoardFree T-shirts and invited us to a sausage sizzle at their home, near Port Wakefield. They showed incredible generosity and hospitality by inviting eight complete strangers to their home and feeding and watering us. Many people have made similar offers of accommodation and BBQ’s so we can only hope that the rest of the journey can live up to the amazing generosity shown to us by the people of West and Southern Australia.

The reason I have named this blog as I have is down to the fact that we have reached Adelaide. It was sad to come to the end of the Nullarbor, knowing that we would not be experiencing the vast expanses again. Ever since Dave first began planning this trip, I had always looked at the map of Australia and mentally split it into two parts, the first containing Perth and the Nullarbor and the final part being the big cities. Now we have reached Adelaide, it is almost as if half the journey is finished and now we are on the home stretch. Of course Dave must be feeling a little different with 2700km down and 3300km to go!!

Since rolling into Adelaide we haven’t had the best of luck to say the least. On the day we arrived in the northern suburbs, two of our three support vehicles broke down within metres of each other. One had to be towed, one was jump started and hopefully by the time we leave Adelaide they should be fixed!
This appeared to be only the tip of the iceberg because the very next day, Dave finished skating through the city centre and we stopped en-route to take a photo next to a road sign. This was no ordinary road sign however as it was the sign for Thorpe road. Now as you must know, one of our camera men here is named Simon Thorpe, so we naturally we had to get a photo. Dim, Dave and myself got out and Dim and me climbed onto a wall to jump off behind the sign. “Get up on the wall with us and we’ll jump” we said to Dave. “No no, I’ve only got my socks on, I’ll hurt myself” replied Dave. So he stood next to the signpost. We all jumped in the air, Dim and myself landing safely. Unfortunately, Dave’s left foot came down onto a sharp piece of metal and this resulted in a large gash. Subsequently a visit to the Royal Adelaide hospital was required and seven stitches soon followed.
So to cut a long story short, we are delayed in Adelaide for about a week, until next Sunday. This could possibly be a blessing in disguise though. Dave needs a rest, we are in a major city and the press are all over the freak accident story. It’s funny how the press of any country love stories of people’s misfortunes. Dave has been interviewed more than 10 times today in the wake of the accident press release which just goes to show what people are really interested in!

We are looking at four extra rest days in Adelaide now and we are being taken care of by Bob and Deirdre of the Adelaide Sailability club. The team cannot be more grateful to them both for taking us in and showing us so much kindness.

Finally, I would like to say well done and thank you to Laura Hatwell, a true BoardFree-er!! http://www.boardfreelaura.co.uk/ Soon she will be joining us on the raod to Brisbane and we can't wait to get her over here!! Welcome to the team Laura!!

-D-

Here comes the Desert

2006-09-08T06:20:00.000+01:00

BoardFree Oz has been very random and brilliant so far! Over the past few days we have slept in a school, been hosted by nickel miners, camped in the bush and tonight we have accommodation in a 4 star hotel, for free!
The generosity of the Australian public so far has been astonishing. So many people have been pulling over to hand Dave money. Everyone has been so friendly too and many hostels and campsites allow us to stay for free. The thing that really hit me most though was after we stayed a night in Kambalda West high school (in the Home economics room). The headteacher, Russel, allowed us pretty much free reign of the school, even all the sports equipment in the gym! The next morning, Dave gave a talk to the pupils of the school, first to the older children in the high school, then to the junior school which was adjacent to it. After the talk to the juniors, a girl from the high school chased after Dave and promtly handed him a $50 note saying, "I didn't have my purse on me earlier, I've only got $50 so here you are!" $50 AUS dollars is about 20GBP and for a girl that young to be handing over so much money really blew us all away.
The next day we were invited to stay for free at a local mine site! They provided us with beds, free food and also had a whip round for us, raising over $200 in a bucket! The next morning we were treated to a tour of the nickel mine (the 1st people to ever be given a tour) and it was absolutely amazing. We went down over 500m below the ground and saw a few of the guys working. This was all set up by a guy called Paul who passed Dave skating the day before. He, and all at the mining facility were so hospitable and he even gave us a new battery for our vehicle after it failed to start.
Dave was on the front page of a county-wide paper the other day as well as featuring regularly on radio stations. This publicity has opened peoples eyes to what we are trying to acheive and the majority of them have been bending over backwards to help us in any way they can. It really restores your faith in mankind!
We in Norseman until sunday morning now. A rest day here is scheduled before we hit the nullabor plain! Norseman is the start of the desert and it is very exciting to be here after staring at it on a map in Dave's study.
We are off to do another talk in Norseman High school, then its off to our 4 star accommodation! Today it was raining and I think we deserve some creature comforts every now and then!

Signing out for now....
D

Day 3 of BoardFree Australia!!!

2006-08-17T11:06:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone!
Greetings from Oz. It has been wicked mad over here since we landed, pretty much non-stop all the time. The good news is I didnt really get effected by jet lag. Perth is really nice but also really quite weird. It is like a cross between the U.S.A and europe, with bits of cardiff mixed in!
So far we have looked at 3 campervans for sale, 1 of which was suitable! We are waiting to hear if we will get sponsorship for campervans but it is looking less likely. We have also been out yachting on the river swan, and also participated in a race! We came 2nd apparently! Not too shabby!
There has been loads of media interest so far which is great. BoardFree has been featured in international papers and we have been on the radio all over oz on the ABC network. Hopefully we will get a spot on TV before we leave but there will also be all the local TV channels at the launch on Sunday.
My Clic sunglasses (http://www.clicextreme.com/) have been very useful so far in this sunny climate! The weather here is weird, there is a chill in the air because it's winter but the sun is very warm. Clic are also kind enough to be donating 10AUS$ from every pair of glasses sold between now and december! So if anyone needs a new pair of sunglasses you know where to go! The people at the sailing club loved them because they dont fall off your face/head when your sailing!
Thats all for now folks, its time for some din-dins!!

3 Weeks to Oz

2006-07-21T13:20:00.000+01:00

Ok, everyone else seemed to be doing a countdown so I thought I had better do one too. 1 Week of work left, 1 game of old man football, 1 medical care course where we will learn to sew up oranges and 1 week with my family before we fly to the other side of the world for half a year!
Ok so a few weeks ago I started thinking about things I would need to pack and also things I would need but would buy out there.
I thought it would be a good idea to have a brainstorm on here from everybody about important things we should pack, because I am bound to forget something!

Here's what I have so far:
Hair Clippers - pack
Travel sleeping bag - buy in oz
Travel Towel - buy in oz
Torch - buy in oz
Lantern - buy in oz
Wet wipes - prob buy in oz
Talcum powder - same!

You may be wondering about the randomness of the items but each has a good reason. Torches and lanterns will be useful, obviously at night but especially when camping. We will need something to light the campsite. Wet wipes are great to refresh yourself in humidity and clean the grime of your face. Talcum powder can be used as a dry shampoo for when we are not near showers or running water.

Can anyone else think of important things which we should pack which we should take with us? All suggestions are welcome, so long as they aren't silly!

One big happy family

2006-06-20T01:07:00.000+01:00

The BoardFree Family has 2 new members and I would like to welcome aboard Kate and Bev! These latest additions are not here just to make up the numbers, their commitment to BoardFree has been outstanding and both will no doubt prove to be valuable additions to the BoardFree team.
Less than 2 months now to the start, I can't belive how quickly it has gone. I expect the next couple of months to also disappear! Soon we will be gathering in Perth, hopefully kitting out our supprt vehicles and preparing for the trip of a lifetime!!
Here's to new team members, new adventures anda truely unforgetable exerience!

The light of wick

2006-05-01T13:10:00.000+01:00

Written on the 29th of April

Ok this is just a quick blog to keep everybody updated with the BFUK trip so far.
It all began on Thursday afternoon when Becki, Dave and I left Swansea to drive up to Manchester. We stayed with Andy Cornthwaite and his flatmates and enjoyed a nice evening of drinks and shocking tanks! Friday morning brought the drive up to Prestwick, to pick up the support vehicle from the legendary Dave Hulme. The van looked amazing!!! We had all seen photos of the vehicle before but it looked so much better in the flesh!! Holly caught a train up from Doncaster and we picked her up from the train station in the van. Needless to say she was very excited! We all spent the night at Dave’s house and were all really well looked after by Dave’s wife Joyce and wacko Jacko their dog. Jacko made sure Dave’s feet were well massaged and clean!
Saturday morning started with a trip into Glasgow city centre to pick up Demitri, a cameraman and director from Badgerboy Production Company. Then there was a long drive to Inverness. Holly was driving the van for the first time and was doing a bang on job!! The aim was to get to Inverness by around midday so that we could chill in a pub and watch Chelsea Vs Man U. Then we picked up Simon who had flown up from Bristol airport just to be at the start of the BFUK journey with us. This was the first time we had all been together as a team! It felt really good!
We then had the next stop in our sights. It was Wick, 15 miles south of John O’Groats to stay with Neil and Mary. They had heard about Dave through their daughter and kindly offered to put us up.

The drive up through Scotland brought some breathtaking scenery and every road we were on towards the end brought new excitement because we knew that Dave would be skating the route we were taking. Tomorrow we are setting off to land’s end early and then at 8:00am, Dave pushes off for the first day of BFUK!!

I will leave you with some nuggets of wisdom which I have picked up whilst on this journey.
1) People in Manchester get up very early
2) People in Scotland are very friendly and generous
3) Modern walkie talkies are not as good as the older ones
4) Meatloaf is good to cry to
5) The toilet cubicles in Inverness airport are easily wide enough to swing a cat
6) Cheese, ham, lettuce, red onion and pickle in a baguette make the ultimate sandwich
7) Even small Greek guys cannot fit into a children’s ride at service stations

G-G-G-G-Garmin!!

2006-04-13T13:04:00.000+01:00

This morning Sam (my other housemate) and I had the pleasure of joining Dave on a training run to mumbles and back. Sam rode a bike whilst I was on the spare rolls rolls. We left the house at 8 o'clock with the intention of being back by 9, but because my calf is only half the size of Dave's, we had to stop more regularly along the way!!
The day before had seen the arrival of a new bit of kit provided my portable global positioning giants Garmin. The eTrex Legend, as it is called is a handheld piece of witchcraft that is capable of not only telling you precisely where on the planet you are, but also measuring your exact movements and providing Dave with his average and max speed and also distance covered! This new information will be an interesting addition to his blogs as well as being an invaluable method of recording future journeys. Today the 11.4 miles to mumbles and back took an hour and 12 minutes. Not bad seeing as there was a 18 mph head wind on the way there and I was lagging behind all the way!!
Tomorrow we'll be doing the same again as Sam is now official BF dietition and Mr Motivator!
I nearly fell off today by the war memorial because I was singing the song from the muller light advert (by nina simone) and had a speed wobble whilst balancing on one leg!! That will learn me!

Only 16 days to go til BFUK and some new leaflets have just arrived! They look very nice and were sponsored by clic who will also be providing sunglasses with a difference to the BF support team - http://www.clicextreme.com/ cool or what!?

Spring is in the air...

2006-03-22T01:02:00.000Z

On Sunday I wore shorts for the first time this year (not including football shorts)!! I was quite excited by this because it means that spring is almost upon us and after spring comes summer and Australia!! But between now and that time is a hell of a lot of work and preparation, not to mention the BFUK trip.
At the moment I have a part time job working in the Bishopston pub I mentioned in a previous blog but hopefully my hours should increase as I progress through training and experience. It is a bit frustrating only working part time at the moment, although it does leave my days free to do some BoardFree related research. I have got a lot of money to raise and so could do with a few more hours soon! The job is going well and I feel like I am mastering the art of pint pulling. My shamrocks need a bit more work but apart from that I haven't made any serious errors yet!
My day tomorrow is free until the evening so I will be dedicating it to researching skate shops/parks and cycle/inline clubs along the BFUK route because I didn't have time over the weekend and also took my friend Chris to hospital for a check-up today.

I should mention that Chris managed to break his little finger in 3 places, 50 minutes into his rugby debut. He was playing in a charity game organised by his work and luckily I was there to catch all the action on video (photos below)! If any one would like to see a copy of the video then just let me know and I can email it to you! The doctor at Morriston hospital today was particularly unhelpful and the long drive up there coupled with the 45 minute wait for a 30 second consultation all seemed a bit pointless. But anyway, Get well soon Chris!!

In two days, Holly our photographer will be joining Dave, Becki and myself in sunny Swansea for the first time. To celebrate this occasion a mass skate along the seafront for about 10 miles is being organised! This will give people a chance to understand just what kind of a challenge Dave is going to face as well as providing us with some great footage of a growing longboarding community in Swansea.

Other exciting news is that another celebrity has shown their support for Dave (and Elsa) in the form of an email. Ellen MacArthur generously took time out of her busy schedule to send Dave a little message which can be seen on the BoardFree website.
Keep an eye on the website for breaking news!! http://www.boardfree.co.uk/

Confessions of a BoardFree Blogger

2006-03-10T22:19:00.000Z

Forgive me readers for I have sinned. It has been 23 days since my last blog.....

Not much has changed in the last 3 weeks of Dan's life. He has been searching for temporary jobs in and around Swansea and has had a couple of interviews so far. One of these was for a large retail company and the other was for a nice pub in Bishopston. Unfortunately, neither of them have been in contact with Dan this week so the search continues.
Last tuesday, Dan had a physical examination for a large medical testing company in Merthr Tydfil. This involved many things including blood tests and a nice chat to a doctor. To his great surprise, Dan found a letter on his doormat this morning which stated that there had been a problem with his blood sample and now another trip to Merthr is scheduled for monday. This was the last thing Dan wanted to hear because it means a week delay to getting on a possible study.

BoardFree UK is fast approaching and the excitement grows everyday. Dave and Dan have been considering the possiblitiy of a BFUK support vehicle in the shape of a VW camper van. This could be a viable option if a sponsor is found or a van is donated. Tim Westwood has also been mentioned for a possible pimping mission.
Excitingly, a new toy arrived on the doorstep of 14 sebastopol street this week in the shape of a bullet camera. This was kindly sent to us by dogcamsport and is a very welcome addition to our recording equipment. It offers an interesting, new perspective of everyday skating and will no doubt prove invaluble when Dave is alone on the BFUK trip. Dave and Dan wasted no time in fitting it to Dave's helmet for the first day of BFUK training. For the first time the resulting footage provided us with a 'Dave's eye' view of his training run to mumbles. This footage will be available soon on the BoardFree website.

Last weekend, as most people will already know, the BoardFree team was completed with the addition of a great young photographer going by the name of, Holly. Holly made a fantastic impression when she met some of the team in Hyde park and her photos from the day did not fail to impress. Welcome aboard!

Thank you......

2006-02-15T12:09:00.000Z

After just reading Rae's recent good news, I have to thank Rae and Phil for their kind pre-invitation to their wedding in July. I look forward to receiving the full invitation, they are bound to be amazing if they took 108 days! I have only known Rae and Phil for a very short time and am privaledged that they would invite me to the biggest day of their life. Thanks guys and I will dig out my bestest shirt and tie etc for the big day!!

A week of sorts

2006-02-13T12:02:00.000Z

The past week and a bit has been quite eventful. In-between BoardFree supported events I caught a cold and have been seeking employment in Swansea before going paintballing for a friends stag-do.
The events were both run by the University of Wales Swansea and generously helped raise some money towards BoardFree. Both of them allowed us to put a stall up to sell t-shirts, calenders and wristbands throughout the night. The dance society also very kindly donated all procedings from their programmes to BoardFree.
During the week I didn't do very much, mainly down to illness, but spent a great day watching Adam Sandler films with my housemate Bee, who was also ill. Such a funny, funny man! Dave has been away snowboarding in France for the past week with his family. Very jealous! Becki took full advantage of Dave's absence by pretty much ditching the BoardFree diet which up until now she had been doing so well. I was very disapointed (I'm wagging my finger at you Becki) to hear this and even more disapointed when i found out it had been going on all week. She even had the cheek to leave me at the BoardFree stall to go out and have fag. I think using the excuse that Dave has been away for the past week is a poor one. I really want to help you out Becki but you can't expect us to help you if you don't want us to.
On a lighter note, I nearly got set fire to at paintballing. It was my friend Rob Stacey's stag do and a group of us went paintballing near Cardiff. Now i know its very unlikely but if you are ever in the situation where you are with Phill Stacey (Rob's brother) and he has a smoke grenade, then my advise is to stand behind him, about 50m away! The 1st attempt saw Phill drop the smoke grenade at out feet, right next to his gas cylinder and the 2nd attempt landed at my feet whilst I was taking cover on a bridge. The leaves around my feet promptly started burning, forcing me to do a little dance before getting shot in the arm! All in all though it was a great day and I wish Rob all the best.
This coming week is looking very promising. The Drama society are performing their play, "A street car named desire" at the Dylan Thomas centre and have also allowed us to set up a stall to sell BoardFree related items. The stall will be there for 3 nights. Next weekend, Becki, Dave, Simon and myself are off to London (Rae and Phil are slacking!! Only joking, they have a very important meeting to eat lots of nice food!). This weekend will be great for BoardFree because we will be mingling with other skateboarding types in Hyde park to raise awareness. We are also hoping to make a skating London video (If anyone has a giant Kangaroo costume please let me know!) and perhaps meeting the legend that is Jonathon Ross.

Thats all for now folks, Thank you for reading.

End of an Era, a really long one!

2006-02-01T12:28:00.000Z

Hello peeps,
You will all be glad to hear that yesterday I handed in my 20'000 word MSc dissertation on the Ecology of American Mink in the Glamorgan Area. Only six months late! I was warned beforehand that it would be an anti-climax.........and it was. There was no well done, no pat on the back, just a pile of forms for me to fill out including writing my address down 5 times on the same form! So it was a bit disapointing and my hand hurt from writing! I also had to pay a small fortune to get it all printed out at a local printers. I would have just done it at home had I known how much it would cost. 204 pages in total, costing a mere £39.02! I was shocked too!

Anyway, now thats out the way I can concentrate on BoardFree 110%!! Oh and i need to get a job. It hasn't all sunk in yet, but as the days pass I get more and more excited about the big trip to Oz. Only 204 days to go!! In this time I must raise £3,000 for my trip by fair means or foul. I have several options including becoming a guinea pig for the good of the medical profession. I hear it pays reasonably well. My housemate Bee has kindly been sourcing suitable jobs for me and is dead set on me becoming a milk sampler. I'm not so sure. I explained that you don't actually get to drink the milk, just test it. Otherwise........

Dave is galavanting off on holiday to the Alps tomorrow and I am looking forward to the list of BoardFree jobs he will have no doubt prepared for me to do whilst he is away. It will be the first time that I will be able to fully concentrate on BoardFree without the thought of my dissertation hindering me. I have also been enroled to film a fashion show this friday, during which the lovely BoardFree clothing will be modelled and the week after, man a stand selling BoardFree calenders and t-shirts at a dance society perfomance.

In two weeks time we are planning on hitting the streets of London to raise peoples aweness of BoardFree and I am really looking forward to this. The whole team apart from Rae and Phil will be together in matching hoodies, pestering members of the public! It will be great!!

I will endevour to keep you updated more often now I am a free man.

Bye-bye Bishops

2006-01-19T16:46:00.000Z

This has been a week of sorts. My 20,000 word dissertation on the lesser spotted mink in Swansea is due at the end of this month. With this in mind I have been spending every day, from 9 until 5, in the Uni library with my study partner's Annie-may and Jo. The temperature in the library is always up to the cranked up to the max (I'm sure it contributes to global warming) and this has a will-sapping effect on your brain. The only thing which manages to keep us going throughout the day is the fact that we have the evening episode of neighbours to look forward to when we get home. This week on neighbours was of particular interest because it marked the end of a widely disliked family - the Bishops. Such was the excitement, captured by the whole student community, a special Bye-bye bishops party was organised and a beautiful cake was made by Annie-may and myself (see picture). At this point I should explain that the family were to leave Neighbours after a plane crash that also included almost half the cast. "Tragically" the Bishop family, which consists of David, Liliana and Serena are the only casualties, or so we believe at this point. The party was a great success and the cake was eaten and enjoyed by all.

The rest of the week was spent looking forward to the weekend, mainly due to a football double on Sunday of playing in the morning and then the big game, Liverpool versus Man Utd in the afternoon. Unfortunately Dave had to go to London this weekend and so he will be missing both of these. Personally, I think he's just running scared because he knows that Liverpool are going to deliver a lesson in football to the mancunians, similar to the Man City lesson last week!

Finally for this blog, I would like to thank the rest of the BoardFree team for a such a warm welcome, it is going to be a pleasure spending 4 months on the road with you guys. Special thanks also goes to Becki for a lovely meal that she cooked up for Dave and I at the beginning of the week, and also for giving our kitchen a much needed clean.
Becki currently holds the award for the most tastiest hot chocolate of 2006 and her standards will be continually tested for the remainder of the year.

That's all for now folks, the next blog I write should be in celebration of finally finishing my masters! I can't wait!

The day after the morning before the night it happened

2006-01-16T12:47:00.000Z

Ok so today is Monday and I'm sitting in the Uni library staring out the window as usual. I figured I should write a blog because the next few weeks are going to be very busy finishing off my dissertation.

I've just had the best weekend so far this year!! It all started in a pub on Saturday when I went for a lovely luncheon with my Swansea ex-housies. It was great to see them all and its always amusing when we are in the same room, mainly thanks to Victoria and her gems of wisdom! Whilst in the pub, we were also witness to Man U loosing 3-1 to Man City, with the legend that is Robbie Fowler finishing off the mighty reds!

I thought this day is only going to get better as I headed home to laugh at Dave and meet Si who had come up for the weekend. We had an afternoon of filming planned to start a BoardFree Documentary. Becki, Phil, Si, Dave and I had great fun talking to people along the seafront of Swansea about BoardFree and even bumped into an Aussie couple who were very interested in the ins and outs of the journey. Si had a minor mishap when the thumb he uses to press the record button on his camcorder stopped working but I managed to catch some of the footage on a back-up camcorder. (I hope it gets better soon mate!)
In the evening, the whole BoardFree team came together for the first time and I had the job to film a team blog. I should explain that at this point I was not an official team member as my application was still under review.....or so I thought! I was sitting there happily filming away when Dave, out of the blue suddenly announced that there was in fact going to be a 4th roadie going to Oz with him - Me!! It was the shock of my life and Dave was kind enough to catch it all on a hidden camera to save me any embarrassment of explaining it to people. Instead they can just see it on the official website!

After not sleeping very well (due to all the excitement) all apart from Rae converged at the astro turf to have a jolly game of footy. We soon discovered that our very own Becki McKinlay, who was filming the match is a relation of Murry Walker! The commentary of the game was first class and it's only a matter of time before her catchphrases become used world-wide. Even Stevens!
I was very grateful to Becki in taking the time out of her busy schedule to come down and film the BoardFree boys playing football and capturing one of the finest goals I have ever scored. All I can say is Morten-Gamst Pedersen eat your heart out!
The footage of the game along with Becki's commentary is on the BoardFree website for all to see.

So that pretty much wraps it up for the weekend, it was rounded off beautifully by a delicious chocolate fudge cake, courtesy of Sainsburys.

Hopefully by the time I write my next blog I will be out from the shadow of my dissertation which hangs over me like a dark raincloud. From then on it will be sunshine all the way to Oz!!!