Driving Training!

Today I went for some more driving training around this area, hopefully will not be long now before I am back on the roads!

I've also being busy updating firefox which is my web browser of preference with all the updates to the various utilities that are needed! I have also been to the gym today to help me keep fit, I should really go every day but for the last few weeks have only been going two or three times a week which is not good!

Keith Andrew's Joins City as the third Summer signing!

Wolves midfielder Keith Andrews, who was rumoured to be in talks a couple of weeks ago, has agreed a two-year contract with City.

Peter Taylor says that the 6ft Irishman will bring strength to City's midfield, as well as being a good passer of the ball.

He's out of contract so Wolves won't receive a fee from the transfer. The paperwork will go through next month, and he will join fellow midfielder Curtis Woodhouse and Scottish striker Steve McPhee arriving at the KC Stadium. At least two more signings are expected before next season.

Kimi's crash hands win to Alonso

Fernando Alonso extended his Formula One world championship advantage with a dramatic last-gasp success in today's Grand Prix of Europe at the Nurburgring.

The Spaniard swept into the lead when rival Kimi Raikkonen was forced to retire at the start of the final lap. Alonso finished 16.5s clear of Nick Heidfeld as Michelin maintained its unbroken run of F1 success.

Scope Fast Track Scheme!

Today I found out how I had done on the Scope Fast Track interview. Unfortunately, I did not get anywhere on the scheme. I have to say however that my experiences of the interview on the day where not that brilliant. The organisation for the interview left a lot to be desired. The assesment was originally planned to take place over two days at HSBC's offices but was crammed into one day at the Remploy offices in St. Helens! In addition, all the paperwork for the interview was sent two weeks later than it should have been leaving a very short period of time in which to prepare the presentation I had to give at the interview!

It seems to me that SCOPE have tried to shake off their old image by rebranding themselves and claiming that the fast track scheme is available to applicants with ALL types of disability. From my experience however, I was left with the impression that the scheme is still primarily aimed at candidates suffering from cerebal palsy and not at those suffering from other areas of disability.

But as they say, such is life. The overiding feeling I was left with was that the charity should go back to what it was created for, helping people with cerebal palsy!

Going out in Hornsea!

Today, I made my way to the gym I have joined at Hornsea Leisure Centre in order to increase my fitness! Before making my way to the local public house to meet with friends!

In Hornsea & Scouts!

Today was a long day, spent filling out application forms, updating some of the Scouting 2007 websites and basically just spending time writing to people via email. All in all I think I wrote to all the people I needed to, however, at the moment I am just looking forward to Summer, and the holidays!

This evening I did my usually Thursday thing and went to help at my local Scout Troop, tonights task was to put up tents and check they had everything they needed for camp at the weekend which was fun!

Gym!

Today, I made my way to the gym I have joined at Hornsea Leisure Centre in order to increase my fitness!

Now I am feeling tired so I shall say goodnight, sorry for such a short update this evening!

Back from Liverpool!

Tonights post will be short! Just to say that I am back from Liverpool will find out how the presentation and interview went in a few weeks time. All in all I think I was pleased with the presentation and interview, but I shall just have to wait and see!

On the way home I was going to make my way to Castleford Freeport on the M62, but unfortunately by the time I arrived there it was closed! That will teach me to stop at services on the M62 whilst making my way home, so I didn't get chance to visit Freeport, will have to visit the Hornsea branch tomorrow!

Visited Liverpool!

Today I made my way to Liverpool, to complete my presentation based around the general election, for the Scope Fast Track graduate recruitment programme. This evening I stayed at the Alfreton Branch of Travelodge to make it easier to get to the interview at 10.00a.m. in the morning, without having to drive all night! Which would not have been a good plan, hence my belated blog posts over the last couple of days!

In the evening I went for a walk along a canal, in Sankey Valley Park which is very near to the start of the Trans Penine Trail, a footpath which actually ends up in Hornsea! I enjoyed this as in East Yorkshire there are very few canals.

Kimi and McClaren take the spoils in Monaco!

For the second race running Kimi Raikkonen was in a class of his own as he romped to victory in the Monaco Grand Prix.

Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber completed the podium positions in a morale-boosting finish for the Williams team.

The closing stages of the race saw extraordinary scenes as the two Renaults struggled with massive rear tyre degradation which provoked several successful, and failed, overtaking manoeuvres!

Overall, I think it is good to see other teams than Ferrari winning multiple races. It was making the sport dare I say boring! However, it is a shame the British driver Jenson Button could not take part, as I think he could have done well at his home circuit.

Arsenal win FA Cup final!

Manchester United dominated the 2005 FA Cup final by having 25 goal attempts in normal time in comparison to Arsenal's 8. In normal time Manchester United where unable to penetrate Arsenals defences even though they had the majority of the attempts on goal!

Manchester United where unable to find a way past Arsenal, so for the first time the FA Cup final was decided by penalties. United continually opened up the Gunners defence, with Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo the star performers. Rio Ferdinand had a goal disallowed, while Rooney and Ruud van Nistelrooy were both denied by the woodwork. The referee made a lot of very good and fair decisions throughout the match which was good to see!

Arsenal struggled to get anything going, with Robert Pires missing their only real chance of the game. But thanks to the unfairness of penalty shoot outs the southerners Arsenal still had an undeserved victory at the Millennium Stadium. I personally think they really should find a fairer way to decided matches than penalty shoot outs, but that is as they say football!

Working on Fastrack Presentation!

Next week I have a interview in Liverpool where I have to present information about the policies promoted at the general election by the government. So today, I have been mainly researching and preparing a presentation on the new labour governments election manifesto!

This evening I am going out in Hornsea with friends which is good!

Scouts go to Dacre Lake!

Tonights little expedition involved taking the scouts canoeing once again at a local lake in Brandesburton the name of which is Dacre Lakeside Park.

My task this evening was supervising the younger Scouts by the waters edge and trying to keep them from getting restless, whilst Rob and Richard, the activity leaders took the Scouts on the water!

All the Scouts seemed to enjoy the evening and luckily the rain held off and it was a warm May evening. Not many of those you can say, and funilly enough even though it has rained such a lot of late, the evening was warm and the grass was reasonably dry!

Gym and Conference call!

Went fitness training at my local gym once again which was good. Then I took part in a conference call to discuss progress made on the various websites since my visit to Gilwell Park, only a few short weeks ago!

With less than eighty days to go now until the first event Eurojam, things seems to be working out quite well! However, there still seems to be a lot of work to do before the event, one of the reasons for my late blog posts over the past few weeks!

Anyway, hope everyone is well and happy, will blog some more soon!

Gym!

Today, I made my way to the gym I have joined at Hornsea Leisure Centre in order to increase my fitness! I didn't get in until late after a long workout explaining my late post!

Had a bit of free time so decided to play with my blogger template once again, however I looked at several others but still like this one the best so I ended up not changing it and just puting a new quote by Winston Churchill on my blog as can be seen above!

Driving Training!

Went to York to complete some more driving, I was however surprised to see that the centre of York was quieter than last week at the same time. I think it might be because the weather was slightly cooler and therefore there was less tourists visiting the city.

Everything went well once again however, it is getting closer to my reassesment time now so hopefully practice will make perfect!

R.I.P. BBC Weather symbols!

It was a bit different when viewing the weather presented by Paul Hudson on Look North this evening as now weather symbols have disappeared from BBC TV forecasts for good! This will cause a depression to form among fans of the traditional yellow sun and fluffy cloud. When you have spent as long as I have studying the maps it will seem very strange to watch a weather forecast without the familiar symbols!

The new system on the forecasting horizon is called the BBC's Weatherscape XT, which has replaced the traditional symbols used for decades, and which we all know and are familiar with. I will just say that it makes watching the weather very different, however, I do think it is a change for the better! It was also my birthday today, so sooty about the late post!

Star Wars!

The sixth and final film of the hit sci-fi saga, is opening around the world next week. It concludes the story of the rise of Darth Vader, tying up loose ends and linking the first Star Wars trilogy with the three new films.

I am pleased to see the final installment by George Lucas is finally here 28 years after the first Star Wars film was released! However, I am also sad in a way that George Lucas will not be making anymore as Star Wars has had such good plots over the years!

Out in Hornsea!

Went out in Hornsea for the evening before getting back in and getting back to everything! I also made it to the Gym to increase my fitness levels ready for Eurojam and driving.

Scouts!

Tonight I went to help at my local Scout group where the nights activity was pitching the groups icelandic tents in preparation for summer camp, the only problem was that these icelandic tents had no main guys in the bag which was a slight problem!

We searched high and low in the hut for them but they appear to have vanished, so it seems it was maybe a good job that we decided to pitch the tents before Summer camp as we also found that we needed some new wooden pegs even though in my search for the guys I found a bag of pegs that we didn't know that we had!

Malcolm Glazer takes over Manchester United!

Malcolm Glazer has said that he will stick by Manchester United's players, supporters and management after launching a formal bid for control of the club. Glazer revealed that he now owned 71.8 per cent of the club and that his offer was unconditional.

It seems certain now that the American tycoon will take the club private again but in revealing plans for the future of United, Glazer said that he pledged to stick by the current set-up. So, it would seem according to newspaper reports that worrying times lie ahead for Manchester United fans, now that Malcolm and his son have made the move!

Gym!

Today, I made my way to the gym I have joined at Hornsea Leisure Centre in order to increase my fitness!

Driving!

Went for more driving retraining around the city of York! I drove around the whole of the city for two hours which was quite busy with tourists as Summer is fast approaching.

It is good to get back into driving, however I think the fact I had to wait eight years before being allowed to retrain, puts some of the people on ITV's programme on older drivers, having strokes etc. not now being allowed to drive into perspective.

After all it should be remembered that a lot of them never had to take a test, so maybe the time is right for making testing for older drivers compulsary! There is a relatively frequent public transport system for most people now!

After fifty years all our reaction times change as we grow older and wiser! However I thought the point the programme made about younger drivers being just as dangerous was equally valid, but at least they have to take a test of there driving skills before being allowed on the road! Sorry about the short rant but it is just something I believe in!

Firefox is still here!

Today I read an article on the BBC News website saying that Microsoft's biggest worry, should be the huge success of Mozilla Firefox, the open source web browser.

I think it is faster and more secure than Internet Explorer, it is the first browser to seriously challenge Microsoft's dominance. In just nine months Firefox has chalked up 50 million downloads, although some are admittedly upgrades.

Bill Gates has it on his Computer but he thinks it is just another browser, and IE [Microsoft's Internet Explorer] is better. However, personally I do think that Microsoft should be worried because when they bring out there new O/S they will not be able to include Internet Explorer as standard at least in Europe.

Does this mean that Windows and Office update will work on Mozilla, I don't know but I hope so, even though I do not think they will!

Tiger's prepare for championship!

Hull City are now preparing for Championship football after being officially promoted at the KC stadium yesterday, so lets hope they can have a succesful season next year! It can't really get much better than the last two can it as I personnaly think that Peter will have to do some team building next season as the Championship is a lot different from the lower Leagues!

I would also like to offer congratulations to Brian Laws and all his team across the Humber as Scunthorpe has achieved promotion from League Two, with the end of the season there should be a lot less football conversation on my blog from now on, which should maybe please some of my readership!

Election Result & Tigers start hunting new player's

Tonight, I went out to my local pub with friends, in it we discussed the outcome of the General Election both locally and nationally. Locally the Conservatives won once again, no change there as we have a lot of farmers and country folk in our area!

I also found out this evening that Hull City could also be ready to smash their club record transfer fee to sign Swindon Town striker Sam Parkin.

Swindon have received an offer for the 25-year-old which is believed to be in the region of £450,000. Now, that has fired speculation the Tigers have moved back in for the Robins hitman.

Manager Peter Taylor had a £250,000 bid rejected last June but has refused to rule out a move for Parkin this summer as he looks to bolster his squad for the Championship.

Voters decide on next government

Today is the day of the UK's general election and therefore I did my bit and went to cast a vote, however I am still not to sure how the election will pan out, we will just have to hope it is either Blair/Brown or Charles Kennedy as I think a vote for the Conservatives would be a very big mistake, just look at the things Michael Howard did in the past e.g. Poll Tax.

Maybe some voters can forgive and forget but not this one, especially after his performance under Maggie Thatcher! Even though after I say all this the Conservatives will probably still win as our Constituency has a lot of farmers and they only seem to be able to vote Conservative!

P.S. Do feel free to drop any comments in the box below or fill in the Blogger comments section!

Hull University Graduation Photographs and AGM!

Today I made a visit to Hull to have my MSc graduation photographs taken, so I have less to think about in July when the actual event takes place! It will be a whole year in June since I last saw the MSc cohort I completed the course with so I am looking forward to the event as I should get to see quite a few old friends!

Also, today it was the local Scout Groups AGM which I help with on a regular basis now I am back in Hornsea!

Liverpool (North) beat Chelsea (South)!

The Northern team won yet another football match against the Southern pretenders with the massivly expensive squad which was a good thing this evening!

However, Liverpool are set to face disciplinary action from Uefa after pitch invasions during tonights win. Could it be that Liverpool are now picking up the mantle of Northern Englands best football squad just as Chelsea have done down South!

I hope everyone is well and are enjoying themselves and the good weather at present, I know I am, in fact a strange occurence happened today my sister asked if she could borrow my tent, which is a phrase I thought I would never here, oh well!

Watched Dr Who the Movie!

Today I watched the Dr Who the movie which is set at New Years Eve 1999. Earth is about to run out of time. Returning home to Gallifrey with the remains of his arch enemy, the master the tardis is forced off course, plunging the Doctor into the middle of a street gang's gun battle in downtown San Francisco.

Critically wounded in the shoot out, the Doctor has to regenerate to save his own life. As the clock counts down to the start of a new millennium, the Doctors has to stop the master destroying all life on earth.

Overall, I thought the film was a good film to watch and would recommend it to all other viewers, but that is just my humble opinion and I have been waiting to watch it for five years as it is set a the dawn of the New Millenium!

I was also a bit worried to find out in the Telegraph today that there are no plans to make any more Star Trek series after the current Enterprise which is currently being televised, as people are not watching it anymore and they are maybe running out of ideas!

Gym!

Today, I made my way to the gym I have joined at Hornsea Leisure Centre in order to increase my fitness!

Now I am feeling tired so I shall say goodnight, sorry for such a short update this evening!