Well after a couple of weeks of final planning, including "food prep" delegation, I must admit it all came together in the end...the only thing I couldn't predict or guarantee is the UK weather (of course!), and the ruddy wasps :)

Anyway, a great crowd of about 15 odd people, and a massive amount of alcohol shifted from bottles and cans to the recycle bin :)

Really appreciate the turn out from far afield, from college friends, old friends, uni mates, someone who worked for my father's restaurant to Amex folks!

The BBQ was great, and the entertainment - well, enjoyable...plenty of Jenga, Uno and ergh.... SingStar (of course!)

Thanks peeps for coming and enjoying yourself, been far too long seeing some of ya!

An August Bank Holiday (the last BH before Christmas!) can only be marked with one way...yep plenty of Guinness drinking, and plenty of fun and games!

And what better way to celebrate by socialising with great people, having a ball of a time, and having a BBQ in my back yard!

Marvellous, hey? So whether you are an old college friend, university friend, amex-friend or just a friend - I hope to see some of you there :) !!

Our business trip was scheduled for 16-19th August, but was eventually postponed after some last minute decisioning due to the health and safety risk for travelling and staying in Moscow.

Unfortunately, the smog and air pollution from forest and peat fires was simply too much, with the risk to about 7-8 Amex employees too great to take a chance. Personally, I am glad that I didn't go...I like Moscow, but not the heat and smog. In fact it hit 40°C - ouch!

Shame as was prepared for the trip and the business meeting, so we are now going in early September...hopefully it remains a fun trip when we eventually get out there :)

At least there is still time for some fun, as we did a Mid-year team meeting followed by a team-build at a National Trust property, just outside of Brighton.  It was based in Saddlescombe Farm and Newtimber Hill in Saddlescombe (Nr Poynings, near Brighton).  We did some hard grafting, removing some old fenceing and clearing some bushes...before we headed off for a team meal in Royal Oak in Poynings. 

Was a little surprised that only a few people made it to the team meal in the evening...of 13 PMs, 6 made it for dinner - hmmm... but people have their personal circumstances (family, children etc) - just didn't appear to bring the team together, as such, and a chance to talk to each other...hey-ho!

Anyway, so how many project managers does it take to repair a fench - well 11PMs and 2 Directors is the answer :)

Well it is looking to be a very busy August so far, with work, work, work - and a little bit of fun in-between!

I have a couple of strategic meetings during August, including a 4-day trip to Moscow in the middle of August - and I sense it is going to be manic for a few months ahead and probably going forward! 

But there is also time to have a bit of fun, at least - well I hope!

Just hope the heatwave in Moscow cools down a bit when we are there, 'cos it is incredibly hot at the moment, touching the 40oC at the moment - ouch, that's hot!

Anyway, better keep my head down, plough ahead and then see how things go...oh, also reminds me of the need to plan and schedule a holiday VERY SOON - cos I don't wanna burn out or anything!!

Well having worked extensively with the Joint-Venture business team for over the past couple of years, I felt privileged to have been extended an invitation to visit Ascot Races - for their Summer team build. 

It was a good day out, and although it wasn't the main Race Day on Friday, 23rd July (Royal Ascot was a few weeks previous, and the George VI race on the Saturday, 24th July), the session was still great fun!

It was quite easy to get there, travelling from Haywards Heath to Clapham, and then Clapham across to Ascot Main Station.

Didn't win a thing - I'm pretty crap at betting on horses - but the Champagne and Gunniess (which became a Black Velvet in my stomach!) was fabulous!

We will all merry at the end of the afternoon - although a big no-no from me was not eating breakfast or lunch - whoopsie... :)  Luckily it was a Friday, so no-work day on the Saturday!   Phew!

The original iPhone OS (firmware) didn't provide a facility to capture a screenshot of your iPhone desktop. 

Now (since OS2), you can do so. How?

Well, you press the "Home" button and the "Sleep/Wake" (on/off) button on the top of your iPhone at the same time, et voila!

The iPhone device screen will then flash and capture the picture, which would be saved to your inbuilt Camera Roll or Photo Album folder.  Luvly, juvly!

The funny thing is that I must have done this once, but I didn't work out how, as an image was stored in the album gallery, but I couldn't find out how I did it.  Now I know - lol!  It wasn't a miracle,it was real!   Now you can do the same...

Well the iPhone 4 came out and I still have another year (until November 2011) before I can upgrade my iPhone 3GS. 

BUT, they are releasing the IOS4 to the 3G and 3GS models at the same time.  So if I perform the upgrade, I get the majority of the features of the iPhone 4 but on the 3GS. 

Okay, I don't get the new HD screen, or HD video, or 5MB camera, or longer battery life, or front-loaded camera...or the other hardware bits and bobs - but I get the highlights of the software on my iPhone!  Oh did I say IOS4 is great! :)

Anyway, I'm very content with the software upgrade now...just breathed new life into my iPhone 3GS :) 

I'm actually very content (again).  I know it's not the BEST phone on the market any longer, with the competitors taking strides into Apple's lead - notably the various Android hybrids, but I'm happy with it.  The funny thing is that looking back over the last decade or so, I used to have an HP iPAQ PDA, a Mobile Phone and a iPod Classic.  Overtime, I've managed to combine the PDA and Mobile Phone into the HTC phone, which was rebranded to the T-Mobile MDAs (Vario 1 and Vario 2's), and took the plunge in November 2009 to combine the MDA and the iPod together.  That's the real achievement, one device that serves as a PDA, Mobile Phone and IPod!  Brilliant :)

Anyway, that'll do for the next year at least...we'll see what gets released next year by Apple - lol!

A uni-mate of mind invited me to a Brewery Tour, and I must admit I couldn't resist.  It was something I always wanted to do having walked past the Harvery's Brewery in Lewes for many years, and that whiff of fermenting hobs was weird and interesting at the same time.  But I never got around to it.

So when this offer was made, I say a resounding yes!  And I didn't regret it!

I didn't know anything or previously heard about "Dark Star Brewery", but I knew that there were various small breweries around the place.

We got picked up from Preston Park on Friday evening, and the drive up to the Business Park near Henfield took about 25mins or so. 

Upon arriving, we had a few samples - well it was a Brewery after all.  I had a few of the brew - and must admit it was growing on me.  The "how we brew" explanations were quite fascinating - didn't realise the level of machinery involved.  More interesting was that this particular "small brewery" (ala microbrewery) in a business warehouse - yep no joke...like those warehouse units you see out of town... Weird, hey!  :)  Just shows you can set up a brewery anywhere - lol!

We finished around 9ish and returned back to Preston Park where I then managed to get home safely!  Oh - yes! A nice and pleasant evening!  Would recommend a visit one day!

Well I've been preparing for the Cairo trip (that's Cairo, Egypt not Cairo, Illinois!), for about 2 weeks, and knew it was going to be a different type of trip.

This is because it is on a subject-area that, firstly, I don't have a lot of knowledge or experience on, but also that it was a not the type of site visit when I normally would contribute or really participate in. This one was more of a facilitation role, helping to plan and review working with another team representative who would lead the visit.

There was one other person going to the attend the visit with me - even though I felt it needed another SME to join us.

However, it doesn't come easy when I finalise the preparation, printed and bound the deck and arranged all of the transportation for the whole trip - only to find that I am going on my own!

The other person noted that he needed a Visa late on Saturday evening, and my taxi pick-up was at 10.30am on the Sunday morning. I only got word of this at 00.40 on the Sunday morning, and it was too late to change all of the plans last minute. As I could go out, I had to continue. But talk about out of my comfort zone. At least I survived and managed to progress this with facilitating all of the meetings and review sessions, I just need to write up the report now - lol!

Hey-ho, that's work for you...definitely an interesting experience, and hopefully I succeeded in the role, the best I could do!