A bit about our travels...

So now to the travels. First in UK.

We took another trip into the Cotswolds a while ago and visited a National Trust house called >> Snowshill Manor. It was a big old house that an eccentric old man lived in. He had traveled the world and collected a vast array of 'stuff' that he kept in the house. Every single inch of the house was covered in 'things'. He couldn't even live in it - he slept in a small cottage out the back. The garden was also very beautiful. Unfortunately I lost my phone (left it on the train would you believe) and with it about two months worth of photos so here's some from the web.

first the front of the house...

then the back and the garden...

and finally, on the way there, we passed a lavender field. It wasn't in flower yet but here's a pic of it in full bloom...

So after visiting the Manor, we decided to take a long way back to the motorway and passed through our 'new favourite village'TM. Broadway. It was a true Cotswold village and the shops...we could have spent thousands of pounds! Once again, photos were in camera that I lost but here's some web photos.

So that was our trip to the Cotswolds.

The next big adventure was going to see Michael Ball in Concert at Oakley Manor in Basingstoke.

It was a bit of a rush to get to the concert as I was flying back from Madrid (in Arun's private jet no less!) but we made it to the concert with just minutes to spare before it started. We had Gold seats right up the front. It was an outdoor concert in the grounds of this huge manor house in Basingstoke called Oakley Hall.

There was a drinks tent and all different types of food. It was very civilised. There was only about 500 people there so felt very intimate - like he was performing a concert for a few friends in the backyard (some backyard though!!!)

The concert was awesome and he was in full voice. It felt very weird that we were watching this guy sing after being introduced to him in an Andrew Lloyd Webber special on TV all those years ago in Wellington. He even sang at our wedding (Love Changes Everything)...tonight we finally got to see him sing it live.

It was funny, he started singing this song about an hour into it and it was like the cue or something because all these women just started rushing for the front of the stage creating a mosh pit! Man, it was funny. All these grey haired ladies banging along at the front of the stage. We actually joined them after a while so we could get a close up look. We have some phone photos but will add these later.

It was a superb night and made us truly grateful that we had been given the opportunity to live here for a year.

Another occasion where we loved being in the UK was a day at the Polo. We got to watch Prince William and Prince Harry play in the Vodafone Charity Polo Cup. Here's a few photos of the day (but we didn't take them)...

There was only about 150 people there. We were at a charity lunch but didn't really know anyone and then wandered down to the pitch to watch the game. It was an entertaining game - easy to watch - and we all went in and 'tread the divots' at half time.

After the match there was a prize giving and here's a few pics from our video camera...just to show how close we got...

There was a little bit of coverage in the press as apparently Harry drove around the grounds with friends on the bonnet of his car drinking...shocking!

Finally...a couple of trips to Europe.

I got to fly to Madrid for the Chief Executive's first Roadshow. I flew with Arun in his private jet and have to say - that's the way to travel! I was only in Madrid for 24 hours and didn't get to see much of the city but did go out for dinner with the Spanish comms team. We ate in an outdoor restaurant in a large plaza (square). Dinner was at 10pm (as is the way in Spain) and was a Tapas meal with a few glasses of wine. European food is simply the best!

The restaurant was just to the left of this photo...

I also travelled to Milan this week which was beautiful (Rome is still my favourite though). I was there for a meeting and got to spend a couple of hours looking round the centre of Milan - lots of Gucci, Prada etc and LOTS of tagging and graffiti but also an amazing cathedral (Il Duomo). Unfortunately, as seems to be the way round Europe at the moment, it was being restored and so the front was covered in scaffolding. I had my bags with me so couldn't go in (didn't really want to leave them with the guards) so here's some photos from the web.

Have some more photos (like the beer glasses when we had a beer in the Gucci shop!) but will need to get these off my phone - more soon...

A bit about work...

Wow - June since the last post...slack

The last couple of months have been exceptionally busy both on the work front and socially.

First work (well Geoff's work).

The team recently went through Black Thursday - a day when big announcements were made across the business that also affected our team.

The day started with a meeting where Darren (my boss) announced that he was leaving the business after five years. Very sad but not exactly unexpected. He's been a bit frustrated by the time it takes to do things and the amount of 'managing up' he has to do. Also five years is a long time. He's off to the dark side and will be working for an agency. Everyone was quite emotional about his announcement. He has a lot of respect and admiration in our team. It's a real shame for me as he was the main reason for me moving over here - to learn from the best. Oh well, I got eight months so that's great!

The next announcement was a change to the structure of the Corporate Affairs team (my wider department). This was done by the big boss and it meant changes to all of the teams within the department (Internal Communications included).

After this meeting we went back into a meeting with just our team to get the details of what the changes mean for us. Darren announced that the team was going from 15 people down to nine - quite a cut. Six of my team are now out of a job. He then met with each of the team individually and let them know where they fitted in the structure (if at all!). I was last as I was just on assignment and (thankfully) he has asked me to stay on to the end of the contract. Yay!!!

Unfortunately Karen, Sam, Heather, Emma, Mark and Karen M no longer have jobs and will be leaving before end of September. Most of them are actually happy about it which is good.

Louisa (the person who I am covering) secured a role as Internal Communications Manager, Business and Strategy - a much bigger job. That means that over the next few months I'm doing this job. It includes ghost writing for the Chief Executive, communicating all financial results and business performance, launching the new strategy of the company to the business and organising, writing and attending the Chief Executives Global roadshow - not bad for a little kiwi boy! I am really enjoying the new challenge!

Darren had his final leaving do last week which was exceptionally sad. We had a few drinks at The Bunk - a local pub. It was a very pleasant evening sitting outside getting slowly sloshed. Darren gave a very moving farewell speech (not a dry eye in the house) and said some very nice things to everyone in the team. Here's a pic of him mid flow.



We also had a caricaturist (sp?) doing pictures of everyone. Here's what he thought of me...



Finally on the work front - I got to attend a brilliant course in June. I am officially now an Internal Communications Black Belt!

It was a four day residential course through Melcrum Publishing (specialists in Internal Communications). It was held at the Cranfield School of Management and was called the Internal Communications Black Belt Program. Read about it >> here. Twas brilliant and I learnt HEAPS! God, it's good to get together with a group of people and talk about Internal Communications! Not something that happened too often in NZ. In fact there were more people in the class (about 16) than in the entire IC industry in NZ!

Bridge is also having a brilliant time at work. She really does have an awesome team and very much enjoys the camaraderie that she's built up.

Last week, she organised a team building day clearing bracken from Snellsmore Common. It was a hot day (mid-30s) but everyone seemed to have a good time. Here's some pics from the video she took of the day.

And here's some of her mates at work...

Mike Howie...

Steve...

Mike Boss and Codgy Wodgy...

And that's it for work...next post will be about travels...