Passports and Yacht Clubs

Yesterday was a big day, and a very productive day too which I do like. It all started at 6am to head into London for a new passport. I was using the one day service so there was no way of getting around the 4hour wait to get a new one. I visited one café, was served by the most useless waitress (sorry!). To put it in perspective, it took half an hour for her to serve up some toast. And the café was quiet! But this suited me fine as I was actually on a campaign to kill time. I also later visited another two cafes to pass the time as well as read half a book!

I finally picked up my passport and then headed off into another part of London to have a meeting. After this I promptly headed home and immediately jumped in the car to drive down to Southampton and onto Portsmouth.

I was in Portsmouth as last night I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at the Royal Naval Club and Royal Albert Yacht Club. After arriving it was lovely to be greeted by such a nice bunch of people and it was fascinating to have a tour around the club. Some of the very very old pieces of history in there are absolutely incredible.

We soon sat down for a lovely dinner and after this I began to speak. I do love being 18 and speaking to a group of let’s say ‘the slightly older generation’ as I can get away with a lot and it’s a good laugh!

The talk went really well and I was chuffed and had a good feeling at the end. I can always tell if it’s been a ‘good one’ and this certainly was.

Tomorrow I’m off for a little sailing in the Solent which should be good fun and also in a couple of weeks I’m off abroad somewhere exotic which shall be very fun!

Mike

Dusseldorf boat show

I’m back at university now down on the coast and seeing as I have no lectures on a Thursday, I thought it was appropriate to have a nice little lie in this morning. Don’t be fooled though, I do have a very busy afternoon doing all those odds and sods that I never really get around to doing.

I spent the weekend out in Germany having a look around the Dusseldorf boat show which was really great fun. I have never been to this show, and it was pretty exciting to see. Wow is it huge though!! After walking though the front doors, it felt like ages until I actually found some decent boats to eye up. I had a good look over some of the newly released boats which were interesting to see. So many manufacturers are trying out loads of different things in an attempt to simply be different to the others. Without naming any names, I did have a long look over my dream cruising boat which for a few years I have loved to pieces. Sturdy, prudent and loads of beautiful teak, wow she was a beauty!

I’ve had a really interesting last two weeks and lots has been changing and progressing at quite an astounding rate I’m pleased to report. Fingers crossed that I’ll have some exciting news to announce pretty soon.

Mike

Facebook!

I know, I know, I know..!!! I should have definately updated this by now!

For your info, I do also have a Facebook Page which I do update very regularly with short updates.

The link is  www.facebook.com/mikeperham   Pretty easy to remember!

And also, remember to 'Like' the page too please!

I shall do a more detailed blog in due course.

Mike

Happy New Year

I know it’s been a little while since my last update and I am truly sorry about that. I will make it one of my main New Year's resolutions to update this a lot more frequently.

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you all had as lovely a Christmas as I did here at home with my family. Looking back it does always make me chuckle just how many Christmas’s I have missed in the past because I’ve been sailing or just abroad in another country.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get into the air since I did my first solo. The lesson that I had booked just a few days after that solo lesson turned out interesting… I dutifully turned up and within half an hour of arriving, there was a complete white out snow storm! As you can imagine, that airtime was swiftly canned until the snow cleared.

Didn’t the snow stay around though! For those of you who are reading this from abroad, we’ve had dumping after dumping of the white stuff, eventually leading up to a white Christmas which was very pretty. The runway was of course shut and so hence I haven’t flown since. I am hoping to get up in the air pretty soon after the New Year though.

Yesterday evening I saw a brilliantly performed 'Sleeping Beauty' pantomime at our local theatre with all my family (aunts, uncles, cousins etc) and it was lovely to be able to catch up with them all. I can’t remember the last time I went to a panto and with so many laughs in the script, I really did have a great time.

Wishing everyone a very happy New Year,

Mike