Not a very inspiring title for this piece but so much has happened. Firstly the Charity fund raising went brilliantly. We have raised over £10,000 including being awarded £1,000 from Lloyd’s.

Following on from that I found I was nominated for Women in the City Award, and was awarded Highly Commended in the Technology Category. Kenn, Phil and Sue all came with me for the awards Ceremony - it was brilliant.  Following on from that one of the Sponsors of the Category - The Worshipful Company of IT invited me to join as a Freeman of the Company. The various archaic rights, such as being able to take sheep over London Bridge were delightful to discover, but more seriously i hope to get involved in the educational aspects of the Company, and in particular assisting in raising awareness of girls at School of Career opportunities.

Then a week after that I hosted my Birthday drinks which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I confirm I remembers it as well!

A week later I attended the Compliance Register’s Platinum awards where we were announced as the Winners of Technology Provider of the year and I was runner up in Best CEO. Again staggered and delighted.

It didn’t stop there, I was then accepted as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of IT.

Now all we have to do is turn this into an advantage for Morning Data and show every one that we are an ethical, creative and proactive company comprising a team of whom I am very proud.

What a month!

I am part of a team of people who woukd ike to raise funds for Breast Cancer Campaign. Though the need to raise money is always there it was the news that our friend Kim was told her breast Cancer was going to kill her that spurred us to take time out from our busy lives and raise some money.

So firstly we needed somewhere to raise the money - www.justgiving.com/kims-ride4life

Next a mission - we are starting with 1000 miles for a £1000

Next a method - we need to find some excercise bikes

Next a date - so far we have settled on the 2nd October

Next a Location - Leigh on Sea

Occasionally even I have a moment of “wow” factor at Technology. This time the HP C310a printer, wireless which is about time, no silly gizmo or dongle to attach and works with router rather than a print server. However you can email the printer as well, from anywhere. It works out all by itself if you are sending something that should go on the photo paper or ordinary paper, adn you can use the very natty touch screen to access a whole host of web apps directl from teh printer. Thus means my children can print off endless supplies of squared or graph paper for School or suduku or cross word puzzles.

it works with PC and MAC - that is a wow in itself. and just … well .., just works!

A quiet morning, fast becoming a routine, by the pool. But at 11:30 we were set off for our bus ride into the Old town and to join our happy comrades who had also signed up to go Kayaking. Suposidly a 4km paddle around the island, past the battlements of the old town, taking in the views, including the far from overly publicised nudist beach, the 16th C Monastery, and then to a cave bay where we stopped for refreshments and a snorkle. I was delighted to seethat the guide technique of showing the happy punters what a sea urchin looks like has evolved a little. My first experience was scuba diving off Turkey in 1996, where 5mtrs down the guide prized an unfortuate molusc  off the rocks and then proceeded to crack it oipen with a smaller rock to encourage a wide array of fish to come close. It appears the humble urchin is higher up the pecking order in Croatia, the guide did indeed prize one off the rocks but then gentle handled it to show every one and then carefully returned it to its home. I hope this stunt urchin has a green card and is paid well for his inconvenience.

I have to confess there were times I wasn’t sure my shoulders would hold out, and there is no way that was only 4 km paddle, but as 4pm approached we in turn approached our destination, a little wearier and pondering on why we were choosing to exert so much energy in such ridiculous temperatures, and whilst on holiday!

We stopped off at the shops on our bus journey home, picked up some nibbles and a few bits and bobs for the children then piled back into the hotel room for a well earned bath and freshen up before dinner in the restaurant accompanied by the Magnificent Vincent Magic show! - well you have to don’t you? don’t you?

Whilst relaxing pre dinner we landed upon RAI2 Channel one of the eclectic mix of international televisions channels, just to catch the start of the II Palio Italian bare back horse race, yes the same one that is used in The Quantum Of Solace, where 10 riders race bare back three times around the main piaza in Siena. The Contrada of the winning steed, whether rider still mounted or not, notches up his win and the celebration style is typically filled with Italian Passion, the fight between rider and two raging fans over the crop was quite intimidating. This year Tartuca won (The tortoise), a quick one two on wikipaedia and we see that this increases Tartuca’s wins to 47 1/2 (yes, a half!) since 1656 and that next year the race contenders will be the 7 of the 17 that didn’t run this year plus three drawn from a hat.

Though commentated in Italian we found the whole experience including the argybargy between jockeys and horses in the lead up (that took more than 15 minutes), horses biting, refusing and rearing all fired up by the densly packed crowd of more than imaginably enthusiastic onlookers.

So back to Croatia and we spend our last evening in the company of Vincent the Magnificent, wish us luck (and we don’t even have the excuse of children with us!)

We arrived in the Old Town by bus, it was almost raining, but with temperatures still high it was a pleasant change. Tour guides in the hundreds wielding a variety of location markers, from umbrellas to flags and coloured sticks, their dutiful followers in the thousands. We purchased our tickets to begin the ascent to the upper battlements, a 2km perimeter wall towering above the turquoise sea below embracing a lagoon of terracotta.

As the rain gave way to the sun we completed the circuit via an orange juice stop off and a pause to watch your brash, slightly nutty men jump from the cliff into the water, with much applause from the international panel of judges, all those on that section of the wall.

Hot but feeling  a great sense of achievement, possibly influenced by the fact the whole wall is signposted one way and it appears there was one way in and it was the same way out, we finished and took a wander around the unbelievably touristy shops filled with fridge magnets, mugs and I luv Dubrovnik T shirts.

Back to the hotel, a snooze and then out to experiment with the local restaurants, chosen by a pin in the map method, we ended up at Zoe’s. The food was surprisingly good, the setting if you looked out to sea was lovely, the fact it looked a little more like a cafe canteen and it appeared to be part of the Hotel Neptune complex was letting it down but the staff were lovely and the live music grew on us.

A taxi ride back nearly turned into a disaster when we mistook the denominations of the currency and paid nearly £50 for a 3 minute journey. To our delight the taxi driver tracked us down as we headed for the lifts and put us back in financial stability! Humanity lives.