Paragliding in France

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On the 4th, Brian and I caught the night ferry from Portsmouth to La Havre, and then drove down to Clermont-Ferrand arriving at 2.00pm on Saturday. A quick drive to the Puy de Dome where we did not have to pay to drive to the top, because we were taking up another paraglider pilot. Here we spoke to several French and eventually had a very nice soaring flight alongside the Dome in the setting sun.

In the evening we set up camp in the town called Royat. This was our second campsite we looked at; many were closing at this time of year. In the morning, we drove through more of the region and found the ski resort. This could be a good for flying, but unfortunately the weather was cloudy, windy and drizzle. So back to the campsite, packed up and drove on down to Millau, camped for the evening by the river and located a school for advise.

In the morning we flew at a site called Brunas, here we had lifts to the top from the school, and flew a few top to bottoms. At twelve the school went off to lunch promising they would be back at 14.00. Had a lift from some Germans and another top to bottom. Suddenly we realised another hill was being flown from, and there were no French on our hill. It transpired the wind had shifted a little, and the French school had excellent flights from the new hill. We managed to race over there where I had a short but magnificent soaring evening flight.

Next day Tuesday, flying started again at 14.00, but was rather windy. I managed to get off and had a short flight, but despite the wind very little wind. 

This was the end; the weather forecast was bad for the rest of the week, so off we went back home.

Lessons learned, next time we do this it would be better to have a more formal arrangement with one of the schools so that they would look after us and make sure we had transport to the top of the hill, and make sure we were on the right hill. While we had some short flights, beginners at the school managed 2 hours of soaring on the Monday and Tuesday while we were on the wrong hills.

Old Walker employees wanted

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Old Walker UK employees past and present had a get together at the Bugle Horn for a drink and a quick meal. Present were Steve Blasdale, John Curd, Peter Willson, Mike Barton, Rosemary Blasdale, Nigel Hudson, Steve Allen, Chris Quarmby, Barbara Wilkie, Stefan Roos. We had a good time recounting the old times.

Anyone else from the old Walker who reads this note and would like to meet up for future meetings, please send me an email, or fill in the visitors book.

Cambridge Alumni Weekend

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Rosemary and I took a long weekend at the Cambridge Alumni Weekend. We left home at 6.00 am Friday so we could leave the car at the B&B and be at the first event at 9.30. The weather was kind the whole weekend.

Had a good tour around the new buildings of the university, seeing the new Mathematical Sciences Campus, and the William Gates building for Computer Sciences. 

I had never visited the Scott Polar Research Institute despite being next to the Chemistry Laboratories. This was put right on Friday with an interesting talk about the research being carried out on the creation of new marine conservation areas at the Antarctic. 

Rosemary had a good tour of the Archaeology and Anthropology museum where she got to hold ancient precious objects. Finally we met up and visited the Museum of Zoology where we had a tour behind the scenes.

A pleasant Friday evening was held in the Fitzwilliam Museum where we ate canapés, drank wine and viewed the paintings. Wonderful atmosphere and beautifully presented.

Saturday morning was dominated by hour long lectures:

 

  • The Universe: Theory and Reality
  • Anatomy of Art
  • Beauty and the Beasts
  • Climate Change
  • Iris recognition
  • The Molecule Hunt. Using DNA in Archaeology

The afternoon was spent listening to Chris Andrew talking about spies in Cambridge, and reflecting on the Hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Next it was a talk by David Starkey on Monarchy and Democracy. This was the Star Lecture and was very worth listening too. It was a very brief overview of the last hundred years of his up coming Television Series.

A quick trek from the Sedgwick site to the ACDC theatre. Here we enjoyed a one-man play by Julian Curry (Claude Erskine-Brown in Rumpole of the Bailey) on the history of wine. Very entertaining. 

We had a very nice evening meal sitting outside, overlooking the Cam by Magdalene Bridge.

Sunday was basically two tours.

The first tour was of the Herchel Smith Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry, where we were introduced to Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Here they were using the MRI scanner to look at knee and finger joints, and their research is particularly relevant to arthritis research.

The second tour in the afternoon was to the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory. Here we were shown several of their radio telescopes. Some now not used, but many doing leading research. Some of the work is in designing and testing new ideas at the site, and then either building a better version or getting the Americans to build a larger version at a site more suitable for astronomy.

We saw the light telescope, which uses multiple telescopes mounted at a distance apart, which can thus synthesise a larger telescope. This was seen detail on the nearer suns. A larger newer one is being build in New Mexico where the weather conditions will be better.

A very good weekend.

Earthquake

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England had a 4.8 earthquake centred on Dudley in the West Midlands at 12.55 am Tuesday. It woke both Rosemary and I. At first we thought it was a heavy lorry (or military tank, we were woken years ago by a convoy of tanks going down the road, they really shook the house), but as there was no other sound, I said earthquake. It just gently shook the house for a few seconds.

Liberty and Livelihood March

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Went to catch the coach which was leaving from the local farmer at 7.30 We left for London at 8.00 with a full load. No traffic on the way into London other than a few other coaches. We were dropped of at Hyde Park Corner at around 9.30 .

Joined the waiting march at about 9.45. The march started at 10.00 am and we eventually started to move at 11. I was walking with Annie and George from the local garage. The weather was very variable, sun, and cloud with a little rain. Magnificent crowd with no trouble at all. Very few antis turned up, and these were treated with respect.

There we a wonderful mixture of people on the march, walking with a great mixture of slogans. Many of the banners carried slogans comparing Blair with Mugabe and Hitler. (Apparently Hitler banned hunting, and we know what Mugabe is doing to farming.)

The march for us ended at 2.30, and we were back to the coach by 3.30 and on our way home. No problem with the tubes. We crossed the march end at about 200 thousand. When the march finished the count had registered 400 thousand participants. This was a great success, but will Blair listen. I somehow don’t think so. So I some how think the next demonstrations will not be quite so nice.

Elevon becomes Arelon

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On Friday, when I was watching cricket, the UK side of Elevon (the company I work for) was sold to its managers in a Management Buyout for 16 million US dollars. The money was provided by Alchemy. 

I, Peter Willson, and John Curd were excluded from the deal and continue working for the US parent company of Elevon. Presently we still reside in the offices at the new company Arelon. 

This is the press release.

6th September, 2002 – London, UK – Arelon Ltd., a leading provider of enterprise-wide business solutions in the finance, procurement and business intelligence areas, today announced the completion of a Management Buy Out (MBO). The Elevon EMEA management team and Alchemy have successfully concluded discussions with Elevon, Inc. to acquire the Elevon EMEA business.

Having achieved a consistent increase in sales and profitability during the last two years, the management of Elevon EMEA reached an agreement with its corporate executive in San Francisco to seek an investor for the MBO. Alchemy was chosen from several investment organisations because of their desire to help accelerate the company’s growth. Alchemy is the leading UK private equity investor in IT services with investments in Sanderson, Cedar, Datapoint, Radius and Phoenix.

The new company is Arelon Ltd. As part of the agreement, Arelon Ltd. will own the intellectual property of Elevon 5, Business Intelligence, and new development of STEPs specific to the EMEA region. Arelon Ltd. will also have exclusive sales, support, and marketing rights for Elevon 2, Elevon Active Financial Planning, Horizon and existing STEPs. The existing development and support teams for both Elevon 2 and Elevon 5, currently based in the UK, will continue to provide this service from the UK. The “road maps” for the development of all current and future products will be enhanced by this MBO.

“The initial investment in Arelon Ltd. is the first part of a plan to position the company as a major force in the e-business and financials market in the UK. Due diligence shows that Elevon EMEA is a profitable and well-managed organisation and will form the foundation for growth plans,” said Jon Moulton, Managing Partner of Alchemy Partners LLP.

“This MBO is being conducted from a position of strength. During the last 2 years we have seen our EMEA business grow considerably. This growth has been founded on a sound business ethic, and an enthusiasm to deliver effective business solutions to our customers. The benefits of this MBO are multifaceted but, principally, it allows us to react more effectively to our current and future customers. Our successes with Elevon 2 in 2001, expanded into the development and design of the latest STEPs products, which we intend to continue to build upon. We own Elevon 5 and Business Intelligence, which is clearly advantageous to our clients. Our exclusive agreement with Elevon, Inc. for all other solutions also ensures our clients’ investments are protected, and allows us to become more responsive to customer and market trends going forward. These activities all reinforce this MBO decision, and the Board’s commitment to growing the business,” said Roger Llewellyn, Chief Executive Officer, Arelon Ltd.

“The plan for the next three years calls for steady growth in all aspects of the business, while at the same time taking advantage of the skills of our development team. This will allow us to create new and innovative ways of providing our customers with the ROI they need from automating their processes,’ Llewellyn concludes.

The Board of Directors will comprise of Jon Moulton, Managing Partner Alchemy LLP, Roger Llewellyn as Chief Executive Officer, Dean Dickinson as Director Operations, John Day as Director Business Operations, and Bill Strachan as Director Sales.

A detailed description of the MBO and its potential is available from the contact below.

For additional information contact:

Clare Frost
Marketing Manager
Arelon Ltd. 
Tel. 01296 432951
clare.frost@arelon.co.uk 

Bill Strachan
Sales Director
bill.strachan@arelon.co.uk

About Arelon

Arelon Ltd., formerly known as Elevon Ltd, is a leading provider of enterprise-wide business solutions in the areas of finance, procurement and business intelligence. Over the last three years Arelon Ltd. has been extremely successful providing e-business solutions to Global 2000 organisations. After working extensively with these leading organisations, Arelon Ltd. has identified the need to deliver collaborative solutions that extend beyond the four walls of the enterprise. Arelon Ltd. is dedicated to building on these successes to continue to provide the market with enterprise-wide solutions, enabling its customers to continually add value back into the business and achieve a high return on investment.

More information about Arelon Ltd. is available by contacting us at clare.frost@arelon.cc.

© 2002 Arelon Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 

The Oval

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Took Friday off work to see a Cricket match. All started on Wednesday when I went to the Plough and Anchor for a pint. Paul Ring the landlord ended up selling me his ticket to the second day of the England against India test match at the Oval.

A bit of a rush on Friday, went to Cross, the butcher and bought the beef joint for Saturday, then went to two Tesco shops to try and buy a whole Salmon. Found one in the Aylesbury Tesco. Bought that and put it into the refrigerator at work. I was still able to catch the train to London in time for the start of the match.

There were ten of us from the nearby villages watching the match from the Glover stand. The rain held off with the sun shining most of the day. It was an interesting experience, with me drinking several pints of Fosters. The game seems to play on in the background while you drink and chat with the others around you.

The Bank Holiday Weekend

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This weekend and Bank holiday we basically stayed at home. 

The Sunday was the return of the Welsh, (St Brides Major) clay shoot. They arrived at 11.30 and shot the 80 bird layout. After the shoot, there was lunch and much beer and wine. The result, we beat them on the day, but they won the whole overall shoot by six shots. When you think each of us need only have scored half a shot more to win, then you can see how close it was.

The Monday we ran a shoot for the Grendon Underwood football team. There was a lot of set-up and clearing up at the end. I had to show most of the shooters how to handle and shoot with a shotgun. They, never having shot before. 

Canal trip

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No rest at all, up early to do the final touches the chicken dish for the Saturday picnic. At Pitstone by 9.00 a.m for the canal trip kindly arranged by Carol and John Curd. There were twelve of us on board.

The boat was on the Grand Union canal. We took it South going through 6 locks stopped for the picnic and then took it back to its berth.

The day was excellent, the sun shone, a breeze kept the temperature down to a comfortable temperature. The company was good, the different foods provided on the picnic were excellent, as was the wine. The entertainment of opening and closing the locks kept us amused and fit. 

Only bad point was I seemed to miss a hand rail on the boat and fell into the canal. Oh well, can’t be helped, it did seem to provide amusement to all those around.