(Jordan, Me, and Zack at the Guy's Tower)
Forgive me readers for it has been 12 days since my last blog. I do have an excuse though, last weekend we took a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon and I somehow manged to forget my camera battery and memory card back in my room. I wasn't too keen on the idea of writing a blog without pictures cause I know people like my sister only visit this page for the pictures. Good news is thanks to Zack Sayles, I now have photographic coverage of this past weekend to keep everyone interested in my travels. Also I have coverage of the Tropic Thunder movie premiere here in the UK and most importantly my first week at work! Which I must say is awesome and sorry mom and dad I might just have to stay and work here the rest of my life.
(Trying on some medieval swag)
My weekend trip to Stratford-upon-Avon began with a bus ride from hell, it was hot, I stayed out way too late the night before celebrating Zack's 21, the bus driver smelt of black licorice and whiskey, and we got lost a few times which just made things worse. Our first stop was Warwick Castle which is apparently the best castle in the UK. I already wasn't in the best mood to begin with, but then I found out my camera was of no use to me and to top it off it kept on raining. We spent the next few hours roaming around the castle which basically just a ton of narrow short hallways and spiral staircases than grand rooms. Needless to say I wasn't that impressed. We also got to see the world's biggest trebuchet which turned out to be the world's biggest let down. The announcer made it sound like this thing was the most terrible thing on four wheels, but I've done worse damage with my bike and a homemade potato gun. However I was impressed with the views from the tower overlooking the English countryside and the tiny postcard perfect town outside the castle walls.
(From up on the castle walls)
(Down in the castle dungeon.)
After the castle we went to our bed and breakfasts in Stratford-upon-Avon the town where William Shakespeare was born. The bed and breakfast was nice and much more like a house than any of the students who were placed elsewhere. My room however was a little questionable, everything was a soft pink, including my towels which were embroidered with flowers to match the pictures on the walls. It was a little strange but made for a good laugh. That night in Stratford we got the delight of seeing A Midsummer Night's Dream in the famous globe theater. The production was amazing and re-worked into a more modern interpretation which made it much easier to take in. The play also lasted about 3 hours which made me feel like a 3 year old in church who can't sit still. After that we hit up the local pub and met some of the actors and actresses in the play which was pretty cool. The next two days we visited the Cotswolds and Oxford but in all seriousness I found them quite boring. The shops and stores were all for women and old people so a young man like be had nothing to do but walk around and enjoy the scenery. Here are some pictures, I'll spare you the words to motivate you to continue reading later.
(An Alley in Stratford-upon-Avon)
(In Stratford again I believe)
(Walking towards one of the Oxford colleges were Harry Potter was filmed)
Alright now on to some more entertaining stuff like the Tropic Thunder movie premiere. We caught wind that this was going down thanks to our program director, we also heard we had to be there at like 2 or 3 to get a close spot. I don't play those games, I showed up at 6, that's right 30 seconds before Ben Stiller showed up and you know what I still managed to score a close spot due to a bit ole' luck. I could have even shook Ben's hand had he not blown me off. I think he might have been intimidated by my height Ben's about 5'4''. I still manged to score a sweet pic, Ben now wants to be my friend on Facebook so I can tag him in it, no big deal...
Jack Black wouldn't stop moving so I couldn't get a good picture but here's my best one. I'm not too happy with him, he didn't come over to our side.
Robert Downey Jr was a pretty cool cat. He looked like he just woke up from a rough night, but still managed to come over to have a little chat with us, take a few pictures, and sign some of the girls body parts.
The main part of the red carpet was pretty packed as you can see, I felt bad for all those suckers who had been there since 2.
(Good shot of the red carpet, thanks to being tall.)
(Photo Credits: A black metal gate and a 10 sec timer)
This past week was also my first week of work, and I sure do like it. My first day started at 9:30 am, my first task consisted of me reading up on the business at a local Starbucks sipping some coffee. Not bad... Then it got exciting I got to drive in foggy London town in a tiny little smart car! We had to pick up a customers car so my boss drove me out and had me follow him back. Driving over here is pretty crazy, it feels like a video game and literally everything is opposite. You drive on the left, sit on the right, shift with your left hand, drive with your right. I found that you have to ignore your instincts because once you space out you find yourself on the right side of the road or cursing out some cabbie who you think is blocking your right-hand turn. You also always have to be on the watch for pedestrians since there aren't jay-walking laws here. I also had quite the scare my first time driving. I was following my boss back to work just trying to keep up and I went to adjust my mirror only to see the blue flashing lights of a cop right behind me. I panic and try to pull over only to find out to my great relief that he was not after me at all.
This is one of the little smart cars we have, yes I fit. They are actually pretty fun to drive I don't know if it's because everything is so foreign to me or what but they seem to be pretty quick getting down the streets of London and it's amazing where you can squeeze in with these little guys.
Oh and it's a convertible so I have plenty of headroom! Even in the hardtops I still have a good 4 inches or so of headroom. My only gripe is on the older models the pedals are quite small and too close together for my feet.
These are two of the electric bikes we sell that I'm pretty excited to drive soon. The blue Vectrix is one of the nicest scooters on the market it gets to 50 mph in about 6 seconds which isn't bad for a scooter. The white dirt bike is called a Quantya, it's street legal and performs as well as a 250cc dirt bike without the need of fuel. I guess it gets to 40 mph in under 2 seconds.
This is my nice old desk where I do my work. Currently I'm building a training document for the business for new employees. I get to learn about what the company does and everything they sell and summarize it for training purposes. My first page summarizing the company turned out quite well and my boss seemed to be pretty impressed. It's also pretty cool to here my bosses talk business. Everyone is a lot more straight forward I've noticed, I'd almost consider it rude if I heard it back home, but they add just enough class to it that it seems to get the job done. Other than that I just sit and watch nice cars like Ferrari's and Bentley's drive by all day.
Well that's all I've got, I'm starving right now... Cheers
P.S. I'm pretty sure you can subscribe to this blog which will let you know when I post and don't worry if your post isn't showing up right away, I have to moderate them first I guess.
This weekend my workplace Envy Motors and Ashwoods won 2.5 out of three nominations in the annual GreenFleet Awards! We got named Dealership of the year, also earned the industry innovation award for our hybrid system, and were commended for our private sector innovation. All of which is quite the feat considering Envy Motors has only been open since the beginning of the year. Details below.
