Category: Holidays and Adventures

 I have recently come back from enjoying my family’s 2^nd trip this year to Majorca! We had such a great time last time it made sense to go again and enjoy a last bit of sun before winter sets in here in the UK.

Like last time I joined my friends again for a day chartering a huge Sunseeker yacht which we took out around the bay before returning to Porto Patels for another evening of good food and entertainment. One of the best parts of the holiday this year was a large pirate show that took place on the outskirts of Magaluf believe it or not, it was a great show and we all loved it.

Also managed to bump into my old friend Jamie Redknapp who has a place out there and also Steve McManaman it was good to catch up and talk about times gone by.

Later in the evening my friend Josh and my family I drove into Magaluf and while my friends and family attended the pirate show my friend Josh and I got a real eye opener when we went to BCM square which has lots of shall we say ‘varied’ entertainment happening at night which we both enjoyed. When we drove back to Patels which was like returning to civilisation we had a few more beers and both went our separate ways.

Upon returning home it had become quite evident that I need to stop taking exotic holidays and knuckle down in the office as the finances aren’t what they used to be! The business has had to reduce its staffing numbers unfortunately but now I am flat out working 6 ½ days a week to get things back on track.

YBIS is still pushing into America, with the appointment of a new sales guy who works the evenings to fall in line with the American time difference. Oven King is heading in the right direction, we have now rolled out our 3^rd and largest van on the road a big Sprinter van which is being used as a large advertising board and point of sale for local promotions and seems to be working well. Oven King now also diversified a bit and are now offering carpet cleaning services too. Oven king has now started launching our franchise opportunities nationwide.

 

For a bit of a laugh and to clear out some much needed space my wife, kids and I are doing a few local boot in the big sprinter van at the weekends, doubling up to promote oven king at the weekends. Last weekend however, our takings for the day were hindered by the bad weather, but we’d definitely do it again as it was a good day out with the kids.

I have recently returned from a long weekend away in Majorca. My trip to Majorca has been the first break my wife and I have had without the kids for many years as I tend to be quite reluctant to leave them with family when I go away. Jo however feels differently as she likes to have a rest from the kids from time to time, then again she deserves to as she spends a lot more time with them than I do and they can be quite a handful.

We ended up going to Majorca after winning an apartment on a charity auction, I managed to win the apartment for £800 and this covered all usage for 4 days and nights. The money was extremely good value considering the apartment was a 2 bedroom split apartment with a swimming pool on the roof balcony and featured breathtaking views of Portals harbour. We did the normal things like visiting restaurants and bars within the vicinity of the apartment as well as doing some sightseeing.

I went to Majorca with one of my best friends Steve Mac and his wife and also bumped into another one of my friends also called Steve on the plane flight and invited him to spend the day with us on a chartered yacht which was one of the highlights of the holidays. We chartered the Sunseeker yacht for the day which we then proceeded to take to the various coves in and around the shoreline. We spent the day in and around Nikki’s beach which is one of the private nicest beach clubs in the area and stopped off at a few more of the local bars during the evening.

I am really looking forward to going back with the children for a fortnight’s holiday in the near future which won’t be quite as relaxing as we will end up catering for the children by attending water parks, ‘Dolphinariums’, swimming, snorkling other child type things. Although that might sound relaxing I’m sure anyone with children will agree that it’s tough work.

I call myself lucky on a daily basis that I have wonderful children to spend my days with, as providing for my family is what keeps me working hard when I’m not on holiday. Be sure to keep in touch with my blog for all the latest pictures of this most recent holiday and my latest business endeavours.

Skiing Holiday with my son in Villars, Switzerland Feb 2013

I know that during my most recent blog post I mentioned that I would be focusing largely on business matters in my blog and within a few days I have already managed to break that previous statement by posting a blog article about my most recent holiday in Villars, Switzerland with my son Louis and my closest friend, sorry!

I haven’t covered any of my recent holidays here in a while but as I take 4-5 holidays a year with my family I might as well keep a blog on them.

I have never taken my son skiing before, in fact the last time I went skiing was almost 3 years ago in Sweden with an old friend of mine. My Son Louis has recently turned 10 so I decided to take him along with a friend to a hotel resort in Villars, Switzerland, the hotel we stayed in was very nice indeed… the reason I chose Villars as my destination of choice was because a mutual friend of ours owns a property there and he had recommended the location to us many times before.

 

We got there, checked into our room and scoured the location to get our bearings quickly, to our great pleasure just across the road from our hotel was the train we needed to catch to take us to the start of the mountain routes, which was only a 30 minute train ride in itself.

Day One:

On the first day I dropped my son off along with Steve’s son Tommy at the first of two private skiing lessons at the ski school at the bottom of the resort, waved goodbye to Louis and proceeded to take the ski lifts up the mountains with Steve and his daughter Ruby.

Upon our return from a mornings skiing I found my son upset and frustrated with how hard learning to ski can be. He was not too pleased with his lack of progress as he found it difficult and wanted to go home early, however after calmly explaining the situation to him his faith in skiing had been rejuvenated and we where both keen to tackle the slopes together the following day.

 

 

 

Day Two:

The second day began with dropping Louis and his friend off for another morning of ski school, although this session would only last an hour so I took it upon myself to teach him how to ski myself for the rest of the morning. To my surprise Louis had grasped the ins and outs of skiing much quicker since taking him under my wing and I was comfortable with taking him up the ski lifts to the main slopes…

During the second day we stopped off halfway up the mountain at a great Jamaican style bar/restaurant, it was warm, cosy and provided a welcome change to the chill of the mountains, we enjoyed reggae music at 2,000ft above sea level it was fantastic!

On the journey back from the mountains my son Louis asked me if we could ski back to the hotel following some beautifully shallow cross country tracks trough the forests along a 5 mile route down the mountain. I told him there would be no way that he would be up to the task, especially after a whole days skiing already behind him and considering how much fun he’d had already today I didn’t want that to be ruined, but he insisted.

He ended up faultlessly skiing down numerous blue, green and even some challenging red runs on our way back to the hotel and it was a real pleasure watching him mastering the art of skiing after the tough first day he had.

Day Three:

Day three saw us all as a group attempting some more challenging slopes higher up the mountain taking multiple ski lifts to various parts of the resort and experiencing all of the slopes we hadn’t already tried.

Our evenings throughout the trip consisted of visiting many different restaurants sampling the local cuisine and drinking some local beers. On one occasion I had managed to consume 4 pints over the course of a day’s skiing and then a further 6 pints over an evening and I still wasn’t drunk, must’ve been the altitude!

The Journey Home:

Unfortunately we had a very early start on our last day with us leaving the hotel at 5am in the morning! On route to the airport I got a chance to test out the handling capabilities of our rental car along some treacherous mountain roads picking up a hefty speeding fine on the way which arrived at my offices the other day payable in Swiss francs! Only joking!

I’m looking forward to taking my son again in the near future and on many more adventures!

One thing I did notice throughout our trip was how expensive everything was in Switzerland. The food, hotels, drinks and essentials all add up, luckily though I’ve had a good year so far and can afford it and proves as a constant reminder to myself that hard work and dedication in the workplace pays for memories like these and makes the trials and tribulations of business all worthwhile.

I have just come back from my end of May bank holiday in Spain with my family. What a great weekend we had!!

The sun was shining, the accommodation was fantastic and the food and drink all went down far too easily. It was one of our best family holidays in a long time. But I also tied it in with a few nights out partying with old friends.

We have all been talking doom and gloom for so long in this country its actually making everybody depressed, and depression I’m sure slows everyone down. It was a joy to go to the Puerto Banus Ocean Club Sintillate Champagne Party, we went there during the day on Saturday and rubbed shoulders with a few up and coming celebrities which was a lot of fun.

Then on Sunday we hit the Sintillate full blown Champagne Party and it was a real eye opener and a reminder that it isn’t all doom and gloom. I go to the same party every year, but it was far more outrageous this year, the sun beds were costing 12000 Euros for eight people, and they were throwing in 40 bottles of champagne for free, entrance alone was 150 Euros and it was a complete sell out.

Champagne was flowing, beautiful people dancing, partying, drinking and enjoying the weather. It was an absolutely brilliant 12 hours in the sun partying.

I couldn’t believe my friend Gary when he told me that one of the sun bed groups spent 150,000 Euros just during that one afternoon. Exchanging their house champagne for Dom Perignon and Cristal, some other groups on the sun beds were spending 50,000-75,000 Euros. All in one afternoon.

I believe that afternoon the Ocean Club took in excess of three quarters of a million Euros in all, what a business! There was certainly no recession in the Ocean Club that day. If you haven’t been I suggest one bank holiday you give it a go, it is by far the best party weekend in the world and I know, I can compare it to some spectacular parties but nothing compares.

We also found a brilliant new complex in Spain we didn’t know about before, we found it by accident as my original hotel wouldn’t let us stay as we had my two young children with us and after May they don’t allow children, this is their loss and if you have children too certainly don’t go to H10 Andalucia Plaza after May, but I can recommend the facilities and hotel at Vasari Hotel in Puerto Banus, the surroundings of the hotel are spectacular the accommodation comfortable and spacious and it was perfect when travelling with young children like us. I highly recommend it.

I also enjoyed some time at Buda Beach while away, and the vacation made me come back with lots of inspiration and cleared out all my negativity for the rest of the year, I have a new positive attitude and I intend to make some big dough this year. The people I met whilst on holiday couldn’t spend money quick enough and there is not many industries where this is the case, I would have loved to have a chat with some of those players to find out what business’ they are in and how the money comes so easy!

I came back into the office with my new positive attitude and I hope it has rubbed off on the rest of the team.

I hope you enjoy these few pictures of my holiday with family and celebrities. Just looking forward to my next holiday and making more money now!

A lot of people are coming to my business blog and finding it covered in social affairs and private life, and holidays ect, to be honest with you that is what I’ve mostly been doing for the last 3-4 years, but now I’m getting back to work as the ones I’ve dipped my toes in the water with are working well. So after this post I shall turn my blog back to where it should be based on business, money and entrepreneurial related posts.

So look forward to further business posts as that’s what they will be based on as that’s how it all started. Lots of people have been saying to me ‘you haven’t been putting much on your blog lately’ but I have been flat out with new business ventures, and e-commerce sites launching also my general business and recruiting, so enough about that lets get on to my Barbados holiday and I will keep you posted with the exciting business ventures in hand later.

Barbados… I have been on some fantastic holidays in my life, but I think Barbados is one of the best places to chill out, especially going this time of year as it gives you a couple of weeks break! With the cold weather we have been experiencing here generally… We just needed to get away.

So this holiday I would say is one of the most expensive holiday! They know how to charge in Barbados they even catch you on the airlines.
I took all my kids except my oldest son, my 2 daughters, Louis and my little girl and of course my wife, one of my girls boyfriends tagged along and I’m sure I wasn’t going to pay his flight too. We flew premium economy which cost a fortune but would have been double if I had of gone club. We landed at the airport in the afternoon Friday 28th December, got in our hired mini bus which you can imagine we needed and headed straight 2 our apartment, our apartment was a lovely 3 bed at a resort called glitter bay. The first thing we did was unpacked and had a good night sleep as we had been travelling 18 hrs door to door.

On the first day we went to the supermarket loading up a few things to eat and drink I could not believe how 1 trolley full of food and drink could cost 1000 Barbadian dollars approx £334!! This was a shock but I started to get used to it as the holiday went on.

We had a few must places to go ranging from sandy lane, the cliff restaurant, the fish pot restaurant, lone star and others they were all fantastic restaurants and I recommend to go there if you visit Barbados! The fish pot was very reasonably priced, and believe it or not we managed to get into a Chinese restaurant in Barbados.
Our friends Steve and Lynne and there kids who accompanied us, stayed at the royal West Moorlins and our other friends Laurence and Chantelle and family also stayed there so we spent quite a bit of time together, Royal West Moorlins was slightly off the beaten track as a golf resort but a beautiful place to stay. I had a great round of golf with Steve and Laurence, its always nice to keep my hand in I need to startplaying more regularly to keep up with them in the future…But great game.

The holiday was mainly filled up with my wife and my 2 daughters doing what girls do best lying on the beach!! Me and Louis went crabbing and checked out some of the local bars. I got myself (which was a great investment) a backpack so lexi could sit on my back and I could walk around with her so we didn’t miss out on anything. The best day I guess for me was when we went to the lunch at sandy lane originally we were going to be in the club house, but I changed the location we were going to be seated next to Andrew Lloyd Webber (no offence to Andrew Lloyd Webber but I didn’t like the spot), we went down to the main hotel and sat on the terrace instead. We brushed shoulders there with various celebrities I got speaking to Ross Abbot whilst being served ice-cream, also spoke to Phillip Green who came over to the table and spoke to us which was nice and there were many other celebrities but hey ho I don’t want to bore you and go through everybody.
What was strange, it was a little bit like walking along a paradise beech in Bournemouth as there were so many faces from Bournemouth not mention, Stuart Rawlins and his wife (thank you very much for treating us to lunch at lone star). Linda who I met had a house next to sandy lane, Graham Roberts who turns out after having chat that his brother owned the apartment that we stayed at which was great! Dave Miller and of course the Simons. Didn’t meet up with Al and his wife but had a drink with Sofia and Kate and was nice catching up.

With out going too much on about the day to day goings on which you might find boring, it was just great to be away in the sun, the glass bottomed boat and seeing the turtles made my little boys trip and we also had to go the monkey zoo in 100 degrees don’t know why but this is what my boy wanted to do. Towards the end I think we were all looking forward to coming home as you do when you are on holiday even when you are having fun and enjoying the sunshine, we landed back at Gatwick on the 11th January 6am back in the office for 9 ready to crack on and do a days work. As mentioned earlier no more holidays planned for the next couple of months so posts should be business related I will keep you updated.

Would just like to thank Steve and Lynne Laurence and Chantelle, for being great company I look forward to going away with again soon.

 

Landing back in the UK from the Super Car Rally on my newly found friend, Brendons Private Jet!

I am now back from the Brooklands to Monte Carlo super car rally, which was a fantastic almost undescribable experience, five star hotels & chateaus, fantastic meals, incredible views, roads winding up the Alps, breath taking sceneries with unbelievable driving thrills from myself and other drivers, which can only be described as being close to the edge in more ways than one!

We started from Mercedes Benz World in Surrey, which is a great building, completed for Mercedes in 05 at the cost exceeding £70 Million. The building has four levels of showrooms, which shows the full range of Mercedes from Maybachs to SLRs, to Formula 1 Racing cars and even vintage Mercedes.

The site is set on 120 acres which includes a race track and skid pan, where you can test all the latest Mercedes and other cars on, which was a great experience on its own, what a way to start!

Met Joe and Nigel who work at Mercedes Benz World, they were also doing the run in the Mercedes SLR and they gave me the privilege of having a drive in this super car.

Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands

Before leaving Mercedes Benz World we had the privalige of having a lap round their track before heading off for Dover.

Day one saw us leaving Brooklands driving down to Folkstone where we got on the train to go on the Channel Tunnel, which took us to the shores of France, which gave us our first route to Versailles.

Cars all parked up waiting to get on the channel tunnel train at Dover.

This wasn’t a direct journey, as part of the rally is working out clues to get yourselves to the hotel, so got lost a few times and went around the houses. We had a little convoy going which consisted of me and Steve in the Ferrari 430 Spider, Lawrance and Big Phil in another Ferrari 430 Spider, Nigel and Joe in the Mercedes SLR and Brendon and Tony in their Ferrari California.

On day one it didn’t start off very well, got lost, didn’t find any clues and it was pissing it down with rain. We decided that the best thing to do was follow a 599, which had a Sat Nav, which also managed to get us lost.

Day one was a very long day for only covering an approximate distance of 200 miles; finally we arrived at our destination at our hotel in Versailles.

Petrol Stop in France, one of many!

We had a fabulous dinner enjoyed some drinks, and looked forward to meeting for breakfast to plan the next day.

Some of the cars parked up at the hotel

Day two of the Super Car Rally saw us up first thing ready for the journey through the rest of France. At breakfast we were given maps and clues to get us to our day’s destination, which was the Hotel-Golf Chateau de Chailly.

Leaving the first hotel, ready for the road trip that day two was to become.

Realising from the previous days experience that the Sat Nav was not going to be a benefit, as it doesn’t take you through the winding country roads, through the picturesque villages which means you miss out on the clues and meeting up with the other teams for lunch, we decided to not use it.

Steve drove and it was pouring down with rain so no opportunities to push the car, but we still had a great morning, stopping to refuel us and the cars along the way.

I had the pleasure of being allowed to drive the Mercedes McClaren SLR that day, and what a car, but still raining so couldn’t really put my foot down, for obvious reasons!

SLR En route

At the seat of the Mercedes McClaren SLR Spider.

We all met up for lunch in the famous wine region of Son Sare, where we soon realised that asking for a rare cooked steak meant that they practically brought the live cow to your table, handy tip when ordering steak in France and you went it medium/rare ask for well done!

Lawrence and Phil, part of our little convoy in the other 430.

Nigel, Me and Joe who work at Mercedes who have the SLR, what a car!

After lunch it was my turn to drive the 430 and with the weather a bit better we were able to crack on down to the Chateau.

On our travels we learnt that one of the teams had crashed, and although it sounded pretty bad, the car had to be lifted of the driver, they were only battered and bruised, the car on the other hand…
The driver turned out to be Michael Schumakers next door neighbour, would have been an idea for Schmaker to give him some tips before he set off on the rally!

We all had a nice evening at the Chateau, and got our heads down for the next days driving.

The next morning again over breakfast we were given the day’s destination and the clues.
We decided that we would use the Sat Nav today, only for it to get us lost almost straight away down a really small country lane.
Our convoy of the two 430s and the SLR stopped for lunch at a French style American diner, where the food was pretty naff to be honest, but it set us up for an afternoon of driving up into the alps on some windy roads and the beginning of some snow!

That evening we stayed in the Hotel Les Fermes de Marie, which is a ski resort in the Alps, it was strange to be there at this time of year, as not much snow, and definitely no skiers!

Day four saw us driving across the French/Italian border on the Alps, with some really windy roads and some extreme sheer drops!

This was a good days drive, and we were able to get our foot down on some good flat roads, even racing against a Lambo at one point. We stopped for lunch at the bottom of the mountain before heading off to our days destination, which was the Fiat Building, that was used in the Italian Job, and that has a race track on the roof.

On arrival at the Fiat Building the cars were taken to the roof where we were able to drive our cars round the track, bit of a surreal experience, being that high up and racing a car around a track.

The hotel for that night was the Le Meridien Turin, which was situated within the Fiat Building, and again where we enjoyed good food and good company, preparing ourselves for the next day.

The final day was upon us and this saw the route planned for us to go driving back through the Alps down to Monte Carlo, but by this time our little convey didn’t fancy the windy country roads on the Alps, and decided to drive along the coast road to Monte Carlo.

We arrived in Monte Carlo at around lunch time and parked all the cars around the square, it looked great. The hotel for the evening was the Hotel de Paris, which is an amazing hotel. In fact Monte Carlo itself is out of the world, there is defiantly no sign of a credit crunch happening here!

We had some pictures taken of the cars lined up around the square, and then it was off for some lunch and a spot of shopping in Monte Carlo.

This evening was planned for the final Banquet dinner and presentation evening, so we all dressed up in DJ’s and enjoyed the evening. Unfortunately we didn’t win any prizes, but as we didn’t do any of the clues then we couldn’t expect anything.

At this meal it was here that my new friend Brendan offered myself and Steve a lift home on his private jet, well how could we refuse!

The next morning after breakfast we were collected by car, where we were taken by car to Cannes Airport, straight to the jet and off to Farnborough Airport. We were collected from the airport right at the jet, now that is how I roll!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody that helped organise the rally and make it the success that it was, a big thanks to Greg, Amy and Rachel,Simon,Ali, Jason, Harry and Simon Sturday from Super Car rally, that were there from start to finish.

Thanks to all the charecters that I met on my travels, which we are great fun,to name but a few, Nick Thacke with the Lambo, Meyric Cox in the Porsche, of course Big Phil and Lawrence in their 430, and many others along the way, whos names escape me.

A great big thank you for Nigel and Joe from Mercedes for letting me drive the SLR,a big thanks to Brendon for his company on the Rally and the trip back on the his private jet and of course how could I not give a massive big thank you to Steve Mac for his company, his car and letting me thrash the arse off the car for five days and being a great friend!

All in all, the super car rally was a great experience and I can’t wait to hopefully do it all again next year!