Leeds! and Touring with Palmer!

26/11/10

1332 (local time)

The next update is written on a train to Belfast! I’ve had a very interesting week! It all started off me leaving London and heading up to Leeds to hang out with my mate from Dahab, John Palmer! On my arrival he had a house party planned for me at another friends of mine, Anna (Steve-O’s Chick) picked us up from Leeds bus station and took us to her student apartment for a house party! Obviously Palmer and I had to be prepared for it, so we picked up 15 bottles of beer aka A Case, and made our way to Anna’s.

Straight away Palmer and I got involved knocking back the beers! Eventually her friends started arriving, and we found out that the party was in fact a continued birthday party! No drama’s, beers were drunk and eventually the chat got very poor, so we picked up our jackets and thought it was a good idea to find the local bar or club where everyone was going, after about 30 minutes of walking, we stopped at a burger shop, got some food, and went back to Anna’s and crashed!

The next morning was very interesting, we stumbled down stairs and it looked as if a bomb had hit the place! There were smashed glasses everywhere, empty bottles scattered over the floor, and the stench of alcohol made you want to bring up yesterdays burgers! It wasn’t a pretty sight. Eventually we convinced Anna to drive us home, back to Palmers!

As soon as we got back, Palmer wacked on the stove and cook us some well deserved (and well needed) bacon and eggs! That sorted us right out!

We weren’t at Palmer’s for long until we were meeting John Newby. Newby worked out for Vass a few years back, but I met him when he came out on holiday with his girlfriend. Anyway, back to the story, so we got some stuff together and headed out to Newby’s, I knew straight away we were in for a messy couple of nights! I’m not going to get into intricate details, but I probably wont be going back their any time soon! J

Righteo, so after Newby’s, Palmer and I went back to his place to relax for a couple of days until we flew out to Dublin. I had a few things to do because I found out that I got a job out in Austria for a winter season, but ill get to that in a minute.

So Wednesday came along quite quickly, and the next thing I know, is that I’m on a flight to Dublin, to hang out with Palmer’s girlfriend. I wasn’t going to be able to tolerate being the 3^rd wheel for more than two days, so on the Friday I had book a train up to Belfast to see a few old friends that I met out there last year. So that brings me to where I am now, stuck on a train to Belfast.

But... before I do, I might as well add, that Palmer and I didn’t just sit around and do nothing with our time in Dublin... No! We were tourists and we did touristy stuff... So we went to the Jameson’s distillery of Whisky, I ended up being a taster, and had to do several shots of different whisky’s so inevitability I was slightly tipsy when I left the distillery! Luckily it made it super warm, so Palmer and I decided to go to the Kilmainham Gaol, if you knew your trivia, you would know that I did visit this Gaol last year... and ill be honest, I think it should have stayed that way... it was way to cold and boring to do it, but we both had a fun time! Anyway I think its time I shall move on!

I’ll tell you a bit about job this winter. So most of you know, that I’ve never seen the snow before so a winter season would be the best way to see the snow and potentially earn some much needed pounds. So I went to an interview with a company called Powder Byrne on the 12^th of November. I thought the role was for a drivers position, but I was much mistaken, it was for a ski guiding position, so when I was asked ‘where would you put his ski’s if a guest has a potentially broken leg’ I had no idea what to say! Anyway, I must have impressed them somehow as I was called back for another interview. So I obliged and went along. I had done a bit of study on job interview questions, and had memorised the company’s philosophy, I was set!

Ill cut a long story short and say to you, that I DID get a job out in Austria this coming winter season, and I’m a Kids Club Manager, more specifically I am the ‘Yeti Manager’ from ages 4 – 9 I’m not all that sure of my rolls at the moment, as I haven’t seen my job description yet, but from what I gather is that my roll ensures that the kids are safe, and are kept happy whilst their parents are having fun on the slopes. I’m super happy, as it will be my first opportunity to see the snow!

So now, my plans have changed, ill be flying out to Switzerland for a week’s training in Flims, and then out to Austria to a place called Zurs where I will be working from the 11^th of December until the 20^th of April!

I can’t wait!

I might add in here that I have to thank all the people that have let me crash at their house whilst I sort my life out!

A big thankyou goes to Lizzie and Lionel (once again) as they have almost been my personal assistants for collecting mail, sending it off, helping me out with contracts, the list never ends! So a big thanks goes out to them!

Another thankyou is to John, Margret and Patrick Palmer who let me stay at their beautiful old house, that was built in the 1900’s (I think). Thanks again mate! You’re a bloody legend!

Anyway, that almost wraps it up!

Looking forward to hitting Belfast only 1 and a bit hours to go!

Take care!

Steve xx

Check Out The Photos. 'they are a bit mixed, but enjoy'

The Kilmainham Gaol

Palmer, Ciara and Myself! At the bar in Jameson Distillery

Palmer, Ciara and me again!

Me and the Tour Guide... Legend

Newby, riding the stupid kids bike!

Sending some Whiskey

Me and Palmer at the Marrying spot!

Another classic joke from the Tour Guide!

Waiting at the Distillery 

Ciara, Palmer and Me at the Bus Station!

Some Horse Faced Woman!

The Crew!

CHAT SOON! DUDES!

The End of an Era!

10/11/10

1504 (local time)

Bloody hell its cold!!! That’s right, im no longer in the sunny shores of Dahab, Egypt, if flown north west, to the cloudy, damp and cold island of London, England!

Now before I start rattling on about London and my plans I firstly want to recap and talk about the amazing time I had in Dahab!

Like you may already know, I started out in Dahab on the 12^th of April! And eventually  my contract finished on the 8^th.

Throughout this time, I almost spent every single day in the water, if that was swimming, snorkelling, free diving or windsurfing, you couldn’t keep me out of the liquid!

I can definitely say that this summer was the best summer (or winter in Aus) I had ever had in my life! It was just non-stop party. What makes the place so special is that, there are so many different things you can do and try. For example, if there is no wind, go snorkelling if you don’t like doing that, go down the road into town and hire a 250cc motorbike for the after noon and razz it around in the desert.

If you had to ask me, what my favourite memory about Dahab was, I would have to say it was my 22^nd birthday, unfortunately I don’t remember all that much from it mostly due to the 22 shots I had to finish off. But from the parts I do remember it was all just dancing and seeing all my friends at the party left me with a super warm feeling, it was just a pity all my mates and family from back home weren’t there to celebrate it with me.

All in all, most Saturday night parties were an absolute ball. Pretty sure I cana-brava’d and danced most girls (and blokes) that came to Dahab. Even parties where the guests weren’t all that much fun, it was just great to be around your friends.

My day off’s with John Palmer for most of the year were on a Thursday, normally it was windy so we would just spend hours and hours out on the water, if it wasn’t windy myself and Palmer would just chill out with anyone else that had a day off on Thursday, if it was Marco from Harry Nass, or James and Sam from Neilson. Anyway the time eventually came for Palmer to leave as manager, and next time I looked there was no longer any ‘old’ staff, instead all the summer guys, were replaced with the winter staff. Now for the first couple of weeks, it was quite hard working with new staff, because generally the guys didn’t know what was going on, but after 3 – 4 weeks we had a rhythm. A new team was back in action.

I was now sharing a room with Luke (the Cone) Baillie, who was sick of his day job as a painter decorator so he packed up and arrived at the steaming head of Dahab. Luke had done a fair bit of travelling to Australia but mostly if not all to the West coast to ride the epic waves of Geraldton, Margies and the rest.

Luke and I now shared a day off on Sunday... Now Sunday Day-Off’s can go one of two ways, you would either be ridiculously hung-over or just moderately, either way you were going to be feeling under the weather. If there was wind, we would attempt to rip it up windsurfing wise, if not we would probably just lay in bed for a while, watch a movie, chat to mates, or if we had the energy boot up the X-Box 360 and play each other on FIFA.

When it hit about Midday we would eventually summon up the energy to head into town for a greasy hamburger and the heavenly Chocolate-Banana Milkshake at Funny Mummy’s or Shams. Once we were fuelled up, we would wander down the street to the local games room, say G’Day to the cute chick (but an outrageous accent) from Liverpool. We would spot ourselves a Table-Tennis table and fully session table tennis. The embarrassing thing is, that Luke is a very solid tennis player and also not a bad Table Tennis player, but he clearly underestimated the gifted ‘Flack’ family name, with just a natural talent to be good at pretty much everything!

But honestly we had some good rallies, but it was the unbelievable strength of my right arm that often let me down, as I was generally smashing balls off the table. Good fun though.

Another member of the team I haven’t mentioned yet was our team dog Mutley! This dog rocked up on our beach on a Wednesday, with a very broken hip, and a tail that was way to short to have been professionally docked, no one had any idea who’s or what it was doing here!

It wasn’t until a German guest named Patrick took the dog under his wing, fed it, took it to the vets to get a check up, the Vet said that ‘the dog’s hip was broken a long time ago, and has now fused back together in completely the wrong spot’ so the vet didn’t do really anything to help the dog, apart from clean it and get rid of the ticks... oh I forgot to mention that the Vet chopped the dogs nuts off... So Patrick the friendly German, took this helpless dog to get it treated for, but instead he just got the dogs nuts chopped off, quite amusing really!

Anyway, so when Patrick left, he left us in charge of the dog, so we took it on board as our Team Dog! I ended up growing very fond of this dog, it was fantastic seeing Mutley come from a very broken fragile state that just slept all the time, to being this very, very energetic puppy that wanted to play all the time! It was a really nice transition! I think the dog and I bonded, and it ended just following me around on the beach, to when we took it home. I also pulled a few nasty huge ticks off the dogs back, that I’m sure wasn’t all that pleasurable!

Right, before my departure to the friendly country of England I had the pleasure of seeing my cousins! Scott, Jenna and Matt came down to Dahab to predominantly do some diving but they also made some time to drop in and see me whilst I was at work! It was a bit tricky, as I couldn’t hang out with them all the time due to my work, but I did have an absolute ball with them.

Scott arrived first, as he wasn’t doing the trip around Egypt, on one of my days off where I was extremely hung over Scott took me diving off Blue Beach Hotel. I don’t mind snorkelling, but generally it gets pretty boring seeing the same fish, but where I went with Scott it was unbelievable, FISH EVERYWHERE! And big ones as well! I had a ball, Scott went down in a wetsuit whilst I went down in boardies, we lasted until about 2 hours, when I eventually got to cold and had to get out! It was fantastic, defiantly the best bit of snorkelling I have done in my life!

When I had the time, I was chatting to Matt and Jenna about their plans for the next journey of their trip, and it sounds fantastic, and they offered me to join them if my winter season job doesn’t work out. They are going to have an absolute ball, but it did make me think about our family Christmas, their will be no one there!!!

So the weeks went by, and the date for me to leave was very much creeping up on me, it wasn’t until the Sunday I was going to leave that I thought that I was really going to miss the place, but to be fair; I was more than ready to leave.

The windsurfing was more than amazing, tricks-wise I came over here just learning how to spock, but I came away with variations of spocks, flaka’s, grubbies and forwards, I was slightly upset that I didn’t get any switch, but I was definitely getting close to landing punetas. Alright, so that’s enough chat for all you guys that don’t windsurf.

I think you all may be Dahab’d out by now, so I’m going to talk a little about my plans as of the 10^th of November.

So at the moment, I have an interview with a luxurious snow company called Powder Bryne on Thursday, so I’m going to do some study tonight and tomorrow about that so I have the best possible chance to get a job with them. If the interview doesn’t go so well, then I’m kind of farked...

If things don’t go to plan, I might do a bit of travelling around Europe, or keep persisting with Winter Companies about jobs for the winter. If I’m desperate, I might just fly over to France or Switzerland and just be there to find some work! Who knows, I’ve never done this kind of thing before and it doesn’t really help that I’ve never seen the snow! But they don’t have to know that?

After the interview, it will be just a big catch up, ill probably find myself up in Leeds, hanging out with John Palmer and from there... Who knows? Maybe Ireland!

So on that note

I will end it here!

Good chat dudes and dudettes!

Steve xx

Wipe Out!!! Doing the super man!

Trying to teach an older lady how to beach start... she didnt get it after 3 days...

Another Crash!... taken by Cat Ridley.co.uk

Race Day!

Getting attacked by a camel!

The Lovely 22 Shots for my birthday!

Club Dahab!

Flaka!!!

Col and Me!

The photo that was used in BOARDS mag, taken by Danielle from GetWindsurfing.com

Keeping Things Real!

I Love this photo! Thanks Phil! one handed flaka!

The Team Photo! 

Biggest flag on the beach!

Palmer and I hanging!

Palmer's bike, taking it for a razz into the desert!

Sat Night Party... Theme Melon!

My birthday dinner!

the 22 shots lined up!

Happy Birthday Mum!

Marco's Birthday and Hi Pants Crew!

Sat Night party... Theme Olympics?

My Cousins! Jenna, Me, Scott and Matt!

Thursday Night Is... Bedouin Night! The Cone (Luke), Me, Mutley and Geeza!

Me and Mutley!

  

Trying to back flip off a boat... didnt end well!

Thanks again guys!

Chat soon! xx

RAMADAN!!!! \m/

 22/9/10

 1837 (local time)

Right, so its been a bloody long time since I did one of these, so I had a bit of a sit down and chat with myself and thought it was about time that I wrote out about my life...

Shall we start off with Ramadan! Yes, that’s right I did a day of Ramadan, what is Ramadan I hear you ask, well it’s a Muslim celebration, where you fast for 1 month. During this period nothing, can pass your lips. So that means No Water and No Food! And when your working in an environment that involves spending stupidly long hours in the burning hot sun sweating and dehydrating all you really want is some water. 

I was encouraged to give it a try by one of the Egyptian fellas that works on the beach with us called Ahmed. So on Wednesday, (the second last day of Ramadan) he set a date to give it a shot.

It all really began on Tuesday after work, I headed to the local shop and bought some bread rolls, bickies, Nutella and some orange juice, the reason for this, is that I was going to wake up at 2.55am on Wednesday morning, to scoff myself with food for the rest of the day.

My alarm sounded at 2.55am, and I was actually quite excited, I had my food, took a quick poo, and went back to sleep and prepared myself for a day in stupidly hot sun without water and food.

My lesson went well; I had planned it well, so all I really did in my lesson was do an hour of teaching and 1 hour video session (aka minimal chasing/teaching).

After my lesson finished I was up for a free sail, so I rigged my 4.7 and put on my boardies and rashie, and didn’t really go for any tricks, instead I just was so content just blasting up and back.

Once my free sail finished I was put into the boat for an hour, I honestly thought this was going to be the toughest, but infact I just kinda hid in the boat out of the sun, and as long as my rash vest was wet and I felt cool, it wasn’t too bad, the boat duty went quite fast, but I now had to encounter my last obstacle ‘the TOWER’. Normally I don’t mind doing the tower at all, but it was now 1530 and I was absolutely knackered, I was hungry and tired, now for the people that know me well, know that this is a deadly combination... they get “Grumpy Steve”.

The seconds ticked by until I got told over the radio by Palmer that I could eventually come down from the tower...

... The last 30 minutes were the most exciting, and even though I was basically dead and just unable to do anything, it was great fun just getting all the food prepared, Ahmed one of the Egyptian boys had organised some lovely Egyptian food, with dips and chicken and salad and beautiful bread! The boys had told me that we eat and drink around 6pm, but it actually isn’t off time, you must wait till the sun is down and you hear the call to prayer where ‘the guy’ sings “Allah” 3 times quite loudly! This is when you make a wish/say a prayer and then CONSUME!

I started off with almost downing a complete litre full of mango juice, I stopped because Ahmed said that he has made the same mistake before and you end up totally filling yourself up on juice. But, that first taste of the mango juice on your lips was amazing! Then we all just tuck in and got fully involved in the chicken, salad, dips, bread the lot! It was unbelievable.

All in all, I think I will do Ramadan again, the things that are stopping me are that you have to pretty much write yourself off for that day, as you can’t function 100%.

In other news... we have had a complete changeover of staff, out with the old and in with the  new! Over the past 2 weeks we have lost John Yeomans and John Palmer, and to replace them we have Luke Bailey and Colin ‘Whippy’ Dixson.

The bloke that I got along with the most was John Palmer the centre manager, but hopefully we will catch up over in the U.K so I can hang out with his family. He has actually invited me to Christmas with his family if I have no where to go!

On that topic, I have just realised last week (13/9) that I’m pretty much unable to work out anywhere in the European Union, which means unless we do it on the down low, I wont be working a winter season, so who knows what ill be doing.

But having a think about it, I am over in England which is close to everything, so I could do a bit of travelling through Netherlands, Germany or even France, Italy... but the downside to this, is that ill probably be spending a bit of money, and wasting my UK working Visa.

My other option is to be a nanny, or even find a school where they want my services as a after school guy again? Which would be awesome!

Anyway, so that pretty much brings me up to date now... For all my parents and grandparents, you will be glad to know that I’ve been on a bit of detox this week, now I wasn’t going to go all out, but I have been somewhat ‘limiting’ myself as of late, and to be honest I’m feeling good! My day off wasn’t a complete waste of a day being hung over! So I’m pretty impressed with myself.

Alright then, thats almost it!

So until next time!

Take care my lovely’s!

BYEEE

PS: I threw in some photos of the past couple of months! Hope you enjoy!

xx

Launching the wrong flag!!

Biggest flag in Dahab!

Col (the cheif) and myself!

During one of the hour long speeches!

Forward flipping off the boat... didnt end well!

The Most Retarded Week Ever...

31/7/10

1246 (local time)

Well I’ve had a pretty average week, but to be fair most of it is just plain and simple my own fault, shall I start it off with Monday...

Actually not really too sure why I started this story off with Monday because, Monday was just any normal day... APART FROM, corrupting my 500gb hard drive and losing all my data. Everything from photo’s to movies were lost, pretty upsetting, but the importing stuff was backed up so it wasn’t too horrendous. I think the best idea to start off with Tuesday because that’s where the real action happened. So Tuesday started off with my doing my intermediate lesson in the morning, everything was going swell, until out of no where, one of the guys from my group full power catapulted onto my back! I had no idea what happened, I was ready to give the person that did it a blasting, but when I realised it was a guy from my group, I had to play it all down “alright guys, that’s why we need to spread out” My shoulder was alright just a bit of bruising.

Anyway, after the day had finished, I went to kick start John Palmers motorbike and as I did I had a fatal blow out. The actual plug stayed attached to my thong but the rest just ripped off, I wasn’t impressed. But, due to my handy craft work, I have been able to repair them using other thongs that I found in the house! Happy Days!

Wednesday ticked over and apart from a sore shoulder I was alright, I was super happy as it was finally windy again (it hasn’t been windy for at least 4-5 days). So once again I took my group out in the morning, and did a video session, once that I was over I was demonstrating carve gybes until I catapulted at the exit at one, and aimed straight for the mast. On impact I remember seeing stars, but my left ear felt as if water was rushing in, so I instantly checked to see if I had blown it by attempting to equalize it, as I did I just blew air out of it. When I opened my eyes it felt as if I had been on the beers all day, I felt completely drunk, everything was spinning and I felt sick. I wanted to sail back to my group to let them know what happened, but I was unable to get onto my board, so I just gripped onto my board and waited for a boat to come and rescue me.

I was brought to sure, and sent straight to the Ear doctor that was just up the road to get checked out, my fears were correct and I had in fact had a small puncture in my ear drum at about 6 and 7 o’clock. So this means no water sports for the next two weeks... Great!

Thursday went on, and it was my day off, it was fine but trying to understand people was extremely difficult as I can’t hear out of my left hand side, this is manageable in a small group of people, but in a group I have no idea what anyone is saying.

Friday came along and I was taking all my meds and starting to feel decent, until I decided to jump off the watch tower bare feet for a movie scene! It didn’t really go to plan, because when I landed, I only then realised that the sand was as hard as concrete and I have now badly bruised my feet and it makes it bloody difficult to walk... I’m such an idiot!

Anyway, Saturday now, and im talking it very easy with ice packs on my feet! Lucky there is no wind for the boys!

Hopefully will be better by Sunday! So till then!

Take care and all the best to the guys that are competing in EL Tur and the PWA!

Cheers Steve

My Winter Season Cover Letter!

Right, before you read the following, i have been applying for Ski jobs, and this is one of the letters i sent to TUI about applying for a Ski Repping Job! Check it out, What Do Ya Think?

As I was browsing the new winter season ski offers, I have always been interested in becoming a ski rep, and seeing one being advertised on the TUI website brought my dreams to reality. After reading about what it entails to become a Ski Rep, I realised that this is the job for me. In the first paragraph it asks for someone with ‘bags’ of energy, if you rang any of my previous bosses they would tell you that I fit this category, I have been know as the young and more attractive Steve Irwin.

Because of my previous jobs in retail, I have become somewhat of a master, I have been so efficient in retail that I have been able to sell snow to the Eskimo’s or oil to the Saudi Arabians.

With my current job as a Club Vass windsurf instructor, I am always required to speak in front of large groups of people, in fact on party night we are required to say a few words and hand out a prize at the end of the week, and often after my ramblings I normally have the guests in tears (of pain, rather than laughter). Also, I might add that in Year 7 I won my grades public speaking competition in which to this day I’m still impressed about.

Travelling and living away from home is my middle name, no in fact its Richard, but I do believe the best way to learn skills and to meet new people, is to do it whilst overseas.

I am very interested in this position, and hopefully you will be interested in meeting me after this letter. Looking forward to hearing back from you soon.

Thanks Steve.

Steve-O's 22nd Birthday!

18/7/2010

1350 (local time)

Wow, what a massive night... So its now 1.50pm and I reckon I have just finally recovered from my horrendous hangover... Why was this hangover worse than any others I hear you ask, well last night it was a party celebrating my birthday! That’s right, the gifted individual known to the world as Steve Flack has not only just aged another year but has also become more wiser not to mention more agile! I am now 22.

As some of you may already know, I have been not my usual self the past couple of weeks, I think due to being slightly home sick. But this past week has revived my spirits and if it wasn’t for my steaming hangover I would feel on top of the world right now! Anyway, the week started well, but I was only just counting down the days for Saturday.

It finally arrived, and I was pumped! The plan was set, going to a lovely Italian Restaurant called El Darados a lovely group of people were there, I think there was about 25 of us! Because if the big number of people the orders the kitchen got pumped and it took ages for the food to come out! Which means that we all had alot of time to drink booze with no food in our stomach, which only leads to one thing... Anyway, the food started coming out I had a marvellous meal, and then finished off an absolutely amazing tiramisu, that tasted like it came from the gates of heaven.

So at 9 o’clock a group of us headed back in the taxi back to the centre where the night began! It wasn’t long before I was getting beers poured down my throat and I was well on my way to not really remembering the night. John Palmer added a couple of nice features to the DVD for my birthday that I remember finding very amusing! I remember having to do my speech, and give away my prize to the most improved student in my group this week, and as normal rambled on for what probably was half an hour. After all the speeches were over, I was shown my next challenge! Downing 22 shots... Now, they weren’t all the same thing it was a random mixture that would have sent anyone home at 11pm with alcohol poisoning, but not for the birthday boy! He powered on through, he sent all of them, the shots were vodka, rum, beer, gin, sprite etc etc... There was a rumour that he did throw up ‘a little’ during his 22 shots, but this is only a rumour and was never confirmed.

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur, I don’t really remember all that much! But I’m in the midst of tracking down some photos which will show some clear hard evidence of what happened that night!

So until then! An older Steve Flack SIGNS OUT!

Lots of kisses and hugs!

Steve

 NOTE: Just quick one to add, i would just like to point out that Sam Ross (visit his website at  

http://www.sam-ross.co.uk) came down to celebrate my birthday even though he had to muscle his way out of celebrating his 2 year annieversary with his lovely girlfriend Chloe. Thanks Guys!

 

A Camel came down to the centre to wish me a happy birthday, i was scared!

During the speechs for the groups!

The row of 22 shots the boys made me drink... as you can see from my facial expression, i was suffering!

I was on the last 5, but i needed some motivation. The boys were there to help!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! MY CAKE HAD ARRIVED! All i remember is it being quite nice!

 THATS IT FOR ME THIS TIME GUYS! 

KEEP TUNED FOR THE NEXT BLOG!!!

The Club Dahab Team!!!

23/6/10

1610 (local time)

Another time, another story... But this isn’t so much a story, just about the fantastic guys I work with. As for me, I’ve been having an awesome time, even though the wind hasn’t been great for a couple of weeks, I have still managed to learn to wakeboard and land my first jump, go Ringo-ing (hanging onto a tube whilst you are pulled behind a boat at top speed), learn to flaka and almost land a forward loop on a 7.3 sail and a 102 slalom board!!!

So yeah, I still reckon this isn’t a job... Anyway, enough about me this is more about the team. On the beach we have 4 English Staff (including myself) and 3 Egyptian Staff... Ill firstly start off with the poms.

The Poms we have working for us are John Palmer (centre manager), John Yeomans and Sally Lambert. The great thing is that, all these guys are from different parts of Britain. John Palmer grew up in the north of England in a place called Leeds, Sally is from London and John Yeomans is from the Isle of Skye in Scotland.

Anyway, not only do we have the British working for us, but we have 3 Egyptian fellas that are here to pull us out of any Egyptian mess we manage to get ourselves into. The Egyptian boys are Nasser who is the Beach Legend, he’s worked here since it all began. Then the next member is Ahmed, I may as well mention Salo as well, seeing as they are always together! I swear to god (allah) these fellas are the cheekiest bloody Egyptians ever. They are always up to something, a good example of this is; Ahmed bought some orange juice for the two of them to share throughout the day, well Salo got into the fridge and drank the whole thing, and instead of just throwing it out he filled it with Egyptian tap water that is as good as sea water... So when Ahmed came in after a massive windsurf and wanted to drink some nice cold orange juice instead he got the taste of warm salty water! Ahmed wasn’t impressed!

Righteo, now ill chat about the English/Scottish guys and girls, Ill start with the Centre Manager John Palmer, John grew up in Leeds which is North England but unfortunately doesn’t have all that much of a Northern accent, with or without a strong accent none of the guys really understand what comes out of my mouth anyway... pretty standard as its the same back at home.

John has done a fair share of seasons, so he knows the ins and outs of how to run a centre, I get along quite well with Palmer as we share our days off on Thursday’s together, normally its quite windy (saying that right now has just jinxed it for months) so we get up kinda late, and then hit the water to do a bit of filming and have a bit of fun, after that we are completely knackered we come in a have a bit of lunch, head home play a bit of Mario Cart and then watch a couple of movies and relax. Sometimes Thursday nights we head out to the pub with the boys for ‘Lad Night’ normally finishes quite late, and I end up being quite tired the next day! What’s quite good is that we motivate each other... Especially when it comes to drinking. Lets just say that I have spent all of last night drinking and I’m feeling horrible the next day, Palmer will be there, to motivate me to get on the drink again! Even though we motivate one another, but we also do look after each other, but when looking after each other becomes too hard, like last night 24/7 where it was 3am, and I was going home I let Palmer know this but he insisted that he wanted to keep partying... That was the last time I saw him until I got to work in the morning and realised that Palmer spent the night sleeping in the office! Good form from the Centre Manager I reckon! Anyway, we shall move on!

Sally, the only female on the team, but she gets treated like a bloke(not by Yeomans though) anyway! Absolute legend, you generally know she is because of her marvellous machine gun laughter! Sally or Salamander as she often gets called, has worked here since the start of the season, but unfortunately had to head home during the middle of the season for about a month as she became quite sick and had to head back home to London to sort herself out! But she back! Full power! Last Saturday, for example whilst we were doing a bit of a song and dance routine, she ended up falling off the back of her chair whilst mid performance, absolutely hilarious for us and Sal, but as you can imagine, the crowd were stunned!

Then there is the almighty John Yeomans... John hails from Scotland he is normally found throwing big logs around, fixing boats, motor bikes, playing the guitar and windsurfing... and when he’s not doing that he is cuddling up to Sally and most probably patting her like a horse.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it too be fair! I hope you had an enjoyable read! No joke, this blog took me about 1 month to write, so be bloody grateful!

Thanks again!

Steve xx

The Team, John Y, Sally, Palmer

Me rocking out as Angus Young, Note: The Vest made out of wetsuit material

Germany in the World Cup!

Pre Drinks at the house, playing Ring of Fire!

Germany in the world cup! Palmer and EFPT Ollie!

Salo up to something, and me in the background watching :)

Jo, Steve and Salo!

Sally, doing something...

John Yeomans... Passed out in a club!

John Yeomans doing something Managerial!

Palmer is just doing his saftey checks... Clearly in the photo he is making sure that the corners of the board are safe!

John Yeomans doing the double handed folder lift!

The Team spots a rescue!

Palmer double checks...

He races to the boat!

He jumps in the boat and races to the rescue!

Everything is sorted! and the beach is restored!