Progress Report 9 - w/c 20.04.09
been another hectic period since my last proper update from the western cape all the way back in january!! do you remember those long, cold and dark nights? it is hard when it is 17 degrees outside with blue skies and the sun shining until late into the evening, thank goodness for our seasons!!
so what has been happening? well, small steps are being made; the mechanic course is progressing well, have taken a few tests, passed some, don't know about others - will find out tomorrow, but i think the next few months are going to be a little intense as we have a lot of written and practical tests to do. the course finishes in the first week of july, so only 11 weeks to go. it is a great course and i am even considering carrying onto the next level, but time is the issue.
my mechanic training is going to come into it's own now that i have purchased another ktm, a 400exc. yep i've done it! it is my first enduro competition bike, i am so excited! i drove to wayne mounter motorcycles in pontypridd, south wales, on saturday. i was fortunate to meet wayne, the owner, who showed me the second hand bike, which although looking well used, it was in tidy condition and sounded great. he also told me his name was 'fast wayne', who 'smoked' john from brackens while test riding the rc8 in spain earlier this year! the world of bikes and in particular ktm, is a small one. well john, if you ever read this, i did come over to your shop two weeks ago to talk about buying a bike, but you don't stock seconds anymore, still you know i'll pick up and rc8 from you one day! in fact it was paul from bracknes who recommended the 400exc, he reckoned i'd end up in hospital if i went ahead with a 300exc! i took his advice.
loading the bike onto the pickup i returned to the cottage and just stood there for a while looking at it, then i took some photos, sad i know!!
and then on sunday, i took the bike for a little spin around the sleepy village, found a few tracks to muddy the tyres, it was so easy, you just wanted to open her up and fly! i just have to be patient, i have a race next weekend where i can test out man and machine and see which one i break first, hahaha!
and yes, i have just registered with the amca, the cotswold enduro club and my first enduro competition at manor farm in long compton on april 26th which is on sunday. again this was thanks to brackens, andy, who seems to be running things over there now, while john, as fast wayne put it 'is trying to become a welshman', said he was competing with the cec. he rides a 400exc too, but will be test riding a husky 400 on the day - i must let him know i will be there, and ask him for some support!! it is a 4 mile course in the northern cotswolds, that i will go round as many times as i can in 2.5hrs. i wonder if there is some irony in the competition title 'slow pete', i'll soon find out!?!
i have had a lot of encouragement from family and friends over the past few months. in fact my uncle earl and his mate are coming up next weekend to provide some moral and team support - dog walking, fuel filling, drinks and spare drivers (to get home) if i damage myself. it is only my first race, and i am incredibly excited about it, but it feels like this could make or break the dream of racing in the dakar, it is quite a pressure. so i just have to keep reminding myself to enjoy the races one race at a time, embrace the here and now and not worry about the future, too much! more anon.
life at home is good in that the flat decoration is pretty much finished, well apart from the last bit of floor varnishing and the hall/stair carpet needs laying - need to source suitable underfloor heating too - and....in all seriousness, i now have a home in town that i can look forward to going to at the end of each day which makes a world of difference. the work started in september!
and saving the biggest bit of news until last, some of you already know, but for the record, i am leaving moving brands on april 30th. ben wrote a very supportive email to the company which i am very proud to share with you....
...Toby's email is without doubt the biggest news we have had to announce as a company. Typically he has written a very understated email which i would like to follow with some colour.
This is an emotional email to write; Toby is my cousin, my friend and a partner in Moving Brands, he is also a huge source of strength for me - i think i have spent more time with him then anyone else.
i have spoken to Toby about my feelings and the huge contribution he has made, what i wanted to do was write to you all so that you might understand the role he has played a little better as we wish him the best in his next chapter.
Firstly, once he mentioned he was thinking of applying his operational experience in another industry we began working towards this move, early conversations were over a year ago now and there has been a ton of work to get through in the meantime, work which toby has driven and which many of you may not be familiar with;
As a business we have moved successfully to a model which Toby was instrumental in authoring - the 'Strategy, Identity, Expression' offer which has not only stabilised our business coming into this harsh recession - but meant we are fighting fit, agile and diverse, in fact able to move forward when most are going backwards. The business has stayed true to our 5 year business plan which Toby put together along with leadership inputs. A document that is steering us through. Aside from being a shareholder and director covering all companies house responsibilities, Toby has been ensuring all our operational and professional needs are met; legal; IP and contracts, accounting, banking and loan facilities, leasing facilities, renting, employment... (many of which have increasingly been handled by Geoff as MD over the past months) ...to take legal as one example, Geoff and Toby have had to navigate through 5 frame agreements with global tec companies in the past 3 months....ontop of this from a people and infrastructure point of view in the past year Geoff has become MD, Zaid has become FC, John Toppin has been acting Financial Director, we have renegotiated our bank position (with HBOS - no mean feat in this market i can assure you) ... and throughout Toby has been helping me keep our 'global' plans alive so we continue to function as a 'global' offer and structure our needs going forward in Apac, EU and US ... well there are many, many more tasks which i need not mention. Suffice to say this recession coupled with the challenging times we had already been through have demanded a disproportionate amount of management time and the need for properly tough decision making ....i have learnt a great deal from Toby over all the years working together but never more intensely than over the past 18-24 months and i will be carrying that learning with me every day as we go forward.
i hope this throws light on some of the immense tasks Toby has undertaken recently, and many of them off his own back - unfortunately these are thankless tasks which is a harsh reality of the role he has played. i know he takes a lot of strength from what we have achieved as a group of people but think for a minute when has he been acknowledged for his role and hard work? Toby we all owe you a huge debt of gratitude - i most of all, thank you. I hope you will all take some time to talk to him over the coming weeks and understand better the journey he has been on and his plans going forward.
Overall i would say Toby has always 'made it happen' - i can't remember one action or agreement that we have made that he hasn't delivered on; right from day one, our first project - when he came on as a producer to make a television series for NTL - a two hours a week programme - 8 cameras, 23 crew, he produced 28 hours of television from a standing start (well teaching karate and running a hotel!) and we went from there to become Moving Brands. He always said that his intention was to make things work; keep Jim, Guy and i together and make a success our our combined agenda - he has certainly done that, and in a selfless manner. I am pleased that he is going on to lead a business that can further utilise him - they don't know how fortunate they are.
There is much more to say over the coming weeks but i have written enough here for now. On the positive, this news provides us a lovely opportunity to mark Toby's time and our achievements as a group over the past 10+ years, and so as Toby mentioned we will be having a very special get-together at the end of April (wed 29th is most likely, please earmark).
From the start Toby has bound Jim, Guy and I together and shoved us forward, gathering more of us as we went - i will miss him a great deal as i'm sure we all will.
Ben
so what has been happening? well, small steps are being made; the mechanic course is progressing well, have taken a few tests, passed some, don't know about others - will find out tomorrow, but i think the next few months are going to be a little intense as we have a lot of written and practical tests to do. the course finishes in the first week of july, so only 11 weeks to go. it is a great course and i am even considering carrying onto the next level, but time is the issue.
my mechanic training is going to come into it's own now that i have purchased another ktm, a 400exc. yep i've done it! it is my first enduro competition bike, i am so excited! i drove to wayne mounter motorcycles in pontypridd, south wales, on saturday. i was fortunate to meet wayne, the owner, who showed me the second hand bike, which although looking well used, it was in tidy condition and sounded great. he also told me his name was 'fast wayne', who 'smoked' john from brackens while test riding the rc8 in spain earlier this year! the world of bikes and in particular ktm, is a small one. well john, if you ever read this, i did come over to your shop two weeks ago to talk about buying a bike, but you don't stock seconds anymore, still you know i'll pick up and rc8 from you one day! in fact it was paul from bracknes who recommended the 400exc, he reckoned i'd end up in hospital if i went ahead with a 300exc! i took his advice.
loading the bike onto the pickup i returned to the cottage and just stood there for a while looking at it, then i took some photos, sad i know!!
and then on sunday, i took the bike for a little spin around the sleepy village, found a few tracks to muddy the tyres, it was so easy, you just wanted to open her up and fly! i just have to be patient, i have a race next weekend where i can test out man and machine and see which one i break first, hahaha!
and yes, i have just registered with the amca, the cotswold enduro club and my first enduro competition at manor farm in long compton on april 26th which is on sunday. again this was thanks to brackens, andy, who seems to be running things over there now, while john, as fast wayne put it 'is trying to become a welshman', said he was competing with the cec. he rides a 400exc too, but will be test riding a husky 400 on the day - i must let him know i will be there, and ask him for some support!! it is a 4 mile course in the northern cotswolds, that i will go round as many times as i can in 2.5hrs. i wonder if there is some irony in the competition title 'slow pete', i'll soon find out!?!
i have had a lot of encouragement from family and friends over the past few months. in fact my uncle earl and his mate are coming up next weekend to provide some moral and team support - dog walking, fuel filling, drinks and spare drivers (to get home) if i damage myself. it is only my first race, and i am incredibly excited about it, but it feels like this could make or break the dream of racing in the dakar, it is quite a pressure. so i just have to keep reminding myself to enjoy the races one race at a time, embrace the here and now and not worry about the future, too much! more anon.
life at home is good in that the flat decoration is pretty much finished, well apart from the last bit of floor varnishing and the hall/stair carpet needs laying - need to source suitable underfloor heating too - and....in all seriousness, i now have a home in town that i can look forward to going to at the end of each day which makes a world of difference. the work started in september!
and saving the biggest bit of news until last, some of you already know, but for the record, i am leaving moving brands on april 30th. ben wrote a very supportive email to the company which i am very proud to share with you....
...Toby's email is without doubt the biggest news we have had to announce as a company. Typically he has written a very understated email which i would like to follow with some colour.
This is an emotional email to write; Toby is my cousin, my friend and a partner in Moving Brands, he is also a huge source of strength for me - i think i have spent more time with him then anyone else.
i have spoken to Toby about my feelings and the huge contribution he has made, what i wanted to do was write to you all so that you might understand the role he has played a little better as we wish him the best in his next chapter.
Firstly, once he mentioned he was thinking of applying his operational experience in another industry we began working towards this move, early conversations were over a year ago now and there has been a ton of work to get through in the meantime, work which toby has driven and which many of you may not be familiar with;
As a business we have moved successfully to a model which Toby was instrumental in authoring - the 'Strategy, Identity, Expression' offer which has not only stabilised our business coming into this harsh recession - but meant we are fighting fit, agile and diverse, in fact able to move forward when most are going backwards. The business has stayed true to our 5 year business plan which Toby put together along with leadership inputs. A document that is steering us through. Aside from being a shareholder and director covering all companies house responsibilities, Toby has been ensuring all our operational and professional needs are met; legal; IP and contracts, accounting, banking and loan facilities, leasing facilities, renting, employment... (many of which have increasingly been handled by Geoff as MD over the past months) ...to take legal as one example, Geoff and Toby have had to navigate through 5 frame agreements with global tec companies in the past 3 months....ontop of this from a people and infrastructure point of view in the past year Geoff has become MD, Zaid has become FC, John Toppin has been acting Financial Director, we have renegotiated our bank position (with HBOS - no mean feat in this market i can assure you) ... and throughout Toby has been helping me keep our 'global' plans alive so we continue to function as a 'global' offer and structure our needs going forward in Apac, EU and US ... well there are many, many more tasks which i need not mention. Suffice to say this recession coupled with the challenging times we had already been through have demanded a disproportionate amount of management time and the need for properly tough decision making ....i have learnt a great deal from Toby over all the years working together but never more intensely than over the past 18-24 months and i will be carrying that learning with me every day as we go forward.
i hope this throws light on some of the immense tasks Toby has undertaken recently, and many of them off his own back - unfortunately these are thankless tasks which is a harsh reality of the role he has played. i know he takes a lot of strength from what we have achieved as a group of people but think for a minute when has he been acknowledged for his role and hard work? Toby we all owe you a huge debt of gratitude - i most of all, thank you. I hope you will all take some time to talk to him over the coming weeks and understand better the journey he has been on and his plans going forward.
Overall i would say Toby has always 'made it happen' - i can't remember one action or agreement that we have made that he hasn't delivered on; right from day one, our first project - when he came on as a producer to make a television series for NTL - a two hours a week programme - 8 cameras, 23 crew, he produced 28 hours of television from a standing start (well teaching karate and running a hotel!) and we went from there to become Moving Brands. He always said that his intention was to make things work; keep Jim, Guy and i together and make a success our our combined agenda - he has certainly done that, and in a selfless manner. I am pleased that he is going on to lead a business that can further utilise him - they don't know how fortunate they are.
There is much more to say over the coming weeks but i have written enough here for now. On the positive, this news provides us a lovely opportunity to mark Toby's time and our achievements as a group over the past 10+ years, and so as Toby mentioned we will be having a very special get-together at the end of April (wed 29th is most likely, please earmark).
From the start Toby has bound Jim, Guy and I together and shoved us forward, gathering more of us as we went - i will miss him a great deal as i'm sure we all will.
Ben
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