Apologies, No internet/Moving back to Uni

Keeping this quick as I am just popping by the uni computer room, I moved into my apartment yesterday and have no internet until 29th which is shitty, I only live a minutes walk from here so I guess I could drop by, however I have shit to sort out and things to buy for my new place before uni starts so may not be able to get on for exciting things.

Anyhow I do love you all and appreciate the followers, I  will be sure to have some action-packed entries over freshers week from the antics but until then I must leave you with some love and hugs x x

Back soon folks, if you get bored check out my YouTube channel! :)

http://www.youtube.com/user/ChuckieOMGChuckie?feature=mhee

God Speed.

A "Get Well Soon" to Reggie Campbell!

First off I must apologize,  have not been on a computer since my post on Sunday as I left my laptop over my nans and have been over my mums and out and about, however I haven't had all that much to write about.

Today I finally booted up the old desktop here to try and get back into the techno-loop and catch up with current events,

Popped onto Facebook as you do and scrolled down the "news feed" and saw a lot of posts on a lad I went to school with's wall, he was more friends with my brother but he was a decent chap, posts like "Thinking of you", "Hope you are O.K"...This enticed me to click on his profile and have a ganders,

Reggie has been a military lad all his life (from my memory anyway), living on the barracks and then joining up when he left school, so my instant thought was "shit something has happened to Reg' I scrolled down all the posts until I spotted one from his dad, here's what it read.

Reggie Campbell
"All the Family would like to thank everyone for their kind messages, texts and emails for our Son Reggie who was shot and wounded this morning in Afghanistan.
On the bright side we have been informed he is currently eating a Tuna Sandwich and will be ok! any updates we get we will keep you informed many thanks!
Please remember to support all our Soldiers from his Dad love you Son xo"

People don't realize how dangerous it is out there for our army lads and when something like this happens it drowns you in a realization that these men are literally putting their lives on the line for our well-being, I do not know where he was shot, or how badly he was hurt but a war wound is a war wound, all I do know is that Reggie is a fighter and is on his road to recovery, chicks dig war wounds? eh?

Below are a few pictures of Reggie,

(left)

(right)

I guess the main reason for this little post is to encourage those who are not from a military background or aware of the on goings in afghan and the likes to maybe give a little thought and say a little prayer and show some support for those who are out there fighting for us, those we have lost and those who have been injured along the way.

Thoughts and prayers go to Reggie on his road to recovery and to all our soldiers out there,

Keep Safe!

World Rowing Championships : Bled 2011

If you are not aware already my brother Charles is an athlete and rows professionally for Team Great Britain, however this post is not specifically about him I thought I would drop his name in for good measure,

This week the World  Rowing Championships were held in Bled, northwestern Slovenia. Bled is most famous for it's breathtaking, picturesque surroundings and the magnificent glacial Lake Bled. The lake is 2,120 m long and 1,380 m wide, with a maximum depth of 30.6 metres, I've included some pictures, it really is a beautiful place.

Bled attracts people from all parts of the world, regardless of age or profession (business, arts, science, sports, recreation). Its unique beauty and charm always makes visitors want to return. If you do happen to go to Bled be sure to check out the old castle, museum, art galleries and be sure to take photos!

So that's the location covered, now to get to the Rowing!

Team GB headed out on the 24th (I think) in preperation for the races which started 28th Aug and finished today (4th Sep).

I copied the crew lists off the GB Rowing site, below is the 68 Rowers sent in to represent us in the Championships. (Including links to profiles for athletes/coaches - Check them out!)

GB ROWING TEAM CREW-LISTS
2011 World Rowing Championships, sponsored by Samsung
August 28 - September 4, 2011
(listed bow to stroke plus cox)

OPEN - WOMEN

Pair

Helen Glover (Minerva Bath/Penzance/17.06.86)/
Heather Stanning (Army RC/Lossiemouth/26.01.85)

Coach: Robin Williams

Eight

Alison Knowles (Thames RC/Bournemouth/27.03.82)/
Jo Cook (Leander Club/Sunbury-on-Thames/22.03.84)/
Jessica Eddie (Univ of London BC/Durham/07.10.84)/
Lindsey Maguire (Wallingford RC/Edinburgh/15.01.82)/
Natasha Page (Gloucester RC/Hartpury/30.04.85)/
Louisa Reeve (Leander Club/London/16.05.84)/
Katie Solesbury (Leander Club/Oxford/02.09.82)/
Victoria Thornley (Leander Club/Wrexham/30.11.87)/
Caroline O'Connor (cox) (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Ealing, London/25.04.83)

Coach: Nick Strange

Single scull

Frances Houghton (Leander/Oxford/19.09.80)

Coach: TBC

Double scull

Anna Watkins (Leander Club/Leek, Staffs/13.02.83)/
Katherine Grainger (St. Andrew BC/Aberdeen/12.11.75)

Coach: Paul Thompson

Quadruple scull

Debbie Flood (Leander Club/Guiseley/27.02.80)/
Beth Rodford (Gloucester RC/Gloucester/28.02.82)/
Annabel Vernon (Leander Club/Wadebridge/01.09.82)/
Melanie Wilson (Imperial College BC/London/25.06.84)/

Coach: Ade Roberts

RESERVES

Ro Bradbury (Leander/Banstead, Surrey/17.12.88)
Emily Taylor (Leander/Lincoln/28.06.87)

OPEN - MEN

Pair

Pete Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth, Glos/27.07.81)/
Andrew Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC/Hebden, N. Yorks/03.03.79)

Coach: Jürgen Grobler

Four

Matthew Langridge (Leander Club /Northwich/20.05.83)/
Richard Egington (Leander Club/Knutsford/26.02.79)/
Tom James (Molesey BC/Wrexham/11.03.84)/
Alex Gregory (Leander Club /Wormington, Glos/11.03.84)

Coach: John West

Eight

Nathaniel Reilly O'Donnell (Univ of London BC/Durham/13.04.88)/
Cameron Nichol (Molesey BC/Glastonbury/26.06.87)/
James Foad (Molesey BC/Southampton/20.03.87)/
Alex Partridge (Leander Club /Alton, Hants/25.01.81)/
Mohamed Sbihi (Molesey BC/Surbiton/27.03.88)/
Greg Searle (Molesey BC/Marlow/20.03.72)/
Tom Ransley (York City RC/Cambridge/06.09.85)/
Daniel Ritchie (Leander Club/Herne Bay/06.01.87)/
Phelan Hill (cox) (Leander Club/Bedford/21.07.79)

Coach: Christian Felkel

Single scull

Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers/Coleraine/09.05.83)

Coach: Bill Barry

Double scull

Matthew Wells (Leander Club/Hexham, Northumberland/19.04.79)/
Marcus Bateman (Leander Club/Torquay/16.09.82)

Coach: Mark Earnshaw

Quadruple scull

Tom Solesbury (Leander Club/Petts Wood, Kent/23.09.80)/
Stephen Rowbotham (Leander Club/Winscombe, Somerset/11.11.81)/
Bill Lucas (London RC/Kingswear/13.09.87)/
Sam Townsend (Reading Univ BC/Reading/26.11.85)

Coach: Mark Banks

RESERVES

Tom Broadway (Leander Club/Newport Pagnell/21.08.82)
Constantine Louloudis (Isis BC/London/15.09.91)/
George Nash (Cambridge Uni BC/Guildford/02.10.89)


LIGHTWEIGHT - WOMEN

Single scull

Katherine Copeland (Tees RC/Ingelby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees/01.12.90)

Coach: James Harris

Double scull

Hester Goodsell (Imperial College BC/London/27.06.84)/
Sophie Hosking (London RC/Wimbledon/25.01.86)

Coach: Paul Reedy

Quadruple scull

Steph Cullen (London RC/Bury, Lancs/27.11.80)/
Imogen Walsh (London RC/Inverness/17.01.84)/
Kathryn Twyman (OUWBC/Edmonton, Canada/29.03.87)/
Andrea Dennis (Imperial College BC/Oxford/03.01.82)/

Coach: Ben Reed

LIGHTWEIGHT - MEN

Pair

Peter Chambers (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Coleraine/14.03.90)/
Kieren Emery (Leander Club/Newcastle-upon-Tyne/01.06.1990)

Coach: Peter Sheppard   

Four

Richard Chambers (Leander Club /Coleraine/10.06.85)/
Chris Bartley (Leander/Wrexham/02.02.84)/
Paul Mattick (Leander Club /Frome, Somerset/25.04.78)/
Rob Williams (London RC/Maidenhead/21.01.85)/

Coach: Rob Morgan

Single scull

Adam Freeman-Pask (Imperial College BC/Windsor/19.06.85)

Coach: Darren Whiter

Double scull
Zac Purchase (Marlow RC/Tewkesbury/02.05.86)/
Mark Hunter  (Leander Club /Romford, Essex/01.07.78)

Coach: Darren Whiter

ADAPTIVES - MEN

Arms & shoulders single scull (ASM1x)

Tom Aggar (Royal Docks RC/London/24.05.84)

Coach: Tom Dyson

Trunk & arms mixed double scull (TAMix2x)

Nick Beighton (Guildford RC/Yateley/29.09.81)/
Sam Scowen (Dorney BC/Wokingham/29.10.87)

Coach: Tom Dyson

Legs, trunk & arms mixed coxed four (LTAMix4+)

Pamela Relph (Birmingham Uni BC/Aylesbury/14.11.89)/
Naomi Riches (Marlow RC/Harrow/15.06.83)/
James Roe (Stratford upon Avon BC/ Stratford upon Avon/28.03.88)/
David Smith (Reading Uni BC/Dunfermline/21.04.78)/
Lily van den Broecke (cox) (Headington School BC/Oxford/08.01.92)Coach: Mary McLachlan

Just looking through this list I see names and crews that look more than promising! I've also had the privilege to meet a fair few of them on different occasions, a great line-up indeed.

So how did our bunch get on this time around?

Some excellent efforts from all athletes involved, GB snapped up a Gold medal on the first day of finals with the  lightweight men's pair, excellent work by Kieren Emery and Peter Chambers.

The woman's pair and men's eight came in with Silver medals in their races, the woman's pair was a close race with them missing out by eight hundredths of a second to the defending world champions, New Zealand. The eight's boat came in after Germany beating Canada for the silver, securing them a spot in the Olympics in 2012.

The woman's quad didn't manage to get through to the finals but they raced in the B finals and won, securing them a spot in the Olympics too.

Tom Aggar (an outstanding athlete) extended his reign in the arms-only single scull for a fourth year on the roll, excellent work there my man!

The woman's eight secured a bronze in the finals, the lightweight men's four sadly lost their title but managed to keep in the medals securing a bronze too.

Illness took it's toll on poor Marcus Batemen of the men's double scull placing sixth in their finals, they landed a silver in 2010, who knows what the lads could of pulled out the bag had Marcus not been ill. Still a great effort by the lads!

Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger of the women's double scull nailed it in their finals securing a second successive gold! Excellent work girls!

We also won gold in the lightweight women's quadruple scull, silver in the men's pair and a bronze from Alan Campbell in the men's single scull.

The closing day of racing (today/4th) saw some excellent results all round with an excellent win for the mixed adaptive coxed four, steaming ahead of those Canadians! (so I am told).

Last year's 4th place had nothing on this years men's four, the team pulled it together and made waves ahead of Greece in silver and Australia in bronze. This is were I give a shout out to Alex Gregory of the fours! Word is he checked out my blog one time, and is a good friend of my brother so yeah, Well done mate! You and the boys have done everyone proud, I've not yet got a picture as you literally only just won the race but I will be sure to do an entry tomorrow with pictures of those I haven't managed to get hold of.

Lightweight men's double scull also pulled in a gold in their finals too as well as the lightweight woman's doubles bringing in a bronze,

All in all a superb year for Team GB, injuries and illnesses wont hold us down! 

Britain won the overall World Championships with a tally of 105 points and topped the medal table. Get In!!

Will do a revamp and edit/addition tomorrow.

If you are into Rowing and wish to follow the sport here's a few places to look,

Twitter:

@GBRowingTeam

@WorldRowing

Websites:

http://www.worldrowing.com/

http://www.britishrowing.org/gb-rowing

A quick one about "lol" worthy parking.

We have some new foreign (I assume) students moved in next door and this one lass, bless her, cannot park to save her life, the first sign of her bad parking was a few days back when I left my house I saw her car parked all funny, here's the pic.

This is funny in itself but that's not the best, a day or two later myself and sister had just driven home from the cinema at about 10pm and we rock up outside our house to park and she has left her car literally in the middle of the road all parked up, no lights left on. She had literally left her blacked out car parked in the dark road, she's lucky no-one crashed into it, we made a bit of noise and she came out and moved it, but seriously...Lol.

Here's the pic.

That was all,

Reading Festival : Associates.

It's been a few days since I've been back now from Reading Festival 2011, which has given me some time to rest up a bit.

I felt the need to give a shout-out to the people I met along the way, I may get lazy midway through and just list names but this should give you an idea of the types of people I hung around with.

First up we have Pete, he is your average run of the mill wife beating badman, known this critter since primary school, admittedly didn't like him all that much back then but he's turned out to be a right gent. He provided a good source of banter and a brilliant mentality when dealing with people of the "Minky" persuasion. (hot girls)

Next up we have Jackone (pronounced Jackwon) who I'd met at a few parties and whatnot but this weekend away was really when our friendship flourished! He must of taken about 5 plain black tshirts with him and that was all, bless him people thought he didn't change and was just a dirty hobbit but in fact he was just wearing another t-shirt duplicate to the others, Jack was excellent at doing the crab and being a bat as well as providing some excellent banter to the wolf pack. That kid's got a decent lunge as well, which should be noted.

                  

I really cant be arsed to go through everyone I met, in depth, so I am going to just list awesome people I met and let that be the end of it, I am feeling very lazy today.

We covered Pete and Jackone (the two favorites, shh don't tell the others) the rest of my weekend posse consisted of one or more of the following at different intervals.

Duffy - "Flake" according to the rest, poor fella brought his wench to the festival, I jest of course, top guy!

Duffy's Wench (Rachel) - top lass, kinda quiet, calm, collected, but nice to have around.

Chard - One funny guy, we shared some good times, good times indeed!

Jew Basher (Jack) - This kid is pure Aryan, beautiful golden locks and pretty blue eyes, he's sorted when holocaust v2 claims another 7million.

Samwise (Ryan) - This gent can't carry the ring but would more than love to carry Frodo, provided a good laugh and was a top hobbit!

Boba Fett (bubba-fett) - This gent even got his own theme tune...top lad!

Number 2 (Jack2) - When there is more than one Jack things need to be in place! "Hey number two"

There were a shit load of other people too, Tommy, Adam, Beardy Chris, Liam, Welshies, Saffron (I partially remember her giving me a hug saying it was epic then telling me how she was going to spread the word of my awesomeness, doubt she ever did, biatch!) Oxford lot (bunch of mongs), Jackones little bro (who we pretended was my bro one night for some reason, "come to my camp for beers and racism"), the random "pass out on will" girl, the random "flash boobs at wolf pack" girl, Maverick, Hugh, George, Maja, Enya, Jaike, ( and others from that posse), all of jimjamcockorball contestants, the poo queen, dublin girl, etc etc

Now I am sure there is more but I have a shit memory but I love each and every one of you!!

However, the one I love the most is no-one I have mentioned up to this point, I was saving this badboy for last!

BROOMBRELLA!

As soon as I clocked eyes on this masterpiece of technology and craftsmanship I was in love, we shared some close and intimate, joyous and meaningful moments together over the weekend and I was sad to say goodbye on the Monday, a tear trickled down my face as we each went our separate ways at the station, as the doors closed on the car and broombrella pulled away I could sense it turning and looking back over it's metaphorical shoulder and giving me one final wink goodbye.

 I think that is pretty much it, the people I spent weds-monday of last week with! in a nutshell.