September 2007 Wins

3rd September: Received an e-mail to say I’d won 4 tickets to the Masters Football tournament at the MEN arena.

6th September: Firstly I won a pair of preview tickets to the film ‘In the Hand of God’ at Vue Cinema in Bolton.

Secondly we received a letter in Dale’s name from the Lancashire Evening Telegraph to say we’d won a Greek Yoghurt deluxe picnic and barbeque set. On looking this up it appears this contains a combined barbeque and cool bag, a wind shelter, and a rug.

Thirdly I received an e-mail in the evening to say I’d won a pair of tickets to see ‘Henry V’ at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.

7th September: In the middle of decorating the bath room I received a telephone call from Nuts Magazine to say I’d won a haunting weekend. The weekend is a two night break at Bidford Grange near Stratford-on-Avon, here there will paranormal investigations and a psychic etc. (Report to follow)

8th September: Was awoken by the postman this morning who delivered a parcel for Dale. The parcel contained some ‘Simple’ cosmetics.

Also won some further tickets on the internet, these are again preview tickets to the film ‘Superbad’

9th September: Attended the Masters Football tournament today. This was better attended than last time I went. After a very enjoyable evening Leicester City emerged the winner.

10th September: Received a £2 ‘Farmfoods’ voucher

12th September: Had a very enjoyable evening at the Royal Exchange watching their production of ‘Henry V’. The staging was very innovative with a scaffolding type structure that was moveable and revealed a watery trench. There were quite a few faces I new rather than famous names, the production though was up to the Royal Exchanges usual high standard.

17th September: Received an e-mail saying I’d won another £5 Amazon voucher from Gfk surveys.

19th September: Received an e-mail telling me I’d won four tickets to the Carling Cup match between Rovers and Birmingham City.

25th September: Received a telephone call at work today from Carling. Apparently I’ve won another two tickets to the Rovers v Birmingham game. As the other tickets have not arrived as yet I didn’t turn them down. If I carry on at this rate we’ll fill half the stand.

27th: I've won a pair of preview tickets to the new film the kingdom.

Tiger Moth Flight

We arrived at Barton Aerodrome in good time to get our bearings and have a quick cuppa before receiving a briefing at the control tower. The plane was a 1932 Tiger Moth and is apparently the oldest Tiger Moth still flying. The pilot we were told is an Easy Jet pilot during the week but loves this type of flying so much this is how he chooses to spend his weekend.

I was taken to the plane by the attendants and Dale was allowed out onto the airfield to take some photos.

I climbed into the plane and after a few last minute instructions we were ready for take off.

The take off was very quick and gentle and before long I was enjoying the view below.

Once out of the immediate vicinity of the aerodrome the pilot gave me further instructions as to what to do and then allowed me take the controls. I got the hang of level flying, was allowed to do a couple of turns and got the plane in the right direction to go back to the aerodrome. Once near the aerodrome the pilot took over the controls again and brought the plane into land. The landing again was very smooth and not in the least scary.

Once back inside the control tower I was shown a DVD that had been taken of me flying the plane – though at a price of £45 I decided not to buy one.

All in all a superb experience.