George's Day Out With Thomas The Tank Engine.

Tuesday 27 December, 2011 - 3:19 pm

Click on the link to see George's day out with Thomas The Tank Engine...

George's update coming soon!!

(its finding time, sorry for the delay)...

Breaking News, Coast to Coast (Take 2)

Wednesday 14 December, 2011 - 7:47 am

A new team the Mansfield Talbot Bikers club would like to take up the challenge of the coast to coast bike ride. More Details to Follow:

Mark Dengel's Word On His Skydive.

Thursday 15 September, 2011 - 3:42 pm

 I’m still not sure how I ever got talked into this. I vaguely remember joking at a parents’ evening when Shaun suggested it to Natasha ‘I’ll do it if you will’, never thinking she would take it seriously. (Note to self: never underestimate Natasha!).

Before I knew where I was the date had been booked and sponsor forms posted up everywhere. There was no way of backing out. Even pleading with my doctor not to pass me medically fit didn’t work.

I was amazed how quickly the pledges of sponsorship came flooding in particularly from work colleagues and family funny enough. They wanted to run a sweepstake at work to choose who got to push me out. Even my kids were asking how much I was insured for. It’s nice to be popular.

Anyway, despite one reprieve due to bad weather, the date soon came round and I headed off to Langar Airfield with family in tow still arguing about their inheritance.

After an intolerable wait in which the nerves grew and the toilet visits became more frequent, we were finally kitted up, introduced to our instructors and we were off. The flight up wasn’t the most comfortable, sat on the floor between the legs of your instructor. No hostess service or in-flight movie.

Before long the plane slowed and we were waddling towards the open door. I tried to tell them this wasn’t my stop but it was too late. We were out doing forward rolls 12,000 feet up.

The freefall flew past (literally). Falling 1 ½ miles in 30 seconds with your cheeks pinned to your ears was an interesting sensation, but suddenly the breaks were put on and to my relief the canopy opened. We were then in a different world, floating slowly down taking in the stunning views and chatting to the instructor as if we were on an afternoon stroll.

I was really starting to enjoy myself and even had a go at steering, when the instructor decided to put an end to that nonsense and show me some acrobatics. Suddenly the ground was spinning violently and I was having flashbacks of childhood rides on a fairground Wurlitzer after too much candyfloss.

The nausea was just wearing off and it was time to land. Not very pretty; we landed in a bit of a heap (I blame the instructor), but there was Natasha full of smiles as if it had been a walk in the park. Would I do it again? Possibly, just to see if I missed anything the first time but it might not be a good idea to tempt fate again. I’m certainly glad that we did it and its one more thing to tick off my ’50 things to do…’ list. Only 49 more to go!As I said, everyone has been really generous in sponsoring us and I can’t thank family and friends enough. It looks like we will have made a staggering £3,250 towards our new school minibus.

Well done to Natasha, she was much braver than me. Shaun’s going to have his work cut out to top that!                                                              Mark Dengel

 

Skydive Completed!!

Monday 29 August, 2011 - 7:38 am

 Estimated Funds Raised A Massive £3,225.00

"Link To Full Skydive Footage at the bottom"

Above: Natasha and Mark with there feet firmly back on the ground... (link to skydive video at the bottom)

Well what can i say other than amazing, both mark and myself finally did it, the weather was good to us , on friday i was worried it may be cancelled again as  it was raining all day.

Woke up at 6.30am, thinking oh my god, today is the day. I looked out of the window upto the sky and thought later today i'll be free falling from 13000 feet today, my nerves started to kick in. Unfortunatly George had not had the best night , he has a temp and is not feeling well at all.We still got him ready and took him, threre was no way he was going to miss this.We arrived at the Langar Airfield just after 12, lots of family and friends there to support me, which helped and was really nice, so thankyou to everyone who came. Met Mark (George's headmaster) he was very calm about it all, we both were really.We registered together so we could jump at the same time.Finally after a long wait we were called for our training, reality really did start to kick in then, but i knew no matter how i was feeling i had to do it, not only for George's school( the new minibus) but for myself , i knew if i didn't do it i would have let myself down. So training done, more waiting, this time huge clouds and rain (great) now worried it was going to be cancelled, so to my own disbelief i was excited when our names were called.

Below: Natasha is ready to go!!

We were still both really calm, although nerves were kicking in as i put my skydive suit on, a fetching blue one. As we walked towards the plane it was the most bizzare feeling, the doors shut and we went down the runway, when we got to 6000 feet we were given our instructions again, i was so worried i would forget. I was going to be the last to jump as i was the first on the plane, hat, glasses and gloves on 1200 feet , nearly time to jump.........

1300 feet, time to jump...........as i watched everyone else jump my instructer moved towards the open door and said it is our turn, i sat on the edge of the plane , legs tucked under the plane and my arms crossed and went. WOW........ THE MOST AMAZING FEELING IN THE WORLD .... freefalling my instructor double tapped my arms which meant it was time to open them, he then released the parachute, which pulled us back up very quickly, we did lots of spins and made it to the ground first. I absolutley loved every minute and feel so proud of myself, Mark did so well too, so well done and THANKS from George. Time to get the money in now and hand it over to  Fountaindale School.

Below: Mark lands with a Bump!!..

Click on this LINK to watch the Film Trailer of Skydive.

Click on this LINK to watch the Full Footage of Skydive.

Skydive Update

Saturday 16 July, 2011 - 8:18 pm

For the last few weeks both myself and Mark Dengal have been building upto this day, but at the begining of this week the weather looked like it was going to let us down, we did not know until this morning whether it was going to happen, and much to our dissapointment the weather did let us down so we have had no choice but to postpone it, the new date will be sometime in August, so as soon as we have the date confirmed we will let you know.

Quick update on George, he is doing great and is fully recovered now since his operation and making good progress towards gaining weight, he has a new improved diet, all still good food, but far more healthy and organic, adding fat,protein ect to build him up.He enjoying all types of smoothies too.

We have our team leader on board now, who is fantastic and we are making progress towards our team for George, he is very settled and happy with how things are going and so are we.He is doing well with all of his private theopists, and enjoying all the new equipment he has , he has a very trendy outdoor chair , he enjoyed saying good bye to the old one, anyway we are all fine and i am now back at work, personal travel advisor, working from home which is great because i miss out on nothing with both children,i'll tell you more about job on  next update,so for now thankyou to everyone who has sponsored mark and myself but until we get a new date we will be keeping our feet firmly on the ground.