Attached to this page is a newsletter put together for the region with a few bits and pieces in just to keep people up to date with things that have been happening over the past few months. Hopefully a useful thing and we will push more out when the time is right.

This will be sent out on the ERSA email list but I am keen to use whatever ways exist to push out information.

Each week I go past Stratford on the train to London and off course there is one of the biggest building sites around next to the station. There is a huge amount of building work taking place in readiness for the Olympics in the non too distinct future. Sure the Olympics don’t happen until 2012 but in reality it’s not that far away when you look at when they still have to complete.

One thing I like about Christmas is the excitement on the face of kids when the day is coming closer. When the decorations start going up, the cards start arriving it just becomes more real.

For us each year it really starts with a visit to the local farm to select the tree we wont. This year it was the same and we selected the tree a couple of weeks ago and then it sat in water in the garage.

A couple of years ago I created a simple website called SkiZog, www.skizog.co.uk, with the sole purchase of providing a way for people to advertise Ski race gear for sale when they were trying to get rid of it.

There were a couple of sites around already but not very extensive and had their limitations. I wanted something that people could upload items themselves and then I just needed to approve them. So I came up with SkiZog and it proved very popular.

So the challenge has been set, the gauntlet thrown down, what will the prize be when the Penguin succeeds on Monday 21st December 2009?

Some challenges are simple to achieve but others need some work, lots of work, say the right thing here, do the right thing there and it can be achieved. The benefits and pleasures of winning far outweigh the disaster of losing!

Always love to read the daily Dilbert strip and today’s is no exception. Sometimes they are too American focused but 9 times out of 10 they are spot on. Strange though some people just don’t get them, strange people then!

Today while at the ski club we were talking about the various ways of gaining funding for the club and individuals. Last Monday one of the parents, who is now the chairman of the club, and the head coach went to a meeting in Ipswich organised by the council talking about funding.

There was a lot of information for people and it is clear there is a lot of money out there to be had in grants even here in Suffolk. It’s really just a case of knowing where to look, who to talk to, what forms to complete.

Was out today with the young one and we were looking for a Christmas tree over at the farm. We get a real one each year and they always have a great selection there, but find that we have to get one earlier each year to make sure we get a decent one.

A few weeks ago I asked the question of how the £300 from a club national fee was split up, being that in Racer Ready it said there was a split between TD Expenses and training, can read it here. As mentioned at the time it was clear that TD expenses need to be covered (but not always the same amount each race) and that some will go to training, but not all of it.

Last week went over to the Hemel AGM at the ski centre to view how things went and listen to the feedback from parents and gauge how things have progressed at the indoor centre this year.