Scottyab's blog » personal

Movember efforts

scottyab — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:06:38 +0000

Andy, Craig and I made it in to company newsletter for our Mo Das Mo Movember team in November 2010. Sorry no autographs We actually raised £215 for the Prostate Cancer charity as we were allocate the company monthly £100 charity pot. For more details on how the funds raised from previous campaigns have been used and the impact Movember is having please visit http://uk.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs.

Here’s my mospace.

J2EE6 JSP/Servlet Developer Beta results delayed

scottyab — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 18:52:29 +0000

If like me you’re eager to get the results of the Beta J2EE6 JSP/Servlet Developer Certified Professional Exam, the results were due end of Dec 2010, just found out over at the JavaRanch, the results have delayed to mid/end Jan 2011.

Hope it’s worth the wait!

Update: results were announced yesterday, I passed! I’m now a Oracle Certified Expert, Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 6 JavaServer Pages and Servlet Developer – it just rolls off the tongue.

Thanks for your marathon support!

scottyab — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:43:28 +0000

Sorry this is a little late coming, I’ve been chasing up the last few pounds and pennies of sponsorship.

4miles to go

I’m sure we’ve spoken or maybe you saw my facebook status? I successfully completed the 2010 London Marathon in 4h33m on 25^thApril. The race went to plan without hitting the wall, although I did end up running an extra 2.5 miles due to the masses and not be able to stay on the optimum red line. I was over whelmed by the support from family and friends but also the local spectators for their cheers, jelly babies and bananas. It was an amazing event and I feel privileged to of participated. Fully recommend it to anyone, it’s well worth the early starts, miles of training and fund raising.

Along the journey I learnt

Drinking milk within 20 mins of exercise improves muscle recovery times (it really works!)
You can’t self examine your prostate! Go to your doctor (for the record I didn’t find out the hard way the Prostate Cancer website is very informative)
Cake sales yield the most money vs effort (if you have a great team of bakers)
Essential agree where your supporters are going to be, there so many people at the Marathon!
Stairs are not your friend post marathon

The money you’ve donated will help fund research in to Prostate Cancer treatment, help those live with Prostate Cancer and raise awareness. Helpfully you’re all better aware? Collectivity we (yes you guys!) managed to raise over £2,400 for Prostate Cancer and I genuinely could not of reached and surpassed my target (or indeed completed the distance) without your support, so a heart felt thank you!

Barclays fraud line 08000158601

scottyab — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:13:35 +0000

[update] – Spoken to barclays and they confirmed this is an offical number it’s just not listed anywhere – helpful! – if in don’t call the regular customer services number.

Just got a call from person claiming to be Barclays, wanting to confirm some recent transactions on my card. I was suspicions so asked how I could proves she was from Barclays, maybe she could tell me the 1st line of address or year of birth, but all they could say was call back on 0800 015 8601. Which is similar to a Barclays number if you check the Barclays contact us page but it’s not actually listed. So be aware this in a ID theift SCAM!

See this thread too.

Bath Skyline walk

scottyab — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:39:12 +0000

Ruth and I did this walk sunday and really enjoyed it, easy to follow with signs on almost ever gate, style etc. It’s slightly further than the 6 miles noted in the national trust blurrb, we found was nearer 10 miles. You can park at the university of Bath of free on a sunday, bonus!

Link: bath skyline walk

“The Bath Skyline walk is six miles of way-marked trails, passing through hidden valleys, tranquil woodlands and a patchwork of meadows rich in wildlife. It’s perfect for picnics, kite flying and to escape from the city.”

Bath Skyline Walk PDF

YELP is avail in the UK!

scottyab — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:52:00 +0000

Yelp is great service for reviews for resturants and bars by real people like you and I! Hopefully they will release a UK verison of the mobile app to allow uk location base searches for pubs, resturants etc.

Check out my profile http://scottyab.yelp.co.uk/

new years resolutions!

scottyab — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:11:00 +0000

Run the Bath Half Maraton
Run the Bristol Half Maraton
Achieve BCS ISEB Software development diploma
IBM Web services certification
Complete the Action 100 bike ride for the 2nd year
Plan/cook healther meals [no more frozen pizza!]
Introduce/convince my work to join the Cycle scheme

[in no particular order]

In addtion to the normal new years resolution’s I’m planning to make a go of blogging and making relevent and useful for others to give something to the interweb

Running begins!

scottyab — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:48:00 +0000

Started my running training for the commando challenge event on october 12th, by running to work, around about 2.4 miles. Only 4 weeks to train for a grueling muddy challenge.

Action 100 – I made it

scottyab — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:44:00 +0000

Hi all,

I made it! After early and wet start from Bristol on Sunday morning I made it all the way to Chobham Rugby club in just less than 8hrs (cycle time), totaling a distance of 113 miles. It was a great way to see the courtyside and I really enjoyed it and raised £350 in total! .

Best bits:

Seeing the chalk white horse on the side of a hill.
Making it to the top of box hill and the first refreadshmnet stop and the sun coming out.
Getting to the lunch stop and realising only 35 miles to go.
Getting lost and seeing a Action 100 STOP! sign telling me to go back – really handy having those signs, the organisers know there stuff!
Seeing ruth waiting to pick me up when the coach got me back to bristol.

Action 100 organized it very well, signs and arrows on every junction and rest stops every 15miles or so with tasty refreshments and the lunch was a better than expected salad buffet with plenty of pasta, rice etc to stock up on!.

I’d would highly recommend doing it! in fact I will be signing up for next year as soon as they open registration. Hopefully some of you guys will join me next year? let me know if you do.

Thanks again for the sponsorship!

Scotty

Wedding Rings

scottyab — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:53:00 +0000

Test upload from picasa