I should also put some photos on the gallery too... maybe later today
Tuesday, July 27. 2010
Ooh, hello stranger
I should also put some photos on the gallery too... maybe later today
Friday, March 5. 2010
CfaN - Nigeria
Anyway, I've been working with Christ for all Nations in Nigeria, on a crusade in a township called Numan (somewhere in the north east of the country), and it was a great, life changing time.
I travelled out on the 14th Feb (yes, valentines day, but I did leave a card and some choccies for Michelle) from Manchester Airport with one of the other crew who I already knew, and met the rest of the guys at Amsterdam airport, where we promptly went for a good Irish fry-up before heading out for the long haul to Lagos.
After arriving in Nigeria, and having to quickly get used to the 30C heat of the late evening we made our way to the Sheraton hotel for the first night before getting an internal 'Bus' flight to the town of Yola (by bus, I mean it takes off, flies somewhere, people get off, people get on, you fly again).
After arriving in Yola, we collected our bags, and met our drivers for the week (due to security concerns out there, we have our own drivers, just to be on the safe side, and they're used to the driving method out there), and headed off to the hotel, which was surprisingly good, it had plenty of rooms, aircon, and power (most of the time). After dropping our clothes off, we travelled to the crusade site, and started work building the climbing towers, and getting the kitchen in order.
Once the towers were up, we flew the PA the next day, and then the following that, went to setup the Fire Conference site (on a smaller site, its like a leaders conference with more targeted teaching).
Wednesday evening was the first crusade event, and there were around 85-90 thousand people there, and I ran the front of house system for the worship, which is probably the most people I'd engineered for at that point! (This grew to 200,000 people on the remaining nights).
The following morning, myself and Alan (one of the other crew) awoke early and went to run the fire conference. Given that it got to about 55C during the day, the fire conference ran at dawn so that the crowd weren't sat out in the baking sun for too long. So, prepping the stage started in the dark, and as the sun rose, the band got up and played, its certainly different to see the sun rise over people worshipping the Lord (especially different as you then see the sun set over a larger crowd also worshipping in the evening).
Sunday didn't have the fire conference in the morning, so I got a lie in, which was certainly appreciated, as at the end of the crusade meeting that evening, we re-rigged the stage, took the PA down, and then disassembled the towers.
Monday was an early start, with us setting off from the hotel at 6am to go join a convoy to get back to the airport for another bus-flight back to Lagos. Arriving back in Lagos, we returned to the Sheraton hotel to relax for a few hours before the inevitable flight back to Amsterdam. We do however get use of the pool there, which is lovely, and slightly odd, to be swimming & sun bathing in Feburary, when your mind is telling you it should be -2C and snowing still
Anyway, thats all the travelling, and whatnot. There are photos here: Photos from Numan.
Oh, and I'm off out again in March (20th to 30th), Visa permitting!
Monday, January 4. 2010
Moving around
So, if you see some broken things over the next week or so, its my fault (probably), and should be fixed, hopefully by the time I leave for Africa....
Oh, I didn't mention did I? I'm off to Africa for 10days on the 17th Jan. I'm working with CfaN, doing some technical stuff for a couple of their huge events. Its certain to be an eye opener, and I'm quite looking forward to it
Anywho, toodle pip, I've more stuff to break / fix
Tuesday, December 15. 2009
I'm still here
So, whats been happening? Er, last post was, er, August? Blimey... So, lots has happened, lets see:
- I've been getting on with being a freelance sound / lighting / anything person, picked up some work with Wigwam, both in the warehouse and out doing installs and some small gigs. Through that, picked up a few good contacts for other work, which is starting to take off,
- With a bunch of guys at church, we've started a training / solutions company, using what we've learnt to train / equip other churches and companies, you can see that here: Production Solutions Website,
- Michelle has been working hard at her job in Mytholmroyd, and is enjoying that,
- Lara is in daycare 3 days a week, and with my parents 1 day a week. We still have daddy-daughter time on a Wednesday though, it gives Lara a break from the hard work that is daycare, and gives us some good time together,
- Michelle enjoyed her 40th birthday with a surprise party - and, to top it off, it was a surprise party with a bbq, in December...
Er, I'm sure there are other things, but I'm being subjected to 'Theres something about Mary', wtf...
Wednesday, August 19. 2009
You know, I think I remember having a blog here
Okay, so, I've been busy. Mid July Jimbo and I went on an IPAF course to enable us both to use scissor lifts & cherry pickers while doing out freelance stuff, which was very useful, as we needed that for New Wine
At the end of July I was working at New Wine (North/East) at Newark Showground, had a good time there, there are a load of photos / comments about the week on twitter (http://twitter.com/jimmygulp), I'll try and update the gallery with those (and finish off Photo a Day, I have them, just not uploaded...).
Following on from New Wine, I was straight into setting up and running RockNations 09 at church. It was an impressive rig, and an excellent week. Michelle & Lara escaped the mayhem and took a trip to see Koreen in Leicester and from there have a day trip to London to see the Queen & also see Gilly.
This last couple of weeks I've been filling in at Wigwam's sales warehouse, as everyone else is either on holiday, or working at the various gigs around the place. Mick also wanted me to look at the barcode system they've got in place which should be tracking stock in / out as and when it comes / goes, but its not been working that successfully, especially with a certain manufacturers speakers / amps / accessories. So I've figured out what the problem is, and have let Mick know, and he's going to take it from there.
Monday, August 3. 2009
Holidays & Conferences
Conferences - So Jimmy has picked up even more freelance sound work - so far he's worked down in Heathrow, in Bradford and most recently in Newark doing the New Wine conference/festival thingymajiggy. This week he is rigging for the Rock Nations conference at ALC in Bradford which starts on Wednesday and runs through to Saturday. There's gonna be some great bands playing and some great speakers from all over the world - Sydney, Australia and Nashville, USA. Apparently the evenings are free so try to get along to ALC on Wapping Road in Bradford if you can. The evenings usually tend to start around 6.30pm ish
Holidays - So while Jimmy was working away, Lara went to Daycare for full-time. She quite enjoyed it I think, although she did get awfully tired. I was dropping her off between 8-8.30am then dashing to work about 1 hour away, working a full 7 hours then dashing to collect her again by 6pm, so by the time Lara got home she was exhausted - too much playing and not enough resting I guess. This week I'm on holiday so that we don't have to put her in daycare and we're planning a trip to visit my wonderful friend Koreen in Leicester followed by a fabulous trip to London to see the Crown Jewels, Buckingham Palace and Hamleys toy shop
We'll also be going on a train which will be quite an adventure for baby Lara. Have to dash now though as she's trying to read my Bible and may just rip it to shreds ![]()
Tuesday, June 9. 2009
Another Post at Long Last
So things have moved on a little in the Gulp family:
Michelle - I've got a fabulous new job which I'm really enjoying, working in the Legislation team at Sweet & Maxwell. It's great for me because I'm being paid to read all day and I love reading legislation
However, I've realised that I have a perfectionist side to me that I was not aware of which makes it hard when I get feedback of things that I've overlooked - yak I hate that but still it's a fabulous learning curve.
Lara - She's been going to daycare every Friday afternoon and seems to have settled quite well which is good because when Jimmy has more work we can be assured that she's happy at daycare.
Jimmy - He's been getting a few little odd days here and there of freelance work and has just been in London this weekend (6-9 June) doing some rigging and sound etc. So he's living his dream but we're still praying that he's able to increase the amount of work he gets. Apart from that Jimmy has been having a fabulous time with baby Lara - they get up to all sorts of adventures together.
Boris - the kitten is now growing but is still very much a small cat. He's been having all sorts of adventures in the grounds (ie our back garden and the gardens of several neighbours too)
Well must dash - will write more again soon Mrs Gulp
Saturday, April 11. 2009
Random Rambling
1. Work
I am back at work full time doing a job that doesn't inspire or motivate me but working with some very lovely, lovely people which helps me get through the day. I'm working in an insurance claims call centre. I miss Lara Anjali terribly and by Friday I do tend to feel a little as if teh time at work away from her has been wasted - it's time I'll never get back and she's at such an amazing stage of life where each day she does something new.
2. Lara Anjali
She now spends 4 days a week with her Daddy and they appear to have lots of fun. She has Fridays in Daycare at Little Champions at ALC where she has a fabulous time learning to play with her little friends - Poppy & Keira. She's learned to blow kisses and crawls forwards as well as backwards. She can also pull herself up to a standing position but is still practising this.
3. Walking Free
I've been involved with Walking Free for about 6 months now following the first Walking Free Ball last September. Check out the book Walking Free by John Edwards - it's absolutely amazing and provides an honest insight into the journey of someone from middle class Dublin into drug use, alcohol abuse and homelessness right through to generally amazing guy. Jimmy, Lara & I go to Walking Free meetings each Monday evening and between us we do a bit here and there to help out where possible. Jimmy got the offices online and does a bit of computer technical support.
4. Easter
I've had Good Friday off which was lovely but then had to do some overtime on Saturday and will be doing some double time overtime on Easter Monday to swell the Gulp Family bank account!
That's it for now better go and eat an Almond Magnum.
ooo here are some questions to ponder:
Is it morally acceptable to feed Jelly Babies to babies?
Is it okay for vegetarians to eat Cadbury chocolate Animal biscuits?
Monday, April 6. 2009
Another month gone...
I am getting odd jobs done around the house, and the garden is still getting some attention (its still not finished, and its been over a year...).
I've also had some complaints from Michelle that she's not had a blog like outlet for her rants, other than Facebook, so I've added her on here, so she might be able to provide more updates than I have been
Friday, March 6. 2009
Mac Boi...
- I'm no longer working in York (or for that company either), which means my commute is now about 0 miles (well, bed -> kitchen is a few yards).
- Michelle is going back to work, meaning I'll be a stay-at-home Dad, which I'm looking forward to. Lots of time to spend with Lara
- While Michelle is at work, I'm going to get myself going as a freelance sound / lighting / rigger / etc person. It should provide a good change from what I was doing.
- I've bought a MacBook (the white one, and yes, hell has indeed frozen over). I had an apple gift card, and didn't want to just buy an iPod touch / iPhone, etc, and as I'm going freelance, being able to get mail / etc when out and about would be easiest on a laptop of some description, and this seemed like a reasonable choice
Right, thats enough for now, this blogging lark is hard work...
Laters
Monday, January 26. 2009
Moved things around
I've also imported a few of the last entries in the old blog. I'm just poking around the DB schema to see if it'll be easy to import the even older stuff in
So, lemme know what you think.
Jimmy
BTW - Some people (Dad) have pointed out that the Capatcha images aren't loading, I'm looking into it
Saturday, January 24. 2009
New Blog
In any case, not blogged in a while, and this is my monthly update
Jimmy
Monday, December 22. 2008
Its been a while...
So, its almost Christmas, meaning some time off work, and me either doing not alot, or being pestered to do jobs around the house
Lara is getting bigger, and there are a few photos of her on the gallery, most under Project365. She's started baby-led-weaning (about 2 months ago...), where we give her some of what we're eating (which means we're also eating more veg), and she can either play with it, eat it, or just look at it. She's taken to eating any and every food item we've placed near her, and enjoying it, and demanding more and more and more
We also have another member of the family. A cat called Boris (I say cat, I mean kitten). Michelle thought she heard mice (mouse) in the house again, and wasn't happy leaving me in the living room (where it had been spotted) with a lighter and a can of something flammable (Halfords Fabric Protector is good for this), so we went to the RSPCA and adopted a kitten. Again, photos are in the gallery, and I'll make an effort to put the rest of the photos from the year up over the Christmas period
Right, best get on with some work, ta ta.
Monday, October 27. 2008
Grumble, Sigh.. Boo!
Project Garden: Almost complete (!)... Well, I have the retaining walls built now, the one on the right (between our garden and the neighbours) was built a couple of weeks ago, and is now supporting a good pile of soil, and a few plants. The other wall, behind the shed was built yesterday, so I'm waiting for the cement to set properly before piling the soil up behind that and getting everything else planted
All I need to do then is work out how I'm going to cover the mud thats left... paving stones? gravel of some description? Don't particularly want grass... (that involves a mower...)
Work? Well, I'm not going to comment as I'll end up ranting and just getting worked up. It'll sort itself out sooner or later (hopefully sooner)...
Thursday, October 9. 2008
Downtime, and Gallery Comments
Speaking of comment spammers, please get lost
Anywho, back to doing stuff and nonsense


