COME AND EXPLORE THE GREAT OUTDOORS WITH SIR RANULPH FIENNES

Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Explorer, Author, Fundraiser and Record Breaker is to open the National Boat Caravan and Outdoor Show (14-22 February, 2004), at 10 am on Saturday 14 February at the NEC, Birmingham, fresh from his latest test of endurance – completing seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes said:

“I am really looking forward to the 2004 National Boat Caravan and Outdoor Show. It is a fantastic show, one that will appeal to anyone who enjoys the great outdoors. I would love to encourage visitors to begin their own adventure by exploring the numerous features and activities from skiing, snowboarding, sailing to sliding down zip wires, panning for gold, whilst checking out the latest boats, caravans, tents and outdoor pursuits. A great day out for families, enthusiasts and casual visitors alike!”

At 59, Sir Ranulph’s achievements include leading over 30 expeditions to the North and South Poles, the Arabian Desert, the Nile and to numerous other places, such as the Lost City of Ubar, which he discovered in the Rub al Khali desert. His most recent mission was completing the Land Rover 7x7x7 Challenge for the British Heart Foundation - seven marathons on seven continents in seven days – only four months after recovering from a heart attack and a double heart bypass operation. Sir Ranulph has also written 16 books including the Number One Bestseller ‘The Feather Men’, as well as ‘Mind Over Matter’, ‘Beyond the Limits’ and ‘Living Dangerously’.

Karen Dodd, Marketing Manager for event organiser Inside Communications, said:

“We are honoured to have Sir Ranulph Fiennes opening the 43rd National Boat Caravan and Outdoor Show. He is one of the greatest living explorers and an inspiration to all. His presence will add to the excitement and buzz that already surrounds the largest event of its kind in the country and hopefully inspire everyone to enjoy the Great Outdoors.”

Sir Ranulph Fiennes will open the show at 10 am Saturday 14 February in Hall 5, NEC Birmingham.


For further information call the ticket hotline on 0870 730 0963 or register on-line at www.boatandcaravan.com

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Further info and directions can be found on our

http://www.touringandtenting.com/shows/shows.php

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Posted by: Tenaki at 12:59 | link | comments

NEW NAME, NEW LOOK - BIGGER AND BETTER
CARAVAN & MOTORHOME SHOW 2004

Fancy hitting the celeb trail? Then the best way is to hitch up to a caravan
or motorhome and follow in the steps of the likes of Jamie Oliver, Tara
Palmer-Tomkinson, Minnie Driver and Princess Stephanie of Monaco, all
devoted fans of this relaxed style of holiday.

Welcome to the revamped Caravan & Motorhome Show at Manchester GMEX during
22-25 January, in association with the Manchester Evening News. The show
will be opened by former Coronation Street actress Tracy Shaw who will be
appearing with the Caravan Club on their stand at 10am on 22 January.

This year¹s show features the very latest state of the art caravans and
motorhomes for 2004 and in response to public demand many of the models are
more luxurious than ever before, underlining the upward trend caravanning
and motorhoming are taking.

"The Manchester show has been growing so fast over the past few years the
only way to accommodate all those who wanted to exhibit was to make two
shows ­ one for caravans and motorhomes and the other for holiday homes,"
explained Show Director Simon Coe.

"The result is the Caravan & Motorhome Show that is second to none and the
National Holiday Home Show in March that will be the only consumer show
dedicated to the holiday home enthusiast."

As a great day out for the whole family the Caravan and Motorhome Show has
something for everyone including loads of fun, games and activities.  A new
beach area complete with helter skelter, Punch & Judy, and fun beach games
will provide a welcome blast of summer sunshine. And for those who want the
chance to escape the winter chills and go further afield (without a
passport) there¹s a Spanish Fiesta theme night on January 23 with opening
hours extended to 9pm.

Stars from local radio station BBC GMR will be hosting regular spots at the
revamped show.

Among the exhibitors at this exciting new show will be top UK and European
manufacturers and dealers including Fleetwood, Swift, Glossop, Lowdhams,
Barrons as well as the Caravan Club. And look out for our Campbell's Soup,
who will be handing out entry forms for you to enter in to the OSearch for
the Nation¹s Favourite Recipe¹ at the Show.  Campbells are launching a hunt
to find favourite ways to use Campbells condensed soup.

In order to show would-be caravanners just how much caravans have changed,
leisure experts Barrons have linked up with Manchester¹s Lowry Hotel to
provide a five star butler, chef, maid and massage service for caravanners
who want the freedom of the open road with the opulence of a top hotel
suite, on their stand (29).

On the Swift stand visitors can see the nearly revamped award winning Swift
Challenger 460, named Best Two Berth model and Overall Tourer of the Year at
the recent Practical Caravan Magazine Awards.  The whole Challenger range
has been completely redesigned for the 2004 season, offering more choices
and luxury features than ever before. Swift will also be showcasing their
stunning and entirely new Conqueror range for 2004.

A stunning new six-berth motorhome will be taking pride of place on the Ace
stand (27).  The innovative new Firenze has a spacious rear lounge, front
dinette and continues the Ace "theme" of continental style, superb British
build quality and unbeatable value for money.

If you are looking for a little bit of luxury in your Caravan then head to
the Besscar stand and check out the all new Cameo.  While the exterior
boasts a stylish and eye-catching new look, the interior easily lives up to
expectations with an impressive specification and true sense of style.

Another feature of the Caravan & Motorhome Show will be a fabulous accessory
superstore supplied by Towsure providing everything required for days on the
road and this popular holiday lifestyle.  They are also offering a 15%
discount on all catalogue prices and free delivery on all products purchased
at the show.  

On the door tickets cost £7.50 for adults and £6.50 for seniors with
children 15 and under free.

 

 

Posted by: Tenaki at 20:39 | link | comments

When geeks go camping, ideas hatch
Techies pitch tents at Foo Camp to ponder the future
By John Battelle
 
Foo Camp participants roughed it in tents, but they still had wireless Internet access.

 
 
(Business 2.0) -- Stashed away in the rolling hills north of San Francisco, the town of Sebastopol, California, used to be remarkable for two things: Gravenstein apples (it was once the world's largest producer) and the Russian River appellation (excellent zinfandels).

You can now add a third important growth industry whose roots are there: Foo Camp, a new breed of geek gathering organized (somewhat) by O'Reilly & Associates, a thriving technology publishing business.

This year's Foo Camp, held in early October, was extraordinary for many reasons, but perhaps mostly for its structure -- or lack thereof. Tim O'Reilly, Foo's founder, made sure that basics like food, showers, and meeting space were available, but then quickly turned over the weekend's agenda to the geeks (literally -- there was no agenda until Friday night, when the attendees made one up on the fly).

The idea: Get 200 or so smart folks with a lot in common together in one place at one time, let them pitch tents, toss in a Wi-Fi network, and see what happens. Turns out, quite a lot.

At Foo, I was about as likely to bump into a founder of Google (both were there) as I was a vice chairman of Warburg Pincus.

Tim Bray, a co-inventor of XML, huddled with Yahoo engineer Jeremy Zawodny and Nutch founder Doug Cutting, and in no time they had posited a new approach to stopping spam (for details, head to www.tbray.org/ongoing/).

Later, Zawodny teamed up with David Sifry, the founder and CEO of Technorati, a popular search engine for blogs, and others to propose a new way to organize the thousands of newsfeeds available from media outlets around the world. The new standard they hacked up, FDML, may well be adopted by major corporations and news outlets soon after this column hits newsstands.

Simon Cozens, an author and programmer from England, presented Twingle, a program that helps you find things in your e-mail archives (who doesn't need that?).

Also receiving good geek buzz was an application called Dashboard, which automatically scans and indexes your hard drive, then displays documents related to whatever you're working on. And there were two sessions on how peer-to-peer networks over broadband connections are about to dramatically change the way entertainment is distributed to the home (for more on that, search Google for "BitTorrent").

For relaxation, campers drank microbrews, tossed Frisbees, and disassembled a Toyota Prius, then put it back together again (it was a rental). Clearly, this was not your average technology conference.

Talking with attendees, I couldn't help thinking that Foo was more than fun -- it was important, and not just to the characteristically self-involved lot who proudly wear the geek label. After nearly three years of nuclear winter in the technology industry, the folks who gathered in that Sebastopol orchard were ... well, they were happy again. Optimistic even.

"It felt like we were poking our heads up out of the ice and seeing spring," noted Ross Stapleton-Gray, a security researcher.

If the Foo folk are any indication, our precious resource of geekdom is once again charged up to tackle big problems and create world-changing applications based on trends like social software, ubiquitous broadband and wireless connections, and a newly rational environment for investment and finance.

These people believe they can fix the spam problem and make sense of the overwhelming flood of information now available to corporations and individuals. They sense lasting and real economic models and see potential in nearly every problem they encounter.

In other words, they are hard and happily at work moving the entire economy of the Web forward, to good end. Perhaps, I thought to myself as I drove home at the end of Foo Camp, it just takes a couple of days in the woods to realize that we are well on our way out of them.

 

Posted by: Tenaki at 21:34 | link | comments (2)

On holiday with the average NZ family: Teenager grounded after bottles found

31.12.2003
By GRAHAM REID special holiday correspondent

Day3

Angry parents Raylene and Bruce Riley-Thompson yesterday grounded their 14-year-old daughter, Amber, after discovering empty bottles of alcopop under her inflatable mattress at the Kakamoana Caravan Park in the Far North.

The incident was overheard by many other campers at the quiet beach camping ground.

It has spoiled the Riley-Thompsons' holiday, according to locals.

Mrs Riley-Thompson expressed "bitter disappointment" at the chance discovery of the bottles, and Mr Riley-Thompson announced that his daughter was not going to be allowed phone calls or to go out for a year.

Amber, however, protested her innocence.

"This is pathetic. They weren't mine and I don't know how they got there. Someone must have hidden them there yesterday when I was at Steve and Peter's tent.

"Anyway they can't be mine. I don't drink and I don't even like rum. It makes me puke."

The grounding has also confirmed Amber's fears - expressed to the Herald earlier - that the family holiday would be "stink".

"I knew something like this would happen. Dad keeps saying he's going to send me to stay with my Grandma in Orewa, but I'd rather be there than at this stupid beach with my stupid olds.

"At least at Grandma's she goes to bed early so I get to stay up late or sneak out to hang around Burger King. Here we just have a barbecue, Dad drinks some beer, my little brother and I watch TV then we all go to bed about 8.30.

"It's stink here, I hope it dies."

Posted by: Tenaki at 22:17 | link | comments