nathanhillyer.com

Good morning (currently 7:06am). Slight inactivity on here. Beginning of October i was downloading World of Warcraft. I told myself I wouldn’t be playing it and I had convinced myself that it wasn’t going to be any good. However, I played it (after a very, very long download) and I was quite suprised by it. Where the graphics aren’t quite amazing - the gameplay makes up for it. I would also say that I probably only like it because I love rpgs and cos i’m a massive kid! Not quite sure if I will continue playing after the trial yet though…

I’ve got my blog statistics (on awstats) open on another tab at the moment and I’m pleased to see that I already have 121 unique visits since the 1st October. So, in less than 2 weeks i’ve got more than half the uniques I had last month so i have high hopes for this month.. maybe as high as 300? Who knows

Why am I up so early? To be really honest, I don’t actually know why .. but I am determined to use my time productively today. Rather than messing around the whole day doing not an awful lot, I will try and do something. Room needs cleaning, lawn needs mowing, kit needs washing.

In other news though, it seems Connor Wilson has taken an interesting view on the canadian dollar. What do you think?

your ads here (468x60) - after 1st post.

Many, many blogs post their stats and so I will try and relate to everyone else now. I must say that I am very impressed on how everything is going. All my expectations for an old and inactive blog have been whooped on the ass. Well, rather than dragging on this pointless tease - I’ll show you.

Unique Visitors reached 208 for the month. A big “WOW” from me. Not an awful lot for any readers that will be reading, but that is still quite nice for me. Number of Visits is 531, which equates to about 2.55 visits per visitor. That means that I’m able to reach people that come back again! Woot. Page hits is 1222 And my tiny bandwidth is 17MB this month.

So, since the blog opening in June - i’ve got 530 uniques, 1615 visits, 2775 pages, 4591 hits, and nearly 40MB bandwidth.. haha, such a low amount, but maybe by next month they will have nearly doubled! *crosses fingers*

Hope you had a good September

Unfortunately, nothing in life comes easy. Sure, we can take things for granted - but nothing will ever truly be easy. Many people will have heard the saying: “Life’s not fair”, and far too often this may seem the case. I was watching Scrubs (Season Four) this evening, and Bob Kelso said that “Nothing in the world that’s worth having comes easy”. That I think is an excellent quote.

It is probably something that I have never quite understood properly before, and something that I’m sure I will forget later on.. But it makes good sense to know that nothing will ever come easy. I have heard people say things like “Corr.. He’s lucky to be earning that much money” and similar. The point is actually that that person probably worked to the stage that they are at now. It is something that I am now starting to experience after dropping out of education.

I see people all around me that have nice cars, well-supported jobs and good relationships. It’s far too easy to say ‘Man, you’re lucky’. The reality is of course, that they didn’t quit school or refuse to go to college, they maybe have spent several years doing something they don’t want to do to reach where they are now. They still may not be happy, and are working for higher status, but they are working hard.

This may be more of a personal post for me - to realise that I should work harder or stop whining about everything, but I suppose everyone can also learn from it. I have been quite lazy the past few months, just working when I wanted to and probably not pulling my weight. Taking a lot for granted and generally being a nob.. but I should aim for pull it all together as I don’t want to lose the good people around me. Wish me luck! xD

Here I am, still alive. Just thought i’d get you up to speed with what I’ve been doing - mainly work and rowing, which is all there has been really

I raced at Henley Royal Regatta on Thursday 5th July, and sadly the boat I was in got a mild thrashing, lol. I don’t believe in individual faults in a crew boat, unless it’s blatent (such as catching a crab or blowing up) .. although sometimes that can just be bad luck and nothing to do with individuality. The bottom line was probably that we went in under-prepared and we had only been together for a few training sessions so the main thing is that we did our best and we were able to qualify for it.

Work was then taking over as the rowing season had stopped early for me. I would usually continue on into mid-August, but the poor weather meant that most areas were flooded and so were not a good place to hold regattas. They were cancelled and I stopped training/racing. The advantage of course was a break from the 11month training and the more hours that I could work. I think one week I worked maybe 40 hours?? I don’t remember, but it certainly has helped pay for some expenses up to now.

I still continue learning French once a week, and I must say that the language seems to be working well with me so far (have covered the imperfect and the present tense so far) and I can get by moderately well as long as it’s all written. I think the French deliberately talk fast to prevent us from deciphering what they say to one another

With the rowing season restarting on 1st September for my new squad (moved into ‘Senior Squad’ now), I resumed about a week before and slowly built into it. Now work has taken the back-seat and I’m back into just the lazy 7.5hrs work that I’m contracted to do. Lousy money now but from recent events I can’t be arsed to help out more than I need to there for the moment.

The outlook for the rest of the year seems good for me I should think. I’m not sure where work is heading, it’s neither good nor terribly bad. On the rowing front, all seems to be well - a great new squad to enjoy. Vigorous training sessions, healthy banter and a handful of training camps are incoming .. so I guess I should grab it by the horns and enjoy the ride

Wow. July was quite a busy time for me with the rowing and the work.. No excuse for not posting I suppose :-/

I have been busy, and have grown up a bit and have got lots more to write about. One interesting thing is that my page views and unique visits are now at almost 200 uniques this month alone…. with nearly 600 page views. I’m pleased with that. Considering I haven’t done anything on this blog since July 1st - it’s quite strange. Not fussing - traffic is always good, right?

It should be good, I suppose. If the blog had pretty much died then I would probably not be here trying to get it back - somehow it seems people want me back! Well, I may be wrong but keywords have been searched at google and msn.com and I get my fair share of different Internet Browsers used to access this page so I know it’s not just me, or another person continually refreshing the page.

Consider this post as an introduction to my return. It’s getting late and I will be going to bed - so see you later

Stay classy, San Diego!

Okay - had quite an intense last few days … and it’s only going to get tougher. On Friday 29th June, I or we had our qualifying race for Henley Royal Regatta. The course is over the standard 2,000m length and it is also raced upstream which always proves to be slightly tougher. The weather the past week has been terrible too - and the amount of rain has only intensified the strength of the stream.

We were racing among 38 other quads (quadruple sculling boats), and the event is raced as a time trial. One boat goes off, then another follows 20seconds later. The Regatta attracts a large amount of international boats, and we were suprised by the amount interested in the Junior 18 category. Boats from Australia, USA, Ireland etc. Anyway, the 38 boats had to race in the evening, and the fastest 9 would qualify and join the pre-qualified in the Regatta.

Filed in from behind the starting line. One at a time. We reached the start line and the umpire calls us ready “You have 25 seconds” - or something. Then …. “GO!”. We started off at 37/38 strokes per minute, and after several strokes, got the call to ‘lengthen out’, and so we made sure we were taking 100% of the slide and let the rating come to maybe 34/35 spm. It was just 7 minutes of flat-out racing now.

There’s not an awful lot I remember from racing really. It all seems to happen at the time and because of the level of focus required, I just seem to forget about the middle part. There are always distinct things that happen, like maybe noticing the camera-men on the bank along the way, or hearing the roar of the juniors who’ve come to cheer us along (thanks!) or it could be the mind-blowing pain experienced in the last few inches.

After the first set of strokes I suppose we would have pushed on for a few strokes, and then again at different intervals during the course. There comes the last stretch of the river where the Stewards’ Enclosure is. That’s the posh bit and you ultimately want to both be in the lead there, and looking as technically-beautiful as you can. Even during the qualifiers when there isn’t really a Stewards’ Enclosure, you can imagine the feeling you will get if you are able to qualify.

The last few strokes are ones that I can recall. Hearing the call from behind me for us to just “Rag it!” and pull out all the stops to make the boat go it’s fastest there. All muscles inside our bodies exploding. Our lungs crying for more oxygen. Our hearts racing higher than ever… Then the cheer of support from the bank brings us back to reality - we’ve finished the gruelling piece.

We paddle back to the club and get the boat out, put it away as it begins to rain, and then get ourselves changed. Wander down to the finish area where many, many athletes and families gather with congratulations for everyone. Just general gossip for a few minutes and then the results. They come out in alphabetical order of those that have qualified. Alphabetically so that noone actually knows exactly how well they did.. cunning. We find that we have qualified and it’s just excellent.. a few handshakes and then we realise we have another few days until we have to do it all over again.

More to come later on in the week. Next race is on Thursday - wish me luck! Photos can be found at BigBlade.

As far as work goes, I have finally been able to arrange to have time off of work for Henley Royal Regatta. I tried telling them as soon as I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to work during my races, and I wouldn’t lumber myself with the stress during the period. I also told them that in my application form for the job I had made it specifically clear that if anything like this turns up, then I will be in favour of rowing over my job. Also, about how when Tesco have needed people to cover overtime, I have gone out of my way in the past to help out where I can.

So… What do they say? Well, I am told that my job should come first and that I should give notice for things like this. Ok, fair enough, I can see it from an employers perspective. One employee wants time off for serious commitment and employer needs time to find overtime. I found out Sunday 17th June; I think that I would be doing this and that. I rang Tesco on Monday to speak to my manager to explain this. He was ill. I rang on Tuesday .. he was ill. I rang on Wednesday .. he was ill. I then asked to speak to a high-level manager. Now - apparently I have made no effort to contact anyone regarding this and leaving it to Wednesday is too late. Hah, makes me laugh. This is when I was told that I should put my job first and shouldn’t leave it too late. So I tell them that I have been contacting them since I found out and that I wanted them to realise how important it was to me.

So, I’m pretty much told down the phone that I can’t have time off to go to one of the largest regattas in the world .. Right, cos that’s going to stop me. I went in to work that Wednesday for my shift and I’m told by team leaders and other employees that writing a letter is probably the best way to go about it. I come home and my parents help me put a letter together. Not because I’m incapable of writing letters, hehe .. but because the way I wrote it was in a slightly more aggressive way which would result in either them firing me or me quitting to make the point

My next shift was Thursday morning and my mum came to pick me up and we dropped the letter off. I made sure I gave it to the managers during a meeting so that they all could see the letter! On my friday shift, I was told that I would speak to the ‘manager’ on Monday. Okay, so now it’s been a week of me trying to let the employer know that they will be one man short for a fortnight. So, Monday comes and at the end of my shift I go into a quiet interrogation-looking room. She tells me that I have not given enough notice and that apparently it didn’t say anywhere on my interview form that I had said what I said. She was probably trying to be as difficult and criticizing as possible. She picked at every bit of the letter trying to make things from it.. was just stupid.

She even had the cheek at the end of it to tell me that she wanted me to do well etc and that she was glad we sorted it out. It’s been a pain, and I recommend that if anyone has problems with large companies then they should make as many other employees get on your side as possible. If she had told me that there wasn’t a way to get time off.. I would have taken time off ofcourse, but for others if you get other people on your side and maybe make a scene it’s the best way. Ideally, they want to tell you to do what they want, and they sweep you under the carpet, forgetting you etc etc. If you’re stubborn enough (and possibly stupid) then you will know to stand up and fight for your chance.

Too long post and a tired lad - cya later!

Once again, I must apologise for the inactivity on my part. When I started this blog, I told myself that I would try to continue posting .. sometimes regardless of whether I had any readers or visitors. There have been a few days when I maybe have had time to put together a post - but I really wasn’t sure as to whether I could make it of quality.

As far as rowing goes, things have gone pretty well since the last post. I was able to race at Marlow International Regatta which was held at Dorney Lake in Eton. The regatta was one of the largest that I’ve attended and was pleased with how the day turned out. I was racing in a junior double with my partner, and we were drawn to race against 2 boats from USA, and 2 other boats from around England. Only one USA boat turned up, which was a shame, but we were still able to show them how well we race.

Had a lengthy warm-up in the seperate lake (adjacent to the racing lake), and then got ‘marshalled’ through into the racing lake and were put in the approriate lanes. Usually when I race, I get a really dry throat after 1,000m or so, and find it hard to breath - here, I had this feeling on the line. I knew it was going to be tough. The Umpire called as to get into racing start positions, and then set us off. I have a tendency to look all over the place when I’m in the boat, and that is bad for both the boat’s rhythm and the balance. This time I kept looking straight ahead.

I could only see the english crew next to us in my peripheral vision and usually after the racing start we have a little lead .. this time we were level. At the 500m mark I could see the USA boat a few seconds behind us and so I knew that we would be able to move away from them. There were 2 boats left that we had to beat now. At the 1,000m mark I could see that the boat next to us had moved up on us slightly, and from where I was, we looked to be in 3rd place. On thing that is hard when rowing is being able to row as hard and as well when you’re behind.

We had the strokes per minute up at 34/35 and were approaching the 1500m mark now. I could see that the 2nd english boat on the far lane was actually slowly drifting behind us, and I said to myself that it was “all or nothing” at this point. We pushed on to the last 400m, and I made sure I knew that if we pushed too early, then we may not get to the finish. There was still full commitment to the boat of course, but you can’t provide all out 100% pressure for the whole race, cos you’ll blow up.

Last 300m and my partner said something - can’t remember, it’s likely I didn’t hear anything but a rumble - and it was our race from there. We were maybe half a boat length down, and by the last 200m we were maybe just a few inches ahead. Had to give it another push and with the last 100m we were just over one boat length up. That last 100m had to hurt more.. Each stroke from there was more powerful and technically correct that the last… Ahh.. it fecking hurt, but boy was it worth it!

It’s important now to say that neither of us had heard any encouragement at all.. when we raced it was like 2 of us, encapsulated again the rest of the field. We were in a bubble .. a different mindset to everyone else. We started the race with our plan in our head, we executed everything we had done in training, and we deserved every last inch of that.

So we congratulated ourselves and then tapped the boat round to go back up the course to collect our medals/tankards. When we got quarter the way up, we were asked to cross to the otherside, to paddle onto the medal pontoon. When we reached the other side, on the last stretch to glory - we were told by the Umpires that we had been disqaulified… Why? Steering was exceptional, we hadn’t bad-mouthed anyone.. couldn’t think of a reason. What did they say? “Coaching from the bank.”

Well, for anyone to coach a racing crew is illegal and results in disqualification, we all knew that. And our coach is one of the finest and most experienced in the country, and so we obviously complained. It turned out that apparently he had been shouting (which he agrees to) “Come on Nathan!” & “Come on Sam!”. Hmm.. it seems that now encouraging people is against the rules. Well sod them. We know we won .. the competitors know we won .. and the officials have made themselves look like idiots.

The whole ‘coaching from the bank’ seems quite ironic as well. As I had put in, neither of us heard anything from anyone for the race, and so it didn’t affect us whatsoever. Oh well.. just gonna have to win next time!

Firstly, I would like to apologise for not posting that much for the past few days. Well it’s only been 2 days, but it seems like it may be more, until you get some quality content. The main reason for this is that I am incredibly busy and consequently worn-out because of both the extra training workload and by working 16 hours overtime a week.

“16 hours? That’s nothing!” Well maybe not. I only work a contracted 7.5 hours a week, and this overtime is on a trial basis until I can properly swap job roles. Not only is it additional work, but it starts at 6am, and that means waking at 5am. Losing sleep is critical to failure long-term in my opinion, and I hope to do a whole topic on ’similar things’ later (secret for now of course).

The training workload hasn’t increased necessarily, but definately has intensified. I have a big international competition on Saturday .. the largest that I have competed in before. 3 British crews (including myself) and 2 crews from USA (which I assume are good if they are willing to travel across the pond for it). So, we (my teammate) have the pressure to cope with as well as making sure that we are rowing as beautifully as we can, every stroke.

With that said, next Friday, we have got the Preliminary Qualifiers thing for Henley Royal Regatta. Henley Royal Regatta (HRR) is the largest non-televised regatta in the world .. and basically we are qualifying for a place in the Junior event with which there are likely to be juniors from all over the world racing (I think Australia won last year).

To make everything a whole lot worse, I need to take time off of work in order to get the necessary training in AND to make sure I rest properly, so no long-term fatigue kicks in. Yeah .. understandable you may think .. But my employer is not seeing it from my point of view. Annoying.. and now I risk losing my job cos they don’t realise the importance of this in my life.

Anyway, have a good week if I don’t see you. Make sure you work hard and play harder!

“Touch my bum, don’t be shy” - Cheeky Girls.

Well… they got half of it right! One thing that you must make sure you are doing is getting yourself out there. Don’t be shy to push ideas across the table, don’t sit back for too long waiting. If you wait too long you risk someone else taking your idea, using it themselves and possibly making it better. If you wait too long then the idea could become useless as technology and time moves on. There is no use for a manual fruit juicer, as we have machines now that can do them.. That kind of thing.

My first piece of advice is to make sure that you are confident with what you want to achieve. It’s all fine and dandy wanting to be an entrepreneur though .. But how are you going to achieve it if you don’t do anything with your ideas? When I have ideas, I make sure that I can plan at least the first few weeks of development. How is it going to be achieved? How much expense will be expected? How much time will it cost you? Will you need help? Things like this. I don’t right pages and pages of it, but have it in note form ready for when I’m ready to commit time, effort and money into it.

The second step is getting the plan off of the paper. Sometimes I might talk to others that I trust, to look for the flaws in the idea that maybe I have overlooked in the hype. You will need to know what to think about when launching the project. You definately do not want to come across any impossible situation half-way through, and especially not when people are expecting to be able to use, see etc the product.

I will leave this here as part of multiple posts in this category. Check back in a few days and I’m sure there will be another!