2014 First Friday Fun

We'll have a new look for you next week, but for now, I thought we could just have a little fun.  Do not do this at home!  And if you are planning it call www.entrainment.co.uk for Harness Training first ;o)


Seriously this is dangerous and you should not do it!

Friday Fun - digging yourself out of a hole

This was recently posted on a the climbing web site Climb Tafraout

What do you do when your digger falls in a hole? Answer, send for it's dad!

If only there could be a David Attenborough commentary.

Friday Fun - Engineering Quotes

Today we thought we'd have some fun with quotes

"To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the

glass is half empty. 

To the engineer, the glass is twice as big

as it needs to be."

Unknown

"The most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing.

From the book "Foundation design" by Coduto, Donald P.

"Death and taxes are unsolved engineering projects."

Romana Machado

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler"

Albert Einstein

"Engineering is the art of doing with one dollar which any bungler can do with two after a fashion."

AM Wellington (1887)

"Fast, Good, Inexpensive"

Pick two!

Our Boss, Andy Fewtrell ;o)

My favourite is:

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
Douglas Adams

We hope this brightened up your Friday.  If you have any others to share, please feel free to post them on our Facebook page.

Friday Fun - Oh please, yes!

It is sad that some of these ideas are never adopted, this appeals on so many levels.

 

If you ask questions like this you get answers like this bridge, conclusion?  

Ask more questions!

Friday Fun - Ladies Night

As you might imaging when the ladies at Up and Under plan a night out it isn't normal.  So it was this week when a group of staff and friends visited the local climbing wall.

Getting started - everyone off the ground

The night, supported by the Group,  started off with a little traversing and then got more serious as the newly initiated climbers began their assault on the wall's various problems.  This wall isn't at all easy being either vertical or overhanging. 

As the evening progressed everyone got higher and higher, coming to grips with the unfamiliar skills.  On top of the climbing the ladies had to be introduced to the intricacies of harnesses, ropes and belaying techniques.

 

Lorna and Sue

Emma at the big red button

Kaye crossing a red line

Sue about to reach the top

I believe Sue was the star of the night, not just for her ascents to the top of the wall, but for not breaking a single finger nail ;o)  From the comments I have heard it looks as though this might not be a one off.

Thanks to Lorna for organising the evening.

Safety can be sensible

So safe people, how about this sign?  Sometimes things can get a little too complicated isn't it nice when somebody simplifies things.

There is a serious message here.  

Delivering a safety message or creating systems for people to use?

Need help simplifying your safety messages?

Call Up and Under for safety consultancy, or just to have a common sense chat. 

Tel: 01270 589615

Friday Fun - How not to do rope access

We hope that our safe and efficient approach to building inspection and maintenance is well known enough that we don't have to point fingers at the opposition, but we feel this is probably going too far.

Just to be clear - This is NOT and Up and Under job ;o)

Friday Fun - Building Bridges

Thanks to Cemex for this one.

If only it was that simple. Everyone knows you should have wheel chocks to stop the driver reversing over the edge. Pah, totally unrealistic ;o)

Friday Fun

Just to prove we don't have all the fun, this photo recently appeared on Facebook.

Epic!

Friday Fun - Messing with the Boss

Does Andy ever get out on the ropes?  We have heard this question many times and today we present the evidence.  The rare Andius Fewtrellius was spotted recently beneath a bridge on the England/Wales border.  As you can see he still has no fashion sense and was sporting a boiler suit with slightly short legs and lovely red socks.

"So what happens if I undo this?"

 Of course, Simon was doing all the work, taking accurate measurements of deflection in the bridge deck.  Monitoring displacement and movement in structures is a common activity at Up and Under. 

At the business end, taking measurements.

What we do in our spare time

Continuing the loose series of articles about what Up and Under team members do on their day off, I thought I'd add this stuff.  We were recently invited by a supplier to try out the longest zip wire in Europe, so as this was the first invite we had ever had we decided to give it a try.

First there was the waiting about.........

Then the red plastic outfits ...........................

A bit of posing......................

Obviously being used to the scary stuff on a day to day basis - fully risk assessed of course -  we had to act casual, here is what all the fuss was about ;o)

Friday Fun - Man Rules

Man Rules - these are our rules!


Men are not mind readers.

Learn to work the toilet seat. you're a big girl. if it's up, put it down. we need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

Crying is blackmail.

Ask for what you want. let us be clear on this one:

• subtle hints do not work!
• strong hints do not work!
• obvious hints do not work!

just say it! 

Yes and no are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. that's what we do. sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. in fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

If you think you're fat, you probably are. don't ask us.

If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done, not both.

If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

 

Christopher Columbus did not need directions and neither do we...

 

All men see in only 16 colors, like windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. pumpkin is also a fruit. we have no idea what mauve is.

 

If we ask what is wrong and you say 'nothing,' we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

 

If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear.

 

When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine...really. 

 

Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as football or motor sports.

 

You have enough clothes.

 

You have too many shoes.

 

I am in shape. round is a shape!

 

Thank you for reading this. yes, i know, i have to sleep on the couch tonight.. but did you know men really don't mind that? it's like camping...

 

Pass this to as many men as you can - to give them a laugh... 

 

Pass this to as many women as you can - to give them a bigger laugh!

 

There must be a female version of this, please post it on our facebook page

Friday Fun - First Aid

OK I agonised about this one. It was sent to me after a recent incident - out of work - where I had to administer CPR.  There is a useful lesson in it, so it isn't purely gratuitous.

Probably one for the boys though!

Friday fun

That time of the week again, I thought you'd like to see this ;o)

The True Value of Inspection

Good quality inspection as part of a structure maintenance strategy is vital. It allows the structure owner or manager to intervene to prevent significant costs or failures occuring.

Here's an alternative:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20632863

Community Good Stuff

Andy stepped into the breach today after a last minute call from Cheshire East Parent Carer Support Service. "Could you please bring over your Olympic Torch on Saturday?"  The Cheshire East Parent Carer Support Service & Cheshire's Disabled Children's Database were holding a Family Fun Day in Sandbach and were in need of a Torch at short notice.

The Torch has arrived if you would like to see it - with Cat Radio

 Andy spent about one and a half hours at the event allowing the youngsters and their parents to get their hands on the Torch and get the all important photographs.  As always it worked its magic and was surrounded by smiles. 

It's mine ;o)

Organisers and helpers at the event

In addition to the fund raising and grant giving of the Foundation, this type of commuity involvement forms a significant part of the value that The Up and Under Group brings to society.  By emplying our services you not only get quality services, technical competence and best value; you make this Good Stuff possible. Thanks!

Weekend Volunteering

Two members of the Up and Under team spent the weekend at the Conway Centre on Anglesey assisting with adventure activities over the weekend.

One spent two days with groups walking in the Glyders.  One day was graced with near perfect weather conditions.  The views from Tryfan were exceptional, especially when nearby Glyder fach was shrouded in tumbling cloud.

The other team member spent two days coastal traversing, assisting the centre instructor to safely facilitate two groups of ten youngsters in climbing and open water swimming activities around the dramatic coastline of Holy Island.

We have supported less well off youngsters in attending this centre for a number of years and this type of interaction helps us to understand both the needs of, and the benefits to, the young people we help.

On Saturday evening another 100 people got to have their own Olympic Torch moment when once more Andy's Torch did the rounds.  For some this was the highlight of another fantastic weekend at the Conway Centre.

Olympic Torch Relay in Crewe

Andy successfully managed to complete his section of the Olympic Torch relay in Crewe on Thursday, and by all accounts caused a bit of a stir.  Hungerford Road is normally a quite residential street, but with the combination of Andy and a massive crowd you know it was going to get noisy, and it did! here are a couple of pictures of the day.

Andy was nominated to carry the torch because of his commitment to developing others and his charitible works in the local community.  The Torch will be visiting many local schools in the next few weeks.  Thanks to all who came to watch and we hope you enjoyed yourselves.

Up and Under Downhill Race Team Latest

Supporting sporting teams has long been a part of what we do at Up and Under and in 2012 we will be supporting our very own downhill bike race team, the following is a report from their first outing:

Pearce Cycles Downhill Series 2012 – Round 1

The Up and Under downhill race team (Rob - Hughes, Director Up and Under Limited - , Tom and John) had an encouraging first race of the season – Pearce Cycles Downhill Series Round 1 at Bringewood near Ludlow.


After a fairly relaxed day of practice on Saturday with dry dusty conditions the mood was a bit tense come Sunday morning, as the ground was damp the sky was grey and the open section was a bit slick. However, at the end of practice the track was dry.

First Runs:
John sets off 5th in category and sets a solid time of 2:41.227

Tom roles down the hill 23rd off the line to provisionally take 1st in category with a 2:34.610, after pulling an ‘ET’ over the finish jump. Crowd loving it!

Rob follows him down as his 30second man to take 1st by just over half a second (Up and Under in positions 1 and 2).

A further 29 riders come down in category pushing the team to 12th, 13th and 31st but second runs remain!


Second Runs:

John makes it down knocking almost 2 seconds off his first run, maintaining 31st position.  Tom feeling the pressure collects two trees in the last section (no real harm done) but still crosses the line taking 0.23 seconds off his first run time, finishes 18th.  Rob has an impressive incident free run taking just over 3 seconds off his first run time, finishing in 9th (target of a top ten result achieved).

Full results at:
http://www.pearcecycles.co.uk/results_pcss12_round_1
and for the extra stats:
http://www.rootsandrain.com/race1217/2012-mar-18-pearce-cycles-1-bringewood/

Bring on round 2! (At Hopton Woods, Nr. Craven Arms on the 21st & 22nd April)
Free camping for anyone that wants to

Up and Under Challenge 25

So next week we celebrate our 25th Birthday.  We will be doing lots during the year and we will keep you informed of the various activities.

The first event we are revealing is an opportunity for you all to join us, get active, have some fun and challenge yourself.  "Challenge 25" is your sporting roadmap to our action packed 25th birthday year.  There will be prizes galore, opportunities to get your picture on the web site and lots more.

Se the details below:

Click to enlarge!