Trek China - Blog

The New Minibus

2008-04-07T10:43:00.002+01:00

A number of the trekkers have requested pictures of the new mini bus. Well, here they are - you can download them by clicking on the below links, right clicking with your mouse over the image and choosing the Save As Option to save them to your computer.

New%20minibus2.JPG

New%20minibus1.JPG

Whiteboards - thumbs up from Sammy!

2008-04-03T16:49:00.002+01:00

Hi - its about time someone sent in a blog ... so I'm doing it - to test whether you are still logging on to the site!!

I just wanted to share some great news with TC0907 trekkers, staff, sponsors, supporters etc. At Newick House every year a Statement Review takes place for each child and various people attend, including teachers, parents, speech therapists etc. We attended Sam's review in January with his teacher and Gill Perry.

As you know interactive whiteboards were purchased from TC funds and installed during the Christmas break. The children now benefit from having a whiteboard in each classroom. During the review, we were thrilled to be told that a 'minor miracle' had occurred, in the way Sam (our son) has reacted to the whiteboard. He very quickly learnt how to use one of the 'number run' programmes. Specifically he has to select enough seats so that the Pink Men can jump out of their van, sit down and watch a show (no, I haven't been on the vino). So Sam has to select, drag and drop the correct number of chairs - then the show can begin!! Because this visual tool captivates his attention, he is concentrating longer and learning more and we believe it has prompted more interest in the laptop programmes as well.

Thank you every one again for your wonderful support!

Claire

Trek Press Release from The NAS

2008-01-29T14:36:00.000Z

The National Autistic Society has issued a press release today about the funds raised for them by the team.Click here to read The NAS press release

Further Trek Fame...

2008-01-29T10:53:00.000Z

This article appeared in last week's edition of the Mid Sussex Times. Bit of a shame they put £10,000 rather than £100,000 in the first paragraph, but it reads well after that.

Click here for an easy to read version

Gala Dinner

2007-12-26T16:17:00.001Z

Hi Everyone

Many thanks to everyone who made it last Friday to Brighton for the Gala Dinner - it was a great night and a really special way to celebrate the success of TrekChina0907. As ever it was a team effort and our thanks go to Martin, Paul, Stephanie and Adam for their help.

The flowers and picture were really kind gestures and much appreciated.

It has been an amazing year in many ways and to have done what we did - Raising Awareness, Building Friendships and Achieving Results - has left us feeling very proud (and very tired !) and so pleased that the whole team has made such a difference to both Newick House School and The National Autistic Society.

Hope you all have a great festive season, a happy new year and look forward to keeping in touch in 2008.

Joy and Kevin

our reunion walk

2007-12-12T13:06:00.000Z

hi all - i've posted the pics from our walk on the 28th... feel free to have a look!

i hope everyone is up for a walk in the new year. i'm certainly going to need some exercise after all the eating and drinking!!!

Christmas Party

2007-12-10T14:36:00.001Z

Last Friday Adam, Jeremy, Raj, Ken, Pare, Stephanie and I were at the company Christmas Party in London. Never one to miss an opportunity to drink champagne all evening, Christine came along as well. There are some pictures up on Pare's facebook site for those who want to see what happened !

Anyway, many great stories were swapped as we warmed up for next Friday's event. Towards the end of the evening I introduced Joy to our boss who was very complimentary about the whole trek but said he was a little confused by our future plans - "I hear that you are thinking of doing another one in 2009. I spoke to one of the team earlier and he said you were planning to trek in Pinot Grigio, but I think he meant Machu Picchu !!"

I will protect the identity of the person involved and am looking forward to lots more of this sort of thing next week, plus hearing if anyone fancies Peru or elsewhere in 2009. And before anyone asks, no I am not organising it.....

Kevin

#END

This is a story!

2007-12-05T18:31:00.000Z

TrekChina0907

The story of "Kevi...

By Kevin's Trekkers!

Book Preview

The book - is now available to buy online.
Shipping is a bit expensive for single copies - and is relatively cheaper if you order more than one copy at a time.
If you are not in the UK there is an option to change the currency (down in the lower right hand side of the order page).
They are on sale at list price.

gala dinner

2007-11-15T18:45:00.001Z

Hi All,
I am currently trying to collate a music list for the gala disco. Any suggestions/requests that people have, could you please post them on the blog?!
Hope that's alright and that everyone is well.
Look forward to seeing you all on the 21st!!!!!!! Get those dancing shoes on!
Lots of love,
Linz xxx

The story of "Kevin's Trekkers".

2007-11-12T18:00:00.001Z

The proof copy arrived today - TrekChina0907: the story of "Kevin's Trekker's" - and it's lookin' good (even if I say so). Check out the video...

There are one or two things to change before the final version, typos and such, but it's 98% there!

Vital statistics: Hardback with dust cover, 194 lovely 8x11 inch pages, 400 delicious photos, and many more memories than you can count! And yours, madam, not for 60 quid, not for 50, not even for 40....no madam this lovely object, that would grace the coffee table of Buckingham Palace itself, will be yours for just £29.95 - delivered! The ideal Christmas present - buy one, buy two, buy half a dozen and give them to all your friends!! (Ed: that's enough selling, stick to taking pictures!)

The book will be available to buy online at the end of next week - but will cost more if you order that way. To hit the price above, we'll order in bulk. More info in an email I'll send each Trekker.

Ken

PS
A DVD/CD of all of the photos and some video clips is just about ready too. It has way more photos than the book, but not so handy to look at and might just baffle granny!

PPS
I reserve the right to round the price up by 5p!

TrekChina0907 mentioned in the NAS 'Insight' Newsletter

2007-11-12T17:09:00.000Z

The NAS recently mentioned TrekChina0907 in their "Insight" newsletter. They gave us a good write up, although a small typo means that it looks like we did even more of a brilliant job than we have done! Click to here read the whole newsletter: NAS%20Insight%20article%20Nov%202007.pdf

TrekChina0907 in BP's Horizon Magazine

2007-11-09T10:48:00.000Z

BP's global magazine "Horizon" - which reaches thousands of people across the world - ran a two page spread on TrekChina0907. We were delighted to get the extra coverage and be recognised as newsworthy enough!

Our hope is that some who read the article will be inspired to use the same web technology we used so successfully to keep our followers back home connected and engaged. It would be good to see what we created re-used by other worthy causes.

Click on the pictures to read the article.

£95,000 !!!!!!!

2007-11-06T15:39:00.000Z

Just noticed the updated home page and the sneaky announcement that we have raised £95,000 for the two charities

That's right

£95,000

Well done one and all. Just so proud of you all!

Andrew & Ann

TrekChina0907 funds making a difference

2007-11-01T17:02:00.001Z

TrekChina0907 funds making a difference

In order to help the staff and children at Newick House, TrekChina0907 funds are being used to purchase 15 Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W55 Digital Cameras - one for each classroom. These will be great visual aids for the children and will replace the aging equipment currently in use.

Additionally, 9 electronic whiteboards have been ordered so that now each classroom in the school will be able to benefit from them. They will be fitted on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of January in time for the new school term. We'll make sure we gets lots of great pictures for the blog as soon as they are up and running.

Please keep checking the blog for news of how TrekChina0907 continues to make a difference to Newick House and very soon to The National Autistic Society as well - and let us have your comments too.

Kevin

TrekChina0907 helps Newick House "Special Agents"

2007-10-30T15:12:00.000Z

TrekChina0907 has been asked to fund one part of the WebPlay project for some of Newick House's younger pupils in Years 3 and 4. This is a Local Project, but once pupils have learned how to use the skills and WebPlay tools they will graduate to the International Project in Years 5 and 6. Newick House School has successfully taken part in WebPlay Projects for five years. The pupils benefit in developing a range of skills and in having some memorable fun in the process.

On the WebPlay Local project, the pupils will become secret agents, the staff become the middle ranking secret agents and actors who are playing the really senior spies come to the school to add authenticity - and a lot of fun! The Newick House secret agents have to collaborate with agents in another school to solve a crime - and it all ends up with a special party where the two school groups finally meet in person. Until then, the identity of the other school is a mystery. Pupils communicate with other secret agents on the WebPlay website using think.com. throughout the project, so their ICT skills as well as their imagination and acting skills get a real boost.

Although Newick House has made an annual commitment to paying the necessary funding to take part in the project, it has not been easy for other schools to finance their participation. If there are no local partner schools, the pupils don’t have the same quality of experience of the project. TrekChina0907's generous donation will assist Newick House by ensuring they can work with partner schools - and will let pupils in both schools benefit from a high quality integrated project that seems even more powerful when pupils with a range of special needs are included.

There is more information on the WebPlay website (http://webplay.org/index.php), including a case study about Newick House's previous involvement - (http://webplay.org/programme_evaluations.php)

Kevin

Updated Google Maps

2007-10-30T09:42:00.000Z

The Google Earth files for the Trek have been updated. There are now two versions for each day....one shows only the track taken and key milestones....the other includes photographs, one or two other cool things, and also a number of "quick views" - to make it easy to "fly" around the route we took.

You can find these if you click on the "Our Route" tab above (a shortcut is here)

To use these first click on the trek day you want to see (this will download the file to Google Earth) then click on Tracks, ACTIVE LOG, Views. Have fun!!

PS
If you don't already have Google Earth - you can download a free copy here

The "Live Link" to Assembly

2007-10-24T19:19:00.000+01:00

Sorry to take so long to post this. Some video clips were taken during the "live link" we did from China back to Newick House school. I've done my best to stitch some representative bits together. The sound quality is not great - but you'll get the idea. Sadly not everone who talked was filmed.

You can feel the excitement and interest.

Be warned - you might need a box of tissues to hand!

For those that don't know.....we created a PowerPoint slideshow, with photos of the first three days trekking, and managed to send that to the school, over the Internet, in advance. The school then played the slideshow in the Assembly Hall at the same time we played ours in China! We used a cell phone with a "loud speaker" at our side and a audio-conferencing device back at the school so that everyone could hear us. We could talk and listen both ways.

Click here for a shortcut to the posting we made on the blog after the live link was over where you can see a photo of what things looked like at our end, thousands of miles away in China!!

PS
Sorry that the end of the very last word got chopped off, I guess the camera ran out at that point....but you know what was being said!! :-)

PPS
For the Trekkers, we'll put all of the various clips together with photos on a DVD before Christmas!

.

chinese chicken dance

2007-10-24T11:14:00.000+01:00

you may have already seen this on my blog, but i wanted to add something here (and give adam an opporunity to post another "funny" comment). it is from my visit to xi'an huiling school.

xi'an huiling is a special needs school in xi'an. intrepid travel believe in responsible tourism and hence arranged for us to visit the local school and support the young adults. it could not have been more appropiate. you can read more about it on my blog or view pictures from my xi'an album.

the students at xi'an huiling love having visitors. however, they are very shy and keep to themselves except when they are performing! and then they want everyone to join in. here we are at xi'an huiling doing the ol' chicken dance - in chinese!

say something!!!

2007-10-24T00:33:00.000+01:00

someone please say something!!!! i keep checking the blog to see if anyone has put up pictures or video, made comments or added a new post and hhhhmmmm nothing...

i want back on the wall!!!!!

Look at the difference you've made already!

2007-10-12T09:19:00.000+01:00

Here is the new minibus at Newick House which funds from TrekChina0907 have contributed to.

A little competition for you!!

2007-10-11T16:55:00.000+01:00

What caused the following to happen?

Answers in the comments section please!!!

Mutianyu

2007-10-11T08:13:00.000+01:00

A few short snippets from the first few hours trekking. Little did we know that these were the easy bits! I like the incredulous question "we're actually going all the way up to that thing????". Well - yes and a bit further and then all the way back again!!! :-)

PS Did the Monguls wear suits of armour??

Exercise

2007-10-10T06:26:00.000+01:00

After a hard days trekking it was important to stretch and chill.....and here are some of the more enthusiastic trekkers entering fully into the spirit of things!!

I miss...

2007-10-09T18:34:00.000+01:00

Eating meals with 30 friends;

Drinking 3 litres of water and 4 beers a day;

Enjoying sticky rice;

Concentrating hard to make sure the next step isn't a trip;

Being a bannister for Christine;

Waking up and not being in as much pain as I expected;

Singing badly;

The sweat;

Rolling with the 3208s;

Reading the blog;

Laughing, a lot;

Being with you all...

Suits, really boys.....?

2007-10-05T11:07:00.000+01:00

Just in case you were wondering how famous we really are, check this out...

Thankfully, the article has their names under the photo otherwise you'd never recognise this lot all dressed up in their finery....never saw that on The Wall!