This was our first exhibition of the year speaking at the girls college. Our stand was extremely popular, posibly because it was sandwiched between a Charity agency and a Catering Recruiting agency. Still thanking the college for that.

This was when it became apparent that the LandRover (Spitfire) was not a wise choice for long distances after breaking down in the first quarter of the journey. It had to be replaced by a German Messerschmitt. Churchill would be spinning in his grave.

The Car was fixed with a new turbo which seamed to do very little to speed but increased the power to noise ratio exponentially.

John and Jennie joined me for this one however it was not very successful. Possibly because some colossal dingleberry scheduled it on Mothering Sunday. I think St. Patricks day would have made a far better date.

And I quote “Further away than the moons of Jupiter”

More than made up for by the day though. Very well organised and appropriately timed on the last day of term.

However, it was here that someone accused me of being adversarial for steeling back my extension lead. Its not for public use, do I look like Socialist for pities sake.

This was where we unveiled our new stand, much to the irritation of whomever complained about it.

This was one of our most enjoyable events meeting people who really wanted to take a Gap Year. The popular theme was using professional diving credentials to travel around the world. Something which we pride ourselves on being able to offer.

On other notes, Jennie got lost trying to find a petrol station forgetting of course that Bradfield is in the middle of the British countryside. I on the other hand was restricted to 50mph all the way down the M4 thanks to Prescot’s health and safety for road cones policy. At least my old smoking bush was still there (not sure I should really say that).

A lovely school, unfortunatley situates between London and Bedford which meant having to use the M25. Sitting in the longest traffic jam in all of human history, Flossy, the sat nav, actually asked if I would like to switch to pedestrian mode.

‘Just Jon’ gave me a hand at this one, being one of our chief instructors in Egypt he could tell everything there is to know about Dive The Gap, in theory.

We met a lot of nice people at this school including the headmaster who gave as a tip afterwards as to the location of a public house he had of course only heard about in myth and legend half a mile up the road on the right hand side.

After a brief pint we drove straight to the channel tunnel for a much needed break.

This again involved circling the Q25 but again was worth it.

Tactfully we positioned the stand right by the tea and coffee facilities which left us in control of the quintessentials of British citizenship.

This was a very good exhibition in terms of numbers organisation with just one small exception. You cannot hide the taste of disgusting coffee by offering rich tea biscuits. Its just splintering cardboard with pledge and there’s nothing better to say about it.

A nice old traditional public school in the heart of the British countryside. We had a good fair here and met a lot of interested people.

There were more speed cameras, or piggy banks as they should be called, getting here than there are in all of Wales. Who ever designed a road that goes from 60mph to 30mph whilst going round a tight corner with a forward facing revenue raiser will be asked to leave the country when I come to power.

Thanks to Nick for taking the photos. You can just see him leaning to one side at the end with the apron on.

Uppingham School was where Steven Fry was expelled from and sent to a Borstal instead.

Repton was a highly organised event with the careers officer roping in the detentionees to help with packing and unpacking.

Who would of thought we would be treated to Petit Chablis as a starter before the event. That was very nice. At Uppingham we were only allowed lowly Pinot Grigio.

My hat, if I were wearing one, goes of to the organisers of this fair.

Repton was where Jeremy Clarkson was expelled from for and I quote ‘smoking drinking and generally making a nuisance of myself’.

After an emergency repair on the stand involving 3 miles of duck tape and a box of matches Radley College was the next target.

For the first time in over 3 months there were no traffic jams on the motorway. What a coincidence that that coincides with a change in government. Be it not for me to draw any correlation.

Thanks to Mike, the careers officer and professional Michael Fish impersonator, for getting everyone into diving.

I think the picture speaks for itself here.

After 3 phone calls with the AA we soon realised that today was the beginning of Glastonbury and the breakdown company was extremerly busy clearing dead hippy vans of the main A roads of Britian. This explained the sheer number of lawnmower powered vehicles that were causing traffic on the way.

To add to further unrelenting incompetence, it took us 3 hours to notice that we had broken down next to Stone Henge on the Summer Solstice.

As lovely a school that Oundle is, this fair was rather empty possibly due to synchronised scheduling with a world cup football match… whatever that is.

This meant that there was a surprisingly low turnout to the event. Nonetheless for those that, like me, don’t know what any of that means and turned up anyway, it was nice to meet you.

Paul arrived from Egypt to lend a hand and we expected to see an old Stillwellian friend, but he did not appear. I wonder why.

Now this was a very well spent morning. Straight out of chapel the sixth formers were marched in full tails round the exhibition stands ready to hear about a bit of Gap Year Scuba Diving and professional development.

Set up in prime location in the hall it was here that we contemplated (argued about) the idea of Ginger Bread Divers.

Leanne set up across from us and seamed to have a little argument about class with one of the students, very bad idea.

Thanks to all who came down, it was a pleasure to meet you.

This is where Flossy, the sat nav, tried to kill us. I don’t know what she thinks we have done to her but she had a death wish for us on that day and was actively attempting murder. After taking us miles into the hills of Bath the road got smaller and smaller until finally she asked us to turn right of a cliff.

It was a nice venue, despite smelling of athletes foot, however someone obviously didn’t realise that there was a drama event going on at the same time. Thus the afternoon went at about the speed of an Icelandic snail thats just been trodden on.

I have never walked up so many stairs in all my life. That was the most physical exercise I have done all year. The supporting words from one of the other exhibitors, Nick, was that it shows.

Louis the first Instructor that we trained came down to his old school for the Bristol Grammar School Gap Year Fair.

This was our favourite event of the year but not for the sheer quantity of interesting people that we met, nor the beautiful summers day, it was that they had Earl Grey tea. Who would have thought that a sixth form college would have that.

It was a very good day out and thanks to all who came down despite the compulsory talk from Virgin Atlantic.

A new event to us but it meant we could call in Dilley, our latest trained Divemaster.

Sharnbrook is an odd one because the organisation was about as efficient as a new age, anti banking, anarchy, protest yet we have trained 3 people from this school.

This is where we were due to make a Keynote to the students but due to the event being moved to the 12th July it would have been pointless presenting to the seven and a half students that hadn’t decided it was time to leave school.

The keynote is on hold and will be rescheduled later in the year.