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I’ve now set up a Flickr account where you can view all the photos from my recent holiday in the Peak District. I will also be adding photos from other holidays shortly. Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/81448737@N00/ to see them!

You may remember in my last entry I wrote about having to do a one-hour presentation at work. You’ll never guess what – my manager decided to give out prizes for the best two presentations – and I won first prize! In total, 6 people in our team did a presentation, and at the time we did them, we weren’t told that there would be prizes. It was only when we had a team meeting on Thursday that we found out. My prize was £40 worth of gift vouchers, and there is a very wide range of shops you can choose from. I was surprised I won, because I find presentations and public speaking very difficult. The day after I did my presentation, I went on my holiday to the Peak District, so I wasn’t around to watch anyone else’s presentation (so I couldn’t compare myself against anyone else). But I had a look at their presentation slides and handouts, so that I don’t miss out on learning anything important, as everybody was given a completely different topic to talk about.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been on holiday in the Peak District with Mum and Terry. I had a really good time, and I had a very peaceful time, in total contrast to my holiday in Ibiza last month! I can’t say which holiday I prefer, as they were both good in their own ways

The scenery was very similar to the Lake District, but without so many lakes! We were staying in a cottage at the end of a quiet lane in a village called Bonsall. The weather wasn’t perfect, but the only day we had really heavy rain was the final Thursday. We went on several walks around the local area, and we visited 3 caves in total – Poole’s Cavern (my favourite), Treak Cliff Cavern and Blue John Cavern. I find caves fascinating, especially the stalagmites, stalactites and the other geoligical formations.

I took many photos on the holiday, but there’s not enough room to post them all on this site – so I’m thinking of joining one of those photo album websites, uploading them all there, and then linking to them from this blog. I will also be able to upload photos from all my other holidays and events.

On the Friday before I went on the holiday, I did an hour-long presentation at work, in front of the rest of the team (about 8 people). We all had to do a presentation on an assigned topic, and mine was about how to run meetings effectively and working in a virtual team. Although I was really nervous, everyone said I did well. For nearly half of the hour, I was talking through my Powerpoint presentations, and for the other half, we had an interactive section, including time for people to ask me questions.

I spent many hours preparing my presentation slides, and I also created booklets with more detailed notes in them which everyone could keep, as there was no way I could possibly cover everything in an hour.