Hi everyone,
So dad has managed to encourage yet another of the children to add a little news, so here goes. As mentioned in some of the other blogs, I have spent the last 4 months in England getting some practical work experience. With a little help from Mark, due to contacts through the company he works for, I got a job with a company called Reliance Precision. They specialise in design and manufacture of very high precision parts, some of the major customers being in the aerospace, military, and medical industries. I got a main project which was to design a demonstration rig to demonstrate a new standard product that the company selling. It was very rewarding having the freedom to do my own design (with help at times) and manage the project myself, but even more rewarding to see a working prototype before I left.
As well as work experience, I took the opportunity to do a bit of travelling. I visited Scotland a few times where I have an aunt, uncle and a cousin who I had not met yet. I also made a trip to Holland to see my uncles and cousins there, and of course my Oma and Opa. I made a few weekend trips to see some of the English cities. One of the weekends I visited some old neighbours from South Africa who now live in Bristol which was wonderful. I also made a very nice trip to the Isles of Scilly, which are on the South West coast of England. The higlight of this trip being snorkelling with some seals who seemed to really enjoy swimming with the humans just as much as we enjoyed swimming with them.
All in all I have had a very memorable 4 months, but I am now also very happy to be home again. I start my 4th year of university in 2 weeks. This however is not my last year as I changed my mind after 2nd year about what I wanted to study (switching from mining to mechanical engineering) so I now have to do a 5th year. I dont mind this at all, (university is fun), and my experience this summer has confirmed that I made the right decision.
..well that was easy (as you can tell by the length) so you may even hear from me again.
Steve
