Bertrams Party in Style

Our final festive posting for 2012 is from Bertrams :)

Norwich's The Lamb Inn  was the chosen venue for 100+ warehouse and office staff to get together and party in style.

There was a buffet, disco, 1 free drink for staff plus 20% off all drinks all night. Sounds great!

Tickets for the evening were sold out. Feedback from the night says it was fun with a great atmosphere, good tunes, lots of good food a great bunch of people.

There's one mystery left to clear up: someone’s stripy boxers were being thrown about the dance floor? Now who’s the owner of the stripy pants?

Answers can be left in the Comments below. Keep them clean please - as were the pants, I hope ;)

Festive Fun For Great Ormond Street

Borehamwood put their festive cake decorating skills to the test recently to help raise funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital. Amongst the cupcakes were lots of angels, presents, puddings and Christmas trees to name but four!

As well as the scrumptious goodies, there was a sweepstake using the poster and guidelines available on Great Ormond Street's website.

The cake sale raised £94.50 to add to the £30 raised via the sweepstake.

Superstars: The Result

Loving gym test! Runner-up again eh?! Haha one day folks! Great tv, thanks for all the tweets! Taking pelters for kayak/run from my old man! :)

— Michael Jamieson (@mj88live) December 29, 2012

Michael Jamieson proved he's a top sporting all-rounder by finishing runner-up to boxing's Anthony Joshua in last night's entertaining Superstars programme. Michael was leading at one point having equalled the programme's record score for archery with 46 out of 50. He seemed shocked to have shot so well!

He then proved he's more comfortable IN the water than on it by promptly capsizing his kayak (hence the teasing from his dad) in the pool. A supplementary swimming match featuring Michael, Rebecca Adlington and commentator Iwan Thomas was another highlight.

Good-ish performances on the track and cycling saw Michael in fifth spot going into the final event, the dreaded gym tests. Here he showed his tweets about good sessions in the gym during his Olympic training weren't idle talk. Anthony Joshua was surprised to find Michael had beaten him to the winning score to secure a commendable second spot.

In other news, Michael's 200m breaststroke performance merited 49th place in the Top 50 Olympic Moments shown over Christmas. There's another chance to see this programme tomorrow night (31st December) at 8.30pm on BBC3.

Going forward, Michael has been appointed a British Gas Ambassador. His new role involves helping to promote swimming at all levels of the sport. British Gas Brand director Susie Plume said:

“It was fantastic to see his great performance in London this summer and his swim in Istanbul reinforced his status as a great role model and ambassador for the sport.”

Decking Their Desks

[caption id="attachment_4601" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Who can you spot amongst the festive elves?[/caption]

Everyone at Rowan House has been getting in the festive mood by decking their desks! Just like last year, the teams around the office have interpreted the Christmas spirit in their own way and come up with lots of inventive ideas for their decorations.

Jan and Sue from the Blue Apple canteen were drafted in as impartial judges to decide this year's winners. After much deliberation, the Data Management Team's Little Shop of Christmas Horrors (can you spot it below?) carried off the prize.

With such festive cheer in abundance, all that remains is to wish all Dispatches readers a very Merry Christmas!

Darren Finds His Ho Ho Ho

Darren Turner (Operations Director at Bertrams) had a key part to play recently when he (shhhh! don't tell anyone) dressed up as Santa for Friends of Stoke Ash primary school's fundraiser, near Eye.

The Friends raise funds for equipment for the school, plus support children from under privileged backgrounds who cannot afford items such as being able to go on school trips e.g. the Friends are paying for some children to go to Aladdin in Norwich.

Says Darren:

We raised £480 at the school Christmas fair, I raised over £80 as Santa. Sorry the picture is not brilliant but it was dark in the Grotto.

Thanks for helping Dispatches get in a festive mood Darren :)

Michael Bags Another Silver

On Friday evening at the World Short Championships in Istanbul, Michael Jamieson again showed he can dig deep to produce the goods when under pressure.

After admitting to some 'ropey swims' earlier in the week, Michael qualified as an 'outside smoker' in lane 8 for the final of the 200m breaststroke. A slow reaction time off the blocks and 6th place at the first 50 metre split were perhaps not quite what Michael had in mind for his last race of the championships.

However, a strong second 50 metres saw him gain three places into third spot at the 100 metre turn and a further gain into 2nd at the 150 metre mark. After that, it was deja vu with Michael trying to catch his Olympic nemesis Daniel Gyurta down the final 50 metres.

Gyurta won again, but Michael can take much away from these championships in addition to a new British record (2:03:00). As in the Olympic trials, he's proved he can overcome earlier performances that don't match his exacting standards. He's also proved he's not a 'one hit wonder' and can handle the pressure that the fame and fortune of being an Olympic medallist brings.

With his Bath team-mate Andrew Willis finishing in 5th, these two can continue to work off each other in training to target Daniel Gyurta the next time they meet. I'm looking forward to reporting a golden hued result soon :)

Overall, there was a good improvement in performance by Team GB with one gold, two silvers and three bronze medals won during the competition.

Back from Istanbul, there was plenty of opportunity to spot Michael on TV last night during Sports Personality of the Year as he was seated just behind Lord Coe. If you missed him, then you'll find he's shown in the Superstars lineup featured in the double Christmas/New Year issue of Radio times on page 11. Superstars will be broadcast on BBC1 on December 29th at 6.45pm.

Aaron Has a Special Invitation

Aaron, Jaimie Dorward's son had a thrilling invitation recently - to help the National Autistic Society celebrate its 50th birthday!

For such an important occasion, the chosen venue was no ordinary one. It was no other than the Speaker's House at the House of Commons!

Naturally, Aaron couldn't turn down the invitation to such an exciting opportunity and Jaimie accompanied her son on the long trip from Yorkshire to London, using her Volunteer Time from Bertrams to do so.

Although the event was held in the hallowed halls of Westminster, it wasn't about politics but all about celebration. Here's Jaimie and Aaron with Jane Asher, who's been the President of the National Autistic Society since 1997.

And what was it like? Jaimie says it was brilliant!

It looks an amazing place from the photo Jaimie, no wonder you and Aaron had such a wonderful time :)

Some News from the Tow Path Tribe

[caption id="attachment_4550" align="alignleft" width="1024"] The cheque presentation[/caption]

Worcester's Tow Path Tribe have been in touch with news of the presentation they made recently to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity (QEHBC). You may remember they walked over 30 miles along the canal towpath from Birmingham back home to Worcester during the summer.

Here's their official report...

Close-knit colleagues from Smith News in Worcester completed a 31 mile sponsored walk in memory of much-loved colleague Nigel Dean.

The 13-strong team set out at 6am from Gas Street Basin in Birmingham and followed the canal towpath to Diglis Basin in Worcester, which they reached at 6pm.

The sponsored walk raised over £1,000 for the Critical Care Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) which cared for Nigel until he sadly passed away earlier this year after a brain haemorrhage.

Nigel worked for Smith News for 24 years and is greatly missed by his colleagues in the Copy Allocation department and his family, including wife Sharon and sister Jo.

Sharon and Jo both came to QEHB to help present the cheque to Anne Waller from QEHB Charity.

Sharon said: “QEHB is a wonderful hospital and the staff in the Critical Care unit were just fantastic. They were always willing to answer our questions and were always on the go, caring for patients. Although Nige lost his brave fight, the hospital did their absolute best for Nigel and I want to thank them so much. Nigel was a great Dad and husband – he crammed so much into his life. I and my boys waited for the walkers on the finish line to cheer them home - I hope the money they have raised will help other families cope with difficult times.”

As well as the sponsored walk, the team at Smith News also held a cake sale and other fundraising activities. Clare Morgan said: “Nigel was such a character with a big heart. We all miss him and our team walk was a way of remembering Nigel and the great times we had together. Many of Nigel’s clients contributed to the total - we had an amazing response.”

Erica Perkins, Critical Care Manager, added: “On behalf of the team at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, I would like to thank Smith News for their fantastic fundraising. We are planning a number of environmental improvements in Critical Care, including making our relatives’ rooms more comfortable by ordering additional furniture and hanging some new artwork. The money they have worked hard to raise will make a difference to the lives of patients and their relatives.”

As well as the pictured Certificate of Appreciation, the team also received a lovely letter of thanks from QEHBC.  NB the £1118 raised is in addition to the £2225 already donated to Acorns Children’s Hospice also on behalf of Nigel.  A fantastic achievement by the team.

Michael's Next Target

We've news just in that Michael Jamieson's arrived in Istanbul for the World Short Course Championships which are due to start tomorrow. Olympians aren't allowed to rest on their laurels for long!

Short Course means the competition's held in a 25 metre pool, so accurate starts and turns have a much bigger part to play than they did in the lung bursting 50 metre length pool of the Olympics. We don't yet have details of which events Michael will be swimming in, but I see from the schedule there's 50, 100 and 200 metre breaststroke events this time around.

We'll keep you posted with any further news. NB Michael's heading back to the UK in time for Sunday's Sports Personality of the Year, so keep your eyes peeled for him appearing on the show!

Mobros Extra!

The turn of December last week saw a few chilly top lips as the Movember competition came to a close and moustaches were given the chop! Although we featured some of the most impressive 'taches in our December newsletter, they were plenty more contenders – here are a few of our favourites!

[caption id="attachment_4488" align="alignleft" width="1024"] This year's MoBros from Worcester[/caption]

First up we have a picture of 2012's Team from Worcester to compare with their efforts from last year. Did they do any better this time? You decide...

Next we reprise the award winning pinup Mos revealed in last week's December newsletter: Winner Paul Whittingham from Bertrams, plus runners up Trade Marketing's James Bullen and The Consortium's Adam Courthold.

The NAC Banditos show an impressive likeness to their proposed After shot we showed you previously!

Next we have a mixture of familiar and new faces showing off their final Mos...

[caption id="attachment_4508" align="alignleft" width="640"] From left to right and top to bottom: Andy Aitken (The Consortium), Andy Dunkerley, Robert Mackenzie (both Trade Marketing) and Robin Denton (Dawson)[/caption]

... and finally, the remaining guys from Trade Marketing line up to reveal an impressive variety of 'tache styles!

So far our 28 Mobros have raised a fantastic £1,985 between them. There's still time to  donate and get them over the magic £2,000 mark. Here's the full list of donation pages for your final contributions:

• Andy Aitken


• Adam Courthold


• Robin Denton


• Ian Howat


• Simon Lockett


• NAC Banditos


• Trade Marketing


• Paul Whittingham


• Worcester

Editor's Note - 12th October 2013 - the donation pages are no longer available on the Movember website, so the above links have been removed.

Movember is a fun way to raise awareness for men’s health charities so well done for everyone who got involved!

Update 10/12/2012: Thanks to your clicks through to the donations pages this morning, the total raised now stands at £2,005 :)