Ray Poynter – Page 6 – My collection of views, thoughts, and experiences.

Japan

The journey to Japan starts

Post author By Ray Poynter
Post date June 29, 2014
No Comments on The journey to Japan starts

My 24 hour journey (a 13 hour flight to Singapore, a 2 hour layover, a 7 hour flight to Tokyo, and then 2 hours of immigration and travel into Tokyo) starts with breakfast in the Singapore Airlines lounge, a benefit of being a Singapore Airlines regular flyer. Breakfast included a bacon roll, probably my last taste of ‘proper’ bacon until the middle of August – for the next six weeks, when bacon is on offer, it will be in the US style, thin strips without the meat part. In so many ways Singapore are my favourite airline, so I hope everything lives up to my expectations. The bad news is that the plane sounds like it is going to be very full. I have aisle seats on both legs (seat 59D on both legs – I often try to choose the same seat number, but for no real reason, just seems right), but it sounds like I won’t have the luxury of an empty seat next to me.

Tags Japan, Travel

Japan

Off to study Japanese

I am on my way to Tokyo to spend a month studying Japanese. I have an apartment booked for one month and I meet my tutor on Thursday. How will it go? Well, my optimism is high, but over the last 57 years I have not shown any aptitude for languages, so my optimism has to be tempered with some realism/concern. Tonight I am stopping at the Yotel at Heathrow, as I am flying Sunday morning, and getting from Nottingham to Heathrow on a Sunday morning is quite a problem. The Yotel is probably quite a nice foretaste of Japan as it is a capsule hotel, something we often associate with Japan. My room is about 2 metres by three metres and has a bed, a desk, an area to get changed, a toilet, shower, and sink. The internet is free as are coffee and tea. The bed is interesting, the good news is that it is comfortable, but the interesting thing is that my bed is over the bed in next cabin (in the picture you can see I step up to my bed, so the bed in the next Cabin will effectively be underneath me. As well as meeting my needs really well, the Yotel is great value (by UK standards), tonight is costing me £71.

Tags Japan

Food

Boxing Day Pie, one of my joys at Christmas

Post author By Ray Poynter
Post date December 31, 2013
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For the last decade or more, Christmas Day at the Poynter household has had a special treat to follow it, Boxing Day Pie. Our pie is a combination of family bonding, tradition, and yummy eating. So, what is Boxing Day Pie? We take everything, well almost everything, left unserved from Christmas Day dinner and we […]

Tags Boxing Day, Food, Pie

Running

My first 100KM Run

Last Saturday (May 25, 2013) I took part in my first 100KM race (the London to Brighton Challenge), raising money for the breast awareness charity CoppaFeel! (more on the charity later, but you can donate via my JustGiving page). Last summer I walked 100KM in the Oxfam Trailwalk and I ran in an 80KM race […]

Tags Running

Australia Running

Australia’s Toughest Marathon?

Post author By Ray Poynter
Post date May 3, 2013
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At the end of May I am running a 100KM race, the London to Brighton Challenge (to raise money for the CoppaFeel breast cancer awareness charity), if you’d like to sponsor me, please visit my JustGiving page. Although I have run an 80KM race before, this will be my first 100KM, and it requires a fair bit of training and ideally mini-goals along the way. One of my challenges, in terms of my training schedule, was that April was a heavy travel month for me, with conferences and meetings in Vietnam, Japan, and Australia – so I was on the lookout for a goal in Australia to add focus to my training.

Tags Marathon, Mount Mee, Running

Charity Running

Running 100K and hoping to raise £1000 for charity

Post author By Ray Poynter
Post date March 7, 2013
No Comments on Running 100K and hoping to raise £1000 for charity

On May 25th I am aiming to raise money for a great breast cancer awareness charity called CoppaFeel by running 100KM (about 62.5 miles) from London to Brighton, in under 15 hours, as part of the London to Brighton Challenge.

Running

Running the Saints Way for Coppafeel

Post author By Ray Poynter
Post date August 3, 2011
No Comments on Running the Saints Way for Coppafeel

Every year I like to set myself a physical challenge and I like to utilise that challenge to raise money for charity. This year I am going to run the Saints Ways in Cornwall, from Padstow on the North coast of Cornwall to Fowey on the South Coast. We are still tweaking the route but it is likely to be just under 30 miles (about 48 KM).