Be part of a World Record attempt

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This January and February the local British Heart Foundation shops are filling their windows with love and attempting to break a world record for the longest chain of paper hearts. To mark Valentine’s Day a team of BHF supporters will come together to create the chain. The current record stands at 8,525 paper hearts apparently! If you would like to take part, here are the details. 

To take part, all you need to do is:

  • Buy a £2 World Record Love Note at a local BHF shop till
  • Write your own message to share the love. It could be for a friend, family member or even just your pet!
  • Hand the note back in.

Funds raised will help support life saving research. 

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Recipe: Vegan millionaire's bars

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Thanks to Jonathan C who made some delicious vegan millionaire bars for this week's Monday morning bake-off! Here is a link to the recipe, in case you fancy replicating at home! 

These vegan, gluten-free chocolatey treats with dates, cashews and maple syrup are just as sticky and moreish as the original Millionaire's shortbreads.

Recipe courtesy of BBC good food. 

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Countdown to Andy and Adam running the Half Bath!

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It is countdown time to Half Bath Marathon on 4th March 2018.  Both Andy B and Adam are taking the challenge to run in the event and raise valuable funds for two charities.

Andy is running in support of the Compassion, which supports children who are born into poverty by providing them with their basic human needs and an education.   He has set up a secure donation page here.

Adam is running to support the charity Prostate Cancer UK.  He has set up a secure donation page here.

Both would be grateful of any contributions that you feel you want to give.

Check out the handy pocket size Race Day Guide for: Course maps, recommended spectator points and travel information.

 

 

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Festive Fun Friday!

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Here are a few snapshots of Festive Fun Friday!

Thank you to Emma and those involved in organising a great day for us all. A big thank you to the Partners for their generosity and giving us the opportunity to celebrate. 

Christmas Jumper Day

We raised £53 for Save The Children. Thank you for joining in and donating! In total, the Christmas Jumper campaign has raised £167,950 nationally (so far!)

Secret Santa fun!

Thank you to all our Secret Santa’s for all the great gifts – so much fun was had!

 

Christmas Party 2017

There are lots more photographs to be seen here:
X:\Administration\OfficeEvents\Christmas Parties\Christmas 2017\Photos

 

Slipping and sliding social

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Lizzie organised a festive ice skate followed by dinner last week. 

Everyone was in the Christmas spirit - in more ways than one! There were no slipping or sliding mishaps, just lots of smiles!

Jack and the Beanstalk panto fun!

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“Jimi and I were recently in Jack in the Beanstalk, our local village pantomine. It is the first time we have done anything like this.

After working hard all year with the rest of the cast, we put on 5 shows at the end of November. There was much fun and frolics, particularly with Buttercup the panto cow!

It really was a brilliant experience and well worth all the hard work. Looking forward to next year already!”
— Karen

Bringing you a little sunshine!

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Holiday snaps from Mexico

“Here are some pics from my holiday in Mexico where we had 13 days of travelling in Cancun, Tulum, Bacalar, Playa de Carmen.

We did a lots of swimming in caves, zip lines, adventures park, full moon beach party, and the most beautiful beaches. 

Enjoy the pictures!”
— Lucia

What's on in Bath this Christmas?

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Here's a little taster!

Those that are beady eye'd among us have perhaps seen the Christmas Market is starting to take shape in Bath.  This sparkling centrepiece well and truly signifies that the Christmas season is getting underway very soon.  Here a sample of things that are happening if you wish to indulge!

Bath on Ice & Glow in the Dark Mini Golf

17th November – 2nd January 2018

Get competitive with your work mates in Royal Victoria Park! The festive ice rink and glow in the dark mini golf is bigger and better than ever this year with a fully licensed indoor bar and wood fired pizzas. 

Bath Christmas Market

23rd November – 10th December

Soak up the sights, smells and sounds as you wander around the market.

Après Ski Bar at Abbey Hotel

23rd November – 12th December. 10am-11pm

Keep out the chill with warming mulled wine, hearty food and plenty of woolly blankets!

Kingsmead Square Festive Street Food Market

24th & 25th November, 1st & 2nd, 8th & 9th December. 12-9pm

Feast on some festive fare at Kingsmead Square this Christmas. Try something new from some of the South West’s best street food traders who will be serving up lunch and dinner time treats

Shoppers’ Carols at Bath Abbey

25th November, 2nd & 9th December. 1-1.20pm

Drop into Bath Abbey for an informal service with traditional carols. Ideal for weary shoppers!

Christmas Craft Fair at the American Museum

25th – 26th November

Meet a diverse range of crafters and makers and buy wonderful handmade Christmas gifts. 

Dickensian Christmas at the Corridor & Northumberland Place

7th, 14th & 21st December. 5-7.30pm

Step back in time and celebrate Bath’s most famous resident from the Victoria era. The Corridor was the first fashionable shopping arcade in Britain and will play host to costumed characters, musical entertainment and traditional festive treats.

Victorian Carousel

14th – 30th December

Enjoy a spin on the beautiful Victorian carousel which can be found on Stall Street.

Festival of Light at Longleat

5th November – 2nd January

Stunning Chinese lanterns will once again light up the historic grounds at Longleat House & Safari Park this Christmas. You’ll find all your favourite classic fairytale characters, bringing to life the magic of storytelling.

Designs of a different kind!

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Some of us spent our lunchtime in the office designing our own pumpkin lanterns for Halloween. There was an impressive array of designs. See the gallery below! 

Harry Potter quiz night at Revolution #Bath

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How quick can we tap?!

Our wizardry brains were in full swing at the smartfone quiz at Revolution last week! The theme was Harry Potter and it felt like half of Bath had turned out to compete on their Harry Potter knowledge.

In spite of the heavy competition (and a couple of cocktails) our two teams did well, particularly Chris's team, who came third!

A really fun evening. Thanks for organising Lizzie.

Site visit to Milton Park

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Some of the team went on a site visit to Milton Park this week to visit 141, 142 and 143 Milton Park as well as 95 Park East Drive, which are currently under construction.  Here are some pictures from the day. 

“A very enjoyable site visit! Thank you to Matt, Will and David who gave brilliant explanations of the building designs and their possible uses. We were all left with good insights into the different construction elements of the buildings as well as the different materials that are being used to build them.”
— Karen

A wonderful Canadian trip

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Recently Jacob went to Canada and had an amazing road trip around Cape Breton Island.

Cape Breton Island is situated on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. Its name may derive from Capbreton near Bayonne, or more probably from the word Breton, the French adjective form of the proper noun Bretagne, the French historical region. Read more about this interesting island here.

An Interesting fact: Cabot’s landing is the very spot and beach where John Cabot landed from Bristol in 1497. One can probably imagine it hasn’t really changed much since then as it’s so remote!

Here are some of Jacob's lovely photographs.

Bath dragon boat race 2017

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Team SRA boldly took their paddles and raced against the other dragons in the Bath dragon boat race on September 10th. There were 14 teams taking part with a variety of interesting looking hats adorned by many.

The moment when David splashes Paul

We paddled furiously over three heats where the team were seriously focused as we raced over the 150 meter course. Emily and Emma set the pace from the front of the boat whilst the drummer hung on for dear life, balancing precariously on a small moving seat at the front of the boat!  As we went over the finish line to the sound of a horn, so the fun and frolics began with a near capsize on heat three (thanks David!)

In between the heats we nipped off for some well deserved refreshments and had a nice little jog back to the dragon boat as a warm up.....

As the heats came to a finish so we all waited with baited breath to see if we had made it through to the semi finals! We missed out by a matter of seconds, most likely due to the size of our mexican sombreros', which weren't terribly aero-dynamic. 

A big heart thank you to everybody that took part and helped raised money for Bath based charity Designability and their Whizzybug Loan Scheme. The dragon boaters have managed to raise over £20,000 to help give children under 5 years of age access to a fun and innovative wheelchair.

Enjoy delicious gluten free lime drizzle cake

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Ingredients:

175ml (6 fl oz) sunflower oil
175g (6 oz) caster sugar
2 large eggs
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime
125g (4½ oz) ground almonds
25g (1 oz) desiccated coconut, plus 1 tblsp
75g (3 oz) polenta
½ tsp g-f baking powder

FOR THE SYRUP
75g (3 oz) caster sugar
shredded zest and juice of 2 limes

Method:

 1. Line the base of a 20cm (8in) spring release cake tin with baking parchment and lightly grease the sides.  Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.

 2. Whisk together the sunflower oil, caster sugar, eggs, and zest and juice of 1 lime, then fold in the ground almonds, 25g (1oz) coconut, the polenta and baking powder.  Spoon mixture into tin and bake for 50 minutes in the centre of the oven or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean(ish).

 3. While the cake is baking, make the syrup.  Place the sugar and lime juice in a small saucepan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves.  Bring to the boil and cook for 1 minute or until syrupy.  Remove from the heat and add the lime zest.

 4. Loosen the cake from the tin by running a knife around the edge.  Skewer the cake all over and drizzle with the syrup while it is still warm.  Sprinkle with the remaining coconut.  Allow the cake to cool, then release from the tin.  To serve, cut into wedges.

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Architecture volunteering

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Adam is looking into the possibility of doing some architecture voluntary work. He has completed some research to see what organisations he would like to contact and thought it would be good to share the websites with the team in case anybody else is interested. Here you go:

Build abroad : https://www.buildabroad.org/

Building Trust: http://buildingtrustinternational.org/

Journey man international : http://www.journeymaninternational.org/

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Video work for Bridgemead Care Home

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Filming and production has started on a video to document and showcase our work with Bridgemead Care Home.

Through discussions with Bridge Care, we have devised a storyboard for a video to assist with their fundraising plans, as well as go into detail about our approach to working with charity clients.

Recently, we met with Geoff, who is the Chair of Trustees at Bridge Care. Armed with a selection of questions about the project, we interviewed him at Bridgemead and this forms part of the video. The next stage of the production includes an interview with Emma McDermott and use of a 3D model of the care home that we commissioned to film and demonstrate the designs we have put forward for the building.

Video is a powerful marketing tool that is still growing in popularity amongst small and medium sized businesses. We felt that with a client such as Bridge Care, and within our charity focus in general, a video is the best approach as it tells a story in a far more efficient way than words. It is also naturally a human focussed and empathetic sector, so hearing someone talk about a project and their love for their charity is one of the best ways of communicating the message!

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Not long now until the battle of paddles - 10th Sept!

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Well it’s not long to go now until the SRA crew will be battling it out in the Bath Dragon Boat Race!

Thank you to everybody that is racing on Sunday and to those who have sponsored us so far on our JustGiving page
 

Come and cheer us on if you are free!

Location: The Scoop, Victoria Bridge Road, Bath, BA2 3FL. The racing will take place alongside the Crest Nicholson Riverside Housing development, which is behind Sainsbury Petrol Station. The crew will be on site at 10.30 am on Sunday 10th September.

SRA race timings
First round: 11.45 (heat 6) Lane 2
Second round: 13.45 (heat 14) Lane 1
Third round: 15.15 (heat 20) Lane 2

If we make it to the finals, depending where we come we will need to do one of the following:
Semi 1: 15.45   Semi 2: 16.00
Final:   16.15   Presentation of medals and trophy: 16.20
 

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One week to go... please donate as soon as you can

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There is one  week to go until the The Bath Dragon Boat Race!  We have raised 5% of our target for Designability so far to help support the Wizzybug Loan Scheme. There's still some time to hit that target.

Please give to this worthy cause by donating via our Just Giving page.

If you haven't yet voted and would like to be on the crew, please let Karen know by end of day.

With many thanks for your support!

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Fun and frolics at the photographers!

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Chris goes the extra mile!

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Many congratulations to Chris who proposed to Sam in Cornwall recently.