Spirit Midas artisans, Holly and Linda Budge, have officially launched their new range for the southern Summer 2010. True to form, we have trawled through treasure chest’s around the globe to collect the finest trinkets of brightly coloured, semi-precious stones and exotic beads to bring to you everything that is bright and delicious! And what better way to celebrate the beginning of a new season than adorning yourself or your special friends & family in strands of jewels and strings of beads that sing with the colours of summer?

Unique and offbeat, this thoroughly modern Collection takes it’s cues from the fluctuating rhythms and paradoxes of nature’s  five elements – Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Space. The result is bold and independent designs that run the length of the Collection.

To receive your special 10% discount off all Spirit Midas Jewellery, simply enter the following code at our online checkout: 10launch
* This offer is valid until 10.09.10

You can view our latest Collection online at www.spiritmidas.com

Last week I headed over to Sydney for the Australian Parachute Federation Conference. The organisers asked me to talk about my recent adventures – Skydiving next to Mount Everest & riding 1000kms across Mongolia – I accepted and also took a stand to exhibit E-FLI, my online training tool for students learning to skydive. It was a good turn out with over 300 people attending, so some good exposure for E-FLI. I donated three dropzones accounts, each with 20 complementary students accounts, into the prize pool. The three dropzone winners were Skydive Ramblers, Skydive Nagambie and SA Skydiving. Congratulations to these operators and I am looking forward to working with them. E-FLI received a very positive response from chief instructors and dropzone owners, so it was an all round good event. Thanks to the APF for all their hard work and I look forward to next year!

Last November, E-FLI scooped up the prestigious E-Learning Age award for Excellence in the Production of Learning Content.  Judge, Barry Sampson recently wrote this article covering how the E-FLI model was born and how it has raised a few heads in the e-learning industry.

Check out the article in digital version here or the E-Learning Age website here.

The Learning@School Conference is three days of back-to-back inspiration, education, ideas, strategies and fun, equipping New Zealand educators with all they need to transform their teaching and learning.

To learn more about The Learning@School Conference, visit http://core-ed.net/learningatschool

For a closer look at E-FLI, click here

Kate Vose from Biz Media says “The Excellence – Private Sector category is a very popular category attracting a great number of entries so winning the Gold award is a real achievement.”

Holly Budge, founder of E-FLI says “This award is great recognition for 6 years of hard work and dedication to get this product to the standard it is today.”

Check out E-FLI here

Holly Budge, Director of E-FLI, says: “We’re delighted to be finalists for this prestigious E-Learning Award and in such good company! It is fantastic recognition for E-FLI, our innovative e-learning model used globally in the skydiving industry.”

To learn more about the E-Learning Age Awards, visit www.elearningage.co.uk/awards.aspx

Holly is listed in the prestigious Insider’s 42 Under 42 list of 2009, showcasing young entrepreneurs making a name for themselves in the South West.

Holly says ” It is fantastic to be given recognition for  hard work and dedication to building a brand and a successful business“.

Click here to see 42 Under 42 list

I’ve been finished for two days and am now chilling out at the finish line. A South African guy called Charles won the race and he finished 4 days ahead of me. The rest came in today, so everyone finished which is great. I ended up middle field as I had some really good horses for the last few legs of the race. Although I did manage to get stuck in a bog and my horse started to sink which was a little scary.

But its a great atmosphere at the finish line. Everyone’s reflecting on what we have achieved, although we are all very tired. You really don’t realise how tired you are until you’ve stopped.

We’re having a big party tonight now that everyone has finished with a prize giving and then I’m going back to the capital tomorrow.

I got caught short of reaching the next checkpoint as it started getting dark. I set up camp for the night in the middle of the Mongolian mountains about 16 kms from the next checkpoint and tied my horse to a rock. My fellow competitor, Sasha, hobbled her horse… but these Mongolian horses scare easily and before we went to sleep that night the horses ran off at about midnight.

There was nothing we could do as it was dark and we couldn’t chase them. The next morning we called the organisers and it took them 5 hours to come and try and find us in the mountains. We had well and truly kissed goodbye to our lead at this stage.

Whilst waiting for the organisers to find us we went looking for our horses, and we did manage to find them… but do you think we could catch them? In the end it took 4 Mongolian men to capture our horses and it was midday. At this stage, we had also been without water for 14 hours which was getting a little worrying, especially as it is so hot during the day.

Due to the delay, its very difficult to catch up and everyone is about a checkpoint in front of us. Also the time limits on when you can ride is making it virtually impossible to get back into the running, as we can only ride from 5am to 8.30pm every day.

Yesterday was epic though, I rode 100km on my own covering 3 sections in the pouring rain. I was soaked to the bone and it was very lonely at times. I came across a group of wild horses and a couple of them came towards me and I realised the enormity of what I was doing, being out in the middle of the mountains completely on my own… it made me appreciate having a companion and today I was back riding with Sasha. We’ve riden another 80km today.

I think its still going to take another 5 or 6 days to complete the race. I’ve also had to ditch loads of equipment, including my tent, so I’m really hoping I don’t get caught short of the checkpoint again.

I managed to get a shower at one of the checkpoints yesterday, my first in 5 days and that was fantastic. I’m also really not fairing too badly with chaffing. Some competitors have got horrific chaffing on the backs of their legs, some even with open wounds.

The horses scare really easily and so far just about all of us have fallen off. Our tent is flapping in the wind, and I hope it doesn’t scare them into running off tonight… otherwise we’ve got a long walk to the next checkpoint tomorrow morning and we’ve lost £500 each.

We’ve covered about 50km today, but were delayed this morning as a Spanish rider fell off his horse and had to be airlifted back to base due to spinal injuries. But we’ve been doing about 13.5 hours of riding each day; covering 80km on Sunday and 90km on Saturday. But its dawned on me that its going to take a bit longer than I originally thought, maybe 10-12 days. The distances are really long and you are really doing well if you manage to cover off 2 sections of 40km per day.

We’re doing really well though and are currently lying in 4th and 5th place in the race respectively. We took a bit of a chance and left the last checkpoint at 4.30pm this afternoon, thinking that we would make it to the camp at the next checkpoint, but the distances are very long and it got dark so we’ve just had to pitch up in the middle of no where.

But its really luck of the draw with the horses, or should I say donkeys in some cases! I’m on my 7th horse now in the race. At each checkpoint the horses are all lined up to choose from, if you ask the Mongolians which is the best horse, they are pointing out absolute donkeys.

I’m extremely sore, tired and have only eaten an energy bar today, we’ve hardly got any water between us. And need to be up at 5am tomorrow to reach the next checkpoint. Fingers crossed that my horse will be there in the morning.