Another month another trip to the US of A!...the Investment Casting Institute 56th Annual Technical Conference in Indianapolis and my first trade show since I have been with Synchro. I must admit I was a bit apprehensive about the show as my role tends to be more on the technical, installation and training side, however in the safe hands of Mr Shane Allen, we had a cracking show. Shane and I made a great team and It was great working with him, we built a great looking stand...


and although the show was only open for 3 hours for exhibitors we managed to make contact with about 40 people.

The remainder of my trip took me to Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin thankfully the really cold weather had not descended and I was treated to some beautiful autumnal colours both in New England and in Wisconsin.

On these trips it usually works out that during the 14 days I may get 1 day to myself! and when not too tired from Jet Lag or the long working hours I try my best to get out and about and to see something of the places I am visiting. On this occasion it worked out that I was in Massachusetts, and so on the middle Sunday of my trip I took myself off to the coast, more specifically the beautiful Cape Cod, the weather was a bit on the windy and cloudy side but I managed to find a lovely Vineyard Called Truro Vineyard of Cape Cod...


I spend a happy hour or so listening to the great staff talking about their wines and sampled some of their remaining 2008 vintage. I cannot resist buying a bottle or two form small vineyards, so my cases were a bit heavier for the rest of the trip, I had hoped I may be able to drink a bottle during the following week, but alas my workload and travel itinerary meant I was burdened until I returned to the UK. I continued my journey up to Provence Town, just so that I could say I went to the tip of the Cape, I really liked the place and would hope to return someday with a bit more time to explore a bit more.

This was my first Solo trip to the USA without my mentor and all round genies-arse Simon, so apprehension about missed flights and getting lost on the high-ways and free-ways of the states were high in my mind. I am glad to say the trip went very well and my travels (although some delays out of Boston due to bad weather) went very well.

My reading has increased ten fold as a result of travelling so much and during flights and delays in airports I love to get stuck into a good book so if you'll forgive me I'll use this blog as a means of keeping a record of the books I have read or am reading....

This book I found about 2 days before leaving the UK, and what a good read it is; a Biography by Suze Rotolo of her time in Greenwich Village, NY in the early to mid 1960's where she met and spent time with Bob Dylan. I have been a Dylan fan for many years and having an insight from someone so close to him was a real treat, however the book is not just about Dylan; Suze is a remarkable person in her own right, and the tales of those times in NY and beyond were fascinating..I heartily recommend this a great read...


I 'll sign off for now with a best wishes for Thanksgiving to all our US customers.

Best Regards.

Richy Raine

Busy Busy Busy

Hi All, well its been quite a busy few months for me! I've bee on three continents and in Four Different countries, some for pleasure, some for business.

As mentioned in my last post, Louise and I had a holiday in the Morvan, we spent a glorious week in July at a small gite in the National Park, the gite was attached to a larger house, which was owned by an ex-pat couple formerly from The Wirral. Mike and Barbara were perfect hosts and knew so much about the area, they also did a great wine tour around the local Vine yards, which was fantastic as we could Degustation to our hearts content and not have to worry about the driving!! Whoopie Hic! The weather was not all we hoped but we had 1 or 2 bright sunny days, and all in all a lovely holiday was had.


I then had a 10 day trip to the US of A visiting some new customers for the implementation of Synchro32. I always enjoy visiting our customers and its always a pleasure to see the different casting types in action. Saw a centrifugal casting company who manufactured tubes, it was facinating to see the set-up and also interesting from an implementation point of view, as I have not implemented a system at this type of caster before, of course Synchro32 has the capability and it just needs a bit of configuration to be fit for the job.

Shortly after returning from USA Louise and I had another Holiday, this time in search for some guaranteed sun; so it was off to Sicily and the resort of Taormina on the North East coast. Taormina is a busy resort town much favoured by the Italians, in fact it was only after we booked the trip that we read '...never visit in August...its too busy'!! It was very busy but wow what a beautiful place, and boy the weather was stunning high 30's (100+ F) through the week. Our hotel was a small hotel directly on the main town street (Corso Umberto), which is where the Italians spent the evening walking up and down 'Passegiata' (basically posing!, boy the Italians are good at that). We had a lovely Holiday and some great food and some great wine.



Within a week of coming back from Sicily It was of to Malaysia for a new install in Ipoh, a town about 2 hrs. north of kuala Lumpur. This was a fascinating trip in which i met some really friendly people and sampled some amazing food, such a variety and such a fusion of styles. I finished of a long week there with 24hrs in KL, what a city, great hotels with some amazing bars, have a look at the Sky Bar in the Traders Hotel, quite some bar with open aspect to the Petronas Towers about 500 yards away, and a pool right in the middle of the bar!





I have been back in the office for a couple of weeks now catching up on things but also preparing for my next trip to USA in October. Again visiting some new customers, and providing some top up training to a long standing customer. I will also be meeting up with Shane who I haven't seen for nearly a year, we will be in attendance at the ICI's 56th Annual Technical Conference and Expo at Indianapolis 11th - 14th October 2009 see http://www.synchro32.com/exhibitions/future_exhibitions.htm for details.

Well until next time...

Hi All,
My Name is Richy Raine, I am the latest member of the fantastic Synchro32 team. I have not blogged before so am looking forward to sharing a bit of myself with you all.
I am based in the beautiful North Wales only 60 miles from The Snowdonia National Park. I was brought up in the small market town of Denbigh...Google Map Link here. I currently live In Wrexham some 40 miles from Denbigh, with my beautiful girlfriend Louise and our dog Kaya.
I have many and varied interests some of which I will elaborate on in future Blogs, but what's keeping me busy at the moment is my car... A 2003 MGZT CDTi in Solar Red...

I got her about 15 months ago, I bought her as a Salvage repairable which needed more work than originally envisaged!! (I cannot resisit a bargain!!), the front end was pretty messed up. However I dropped lucky on another solar red MGZt with rear end damage so managed to get all the bits together for the repair from one car, great result no spraying required, just unbolted all the squished bits and bolted back the unsquished bits. My pride and joy was on the road. But the story doesn't end there, tune in next month for the next installment of the MGZTs journey.

By the time I next blog I will have been to Burgendy in France where Louise and I will be spending a week, enjoying the sun, the wine and the good food...Burgendy..J'ai hate de te voir.