Start your engines!

The next Sotonettes meeting is tomorrow (Tuesday) evening!  We’re going to have some very inspirational and determined women come along to talk to us (but more importantly answer our questions) about all sorts of different things!

Please don’t be shy – you can ask your questions during or after the talks, or if you’d like to remain anonymous, pop them down on a slip of paper (provided) and we’re sure our speakers will do their very best to answer them.

Our third and final speaker is Angela Emery; here’s what she’s got to say about herself…

“A very brief story of my life so far would go something like this…… as a small child I was a tomboy and had a fascination with cars and by the age of 13 I was working in a garage on Saturday mornings. I particularly enjoyed getting my hands dirty, especially as it annoyed my domestic science teacher when I was cooking at school on Mondays!

I left school at 16 and worked in my parent’s garage. I also went to college on block release as part of my motor vehicle apprenticeship. I continued to work with my parents as a qualified technician carrying out servicing and repairs on all types of cars. I also carried out MOT tests and ran an MOT testing station. I left the trade nearly ten years ago when I finally decided I had had enough of getting cold, wet and dirty!

Out of the garage, I went on to become a Motor Vehicle Lecturer at Fareham College where I run entry level courses for vulnerable students.  I am also involved in teaching 14-16 year old school children who are offered a vocational route for their studies and have recently been appointed Programme Manager for the department.”

Ange is going to try and teach us all a little about car maintenance, which we hope will be interesting for everyone, not just car owners – she probably has the biggest challenge too since we meet in an upstairs bar with no cars readily to hand!  She’s more than qualified to answer any questions about cars and keeping them running so please get your thinking caps on.

As a reminder, our meeting is on Tuesday the 24th of September at 7.30pm in the Slug & lettuce bar (upstairs) on Above Bar Street, Southampton.

Looking forward to seeing lots of you there!

The Sotonettes Committee x

Plumbing anyone?

Hi everyone,

It’s been a grey overcast weekend here… is anyone tackling a bit of traditional weekend DIY? It’s only a few days until our monthly meeting – our topic this month is ‘Life Skills’…

Vital event info: 
When: Tuesday 24th September, 7.30pm
Where: Slug & Lettuce, Above Bar Street, Southampton (our usual meeting venue)
Things to bring: Nothing apart from any questions you’d like to ask our speakers!

We’ve got three inspirational women lined up to talk you through their careers as mechanics, plumbers and doctors while passing on some handy hints along the way.  They will also be on hand to answer any of your questions (about their fields of knowledge only!) – here’s your chance to find out what you need to keep an eye on when you’re checking over your car, how to fix that leaky tap or what to do when you need some quick first aid…

This week we’re featuring another one of our speakers, Emma-Jayne Langton.  Here’s a bit to whet your appetite for Tuesday…

Emma

“I have been a plumber and heating engineer for over 15 years now. I got into it when I bought my first house and needed a plumber. I called someone out who charged me the earth for a simple job and I realised I could have done it myself, so I went to college and did just that.

I was lucky to be taken on straight from college by a lovely man, who is still a very close friend. He helped me gain the on-site knowledge and confidence I needed. I have always made sure that no concessions are made for me as a woman. If I need to lift a boiler onto a wall by myself or carry it up 3 flights of stairs, then I do. It’s this attitude that has helped me become respected in my career. I often walk onto a building site full of men who raise an eyebrow, but within a few days I am considered just another person on the job, with some of them turning to me to help or advise them.

In January 2013 I decided to stop sub-contracting and set up my own business E.J Plumbing and Heating.  It has been a very busy and successful year. In July I was a finalist in the New Business category of the Southampton Venus Awards.

My job isn’t without it challenges, but I really do love it and there is nothing else I would rather do.

If you have any plumbing or heating problems that you think I could advise you on, then I look forward to hearing them and I may have some tips for you to try!”

If you’ve got a question you’d like to ask or a topic you think other Sotonettes would benefit from being discussed, let us know.  You can tweet us @Sotonettes, message us (publicly or privately) on Facebook or drop us an email.

 

We’ve moved!

Hi everyone!  

We’ll be making some big changes to the Sotonettes website in the next month – due to this, we’ve had to move webhosts and also change our blog a little bit too.  

If you follow this blog (you’ll probably be emailed a notification that we’ve put up this post if you do), we’d like you to follow our new one now please!  

The new blog is at www.sotonettes.co.uk (this one is on sotonettes.wordpress.com). Just go to www.sotonettes.co.uk and look on the right hand side of the page – you may need to scroll down a little – until you find the box named ‘Subscribe to Sotonettes Blog by email’.  Just pop in your email address and click the Subscribe button and you’ll never miss another one of our informative ramblings again.

Apologies for the inconvenience of all this – hopefully you’ll be seeing a bigger and better Sotonettes website soon!

Jen (Sotonettes webmistress)

Welcome to our new home!

Hi everyone,

Some of you may not have noticed any difference, but in the past few weeks we’ve been tweaking the Sotonettes website and blog to prepare for a few changes in the next month or so.

If you’ve always been heading to www.sotonettes.co.uk to see what we’ve been up to, change nothing!  Sotonettes.co.uk is our permanent home – if you’ve been going to sotonettes.wordpress.com, please stop as we won’t be updating that any longer and it’ll be taken down soon.

If you previously followed our blog or would like to do so now, please take a look on the right hand side of this page – you may need to scroll up or down a little – until you find the box labelled ‘Subscribe to Sotonettes Blog via email’.  Just pop in your email address and press the Subscribe button to ensure you never miss one of our updates or posts.

Apologies for the changes but these should be the only ones.  Keep a look out for our new Campaigns section coming soon.

Jen (Sotonettes webmistress) x

Our next meeting – skills to get you through life’s little problems

It’s less than 3 weeks until our next main meeting at the Sotonettes – for those who missed our announcement at the Southampton Common picnic, September’s meeting will be entitled ‘Life Skills’ (or perhaps more appropriately, all those things you wanted to know but were too afraid to ask)!

We’ve got three inspirational women lined up to talk you through their careers as mechanics, plumbers and doctors while passing on some handy hints along the way.  They will also be on hand to answer any of your questions (about their fields of knowledge only!) – here’s your chance to find out what you need to keep an eye on when you’re checking over your car, how to fix that leaky tap or what to do when you need some quick first aid…

Each week we’ll post a little bit about one of our speakers.  If you’ve got a question you’d like to ask or a topic you think other Sotonettes would benefit from being discussed, let us know.  You can tweet us @Sotonettes, message us (publicly or privately) on Facebook or drop us an email.

Our first lady is Katie – you’ll recognise her as a Sotonettes Committee Member but when she’s not socialising with us, she works in Portsmouth as an A&E doctor.

katie“I have been a doctor for 7 years, 5 of those training in emergency medicine (A&E).  Despite the fact that over half of medical students are now female, 2 or 3 times a shift I still get “Thank you, nurse” as I leave – despite introducing myself as a doctor, having a name badge and wearing a different uniform to the nurses!  It’s not just the older patients either, so I’m not sure things will change very soon!

I became a doctor after my mum died when I was younger – I was determined to do a better job in communicating than those doctors, and I hope I do.  I love emergency medicine, you have to to cope with what we go through – long hours, emotionally challenging patients, a very real risk of assault, never knowing what will come in next – but I can’t imagine doing anything else.  The most vital part of any A&E is the teamwork.  There is no way I could do my job without the nurses, healthcare assistants, radiographers, porters, receptionists and security guards.  We are a little family, and I’ve made some of my best friends working in that environment!

As well as my normal job, I also do event medicine – I have been the doctor for an event where the Dalai Lama was speaking, next week I am working at Bestival and I hope to help Coppafeel (who came to talk at our breast cancer meeting) in a professional capacity in the future.

At the next meeting, I plan to let you know some ‘tricks of the trade’ – I will talk through how to do chest compressions, what to do with a burn, when you need to worry about cystitis and anything else you want to know.  Pretty much nothing embarrasses me or gores me out, so feel free to ask away, anonymously if you want!”

Batty for bats? Here’s another chance to explore Southampton Common!

ViewImage.ashxIt’s already been a week since our adventure at Southampton Common!  If anyone would like to go on another batwalk (perhaps bring along some of your friends/family/men who missed out last time), the Hawthorn Centre are running their own Batwalk this Saturday 7th September at 7pm.  It looks like it will be a nice evening with good weather and the £5 entry fee gets you a burger or hot dog too!  More information can be found here.