Evening all

Hello all,

Just a little note to update you with the latest on the plans and happenings this last couple of weeks. We managed to raise about £85 from our car boot last Saturday at Penwortham primary school. Natasha & Kirsty helped me sell off unwanted bits and some of their things too. We agreed half the money they could keep and half would be donated. Sadly we had to give Gary £50 for an old AppleMac we sold for him but then split the rest so about £19 in the end.

I had so much change at home, so this week I picked up a stash of bank bags and spent bank holiday monday evening bagging it all up. it turns out having sold some leftover refreshments off at work that we have a grand total from the dog show of £1008.33. How cool is that? Smashed my target of £300 for that particular event.

I also received news from Kate Favell at the BHF, she has sent me some information on the route to help us with our planning. We are hoping to meet in a few weeks to get more help from them.

It's been a busy week but my bike build is almost complete. It's looking very good I have to say. However I appear to have lost one of the parts for my headset between Home, Bristol and the Dump (I fear i may have dumped it with the box and bubble wrap) Doh!! If it wasnt for that I would have been riding it tomorrow. Desperate to get on it before the end of the week.

The summer ball planned for the 25th June is taking shape and we have the menu sorted this week. Barry Scarborough of Orange Yard Catering is our caterer. He does an amazing job at the christmas party each year so it should be pretty scrummy. I've had a sneak preview of the menus and they are certainly mouthwatering. We have a planning meeting this week and I am keeping my fingers crossed that Mark Payne manages to get a band together to come and play. Can't wait to see if he can muster it. It would be fabulous. There's nothing quite like a live band to kick a good party off. Mark is the older brother of my old school chum 'Paynie' or Ann Walker as she is now more formally known. A more musical family you couldn't hope to meet and they have been fantastically supportive my mad cap schemes and events. Thanks Guys. Ann is organising a car wash at Saffron Walden fire station for me  in a couple of weeks. I will add more details of that in another post soon. 

I have also found a lovely dress to wear to the ball, a very important part of the planning and training programme of course....! ;-) 

I felt very tired this weekend and had to shelve any plans I had to exercise on Sunday. My body was yelling for a rest and for once I listened. It paid me back in kind on Monday when we headed out (6 of us) for a ride around Surrey. It was a lovely ride and I felt great. 70 miles and It didn't feel any harder than the ride to work. Phew, perhaps I am not so far behind in my training after all. This weekend coming could be a different story though. We are off to ride the Chiltern 100 (actually we are doing the 75 mile route), have you seen the profile its monstrous..? Saturday is a day spent at Balham tube with another train station collection. Let's see if the good people of Balham can help us beat that Knightsbridge crowd. £231.60 to beat. 

The other thing that happened this week was an email from the Gibraltar Magazine who found us on the web and would like to do a little article in September's issue. So thats nice. Perhaps a few people may recognise us and wave when we arrive. :-) I am already dreaming of those last few kilometres (or miles) rolling in to Gibraltar I am so determined to get there. 

A Third of the way, but big help required.

Today after adding up last weeks fund raising, has meant that we have hit another milestone.We are 1/3rd of the  way to reaching the total. Amazing! Thank you to all who have helped us to get this far. 

The large jump has been mostly thanks to the proceeds from the dog show last weekend and a donation in exchange for first aid services at a football tournament. Its so good to see it adding up. However we have also had a fairly huge set back recently.....

The BHF for some strange reason (can't think why) have not found enough people crazy enough to sign up to this ride. I suspect it has alot to do with the minimum sponsorship amount being so high. £6000 is a huge amount (unless you work in investment banking of course). Its almost impossible to train adequately and raise this amount of money as we are discovering. Free time...? what's that? So I received an email recently confirming their decision to postpone the ride to a date in the future. No date confirmed. Well that left us with a dilemma, do we postpone to a currently indefinite date or continue as planned and ride it independently?

Having committed mentally and physically to the ride I wasn't about to just wipe it from Septembers calendar and Paul felt the same. In some ways we have a degree of relief. Without the BHF organisation we are set to plan and run the whole ride ourselves. Slightly daunting in terms of time left to do this but we are confident we can do so with some help from the BHF on the route planned. As an independet event we won't have to raise the exact £12,000 total. As much as we we would like to do so if we are to be busy planning the trip now we will have to sacrifice some fund raising time to trip planning and execution. We plan to continue with all of the events currently planned and then we shall focus on the training and ride planning.

There were other riders and friends who would have liked to have joined the ride but for whatever reason felt they couldnt because of the commitment to raise £6,000. Now that barrier is lifted we have been able to invite others to join us either for some or all of the ride and if they can raise any funds then great but the obligation is not there and we would love to have some company...not to mention some other wheels to sit behind for a spell each day.

Jeff Cleminson, Chris Vaughan are already committed. Excellent! :-) with numerous others who will join for some of the ride (mainly in France). So now is your chance, want to come along?

We also need to find ourselves some support drivers. Gosh this is the difficult bit. Who wants to give up leave to do that? I am sure there must be someone as crazy as us interested in helping out so if its you, please get in touch. I am sure the party at the end will be a good one.

We shall overcome....! I am still really excited about the trip and know that we can do this, where there is a will there is a way.

On a good note my beautiful Bianchi road bike has just returned from Argos Cycles in Bristol where its been for a respray. Look at this work of art....

How cool is that? So Sunday is ear marked as a day to rebuild it with my new Apex Group set. I should have more gears then than I can shake a large stick at.  Currently my commuting bike is wearing out and I have been riding on only 8 gears. Ditchling Beacon here I come....!

Training is increasing and I am beginning to feel the effects too. Weight is dropping (slowly) and commute times to work are also dropping so something is working.

Anyway must go, we have a car boot sale this morning to attend and see if we can rattle a few more pennies into the can and make some space in this very cramped flat.

Have a good weekend all.



Dog Show quick summary...

Wow..that was fun packed weekend! Saturday I spent the day with Susie and Hugo from Healix doing some first aid for London embassy consular staff who were all playing in a football tournament. Thankfully only a couple of minor injuries and a fun day was had by all. Russia were the eventual and worthy winners after a very tense penalty shoot out. It gave us a chance to test out the new gazebo too before Sundays dog show and we were very pleased with it I have to say.

So Sunday was an early start to set up the stalls and ring for the dog show. Entrants started arriving just before midday and when they did they arrived in their droves. Never have I seen such a collection of beautiful and pampered pooches. Everywhere I turned there was a dog to die for. Fabulous. It was a really fun day and what a lovely atmosphere with lots of the local community and families joining in the fun.

Here is a link to lots of the photos from the day. You can see what we got up too and how well supported the event was. Thank you Hampton locals you were amazing!!

We had a tombola and refreshments on sale as well as lots of lovely local businesses who set up stalls too and came to support and drum up business for themselves.

By the end of the day we were all shattered but had such a good time.

I shall post a list of the winners this week and a few more tales of the day but for now take a look at the photos. After expenses for the PA system and the refreshments we have counted all the pennies in at £596 which is amazing so that takes us a few more percentage along the way to our goal too. :-)

The other bonus was all the worry last week meant I lost 4lbs so have to be happy with that. I think this stress/anxiety could be quite useful!!

Thanks again all who came and supported the show. Maybe we will do it all again next year.

Dog Show

I wanted to get this on before Jane did. We had our dog show which she organised typically brilliantly in Hampton yesterday and what a success it was. Huge numbers of dogs and owners turned up, ably marshalled by Lara and Sasha, and the dogs were paraded and judged by Stan Rawlinson aka The Dog Listener. It was a very enjoyable and successful (from a fund-raising point of view) - Jane is still counting the cash. Moral - if you want to raise money in England, do something (legal) with dogs.

Jane will no doubt have pictures - well worth a look.

The obligation to raise a minimum amount for the BHF may be gone, but we still intend to keep trying to get to our £ target. I should make it clear that although the BHF are not now going to arrange the ride until (maybe) next year we are going to go ahead and do it anyway. The peloton is taking a bit of shape although still somewhat threadbare and we need to sign up some more riders. The good news is that without a minimum sponsorhip requirement riders can come for as much or as little of the event as they want to, the more the better. There are various airports we go past in France and Spain that can break things up - for riders and support crew (whoever they are).

Training is best glossed over as not much is going on - still worried about peaking too early - though conversely the carbohydrate loading is traditionally left a little later than my current practice. Will be OK on the night (?).

Stan Rawlinson to Judge the Dog Show

Final preparations are now underway for Hampton Family fun dog show on the 15th May (hampton Village Green, Station Road, Hampton). It should be a fun afternoon for all the family especially the dogs and we are lucky enough to have the dog listener Stan Rawlinson as our judge for the afternoon.

Stan is currently featuring in Sky TV's 'A Different Breed' and will also be on hand to help demonstrate his skills with problem pets as well as over help and advise in exchange for a small donation to the charity.

Registration opens at 12.00hrs and classes will start from 13.00hrs - £2.00/dog/class

for more information email dogshow@healix.com

A general update

WOW, life has been pretty busy of late. Mostly with fun things unrelated to cycling and charity work..! We went on holiday for a week and took a narrowboat on the Grand Union Canal from Napton to Foxton. It was a lovely relaxed week and we certainly picked the right week for it weather wise. It certainly made up for the rain we endured on our first trip in August.

So what's happening now that I am back and weddings and bank holidays etc. are all coming to an end...?

Tube Station collections - 7th May & 4th June
Well next Saturday I shall be shaking my red bucket all day in Knightsbridge on another tube station collection. Perhaps all this recent goodwill over the royals etc will help put people in the mood for a bit of loose change donation. I have a target to beat after Pimlico and if I stay there all day perhaps I might beat our last efforts in Pimlico. I have also been given a date in June at Balham tube station so they should be great earners for us with luck and if its anything like the last day surprisingly enjoyable too.

Hampton Dog Show - 15th May
Things are progressing well for the dog show in Sunday in 2 weeks. The beautiful rosettes have arrived. We have Stan Rawlinson coming to judge the classes and do some on the spot training and behavioural clinics for dogs and their owners! Fabulous, thanks Stan for your help. So things are well underway there and don't forget to come along with your family pooch for a chance of one of the lovely rosettes. Gary from Seemephotography will be there to photograph all the winning dogs and owners as well as general shots of the show.

Summer Ball - 25th June 
This is progressing well with more than 90% of the tickets reserved, the marquee booked and the caterers coming to talk on Saturday.  We are pretty happy with the way its shaping up. Should be a good night. I have even allowed myself to think for a few minutes about what dress to wear. There are a few more things to do their though and focus will swing that way after the dog show no doubt. We do have some fantastic Auction and raffle prizes though. I can't say too much at this stage but intercontinental plane tickets for 2 is just one of the fabulous lots up for auction.

Fire Station Car Wash - Saturday 18th June
Ann Walker my long time friend and old school chum has managed to bag us a slot at the Saffron Walden Fire Station washing cars on Saturday 18th June. If you are in town that day don't forget to call in for a quick wash and brush up. If you fancy joining the team to help with the washes drop me a line. The more the merrier. I am looking forward to that one too. I hope its a nice day for splashing around with the hoses.

Street collection & Cake stall - 16th July and 23rd July
I have, with the help of Ma & Pa Kennet secured a permit to take my bicycle down with the rollers and churn a few miles out in the market square in Saffron Walden as we perform a street collection with the buckets and tins. At last an event where I can do some training at the same time, although I suppose the car wash could be considered to be cross training. Saturday the 23rd will be a cake stall outside Boots for those of you who know Saffron Walden. Mum has recruited half the town to make cakes to sell, which she will then persuade them all to buy bakc at hoplessly inflated prices with any luck :-) This is where we have a problem. It was the first date available when mum booked it and clashes with day number one of a Lands End to John O'Groats bike ride that we are undertaking. that leads me on to the next event....

Lands End John O'Groats Cycle - 23rd July- 5th August
Its Gary's 50th birthday and his idea to ride this route. I am really looking forward to the challenge as it will represent the longest ride to date for me and will be fantastic training and practice for 'Clock to Rock'. Its a ride I have always wanted to do and when better to do it than now? We have the B&B's booked for the whole route and am just waiting on train companies to accept bookings before we can be happy we have that sorted. It will be a great opportunity to call in on some good friends in Shrewsbury, Preston and Edinburgh too. I hope we don't fall asleep in our soup and can manage some social time. I have purposely planned shorter days where we have friends so as to be able to enjoy those bits. It needs to be a fun ride after all and we have a significant birthday to rub in acknowledge. :-)

So thats what I have been up too...!

As for the training, I am hoping that with these various events underway we shall be able to turn our focus to the bike riding. The weather has been perfect for riding although i have managed frustratingly little of late. However in 2 weeks my Bianchi bike frame will be back after its respray and the new SRAM groupset will go on (I bought Apex to give me some hope of getting over the Pyrenees) then you wont be able to stop me riding. My current ride (Ribble) is limping along with one worn out ergo-shifter so my gears are somewhat limited. London is fine but i don't think i could get over the Beacon on a ride to Brighton with it currently.

I have been keeping a few runs going to add some extra aerobic training and Kirsty has promised to run twice a week with me for the next 2 weeks. She wants to get fit and the only way to see improvement is to stick at it for a few weeks. There's a trip to Sweatshop and some proper running shoes in it for her if she sticks it out. I hope she does it.

Sorry to not update for so long but hopefully you can see it hasn't all been as a result of holidays but a bit of work too. I'll let you know how Saturday goes. If you are off to Harrods on Saturday do remember to look out for me with my red bucket.

Cheers

Jane

PS A big Thank You to Paul Finegan who made my birthday extra special with a fabulous donation to match my age...i.e a fantastically large amount! It just goes to prove every cloud has a silver lining.