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.