Saffy City Fire Station Car Wash - Sat 18th June

Saffron Walden is the town where I grew up and the place I still call home. Most of my family still live there. The fire station is in the middle of the town and has a prime position on the one way street through the town centre. Occasionaly they offer a charity the opportunity to raise some funds by using the station facilities and turning it into a car wash. Saturday was our turn thanks to the organisation of Ann & Gary Walker.



L-R Marlon Geen, Gary Walker, Oscar Geen



All of Saturday from 10-4hrs we were lucky enough to commandeer the forecourt at the station which Gary had turned into the perfect car wash with rinse and soaping stations. Fire Hoses are pretty powerful things I have discovered. Oscar is holding the hose that we used to rinse the cars down as they arrived. We had to be careful not to blast them off the forecourt! . One of the firemen painted a fabulous sign to tempt the passing motorists in.

All sorts of tactics were used to tempt them in..!

Aside from the periodic showers we had a great day. There was quite a team with some of the firemen, Oscar, Silas and Marlon (my nephews), Christine my sister and various other volunteers and helpers. Everyone worked like trojans to wash the cars which had been press ganged lured in to have a wash. Donations were accepted in exchange for the wash and we were turning them around thick and fast. Many hands really does make light work and I think I can legitimately call it cross training as by the end of the day we were all pretty weary. We were kept going though by 'Calzone' pizzas who very kindly boosted my order to 3 pizzas from 2 when he realised what we were up to (at no extra cost). Also Dorringtons the bakers delivered cakes to the hungry workers which were devoured so quickly I didnt even see them! :-)

It was a fun day and at the end of the day Marlon counted up a pile of wet money which totalled £371.29. I gave Gary and Ann £100 to donate towards the firefighters charity. So thats another £271.29. Mum and dad have also been given some donations from other very generous bowlers and I am in posession of another £45.00 from them. So that's a total of £316.29 for this weekend.

On Friday night I manged to make it to a barn dance in the gardens of Alice Olley's house on Sewards End. Alice and Charlie were hosting what looked to be the Essex version of Glastonbury with the amount of tents and gazebos erected to shelter all from the incessant rain. It was a barn dance to raise money for the Village hall and an announcement was made at the end to remind everyone to come to the car wash the next day at the fire station. On hearing of the event and that it was part of the 'Clock 2 Rock' fundraising efforts a gentleman pressed 50pence into my hand and said. "you must take this". In so many ways this was such a generous donation and its the little things like this that I find so utterly humbling at times. He had without a pause heard of the trip put his hand in his pocket and given me what he found there. Amazing. It may have been a single 50 pence piece but it counts and it helps. Then there were the others who came out and spent their saturday rolling up their sleeves and washing cars all day long. People I have never met before too.  

As I cycle my way up the long hills and roads en route to Gibraltar I know that I will take comnfort and strength in relecting on these moments when the humanity and generosity of total strangers is so apparent. I will think of all of these people and they will help me achieve my goal.

THANK YOU SAFFRON WALDEN, what an amazing community you are. 

The rest of the weekend was spent celebrating Natashas 10th birthday with some camping in the garden of Suzanne and Bunchers (good friends of old) house in Ashdon. We had a fun evening sat around the campfire and after some horseriding and driving practice on the farm roads we headed back to London with some very weary 10 year olds and even more weary adults! What a fun weekend full of adventure and activity. Life is for living and thats certainly what we did this weekend.

The last thing to say is of course Happy Fathers day to my dad. Dad you are the best, admittedly I am slightly biased but it was lovely to be able to see you today and tell you that in person.

PS Have lost a stone now, so the power to weight ratio on the bike is definately improving. Happy days....