O hello again bike

The last thing I did to or on the bike was to put 2 new tyres on it about 8 weeks ago. Since then the birthday, chrismas and bonfire parties have come and gone. I suddenly realised I have a whole weekend with time to ride.
So yesterday I worked out a nice little circular route 45 miles or so with an option to extend if I wasn't purple and throwing up by then. So the alarm was duely set so that I could leave at about 8 am. After having eaten one of the hard boiled eggs I had prepared the night before and some creatine. As the alarm sounded I there were muffled groans from the other side of the bed. I just caught the words "still, dark and nutter" as I donned the fluorescent green giant costume and fumbled for my iPod nano.
I started well, taking Boreham Street Hill a mile ouitside the village relatively well (was in granny gear though!). On through the village with the French name remember? Towards the Boship roundabout. Straight on here (still don't do right at roundabouts) towards East Grinstead.
My route then took me left before EG out to Ringmer (into a headwind...nice).I took the Left through laughton which would bring me back onto the A22 towards home for the last 20 miles or so.
Approaching the turn onto the 22 I felt, thud..thud..thud..and things got harder. I turned onto the A22 (too slowly as it happened and nearly got killed by a black volvo) and after exchanging the international hand gesture for "Happy New Year" with the driver I pulled over. The front was flat. No pump. Wife in Kent walking dogs.
As I walked toward home having phoned Vicky and been heartily congratulated on my efforts (not) I was thankful I had the nano and its stuffing of "all the rock tracks you can get on it" on shuffle.
I met a fellow nutter 2 miles further on who had a pump which would fit my tyres. Oh great at least if it will stay up until I get even half way there....... Anyway turns out the reason its flat is because the valve is broken. So the walk continued. Vicky arrived to pick me up. Home now, showered and feeling a bit annoyed that I only got 25 miles done before I had to fire a flare. Nevermind off to Halfords again.

33%!

Following Friday night's raffle at the Christmas party my fundraising total has crossed the £1,000 mark and I have 33% of the total required. This seems like a massive milestone and I am feeling extremely positive about the other 66% now!

Merry Christmas
Jen

Looking good

My new pimped up DFTD Totaliser in our notice board. Nice photoshopping job by Nikki at support office. Although i wonder did she leave my head big on purpose?

hmmm...

Festive Cheer!

The fund raising continues to go well - last Saturday afternoon was the light-switching on in Faringdon where the market square is closed to traffic and is transformed into a festive wonderland complete with fake snow and a Santa!
 
We had a stand set up and Debs and I sold our homemade jams, chutneys and pickles (all made from predominantly free local produce), bunches of holly and mistletoe (gathered from around the office) and ran raffles and a 'guess the number of gravy bones in the bottle' contest. As well as that we had Julie (from the data team) acting chaperon to Debbie's husband who very kindly donned the Drontal dog suit and entertained the crowds all afternoon (but who had limited vision!) out with the collecting bucket.


We managed to raise a fantastic £314.50!! a great result and just shows what is achievable with a bit of effort.  Once again my thanks go to Debs who masterminded the whole thing (and organised me as I had been up in Scotland all the previous week at the new surgery openings), to Wally for his tireless enthusiasm in the world's hottest dog suit, and Julie for all her help on the day.

Pictures to follow!

Jen

Paolo's first fundraising event

Paolo and our friend Nick hosted a night of music last Friday with the help of some of our very talented musical friends (including Nick himself). They were able to raise almost £500 to share between their two charities - Nick's running the London marathon next year for Leukaemia research.

Over 130 people came through the doors and the success and feedback have given them the encouragement they need to plan another night some time in the new year.

Thanks to Felix from Companion Care in Beckton for taking some great pictures of the night.