6 degrees of separation .... sort of.

All giddy this evening; probably because I feel excited for the first time in almost 3 weeks about 4 days of training in a row and my new winter training gear. Oh yeah and I'm listening to the most eagerly awaited album for years (the sequel to 'Welcome to my Nightmare', released yesterday and called 'Welcome 2 my Nightmare') ...... and I'm NOT disappointed. Yay me.

Okay first things first; winter training gear. Picture this, it's warm and training with tyres means shorts, a t-shirt and trainers. In fact don't picture it as the expression on your face might frighten small children and animals so look at these two photos from previous blogs ...

Blue skies and sunshine equals .......

..... t-shirt, sunglasses and shorts.

Of course this week has seen the tail-end of Hurricane Katia and some rain so the new formula (which strangely excites me) is: -

Cold, wet, windy (no that's NOT describing me) which means .....

Berghaus gear, gloves, Helly Hansen base clothing and ...

.... a move from The North Face trainers to Salomon boots. And I'm all excited !!! (Yeah I know, go figure)

Now while trying on the gear I was listening to the new Alice album, texting Lucia who is translating another blog entry for Katka (her sister), and trying to persuade Lauren that she really didn't have to feel awkward when her friends saw me wearing this stuff in the pouring rain, tyres attached. Difficult given I'd just told her that Chris the window cleaner had been talking to a fellow dog-walker who mentioned she'd seen some nutter in the park dragging tyres behind him.

Odd, I've been to the park quite a lot and don't recall seeing anyone who fits that description.

(Random entry - I've had 18 page reads this week from Russia, beating USA into 3rd).

Listening to the new album I felt compelled to write a review on Amazon .... which led me to all the previous reviews I'd written and one in particular for a book called 'One Day'. It's soon to be released as a film but I read the book back in early 2010 and wrote this review on the website: -

"Brilliant. There is no other word for this book than brilliant. Well maybe there is but it's probably an Italian word or, more likely, something in Swahili. Never learned Swahili but maybe finding what that one word is would make it more than worthwhile.

I've never laughed so much, felt as melancholy, bit my trembling lip quite so hard or wished my friends Dex and Em, Em and Dex (4eva) could stay just one more chapter.

Moving, incredibly readable, just perfect for some peace and 'you' time. More girly perhaps than I'd normally read (bit of a Jeffery Deaver and David Baldacci fan actually) but so pleased I saw the cover. In fact liked the cover so much I bought the company. Well, the book anyway. Apologies to Victor Kiam ... sorry, sorry. Sorry!

Buy the darn book. You won't be disappointed, and if you are .... well blame David Nicholls. He wrote, not me.

Kabisa kipaji as the Swahili people would say (thank goodness for Google Translate). It means 'Utterly brilliant', in case you can't be bothered to look it up."

Re-reading my review then reminded me of when I was reading this book, it was as my Dad's cancer took its almost final grip. I recall sitting in the sun, alone, reading the infamous page 385 and it was as if the emotions in my life were finally given permission to show. A bl**dy line in a story finally had the tears rolling down my cheeks; for Em and for my Dad.

And for me too I guess.

So I'll close with the words of the wonderful Lucia who, on reading my previous blog entry featuring the inspiring Ellie Jeffery, said "I've just read your latest blog and it brought tears to my eyes and strong hopeful wish that 'cancer' was just a historical entry in anatomy books" ..... and with my best wishes for James Golding who, despite only a 10% chance of success, seems to have had a successful operation to remove a tumor.

Again.

That man is made of steel !!

It's 2am but I have to write

WARNING - THIS POST STARTS OUT HAPPY, BECOMES A LITTLE REFLECTIVE AND THEN BLOODY SERIOUS. Do not think the start of this blog entry is it's true tone and purpose; stark contrasts ensue.


What a holiday. I'll say that again .... WHAT A HOLIDAY !! Bliss, serenity, great weather, beautiful intelligent company and it reminded me what taking time out was all about. Ahhhhh.


Through the large wooden gates (right of the photo), over the bridge into reception where 2 glasses of champagne were presented .... followed by a free upgrade to a fantastic villa.

Part of the view from the terrace on our first morning

Someone clearly got settled on the day bed by the pool (and no it's not me)

Now whilst the photos of the holiday are fun to post on here, it's the feeling of relaxation that I'm trying to convey because this week (returning to work) I've purposefully kept my evenings as free as possible and it brought home JUST how much time and energy I've expended most evenings training or fundraising or just trying to get the profile of my endeavours high enough to attract more public and commercial interest.

This week I've had time to catch up on the cricket one-day internationals, to spend over three hours browsing shops (for bloody expensive outdoor wear for my Dartmoor training weekend and outdoor training aka winter tyre-pulling in the park). I have 9 books and 4 magazines that are untouched but I'll spend some of tomorrow .... sorry, today ..... starting some of those.

In the past I remember, vaguely, having the time to sit for a couple of hours when I lived at the old house just getting lost in a good book whilst sat on a settee with the sun streaming through the window and yet now ..... now .... it's a rare treat to sit down and even read the Sunday Times with a fresh home-made coffee and some breakfast. Nowadays my world seems like it's spinning, getting even faster; every minute precious which is why (despite my eyes burning a little, eager for sleep) I feel the urge to write. I simply HAVE to write.

Of course all this fleeting peace will be shattered starting next week as work, plus all the wonderful things about my family and Lucia, training, fundraising and publicising the Trek consumes almost every minute of every day. I re-tasted the frenetic pace on Thursday when it was 1am before I got into bed and 6am on Friday morning when the alarm went off to get up and drive across to Manchester. I was tired again.

Today's weather also reminded me that Autumn is approaching and the dark mornings and evenings are soon to be upon us.

The view through my kitchen roof 3 weeks ago

The view through my kitchen roof late this afternoon

What a difference a few weeks can make and what a difference a week away and a week 'off' from the Trek preparation can make as well, especially physically as today's PT training session showed. An absolute disaster! Yes it's true I'm just getting over a nasty throat infection but clearly I need to get over it soon as before I know it Christmas will be upon us all and the Trek will be so close I'll be able to feel it in my blood, anticipation coursing through my veins.

(While I'm talking about Christmas, I'd just like to say "Oi, supermarkets ..... no!!!" . My local supermarket now has a Christmas aisle for gawd's sake, complete with Selection Boxes and chocolate decorations for the Christmas tree!!!!!  It's not even the middle of bl**dy September yet).

Of course a return to the norm also means some donations have started to trickle in again, including £100 from Hermes Europe whose CSR Committee voted to support me and 3 branches of Starbucks in Manchester have been doing some fundraising; witness below a couple of photos from the best so far (£60) which was the Halle Mall branch in the Arndale Centre, but my thanks also go to the Manchester Fort branch (£40), the New Cannon branch in Arndale (£30) and not forgetting that the Hanging Ditch branch started it all off (£48). Especial thanks to the lovely Claire for baking for 3 of the events.

The lovely Claire who makes yummy buns

The other thing re-starting is of course the realisation of the reality some people face that is way beyond my woeful and pitiful gripes and moans about sweaty tortuous training sessions, work, feeling 'tired' (especially after returning from a luxury holiday) and the temporary effects of throat germs. Sometimes I can do a great job at humbling myself into a touch of self-loathing.

Reality for people like Daniel who will be writing a piece for this blog soon hopefully, to try to explain what it's like to see your brother suffer and pass away because of Muscular Dystrophy. I also have the privilege of sharing with you a link to Ellie Jeffrey's blog.

Making the big C smaller

Ellie is suffering from secondary breast cancer and her description of what everyday life is like is so brutally matter-of-fact that you can feel her frustration through the written word, be humbled by her emotional strength and find yourself wanting to reach out and give her some of your good health, some of your good fortune at not having to deal with this dreadful thing called cancer. You can find yourself with tears in your eyes as she describes an experience which must drain energy, physical and emotional. and yet you also feel her energy and desire to beat it.

I have (with Ellie's permission) published a few extracts below from her blog but urge you to read some entries yourself and know you will be moved by doing so.

9th September - 'Just My Luck'

The two lumps that had appeared on my chest would need to be tested.  Professor Hope wanted to see if the cancer was still hormone receptive or if it had ‘flipped’ and was now triple negative. We were told this occurs in less than 15% of cases and I pushed the team at my current hospital to check the receptor status.

As I lay on the bed being injected with local anaesthetic I heard a snap. Something in the needle had broken and my breast care nurse and I were sprayed with the numbing fluid. I couldn’t feel my cheek. Laid on my side, naked from the waist up with a face like a stroke victim, Jeez Louise, can I not just get a fucking break here?

After four attempts the trainee doctor managed to clip enough of the tumours out to be tested. I wanted those little lumps cut out of me altogether, but what was the point when the cancer had spread so far in my body? It would be like plugging a small hole in a boat full of leaks, and the doctors had made it clear they believed my ship was sinking.



5th September - Wheatgrass and lemon juice

While Tom was away my brother John was staying with me. He’d been reading up on cancer preventative diet on the internet and after an expensive trip to Holland and Barrett the cupboards were stocked with linseeds, multi-vitamins, turmeric, green algae tablets, and of course the dreaded wheatgrass, or ‘the green shit’ as we renamed it.

Living together again we reverted back to our old relationship. We share the same sense of humour, me often trying to impress him with some quick remark, him teasing me or the pair of us ganging up on whoever is with us at the time. But in his capacity of big brother he was as stern with me as he was playful; he knew that occasionally I would conveniently forget to down my wheatgrass and every day he would prompt me, “Have you done the green shit?  Have you done the turmeric?  Have you done your chemo?”

I think John’s focus on diet was a way for him to play his part, to try to help in a situation where people ordinarily feel useless. The cancer doesn’t just ‘happen’ to me it happens to all those who are close to me. I’ve never lost someone or had the threat of losing someone very close to me so I simply don’t know what my loved ones are going through.

During the hours I felt unwell my brother would sit with me, watching TV and researching the internet. John could have left to go out and enjoy the sunshine but he never did, he just stayed with me, telling me about all the positive stories he’d been reading about.

He took a perverse pleasure in watching me drink the repulsive green shit; it was like entertainment to him. It reminded me of a time when I was about six and he would have been twelve when I’d fallen over in the street and scraped the side of my hip. With no parents around to complain to I found my brother bored in the kitchen and I showed him my bloody graze. “I know what will make it better,” he announced with authority. I remember him opening up the fridge door and reaching for something that I couldn’t quite see. 

As I stood waiting, from behind his back he produced a plastic Jif lemon and handed it to me. “Squeeze the juice over it, it’ll take the pain away.” My trusting, six-year-old self followed his advice and predictably, it was agony.

My illness had changed our relationship. Like many siblings, for us hugs were always reserved for hellos and goodbyes and even then it would be an awkward stilted embrace. A few days into John’s stay, however, I woke up feeling unwell from the radiotherapy and I must have looked particularly pathetic. He grabbed me for a hug and we stood there holding onto each other in silence, both desperately wishing that this wasn’t happening. The cancer, that is, not the hug.


And now dear reader it is 3am and I really should go to bed but, once again, writing this has given me hope that my efforts are going to help many. Not as many as I would like but enough to make me think going to the North Pole next year (and the other exciting adventures I hope to complete before the end of 2020) is a positive thing.

And I am truly blessed that in some small way I feel closer to people like Dr Jon Hastie, Aaron Pask, Daniel, James Golding and the lovely Ellie.

Ellie if you're reading this, I don't know you but I hope that over the coming months and years I get chance to know you, and Tom and John. You are amazing! You are an inspiration.

Last blog entry until mid-Sept

Stop it, I heard you; cheering will be punished when I find out which one of you it was.

Yes it's true, after 3622 page views thus far it's time you had a break, although I thank you all from all over the world for your patience/interest/stupidity/enthusiasm/ability to read mindless dross and STILL keep coming back. Couple of new countries have started to read the blog this week so that takes me to 37 countries so far I think. No-one from South America or Africa though ........... yet.

It's late Saturday afternoon as I sit here bleary-eyed after a week of long days, late nights, early mornings, some training and a wee set-back; some tweak of a knee ligament on Tuesday as a result of an innocuous task - bending/stretching down to pick something up off the floor and trying to use the power in my left leg when my centre of gravity was way too far forward. It hurts somewhere in .....

With thanks to Wikipedia

..... here. Painful when I try to stop myself on a downward slope or push off at an angle. Any medical pro's reading this feel free to say anything BUT "It's old age".

Anyway I still trained on Tuesday evening but left it to settle down a little until this morning's session where Paul the PT allowed me to decide what was possible for a change (as Matt on the Livestrong cycle ride said "It's nice being the one to dictate my own pain").

Speaking of Paul the PT, a few of you have been inquisitive about what/who he is. He's a shy chap, bit of a 'sand gets kicked in his face' kind of guy as you'll see but he was eventually persuaded to give me this link to show him in action. Just watch out for the annoying 6 minutes of Irish music; as Paul says perhaps 'Eye of the Tiger' would have been a bit more appropriate.

Anyway, after such a long week and then 40 minutes of Thai boxing and a 30 minute PT session I decided to chill out today and I had the most amazing 90-minute snooze EVER. I think I'm truly on the cusp of winding down for my holidays (which is also probably why I've now got a sore throat starting).

Hopefully the end of the holiday will coincide with a number of things: -

- Some of the 27 people who have promised to donate for my Trek will do so once the holiday season is over (that will be another £3200); actually make that 28 people and £3200+ (thanks Jason).

- Emily will be able to make some progress on the 100 celebrity photos of encouragement; celebrities vary from some that other people have said they'll try for (including Freddie Flintoff via Dora and Tom Peters via Richard King), some Emily will be trying for such as Sir Ian Botham, Sean Bean, Lee Evans, Jessica Ennis and Corinne Bailey Rae and it features a section called 'Everyday Heroes' too; those people who are not famous but have made a name for themselves doing something amazing such as Mike Tomlinson who worked tirelessly with his late wife Jane to raise £millions as she fought cancer and young Adam Brookes, the guy behind the simple but very powerful 'I love Manchester' post-it note wall in response to the riots there last week.



This is about 2/3rd's of the wall



And so that's it for now folks; I have to complete my size chart for my Polar equipment this weekend and then start to shop for my Dartmoor training weekend once I'm back from holiday. See the photos below





No not THIS villa; see the copse down on the golf course just under the woman's left hand wrist? Well in there is our place ....



Some call it extravagant but we prefer to call it homely ....

And now it's the start of the wind-down food-wise too so as my chicken and oven chips are cooking, I'll go dream of being sat here (see below) 8 days from today. Knowing me, I''ll be all hot, sweaty and in the shade; sounds just like being at the gym !!

Bliss ............................................................................... ahh.

Inspired but scatterbrained

Oh how my head is BUZZING tonight with ideas, enthusiasm and potential, and I actually logged-on here when it was still daylight outside. It's dark now though as I spent a while e-mailing Daniel and Charley (more about them soon) and my new Kodak printer is taking an AGE to scan a simple photo (a signed photo of encouragement from Ally McCoist, the Glasgow Rangers manager and legend) - maybe the software in the scanner was written by a Celtic fan?

Daniel (introduced in a previous blog) has had a dreadful experience; his brother passed away due to Muscular Dystrophy so he (and his delightful fiancee Charley) have said they'll happily put in a few hours to do 'stuff'. Well I have to say Daniel really doesn't know what he's put himself up for with the promise to target some local companies with leaflets and I think Charley was probably shell-shocked insofar as she never realised a guy could talk so fast, be so random and be thinking so much !! Sorry Charley.

Anyway, suffice to say Daniel and Charley are heading off to the Isle of Man for a well deserved break and have taken the notes with them to discuss what they can (and can't) do.

Before I leave the subject of Daniel and Charley, Charley ..... this is what a 7-seater circular bicycle looks like; the weird clothing and dumb posing are optional.

Speaking of Muscular Dystrophy, Sara told me about www.thebiggive.org.uk and the fact that MDC are a beneficiary of an amazing 'booster' scheme; all donations to MDC via the Big Give will be matched so if I can raise £3000 for MDC by 6th December and pay it in via TBG, MDC get double AKA £6000. You follow me?

Now I also know that a specific campaign for YAA is on TBG as well as MDC (although not sure if YCR,  HRUK or H4H are on there but I have asked via Twitter) so let's see what I can raise and who for. Yes yes I know, anagram bl**dy central !!

Oh here we are ..... 20 minutes after setting the scanner off ..... the scanned photo of encouragement from Ally McCoist; thanks to Mr McCoist and to Sara Benson from Muscular Dystrophy Campaign for getting me this and hopefully one more celebrity to come (better not say who it might be in case it's not).

So come on you other wonderful hard-working charities, who can you bring to the 'photo' party? I tell you if Dora the Explorer gets the signed photo from one of my cricketing heros who is a legend, I'll gladly remove the worms that naughty Diego threatened to put in her pockets today ... with my teeth. 

You know what? I can see that offer coming back to bite me!

Meeting Emily tomorrow, a colleague who has asked if there's anything she can do to help fundraise. Hoping she'll happily take on the challenge of getting me more celebrity photos as well as a wee fundraising challenge too. Oh yes and I need to ask Richard King if he managed to get a signed photo of encouragement from business guru Tom Peters (his bosses' boss no less). That probably means more to me than you but hey, it is my Polar Trek after all.

Hmm nice to see South Korea has had several page views this week as well as someone in Saudi, and Romania and China are right up there too (in fact South Korea this week outstrips the USA). Err are you yawning dear reader? It's not that late (or that boring) surely?

My other brainwave this month was to try to get use the rivalry between my club (Spurs) and their North London neighbours (Arsenal) to my advantage. I know a Gooner at work and I'm hoping he and other Arsenal fans will join in a £1 donation campaign called 'Help Send A Spurs Fan One Way to the North Pole' to raise £1000.

I can then ask my fellow Spurs fans to join a £1 donation campaign called 'Help Bring A Spurs Fan Back from the North Pole'. See? Brilliant .... oh I should be in Marketing. So can you help? Hopefully the team at Spurs will see this as a great angle for their story of my Trek in the matchday programme. Reminds me, I must write to them again now the season has started.

Wonder if I can pull the same angle between Lancastrians and the good folk of Yorkshire? Emily (or anyone), can you help me with this? Mark @ SMileS SMS, can you help  me too?

Training in the last 7 days has been a tyre drag (21kg) for 2.5 miles/4.25km, a 30 minute PT followed by a 45 minute Thai kickboxing class on Saturday morning, a 45 minute circuit on Sunday and 45 minutes last night, primarily on the cross-trainer. Lucia came to last nights' session and did really well ..... maybe she should go to the Pole instead?

I have 27 things to do still on my list this week so tomorrow and Friday (and Saturday) look full of Trek stuff, not forgetting Friday night and Saturday morning are training sessions. And then there's work, which reminds me I need to be in Manchester for 0730 in the morning so I'm going to bed now.

Night (and P.S. to Lesley, hope your son is now okay after his ordeal on Svalbard, and yours waiting to find out he was okay) x

To Sara, dog owners, Stacey, Lucozade manufacturers, Starbucks and Lucia

23:30hrs almost and here I am just STARTING the blog (and I've still got a letter to create for the printers), so let's race through this ....

1. To Sara (Muscular Dystrophy Campaign)

Lovely to see you again on Friday, thanks again for the running vest and I did a 2.5 mile drag tonight with a large 14.5kg tyre and a small 7kg tyre (lashed together) wearing it.

I did ask a guy passing to take some photos but in the first it looks like a litre of carrot juice has stained my face whilst sporting a blonde mohican and in the second I look pretty irritated at his incompetence while I look like someone trying (badly) to smile under 'flat-cap' hair

....... so I decided instead to do  a DIY video. The only problem is, does my face look unusually fat in the video? OMG over the last month I've turned into the Marshmallow man from Ghostbusters !!!

Err maybe the visit to that sweet shop last night didn't help

You're all jealous aren't you! And this was just 20% of the treats on offer !!

2. Message to the dog owners in the Park tonight

@the barking growler (that's the dog, not a description of the owner); can you please keep it under control? If it wasn't growling and barking at me it was at the father and young daughter walking in the park.

@the woman with the indecisive dog; I know how annoying it must be when you throw a stick part way down a hill for your dog, it chases it, grabs it, but then it can't decide whether to return it to you or continue down the hill to see what on earth I am doing ... but please don't express your anger at me; it's not my fault (or maybe you would appreciate it if I post a warning on Facebook or Twitter; "Man pulling tyres in Rothwell Park - stay away or blindfold your dog. You choice")

@the little boy and girl with cute 'Cody'; yes she is cute, no I'm not stupid and sorry but Santa really doesn't exist so I'm hardly likely to see him at the North Pole am I. Don't panic dear reader, I didn't really say that to two young children but tonight it was kind of annoying to be asked the same question so many times about what I was doing. See '6' below for reason for angst.

Cody really is cute; so 'dinky'

@the labrador man; next time your dog ignores your three cheerful attempts to call it to heel and it RACES 60 metres straight at me at top speed, I think I'm allowed to consider having an accident in my shorts. It really is a BIG dog (but I really didn't have anything more than a split-seconds' worry)

@the encouraging lady with 2 dogs; thank you. Yes maybe I do need some 'Marching Bands' music while I'm at the Pole to spur me on. I said 'maybe'.

3. The lovely Stacey (Heart Research UK)

Thank you for working so hard at the PR and getting me in The Mirror on August 27th. It may only be a small 'fun' article with random numbers but it's still exposure with a photo! It ties in beautifully with an entry in '5' below

4. The manufacturers of Lucozade

Got to say that in the last 30 years you have done a MAGNIFICENT marketing job, turning that orange liquid in an orange bottle with that crinkly orange cellophane wrapped round it for sick kids, into the leading UK sports drink.

Here's a pep talk and surely your next viral ad. Hello, hello? I think they've gone home.

So come on, which charity do you want to give £1000 to as a result of that inspirational creation?

5. Starbucks

Thank you Dave (big Starbucks branch in the Arndale Centre in Manchester) for the offer of a fundraising event on Wednesday 17th now the 24th August, with face painters, cakes from the amazing Kilio, and your balloon animals (even if your giraffe looks VERY similar to your butterfly and your poodle), and thanks to 'Shig' (small Starbucks branch in the Arndale Centre) for offering to do an event on Saturday 27th August with a special Frappuccino on sale too.

Still don't understand why the 4 Leeds branches I use from time to time haven't responded to my Moonpig card invitations to support me, even if it's a polite decline.

6. Lucia

So sorry you're in Manchester tonight with all that trouble not so very far away and I'm at home in Leeds. I hope this blog, the e-mails and texts have helped take your mind off what could have been. I now understand how helpless you must feel at me going to the North Pole, one of the last great (dangerous) wildernesses in the world, and you staying at home unable to influence or protect.

At least the animals at the Pole have more than one brain cell; more than can be said of the scum destroying Manchester city centre tonight.

And on that politically incorrect note folks I'll bid you good night.

This isn't a typical week ... sadly

It's 22:05 when I'm starting this blog after an excellent 7 days; iTunes has just started blasting out Elton John's 'Saturday Night's Alright (for fighting)' and I've had a wonderfully hectic day.

Let me take you back to last Saturday though and remind myself glibly that the last 7 days started with my first ever non-stop 30 minutes of PT. It was also my 50th birthday so I had cards to open & a couple of surprise presents too. Saturday turned into Sunday before I knew it so Lucia and I grabbed a meal out before watching a DVD at the apartment we'd rented.

Monday was the Test match at Nottingham, courtesy of my girls. The last live match I went to Sir Geoffrey of Boycottshire scored his 100th hundred (on-driving Greg Chappell for four at Headingley) so it's been a while since I joined a line of thousands snaking through a city centre, past shops not yet open and cafes closing after offering a "special Test Match breakfast" ..... hmm go figure ..... and pubs bursting at the seams by 11am, then suddenly I'm sat in a green oasis watching England 'spank' India.

Who would have guessed yours truly came back with sunburn given the cloud cover!!

Tuesday was work and yet another bl**dy sno-globe for my 'collection', with 'Shig' at the smaller Starbucks in the Manchester Arndale Centre confirming a fundraising day (including a new Frappaccino dedicated to my Trek) and Dave at the larger one telling me their plans for a fundraising day too. All that and then a rare treat when I got home; a DVD with my girls (Source Code, in case you wanted to know).

Wednesday morning was with the SMileS SMS team (see previous blog entry) - lashing Paul to those tyres was strangely satisfying ........ my thanks to the team for their Twitter posts

......... and a 6th person contacted me in the last week to tell me they were going to donate as a result of the feature in Beyond Magazine (but I'm still waiting for the donations to appear so my total remains static at the time of typing). Wednesday evening was gym-night with a solid hour and a few pints of perspiration shed!! I know, nice image huh?

(Oh yeah, Alice Cooper's 'School's Out' is playing now. In case you're interested.)

Thursday was work and then we come to today. Ahh yes today. Well the good bits were a 90-minute meeting with my boss this morning to talk through an exciting extension to the scope of work we're currently doing followed by a quick chat with the lovely Anna from the Individual Restaurant Company confirming the fundraiser in Harrogate Restaurant Bar & Grill (November 3rd 2011 .... mark it in your diary).

I also met my friend and ex colleague Nick Passman who is a risk assurance guru in my eyes; useful chat about life and work. The only downside was he told me the sad news about the British student Horatio Chapple; trying to defend his friends from a Polar Bear that had strayed into their camp he punched the bear on its nose and it attacked him, sadly mauling him to death. He and the survivors were flown to what will be our base camp (see below).

Longyearbarn; our base camp from which we'll fly to the 89th degree after ski-trekking here to acclimatise

Brings home one of the dangers of the Trek if you're not protected by a guide with a gun. My thoughts are with his family and those who also suffered the trauma of the attack and its deadly outcome.

After some more work I drove to meet Sara Benson of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign and Oliver, a new volunteer who will be helping me to fundraise. Maybe more about 'Olivers story' in a future blog. I need to design a leaflet and get 1000 of them to him asap so guess that's my work cut out for tomorrow before I set off to Manchester.

A quick visit to see the Heart Research UK team, David Miller at Bartfields and to leave a copy of Beyond Magazine for Chris Allen at Blacks Solicitors, and help push a Mercedes 2-seat sports car that had broken down up a hill, then home.

I also went tyre-dragging tonight; the first mile I've done for a while and with a 14kg and a 7kg tyre lashed together. Jon Gregg came along for a go; this video is the short story of his climb up the slope in Rothwell Park. I really like Jon; hard-working, decent, honest and supportive .... and he's also going to see if he can get any reindeer sausages to create a North Pole sandwich to celebrate my Trek.

And that represented the highlights of a truly great week ...... and I even got to pretend to sack Andrew at work; can life get any better? And now, as Queen sing 'These are the days of our lives', I'm slipping slowly into a sleepy daze and know it's time for bed.

Tomorrow sees the start of another week with a 30-minute PT session at Iveridge & you just KNOW that's going to be a helluva way to welcome in the weekend. I've just had a brilliant week but if you feel you're having a bad one, just remember that there are some perfectly normal people who have much worse days; wardrobe co-ordination can be memorable for all sorts of reasons .... try not to have nightmares. Sleep well.

Geoff Major brings you a Public Clothing Warning; let's just call it part of my service to the community

A HUGE thank you & some dates for the diary

I spent this morning with Mark Evans, Rosie and Paul from the SMileS SMS team (see smilessms.com).

Mark kindly offered one of their experienced team for an hour a week and the 'pitch' is we're not looking for you to donate but would you get involved in promoting the Trek. We got together to discuss how the first 2 hours they'd spent outbound calling to companies to promote my Trek had gone.

The lovely and professional Rosie

Fifty six organisations have so far said "Yes" they'll promote it (including Rugby League's Wakefield Wildcats and the Huddersfield Giants) and the lovely Rosie has only just started. The ultimate outcome clearly is that I hope more and more people will become aware and will donate but this outbound activity is primarily to get a bunch of companies and organisations to say they will allow us access to their network of people, consumers and clients in the hope that it attracts sponsorship and/or donations. As the knowledge network campaign I created at Scottish Power was called, "Someone Somewhere" .... hopefully.

Whilst there Paul (one of the 'up for anything' members of the team) smiled broadly when we discussed the idea of a PR event for tyre-pulling, and even wider when he knew I had the tyre-dragging harness in the back of the Freelander.

Without a second thought he went down the bottom of the garden and got two (err pretty lightweight I have to say) tyres and carried them to the car. Hmm yes, the whole 'back garden built up out of tyres' story is intriguing; when you contact Mark at SMileS SMS ask him about it.

WHAT a drama queen, striking a 'pose'

We lashed the tyres to the harness and strapped

Paul in and off he went, running up the steep hill and out of sight.

Several minutes later when the sound of sirens had faded into the distance, Paul thankfully re-appeared near the end of his circuit, moving a little slower than when he set off (okay a LOT slower, even though he picked up speed when he saw the cameras) but he did fantastically well despite the puffing and panting ....

....... and the fact that he immediately disappeared into the toilet.

After my trip to SMileS I drove across the M62 to Manchester and again realised that I need to finalise a couple of dates for key activities: -

a) I still have to settle on a date and a location for the Leeds fundraising dinner

b) I need to write the 500-word blog for the Guardian 'Voluntary' supplement, as offered by Jo Adetunji, about the way I want to evolve the Involve ethos into a co-operative

c) Glenn at Sheffield Piccolino's was just enthusiasm personified last week when I went to meet him; February 2012 is going to be one heck of a fundraising evening

d) The lovely Anna at Harrogate Restaurant Bar & Grill has agreed a 3rd November date for a fundraiser

e) There will be a tyre-dragging weekend for all invitees 17th and 18th September; there seems to a real thirst to have a go so, provided people are happy to sign disclaimers, line up ladies and gentlemen.

f) I need to ask permission from Iveridge Hall for a dedicated cross-trainer machine from 21st November through to the 28th November; that's the first time I'll attempt 9 miles a day, 8 days in a row on maximum (level 25). I'm pretty sure I'll fail but it will be the first test of my progress and WHAT a test !!!

g) I need to chase down the owner of Bem Brasil in Liverpool; someone knows him personally and I have many contacts who live over that way who would attend a fundraiser,

h) The company http://www.snowsled.com/ might be able to support me in making my stand at the Yorkshire Mafia conference in March 2012 'polar', with the equipment they build/supply. They provide so much of the stuff I'll be using. Roger replied almost immediately and seems very supportive.

No it's not the North Pole, but it looks pretty

 

Lots of priorities so no time to waste. See you later.