Now only 10 weeks; lots of photos & Oliver Shaw

It is starting to feel VERY close indeed.

Yesterday (Thursday) a sled (known as a pulk) arrived for me to use in a photo shoot with The Victoria Quarter in Leeds; "... housed in elegant Grade II listed buildings and home to 76 of the worlds leading fashion and lifestyle brands such as Louis Vuitton, Paul Smith, Vivienne Westwood, Mulberry, LK Bennett, Reiss, Liz Earle and of course Harvey Nichols, the Victoria Quarter is justifiably renowned as one of the country's finest shopping destinations"

The management team of this beautiful retail arcade heard about my #ontheflag Twitter promotion and offered to donate all the money thrown into their fountain from November 2011 to the end of March 2012. I offered to turn up looking 'a bit Polar' for a photo opportunity if they thought it would be good PR for them.

Here is an informal shot of John (the Centre Director of VicQtr) and I BEFORE he climbed into the pulk and sat down. I think they'll be using the in-pulk shot in their press release to two 40000+ circulation magazines.

My thanks also to www.snowsled.com for providing the pulk at such short notice for this & other photo opportunities, as well as for my stand at the Yorkshire Mafia 2012 Conference.

To be honest I'm not sure the pulk will impress people as it's a bit of moulded plastic with a posh sack attached for my supplies, tent, clothing and 'stuff' but it is what it is and it meant a lot to me when it arrived and in the next 2 weeks all my polar clothing should arrive too.

The visit to Victoria Quarter also took me to a shop called ShadeStation (after a recommendation from Cotswold Outdoors bless them) where I parted quickly with £166 for this pair of handy-sized polar goggles.

Darling, does my bum look big in this?

I also booked my train tickets to Haugastol in Norway (our training camp for a week) and, well, the Trek will be literally just around the corner after that. Of course there's the Yorkshire Mafia Conference between the training week and my departure; I have stand #24 at the Conference and am crossing my fingers that a company will loan this (see below) to me for the 2 days ....

Wonder if the real ones look this harmless?

To prepare for the Trek I've also re-started skiing but this time I offered to take my girls too. Now before I continue let me clear up a couple of things: -

a) Yes I've skied before insofar as my first lesson was in Chamonix in 1975, when I was 14; my second lesson was in Austria on my honeymoon in 1987, when I was 26. My third lesson was early in 2011 when I was 49 and my fourth lesson was last Tuesday night.

In 1987 I had plenty of hair

b) My girls have NEVER had ski's attached to their feet (or anywhere else for that matter) but they did flippin' brilliantly even if I do say so myself (as a proud Dad). The two clips below show what they were able to do after 20 minutes and what they could do after 45 minutes.

So we've now booked our 2nd family lesson and that one SHOULD get us up onto the big slope. Oh crap !!

That reminds me, the PR team for SnoZone went really quiet after the SnoZone Marketing team said if I could get them some exposure I could use the slope for free. Well after £120 last night I think I'll try to re-contact the PR team and say "Excuse me but I started with this teeny tiny mention but can get you more, so ....?". I mean a deal is a deal right and Beyond Magazine were kind enough to put this mini feature in which refers to SnoZone so it's a start.

Somewhat surprisingly Beyond Magazine put Daniel Craig on the front cover this issue, not me. Last time they put Johnny Depp ahead of me and now this. Insulted? Moi? You'd better believe it.

****************

Turning to the #ontheflag Twitter promotion, there are still spaces in case you know of any company who wants to be involved. It's £50 minimum donation or goods/services in kind. I've even got the Co-operative Banking Group to give their logo as they are my client and have today put me on their intranet to see if we can get some more donations or some more tickets sold for the event at Zinc on the 28th March. Below is a copy of what's on their intranet; an excellent piece of work by Peter Matthews.

Peter emailed to say "I was a bit unsure about using the Captain Oates/gallant gentlemen image at first because I didn't want to send people the wrong message about your expedition" aka sorry if I've just cursed the event

Of course the one thing that's still missing from my training is the cold. It appeared briefly a week or so ago and my usual haunt for dragging tyres looked remarkably different.

Still it's only a small step forward even though it hit -5 on the thermometer. I should really be with Lucia who has gone back to Slovakia to see her parents and sister this week; it's currently -18 and there's 2ft of snow right now, with a forecast of -28 next week. Now that WOULD be preparation. Here's a photo she sent me today:

Alternatively I could go to Canada which is where my eldest announced she's going to live for a year, flying out the day before I fly to the Pole. Looks like April is going to be heavy on the travel for the Major family.

Mind you NONE of them are comparable to this (my sincere thanks to Sean Chapple who's photograph this is; he's a guy who CAN say "Been there, done that")

Actually, I think this is the South Pole but hey, it's still a Pole and it's still bl**dy cold.

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This week also saw the launch of a bespoke 'North Pole Trek' cheesecake (courtesy of @Very_Delicious_ from Twitter); looks so yummy. Let me see if anyone wants to order in bulk!

This blog is also an entertainment channel you know so to brighten up your day (perhaps) spare a thought for the Marketing manager who was brave enough to commission this billboard. Either he/she gets a round of applause .... or he/she was fired. I have no idea 'what happened next' but it made me chuckle.

But finally, I want to finish on a sobering note.

Seth Bennett (who interviewed for an hour me on BBC Radio Leeds in Autumn 2011) invited me on to BBC Radio Sheffield over Christmas to update him, his listeners and his 7500 followers on Twitter about my preparations for the Trek. One listener was Isobel Dugher who's grandson Oliver passed away after a brave 4-year fight with leukaemia.

She contacted me via Twitter after the show to tell me she wanted to sponsor a photo of Oliver #ontheflag, as a tribute to his bravery and (according to Isobel) to mine, so this message is for Isobel.

I am honoured to be carrying a tribute to Oliver; my efforts are merely a drop in the ocean compared to that young man's bravery and heart. I will take his image to the Pole and do my best to ensure you get a photograph of the flag to remember him by.

For those who cannot fight alone, I'm going to get to the Pole.

The 12-week countdown begins

Monday (9^th January 2012) saw the countdown clock hit the 12-week milestone; 12 weeks until I fly out from Heathrow to Oslo for an overnight stay, before flying onto our base camp on Svalbard in the Arctic Circle.

The arctic circle on a good day

It was also the morning I realised I need to take the next step in my immediate training regime as well as book some time on the local ski slope at The SnoZone. Hopefully that will offer some fun photos and be valuable practise for me on skis (rather than being the time I break a bone and have to trek with my leg in pot).

Back to this week though and the startling recognition in the early hours of Monday morning that I’m in danger of letting the weeks float by without increasing my tyre-dragging practise. It now seems so long ago that I took the week off work in November for that morale-boosting series of days dragging the tyre.

Now it gets serious!

I have no idea how I’ll respond to the extreme cold and whilst I have some level of comfort that I can drag the sled, I find the first 10-minutes of exercise is key to the next 4 hours insofar as if I ‘clear the pipes’ and ‘blow away the cobwebs’ in the first 10 minutes I get into a good stride. If not (as witnessed on the first tyre-drag on Dartmoor), then I struggle for a while to get my breathing, lactic acid and therefore mental confidence back under control. That’s why I started with a PT (cardio) session on a Monday night and at least one of my 3 (or 4) tyre-drags a week will begin with steep inclines.

As I said on a recent tweet “It’s not the polar ice I’m conquering, it’s my mind and body”.

Of course the cardio PT session with Becky on Monday nights (as opposed to the strength PT session with Paul on a Saturday morning) didn’t help when, just before Christmas, I got the most extreme discomfort from cramp. That though was nothing like as painful as last Monday night when I returned to the gym and Becky asked how my calf muscle was after she “broke me” before Christmas.

Oh how she chuckled. Cheeky @&^%£$> !!

(photo of Becky the trainer to follow)

Oh hang on …. when I’m cheeky back at her during PT she always adds a full twist to the resistance control on the bike/30 extra seconds on the rowing machine at high speed/more pulls on the skiing machine at the end of the session. Hmm yes, guess it’s too late to worry now if she’s read this, right?!?

Cardio is great for losing some of the 'puppy fat' I have (ok who guffawed just then??) but in the back of my mind I have to remember that it's estimated you lose a stone (c. 7kg) in weight on the Trek, despite consuming approximately 5000 calories a day.

This week also saw the start of a series of emails from my fellow polar trekkers and the trek lead, Geoff Somers, asking about equipment and the training week we have in Norway.

The location for our training week (including two nights out on the snow/ice)

One email mentioned that Deborah S who has joined the party did the South Pole trek recently so it seems that most of my fellow trekkers are a mixture of South Pole conquerers, river rafters, mountain walkers, heli-skiers and triathletes … oh yeah and li’l ol’ me.

Not sure what Peter H, Seni G or Sara C are but I have to keep reminding myself it doesn’t matter; this is my personal challenge and if I’m the oldest, slowest and weakest then that’s what I am. Thankfully I hear polar bears prefer younger healthier meat (sorry folks) and hopefully I won’t let myself down.

Unfortunately all the above comes at a price and that price is that my girls and the lovely Lucia continue to see me less than they might like. Sorry, but once April is over I’m all yours.

Then it will almost be time to plan 3 landmark birthday celebrations, all within 4 weeks of each other (and none of them are mine darn it)

And so onto my new tyre-dragging schedule.

An email this week from Douglas. He's a fellow trekker and really nice guy who worked bloody hard for many years with his brother to make their premium cheese-making business a great success, and subsequently sold it for price that meant they had a penny to spare at the end for themselves.

Douglas mentioned he was out most days dragging tyres near his home; in Portugal. How kind that he sent a photo of the miserable surroundings and dreary weather he’s suffering at the 7am sunrise. It helped he tremendously given I'd opened the email attachment (below)  in a Manchester car park after sitting for majority of my 90 minute journey in a traffic jam on the M62.

Don’t worry folks I’ll get him back if we share a tent on the Trek by snoring my head off, but seriously it’s good to see someone who has clearly put a lot of effort into work throughout his life getting to earn the rewards of his labour. After all that’s what we all aspire to do.

For me I'm currently re-stocking the coffers as the money cupboard is bare given the expense of the Trek and payment of a company tax bill, so working towards the dream of future happiness whatever that may turn out to be has to restart from scratch, but life now seems to have as many open doors as there are uncertainties in the economy.

Tyre-dragging for me has to now increase in length and repetitions so I'd already stepped up to just over 19kg of tyres but had dropped back down to 4-5 miles per drag and only one a week on top of my two PT sessions.

Now every Thursday and Friday afternoon plus Saturday morning I'll be dragging the tyres at least 5 miles. That may mean I'll probably have to drop PT on Saturday's for a while. 

I'll also instigate a tyre-drag every other Sunday as well. Such a shame the daylight hours are so short now whereas in summer I was out until 8 or 9pm.

If you click on this photo you can see people right down at the bottom of the hill, over the footbridge. Gives you some sense of the incline and size of the hill I drag the tyres up every 1.9 miles

Still, at least they're promising frost this coming weekend. Ahhh the cooler weather is here FINALLY.

I’m also planning a series of events and tasks I need to do in the next 12 weeks, so here goes the Geoff Major Top Ten countdown ……… (cue the old Top of the Pop music):

10. (a re-entry) I need to write to Tottenham Hotspur who said they would try to feature me in two of their match-day programmes provided I take a Spurs scarf and photograph it at the Pole.

9. (down 2 from last week) I have the event at Zinc Restaurant Bar & Grill in Manchester to advertise and organise; raised nearly £2k for charity last June so should be a fun night as well as a charity fundraising night.

8. Ski lessons and use of the slope for free if I can get some PR for SnoZone; planned the skiing for w/c 23^rd January. Must see if my girls fancy having a go too.

7. Drive the #ontheflag activity including the collection of £pledges from those companies who said they want to be #ontheflag but have yet to pay & re-start the attempt to fill the remaining spaces.

6. (up a massive 12 places) Get the info to Alison who is following-up the 60 companies who said they would promote my participation in the trek (includes two rugby league clubs too). Have to try to source a text-donation service …. for free.

5. Get planning the stand I have at the Yorkshire Mafia Conference & Exhibition in Leeds on 21^st and 22^nd March (stand 24), including the stuffed polar bear, polar sled and fake snow (the latter courtesy of Santa’s Grotto at The Mill retail outlet in Batley).

Details of the YM Conference (I'm on stand 24)

4. (a non-mover) Agree a date for a farewell event at Create (an excellent social enterprise restaurant in Leeds); possibly on Friday 30^th March, just 3 days before I fly out to Svalbard.

3. (a new entry) Prepare for an evening a friend has set-up with some of her contacts with ‘disposable income’; fingers crossed it’s not a 150-mile round trip for £30 but if it is that’s probably going to be my fault for lack of preparation.

2. (last weeks’ number 7) prep for Norway training event; try to light a burner without burning a hole in a tent, buy some polar goggles and face mask oh yes ... and book the flights and accommodation for Norway.

1. (and still in the number one spot …) Start working 4 days-over-5, increase training and fundraising, continue to try to balance spending time with my girls and with Lucia (hopefully better than I am doing at the moment), eat, sleep, save money whilst reducing hours, potentially find new work if this piece ends on 30^th March and try to find just a moments’ quiet time for me.

And on that sobering note, it’s almost time for bed but not before a phone call with Lucia (seen below in a photo shoot). I then need to rest as I’ve not had any illness for a year and now is NOT the time to get weary and allow my natural defences to drop.

And soon into a busy busy weekend. First ‘tyre-drag triple’ for a while this Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well as driving to Middlesbrough and back on Saturday to let Becky look at a car she might want to buy to learn to drive in.

One daughter now driving (well done Lauren xxx), one to go.

That was the year that was ...

It's 17:04hrs on 30th December 2011 and I've just done a review of the blog entries I've posted since I first came back from my charity cycle ride across Cuba and subsequently 'hinted' at the North Pole Trek; that first blog was on Tuesday 28th December 2010 and boy oh boy what a year it's been.

What you have below are some of my personal highlights of the blog entries as well as the occasional reference to some of you, my loyal and my sporadic readers from around the world. From the giddy heights of that first entry through over 92 previous entries and it all boils down to this summary (if you can't be bothered to read through all the others).



1. Just a few of the key points: January to December 2011

January - I announce to the world that the North Pole Trek is my next adventure. Even Andrew at work said he felt proud; that tone changed as, over the course of 2011 he, Pete and Stephen decided to discuss a sweepstake of how I would die. Nothing quite like team spirit in the workplace.

I announced also how chuffed I was to complete 3 miles in 90 minutes at Level 4 on the cross-trainer at Iveridge Health Club. Last month I did an hour on Level 16 followed by an hour working my way up from Level 0 to Level 25 (maximum) and back down again; oh how I would only have dreamt of doing that back in January 2011.


February - I opened a Twitter account and Capitol Radio Yorkshire said they wanted to talk about giving my challenge some airtime. Sadly all their apparent enthusiasm came to nothing.

It was also the first mention of a proposed fundraiser at Zinc in Manchester; it turned out to be a great night in June but more of that later. A key part of this was to display and hopefully sell some art by friends and colleagues including Ben 'Diego' Tynan, Alison who had only recently picked up charcoals for the first time ever (see below) and a young woman from Starbucks called Lucia who had been my regular barista (that's 'barista' Salford University, not 'barrister') and was soon to become a little more than that (I hoped).

The first charcoal Al (Alison) showed me, just 6 weeks after she picked up a charcoal for the first time.

March - Thanks to the lovely Denise at Heart Research UK I had my first e-mail conversation with the legendary Sir Ranulph Fiennes and, thanks to the just-as-lovely Sara Wilcox (nee Benson) from the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign I had an invitation to a Parliamentary Reception to launch some new research. More of that later.

Selling tickets for Zinc began and a second Manchester Starbucks branch offered to fundraise for a day for me after the Hanging Ditch branch did the first one.

This actually led to 4 Manchester branches in total doing some fundraising for me (Halle Mall being the most successful with £60); oddly the Leeds branches I use from time to time were not in the slightest bit interested. I mean it's not as if I'm FROM Leeds or anything like that is it?? It's not as if I've lived in Leeds my entire life is it?!?!?!

The Halle Mall team under branch manager 'Shig' (don't ask) raised £60 with cake and coffee; buns baked by Claire.

April - I complete my first tyre drag and have what I believe to be the funniest hour or so ever; tyres rolling down hills, dogs peeing on the car tyres and the first introduction to 'The Twitchers' who live across the road from the entrance to the park.

I emailed, tweeted & text the link out to my contacts. The best response was from 'Scottie the hottie' who wrote that she and her sister had tears rolling down their cheeks from laughing; that made me smile to think these two found it funny enough to want to text back and so did a few others who were also complimentary.

The blog entry (First tyre drag completed) is the second most popular one according to reader figures and it still makes me smile at just how wrong it all went. Loved it !!


May - Lucia and I attend the House of Commons. This was the most wonderful and yet the most humbling of days. The blog entry entitled 'A Dose Of Reality' currently stands at my 3rd most popular blog entry as read by you.

The excesses of our brief holiday in London and the House of Commons itself paled into ridiculous comparison when we sat and listened to some of life's realities for a number of the attendees. I think this was my third most emotional entry and well worth a read. The feelings evoked by my blog entry prompted two £100 donations within hours of it going 'live'.

Hold steady ladies, but yes a blog entry contained the first (and last) 'topless' photo; have to admit I'm getting sick and tired of Playgirl Magazine ringing to ask if I'd pose for their 'blooper' edition.




June - The first video clip was featured on my blog, although it wasn't me. My 'boss' brought his son to see me so (his words, not mine) "We can throw stones at you and generally laugh at your legs". Well they certainly did the latter although the 300 yards he dragged the tyres gave him an insight into the cardio value of the training and it earned the charities £10 as he promised he'd pay me £10 every time he laughed at my training regime.

Apologies for the 90-degree tilt of the video part way through.

His son Josh had a go but sadly couldn't move the tyres (although he is only 9 or 10 years old), but he seemed to enjoy throwing the stones at least. Stephen did bring a REALLY big bag and they looked professionally sharpened too.

I also reported on a hugely successful event at Zinc in Manchester; 68 people turned up and had a truly enjoyable evening (and yes, that's what they said). I loved writing this entry and looking back through the 300 photographs Tomas took in his role as official photographer for the evening; here's just a handful that still make me smile.

It was also in that posting I highlighted my routine with Paul (my 'strength' PT at Iveridge Hall) which had included me lifting 2 x 14kg weights in my 60 seconds of squats. Well how some things have improved; at last weeks PT session I lifted 50kg during my 90 seconds of squats.



July - A blog entry, entitled, 'A moment of reflection, another dose of reality' is the highest viewed blog entry ever and has remained so (and continually grown in popularity) since it was posted. MacMillan Cancer Support had invited me to the launch of an event known as em2ee (Emmerdale to Eastenders) where 5 members of the cast announced they were cycling from the Wool Pack to the Queen Vic in 24 hours.

The real story that evolved though was of James Golding and I can still feel the knot in my throat when I read and recall how he broke the news of the discovery of yet another tumour. It made me feel insignificant with the challenge of the Trek, it made me realise just how lucky I have been in life.

If you only read one blog entry you just might want to make it that one.



August - This was all about the excellent support I received from Smiles SMS. It's owner, Mark Evans, offered the services of Rosie to outbound call companies to see who would support me with PR and exposure for my Trek. It also featured Paul on video RUNNING round the block with tyre in tow.

He made it look so easy .... until at the end he said he felt sick. Ahh sweet revenge (sorry Paul).

There was also an eclectic posting featuring my fantastic birthday present from my girls (a day at the Trent Bridge test match between India and England; the best day's action with England crushing the Indian team), the sad news of the death of schoolboy Horatio Chapple as he tried to rescue a friend from a polar bear attack on the island of Svalbard, a photo of my eldest and a friend of hers at the LeedsFest in fancy dress (don't try this at home folks) and another video; this time it's Jon Gregg who has been fantastic in his support of my Trek and had his second go at dragging the tyres up the final slope in Rothwell Park.

It's the last 12 seconds that tell the tale .....

Jon Gregg's uphill tyre-drag

September - Recently returned from a holiday to remember; tranquil bliss, amazing company, great food, even better weather and free quadruple upgrade into the most fantastic villa simply because ours wasn't available and the rest of the complex was full ... although you wouldn't know it.

The blog again though drew the comparisons between this amazing holiday .....

..... and the harsh brutal yet sensitive content of a blog by a breast cancer sufferer called Ellie Jeffrey that really created such an evocative description of her daily emotions and challenges it brings guilt once again to the fact that I've had and hope to continue to have great health and happiness.

In the coming months I would get to know a little more about breast cancer as a friend of mine, the amazing fundraiser and bubbly personality known as Mandy Barwick smiled her way through (and continues to smile through) her treatment. Mandy and Ellie, you know I consider you both an inspiration !!



October - It started with a profound and emotional day for me as I realised I was nowhere near getting nor would I reach my £100 000 target. I make it no secret that I not only wanted to do for the good that it would do but also to ram it down someone 's patronising throat when they said it was "an awfully big number and just going in the newspaper won't get you a penny". No sh*t Sherlock !!!

The thing is a guy going to the Pole the week before me has raised over £95 000 but I noticed all his published donations were £1 000 or £1 500; I just don't 'move in those circles' I'm afraid.

Talking to the open and honest Karen Asemper and then meeting Mandy Barwick I finally let go of the aspiration and decided it was more important to focus on not having to give up my quest to get to the Pole due to lack of preparation. It was like taking a huge weight off my back as basically it had all been down to me.

My hopes that people would do fundraising for me or help achieve profile had all but faded (in fact my Mum became my biggest fundraiser after myself whereas 5 of the 7 others who had promised to help in some way simply faded back into the shadows, never to be heard of again.

October also saw the first public showing of this little thing .............. although I'll save the plaudits for later.

Towards the end of October saw my training weekend on Dartmoor and the meeting-up of the then 6 intrepid adventurers. I say 'the then' because 3 women have recently joined the team so we are now 9 plus two Trek professionals.

What an eye opener that weekend was and I look forward to the training week in Norway (March 2012) to see how much I've improved. Oh gawd please let me have improved but I am NOT to compare myself to the others; this is a personal challenge not some sort of race.

November - 'Margo and the 3rd Dose of Reality' started the month with a small insight into the world of an MS sufferer which, for me, re-ignited my passion to fundraise. With her blog entry and the suggestion from Douglas (one of my to-be polar colleagues) I launched the initiative #ontheflag on Twitter and found over 40 companies immediately interested in donating £50 or more to get their company logo on a flag I'll be taking to the North Pole. I now have 60 (although a couple are about to drop out I fear) and want to make it 120 logo's.

That month also saw me take a week off work and drag a 15kg tyre around the local park. I had measured a 2-mile circuit and built in some steep terrain and was chuffed to bits when I completed 63 miles in 8 days. It still isn't akin to the challenge but then what is??


And now we hit December which has two endearing memories for me; firstly a wonderful wonderful Christmas spent partly with my girls and partly with Lucia. They've not met ... yet. Without going into the detail of December let me move on to the next section.




2. So many people to thank

Where the heck do I start? My thanks to: -

a) My family for being so fantastic, particularly my girls for turning into the most wonderful young women who make me so proud to  be their Dad ...... unless it comes to tidying their rooms of course : )

b) Lucia for hiding her fear for my safety for most of the year, but I know you worry. You are amazing and I promise I'll be fine xx

c) To Geoff Shepherd and Sat Mann of the Yorkshire Mafia Group on LinkedIn, as well as some of it's members who are so encouraging. I cannot WAIT to be part of the 2012 YM Conference at the Royal Armouries and thank you for your thoughtful and selfless generosity.

d) Su, Craig and the team at Zinc in Manchester as well as 'Risky' Fitzsimmons for trying so hard at Harrogate Restaurant Bar & Grill.

e) Howard and Kathryn Rushfirth for your creativity, support and endlessly surprising me with your warmth and selflessness. Absolutely LOVE the logo you created and the business cards you gave me to use.

f) Fitz' for paying out the £500 he promised to if I got him a photo of me inside a life-size snowglobe. I (and MacMillan Cancer Support, your chosen beneficiary) thank you. You thought I couldn't do it ha ha

g) Paul at Iveridge (my PT) and Richard (the MD) for your help in turning this fat old blob into something that's still fat and old but a bit less blobby

h) Margo, Daniel, Dr Jon Hastie, Aaron Pask, Sara Benson, Sarah White and Denise in particular for being an inspiration and reality check, plus Mandy Barwick and Paula for being addictively enthusiastic and helpful.

i) Stephen Vickers for being so supportive and flexible as the toll of training hours potentially impact work (and for actually hoping I do survive the North Pole, even though he acts well 'ard). Oh yes and it's your round at Starbucks on Tuesday !

j) All the companies who have so enthusiastically pledged to be #ontheflag (check Twitter for the trend folks) and to those that are still to do so, and to the Yorkshire Evening Post, Rothwell Record, BBC local radio and Beyond Magazine for your features on my Trek and of the charities involved.

k) Marc at Rocca Creative for being there at the beginning and JB for helping on the stand at the YM Conference 2010 and all your support beyond.

l ) All the people in Rothwell Park who DO say hello and ask questions, as well as everyone on Twitter and everyone else I've currently forgotten to thank !!!


3. Penultimate section - what next?

And so we approach 2012 with another event planned at Zinc, one to be planned at Create Restaurant in Leeds, a training week in Norway once I've followed up my first ski lesson last January with a week of them this January.

The Yorkshire Mafia Conference over 2 days in March which will also include the displaying of 'the flag' complete with logo's on.

I still want to learn to shoot and still have to get fitter and stronger (thanks to Paul and now Becky who is my cardio PT) and of course, I still have to make the time for my girls and for Lucia that they deserve, I still have to work and earn money to recoup the £31 000 I have spent to be able to go on the Trek and my best wishes to all of you who for a personal and professionally satisfying 2012.

It's going to be tough for so many reasons outside of our control but I hope we all get through it and see things getting better ... for those of us who have that luxury of outlook in life when so many have not.




4. And finally some stats: -

a) There's been 6353 page viewings of my Trek blog so far (excluding my own reviews and amends)

b) On the 31st January I reported I'd had 343 page views (with 300 coming from the UK). The figures in red below represent what they were back then versus the black text of today's cumulative top ten:-

UK 4388 versus 300
USA 754 versus 40
Russia 193 versus 0
Germany 149 versus 1
Australia 63 versus 2
Ukraine 58 versus 0
Latvia 58 versus 0
France 43 versus 0
Ireland 42 versus 0
Romania 39 versus 0

I've also had viewers from Estonia, India, Belgium, Slovakia, South Korea, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Mexico (more of that in a moment), New Zealand, Burkino Faso, The Maldives, Thailand, Singapore, China, Hungary and Vietnam that I recall.

Of course not all those viewers MEANT to view my blog. On the blog software it tells me that Twitter was the main link for most people but 61 page views were generated by Google searches; the most popular search was for 'a-reet-yorkshire-adventure.blogspot.com' (21 people) but other keywords that sent people to my blog were: -

- six people put in 'Costco putting'
- three people put in 'mexico beach bar' and
- two people put in 'big black special yorkshire'

I'll leave that last one to your imagination as I go remove the turkey from the freezer in readiness for tomorrows' belated Christmas meal with my girls and my Mum. I'm sure a silent prayer will be said for the man missing from the table. I know your spirit is still in our hearts and mind though Dad. xx 

It's coming ...... soon

Over the Christmas/New Year break I'll be summarising 2011 with its highs and lows as I enter the final 100 days before the Trek. Please, when I post it and you get a notification, I'd be thrilled if every reader could forward it to 10 of their friends and/or relatives.

The clock will start ticking faster as I also summarise the next key steps in my preparation.

Can't wait to write it and hope you can't wait to read it ... and thank you for your support so far. Now go and enjoy your Christmas (assuming you celebrate it and, if you don't, have a great Christmas-free week). I'll be getting ready for training to resume on Boxing Day .......

Photo courtesy of Yorkshire Post Newspapers (all rights reserved)

How to earn £500 with a 'click'

I promised this blog entry by noon today but I've just been mesmerised on iTunes trying to select a number of Christmas tracks. Sorry.

Let me give you some context before I explain about my '£500 in 3 minutes' but. err yes, I've just also been  distracted by BBC Radio 5 Live's 'Fighting Talk'; so funny. A guy proposed to his girlfriend on the train this week and everyone applauded; the guest on 'Fighting Talk' said with real comic virtiol that it was so annoying because it was the quiet coach. Tears streaming down my cheeks.

Hmm maybe you had to be there.

Anyway, the story began last year when I was lucky enough to take my girls on holiday to Maui (my brother lives in California and has a timeshare option so it's a lot cheaper than you might expect). A colleague of mine (we'll call him Fitz') somewhat irrationally asked me to get him a snow globe which, despite a fairly extensive search around a whole host of shops on the island, I was unable to do. Still, there are still lots of great memories from the LA/Maui holiday ....

Looking out from Maui to ... err ... to ... erm, another Hawaiian island

A view from my balcony, the round the island helicopter trip, my youngests' 16th birthday evening and 'that' sign

Sauces at the amazing Momma's Fish House on Maui

Driving through Bel Air in the convertible hire car

All too much for someone on the flight home

His disappointment was somewhat tempered as he knew I was heading to Cuba several months later so he again asked me to try to get him a snow globe. I did see one but as I had only just found out I had to pay to get OUT of the country and I was desperate for a sandwich .... I decided to tell him I couldn't find one.

And that was a serious mistake!!

Every time he has been away since he's brought me a snow globe back and the collection has grown as others have got caught up in the spirit of things and decided to also bring me one back from their holidays. I now have 15 bloody snow globes on my desk at work! Yes yes I'll post a photo of the collection next time.

Anyway, as I started to prompt people for donations to the charity pot for my polar trek, Fitz' joked that he'd seen on-line that you could buy life-size snow globes and he would donate £500 if I got him a photo of me in a life-size snow globe. And so the challenge began.

Google is my friend but although I found what I was looking for within just a few days, it has taken months to organise but this last week was the week I was going to make it happen.

I woke on Friday in London after a good night out with people I work with. Thursday night was excellent but the wind and hail had already made its mark as we left Manchester (yeah I know, rain in Manchester ... WHAT a surprise). A few special mentions if I may: -

- Special mention to Jason who was still in Edinburgh at 2pm when he text to say all flights out of the airport had been cancelled so he was hoping to get down to London to meet us on a train. And  he did!

- Andrew, you don't need to say to a Manchester taxi driver "Manchester Piccadilly station please"

- Thanks to Fitz' for the education on pugilistic donkeys. Think we'll leave that topic alone and apologies to Peter Barden for making him nervous in the restaurant.

- The Windmill hotel (Windmill on the Common) remains a great hotel at a reasonable price and we all enjoyed the bar, but only a couple of us enjoyed breakfast.

In contrast to Thursday, Friday started beautifully & I walked through Clapham in the mild morning sunshine watching joggers, cyclists and just 'life' going on ...........

Who needs a holiday when England is this beautiful

The train ride north was enjoyable and relaxing and when I returned to Manchester .... I got caught in yet another hail shower. A quick trip back to the car and I headed to Bury to find The Rock shopping centre.

Before I go on, my thanks to Pete Barrett for saying yes to helping me with the challenge. Within minutes of parking I found the attraction that is the Snow Ball Experience ...........

Apologies to Phil (in case it wasn't Phil as I'm sometimes rubbish with names); he was managing the attraction and very patiently took numerous photographs and offered all sorts of product in support of my £500 challenge.

The people walking by the attraction must have wondered what the heck a grown man was doing inside the globe alone, throwing fake snow over his head and onto the fan to create a haze so thick it was difficult to see it was actually me in the globe, but whilst the photograph below shows me (vaguely) I can promise you Fitz' has the proof he needs that is was me and I'll be looking forward to the £500 donation.

I text Fitz' several times on Friday afternoon and his final text, once he knew I had the proof, was "A deal is a deal ..." and I am already looking forward to the presentation ceremony. Fitz' will finally get his first ever snow globe from me, of me.

And now it's time for me to email a few companies who have promised to be #ontheflag and need instructions on how to pay, as well as package the Lucas Radebe signed football shirt ready to mail out to the winner of the silent auction (item courtesy of and funds already with the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign).

Wonderful news about the #ontheflag campaign although not quite as much fun as a life-size snow globe and a mini-snow globe to go with Fitz's growing thimble collection.

But that collection is another story. Revenge is sweet though.

It started with hail and ended with a biting wind

What a week I had when I went training in the local park; 50 miles over 7 days with a 15kg tyre and a Saturday morning PT session with Paul. The picture above is how the weather looked on the Friday and, thankfully, it's just got colder as we progressed through the week to today (Sunday 4th December).

Of course that didn't stop it from hailing and raining on Friday 25th November while I was out pulling for another 8 miles. That day also saw me bask in the glory of a sports massage on my legs, or rather it saw me squirm with pain as Becki (or 'crazy Becki' as the brave and the (now) dead dare call her) seemed to have such fun dragging what felt like a cross between razor blades and a bradawl up and down my muscles, laughing with glee at every gasp and yelp.

The weekend activites also saw the SECOND technical hitch of the week and another hurried trip to B&Q but this time, success!! I now have a hooked bolt through my tyre and weather and abrasion-resistant rope so no more of this hopefully .............

I was back to work last week but after my fun week training, on the Monday evening I decided enough pussy-footing around, I needed a cardio PT as well as a strength/endurance PT and so, with Paul not working on Mondays at Iveridge Health Club, I decided on 'crazy Becki' instead.

Bless her she's not really that bad but she does ride mountain bikes VERY fast down VERY steep hills and argues with trees a lot on the way down. She also 'boulders' and 'North Shores' in her spare time but if you ever want a role model for abs (on a pretty woman, not a flicker of 'butch' about her I hasten to add) then Becki is the one.

That had to be the hardest 26 minutes exercise I'd done for a while but I'm now committed to the next ten 30-minute sessions as it's going to prove invaluable. Hmm so there's that, Paul on a Saturday morning, my Wednesday morning self-managed sessions (by far the hardest of course) and I have to fit in more tyre drags. Looks like I might need to swap Monday evenings for Wednesday mornings as Lucia and I need to head to the gym too.

I also met up with my friend Al(ison) on Wednesday and she's offered to help me organise and chase potential PR and fundraising opportunities. This is her on holiday, not waiting for me outside Zinc in Manchester. She will be an AMAZING asset to help and ... if anyone in Manchester is looking for a lively, creative, energetic internal PR-type person/sales co-ordinator then this is your woman !!

Today's tyre drag was hard work but also had a great sense of achievement. Time was limited and the weather was foul (although nowhere near cold enough). In 2 hours I managed 4 miles with two tyres (a big one and a little one, totalling 21kg) and the ground wasn't secure .......

That drag mark was actually 18 inches long and was just one of several as I tried to go up a hill three times in a row as part of every 2-mile circuit. I did of course manage all three climbs both times I attempted it, but it was a wee insight into what climbing ice might be like (but without the icy consequences).

Today also had a first; a car pulled over and the couple inside stopped to ask what I was doing and wanted to know more. Trust me not to have packed some of my new 'business cards' courtesy of Rushfirth Creative.

Earlier this week (jumping around a bit aren't I) a colleague at work asked how I occupy my mind as I drag the tyres if I don't listen to music or an audio book on my iPod? Well apart from the odd hello to either people inquisitive to know more or people who I see on a regular basis, it's mainly thoughts about the challenge itslef, the cost, the usual things in life and Twitter take up lots of time. Here are a few thoughts from today I thought I;'d share with you: -

a) I'm up to 50 companies who want to be #ontheflag; wonder how I'll get the other 70? That reminded me of Twitter and a smile crossed my face as I recalled a photo someone posted last week ...

b) After that I thought about how I need to plan what I'm going to do for my stand at the Yorkshire Mafia Conference 2012 in March; the layout, the aim and the 'special offers' to attract fundraising, which then made me think ....

c) Must not forget I need to work for YEARS to recover the cost of this trek; £26 000 for the trek, £1 600 for the insurance, £2 000 for training, another £1 000 for the proposed Norwegian training week in March, £500 I've currently spent on training equipment & sundry spend on 'stuff' like leaflets. Hmm total = £31 000

d) I briefly reminded myself of a discovery during the week too (which p*ss*d me off); a guy doing the trek the week before me has the same £100 000 fundraising aspiration. I'm approaching £12 000 and, looking at his JustGiving page, he's on ............................ £95 000 !! Oh crap. Mind you most of his donations appear to be £1 000 or £1 500 from individuals and couples and I just don't move in those circles. I still want to show a particular person how WRONG they were when they said I wouldn't get near the £100 000 though.

e) Then I began to think through the implications of my proposed 2014 adventure ... and got a headache, so I decided to focus on one adventure at a time, which brought me back to the news that ....

f) We have 2 additional Trekkers as of this week; Sara and Selena. That makes 8 trekkers now.

And so that's it for tonight (or rather this morning as the clock tells me it's 00:07hrs now). So much for an early night again and looks like snow is falling. After today's biting wind it just might start to get a little bit cold. Hurrah !!!! Err why is everyone staring at me???

Better finish off with a cute picture to make everyone go "Awww" and stop wanting to hang me out to freeze.

Phew, it worked. Good night.

Twitter campaign to be #ontheflag

Day 3 completed, another 9 miles done, another 8 'Trek' business cards handed out and just one dog barked at me and one pee'd on the tyre today. That's not happened since a blog entry back in April !!

Used my nordic ski poles again today thankfully so cleaning the leaves out of the tyre was much less fraught which was good as I'd scooped up some dog poop on one of the circuits. Thank goodness it wasn't squished otherwise the stench would have stayed with me for the remaining 6 miles.

Gives the phrase 'needle in a haystack'  a whole new scratch 'n' sniff angle

Anyway the main aim of this blog entry is to let anyone who doesn't already know about the #ontheflag campaign I'm running on Twitter .... about the #ontheflag campaign I'm running on Twitter (is that poor grammar or just rubbish English?). The proposition is: -

If your company donates £50 to my Trek charities via the Virgin Money Giving sites I've set up (or via cheque through my Trek accountants, Bartfields UK,) you can have your logo on a flag I'm having made to take to the North Pole.

It will be photographed and one of the companies will win the flag when I return. Now how amazing an offer is that!?!?!?!?

Note : Minimum £47.50 to charity, maximum £2.50 to make the flag itself. If the flag costs more I'll cover it (on top of the £26000 it's costing my company for the Trek + £1600 for the insurance, just in case you were worried YOU were paying for the Trek, which is a rationale concern for some and a valid question for all).

Don't leave it too late as there are only 120 spaces and it's definitely first come first served.

Come see the flag at the Yorkshire Mafia Conference in March 2012 at the Royal Armouries in Leeds and think how proud you'll be if you have the flag hanging in your reception after April, but you've got to be in it to win it (I'm sure that's a good marketing slogan SOMEONE could use).

Conference webpage link

So far there have been 42 pledges and the first payments are coming in ... and so are the logo's. Already guaranteed to be #ontheflag are: -

@eatatcreate
@callmejoecoffee
@clarky
@MillenniaIT (who has already sent their logo too)
@smartartsUK (yup and so have these)
@boutiquemc
@ipPatrol
@kokino_marvo
@gwdandp
@tassociatesltd (she has too)
@Zinc_Manchester
@RoccaCreative
@VictoriaQtrLds
@SimplyHealthUK
@GRex_Fitness

.... plus many others such as @MafiaYorkshire and @smilessms for their incredible support to date, @Iveridge for their guidance and generosity, and @RushfirthLeeds for just being amazing people.

As Howard @RushfirthLeeds says, having a tall wife means they always see eye to eye

Some companies are also part of it but I can't find a Twitter address yet but they include iSource, Rullion, Touchpoint Change, 3 Co's, Journey Management, London Clubs International and Hermes Europe and then there are the 19 companies who have promised via Twitter and will be paying shortly.

So what are you waiting for, an official invite? Either get on Twitter [@northpoletrek] or leave a message on here or contact me through other known means. Alternatively just write to me at the address below.

...... I'm waiting : )

The 'Involve' ethos
c/o BlueDucks Limited
Round Foundry Media Centre
Foundry Street
Leeds LS11 5QP

In the meantime I've got 4 more days of tyre-hauling to go so I'll be enjoying this vista ...

..... and getting even more like this ......

Well someone's got to look good in Helly Hansen other than chav's ...

..... before my vista returns to this .......

The M62 westbound on a glorious Autumn morning

If only I could do this training and fundraising thing full-time.