Today I have a chap coming around to the house to do an interview with me for a well known consumer program.
Not going to tell you what it's about right now, but will post some more details up here once he has been to let you know how it goes :-)
Not had any reporters around since Rob Sissons came along to cover the Scirocco2Morocco drive in 2008 for East Midlands today and I had to drive the Scirocco along a back lane a few times with him filming in the rear to get footage for the story (it's on YouTube under the title "Scirocco 2 Morocco BBC visit" or something like that :-)
Ahhh. As per usual the BEEB has patted itself on the back about the one good thing they haven"t ballsed up this year.
Children in need is a great event and is a great way to raise money to help kids.....but why do all the reports of efforts to fund raise always focus mainly on the celebrities?
Why does some multi millionaire singer get more praise and thanks than Mr Smith down the road who has spent all week in a bath of beans, or Mrs Brown who at 85 has made hundreds of knitted toys to sell and raise funds. The " common" folk who contribute without consideration about promting their latest film or new song, don't ever get enough recognition for their efforts.....if you don't believe me just read the report ( link above) by the BBC about the event and "spot the non celeb" fundraiser!......Mmmmmm!
In a year when the BBC has managed to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds of licence payers hard earned cash compensating a Director General who did under 60 days work in the post before throwing in the towel when things got difficult ( i thought the reason people got paid vast salaries is because they are of a " high calibre"?....apparently not!) to the tune of £450'000.Then. After NOT airing a Newsnight programme about Jimmy Saviles dirty life, they try to be too quick with the next programme and, without getting their facts right, they wrongly accuse a Peer of being a paedo!......which then costs the poor old licence fee payer another £185'000 quid!
By the way....i wonder how much the ex DG of the beed donated? Nothing in the report about that is there :-/.
.
Well it was a well kept secret, but now it's official. The Scirocco 50LLR has at last been asked to appear on Top Gear. Show TV dates to be published soon :-)
( This is of course a dream...but you never know...perhaps one day! :-) )
I mean come on, if anyone I know had gone onto a national radio show and slagged off their employers in the way that this gobshite did they would be looking for a new job!.
Add this to the fact that Mr Moyles is hardly hard up with a claimed wage of over £500'000 a year and any sympathy that his listeners may have had for him, even the ones over the age of 10, is going to dry up pretty quick.
Get a life Chris, stop moaning and gobbing off you ungrateful little guttersnipe and remember that there are plenty of people who would dearly love to be on a fraction of what you are earning!.
By the way.As a BBC licence payer I expect that this clown will be given the boot (as he would in any other job!), but being the Beeb I guess they will will do the standard thing in this situation and bottle out about letting this overpaid oink go. Stop being suck cowards and put your bl**dy foot down you bunch of soft tw@ !.....and Moyles...put the fag out you ignorant git!...the sign says "No smoking"..........you plank!
It has been announced this week that the charity shop that has been a fantastic source of funding for thousands of pounds worth of equipment for Kings Mill Hospital, is to close at the end of August.
Over 22 years the shop has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds,funded the purchase of hundreds of medical devices for various departments and has been a great asset to Kings Mills thriving community.
I have always found the volunteers that work in the shop to be amazing and genuine people, and for that reason alone I, along with many others,will be sad to see them go.
Well done to all of the volunteers past and present who have given their time freely to make such a worthwhile contribution to Kings Mill.
Well it was a bit of a rush the other day to say the least.Up at 07:30, dressed,washed,cleaned out rabbits (just 2 of them!),got ids up (always fun at the weekend...seem to be glued into their beds!). Checked car,loaded boxes of bits to sell for Leukaemia Research on my stall at the Christmas fair,then,after a VERY swift fried breakfast it was off on our way.
As is usual in situations when time is at a premium, my route was littered with the obligatory 38 tonners doing 40MPH,several tractors a la trailers doing about 20-25, and the occasional "Sunday Drivers" who, due to their belief that you can only enjoy a drive at under 50mph, will happily sit behind affore mentioned lorries/tractors for miles on end without seizing any oppertumity to overtake, no matter how safe it is!.
After finally working my way through the rolling road block that is the A17/A617, I arrived at my first port of call, Kings Mill Hospital, and there I had 2 jobs to do.The first job was to manufacture a number plate out of (this sounds like a blue peter project doesn't it ?) a piece of yellow card,a laminating sleeve,a black marker pen and some artistic licence !. After that was completed I then located an item that had been left at the Dept for me by Peter from the ITC Dept (Thanks Peter!).....mored of that later :-)
After getting back to the car i then discovered that my bubble machine had tipped over in the boot and had not only emptied its entire contents of soap suds into the carpet, but this had also now left me needing to locate some more mixture for use in the parade. I decided to detour to the local Tesco xtra store.
"We only sell bubble mixture in summer" the lady at Tesco's told me!......."Why" i asked, "don't people blow bubbles in winter?".We left the store and stopped only to top up the fuel tank which was reading a little low.
We arrived at Mansfield Woodhouse at approx 11:05, and immediately went to my parents house to give Scarlett a quick wash as during the trip over from Sleaford she had aquired an awfully dirty coat of filth.
My parents had already left to go to the house down the road that is the storage location for Santa's sleigh, and due to that fact i had no access to my dads pressure washer.....damn!.
Looking around the back yard I found a bucket of rainwater which i took, dropped in a small amount of car wash liquid (which i had in the boot luckily) and then performed the worlds quickest handwash !.
Once the car was presentable we drove the few hundred yards down to Snata's secret transport storage depot (a garage on Rose Lane...whoops...it's not secret anymore!), at which point we hitched up the sledge and after a quick systems check (lights!) we drove over to the carpark of the Greyhound pub our pick up point for Saint Nick.
Unfortunetly Santa was not present at this location when we arrived, but after sending off a scout (my dad) to locate said Mr Claus he arrived a few mins later in his civis and using his "Off duty" name of Bill!.
One slight problem which was noted at this point was that "Mini Me" ,my son who was dressed as a raindeer with flashing nose, became slightly suspicious of the bloke who claimed to be Santa, so we sent him off with his sister to have a five minute walk around the shops on the high street and hey presto, when he arrived back,Bill had gone, but a rather convincing Santa was now sat in his sleigh!. Just as I was quietly congratulating myself as having pulled a master stroke of desception n convincing Mini me of the arrival of the "real" Santa, he looked at me as only a 6 year old can and said "It's OK dad, I know it's not the real Santa 'cos I saw the suit in his Morrisons plastic carrier bag.......damn, i had been rumbled !.
Not to lose this battle of whits I came out with a corker of a reply,"Actually Andy it IS the real Santa, but...well you know how Spider man and Super Man only dress in their "Super" clothes when in action? Well Santa is the same, he only gets his red gear on when on duty...otherwise people would be forever stopping him and putting in never ending requests for presents!.....
"Mmmmm....., i never thought of that dad........but don't worry, i won't tell anyone else that this is THE Santa....we'll keep it just between ourselves!". Sorted ! :-)
After dressing myself up into a passable copy of the STIG from BBC top gear (this was what the package was that Peter had left for me at my Dept!) we started the engine.....and waited.
The parade came past the entrance to the Greyhound carpark, and we slid gracefully into the back of it,lights on,Stig at the wheel and Santa doing a fine job waving to the kids along the way.
10 mins later we arrived at Turner hall and parked up.Santa left the sleigh, i cahnged back into my civvies (after a struggle with the catch on the helmet!) and we then set up the charity table selling Chritmassy bits and bobs for Leukaemia Research (we made £60).
We arrived back home at 8pm after a smashing fish supper from the Chippy on Vale Road...very nice!, and that,as they say, was that...until next year perhaps :-)
Shirley was a lady who hated beurocracy and meddling people in crisp white shirts who didn't understand what she was trying to do.Today I had a taste of just the sort of thing she found herself up against all those years ago.
I called the BBC to ask if i could use the footage i have of Shirley's appearance on the program "The light of experience".All I wanted to do was put a 35 year old interview onto my website for people to see, so that they could get some idea as to what sort of a person she was. Result? After speaking to a lady who had A) never heard of the Anthony Nolan Trust B) Confused the hell out of me, and didn't seem to appreciate the fact that I was doing this for no gain.....NO GAIN.... (she quoted £700 for a 30 second clip!).
I have spent what seems like an age searching the BBC website for advice as to how I would go about "legally" posting their footage.........what a circus that is!.They almost never give you a telephone number to call, and if they do it is never quite the one you want.
So...BBC, can I just reitterate this point...again.....
ALL I WANT TO DO IS POST A 13 MINUTE INTERVIEW WITH A LADY WHO IS NOW DESCEASED ON MY BLOG TO LET PEOPLE SEE WHO SHIRLEY NOLAN WAS.THE FOOTAGE IS 35 YEARS OLD AND I WON'T BE MAKING ANY MONEY OR GAINING ANYTHING FOR MYSELF IN ANY WAY. IT IS TO HELP SAVE LIVES.
I am not a criminal, i have no intention to deny the BBC royalties nor do I have any alterior motive for my request.I simply want to remind the world of just who this lady was, and what she has done for thousands of people by establishing the Anthony Nolan Trust.........that's all :-)
Come on BBC,please.Can you drop all the copyright stuff and let someone who wants to make a difference at least have a chance of doing so ?
If anyone from the Beeb reads this and would like to help, then PLEASE get in touch! :-)
.
.
Isn't it a strange thing how when you read a book you sort of devise a voice for the characters, you know, you can hear in your head what you THINK a person would sound like.....and in this case I can admit that the voice in my head that I had decided was Shirley Nolan's was...completely wrong !:-). Why? Well having read that she was born and bred in Leeds, I had given her a classic "Yer alright" type of Leeds Dialect, but having watched (and heard) Shirley on the Light of Experience DVD that the BBC sent me this week I cannot tell you how wrong my assumption was. The well spoken lady in the film was as far removed from my "minds eye" version of her as you could possibly be, and the impeccable diction and eloquent delivery of her story was very enlightening and emotive to watch. I can't share this 13 minute video with you yet as I don't have permission from the BBC to allow it to be viewed by the public, but if/when I do, I will post it on this site and you too can get an idea of what an amazing mum Shirley Nolan was to her son Anthony.
"Without Paul I wouldn't be here today - how do you thank someone for that?"
In his back garden in Stockport, David Smirthwaite is stood arm-in-arm with the man who donated the bone marrow that saved his life.
It is a scene that neither he nor his family could have pictured a few years ago. In 2003 the father-of-two was told that he would probably die within four years after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, bone-marrow cancer.
To read the full story please visit the BBC website by clicking HERE ..
A gentleman named Guy works for the BBC "Look North" program and is based up in sunny Hull. We managed to get to talk to each other after a comedy attempt to establish some sort of communications proved to be a problem!. At work in the hospital we have these gadgets called "Vocera" which are (apparently!) supposed to be the dogs do-da's of personal,local communication.Sadly, unlike that varnish that "does exactly as it says on the tin"....Vocera often does not, and the extended attempt to speak to Guy was therefore rather an involved process. switching to my backup communicator (my mobile) was little better, and we spent the next few mins speaking,leaving answerphone messages,listening to answerphone messages...etc, until eventually (eureeka!), we managed to get to speak with some semblance of continuity.Sadly, in the lottery of who got to pay for the call,i lost, and so,with very little credit on my phone, the conversation was only a few Min's long before the inevitable "beep,beep" warning me of impending cut off (ooeeerr!). Anyway, if you are reading this post Guy, can I just say thanks for the chat, and if you are able in any way to promote any future events that I get myself caught up in (usually of my own doing!), you will be doing us a great service in raising either money or awareness (or both!) for Leukaemia issues.
In other news (I love saying that!)
Ann,Joel's mum, called me today to say that she had received a letter from the National Blood Service telling her that from this year the 23rd July (the anniversary of the first Anthony Nolan bash at Newark Hospital) will become an annual date for all NHS hospitals to organise Bone Marrow Donor Recruitment Sessions.This of course is absolutely fantastic news, and I am sure that Little Joel must be well proud of his mums courage,commitment and dedication in getting this established.Well done Ann :-).
Some more good news today was that I was made aware of one small bonus of suffering from Leukaemia....you can now get FREE prescriptions from the NHS!. Who says that it's not true that all grey clouds have a silver lining ? :-)
Several people have asked me to tell them about the trip that we made in September from the UK to (Almost!) Morocco.
I was asked also by the Hospital magazine to write a round up of how we got on during the 9 and a half day drive for publication in the next edition, so i have decided to post the article that i have submitted to them in order that the folk that asked me for a run down of the challenge can at last get one !.
Anyway, without further yapping on, here is the article with a few pictures that serve to illustrate some aspects of the challenge:
Scirocco 2 Morocco 2008.
The result!
Veteran Television weather man Bill Giles chats with us before we set off.
When Jayne Morton asked me to write an article for the Oakleaves that was approx 600 words long, I thought that I would probably struggle to achieve that target, but now, having had some time to reflect again on the challenge that was “Scirocco 2 Morocco”, I now think that perhaps I may be struggling to keep the tally low enough!...so lets just see.
One thing that I would like to say at this point is that the details about the trip itself would take up far to much space if I was to rattle on in this article, so if you want more in depth coverage of the challenge you may want to log on to our online blog at www.scirocco2morocco.blogspot.com for a blow by blow account of our adventure plus some video.
Ok, just to refresh your memories (and on the off chance that you were fortunate enough not to have been cornered by myself or Glen and persuaded to part with your hard earned cash!). Scirocco 2 Morocco was a totally random idea that myself and my good friend Glen Place had, to drive a 21 year old Volkswagen from the UK to North Africa to raise money for charity. We had decided to try and raise cash for 3 good causes. The Linc’s and Nott’s Air Ambulance, MacMillan Cancer Support and Leukaemia Research. We also decided that, just to make the trip more interesting, we would also manufacture a trailer to tow all of our gear in that this was to be made out of a second Scirocco. We decided to call this our “half Roc”.
The total time spent in planning this little excursion was around 9 months. The planning was first initiated in December 2007 over the Christmas holidays, and eventually concluded when we arrived back in the UK having spent just over 9 days on the road and driving almost 4000 miles without any major problems.
The car, a 1987 Volkswagen SciroccoScala had already completed one charity challenge named “Roc Around the Clock” in August 2007 when my wife Teresa and I had driven almost non stop (allowing for loo breaks!) for 24 hours visiting hospitals around the UK to raise money for Leukaemia research, so I guess that you could say that we had proved it’s reliability during that little outing. The trip to Morocco was going to be run over a much longer period, and, due to my bright idea about towing a trailer with us, some modifications to the car were required, namely fitting a tow bar plus electrics!.
The tow bar was picked up on an Ebay auction for the princely sum of £1.65, and as an added bonus the seller, who was conveniently located in Ollerton, threw in a few other spares free of charge to help us along.
Next, following a chat with a fella called Andy Walsh, of AW body repairs, we had the offer of getting the car, and after its manufacture by a company called ASMech in Mansfield, the trailer, fully resprayed for nothing. This was completed on the 5th April 2008, and all that then remained to be done was to take the whole rig over to a guy in Tattershall called Lee Balland, who very generously covered the car in its challenge logos for no charge.
Disaster strikes.
The damage to the car after the accident in April 2008.
In mid April 2008, just as things seemed to be going so well with the car and trailer resprayed, most of the sponsors logo’s applied to both, and the arrangements for our route well under way disaster struck…or to be more precise a small red Toyota struck our car as I turned across a junction in Mansfield Woodhouse on the 16th, en route to my parents house were I was to drop off my kids for the day. It was my fault, I saw a gap, started to move off without enough revs on, the car started to stall, and I was then hit on the left hand quarter of the bonnet by a chap coming the other way.
After the initial shock was passed, along with my insurance details, I found myself looking at a rather sad looking car parked on my parents driveway, and I was now faced with having to make a phone call to Andy Walsh to tell him that at this point it looked like the fantastic job he had done for us repainting the car was in real danger of being all in vain as I was pretty sure that due to the cars age it would be written off by the insurers.
I can honestly say that the wait for Andy to pick up the phone seemed like the worst few seconds of my life. How embarrassing to have to tell him what I had done to this (up until this point) shiny “as new” car.
I need not have worried as having explained to Andy the damage that the car had suffered, he immediately began to arrange to get the old girl back to his workshop in Sleaford to see if he could save her. He managed to do this, and for that I will be eternally grateful to him and his staff who, after myself and Dave Howell (yes, that is Dave from the I.T dept!) had sourced a donor car in Tamworth, then rebuilt the front end and had her back on the road by mid June. During the next few months we took the car to a few Volkswagen shows around the country, hosted a competition to win tickets to the British Grand Prix which my cousin (who works for the Renault F1 team) had managed to blag for us…cheers Darren!, and even managed to get some exposure on local radio and Television and attended the RAF Waddington Air Show to promote the event which by now was only a matter of weeks away.
Eventually the day arrived for the challenge to begin and after meeting up with Glen who had travelled up from Kent the night before with his wife, we set off from the Sleaford Vintage and Classic car show on the 6th September at 1:15pm, waved off on our merry way by friends and family, NookeyNauyokas (Bad lad’s army’s corporal Nauyokas) and Bill Giles the weather man.
After a drive “DaanSaaath” along the A1 we arrived at the ferry port an hour early after first stopping off at Glens home to pick up a few supplies and feed the cat, then after boarding the ferry we decided to have one last taste of great British cuisine in the ships restaurant before we settled down to our rather bland food menu for the next 9 or 10 days….and boy, that chicken tikka was sooo good!.
After leaving the boat at around 9pm we spent our first night in the car before setting off the next day and heading south through France, accidentally passing through Paris (oops!) after our satnav (that we came to know a Yoda due to the voice that we opted to use to tell us the directions) became a little confused when faced with a large amount of road works around the capitol and went on strike!. We stopped at an area just below Paris called Volcane then, the next day we made our way across the Millau viaduct which is a huge bridge along the Paris to Barcelona super highway that spans the Millau Valley, designed by the Englishman Sir Norman Foster and which was featured on a recent Top Gear show a while back when the lads drove 3 supercars across Europe. We then drove across the PyreneesMountains, into Spain, down to Toledo, then to Marbella and on the 11th September we headed to Gibraltar to catch the ferry for Morocco, and this is the point at which things went a little bit wrong, but I will explain that later!
Any old port in a storm!
Camping in Marbella,Spain.
Sorting out accommodation during the trip was something of a hit and miss affair. On arrival in France on the first night we found ourselves parked in a lay-by at a service station about 25 miles from Calais as a plan to stop over at a town called Marquette-les-Lille (Sleaford’s twin town) had fallen through at the last minute, and we had no time to make other arrangements. Having badly pulled my back on the morning of the challenge this was not the ideal situation, and Scirocco’s are definitely NOT the most comfortable of cars to try and sleep in !.The rest of the trip after this first night of torture was a little more civilised and consisted of a mix of campsites and hotels (I preferred the hotels!).
Food wise, until our arrival in Portugal on the homeward bound section of our trip, we survived on just one or two meals a day, plus a host of snack foods including salami sausage, crisps and sweets. And at the end of each day we opened up our on board rations which we had carried from the UK and made up a variety offilling, but not entirely interesting meals that the contestants of ready steady cook would not be proud of mostly based on tinned beans, spam and hotdog sausages……yum!
It’s all going terribly wrong.
Our unexpected final destination.Morrisons supermarket in Gibraltar!
Myself and Glen just after the trailer on the toe incident !
As I mentioned, it was not until the inward journey as we reached Silves on the Algarve in Portugal (An ex RAF friend of mine named Graham lives there with his Portuguese wife and step daughter) that we managed to get any “ethnic” food, although due to Glen’s problem with his Crohns disease he had to be a little careful of being too adventurous. The food in Portugal really is fantastic, and boy did I make the most of it whilst I was there especially as Graham and Bela made us feel so welcome, and after the discomfort and bland food of the previous few days it really was a welcome change.
Show me the way to go home…please!
Homeward bound.Only 1500 miles to go!
We continued our drive back to old blighty after our days rest in Portugal and headed north towards Lisbon, then once we had left Portugal and entered Spain we made our way up to Santander, across the Pyrenees for the second time in a week, we then stopped of in a campsite in Burgos before loading up the tents the following morning and heading towards France.
We were a couple of days early as we made our way towards Calais, so we made a call to P&O (who had given us a free return crossing) and asked if we would be all right to catch an earlier ferry,due to the fire that had occurred in the Channel tunnel a few days earlier they had a few problems finding us a space, but eventually a crossing was found, and we set off on the final sea leg of the event at 16:05hrs (local) on the 15th September.
After an uneventful crossing it was up the road 40 or so miles back to Glen’s for a cuppa, then after unloading his gear, we said our farewells and I then completed the last 120 miles back up to Lincolnshire, arriving back home at about 10:15pm complete with a Chinese meal which I had picked up on the way…ahhh, home cooking at last!.
Results of the Scirocco 2 Morocco challenge 2008?
We covered 3979 miles in 9 and a half days in a 21 year old car pulling a 19 year old trailer. We managed to raise a little over £5000 that was shared between the 3 charities mentioned, and I had terrible back ache for weeks afterwards!
Can I just say a great big thank you yet again to all of those people who made this challenge possible. From Andy Walsh and all at AW accident repairs who sorted out the car twice for me, to Lee Baland who did all of the graphics on the car for nowt (again!), Pitstop and Heron Volkswagen who provided Garage services gratis, and lastly, everyone who helped us out in all manner of ways, from donation of parts, to donations of sponsorship money. Without the generosity of so many individuals and companies, we would not have got off of my drive, never mind (almost) to Morocco!
We did it for Joel.
Joel has a sit in Scarlet.He was our inspiration.
During the preparations for the challenge I was made aware of a little lad who lived over in Farndon (near Newark), named Joel Picker-Spence. I had heard a plea on BBC Radio Nottingham made by his mother Ann, for people to attend a bone marrow donor’s recruitment event that was being held at Kelham Hall, and although I myself am not able to donate bone marrow due to my own Leukaemia, I decided that I would pop in on my way home from work that day and see if there was anything else that I could possibly do to help them with their search.
I met little Joel and his mum Ann and told her about our Scirocco 2 Morocco trip, then, after explaining why I was unable to register as a donor myself, I offered to post things on our website about Joel’s appeal, and to apply logo’s onto the cars bodywork to promote the work of the Anthony Nolan Trust, who are a charity that help to seek, identify and recruit people to the bone marrow donors register.
Ann was really grateful for the offer, and she even managed to dig out some stickers to apply to the car. Glen and I kept in touch with the family on the lead up to the drive, during our trip, and also after it was completed, we even brought Joel a gift medallion back from the Millau viaduct, and told him that when he grew up perhaps he would get the chance to go and see this amazing piece of architecture. Little did we know at that point that this was tragically never going to happen.
Joel was only 6 years old when he died on the 10th November 2008. His leukaemia was too aggressive for him to receive a bone marrow transplant, even though the Anthony Nolan Trust had found him a 100% match. I remember that all through our trip we had been in touch with Ann (Joel’s mum) to keep up to date with his progress on the lead up to his transplant. Up until the 19th September, a few days after our return to the UK, she had not told me that he was not going to be able to have the transplant and would therefore die of his illness. She told me later that we had been so “upbeat” about our achievement that she did not want to take the “wind out of our sails”……and it was heartbreaking to think that she considered this whilst her son was dying, how guilty did Glen and I feel when we finally found out the awful and crushing truth. This is the reality of leukaemia, and if anything it reinforced to me and Glen exactly why we had embarked upon our mission. We, as a mere engineers and a nurse, are not able to find a cure for this disease, but by god we were at least trying to help those who one day will.
Could you be that special person?
As this article goes to press I would like to ask you to consider volunteering to become a member of the Anthony Nolan trust bone marrow register when clinics are held at NewarkHospital on the 23rd June 2009 and KingsMillHospital at a date soon yet to be confirmed. There are currently 490,000 people on the register, but they need many more to try and help give hope to people with leukaemia who without a transplant will probably die. Only 1 in every 1000 people will ever be a match for someone, so that is less than 500 with over 16,000 people worldwide waiting to be given the chance of life.
As one mother put it when her daughter died of leukaemia a few months ago, “Johanna campaigned ferociously to raise awareness of the need for people to join the Anthony Nolan register. The Anthony Nolan trust gave us hope for 12 years, the charity never failed to find her a match – her match simply just didn’t join the register.”
Please consider becoming a member of the register, and there is just a possibility that you may be able to give someone the gift of life, and hope were there is fear. Thank you.
Hi folks.Just a quick enquiry, but does anyone have any connections with any bands who may consider taking part in a concert that is being planned for April 12th (Easter Sunday) at Rock City in Nottingham, to raise money and awareness for Leukaemia Research? I was made aware of this event by Ann Picker-Spence, Joel's mum, and she is currently looking for any bands that would be interested in taking part. Of course this would be on a voluntary basis, as all the cash would be going to a very worthy cause. In the UK today, their are sadly still many kids who don't make it through to the end of their fight with Leukaemia, and this event will also be in remembrance and in dedication too their courage and bravery that they all showed when faced with such a tough life at such a young age. We are currently contacting bands to see what sort of response we get, obviously not all bands will be available to play on the date, but maybe we will get lucky and succeed in getting a few to give up their time and support this amazing gig. Please get in touch via the email on this blog if you think you can help, and i will pass the info onto the good people who are arranging it. If any of the people whom i have contacted over the last few days are reading this blog,please could you try and help out with this project. Thanks :-)
So Glen and myself made our radio debut today a@ 3.15 on the John Holmes show at BBC Radio Nottingham. The nice thing about John is that he is so easy to chat too !, and lets you just "get on with it"!. Having had a rather good hot chocolate in the foyer of the building we were ushered in and then sat just outside the studio for a few minutes before John appeared and at once began to make us feel at home, we then bimbled into the studio, took a seat and after a brief round of Rod Stewart (Maggie May!) we were into the interview!
Ok,so the cars back on the road and being used as a daily driver due to the fact that i firmly believe that a use car will fair better than one thats laid up for months on end and is then expected to perform 100%...the reality is that a car that is laid up has a better chance of suffering a failure of some sort as soon as you ask it to perform at all !.....so I decided to keep her rollin' and if anything does need to be sorted then at least it will give us time to complete any nescessary work before we set off on our "little trip" !.
I've started to gather together a few items that i think would come in useful on the run like a fire extingusher,300W inverter (to power and charge all the "gadgets" that we are going to have on board),oh, and a mini fridge ! with just enough room for 4 large cans of beer....luvvly !
The team have been invited to the BBC Radio Nottingham studio's next Thursday to appear (is that correct in radio terms ?)on the John Holmes show.I have met John once before when i did a short stint on his show to talk about my last Scirocco themed charity drive "Roc Around the Clock", and i found the experience an excellent one as John is the sort of fella that you feel you have known for years and who has that ability to make you feel completely at ease almost as though you are chatting to him down at the local pub....but obviously the BBC don't serve you best mild whilst your on air !
If anyone gets the chance to tune in via terrestrial radio or via a web feed then the deatils are: The John holmes show,BBC Radio Nottingham,23rd January 2008,3.15PM (GMT).
I have just read that the Paris-Dakar rally has been cancelled for 2008 due to the murder of a French family in Mauritania.Makes you wonder what the people who did this thought they would acheive by killing a women and 2 children, and severely injuring the father ? I have often heard people say that it is a wicked world, but what they should really say is that it is a beautiful world with some wicked people in it !.
For more details about the cancelled rally follow this link :
Having spent countless hours pondering about things we can do to improve our exposure within the community of the W3, i came to the conclusion that in order to gain more attention, you need to gain more profile, and to gain more of a profile you need to get on TV !. The last time i tried anything like this (Roc Around the Clock) i found that once you get into local papers and local radio it sets in motion something that i refer to as a "snowball effect", in other words once the first steps have been taken, you've appeared (or been heard on !) local radio,or seen in the press, you seem to gain a lot more interest in your project !...that's why we need to get onto BBC Top Gear, because that would be the metaphorical "springboard" that would give us the exposure that we need, and thus more funds would be raised for our selected charities :-). If anyone knows James May,Richard Hammond or Jeremy Clarkson...put us a good word in !
I bought a video camera for the trip on Tuesday, a Panasonic Full sized S-VHS (on the shoilder job !) that uses your standard full size VHS video cassettes.It comes complete with charger,all leads,battery and carry case, all in full working order and for the pricely sum of...wait for it.....£14.99 :-). Ok, so its about 19 years old, but that still makes it 2 years younger than the car, and a LOT younger than me and i work ok..well most of the time (my boss says i sometimes don't work at all !...what can he mean ?). The reason for buying such an antique peice of video history ? Well someone on another Blog (realbuzz.com i think) suggested (after i winged that people doing documentries always get more help cos they have a camera crew) that we invest in a camera, not just any camera, but one that looks like a "proffessional" one (is it 2 ff's or 2 ss's...oh well i'll use both !), so that we can appear (to the unannitiated) to be making a documentry during the drive, and thus gain the trust/help of the locals if we need any "favours"....crafty eh ?.....and of course we will be using it to film our progress also !. Is that the time...damn, that's lunch finished...better get back :-).
