Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Update
Off the phone again with yet another BBC reporter... as you do :D They are hoping to ring me during their Saturday lunchtime show to do a 'live to air' bit as we pull the plane. I've never been so 'popular'. :)
Monday, 3 September 2007
Saturday the 8th
A few more emails back and forth and as of right now (4pm ish Monday) I'm hoping for 2 planes being provided by CTS. I think the spill over from the photos, radio interview etc has helped. At Kemble Ops suggestion I'be emailed a Cirencester paper and Jo Wynn from NSPCC will do a release.
Onwards... :)
Onwards... :)
Sunday, 2 September 2007
More:
Link to news item mentioning new mayor being pulled by strongmen:
http://thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=231771&command=displayContent&sourceNode=232193&contentPK=18231946&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch
Link to news item mentioning new mayor being pulled by strongmen:
http://thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=231771&command=displayContent&sourceNode=232193&contentPK=18231946&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch
Let's start with the lead up. I was busy the last few days and stopped training Wednesday so as to have plenty of power to use come Saturday. The extra training, as per my logs elsewhere, consisted of dragging a loaded pallet (about 170-180 kilos) around our yard a lap at a time. I never seemed up to more than a lap at a time but did find that I was recovering quicker and quicker as time went on.
Thursday had me doing a telephone interview for the weekend bulletin on BBC Radio Gloucestershire as well as a bunch of emails and phone calls with the BBC radio team and NSPCC / Childline's rep to deal with. Friday I was up to One Eyed Jacks for the live radio interview and am pretty sure all got a mention. My other memory of the afternoon was me leaning further and further back as the microphone got ever closer to my mouth. For a moment I had visions of toppling over the wall I was sat on! I also made sure to check and set out everything needed for the following day (or so I thought - see later).
Come Saturday and as is want with these kind of things any planned schedule I had in mind went out of the window. I had been asked to do a 10am photo op which turned into a 1045 or later 'op'. Regardless I had someone take some photos of myself and little Hamza Atcha in case it all went belly up.
Talking of which... I had hoped and planned for 8 or 9 big healthy lads turning up but this quickly turned into 4 with us almost mugging poor Rod when we saw him at the event shortly before the procession kicked off. Mike (Whey Consortium), Alf (Gymnation), Malcolm (Gymnation) and myself (Whey Consortium) formed the main crew with Rod shoved in at the back. Various phone calls etc were made but we had no time to set others up as we wanted to. I was fairly sure we'd make it but not in the way I had wanted to.
Alan Myatt had rung at 9pm Friday and arranged with me to have us at the back, thus giving is the room to play with that we needed. Only a loud Samba band followed us (I think I still hear the beat now ha ha). The time to set off arrived and so we were away. As we'd pulled similar vehicles in the past we knew the problem was more the distance and any lumps and bumps we needed to get over. But, as Mike said over my shoulder half way up Eastgate Street, we could have passed the rest of the procession and arrived first. The biggest problem was stopping and restarting and the first hiccup came at a speed bump. We were all of five feet away and doing a dead start to get over it when what we'd need is a little of a run up.
However, although tough we all gave it the necessary welly and cracked on. The main road junction was as tough as I thought it would be put the next stretch was very easy only made hard by a stop and when we were ready to set off tender driver Tim Cox was handing out business cards... I think it was at this point we noticed poor Rod had dropped out. He trains but obviously not to the level of the guys pulling and found it very hard going. He rejoined us at the shopping centre only to be seen absolutely shagged out on a bench when we walked back.
My daughter Chanel, fiance Lee, Tania (Alf's other half), Julie, Ethan and Ashley (Mikes Mrs and children) were all doing their bit taking photos, shaking charity buckets and so on and are deserving of our thanks - cheers Guys and Gals. Two other young Gymnation lads helped at the very end - I didn't get their names - but their help was also gratefully received.
A quick natter with some faces in the crowd and a well deserved cool drink for those doing the pull itself and I had an hour or two before my show. 2.15 or so saw me towing a pallet laden with the tools for my act and around 2.45 I started to lay it out in readiness... so where were the wraps, where's the one hand lift handle??? Arrrgghhh!! With minutes to go Lee and Chanel popped back but came back with one or two bits but no handle or heavy chain (d'uh!). A quick word in the Compere Ian's ear and I'm legging it back myself. Thanks to one of the other entertainers and Ian's efforts they kept the crowd warm for me and I even ended up having to wait.
As some of the equipment would have come through the stage I stuck with street level and so, grabbing another Gymnation member as my less than glamorous assistent, I was able to do the close up work of nail bending (no good if you are up on stage). Lee showed how hard it was by barely getting one going whereas I did the business and ended up finishing it bare-handed. Onto a frying pan for the usual rolling up and then I dispatched 2 1000 plus page Argos brochures - as you do. Next up was the dangerous looking but relatively easy hammer and axe to the face and then the Inch dumbbell was rolled out and again Lee didn't budge it while I repped it out. I was fortunate enough to remember to do it three times to all three sides of the crowd.
Finally my 'assistent' and I set up the one hand lift bar, chain and handle and I cranked out 160+ kilos and a 215-kilos no probs. On went the belt, more weight and a little chalk and I did 671 lbs or 305-kilos easy as you like for the finale. With Ian working the crowd for me and a fairly quick pace it seemed to go well.
Onwards to next weeks plane pull...
Thursday had me doing a telephone interview for the weekend bulletin on BBC Radio Gloucestershire as well as a bunch of emails and phone calls with the BBC radio team and NSPCC / Childline's rep to deal with. Friday I was up to One Eyed Jacks for the live radio interview and am pretty sure all got a mention. My other memory of the afternoon was me leaning further and further back as the microphone got ever closer to my mouth. For a moment I had visions of toppling over the wall I was sat on! I also made sure to check and set out everything needed for the following day (or so I thought - see later).
Come Saturday and as is want with these kind of things any planned schedule I had in mind went out of the window. I had been asked to do a 10am photo op which turned into a 1045 or later 'op'. Regardless I had someone take some photos of myself and little Hamza Atcha in case it all went belly up.
Talking of which... I had hoped and planned for 8 or 9 big healthy lads turning up but this quickly turned into 4 with us almost mugging poor Rod when we saw him at the event shortly before the procession kicked off. Mike (Whey Consortium), Alf (Gymnation), Malcolm (Gymnation) and myself (Whey Consortium) formed the main crew with Rod shoved in at the back. Various phone calls etc were made but we had no time to set others up as we wanted to. I was fairly sure we'd make it but not in the way I had wanted to.
Alan Myatt had rung at 9pm Friday and arranged with me to have us at the back, thus giving is the room to play with that we needed. Only a loud Samba band followed us (I think I still hear the beat now ha ha). The time to set off arrived and so we were away. As we'd pulled similar vehicles in the past we knew the problem was more the distance and any lumps and bumps we needed to get over. But, as Mike said over my shoulder half way up Eastgate Street, we could have passed the rest of the procession and arrived first. The biggest problem was stopping and restarting and the first hiccup came at a speed bump. We were all of five feet away and doing a dead start to get over it when what we'd need is a little of a run up.
However, although tough we all gave it the necessary welly and cracked on. The main road junction was as tough as I thought it would be put the next stretch was very easy only made hard by a stop and when we were ready to set off tender driver Tim Cox was handing out business cards... I think it was at this point we noticed poor Rod had dropped out. He trains but obviously not to the level of the guys pulling and found it very hard going. He rejoined us at the shopping centre only to be seen absolutely shagged out on a bench when we walked back.
My daughter Chanel, fiance Lee, Tania (Alf's other half), Julie, Ethan and Ashley (Mikes Mrs and children) were all doing their bit taking photos, shaking charity buckets and so on and are deserving of our thanks - cheers Guys and Gals. Two other young Gymnation lads helped at the very end - I didn't get their names - but their help was also gratefully received.
A quick natter with some faces in the crowd and a well deserved cool drink for those doing the pull itself and I had an hour or two before my show. 2.15 or so saw me towing a pallet laden with the tools for my act and around 2.45 I started to lay it out in readiness... so where were the wraps, where's the one hand lift handle??? Arrrgghhh!! With minutes to go Lee and Chanel popped back but came back with one or two bits but no handle or heavy chain (d'uh!). A quick word in the Compere Ian's ear and I'm legging it back myself. Thanks to one of the other entertainers and Ian's efforts they kept the crowd warm for me and I even ended up having to wait.
As some of the equipment would have come through the stage I stuck with street level and so, grabbing another Gymnation member as my less than glamorous assistent, I was able to do the close up work of nail bending (no good if you are up on stage). Lee showed how hard it was by barely getting one going whereas I did the business and ended up finishing it bare-handed. Onto a frying pan for the usual rolling up and then I dispatched 2 1000 plus page Argos brochures - as you do. Next up was the dangerous looking but relatively easy hammer and axe to the face and then the Inch dumbbell was rolled out and again Lee didn't budge it while I repped it out. I was fortunate enough to remember to do it three times to all three sides of the crowd.
Finally my 'assistent' and I set up the one hand lift bar, chain and handle and I cranked out 160+ kilos and a 215-kilos no probs. On went the belt, more weight and a little chalk and I did 671 lbs or 305-kilos easy as you like for the finale. With Ian working the crowd for me and a fairly quick pace it seemed to go well.
Onwards to next weeks plane pull...
Wednesday, 29 August 2007
We're just a few short days away from everything taking place. I attended the final meeting for the Barton Fayre yesterday and Sanita and Eric from Childline came.
They seemed to like the novelty of what we are doing and more so when I explained the visual nature of what we are doing and hope to achieve - never mind the physical challenge.
I also spoke to Clare from BBC Radio Gloucestershire and agreed to be interviewed on Friday afternoon as part of the promotion for the event.
With these last few days rushing toward me at head speed and afraid that the guys might not have been hitting their sponsors as hard as I'd like I more or less sent out a 'pleeeeaaasseee give me money' email or three (1400) and virtually knocked my buddies over at www.mickhart.com (the forum there) for some of the hard earned. They came through for me as did Rob Thomas of www.rbsystems.co.uk with the group as a whole hitting £240.00 between 6 or 7 of them - very nice.
A long chat with some of the committee at the new lady mayors pub - One Eyed Jack's - and not only will the route we will pull over be ever so slightly extended but I may also be helping the lady mayor up into and down from the cab of the engine.
Right ho - some emails to do and people to chase before training today.
They seemed to like the novelty of what we are doing and more so when I explained the visual nature of what we are doing and hope to achieve - never mind the physical challenge.
I also spoke to Clare from BBC Radio Gloucestershire and agreed to be interviewed on Friday afternoon as part of the promotion for the event.
With these last few days rushing toward me at head speed and afraid that the guys might not have been hitting their sponsors as hard as I'd like I more or less sent out a 'pleeeeaaasseee give me money' email or three (1400) and virtually knocked my buddies over at www.mickhart.com (the forum there) for some of the hard earned. They came through for me as did Rob Thomas of www.rbsystems.co.uk with the group as a whole hitting £240.00 between 6 or 7 of them - very nice.
A long chat with some of the committee at the new lady mayors pub - One Eyed Jack's - and not only will the route we will pull over be ever so slightly extended but I may also be helping the lady mayor up into and down from the cab of the engine.
Right ho - some emails to do and people to chase before training today.
Thursday, 19 July 2007
More money donated
At least £30.00 - the 'just giving' page has been updated. And I'll be handing out more forms to those taking part. In addition I was sent a small prize package for an article 'wot I wrote' and I'm giving the Muscular Development online t-shirt to the biggest doner at Gymnation.
Friday, 6 July 2007
First chunky donation just in
Via the new page we've just had our first donation of £50.00 - awesome!! I'd like to pass on our special thanks to: Mark Henkelis - cheers Mark!!
Donation page created
I've been busy reading through the Childline package sent some months ago and used one idea of theirs to create the following page http://www.justgiving.com/teamconsortium
This allows those of you so inclined to make an immediate online donation as well as contributing in the usual fashion.
I'll create a link in the main page so that you can get the total moving.
Thanks.
This allows those of you so inclined to make an immediate online donation as well as contributing in the usual fashion.
I'll create a link in the main page so that you can get the total moving.
Thanks.
Site updated
I've added some sections / features to the right hand side. Firstly a link to videos by Mike Betty of our effort with the tender last year.
Then I'll be updating and adding website addresses of those involved in this effort. I started with the Party Pump site.
Finally a little intro about me and a 'welcome mat' so that those popping in know what it's all about.
I also saw two commitee members in the last few days and am happy to report that the money needed to allow the Fayre to go ahead has been raised with about £1000+ spare - result :)
Then I'll be updating and adding website addresses of those involved in this effort. I started with the Party Pump site.
Finally a little intro about me and a 'welcome mat' so that those popping in know what it's all about.
I also saw two commitee members in the last few days and am happy to report that the money needed to allow the Fayre to go ahead has been raised with about £1000+ spare - result :)
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