KATY BIG CURRIED OUT

Katy who ran the Lord Mayor's Big Curry this year left us to day to go to the National Gallery. She did a really good job and here she is being showered with cards and gifts. Kirsty and Erin made cakes and that seemed to have brought all thought of work to the end today. Next stop the pub! Happy Easter all viewers.

A LIFE SAVED

To day I went to the London Scottish for the Veterans Aid AGM and this picture is of Jonathan Fullan and Hugh Milroy who runs Veterans Aid.  Jonathan was in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and served twice in Northern Ireland and once in Bosnia.  He subsequently spent 3 years in the French Foreign Legion, no joke that!  But after this things went badly wrong and he went to prison after an assault. On release from prison he was homeless and Veterans Aid came to the rescue and with the The Soldiers' Charity help with a bursary he went to college and is about to be qualified and full time employmentt is assured in July.  He spoke without a note to the AGM and was an admirable example of how Veterans Aid with our help can save a life.  Meanwhile Andy McMenemy is pounding around Worcester on his 35th consecutive Marathon.

TRAFFIC,ROAD WORKS and RAGE

This was at the start of a lovely day as I walked across Tower Bridge in blazing sunshine to meet SSAFA in Queen Elizabeth Street.  I suppose there is something vaguely intimidating going from Elizabeth Street to SSAFA's offices in QUEEN Elizabeth Street! Howver meeting over my mood deteriorated to one of rage over the traffic, road works, closed streets ets which meant I missed two meetings.  I thought it would be clever to share a taxi with others, thinking I would get there quicker.  Silly boy, it took an hour to go from one Elizabeth Street to the other.  By the way the Bridge lifts 1000 times a day to river traffic and contrary to common belief there is no charge.

MEANWHILE...........

To day I went to Newark and met with the Lincoln Committee. They do a cracking job and have raised over £40,000 this year and they have a very dispersed population and it was interesting to see how they go about their business.  They have a fantastic County Secretary Alyson Wilson who does a really great job gripping Colonels, Brigadiers and the odd General.  She is up to speed on all the social media and I am sorry I didn’t blog her. The real occasion was saying farewell to Brigadier Johnny Walker who has been a stalwart Chairman of Lincolnshire.  Meanwhile Andy McMenemy was running in Hereford yesterday and came in on 6hrs 20 mins.  Today he is in Gloucester on his 35^th Marathon!! Considering he has had a nasty shin muscle injury this is short of miraculous.

FLAGS

This is a great picture of one of our many flags signed by a grateful and appreciative public photographed at Lashkar Gar in Helmand. Great for us and those who signed to know these things are got to the right homes.

KILLED A BIRD

An unfortunate conversation to day. Whilst discussing an opportunity with Charlotte Bird I said "well that's good I can kill two birds with one stone" " I hope not" said she and I responded somewhat mortified " oh are you a member of RSPB?". Get it? Don't worry, a quiet day in the office!!

STARS GALORE

Here are a number of real stars. Andy Martin is pictured with Kirsty who ran the event for the charity.  He is a City man working for Citibank who just   wanted to help and on his own has raised over £15,000.  He has done really well and we thank him for his fundraising and for just running this race for us.   Kirsty is very popular with our runners as she is great at chatting them up.  We had 77 runners to day and we hope we have made about £125,000.


This is a really good result on what was a lovely day. Well done Kirsty, you have been blogged at last!!

The picture on the right  is of Lee Riley who broke a world record of running with 40 pounds on his back.  He broke it by 14 minutes!!!  Seems a lot to me. Here he is looking so sparky holding his Guinness Certificate it is amazing.  He was as chirpy as anything and seemed so pleased to have spoken to Richard  Branson.  He was well supported by a great family too.  My commiserations to Barry Stoddart whose attempt to break the 20 pound record failed as he had tore his hamstring. What bad luck but there is next year, Barry.


 

THE PARTY

After the marathon runners and their supporters come to the Gymnasium in Wellington Barracks and relax, have a massage , a bite to eat and a beer if they can mange it. It was all beautifully set up and as each runner came in the girls in red (our staff coming in to help out at a weekend, and thank you ) start a clap of welcome which is graet for this who come in slow or fast.  Lovely atmosphere all round.  Well done the team. 

NO SIGN OF BELLA!!

This sight of a forlorn and worried father kind of amused me. Who Bella is I have no idea but I expect she had long since passed.  I expect I will look like this in a few years time but with a plaque saying" Run Ro Ro"

EDDIE COMES IN

Well here is Eddie going well. We spent some time wondering where she was but she came through with much waving and screaming.   Rose should have been running as well but sadness of sadnesses she injured herself, so I rather felt for Eddie.  Her parents had held a Curry Lunch in support of the charity last year, so three chairs to Eddie. When she arrived at the party she needed four chairs!

MARATHON MADNESS

Outside Welly B and lots of shouting our runners in. We are near the end and the atmosphere is fantastic. Shall I run next year? Yes, a joke!! There were three Cheerleading points and we had loads of supporters and I was so encouraged to hear how far and wide they had come to help out. Someone with a Geordie accent had clearly considerable persuasive powers. The set up at the point was brilliant and we could be seen for miles.
Euphoric as we all are Andy McMenemy is running an ultra marathon in St Davids, that's in Wales if you didn't know. This is his 33rd marathon in 33 days! Incredible and he is now half way... hurrah!