Ice Warrior
Girls Night In
The girls will be holding a Girls Night In with Temple Spa on the 1st December read more here.
Quiz Night
On Wednesday 29th October over 60 people turned Davy's Wine Bar into a den of laughter, drinking, more laughter, and successful fund raising. There was wine, tortuously hard quiz questions, a bit of food, and then more wine!
There were nibbles on the table as people arrived, which allowed them to mistakenly think they were linking their stomachs as they filled up on their first glass of Davy's wine. Four quiz rounds later, it had already descended into a room full of good humoured but overly competitive teams determined to win, questioning the question-masters judgment, and generally throwing verbal abuse at every possible opportunity (and being fined for their cheekiness!).
Thankfully lovely food arrived in decent quantities at half time (very decent amounts, considering it was included in the £10 ticket price!) Quickly scoffed down by all, and followed by more trips to the bar, we resumed 3 more quiz rounds before handing out prizes. The winners, on a top joint score, were the Arctic Animals and Team Frances Niven - they each won a bottle of champers, generously donated by Davy's.
In bottom place were team Benetton, who won a (really cute) rubber duck - compensation for appearing a little bit thick!
Another rubber duck was won by Roger Southam for generally being the cheekiest person in the room - he donated his duck to Benetton, so the two could keep each other company.
We had a raffle, with wonderful prizes being won by many. To list a few, Louisa Purchase won a Versace kit of lovely lotions, and Pamela Reynolds won a Reebok heart monitor. In addition, we had an impromptu auction, run very enthusiastically by Roger Southam who raised £55 for an ESpa voucher for reflexology - purchased by Chris Pulham.
We also had a silent auction of items including signed photos of numerous sports people, shopping evenings at LK Bennet, and an afternoon with Boo productions (a wonderful children's entertainer). This auction raised much needed funds for Sparks.
We were led all evening by our fabulous quiz master, Gary, who also happens to be the manager of Davy's. He had generously donated the venue, his time running the quiz, many of the nibbles, the champagne and a bottle of vintage claret that was raffled. He valiantly struggled through, suffering general (good humoured!) verbal abuse throughout the evening - although he got his revenge by making sure that every bit of abuse resulted in a small fine being payable by the offender.
The evening was a great success, made so by the 60 people who participated, and by Gary's valiant leadership!
We raised approx £800 for the expedition, and a further £200 for Sparks. Well done all!
Sponsored Tyre Pull
On Saturday 30th, we met at the Chainbow offices next to Waterloo station and each hooked ourselves up to a tyre. The building security guard was most intrigued, and saw us off with a mixture of baffled amusement and pity. Whilst we didn’t exactly have to fight off the paps, one man armed with a big lens stood on the road-crossing, taking our picture…..we have no idea who he was, but hope he got our good sides!
The weather was glorious sunshine all day. We drew lots of curious looks from passers-by, and took the opportunity to hand out leaflets, explaining who we are, what we are doing and, whilst we’re at it, how about sponsoring us or coming to the karting event?
Special thanks go to John Slade, of Journey’s Removals, Sutton Coldfield, whom we met during our lunch stop. He very generously handed us a £40 donation, and we have written him a letter of thanks.
We also met a group of lads who emptied their pockets of loose change and donated £33. Another group of young men who, expressed an interest in the karting, challenged us to run 100m for a donation of £20 – we did, and they duly paid up! Thanks boys – we really hope to see you at Thruxton on 27th September!
Thank you to all our friends and families who have supported us by sponsoring us for the tyre pull.
Punting
The following day, we met up at Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford for an afternoon of punting. We started off at “Pimms o’clock” and then zig-zagged (in some cases, spun) our way upstream to the pub, where we had a picnic made for about 50 people (don’t put me in charge of catering again, girls!). Once on solid ground, Pauline’s husband, Roger, noticing that he had the maximum audience, chose his moment to fall in the river!
Bethany and I did notice how the normally bullish Pauline went all soft-centred and doe-eyed in the presence of her beloved……aaaaaaaw, bless!
Without naming names, one team managed to get themselves stuck on a submerged tree root and had to be rescued by the Hinton-Jones’ – luckily for Roger and I, who punted our team to victory. London 2012, here we come!!
My father, who let us have the punts (thanks, pops!) said he’d seen people come back dryer than I was when they’d actually fallen in!
All agreed it was a great day, and thanks to those who came and helped us to raise £450.
