Now don't get mad, but...

For some reason my post yesterday posted under Tuesday's date, no idea how come but if it didn't make sense that's why! 

I forgot the one thing at swim that you should never forget. I had to dry myself with my strappy top (note: not very dry at all) so really must remember to pack the night before next time so that I actually pack a towel. 

Can you believe our swimming baths shut to the public at 6pm on the midweek? I finish work at 5pm so I knew it'd be a push and I was concerned that there would be a cut off time for entry (there is for the gym late at night) so I called them this morning and the lovely lady said 'you're the paying customer, you come in when you like as long as you get out of the pool at 6' so that was great and I was in the pool ready for 30 lengths at 5.30pm.  

I drove straight to my sister's house for Thursday bake off and am now sat on her sofa full of chicken fajitas yum. 

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Now don't get mad, but I kind of had a Christmas Day today. 

I bought this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really not a great pic but you get the idea. Look at my fab jumper! Primark sold out of Christmas jumpers soooo early last year so I had to grab mine quick this year. DC wants one too for school so I'm going to pop back into Primark tomorrow to see what the men's section has to offer. 

I also had this:

I love a good Christmas sandwich but it was definitely a bit premature but Boots had ran out of a lot of their good stuff (I love egg sandwiches).

I also picked up a Boots Christmas catalogue and it has soooo many goodies in for this year. 

I promise not to mention the C word again until December 1st. 

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One of the companies in our group held a charity day and there were lots of cakes plus homemade chicken curry and naan bread for sale today. But the best part was this:

Here is one of my colleagues standing in the freezing cold washing my car (one of 20 bookings today) for £5 towards their charity partner Mind. More than worth it I would say! Trevor was collected after 10 minutes looking completely sparkling clean. Thanks guys!

When I get home I need to pack for the nightwalk tomorrow. Our train is 3.30pm and I can't wait to go back to LDN. I also can't wait to show you my outfit!!

Dans x

Whizz-Kidz Neon Nightwalk

On Friday I am going to London with a few of my colleagues to complete the Whizz-Kidz Neon nightwalk, a 10 mile walk past all of the famous landmarks through the night to raise money for our company's corporate partner. 

Here's us from last year :)

Whizz-Kidz provide disabled children with electric wheelchairs and other mobility equipment to ensure that they can live as close to normal lives as possible. It gives kids the chance to be kids, what is better than that? They also run ambassador and wheelchair clubs where wheelchair users can get together to have fun. Whizz-Kidz also actively campaign for adequate wheelchair access to public buildings, and this is really important because who says disabled children shouldn't have the same rights to access as everyone else??????

Whizz-Kidz help children by making their lives easier, improving their confidence, accessibility and life skills. This is truly an amazing charity. We invited an ambassador along to our annual conference in January and he reduced grown men to tears. He was an inspiration.

I'm looking forward to the walk so much more this year for so many reasons:

1) we had to rush home last year as we had a coach booked and we didn't actually get to finish the walk and celebrate. We had to abandon walk at The Mall to cab it to the train station, only for our bus to be an hour delayed and we could have completed the walk after all!

2) because we had to rush last year we didn't particularly get to take in the sights as we were literally zooming by. We also didn't get a chance to go into any pubs;)

3) my fitness levels are through the roof compared to last year after 8 months of running (yes I can't believe I have kept it up for this long either)

4) any opportunity to raise ££££ for Whizz-Kidz is good by me

5) this is likely to be our last year supporting Whizz-Kidz as we give our colleagues a vote every 2 years. To date we have raised about £32,000 for this amazing charity and for a company with only 270 employees this is a pretty impressive amount. We really want to go out on a high and £35k would be the icing on the cake. 

I am truly sad to be moving away from this charity soon, and I hope to continue fundraising for them in the future. Over the last 2 years we have done countless branch golf days, skydives, raffles, casino nights, sports days, half marathons, you name it we have done it. We even got all of our management Board to 'go back to the floor' and work in branches for the day, making tea, sweeping floors and more. And trust me there's nothing better than seeing your old MD sweeping the floor ;)

Dans x

My life in pictures #2

This is me in October 2012, taking part in the Whizz-Kidz Neon Nightwalk with 20 of my colleagues from both our Head Office and one of our branches. The challenge was to walk 10 miles through the night through the streets of London to raise money for children in need of electric wheelchairs and other mobility equipment, taking in the wonderful sights along the way.

 

All together through corporate and personal sponsorship, we raised over £6k, putting that towards the amazing fundraising total of £18,576 that our company managed to raise for Whizz-Kidz throughout 2012.

 

We started the walk at 7pm with over 100 other people and it was hard to keep all of our ladies motivated for the whole 10 miles, especially with the hustle and bustle going on all around us! We finally got to the Mall at 11.50pm just 10 minutes before our coach was meant to leave from Victoria station, and so unfortunately we missed out on the last five minutes of the walk (and missed out on enjoying the cupcakes and welcome celebrations back at Whizz-Kidz HQ!) but it was such a great feat to achieve - and I think we had actually completed 10 miles if you add on the accidental diversions when we got slightly lost along the route!

 

Whizz-Kidz is a charity that is all about giving disabled children the chance to lead a more independent life. They estimate that over 70,000 children at any one time are in need or on the waiting list for electric wheelchairs or other mobility equipment that will give them a better quality of life and help them to have what they deserve - the chance to be a kid. They have been our corporate charity partner since May 2011 and we are continuing to support them until the end of 2013. 2011 saw a shaky start for fundraising, as our company was not used to having a charity partner and this was all new to us so ideas were slow off the ground. But as Charity Co-ordinator I was so happy to achieve such an amazing amount last year. We had branch golf days, colleagues taking part in brilliant runs such as the Edinburgh half marathon and the Great North run, plus an event I organised a Back to the Floor Directors' Challenge, where branches put together a fundraising plan to bid for a Director to work at their branch for the day, doing whatever the branch decides they should do - whether that is making tea, sweeping the warehouse, answering the phone and more!

 

At our annual conference in January I invited a Whizz-Kidz ambassador to join us and give a presentation to show us first hand how Whizz-Kidz has helped his life and many others throughout the UK. It was safe to say that I have never seen so many grown men with a tear in their eye!

 

Whizz-Kidz really is an excellent charity and I can't wait for our branches to get into the flow of coming up with bigger and better ideas to raise even more money this year. I am hoping to somehow incorporate my new found love of running into a fundraising challenge, so any ideas you may have would be much appreciated!

 

Dans