Yesterday's diary page was a bit of a muddle as the
subject I intended to be an on-going featuring during
the day just did not happen ! Strange then that the page
pulled double my
Today's diary page is a bit of a mixed bag - I wonder
what kind of readership figures this will achieve.
I finished yesterday's entry saying I was moving
backwards in the aging process. Pictured right is yours
truly aged twenty-seven. Just look at those
trousers ! And below is the picture I use for my writers
logo. That was taken when I was seventeen.
What an incredibly handsome and sophisticated young man
I was. I can't wait for my personal time machine to wind
me back to those days !
In writing The Bridge House I have just brought my
maternal grandmother into the story. here she is with
her husband - Ethel and Fred Robison.
That is where the Robinson bit of my writer's pen name
comes from by the way.
During World War Two, where the story of The Bridge
House has just reached, their house was bombed not once,
not twice but three times. Not the same house, three
different houses !
The third time they were bombed the blast took out the
front of the house but the piano in the window saved the
family's belongings from extensive damage as it cushioned the
bomb blast.
Fred would play the piano when ever he could. One of the
tunes he would bash out was The Lambeth Walk which was
popular during those dark days of World War Two. I
am about to write The Lambeth Walk into the story.
My grandparents, Fred and Ethel, were Lambeth people
through and through.
So guess where I am heading today ?
You got it - LAMBETH ! I am
going to
216 LAMBETH ROAD, LONDON SE1 7JY
I am going there for a meeting with Ronald McDonald House
Charities to discuss the
OurRebekah fund raising projects. I
have to confess to feeling a little nervous about the
meeting, so much rests on its success. As I walk out of
Lambeth North tube station this song will be ringing in
my ears and I think I will be skipping along to its
tune.
One of the fund raising projects we will be talking
about is DO SOMETHING BONKERS FOR RONALD. The moment I
leave home to head South to London I will be facing an
enormous and totally bonkers challenge. I am going to get on a bus ! Yes a
bus ! Me on a 'bus ! Can you believe that ?
It must be twenty-five years since I rode on a 'bus and
my knees are shaking. I do not know how to use a
'bus, I mean what do you do ? My wife even offered to take me out
for a trial run yesterday. I am only taking the 'bus
from near my home to the railway station yet its journey
takes as long as the train from Central Milton Keynes to
London Euston ! (Parking at the railway station costs
more than my ticket to London !)
When
I reach Lambeth and my meeting I will be talking about ways I want to
challenge people to put money into Ronald's spinner each
time they visit a McDonald's restaurant. Here's our
local MP, Iain Stewart, doing just that when I took him
to McDonald's last Friday.
This is someone I want to take to
McDonald's an pop one hundred pounds into the spinner,
meet Kermit The Frog.
Almost as big a challenge as riding
on a 'bus will be to hold one of Kermit's relatives in
my hand.
Since I was a very small child I have
had a phobia about frogs. The sight of one makes my
stomach churn, I feel sick and become a gibbering mess.
Doing something bonkers for Ronald I
am challenging myself to hold a frog in the palm of my
hands for thirty seconds. I am looking to friends
to sponsor me to the tune of one hundred pounds to do
this. (If I am honest I would pay one hundred
pounds myself NOT to have to do this challenge !)
Yesterday I found the perfect place
to help me with this challenge.
If the Lambeth meeting goes well I
will be making contact tomorrow with an amazing shop I
found -
Wrigglies
and asking them to put the frog on my hands.
I would like to get this challenge
over as soon as possible !
Back to these pictures of the
handsome young man I was in younger days........
I am a proud holder of The Duke of
Edinburgh's Award. As a teenager my friends and I had an
ambition to do The Three Peaks Challenge, to climb Ben
Nevis, Snowdon and
Scafell Pike all in 24 hours. None of us could drive
back then so it never happened.
I have just sponsored
one of my former students who successfully completed at
the week-
I have an idea to find a
group who would like to take on the challenge for Ronald
McDonald
and to extend something around the challenge which would
enhance things.
There is a window of
opportunity from about late April to October, weather
conditions not allowing participation outside this, so
we have probably missed things until 2018 BUT we could
start planning now.
My idea is to build a team of 4 to
6 “climbers” – strictly speaking no climbing is
involved. They are to be strangers who have not met up ahead
of joining the project. Each comes from a different walk
of life. I have in mind we should try to have a
McDonald’s crew member in the team. I would like to
find a medical student, ideally from Oxford University
Hospital. A teacher would be good. Recruiting for team
members could start as soon as the idea is accepted.
Part of the training would be to weld these strangers
into a strong team of friends.
Climbing the peaks is
hard but so is the task for the driver who has to move
the team from location to location quickly, safely and
within the legal speed limits. I have in mind to have
TWO professional drivers who I will recruit from among
my former students.
My own role would be to plan
everything, organise the training sessions, build the
team into a group of strong friends and run a
website/blog/social media programme around the
planning/training/challenge. Oh yes, I would be
with the team during the challenge - just not actually
climbing the peaks myself !
Fingers crossed Ronald McDonald House Charities will
think this is a good idea for a challenge.
Now
here is a man for whom I have the very highest regard
and respect -
Doctor Phil Mason, renal consultant at Oxford University
Hospital. He was Rebekah's consultant throughout her
adult life. Incredible man ! When I met with my MP
last Friday I told him about Phil Mason who once said to me
I DO NOT TREAT MY PATIENTS, I CARE FOR THEM.
Yesterday Phil sent letters to a variety of
organisations I am seeking to bring into the OurRebekah
project in support of Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Ian Stewart is also writing letters of support. Thank you Phil. Thank you Iain.
When my book
The
Bridge House is finished and published ALL
royalties will be given to Ronald McDonald House
Charities.
Yesterday I needed
to dip into chapter one and put a hook in there to
chapter three. OMG the typo's ! Originally I
planned to edit chapter by chapter but have decided to
wait until everything is finished then edit the entire
book. When you read what I have written it is a DRAFT,
yes I know the typo's are there. OK ?
My meeting in
Lambeth will probably finish round about half past four,
my train home is not until ten past eight. I had
planned to sit in the Virgin Lounge at Euston Station
and stuff myself with Richard Branson's free food. OK,
yes - I will be travelling first class - I am not brave
enough to fight for a seat, stand around on a station
platform etc, etc. It costs only a few pounds more to
upgrade and I had my Old Age Pension money come in yesterday
so I am feeling a bit flush ! Perhaps I should
have said that when I get on that 'bus in a few hours
time I will be using FOR THE FIRST TIME my OAP 'bus
pass. I guess when my body has finished its
transformation back to the way it looked in those
pictures above they will take my 'bus pass way from me !
I am rambling !
I
was explaining how the meeting will finish more than
three hours before I need to be at Euston to catch the
train home. I plan to make my way to Berkeley Square, to
sit in the park and soak up the atmosphere. I am writing
at the moment in
The
Bridge House with Lily as a fifty year old during
World War One. She is reminiscing back to her youth and
her childhood sweetheart, Henry Wilton. Henry, in
the story is suggesting that when they are married they
should buy a house in Berkeley Square as a second home
and town house.
On tomorrow's diary
I will let you know if I hear any nightingales singing.
Well I think I will leave it there for
today. I have rambled on a bit haven't I ? I am nervous. Nervous
about my meeting with Ronald McDonald in Lambeth. Wish me luck !
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