Goals from Adam Reach, left, just three minutes into the game with Jordon Rhodes, below right, sealing victory in the 43rd minute
Goals, of course, sponsored for Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham.
Let's hear it for the boys !
I have e-mailed congratulations from OurRebekah to club director Trevor and today The House That Love Built will send thank you and congratulations cards to Adam and Jordan.
Yesterday evening Ronald McDonald House in Brum had a Halloween party. I am going to ask them to send over some pics to share with you all in a future blog. It bet it was a lot of fun.
You can become a BRUMMIE OWL and support the families in Ronald McDonald House Birmingham every time the boys score. Visit www.or-sheffieldwednesday.com
Gifts poured in yesterday for Santa's Sack. Here are just a few pictures, to see them all visit our Secret Santa project at: www.or-santa.co.ukand click on the gallery bit.
So many lovely gifts.
RESULT !
Mine was the winning bid on e-bay yesterday evening. 125 original 7" vinyl records for just 99p
RESULT !
I will now have lots to play on my new record player - IT AINT MUSIC IF IT AINT VINYL
See if you can spot the typo !
I want to take music into OurRebekah events to lift the atmosphere. When Ronald McDonald House CEO came along to chat on Monday he commented on the vast number of CDs in my car. I am now recruiting Santa Helpers to take the gifts to Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool. Only music lovers may apply. Music will be playing from Santa's Sleigh all the way !
Today I am spending the afternoon in the studio of Radio Secklow 105.5 taking photographs and video of Tony as he broadcasts his AFTERNOON DELIGHT show.
Tony has arranged for me to meet the station's Managing Director.
RESULT
I promise to be on my best behaviour.
That in itself will be a RESULT.
I have not got the 7" vinyl single yet but let me close today's blog with the OurRebekah theme
Have you ever had one of those days ? You know, one of those days where nothing goes wrong and everything goes right ?
I had such a day yesterday.
Things began with my writing the blog which incidentally had a fantastic reader level. I asked if friends would check out the new SECRET SANTA pages on the website, beta test it and help me correct the typos.
THANK YOU Barry for your help. I like the feature within the website but I am not sure that people like my Burger King joke LOL. I thought it was quite subtle, others thought it was a bit silly !
Oh dear, what a shame, never mind.
There then followed a series of e-mails toing and froing between Tony from Secklow 105.5 and Yours Truly.
Tomorrow I am going to the studio to watch Tony broadcast his AFTERNOON DELIGHT show. I am going to take a series of pictures and some video to help promote Tony's presenting the Brummie Owls gift to Sheffield Wednesday FC on Saturday 18th November.
Tony has now arranged for me to meet the station's managing director Mike Johnson. I guess I had better be on my best behavior !
I spent yesterday afternoon with Jon, the CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities. WHAT A GUY !
Jon had driven all the way from London to spend the afternoon with me. Our conversation ranged wide right across the work the houses do.
In a previous blog I was praising the stewardship of Ronald McDonald, how it is so careful with the money it receives and how very little is spent on administration.
Within that blog I complained that Ronald McDonald House
Charities is too modest and fails to tell everyone what a good job it does and how careful it is with the money it receives.
While I was banging on about that yesterday it dawned on me that, OK, the charity should be opening its mouth a bit more but the primary responsibility for telling people should rest with the supporters.
When it comes to singing HI HO SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY at Hillsborough it is not the owner, it is not Club Director Trevor, it is not the manager, it is not the players but the SUPPORTERS who do the singing.
OurRebekah needs to start opening its mouth a bit wider.
The OurRebekah Just Giving page is looking good, not bad for two months activity but I came away from my time with Jon yesterday thinking we need to do more. A LOT MORE.
OurRebekah has some lovely people doing their bit and being very generous but we need to widen our support base, we can not keep asking the same people to support us, we can not keep asking the same people to get behind our various projects. I guess widening the support base is down to me.
Thank You Jon for your time yesterday. Thank you to Jon's team working away behind the scenes to make the work of the houses up and down the country possible.
Within half an hour of Jon and I shaking hands and going our different ways I opened the
laptop to check my e-mails.
There was an e-mail from Jon. How had he managed to send me an e-mail so quickly ? I started to read it and nothing made any sense.
DOH ! It dawned on me this was a different Jon. The e-mail had come from Jon, The Mayor of Buckingham. He's a lovely guy you know, you should take a look at his blog. Makes mine look like the ramblings of a silly old man. ACTUALLY it is the ramblings of a silly old man.
Mayor Jon, not CEO Jon, had e-mailed me about our Gala Disco Party next May.
While CEO Jon, not Mayor Jon, and I had been together my phone rang. I let it go to voicemail. Checking it I found the messages was from the people who issue licences to play music in public. I had made an application to have a licence. Each license is individual, there is no set fee. I was hoping I would have to dip into my pocket for about £200 but knew it could be a lot more.
Nervously I called back. I was very careful to explain what I wanted, the fine for breaching the rules is draconic !
How much do you think I am going to have to pay ?
Go on have a guess !
NOTHING - ZERO - ZILCH !
Result !
Let's play some music shall we............
There were two e-mails waiting for me from Libby who is the manager of The House That Love built in Birmingham.
There was another e-mail. I am itching to tell you all about it but until Broughton Manor Preparatory School's management team has met at the end of the week I must keep my lips
sealed.
Yes, Boughton Manor is going to take on Di Central Eating, I reported that on an earlier blog but you just wait until I am able to tell you the reception waiting for the school's new pupil !
There was another e-mail. This from Greg who owns a McDonalds franchise in Devon. In December I will be driving down to meet him and to chat about the work of Ronald McDonald Houses.
What a day.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR YESTERDAY - THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT - THANK YOU FOR YOUR INSPIRATION - THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE
Can I please have another day today just like yesterday ?
So as the radio DJ would say, let's play out today's show with this....................
I have to say that I am feeling rather pleased with myself !
My ego is tripping round the picture of me on the left.
It's my birthday, UNFORTUNATELY, on Friday when I will SADLY be 67 years old. That image, that handsome young man was taken fifty years ago. My Facebook picture, there on the right, is more what I look like today but it is the me on the left who is writing today's blog.
I spent most of yesterday working on the OurRebekah website, completely re-writing our Secret Santa pages. While I worked, for part of the day at least, I was watching The Boat
The Rocked - I'll talk about that in a moment but first let me natter on, let my ego inflate, while I tell you all about Secret Santa.
SANTA is, of course, an Americanism of Father Christmas and while I would not normally depart from the Anglicised version SECRET FATHER CHRISTMAS does not easily trip off the tongue.
At the top of Santa's home page - PLEASE CLICK HERE AND CHECK IT OUT - the reader is invited to click a video and listen to music while they read.
The page does not work so well if the reader is not listening to the music. Throughout the presentation characters are dancing to the music.
So I guess I had better ask you to play the Secret Santa music while you read the blog !
When you look at the website area you will find it bears absolutely no resemblance to what was there before. It has taken Secret Santa and kicked it into orbit. The new plans for the project are ambitious !
First of all the project asks friends to put gifts of love into Santa's Sack. We need 84 gifts for Ronald McDonald House in Liverpool, 69 for Birmingham and 29 for Bristol.
There is a gallery showing the gifts we have received. This gallery will be updated every time a new gift pops into Santa's Sack.
Ronald McDonald Houses do not close their doors for Christmas you know. Of course they don't ! 24/7, 365 days a year they are there with a loving arm around families who have a child sick in hospital. At Christmas there will be staff and volunteers on duty looking after the families.
Santa wants you to bake some treats, mince pies, cakes, gingerbread men which he can give to the staff and volunteers. OK, you can cheat if you like - pop into Morrissons, Asda or
Tesco and pick some off the shelf.
Just one thing .........
When you assemble the ingredients, when you read the recipe please make sure you TRIPLE the amount of LOVE it tells you to put in the mixing bowl.
The website has its own Advent Calendar. Each day from 1st to 24th December it will open a window to play a piece of Christmas Music. There are thirty two days until Advent starts so until then I have chosen my own personal favourite piece of Christmas music to play.
Tony from Radio Secklow 105.5 commented on the music, saying how beautiful it was. Just wait until I play my second favourite piece of music - THE FAIRY TALE IN NEW YORK.
When we started OurRebekah I spent hours and hours and hours contacting people, famous people, asking them to give me autographed items we could use in an e-bay auctions. Many of these are valuable, all are special but we just could not make e-bay work. There was no reason why it did not work but now these gifts are in a box unwanted and unloved.
OMG THE GOOGLE GEEKS ARE SCREWING UP THE PAGE FORMATTING FOR THE BLOG AGAIN - SORRY ABOUT THAT
Let's see if the geeks will let me format this picture properly !
NOPE - Google where do you find these GEEKS ! The blog template will not now allow me to justify the text, it has to be centred ! OH WELL !
Let's put all of these items into Santa's sack and orgaise a FREE prize draw for each of the three houses.
You won't find a geek anywhere in our Secret Santa website. What you will find are TYPOS so when you spot one can you tell me and I'll fix it. THANKS.
Rudolph is ready. The plan is to hitch him to the front of my car, decorate it as Santa's Sleigh then secretly deliver the gifts to the houses in Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol.
Santa needs some little helpers to come with him.
Visiting the house will be long days and when we get there we will not be stopping
for any longer than it needs to hand over the gifts, we do not want to disrupt the work of the houses.
These little helpers, we need three for each trip MUST be dressed appropriately. The plan is to stop on the way for refreshments and for everyone in the motorway service
area to see us and know what we are doing. TAKING LOVE TO FAMILIES IN RONALD McDONALD HOUSES WHO HAVE A CHILD SICK IN HOSPITAL.
Just to add a bit of fun into the day Santa has said he will buy everyone a meal - wait for it - IN BURGER KING !
I am feeling very pleased with myself, my ego is inflating as I tell myself what a good job I have done writing the website. The carpenter is coming round to our house later to fit bigger doors so I can get my head through.
But no matter how great I THINK the website it, no matter how great I THINK Secret Santa is as an OurRebekah project it will fail if Santa has an empty
sack, it will fail if nobody makes the mince pies, it will fail if Santa can not find his little helpers.
See if you think I have done a good job or not but more importantly PLEASE put your name down to add a gift, make some mince pies or become a little helper.
Now for THE BOAT THAT ROCKS.
It is no secret that when I find a way to travel through time I will go back to the golden days of pop music and become a DJ on a pirate radio station. Radio One began the demise of the British Pop Music industry.
I wrote about my fantasy in one of my books, a trilogy of time travel. There Radio One is talked about as RADIO MINUS ONE.
So there I was yesterday working on the website and watching The Boat That Rocked. I began by wondering if I could use the DVD within a school community service project I am setting up to introduce members to retro pop.
Ah no ! Naked men, lesbian women, cannabis. NOT really suitable. When I had finished
the website I started to play the DVD again, not to look at the previously mentioned items but to scribble down a list of all the songs played in the film.
I have promised myself that for my birthday on Friday I am going to buy an old fashioned record player and start a new VINYL collection of my favourite retro pop music.
IT ISN'T VINYL IF IT ISN'T MUSIC
I like all kinds of music. I like opera, I like ballet, I like classical music. I only like those forms of music if they stick to the tradition. When I went to the ballet last week and in the final scene a character took a picture using a smart phone I thought it was utterly ridiculous.
I love retro pop music, music from the late 1950's through to the mid 1980's. That music was always played on vinyl so I want to maintain the tradition and play the music not digitally on my laptop or CD player but the correct and proper way using
a vinyl record player. The way it was played on Radio Rock.
There are some OurRebekah events in the diary which would be better better if they included music. To do this requires a PRS and PPL licence. I have started the process to obtain these. I will be paying for them.
I can hardly take my vinyl record player to an event and spin the discs so I am going to buy a traditional disco twin deck and speakers. The whole thing will not be that expensive.
I can buy this set up for £122 !
Radio Rock you will have nothing on Silly Old Man Disco when it starts to play music at OurRebekah events.
But what 7" vinyl singles should I buy ? There is an absolute abundance of them available on e-bay, available at give away prices.
Surfing YouTube yesterday I thought I would spend £1.99 and get this.
Then in total contrast I plan to get a copy of this.
I have already got a copy of this.
I also have a copy of the single I plan to make OurRebekah's adopted theme song.
This page will initially be The Wave Of Love's blog for Sunday 29th October 2017. THREE weeks today will mark six months of operation for OurRenebah and this feels a good time to present a report on what we have achieved and what our plans are for the next six months and more.
This will be a long blog but instead of it passing into history and the archive tomorrow let's keep it in place so friends and supporters can check out where we are going.
First of all our JustGiving page stands at £2,164 + £341.75 gift aid. There is another £55 to be processed and we do have a second JustGiving page set up ready for projects we will be running for Ronald McDonald House in Bristol. There is £4 credited to that account.
Therefore, OurRebekah has so far achieved an total figure of £2,509.75. The aim is to make £34,000 a year so we do have a way to go. However, the first four moths of operation were given over to planning so we have actually achieved £1,254.87 per month which puts us on target to make £15,058.50. We need to up our game a bit !
ON GOING PROJECTS:
The picture above is of Adam Reach who scored the one goal for Sheffield Wednesday at
Hillsborough yesterday. That goal sent £5 to Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham. Saturday 18th November marks the official launch of Brummie Owls, goals the team score that day currently stand at £100.
Yesterday our faithful Postie brought a package containing all the material we need for a new project - RECYCLE FOR ALDER HEY. We want your old mobile phones and ink cartridges which we will recycle for the house.
It is difficult to estimate what we will make within this project but would £100 a month be reasonable ?
WHAT'S IN THE DIARY ?
Saturday 18th November, of course, is Brumie Owls at Hillsborough then beyond that November and December are SECRET SANTA.
We want to take gifts to Ronald McDonald Houses in Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol. Santa's sack is filling up quite nicely. Today I will update the Secret Santa website page to add in some new and exciting features.
Our e-bay project never worked as we hoped it would. We put a lot of effort into this gathering some exciting, valuable and utterly amazing gifts. Ann and Mark worked hard to launch the items on e-bay but we just could not attract the bids. Let;s step back and think
outside the box.
The box at the moment is a storage box where the gifts are sitting unloved and unwanted. Let's wrap these up, put them into Santa's sack and use them as a free prize Christmas draw for families in the three houses.
Is that OK with you Gordon Banks, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sandi Shaw, Gerry And The Pacemakers, Geoff Hurst, Will Young, MK Dons FC and Sheffield Wednesday FC.
YES, all of those famous people supportedOurRebekah
In January we have our ASDA GREEN TOKEN project which we will dedicate to Ronald McDonald House in Bristol.
If we win £500 will be donated to Bristol by Asda. If we come second or third £200 will be donated by Asda to Bristol. No matter what we win something for the work of this house.
We are looking into a rather special launch for the project on Saturday 6th January 2018. Watch this space - he he !
January also sees the first stage of our Acrophobic Challenge supporting Ronald McDonald House Birmingham.
In February the Acrophobia Challenge moves to Bristol and supporting Ronald McDonald House Bristol.
Also in February we have Fire a Rocket For Beck which is also supporting Ronald McDonald House Bristol. HEY BRISTOL this is your month.
MARCH
In March the Acrophobia Challenge moves to some iconic buildings in Liverpool to support Ronald McDonald House Alder Hey.
We will also be launching our Easter Egg collection to send gifts to families in Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool.
During the months of January, February and March 2018 children at Broughton Manor Preparatory School will be working to illustrate The Wild Adventures of Di Central Eating which will be one of three books to be published later in the year as part of our Books4Birmingham project.
The standard of art work at Broughton Manor Preparatory School is quite outstanding so Di is going to become a famous little boy.
That is for certain !
APRIL
On Friday 20th April our team will be boarding a Virgin Atlantic 747 bound for The City By The Bay.
There, supporting Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham, the team will be having a fun run on The Golden Gate Bridge followed by a Hippie Party in San Francisco's world famous Golden Gate Park the location from where The Summer of Love spread world-wide and more than fifty years later is still remembered.
MAY
We are working hard towards what will be the biggest OurRebekah event of all. Two events
in one, The Doggie Treasure Hunt and our Gala Disco Party
Nobody, but nobody has ever held a disco in a location quite like this before.
A lot of the planning is still under wraps, when we are able to reveal all that is in the pipeline we guarantee your breath will be taken away !
JUNE
In June we will be launching the three books in our Books4Birmingham project:
The Wild Adventures of Di Central Eating, The Bridge House and The Story Of A Teenage Entrepreneur (Failed).
Initially we thought these books would generate a modest income for Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham but momentum is already gathering so our expectations are going to be passed.
The books are being published by Amazon. Amazon has a monthly prize fund for authors which runs into several million pounds.
Wouldn't it be fantastic if our three books sold enough copies to grab a few hundred or even a thousand pounds from the prize fund ? The money all going to Ronald McDonald House Birmingham.
Also in June we want to get together two teams of football players, one made up of Sheffield Wedneday Fans and one of MK Dons Fans, to take part in OurRebekah's Big Smile Cup.
The Big Smile Cup will also be a Ronald McDonald House Birmingham project.
JULY
We are now in the early stages of changing the format for our Three Peaks Challenge and plan to make this something for Ronald McDonald House Alder Hey in Liverpool. David will soon be discussing this with staff in the house after which we will be able to announce more information.
Things will not be stopping at the end of July, we have some projects we initially announced then moved to the back burner, there are others we have yet to think of. The diary, in due course, for August and beyond will be announced.
Every month we have our SMILE OF THE MONTH award. Last month his was won by Ann.
At the centre of all we do is our website: www.ourrebekah.com Yes, it's different - yes, it's an amateur production - GEEKS and CASH COW MARKETING EXPERTS are not involved but people like it. We know that it is checked out by Ronald McDonald Houses in different parts of the world, houses which nick our ideas and turn them into their own projects. That's lovely isn't it ?
Our blog, The Wave Of Love, averages one hundred readers a day.
So friends as we approach our first six months we have not done a bad job have we ?
The Big Fun run was special wasn't it ?
As for The Frog Challenge !
What a CRAZY day that was. Fun packed and full of love.
No, that is not a frog Mayor David Hopkins has round his neck and tangled into his chain of office but from that day the image has become a bit of an icon.
Perhaps someone should have told Mayoress Susan Hopkins the skunk she kept cuddling had not had its scent glands removed !
We have taken a member of parliament to McDonald's to spin coins for the houses, families have taken their children for Happy Meals and to spin coins.
We have not done a bad job have we ? But these are early days, very early days. We may have a diary packed with fun and potential but there is a lot of work to be done to turn that potential n to love for
families in the various Ronald McDonald Houses.
Gerry And The Pacemakers nicked this song from the musical Carousel. Liverpool FC then nicked it from Gerry and his mates. The City of Liverpool then nicked it from the football club !
OurRebekah is here officially announcing that we will nick the song big time and use it as an anthem for all we do.
When a family has a child taken into hospital, a hospital far from home where the specialist treatment that child needs is located........ When the family is entering a very, very hard time, Ronald McDonald House places a loving arm around the shoulder of the family and says.....................
Come with us, we are here for you, walk through this time with us an YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE
CLICK HERE and feel the love within that anthem LOVE to be found within all Ronald McDonald Houses the world over. LOVE we have within OurRebekahto send to those families.
Goals from Adam Reach, left, just three minutes into the game with Jordon Rhodes, below right, sealing victory in the 43rd minute
Gifts poured in yesterday for Santa's Sack. Here are just a few pictures, to see them all visit our Secret Santa project at: www.or-santa.co.uk and click on the gallery bit.
