I can't believe I am actually doing this, blogging two weeks in a row. Mind you, our record breaking Atlantic rower, Oliver Dudley did a blog every day in between his 12 hours of daily rowing........so I shouldn't complain. He had nothing better to do of course and I suppose if I had ten foot waves crashing over my rowing boat in the middle of the ocean I would probably do a bit of blogging to keep my mind off things. Oli came to our Christmas party. It was fantastic to see him especially as he came bearing gifts. He brought us a lovely framed picture of La Mondiale (the boat!) and crew, a beautiful book about horses by Brough Scott (signed by Brough himself) and a copy of the Guniness Book of Records 2009 which features (pg110) a picture of La Mondiale and crew. Sadly it shows the side of the boat which didn't have the NAPAC logo so we're kicking ourselves about that but it was still a fantastic achievement for NAPAC to be so closely associated with. And Oli raised a LOT of money for NAPAC into the bargain. Thanks Mate! And thanks for the question and answer session. Everyone at the party was enthralled by your ocean tales and I hope we can organise another evening just to listen to your account of this incredible record breaking journey.
Someone else who came to the party was local MP Simon Hughes (see the pics on the website). He gave out certificates to our wonderful Support Team volunteers and he has just confirmed that he would be delighted to become one of our patrons. That's good news for NAPAC as Simon is very well known, commands great respect from parliamentary colleagues (as well as the general public) and we are privileged to have him on board.....to keep up the nautical metaphors!
Those of you who know me well (the unlucky ones!) will testify that I like the sound of my own voice. Well I have to admit that I'm quite enjoying this blogging lark too BUT I must get back to work.......and to keeping an eye on those girls (those responsible for getting me into all this). Those of you fortunate not to know me but wanting to have a look and a laugh can watch me be humiliated on 'Wogans Perfect Recall' on Channel 4 at 5pm next Thursday (29th Jan). I am swiftly knocked out of the TV quiz but at least I managed to mention NAPAC a few times and even El Tel himself seemed genuinely interested in what we do..................and now that I come to think about it, it was those girls (well, Helen) that got me into that fine mess too. Thanks a bunch!