HAPPY NEW YEAR

JULIAN CLEGG AND ME, FOR THOSE WHO LIKE TWO EGGS FOR BREAKFAST

SON DAVID AND ME AT THE SUMMIT OF MOEL SIABOD

AN ICY SCRAMBLE DOWN TRYFAN IN SNOWDONIA

For me, the Xmas break provided a welcome opportunity to review all that had happened over the past year. The loss of my Dad, the birth of my first Grandchild and the successful completion of my huge walk were all events of great significance to me. 

Dad had been ill for a while and was aged 81, so maybe it was time for him to leave us. However, this was surely not the case for friend and neighbour Steve, whose wife Sarah acted as Treasurer for my charity walk. Steve was just 55, my age, when he died suddenly at home of a heart attack on December 9th. A social animal, he was a founder member of the Bishop’s Waltham Rotary Club, one of my sponsors, and had lived two doors from me for the past 21 years. The neighbourhood will never be quite the same without him.

I lost my main business client three months prior to my walk as a result of the recession and have had very little work since I returned. I guess this is the rainy day for which I put aside some savings. Life on a minimal income has not been so bad and at least I won’t have any tax bills to pay. 

Two months after my last diary entry things relating to the walk are still happening. I have continued to receive donations raising the current total to £7,700 - still short of my £10,000 target but I haven’t given up yet. There are a few collecting boxes still out there and some promises of further donations.

I was delighted to have been invited to the BBC Radio Solent Xmas party on Xmas Eve and pleased to meet so many other interesting and adventurous people. Host Julian Clegg announced on-air that I was willing to give talks about my walk, and I reaffirm that here. I am already committed to giving talks to several local groups and presently have bookings through to March 2010. I don’t charge a fee, but leave a large collecting bucket for the charities by the exit! My talk to Shedfield Men’s Group on 1st December ’09 raised over £110. 

Aside from that, I have tried to keep up the exercise. My son David and I climbed the North Ridge of Tryfan in Snowdonia on 28 November and Moel Siabod the following day. These were icy climbs with snow up to a foot deep on the summits. I have a few plans for 2010, which include walking in the Welsh Brecon Beacons in late January, a 3-day 100 km charity walk in Hampshire during April and a visit to the Cuillin Ridge on the Isle of Skye in May. However, I see these activities as just a means of keeping fit whilst I consider something much more significant. Watch this space.