Day One of our big adventure.

Our first day was at Twickenham for the Middlesex 7s! It really is a good day out and it is great fun to watch 7's rugby - it is a lot faster than "normal" rugby! The 7's match day is always geared towards raising money for charity, three this year Wooden Spoon (a childrens charity that helps young people who are challenged either physically, mentally or socially), Help For Heroes (supporting our Armed Forces) and of course the RFU Injured Players Foundation who support people who have had a catastrophic injury through rugby - as you all know John is an injured player so a member of the club!!!

A rare picture of us both together! All ready to go and have fun! The IPF always have a hospitality area at the 7's and they were very excited to see us in the ginger car!

We were there good and early, the stadium is never full apart from "big" match days so there is always an atmosphere of a party - everyone always dresses up for some reason - we saw monks, where's wally (about 20 of them all dressed identically!) a group of santa's, men in togas, cowboys, and even Elvis! It's always a shock to see big burly men in little pink tutus!!!

We had a lovely lunch and got to meet up with people that you only ever email or talk to on the phone, so it really was great! There are some other injured players who you only ever see at Twickenham because we are all from different parts of the country and only ever meet up on match days!

We watched some awesome rugby, we were supporting Esher who got all the way to the final only to be beated 12-19 by Samurai. Pictured above are Brazil and Durham University, Brazil won that match! Afterwards we took the banners off the car and were waved off, ready to prepare for the excitement the following day - and boy was it exciting!!!!!

Cruising on Windermere

I know I am supposed to be telling you all about the Cannonball Run but this is something that John and I were invited to last Thursday and it is to do with fund raising so I thought I would tell you about it! We advertise on the Bay Radio, they have really gone out of their way to help us with publicity for the Cannonball Run, even to the extent of doing phone interviews every day with updates of how we were getting on and really pushing the charity side of things. We of course are incredibly grateful and had great fun going to the studio in Lancaster for our preliminary interview. Silly me I completely forgot to take any pictures!

Every year The Bay organise a cruise on Windermere for all the businesses who are associated with them. So last Thursday evening we went to Lakeside (the south end of the lake) to board the steamer!

It was a cloudy evening with a few spots of rain, a typical Cumbrian summer day in other words!

The Mallard - the little car ferry that runs from Bowness-On-Windermere to the Sawry side of the lake so you don't have to spend hours driving round. The ferry is on chains connected to each side that pull it backwards and forwards, the only problem is if there is too much water in the lake (if it rains to much!) the ferry can't run!!!

Catching the last of the sunshine looking towards Great Langdale, very beautiful!

Going back past Bowness looking back towards the north end of the lake. We had a lovely time despite not being the life and soul of the party! John and I were still struggling from a lack of sleep and the gentle rocking of the boat really made it difficult to keep our eyes open! At one point we were propping each other up hoping no one noticed our lack of conversation! Not to worry we are nearly back to normal now - it was worth it!!!

We're back!

We have made it! What an amazing week we have had, you will have to forgive me, I know I promised to keep you updated but it was the most full on experience of our lives! I have masses of photos and stories to tell but I really need to catch up on some sleep first! So watch this space over the next few days and get ready to see the most amazing cars (and people!)

Unofficial start!

The ginger car has come to work! We are all packed and ready and have come to work until lunch time, then setting off to Lancaster to be interviewed on the local radio station The Bay! The car has been having lots of admiring looks from the general public! I have just finished doing a few last minute jobs like having a spare set of keys cut - we only had one set and have spent the last year worrying about shutting them in the boot by mistake! John and I are a mixture of excitement and fear at the moment, the car is running beautifully apart from one small problem - starting! The automatic choke is not working as it should (even though it has been to the garage a LOT in the last few months) once you are going it is fine, it just takes a few minutes to think about it! Hopefully she will behave herself on holiday! Well all that remains is to wish us luck and keep your fingers firmly crossed for us! I will be putting up lots of pictures and videos over the coming weeks so look out for us!

We have a winner!

We have a winner! M Philips from Bristol is the lucky winner, we will be posting your prize today! Congratulations!

Last chance to enter.

Don't forget this is your last chance to enter our competition to win an IPAD2! All you have to do to enter is type "IPAD PLEASE" into the promo box when placing your order, it's as simple as that! We will be picking the winner (at random) tomorrow 1st July 2011 and announcing the winner via the usual channels - Twitter, Facebook, here on the blog and on our website. Good luck!