KISS

Keep It Short & Simple (KISS)

For 

'Another Good Night Out'

 

Call the Jazz Cafe on 0118 9681442 to book your ticket.

£15 if eating, £10 if not
http://tinyurl.com/yk4yzu7

How's that for short n' simple?

This'll make you laugh

You more than likely already know about Another Long Way Down so I wont go on about me walking for 500 miles from Loch Lomond to Reading's Madejski Stadium in March. I wont tell you about doing two marathons a day for 10 days, or the fact that I'm doing it to raise money for Rays of Sunshine Children's Charity and Community First Responders. You have already read about me going the 'scenic route' via a charity ball and the odd hospice, and because you've seen it all before, I wont go on about it. What I will do is tell you about my Easter party!
April 4th is Easter Sunday, it's also when I'm having my party called Another Good Night Out, do you like what I did there? No? Never mind!
Another Good Night Out, or #AGNO for Twitter followers, is going to be held at the Jazz Cafe by the Madejski Stadium in Reading. It's going to cost you £15 for which you will be fed, Curry and/or Chilli. You will be entertained, a couple of comedians, and you will be enlightened... Lee Farmer, a mountaineer, Everest Summiteer, friend, and fellow pastie lover, is my guest speaker. You may even get the chance to see me limping around because of the blisters I got while walking 500 miles down the length of the UK to raise money for two worthwhile charities, did I mention that already?

Anyway, back to Another Good Night Out

The Jazz Café

(by Madejski Stadium)

4th April 7.30 onwards

Tickets £15.00 to include food

(£10.00 if not eating)

For information on the Jazz Café please click here

Fancy doing some homework on Lee? Click here

Forgotten what I'm doing and why? Click this

You need to contact me if you want to come to Another Good Night Out and you can do that by clicking this steveblethyn@yahoo.co.uk

  I may have told you this already but in March I'm walking down this map

 

Did I mention that Rail AIr have kindly donated a ticket to get me to Heathrow?

Have I told you that you can sponsor me too

http://www.justgiving.com/anotherlongwaydown-scas
OR
http://www.justgiving.com/anotherlongwaydown

Latest news on Another Long Way Down

You've more than likely read about an idea I had a while back. It’s a mad, crazy idea but it's an idea all the same. Some people have said that I've clearly lost my mind but here it is anyway for those of you who don't have a clue what I'm on about
On 22nd March 2010, my agent (aka the wife) is going to take me to Reading station, Rail Air are kindly going to take me from there to my terminal at Heathrow where I’ll fly with BMI to Glasgow. I've even had an offer to pick me up from Glasgow and take me to the shores of Loch Lomond. I'm going to spend the night in my sleeping bag, under the stars. When I wake in the morning I'm going to cook my breakfast on my little stove then head back to Reading.

"Why?"

Why not!

I'm not going straight back to Reading though, I'm going via Leeds and a couple of 'off the beaten track' places. I'll be visiting one of my favourite places, the Lake District, then going through the Yorkshire Dales. Not many roads go straight through the Dales you might say, but that's OK 'cos I'm walking. Yep, walking. Loch Lommond to Reading (via some other places of 'interest' like Alice's Sunshine Ball. That’s 500 miles on foot, or 804km for the metric among us. So, after 22nd March it's just me and anything I can fit in the bag on my back. I'll be sleeping 'alfresco' dinning on food I cook on my own stove and washing when I find a river, lake, pond etc that looks like it may be slightly cleaner than whatever state I may be in at the time. I'm doing this trip, not only because I can (I hope) but because I want to raise money for some much needed lifesaving equipment for Community First Responders. I also want to raise money and awareness for Rays of Sunshine Children's Charity. Therefore I need as much support as possible. (Some people say I need some sort of therapy, but that's another story) You can find more details on my web www.steveblethyn.co.uk

Any support I receive, however small, I shall be making public in local and national press

BREAKING NEWS

I now have the boots, sleeping bag (although it's a tad on the heavy side), stove, etc. The flight to Glasgow is booked (and nobody can cancel this one), and I'm almost set to go. I do still need a bivvy bag and food supply, so if anyone out there is in the mood to support a worthy cause... or fancies getting a perfect stranger a portion of chips on the way down (low fat ones of course) they'll be welcomed with open gob!

THERE'S MORE

When I get back to Reading, apart from resting my inevitable blisters, I'm having a party. It's going to be 'Another Good Night Out' There'll be curry and chilli, a few giggles courtesy of a comedian (or two) and my friend Lee Farmer is going to try and explain why people like us do some of the, some might say crazy, things we do. Lee has been described as being 'the ordinary guy doing extraordinary things', he has a belief and principle that you should dare to live your dreams, no matter what obstacles get in the way and no matter who you are. Sound advice if you ask me. 

So, I guess you'll want to know where this Good Night Out is going to be then. I could say contact me for details but I hate secrets so here goes.

The Jazz Café

(by Madejski Stadium)

4th April 7.30 onwards

Tickets £15.00 to include food

(£10.00 if not eating)

For information on the Jazz Café please click here

Fancy doing some homework on Lee? Click here

Forgotten what I'm doing and why? Click this

Lee Farmer

Fancy a walk?

I do, I go for a walk every day. Mostly with the dogs but sometimes just by myself so that my brain can take a break and basically do nothing other than the stuff that keeps me breathing. Just lately I've started taking a camera with me too. I'm trying to take at least one photo every day for the whole year, and so far I'm doing OK. The photos have mostly been rubbish but I'm hopng they'll improve with time. December's photos had better be good.

Anyway, this is not why I decided to tap away on the ol' keyboard today. Today I'm dragging up some older blogs and giving them a face lift, the following blurb was first let out on it's own in October last year, and yes it's about me going for a walk, quite a long walk, OK a very long walk.

This is about an idea I had. It’s a mad, crazy idea but it's an idea all the same.
On 22nd March 2010, I start a journey. My wife is going to take me to Reading station, Rail Air are kindly going to take me from there to my terminal at Heathrow where I’ll fly with BMI to Glasgow. I'm getting fed by an Accor Hotel, given a bed for the night and breakfast in the morning. So far, all off the travel and accommodation has been given to me free of charge. (well, it was back in October) The only problem is that it's all one-way tickets, so it looks like I’ll just have to walk back to Reading, via Leeds and a couple of other 'off the beaten track' places. That’s 500+ miles on foot, or 804km for the metric among us. I am not going to be in a posh hotel all the time you know, oh no! After 22nd March it's just me and anything I can fit in the bag on my back. I'll be sleeping 'alfresco' dinning on food I cook on my own stove and washing when I find a river, lake, pond etc cleaner than me. I'm doing this trip, not only because I can (I hope) but because I want to raise money for some much needed lifesaving equipment for Community First Responders. I also want to raise money and awareness for Rays of Sunshine Children's Charity. I need as much support as possible. (Some people say I need some sort of therapy, but that's another story) You can find more details on my web http://www.steveblethyn.co.uk/
 

Anything that won’t fit into my rucksack stays at home. I shall be carrying all my food, clothing and a sleeping bag. Hopefully I can get the boots in time to break them in and after that distance on tarmac I’ll need a second pair. I think lightweight will be the order of the day, or 10 days to be exact.

Any support I receive, however small, I shall be making public in local and national press, Hopefully Country Walking Magazine, on TV and the World Wide Web.

BREAKING NEWS

I now have the boots, sleeping bag (although it's a tad on the heavy side), stove, etc. The flight to Glasgow is booked (and nobody can cancel this one), and I'm almost set to go. I do still need a bivvy bag and food supply, so if anyone out there is in the mood to support a worthy cause...

Big Rocks, Stuff and Thingywotsits!

I was just doing the obligatory surfing thing when I saw a blog with 'stuff' in the title. Now those among you who know me will know that I'm a great lover of 'stuff' I can't get enough of it. It comes from my method of teaching first aid to beginners, which has now begun to spread across just about everything I do. Why baffle a newcomer to any subject with loads of technical jargon when 'stuff' will do the job perfectly well. Anyway, about this blog, the writer tells a story about two different lots of stuff that both take up, lets say, 100 thingywotsits or 100tw's. Now when I was at school 100 + 100 was usually 200, but not any more. See the first 100 tw's were way bigger than the other lot of tw's, so these smaller tw's were able to fill the gaps between the other ones. therefore not making 200 but a mere 170 tw's. Confused? Good, it's not just me then. Go to the other blog to understand fully the power of a thingywotsit, but not before you finish reading my words of wisdom eh!

See the thing is, this blog about stuff reminded me of something I read ages ago, and I thought I'd see if my memory was good enough to share it with you now. So here goes...

One day a teacher was trying to make something clear to his students when he decided to use any illustration. As he stood in front of the class, he pulled out a bucket he got from the local garden centre and told the students it was time for a test. He then began to place large rocks into the bucket one at a time until he could get no more in. He asked the puzzled crowd if his bucket was full. Everyone of course said that it was, "You think so?" said the teacher as he reached down for a bag of gravel. As he poured the gravel into the bucket, shaking it occasionally, the gravel filled the gaps between the rocks. He did this until he could get no more gravel into the bucket. "Is it full now?" Immediately a voice said, "I guess not" "Good!" he replied. Then he produced a bag of sand and poured this into his bucket until no more would fit. "How about now, is it full yet?" A shout of "No!" came from the students. Finally, the guy gets a jar of water and keeps going back and forth to the tap until he could get nothing else in the bucket. At this point he asked his class what the point of the exercise was. A young executive said "No matter how full your diary is, you can always make room for another meeting!"

"No" he said "that's not the point at all. What this teaches us is that if you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in." "What are your big rocks? Big rocks are your loved ones, your family and friends, your dreams, your health, maybe a worthy cause, doing things that you love doing. These are your big rocks."

Always put the BIG ROCKS in your life first, or you'll never get them all in. Fill your life with little things (gravel and sand), and you won't have room to get all your big rocks in. You'll be worrying about all the little things that don't really matter, and you'll loose the quality time with the big stuff.

"So when you go home tonight, or over the weekend, make a list of the important, big rocks in your life. Put these in your bucket first!"