My hand was forced but what the hell & plenty of training time.

375 Riders

My cunning plan this year had been to register myself, then the boys, then Richard's boyfriend David depending on the levels of sponsorship. 

I registered myself last year, Richard and Adam a little later and when I paid for our flights I paid in full for our flights and paid a deposit for David's flight  working on the basis that at May 20th,  when the balance was due, would be the Go/No-Go for David.

Obviously I wanted David to join us but the reality of $1000 for each flight plus the prospect of topping up any sponsorship shortfall meant I had to play it carefully. 

However that grand plan got blow up when I saw on Facebook that the maximum numbers of rider registrations had been hit. 

Panic set in, and by the skin of my teeth, a begging letter and the help of Robert and Mila at PWA I managed to register David on the ride. Failure would have been disastrous. A very generous sponsor (you know who you are - THANK YOU) gave $500 specifically for David to join us, so disappointing David would have been bad enough but to be seen to be reneging on a sponsorship commitment would have been very hard to rectify so .....  

....... so ...... with 371 other riders we are all committed to the ride. 

Plenty of training time .....

My contract at RB comes to an end at the end of May and normally that would signify an frantic search for a new role and security but I have decided this time to take a little time out for a change. 

I plan to have June working on London Pride and then a week in Sitges with the London boys and then a two week break in the run up to the Bike Rally.  That will be a 7 week period to myself to get bike training and to look for the right job to return to in August.  

I have never had seven weeks off work in my life so I am looking forward to a serious recharge and re-evaluation of where my career goes next. I suspect I will return back to contract management where we I feel I perform best. I did see a job as head of contract management for an NHS Hospital Trust and that appealed to me to I suspect that is the way forward.

I have to say I am grateful to RB for giving me the kick start on the fundraising on World Aids Day that I badly needed. Also I still have load of RB dishwasher tablets &vanish to give away in return for donations. So if you are in London give me a shout ....

Book of Mormon 
Following in the footsteps of my old mucker Harvey Malinsky I have got 20 tickets for the smash hit sell out show for June 27th. See the link above for details. If I sell all the tickets it should go a go a long way towards or target. **** ALL SOLD OUT **** before I could get time to advertise them. 

So Where are we ? 

TALLY TIME

Thank you to some very generous donations we are past the point of the 3 of us being able to ride so the push is on for number 4. 

Thanks to the sell out success of the Book of Mormon tickets that should make a decent dent in the final run up so the end is in sight. Thank you to the suppliers of the tickets . 

Not far to go ..........

As always a huge thank you to everyone helping us with donations, offers of loans of bikes and camping gear in Canadia Land. 



Summer is looking good.

TTFN
David, Adam, Ricjhard & David 

p.s. Thank you Edson for the stunning new graphic.....