A Day That Scrubbed Up Well!

A LONG day getting items signed today, but with the weekend pretty much looking wiped out by the weather, worth it!

I’ll start with the finish, begin at the end, with the photos that made my day.  It’s rare to get a BIG gun in Glasgow, much less at one of our theatres so meeting Zach Braff aka JD of Scrubs fame tonight was just AWESOME.  He signed on the way into the show, but I had to return at the end of the night to get this brilliant snap with the man.

Seriously, just amazing.  That’s JD, Newbie, *Insert Random Girl Name Here.  Among the items signed was a christmas card, and you know where that will end up.  Lovely signature on it as well, as you can see here.

As awesome as meeting Zach was, he was almost matched by the brilliant Eve Myles, who signed a staggering ten items for me as well as posing for a photo.  She was an absolute charmer, and even came back out for us at the stage door after sneaking past under a hood the first time.  Eve signed a bundle of DW/TW trading cards as well as a couple of Xmas Cards for the auction.  An awesome woman in every way, really appreciates talking to fans.

If you didn’t guess, there’s me and Eve prior to tonight’s show.

Earlier in the day I had headed up to Murray Park to get some Rangers items signed before any players are forced to leave the club next week.  I did pretty well and added some Xmas Cards to the pot, including club captain Steven Davis pictured here with me and the freshly signed Xmas card.

Seriously, he doesn’t always look that grumpy!

Also happy to pose for a photo with an auction item is fellow Northern Irish international Andy Little who is seen below with a signed 10×8 photo of Ibrox, signed by the majority of the first team.

An amazing day all round, and more than makes up for the fact that the rain and snow coming in will stop me getting anything signed tomorrow.

Well chuffed

More auctions going live over the weekend.

New Event – Sport Relief (6) Mile

I’m delighted to announce I will be “going the extra mile” on Sunday 25 March as part of the Sport Relief Mile event.  I’ve signed up for the 6mile distance which is roughly a 10k, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into a Glasgow event.

More events coming soon…

Concluding a Busy Weekend…

Woooph!  Yesterday morning was a sore one!  My first 12.5k race, not a major worry distance wise, but you can without doubt feel the wee step up when it’s been a while since anything longer than a 10k.  The real stress was the amount of climbing over the distance (12 hills in 12.5k makes for an interesting race).

Anyways, Round 1 of the “Run Kirkintilloch” Series is complete, with a time of 1.23.56 on my stopwatch at the finish, just shy of four mins outside my target time.  Overall pretty happy, as you can see with the finisher photo – yes, I was also pretty chuffed with the mug and chunky kitkat!

Following on from Saturday’s autograph hunting, thanks to Emma for forwarding me a couple of “authenticating” photos including this one of Craig Revel Horwood signing for me outside the hotel.

Onwards, upwards and check out the auctions online now by clicking on the link in the menu to the right >>>>>>>>>>>>>>

…and a new Celtic Shirt for Auction as well!

Thanks to Fraser Forster for posing with the most recent signed Celtic shirt collected, which I managed to get signed by most of the team today, despite the rain which kept on threatening to really fall.  It put a dampener on my hopes of adding some more Xmas Cards to the pot, but plenty of time for that during the coming months.

1 x signed Celtic change shirt, brand new with tags, signed by 20 – available now – as modelled by myself and that big Geordie Man (quite impressive as must have been aware his parent team were being pumped at that stage).   It’s even signed by Scott Brown!

Among the others to sign it were Manager Neil Lennon
- there’s the man himself signing the shirt, and new signing Pawel Brozek who was also kind enough to pose for a photo with the shirt once my sidekick had explained to him what was going on … sometimes Polish Piotrrrrrrr is REALLY handy to have about.

All in all a pretty good day for adding some items into the pot.  Tomorrow will see a range of items up for auction, including this Celtic shirt and many of the items featured this week on the site.  Please do come back and check them out.

A Good Morning… Strictly Speaking!

Following on from my Geordie Assistant’s success with the Strictly Come Dancing Tour a couple of days ago, I winged my way down to the hotel this morning in Glasgow to see what I could add to the auction stock.  And meet Robbie Savage.

It was one of those days with scattered departure times from 11-1 but I managed to get pretty much everything I hoped for from the day.  Among those to sign were Bruno Tonioli and Craig Revel Horwood (pictured with me left) – Bruno signed some Xmas Cards and Craig has already signed some for the collection.

There were two I REALLY wanted to add some to the Xmas Auction today… Robbie Savage (who signed his first card in Newcastle this week – never hurts to have some back ups ) and Harry Judd of McFly fame.  Robbie was among the last to emerge but cheerfully stopped for everyone there (including coming back off the bus for a wee girl who nearly missed him).  Harry seemed in a bit of a strange mood, but signed FOUR Xmas cards for me while commenting on the bizarreness of Xmas Cards in February – he won’t be the first and he won’t be the last.  There’s me and the lad from McFly to the right.  Also pictured is myself with the legend that is Robbie Savage – DELIGHTED!

The final awesome item to share is one for my own from someone I met last year following the Great Scottish Run.  Former swimmer Mark Foster who posed with me holding the Olympic Torch last September, signed a white card for me, adding his trademark “fish doodle” in style.  This is one I’d quite like to mount with the photo of me with him for my own collection as it’s just awesome!

The only one to ignore us pretty much was Anita Dobson who flew past without even looking, while Nancy De… Dell.. De’ … you know.. her who was married to Sven, left earlier than we got there it seemed.

Others who stopped for pics were Jason Donovan, Len Goodman, Mark Foster and Chelsee Healey so I got 5/7 of the Celebrities present, plus all three judges.  All in all not too bad a day.

BIG thanks to Emma for taking so many photos for me (presuming she has found my site now!)

New Items / New Mail Outs / New Races

It’s NEW NEW NEW for this post…

Firstly, my last out mail out of requests before I entrust everything to the mail redirection when I move house next month.  If you’ve ever wondered what 292 letters look like when they’re all together, then wonder no more. To the right there is what went to the post office this week to try and source new items for auction.  If that doesn’t tell you how much effort goes into my fundraising then nothing will.  Now here’s hoping loads come back before we move and Royal Mail don’t mess things up too badly.

Next up, thanks to Craig Easton, the former Dundee United, Southend and most recently Dunfermline midfielder who sent me a pair of his footy boots this morning for auction. 

I can’t thank Craig enough for his generosity, and wish him all the best in finding a new club now he has left East End Park.  I’m well chuffed that he still took the time to donate the boots, and they will be among the items going up for auction this weekend.

Finally, I have new races going on the calendar this week, having signed up for the Run Kirkintilloch series.  First up is a 12.5k run this Sunday and it culminates four races later with a half marathon in October.  I’ll be updating my race calendar shortly.

In the meantime, I am off to sort out some items for auction this weekend, as the pre-move clear out continues.  I’ll be making my next donation following these coming auctions, and it will be blasting me past the half way stage of Twelveby12!

An Inspiring Afternoon

I spent some time this afternoon at Glasgow’s newest Maggie’s Centre, housed in the grounds of Gartnavel Hospital.  It’s an amazing space, a haven in the grounds of a bustling hospital, and I left more inspired than I have ever been to help a charity.

The centre (as seen left – image from the Maggie’s Centres website) is laid out with the visitor in mind – you enter through the wide glass door into what is immediately an open space… a library section, open plan kitchen for that vital cup of tea and a warm welcome.  The entire centre is amazing, I can’t quite put into words the feeling you get from it, and that’s just from me as a visitor.

I’m not going to go on and on about it, I just wanted to share with you all a little bit of why I support Maggie’s.  If you’ve ever been in the position to drop by, or know someone who has used a Maggie’s centre anywhere in the UK, you’ll understand just how important the welcoming “homey” feel is, and just what amazing work the staff do.  You can find out more about the Glasgow Centres HERE and of course look around the site to find out a LOT more.

I’d like to thank Caroline for taking the time to show me around the centre today and for talking me through the various ideologies of the centre, I’m very much looking forward to doing some great things with Maggie’s in the near future.