Buns, runs and fun!

A year after I first signed up and kicked off full of excitement, trepidation and slight terror I have finally reached my fundraising target for my charity challenge. In just over four weeks time I'm heading off to trek the Inca trail up Machu Picchu - but I'd committed to first raise at least £3,000 for Breast Cancer Care.

Thanks to a last blast I've actually raised over £3,500 - and have the promise of a bit more coming in so hopefully the final total will be nearer to £4,000. The more the better as every penny counts and the demand for BCC's services is, sadly, increasing.

I feel rather chuffed and more than a bit relieved to get the money in, it's the first time I've been involved in fund raising like this and there have been peaks and troughs - good practice for trekking up a mountain! I have learned lots, like how much I hate asking people for money (even for a good cause). Instead I felt I should 'earn' it - my parents really did drum a working ethos into me - which has led to me needing to 'do' things to get the money in rather than just rely on begging emails to friends and family.
My fundraising fun has included lots and lots of buns - or cupcakes, I think that means you can charge more for them - I have become quite the bun baking queen. As well as cake stalls galore it has also involved a comedy night, clothes swishing parties, raffles, sponsored runs and collection boxes perched in kindly local shops.

So, though no expert, here are my top tips for anyone embarking on, or just thinking about, a similar charity venture:

• Expected the unexpected - I have found that the things I thought may bring in lots didn't, but other things surprised me with the amount raised. People are also full of surprises, I have had help from unexpected quarters and donations from complete strangers - and absolutely none from some others I expected to be supportive.

• Estimate how much time it all might take - then triple it. It all takes time - lots of, even with others helping out. Baking, organising events, begging raffle prizes, sorting tickets, even just counting out and banking the pennies from collection boxes. It is all very very time consuming.

• It's nice to be nice - I have met some lovely people and had some fab support and fun, people have been generous whether donating prizes for raffles or giving up their own time. I have kept in touch with regular emails and updates to everyone who's helped, and sent thank you gifts and cards to those who really have been super supporters.

• Beware fundraising fatigue - there were the low times when I lost my mojo and, quite frankly, had enough on my plate with other things going on in my life. Other people also get fundraising fatigue, just a look at twitter or among your own social circles will show you how many people are doing sterling things for charity and asking for support. Given the current climate it's not an easy task!

• You'll get there in the end! At times I did wonder - but thanks to a last big push, and the perfect timing of a friend getting a job managing a coffee shop where she sold a load of cupcakes for me - I more than met my target. And I didn't ever have to resort to my last resort - which was doing the dreaded car boot sale!

I always thought the fundraising was going to be a hard part of this challenge - now that's done I can look forward to focusing on the trek. This is the part I thought would be the fun though challenging bit - but the reality is just creeping in... sleeping in a tent in freezing temperatures, getting altitude sickness, no toilets or showers for several days... Hmm maybe the fundraising was the easy bit after all!

More about my charity challenge here

Portrait of Northumberland

I love mooching through secondhand shops for books. Despite the groaning book shelves and towering 'to read' pile already at home I can't resist bringing more back. I recently found a real gem, a copy of Portrait of Northumberland by Nancy Ridley, first published in 1965, in excellent condition. The Ridleys are one of the oldest families from the great county I now call home. Nancy was passionate about this area, she was born, lived most of her life and died here.

I can't wait to get into the book, written by such an enthusiastic, knowledgeable local lady. It'll be intriguing to see what's changed (first thing I notice is the county map looking a little bigger in those days than it is today!) but also to read about things that haven't changed.

When cooking up a treat is a treat

I’ve been a bit of a domestic goddess lately, if I do say so myself! I have been delivering veggie delights, making cake creations and even baking my own bread. Some of you may not share my excitement about my kitchen capers, indeed a few years ago I may not have been excited about it.

A few years ago a stressful job working long hours combined with single parenthood left precious little free time and I wasn’t prepared to spend it in the kitchen. The one thing I have always done is sure make my son had meals that were healthy and wholesome (even if some days I seemed to survive on coffee, biscuits and wine). When he was a baby my Sunday evenings were spent armed with my Annabel Karmel book, preparing and freezing pureed fresh meals – probably partly to assuage my guilt at working full time, thinking at least he got healthy homemade food. Over the years, cooking was practical and functional rather than enjoyable and even fun.

These days, thankfully, I have a much better work-life balance, and – who’d have thought it – actually enjoy spending time in my kitchen. Rather than sticking to the one pot veggie meals I have pretty much perfected over the years, I like finding new recipes to try and have added desserts, cakes and bread to my repertoire. I’m intrigued by the scientific aspect of mixing ingredients that react and interact differently, take pleasure in really creating something from scratch, and like the possibility that anything can happen as, even if I follow the recipe to the letter (which is rare), the same dish or cake can turn out a bit different every time. And I love the satisfaction of turning out something terrific, evidenced by clear plates, requests for more or just noises of appreciation.

My recent discovery of the joys of the kitchen has also brought back some happy memories. I inherited my aunty’s bowls (who needs money or jewellery?!) – a set of big ceramic ‘proper’ bowls. I don’t know if they have a particular name but I call them ‘ones like my granny used to have’. When I think of granny I picture her always wearing a pinny, her hands are covered in flour and the house is full of mouth watering warm delicious smells (or she is sitting in her rocking chair, enjoying a bottle of Guinness and shouting at the wrestling match on TV!) Her enormous caramel coloured bowl would be covered with a tea towel and sitting in front of the fire so the dough would rise.

My very own bowl-tea towel combo!

 When we were little and my brother and I stayed at granny’s house we’d come downstairs to a breakfast of freshly made bread toasted, spread thick with butter and then liberally sprinkled with sugar – I can still taste the glorious crunch of it. Later she’d bake a cake and we’d fight over who got to lick the bowl out - the loser got just the spoon. Even into a ripe old age she baked all of her own bread, cooked all of her own meals, and everything was made from scratch.  

With eight children and a husband to feed during her life, cooking was about making hearty nourishing food, coming up with ways to make limited ingredients go a long way, and keeping everyone healthy as possible because, in the old days, you wouldn’t always be able to afford a doctor’s visit or medicines. Oddly enough, none of our family have ever been fussy eaters or ever refuse seconds…

There will always be times I don’t want or have time to make things and there will always be the occasional take away or frozen meal, but I am enjoying discovering the joys of cooking and baking. And using my big ‘proper’ bowls. Granny would be proud!

Cakes have been fab for fund raising!

Best laid plans

At the beginning of February I was rather pleased with myself! I wrote about being on track with 100K words in 100 days, learning lots as I was going along, and looking forward to carrying this good work on in February. Well that'll teach me to make rash declarations! February has now been and gone and I am a mere 8,402 words further on.

But I've decided to look at it as 38,528 words that I may well have not written if I hadn't been taking part in the challenge - so at least I am making some progress.
And February's been a stark reminder of no matter how well organised you try to be sometimes life just throws a curve ball.  I had a week planned in February when I was going to be away and knew I'd be unlikely to get any writing done then. I also then had unplanned health issues which led to unexpected hospital visits and a mind which was on other matters (although I did actually write about it I've also learned that some things I like to reflect on and give more thought to before sharing with anyone).

I've decided I'm not going to feel that I have failed in any way not keeping up with my planned word count because, quite frankly, life happens and sometimes you just have to put some plans on hold. They can always be picked up again. And there's still 40 days to go...

I have though made progress on my other aim of getting my scribbles out there! I've had articles published on other people's websites, blogs and magazines. I've made progress (that's a good thing), more lessons have been learned (that's a positive thing) and it's now the start of springtime (that's an excellent thing).

So here we go marching on!

Six Go Potty in the Peaks

Take six women who have never met before, stick them in a youth hostel in the middle of nowhere for a weekend and make them walk up hills in storms, hailstones and gale force winds. A great idea for a new reality TV show perhaps? Six Go Potty in the Peaks? No - it’s what I did last weekend.

The Peru charity challenge I’m going on is actually a whole series of challenges – everything from the fundraising to the physical. One challenge is going away with a group of people I don’t know from Adam (or Eve). So when one extremely organised member of our Peru posse asked if anyone fancied a weekend practice in the Peak District I jumped at the chance. The organised one sorted out cheap accommodation and a walking guide and all we had to do was turn up.

Getting there was an adventure in itself, involving a hairy drive along unknown country roads in the dark, with torrential rain and fog, and frequent squabbles with my sat nav. I stopped lost at a lonely farmhouse when it occurred to me that if this was a horror film the door would slowly open with a creak to reveal a man with no teeth and a beard down to his ankles giving an evil laugh. Thankfully it wasn’t, instead a lovely lady answered and gave me directions. I resisted the temptation to ask if I could just come into her welcoming Aga heated kitchen for a steaming bowl of broth and stay the night.

I finally found the right pot holed track that led to the youth hostel we were booked into – another first as I’ve never stayed in one before. Not being acquainted with hostel etiquette I was a bit surprised when the very young looking boy on reception directed me to our room with a warning there was a lot of steep steps up to our block but offered no help to carry my bags.

After lugging one huge rucksack, a smaller rucksack and bags full of provisions up to the room I was breathless and a tad bad tempered and very aware this may not make a good first impression. But the door was flung open and I was welcomed with a big hug by Rose, the only other one who’d arrived. One by one the others got there and we exchanged horror stories of the drive we’d had and the exasperation of the steep steps we then had to climb.

Get a gaggle of women together and one thing is guaranteed – they will talk! Conversation flowed and after a good meal in a nearby pub we had covered a variety of topics including family, fears about the trek, guilty pleasures and Shewees (toilets continued to be a hot topic of the weekend!).

I can’t recall the last time - if ever – I’ve slept in a bunk bed in a room shared with five other females. Certainly not in recent times. But I love that usually responsible, busy wives, mothers, and businesswomen of a certain age can quickly and seamlessly transform into a bunch of giggly teenage girls having a sleep over.

Our organised one had organised a wonderful walking guide, Cath, who became one of the gang for the two days. I’ve never been to the Peak District before so it was great to have someone really knowledgeable and passionate about the area. She knew we were here to help prepare for Peru and had a way of gently pushing us to make sure our walks were strenuous and stretching rather than a stroll and she just smiled sweetly whenever we asked if we were at the last hill of the day (we never were).

The weekend was also an opportunity to test out a lot of the gear we’ve all been buying for the trip. And thanks to the weather we really did get to experience everything. On the first walk we had four seasons in one day – we set off in pouring rain and the waterproofs I swore I wouldn’t wear as they look and sound like you’re clothed in plastic bags became my best friend. Cath actually felt so sorry for us we were allowed a break in a tea room at one point just so we could dry out. Then the sun came out, we had our lunch break in a sheltered spot and set off with renewed enthusiasm – until we hit hailstones, or rather they hit us. Not just any old hailstones but giant gusty ones that felt like someone throwing grit into your face. After that gale force winds almost blew us off a path we were climbing to the top of one particularly huge hill. But throughout the day we stayed smiling, laughing, determined, (occasionally sweary) and supporting each other all the way.

When we got back to the hostel around tea time we couldn’t face or do the long trip up the steps to the room to get changed and come back down again, so ate early in our hiking gear and hat hair – not giving a damn what we looked like. The incentive of wine and chocolate in our room helped us get up there eventually, we sat round in our PJs chatting from our bunk beds until falling asleep at a shockingly early hour for a Saturday night.

Amazingly the next day we managed to get up early, sorted our things for the day, packed cars up ready to be off when we got back and ate a breakfast of sorts all by 9am. Our second day hike was over different terrain, on Kinder Scout the highest in the Peak District – steep, rocky, and both icy and boggy. The weather was also very different – freezing cold but sunny, and as there were no handy toilets or tea rooms, we all got used to outdoor peeing and one lucky lady gave her Shewee deluxe its debut!

It was a terrific, tiring weekend full of making new friends, having fun and of course physical challenges. At the end of it saying goodbye to the group felt both a bit sad and scary, as the next time we all meet will be at Heathrow – as we set off to Peru… Yikes!

A tasty treat

I love writing and I love food... And thanks to my favourite foodie magazine Appetite North East I got to combine the two!

Write on track

Farewell then January you grey, grumpy, lumpy kind of month - and hello February, bringer of longer days, first flowers and the slightest hint of spring.

Always my least favourite month, I would quite happily forget about January completely, hide away, hibernate and start my new year on the 1st February. This year though there was something exciting about it - starting (and sticking with) Sally's Quilford's challenge to write 100K words in 100 days.   The result so far is that in 31 days I have written a total of 30,126 words. Not bad for one who could win awards in procrastination and suffers from chronic distractionitis. 

I still wonder why it is so hard to do something I really enjoy when I am actually getting on with it but learning lots about what works for me along the way, such as:

• The best thing I can do is have an hour very first thing to write undisturbed. I can usually write around 1,000 words and not panic if I don't get any more written that day. So I'm now setting my alarm a bit earlier on a regular basis (apart from odd days when the desire for a bit more sleep wins!)
• I aimed to set aside more than just an hour to two here and there - planning to have half days and even the odd full day doing nothing but writing. This hasn't quite worked out and I now know that I need to get out of the house and loiter in the library or sit in a cafe if I'm going to achieve this.
• Most of my writing so far has been non-fiction but some of Sally's prompts have inspired me to scribble some short scraps of fiction. This has led me to now actually taking notice of the seed of an idea that's been blowing around me for a while and I'm starting to give it some attention and develop it properly.
• I am happy to some degree going with the flow but do need to have a plan, some targets set and goals of how many words I want to get done each week and when I want to finish drafts.
• I am working with several different things on the go. I thought was just me being my usual 'flibbertigibbet' self (as my mother would say) But actually it's quite helpful. If I'm a bit stuck or not ‘in the zone' for one particular piece of writing, instead of struggling and getting nowhere I can choose another one which at that moment in time just flows a bit easier.
• Most importantly - I feel that I can do it! I know that it is quantity over quality at the moment (I’m getting over my desire to edit as I go along) but just getting a lot of words written and, more importantly, making the time to write regularly has done wonders for my confidence.

Here’s to the next 30,000 words!