I have had a pretty quiet week this week after the exciting weekend of defying death on the vertical wall.
On the Sunday evening I headed from Stamford across to Nottingham, where I stayed with friends Scott and Janine, who are all set to marry later this year. Sorry I won’t be able to be there, but congratulations from me in advance!!
On Monday morning Scott and I went for a quick 9 holes of golf. As I have mentioned before, I am a regular golf player, on average playing 9 holes every two years or so! So this is an early return to the greens (or more accurately, the rough), as I was beaten by my brother just last year in September, while in London. See earlier blog here.
I think Scott was a bit worried, as last time we had played three years before it had been a very close match, and I had been playing with a bag full of ancient clubs. He must have been practicing, as he quickly went three holes up, and despite a few shared holes later in the round, and a win at one, Scott still beat me quite convincingly! I dread to think what the score might have been if we had been counting strokes!
Between us we managed to lose quite a few balls, at one point early in the game wondering if we had enough with us to complete the round.
Next stop was near Uttoxeter to visit my cousin’s family there, and a wonderful couple of days playing Guitar Hero on the PlayStation, ten-pin bowling on the Wii, and old board-game favourite, Cluedo.
And then finally back to my brother’s in London, where I have been lounging around on the sofa trying to do some more planning ahead.
And so the next two goals are falling into place, and if you wish, you are welcome to come along and watch the first, and join in with the second. If all works out as I hope, I will be achieving, for the first time, two goals in one day, as well as making a decent step towards another.
Tomorrow morning (Saturday 20th June) I am scheduled to do a wingwalk at 11am, and anyone is welcome to come along to watch. This has been organised through WingWalking UK, who can be found just to the east of London, at Damyns Hall, near Upminster, Essex which is close to Junction 30 on the M25. Come along and see me get put through a tough aerial routine!!
The second goal scheduled for tomorrow is the gathering of 5 Ian Ushers in one place. At this late stage, with only 24 hours to go, I am still not 100% certain I can make this happen. I have three other Ian Ushers confirmed coming to London tomorrow afternoon, making a total of 4 of us, and I am waiting to hear from two others, so hopes are still alive.
If I can manage to get the four of us together with a fifth Ian Usher, I will also manage to raise $2,500 towards my charity fundraising total, as promised from Sir Richard Branson when I met him a couple of weeks ago. See here for more on how that happened.
The meeting will be in a central London pub in the late afternoon and evening (Saturday 20th June), and if you wish to come and join us you are more than welcome to do so. If you feel like buying a round of beers for a group of Ian Ushers, you would be more than welcome to do that too, of course, but it’s not a condition of attendance!