Frogpondsrock...

Hadrians Walk, what has happened so far…

As I sit here in front of my computer, nice and warm The Hadrians walkers are pitching tents at the end of the third day of their walk. News of the walkers and how they are going is scanty and I am hoping that Martins feet are still firmly attached to his legs and that his sense of direction has improved.

I have struck up a tentative friendship with Dad who writes and you can read his updates of the walk here

Dad who writes, posted this photo with the caption,

“We are walking across the strong, rocky bones of our land #hadrianswalk”

This photo really brings home the enormity of what these people are doing.

They are walking 84 miles in 6 days.

I walked a couple miles around a perfectly flat headland recently and it nearly bloody killed me.

So I am in awe of their efforts to raise money for the Joseph Salmon trust with this massive walk.

Well done to them.

If you want to donate some cash you can do so here.

But if you are broke and cant afford it just go and comment here and I will donate a dollar for you.

Sunday Snippets (on Monday)

Marylin has started  Sunday Snippets. I am hopeless with memes I either forget about them or I have all the best intentions in the world and then I write about something else entirely. But in the spirit of friendship I am going to do this one and it still counts even though it is Monday.

I need a good recipe for fake blood. I have been given a few recipes via twitter friends but they all seem to be very sticky, the main ingredients are either red jelly or corn syrup mixed with cocoa. The Spouse will be covered with this blood and as we will be filming on location, it needs to be easy to clean up. Also, “The Spouse” has super sensitive skin due to his EDS so we have to be careful there as well.

Did you notice I said filming on location? hehe That sounds very exotic when in actuality we will be filming about an hours drive away from home near the water somewhere. The only requirement being that the ground needs to be sandy as I cant have “The Spouse” writhing around  fighting for his life on a pile of sharp rocks. Just because he is going to die a gory death, doesn’t mean he has to be uncomfortable whilst he is doing it.

One of my props, a large blue seahorse has been posted and I am tossing up whether to alter it or leave it all shiny and blue. I think it might add an extra creepy tone to the film if I leave it pretty.

I will be firing some of the dragon eggs in reduction on Wednesday and having some of the dragon eggs actually finished makes me a bit less stressed. The exhibition is only seven months away and I have heaps to do.

Half of my studio has been delivered but I am still waiting on the excavator to come up and clear the site. I will post photos when something actually starts to happen.

I made something blue with butterflies for Tiff but the blue ended up black, so it is back to the drawing board there. Sorry Tiff.

My friend Martin and all the other walkers are ready to begin Hadrians walk. Things aren’t looking good for Martin if his tweets are anything to go by.

MartinFitz Wore backpack from train to baggage drop off point, took it off and had to steady myself from falling over. Kill me now. #hadrianswalk

To encourage Martin to keep on going you can go over here and leave a comment if you haven’t already done so.  I will donate a dollar per comment. (the small print says only one comment per person and a valid email address is needed in order for the comment to be valid.)

So there is a snippet of what is happening here with me.

This will make you smile. Yay for Team Ivy!!!

If you want a nice start to the day, this video clip will do it for you. Regular readers of this blog will know that Ivy is the youngest daughter of a friend of mine and now new readers know as well. yay.

Ivy spends an incredible amount of time in hospital and because she is only little this means that her mother, Tiff also spends a lot of time staying in the hospital as well. Tiff wanted to raise some money to make things a bit more comfortable on the ward where they stay.

Together we have raised over $5000 that is a massive effort. So give yourselves a clap on the back.

Ivy’s elder siblings organised a fundraiser at their highschool and as Tiff says here:-

The response was amazing, many of them dressing as fairies and princesses (Ivy’s favourite things) on what turned out to be the coldest day of the year so far.

It was a wonderful day and rather than trying to explain to you how one school came together to raise well over $2000 for Team Ivy and what that means to me, I’m just going to show you

Give me all your money.

Well not me personally, it is payday today and I still have $20 in my wallet which is pretty cool and also very unusual for a payday morning. Also today is my son David’s 16th birthday which makes this fundraiser all the more poignant as I am able to watch my son grow up, unlike the Salmon’s. *sigh*

I want you to dig deep and donate to the Hadrian’s walkers who, next week are, walking across England to raise money for the Joseph Salmon trust.

In July of 2010 they will be walking the length of Hadrian’s Wall in six days. That’s 84 miles across the entire width of England.

Joseph Salmon was a little boy who died of pneumonia when he was three. A year after his death his parents set up the Joseph Salmon trust to give financial support to parents in the Huddersfield and Mirfield areas, whose child has died.

Now what has this got to do with you? What has this got to do with me a zillion miles away from England?

My friend Martin is walking across England to raise money for the trust.

Martin is probably going to die from blisters or his feet will fall off or he will whinge and moan so much that his fellow walkers will chuck him off a cliff.

Or in Martin’s own words

I’m five and a half feet tall, if I walk 84 miles there is a good chance I will lose 15% of my pathetic height, my stubby legs will be worn and eroded to just above the ankles. My last miles will be mapped out with a bloody wet trail of oozing slime. Like a snail. Or a 55 year old midget prostitute.

And I will pay good money to see that happen. *muawahaha*

You can donate here.

You can read more about the walk here

If you cant donate don’t feel guilty! You can still help, you could put a quick post up on your own blog, or on your facebook page. You can buy a t-shirt or a buff bandana

Or you can comment and for every comment on this post until the end of the walk I will donate one dollar to the trust myself. But please only one comment per person and all comments must have a valid email address.

cheers Kim

I am glad I glued my teeth in.

Because with the amount of giggling and talking I was doing last night at the Hobart tweetup there was a very real possibilty that my teeth could have shot right out of my mouth and flown across the room and that, just isnt a good look. It is one of the tricky little downsides to shiny false teeth, the other downside is not being able to eat really crunchy things but that is a story for another day.

Last night a group of tweeters? Twitterers? People who tweet, met up for drinks and nibbles at Remi de Provence in South Hobart and it was great fun. I wish that I had though to ask where the brie was from as it was divine, the blue was gorgeous and the pate was very good.

I had been a bit nervous beforehand, I hoped that I would like everyone and more importantly I hoped that they would like me as well. As Veronica and I walked across the road to the restaurant my nerves were  forgotten as I recognized people by their photos. Once inside we were guided to our seats in the corner of a small room and immediately we all started talking and laughing and exchanging our proper names.

The group was @Samaramc , also found at Samara McIlroy @StephenEstcourt,also found at Reminiscence of a Food Tragic,  @MaryEstcourt, also found at The constant gardener, @utsicafe,also found at ut si, @SleeplessNights also found at Sleepless Nights and the blogless ones, The Prof ,@quinnal, @JoHCook and of course there was me @frogpondsrock.

We did have a camera but as the light was very flattering the photos are very blurry, so you will just have to imagine us all in our sparkly glory, eyes glowing, hair shiny, free of children and stable of tooth.

I would like to organise another tweet up in Hobart very, very soon and everyone is invited. We need a venue that has a bit more space than Remi’s, though I am happy to  go back there just for the cheese alone. So any suggestions from Hobart people on a venue is more than welcome. We need to consider the ease of parking as well as somewhere that we can talk and be heard easily but they wont mind if we are a bit noisy and the food needs to be decent.

In the spring time I would like to organise a tweetup at the gardens so that children can come as well. That will be fun.

In other blog meeting news I am meeting up with Watershedd tomorrow at Salamanca market and I am looking forward to that very much. I must remember to glue my teeth in for that one as well. hehe.