Doing My Bit For Charity (and having fun!)

Over the last few years, I have discovered that saying "yes" to trying things I have never done before can actually be rather fun. This may have something to do with my friendship with madmumof7 (read her blog here), whose motto is that of Dr Pepper - "what's the worst that can happen", of which she has quoted to me a lot since I first met her six years ago!

Ok, so I don't always enjoy the things she has roped me in to encouraged me to do with her, like the time she convinced me to go on a roller coaster ride at Legoland in Denmark (I'm not very keen on
roller coasters as I hate that feeling when you get to the top of the ride and your stomach gets left

Madmumof7 on one of the
gentler rides at Legoland!

behind as you fall down the other side). Unfortunately, once strapped in I discovered there were lots of drops like that and I screamed the whole way round, cursing her! And there have been moments when I'm wondering in my head "what on earth I am doing here?", like when I found mysef in a room of church goers doing ferret racing (not that I have anything against church goers, I am one myself, but this was a particularly odd mix of people!) But to be fair, most of the stuff we've done has been harmless enough and quite a lot have been really good fun, although this could be more to do with madmumof7's involvement than anything else as she makes any event fun!

Off to see Priscilla after being encouraged to dress up!

Being a guinea pig for a friend trialling spray tans

A few weeks ago, she asked if I wanted to take part in Team Honk, a fundraising event for Comic Relief, where bloggers around the country register to take part in a relay, person to person, from Lands End to John O'Groats, covering nearly 3,000 miles. The idea is that each blogger involved covers a set distance local to them by either walking, running or cycling, handing over the "baton" to the next blogger (click on Team Honk to read more about it).

Of course, neither of us are runners or very keen on walking (too slow), so we agreed on cycling. I used to do a lot of cycling with my Dad around where I live on my trusty 3-gear Dawes bike I've had since I was 13 (mountain bikes aren't my thing) so thought I could cope as long as it wasn't too far. I learnt we were tagging along with another local blogger, mymodelmummy, with a route to St Albans along the Nicky Line in Hemel Hempstead (a disused railway line), and when we met up last week to make plans we were all in favour of a leisurely cycle with refreshment stops along the way that we would put in our baskets, followed by brunch at a nearby pub when we got there.
Oh, and apparently we're going to do it in our pyjamas, which I was slightly dubious about but will go with the flow.....well, what's the worst that could happen?

(If you fancy sponsoring me then click the link here for the Hemel Hempstead donate page - very easy as you can simply click on the amount you wish to give and you can even pay by PayPal!)

Related articles

• Honk!
• Team Honk Relay - the Cornish way.
• Honk if you're corny: Team Honk Brighton - Bloggers Relay from Lands End to John O' Groats
• Team Honk Needs YOU for the Blogger Relay Challenge 2014