4 Sleeps until we turn Wales PINK

“There are just 4 sleeps to go before the Pink Car Rally cuts a pink swathe through the glorious Welsh countryside, as it travels from #South2NorthWales raising awareness of, and funds for, the Little Princess Trust charity.  The Pink Participants – or Pinkies as they are collectively called – are aiming to raise at least £3,500 which will fund 10 ‘real hair’ wigs for children, on this 10^th and final rally.”

I struggle to believe that it was nearly 11 years ago when I first found out about the Little Princess Trust charity, attended their AGM and volunteered to help raise awareness of the charity.  I created the annual Pink Car Rally, intending it to be a 5-year initiative but after a particularly eventful year in 2012 for two of the Pinkies (which I referred to as an anus horribilis in a press release, not noticing the typo until after I pressed ‘send’!) I pledged to continue organising rallies for another 5 years.  This weekend will be the 10^th and final rally.  Once the dust has settled, I will go through the paperwork to ascertain exactly how much we have raised through the rallies, but I believe it to be in excess of £70,000.

Pink cars around the UK are being serviced, valeted and adorned in preparation for the weekend.  The Pink Car Rally t.shirts are on their way, once again kindly sponsored by Ratchet Clothing, and lovely treats for the Pinkies’ goody bags are arriving daily.  The excitement is palpable.  I find it curious that I can be as excited about the 10^th rally as I was about the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd etc.  So much has happened over the years.  I have met lots of lovely Pinkies, been told lots of beautiful stories, seen so many wonderful places, met several children who have received wigs from the charity, and photographed a few kind celebrities with my car!  I have a portfolio of funny stories and ‘Sali Moments’ guaranteed to brighten the dullest of days.  One of my personal goals is to create a book about the Pink Car Rally and share lots of the things I have seen, done, learnt and enjoyed, with the world.  My aim is that the book is not only a colourful adornment to any coffee table, but will also act as a fundraising ‘case study’ to other fundraisers.  Last year I was honoured to be chosen as an Institute of Fundraising (IoF) Rising Star, to speak at the IoF Convention at the Barbican Centre. My presentation was on ‘Fundraising on a Shoestring’ and the rally was one of the initiatives I mentioned. As with all things, publishing a book costs money and I am seeking sponsorship to enable me to progress this idea. If you can help, please let me know. Needless to say, I would like a percentage of the proceeds to go to the charity.

This weekend’s rally will start at Tesco in Penarth, near Cardiff and end in Aberystwyth. Day 2 will see us travelling from Aberystwyth to Llandudno Junction.  Full details of the route can be found on our website, but please note that the timings are approximate.  If you’re reading this and you have a pink car, it may not be too late to join us. If you’re on Facebook please message the Pink Car Rally page, otherwise please email me at pinkcarrally@me.com

If you like what we do and would like to support us, here is a donation link.

If you’re out and about in Wales over the weekend and you happen to see lots of pink cars, please give us a toot and a wave.  Thank you.

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The Epic Failure – or a typical day in the life of…..

It could only happen to me!  Honestly!  Ask any of my friends and they will tell you the same thing….

So, after the excitement of posting a FAB photo of Olivier Azam in Blossom, last night I attended an event at the ‘hallowed ground’ of Kingsholm – well, sadly I wasn’t actually ON the hallowed ground!  It was a lovely opportunity to network with others and to find out about the 1873 Club.  The new Director of Rugby, Nigel Davies, gave an inspirational address and whilst listening to him, I tried to deduce ‘exactly’ where his accent was from.  It sounded very familiar…. and I decided that he must be from the area where I grew up and so I mentioned this in an email which I sent to my cousin this morning.  To my surprise, not only was I correct, but she and her husband know him!  We do live in a very small world…..

So far, so good!  I now have a photo of Olivier in my car and a possible connection to Nigel himself…. So when I left the house at mid-day, to go to a meeting, I was feeling pretty pleased with the way things were going…..

After the meeting, I popped into a local store to buy some fizzy water (yes honestly! This girl lives a clean life!) and parked Blossom away from the other cars, to avoid ‘paintwork pings’ from inconsiderate drivers (does that happen to you too?).  Pushing my overfull trolley towards my car – or should I say… fighting to keep my overloaded trolley under control – I noticed that a rather large vehicle had parked next to me!  I felt rather frustrated that Blossom’s magnetism had struck once again, until I got closer and any frustration completely evaporated, as I read the words ‘Raging Bull’ on the bodywork. I have lived in Gloucester long enough to know that Raging Bull is Phil Vickery’s (retired Gloucester Rugby legend) company!  I slowly loaded the water into my car – partly because it was sooooo heavy and partly because I wanted to find out who was driving the beast, which Blossom seemed to have taken a liking to!

I returned my trolley (see I AM a good girl!) and when I turned back toward my car, someone was getting into the Raging Bull Mitsubishi.  I casually SPRINTED back to my car, in my high heeled boots and tried to smile calmly as I came face to face with….. the man himself!  I smiled, opened my mouth and gabbled away (eeek) finally saying “So please may I take your photo? It would be great to get both of the cars in too!” He kindly agreed, although I think out of sympathy for this mad-woman, rather than for any other reason – poor guy.

So – it’s all still good at this point!  But I have a problem – my very, very old Nokia phone does take photos, but I have no idea how to transfer them from my camera, to my computer.  In my car, I have my iPad – which I’m still getting to grips with!  But…. I know it has a camera! So, I merrily say “I’ll just get my iPad” and out comes my pretty pink and white spotted underutilised piece of modern technology…. and out came the sun!  I couldn’t see anything on the screen. I didn’t want to delay Phil, so I’m jigging around, trying to cast a shadow over the screen and finally, I can see him! “ 123 smile”, I call, manically!  Hahahaha – “Ok, let’s take one the other way round”, I say, professionally. I’m so pleased.  Two more FAB photos to tweet….. Phil retreats warily and I rush home – I can’t remember when I was last this excited (I know…..) I open the iPad immediately, I can’t wait to tweet these photos….. ummmmm…. where are the photos?  I check, I double check, I triple check – no photos! I don’t understand! I decide to take a photo of something in my kitchen.  123 click – the screen image vanishes and is replaced by the desktop screen! There was no ‘click’, no ‘shutter sound’….  I have learnt two things today…. Firstly, the little round button, on my iPad, doesn’t take photos! It takes me out of the programme I am in.  Secondly, I am a Plonker 😦

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