last week i wrote about the number 9 being the amount of people who, since january 1st this year have given us testimonials relating to the fact that the therapists help they received has saved them from taking their own lives, and i received a number of messages of support from a number of readers, very soon after the blog had been sent out, which was lovely, but by lunch time my mind had paso doble'd around a plethora of different subjects, jobs to do, emails to write, and the big one how and what i was going to feed myself with, so my mind had left behind that mornings blog like a plume of dust in the distance in my rear view mirror.
then my phone rang in the car.
i saw the name and smiled.
this mate i had known for over thirty years from back when i still boasted a full head of hair, and was in the midst of living one of the best chapters of my life, the one not yet titled, but it will read something like “playing ice hockey, the sport you love and would play for free, and getting someone to pay you actual money into your midland bank account to do it", as you can tell it needs a little polishing as chapter titles go, and rebranding, but hopefully you get the gist of my chronology.
“hi mate, how’re you doing?” i greeted him enthusiastically.
“i’m good thanks mate, but you know that number 9 you wrote about today?”
my brain jumped onto his wavelength “yeah?” i replied curiously.
“well you need to change it to 10.”
i took a full few seconds to reply while i played through the connotations of the sentence he had just said, and the emotions that made me tingle.
“i didn’t realise.” i eventually offered, subdued, somewhat weakly, yet exalted that he was in the position now to be able to craft a way in which to tell me.
his back story is private, but we spoke in more detail about his situation, before eventually concluding the call, and i drove the rest of my journey home numb, until pulling up outside my house, parking, and then the tears came, relief, joy, love for my mate, and the gratitude that we were able to help, good tears, tears because he is here.
so whilst i sometimes struggle, as many writers do, with the relevance of what i write, if it stimulates positive action however small i shall continue, and thank you for opening and reading it today.
so, how’s your week been?
hopefully a goodun with a net positive bottom line, and some good experiential stuff, that will help you when you write your book.
you are going to write one aren’t you?
even if you don’t publish it, your future generations will love it, imagine having a family members memoirs, my nan wrote half of hers, and oh my did she have a life, that most of us didn’t even know about, she actually played tennis in the junior championships at wimbledon, my nan was super cool, and sassy, love and miss you nan.
anyway, i hope your week was good, mine was quite varied, starting on monday when me and two of our awesome graduates, hannah and courtney rocked up at bike park wales in merthyr, adorned our safety equipment allowing us to mountain bike safely as well as look like three members of the mad max appreciation society’s south wales sect.
bike park wales is home to kermit, the uk's longest and most exciting beginner downhill mountain bike trail, and we were there to experience the thrill that martin astley the owner knew we would get, and after the endorphin inducing downhill experience, the girls rated it 11 out of 10, which rubber stamped why we were there.
martin, declan and nick and the bpw team have committed to fundraising £10k which is awesome, but as well this, they have offered bigmoose this mountain bike experience free to everybody who comes through our referral system, during or after graduating, and whilst it might not be for everybody, the referrals that take part in it, will hopefully love getting outdoors, and the thrill of this extremely professionally run and guided adventure, so a big cheers everyone at bpw.
that was the beginning of the week, and to end it, last night i went down to london to meet up with two powerhouse women i am extremely proud to call friends, jessica hepburn and lucy rivers bulkeley aka bulks, to celebrate two massive achievements, which i will tell you about.
in 2022 jessica joined the small and select group of people who have swum the english channel and climbed mount everest – known as the pond to peak challenge.
she is one of only two women and the fourteenth person in history to do it (she has also written two awesome books by the way.)
and bulks is the first woman to complete the 4 desert grand slam (250km self supported across the atacama, gobi, sahara and antarctica) and climb the 7 summits (highest peak on each continent), and has just successfully skied to the south pole in 2021.
so we met in a very busy soho, we ate mouthwatering tapas, and we drank cold bubbles to celebrate these amazing feats, and we talked a lot about mountains.
but also we talked about bigmoose, because bulks is a very successful financial guru, and jess has fundraised £30 million for the lyric theatre, so their pedigrees off the mountains match them on them.
both girls have been extremely kind to me and bigmoose, and will be working over the next five months to get this project one million successfully completed with advice and strategy, and both have agreed to come and speak about their adventures at an event which we will announce details of soon, but in the meantime if you want to check them out, have a butchers here.
we also now have a whatsapp group where it seems i am gonna get mocked, especially with this picture, best caption gets name checked next week.
so that’s enough jibber jabber for this week, have a great week ahead, and let me know if have any idea or contacts that might be able to help us, we are thinking links to billionaires, and i’m literally being serious.
and finally finally, the number is now 11.
i’ll be seeing ya,
blue skies,
jeff