Two Thousand and Great – The round up.

Dear all

Happy new year to you all, thanks for all the support and challenges last year. It’s over, the beard has gone and a new year and a new challenge awaits.

I had a big fear that at about 5 to midnight someone would set me the challenge to do it all again the this year, but thankfully with all the alcohol that was flowing nobody thought of this and I escaped.

Big thanks to Andy (and Sarah) for hosting the NYE party, lots of others for putting up with my terrible DJing – Don’t blame me for finding the Vengaboys CD – once i’d seen it there was only ever going to be one outcome.

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Good god it’s cold!

Some of you might have seen the pictures of my NYE head shave, what many people don’t know is that was not the only hair that was removed that day. turning up in St Paul’s earlier in the morning I went to do the challenge I had been putting off more than any other.

Several times over the year people commented that seeing as I was not allowed to cut the hair above my neck I should redress the balance and have the rest of my hair waxed off.

One of my oldest friends took it upon himself to make this happen – I have rarely seen this man so driven in 15 years and he literally gave me no chance not to pass this challenge.

One of the people he works with used to work in a Turkish salon and as she said, they have some very hairy ladies in Turkey… after hearing all about the challenges that I had been set last year she agreed to help out.

As a waxing novice I had no idea about what to wear or how to prepare, after a morning bath I decided two pairs of underwear would be a start briefs and boxers to avoid any unnecessary showings.

In a room which virtually overlooked the whispering gallery I delighted in the irony that just over the road people were whispering whilst I was genuflecting on a chair yelping every now and then as the hair was forcibly torn from my back, legs, arms torso etc… by a maniacally laughing girl and one of my best mates who decided to join in and tear strips of me literally.

To illustrate here’s a shot taken halfway through the event…. you could have cooked bacon on my back.

Now you’ve all got the Ken doll image going through your brains, I should move on swiftly, Later that night I got very drunk and the job was finished off properly. Two of the biggest sponsors of the hair growth challenge Venita and Paul shaved my head. Seeing as they had paid for it, it only seemed fair.

Arming drunk people with scissors. clippers and razors is usually not advised – my mantra for the entire thing was “don’t cut my ears off`” – I think they did a great job.

The aim was to shave my head straight down the middle so I could do an impromptu ABBA impersonation by switching my head side to side alternating between Annafried and Benni (you can make your mind up how it went….

One small thing can anyone recommend a new aftershave for me? At the beginning of 2008 I threw out all my shaving based stuff and now lack anything like that. Usually like most Hugo Boss fragrances but willing to listen to others for inspiration

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The last challenge I was set in 2008 was to try and get the story of the year turned into a book. I took a laptop home after christmas and have put together the synopsis and started to try and structure the book. Currently, I’m stuck between writing a chapter per week or mixing it up into themes like all the strange days together the cycle ride, the animal challenges etc…. Hopefully I will find the time in the next couple of weeks to put it together and present to publishers.

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Talking of published things, I made an appearance in the Northern Stars – the North Surrey Bell Ringers Association Newsletter. The man who is teahing me to bell ring asked if he could do an article on me and the year and I have added it below as I think it is the best thing that has been written about the year so far.

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On the way to my last bell ringing session of 2008 I had to give a radio interview for BBC 3CR who had heard about my challenges. It was quite odd as I took the call whist heading up to the tower where I ring and due to all the noise I had to talk rather loudly, meaning that everyone else on the bus was forced to listen to my end of a very strange conversation that included talking about walking on water, shearing sheep and looking like father christmas. I have requested a copy, and will post it up soon, I think I fared ok, the lamb bikini joke might have fallen a bit flat but it was worth a try.

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In some ways the year has ended, but I still have a few challenges to complete – as and when I complete them I’ll let you know. thankfully for you it won’t be a weekly newsletter (so you no longer have to deal with my awful grammar). Luckily nobody challenged me to learn to write properly – subject, verb, object seems a sensible system but for some reason I can never remember it.

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As a few people have asked – my total to date is £6,165 (+ gift aid supplement) £5060 on my main page and £1105 on the separate cycle challenge page I created.

My company have promised to donate a further £1,000 to the total which is incredibly generous, and I have to say thanks to them as it can’t have been easy having a bearded fool in the office all year taking half days to try and get in submarines etc… or taking over the kitchens to try feeding the 5,000.

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I still have to go through all the mailshots I sent from last year to see which challenges I still have to complete – I haven’t finished the TwoThousandandGreat song yet. Can you believe I was going to record a version of Halleluah – and two others had beaten me to it???

Once it has been penned and put to music I will upload the video to youtube.

It’s all over (well nearly)

The donations page is open until the start of July 09 (to give me time to do things like the live off the land challenge) so all those who pledged to donate for things like the beard growth and body wax still have time to donate.

Every penny we have raised will help families affected by cancer. It means so much to me that in some small way we are able to help others.

Cheers for all your support again.

Rob / Devani

www.justgiving.com/twothousandandgreat