The Restoration of Faith - #twanta

It has always been my belief that most people are good, kind and honest, and it is always heart warming for this belief to be demonstrated.

The Secret Santa idea is something I have never actually taken part in before. I knew what it was but not had the opportunity to take part. Now, thanks to @Captain_Doodle and @Wombat37 I have taken part on my first Secret Santa, a Twitter Secret Santa:

#twanta

To be honest I was briefly apprehensive. The thought of sending my real postal address to a “complete” stranger made me pause, but common sense took over and my address was soon winging its way over to @wombat37 who was coordinating #twanta and #twantee combinations.

In a very short time after the call for participants at least 50 people from all over the world had signed up. I think the response even overwhelmed the organisers.

My opinion on this? The response demonstrated the trust and respect people have for @Wombat37. The organiser of #sundaypics, you would have to look very hard for a nicer bloke on twitter.

Soon my #twantee was revealed to me by DM and the games began!

Present buying is tough for me at the best of times but to buy something for someone you have never met and only interact with on twitter was a challenge. I only hope my #twantee was not disappointed.

But of course there are two sides to #twanta. Quite early on the gift from my own #twanta arrived. Suddenly it was real, it was working. Someone I had never met, and only briefly interacted with, had sent me a Christmas present!

Meanwhile, back to my #twantee. The gift was wrapped and posted, barely making the last-posting-date. Now the wait to see if it had arrived was on. Everyday I was checking their timeline for news of its arrival. Even though all this was “a bit of fun” I could not help being a little stressed that my #twantee would not have their gift to open on Christmas day.

You could hear my sigh of relief when the successful arrival appeared on the #twanta search column (I’m guessing a lot of people had one of these). For me the stress of #twanta was over.

Fast forward to Christmas day, my #twanta gift opened:



I hope I am giving my #twanta the credit they deserve. In the run up to Christmas one of my tweets declared that one should not add socks or slippers to a Christmas list. Fitting then for me that I should receive some slipper socks!

But then the wait was on again. Had my #twantee remembered their gift, were they going to open it, would they like it?!? Finally confirmation of all of the above was posted and I could finally relax.

So to sum it all up, this whole experience has added a sparkle to our Christmas at time it was most needed, and it has restored (or perhaps reenergised) my faith in human nature.

Finally a huge thanks to @Wombat37 and @Captain_Doodle for making all this possible and roll on #twanta 2011!

The Case of the Fluffy Noses

Disclaimer:
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons or companies, living or dead, is purely coincidental…not.

“The story of a band of desperate fluffy nosed reindeer Christmas cards battling against the odds to make people’s Christmas a little brighter”.

Well that was the idea anyway. As I sit here writing there have been at least three recorded cases of these little fellas being held to ransom by the villains of our little tale (for the sake of argument we’ll call them the Post Office).

It does appear that once the ransom has been paid release of the captives is thankfully swift but we have advised all people targeted for a ransom demand that they should not negotiate with villains.

It is a difficult decision to abandon these brave little fellas to their fate but it is what they would want, their sacrifice will not be forgotten. It sad to think what will happen once the villains realise their demands are not being met (after say…3 weeks), we can only pray that the end is quick and painless.

There is brighter news though. At least five of the brave little chaps have so far managed to complete their mission and are sitting proud and tall amongst their less fluffy nosed kin.

It seems at the moment the villains are preying on small villages and some northern towns but the full extent of their movements has yet to be determined. In the meantime we are praying that the remaining souls out there manage to evade capture long enough to arrive at their destinations and put a smile on people faces.

Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

Update:
There were in the end only two confirmed ransom demands. Both came from the Burton-upon-Trent area.

Veni, vidi, vici (The Yule Yomp @ Tatton Park)

Signing up for the Tatton Yule Yomp seemed like a good idea at the time. When you sign up for a run you never know what the weather will be (especially in the UK), but we should have foreseen the likelihood of freezing temperatures. Never mind, a run is a run, right? There is nothing like a 10km run to warm you up!

TeamTims was one man down (or rather one woman down) but we were still determined to go through with this but the warning of it being “wet and slippery” had me slightly worried although not entirely surprised.

Getting There

The drive to Knutsford (or as the SatNav pronounced Canootsford) was as uneventful as a jaunt up the M6 usually is and after a quick stop at Sandbach services (which I imagined would be bigger somehow) we arrived in Knutsford to be welcomed by free Sunday parking! To be honest, I was expecting more parking problems with there being 1000 runners but there were plenty of spaces.

So, down to register then back up to the start fortuitously meeting up with missing member of TeamTims who graciously offered to provide team support duties (carrying the bags).

The Run

And we were off!

The temperature was below zero therefore the ground was cold and hard but the “off-road” terrain made it easy enough to run on, although we did see one person slip and fall. The grounds of Tatton Park are I am told very nice but there was blanket of fog so not much to see, I imagine a summer run at Tatton would be very good.

The first half the run was easy enough. At the 5km mark one of the stewards helpfully informed me that it was “..all down hill from here.”. That heartened me and I pressed on realising later that he was being metaphorical, the second half of the run contained many up-hills. It was good to receive encouragement from both stewards and spectators, especially when I realised I should have done more training, I needed all the encouragement I could get!

The last leg of the run was on the road which was thankfully not icy. Unfortunately it was all up hill and around corners. This mixed with the fog meant it was difficult to see how much road was left until the finish.

But the welcome site of the finish appeared slowly through the fog and I realised I had some energy left so I managed a sprint finish!



Many people in fancy dress provided a welcome distraction, I would particularly like to thank a reindeer and a fairy who help me get into the zone. Obviously Santa costumes were prevalent and I think it was a Santa who came first…I think.



All in all a great day out. We all very much enjoyed it and will definitely be signing up for this event next year. Well done and thanks to the organisers for doing a brilliant job.

Oh, and by the way, our dog died.

On 18th October 2010 we had our lovely Rhodesian Ridgeback Talyn put to sleep.

It was the right thing to do but nevertheless a very hard decision to make. She had been suffering from fluid build up, first around the heart, and then in the chest. I truly believe we tried everything medically possible and no expense was spared (pet insurance covered most costs).

In the end it turned out to be a form of cancer that had eventually spread yet had been undetectable from the various tests that had been performed. This was only found later as a result of the autopsy. There would have been no treatment.

On that day we realised the time had come, the vet came to our house and the dog we raised from a puppy and enjoyed 6 wonderful years with died with her head cradled in my arms.

A surreal and deeply upsetting experience, one I will never forget.

But we believe she had a good 6 years. She never wanted for anything and spent many  a happy week down in Cornwall enjoying the sun, sea and sand.

We miss her terribly and I try hard to think about the good times so here are just a few small glimpses into her life.

Just a few days after arriving she was already taking up what would become a familiar pose.



She really did love her sunbathing. She would stand outside in her selected position and wait for her quilt to be put down. She had us well trained.



Man and dog in perfect harmony on Rock beach in Cornwall. She loved to play hide and seek with me amongst the dunes, no guessing who always won.



And the place she enjoyed most, her bed.



Finally, my favourite photo taken at the Lichfield festival. Moments later she was barking at the knights on horse back, but no one seemed to mind.