Icing on the cake......

Have just received a message that the BBC shirt signed by;

Valentino Rossi,

Jorge Lorenzo,

James Toseland,

Carl Crutchlow,

Danny Webb,

Leon Haslam,

Ian Hutchinson,

Jonathan Rea,

Keith Amor,

David Johnson,

James Whitham,

John McGuinness,

Neil Hodgson,

Ian Lougher

is now framed and ready to collect (will take a pic of it when I collect it tomorrow) and therefore also ready to auction as the final icing on the cake of fundraising for GOSH and KidsCo. Thanks so much to Steve Parrish who very kindly organised this for us. Thanks Steve! How exciting is that and as a mate commented yesterday, 'must be worth more now as James Toseland has sadly retired due to injury'.

I've been overwhelmed by the wonderful support, encouragement, wry amusement and bafflement across this amazing journey. Had another cheque in today and I'm delighted to say that we've now raised just over £7500.00. So very chuffed, if still bruised! I was asked today what my next challenge would be - there's many answers to that particular question! Suggestions....?

Also very excited that another signed item by a British enduro icon might be on the horizon, I was told when in the Pyrenees that one should really stand when uttering his name! More on that to come.....

Has a little outing on the GasGas this avo to celebrate!

£5500 for GOSH and KidsCo.....

What a fabulous evening raising a further £1300 for GOSH and KidsCo.

Thank you so much to everyone who came and those who bid in the auction.

Thanks to Tim McEwan, our fantastic auctioneer - a natural!

Michelle Hunter for hosting the auction at The Queen Adelaide.

Steve Parrish, Charley Boorman, Bloodhound SSC, The Goring Hotel, Taylard House, Chris Evans, Cyril Despres, SupremeBeing,

Ed Blum, Billy Ward and Graham Banks for generously donating such fabulous auction lots.

Caroline Failletaz for collecting the cash! Elly Hanna for capturing the event on film!

Martin Wittering, Donna Gray and Gary Failletaz for endless support and encouragement and picking up my bike and sometimes me on numerous occasions!

And of course the girls and Mr T.

The boys are back in town............well in a village , Croydon, leafy Cambs....

Whoop de doo! Another one of those awesome days today when I had to stop myself running round skipping with joy, which would have been a tad embarrassing for all around.

Mr T on the lovely old Triumph Trophy 650 (with high pipes - important apparently?!) and me on my trusty GasGas took a spin up to the lovely Queen Adelaide, owned by the lovely Michelle Hunter in Croydon, Cambs.

Felt a bit like 'bunking off school' .........on a Wednesday lunchtime but as excuses go......

The reason, Ross Noble's Sit Down Tour - to commemorate the 500,000th Triumph, a Speed Triple - beautiful it is too. Nice paint job, look good on my nails I think?! Even more exciting, at the end of this phenomenal trip the bike is set to be auctioned at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on the 1st July - all proceeds going to Riders for Health, a fantastic charity that provides vital motorbike transport for medics to reach otherwise inaccessible parts of rural Africa. Very humbling....

When we arrived at said Queen Adelaide, it was slightly later than intended. I wanted to arrive early (park bike up, allow for private spills on gravel etc) - that wasn't to be. We arrived and I spied Billy Ward first (not that we'd met before), I recognised him from photos, then I spotted Ross Noble , then Steve Parrish .....only then, just about to have a hopeless OMG moment, I thought 'get a grip girl and focus otherwise you'll spill it in the gravel'. Not a good look from wherever you may be standing. As it happened I just had a rather heavy braking moment ....but... didn't fall off or drop it!!

We met Gary and Caroline at the pub. At home, I very , very nearly went with Caroline in the car and suggested Gary took a bike...?!

So, lunch at The Queen Adelaide, gorgeous looking bikes, all very petrol heady and I couldn't help but noticing, gorgeous looking blokes too, Caroline concurred!! And sunshine - what more could a girl want.....

Then Billy produced a copy of The Long Way Down signed by Charley Boorman to auction for our challenge......

Ross Noble signed one of our SupremeBeing Tshirts which are going to be overprinted with the charity logos and auctioned - did get a bit girly and starstruck then.....

Steve Parrish signed a SupremeBeing Tshirt and has also very kindly agreed to donate some MotoGP stuff for the auction which is fabulous... ditto girly and starstruck......

Then team Sit Down Tour went on their way - wonderful! Had one of those warm fuzzy moments watching them. Hence, potential skipping moment ensued.....

Confidence up a notch, no spills, one stall but I don' think anyone noticed (?!1?), wonderfully generous signings and stuff for the auction on the 30th July at The Queen Adelaide in Croydon, Cambs.

Look forward to seeing you there...

Concrete ruts........and soft muck heaps!

What a glorious weekend! Mr T and I went out for an Easter trip this morning. Had my usual confidence wobble on departing however I'm beginning to whick along rather more quickly than I used to. Fabulous weather and a little breeze this morning so just lovely.

Being the Bank Holiday weekend, there were lots of people about and dogs - as a learner biker this is often good news as it also means a little rest (i.e. stop engine, greetings, little chat...). Only small stops though as Mr T was pressing on rather - so I had to keep up!

The ground was like concrete and very, very dusty. The ruts that one had hitherto undertaken that had soft sides certainly didn't any more! So, I figured avoidance tactics today then. Won't do the concrete ruts, I'll go round them!

This all went well until I rounded a corner and there was a family and assorted small dogs some way off on the side of the byway with 'no ruts' - oh!

A few lessons back Donna had said 'now if you have to go across any ruts, as opposed along and in them as it were, do it diagonally and with purpose'. Right! So that's what I did, with purpose, diagonally and with a wee Gary tip too - if in doubt use the throttle, the bike will take it, just make sure you can stop afterwards! I did, I did and I did - yippee!

Later on we came upon some unavoidable ruts and I did it, throttle - looking where I was headed rather than where I was at (I hope a temporary bad habit...) and voila! Then thought, I could perhaps practice on these and then thought 'practicing ruts feels somewhat akin to practicing toothache' - now why would one do that - have 4 1/2 months to go, I'll do that another day!! I did however go in and out the ditch several times - yeehah!

In the pic attached there is a big, smelly heap of muck and straw - always on the look for a soft landing just in case I need it - even if it does stink!

Being Easter have now had my full of really far too much chocolate - better work it off tomorrow on the bike - still burning quite a lot of calories through both fear and riding!

Very excited about a conversation with Steve Parrish's (MotoGP commentator and former top level racer - Barry Sheen's team mate) lovely girlfriend Michelle. Planning a wee event of some sort; food, marquee, music and Steve has extremely kindly agreed to donate something to auction - most chuffed! Watch this space - will let you know the date.

Now, where was I, there's some chocolate somewhere..........