The Long Weekend...
Friday 28th July – I was going through the routine of opening my post and was surprised to find a letter from
Virgin Credit Cards saying I could transfer my balance interest free... this may not be much of a surprise if I owned a Virgin card but I don’t! I got worried that someone might have ‘stolen’ my identity. It turns out that
MBNA used the wrong letter heads or something!
Saturday 29th July – You may recall my run in with my mobile network recently... well, this is
part 2: I got an invoice from them charging me over
£400 for an ‘early termination penalty’! I couldn’t believe them! They first got my cancellation mixed up and I even specified that I don’t want to see an invoice a few weeks time showing their errors, and what happens?! I was initially quite annoyed with them and wanted to give them a piece of my mind... but when I actually got through to talk to an operator I sort of became all meek again... I am no good with expressing my annoyance – should have got Trees to do it for me. LOL
Sunday 30th July – Woke up early for my first ever (and maybe last) car boot sale at my local park. I took all my unwanted law books and 30 odd mangas along with any other junk I could find at my place and headed for the car boot sale. First off, I must say I am hopeless at haggling and it appears I am hopeless at selling too... or the buyers were pros and knew how to work the seller, me! It was not really what I would call a successful day as I ended up taking all my law books home again! Hahaha The mangas were the first to go then followed by toys and my
Harry Potter premiere posters. In the end I made dead on
£40 profit so the
new total is £63! Woohoo
The end of an era –
Top Of The Pops’ final episode. It has been years since I watched
TOTP, I believe I stopped watching when it moved from BBC1 to BBC2, and the move from a weekday (I think it was initially aired on Thursday nights but I could be wrong...) to a Sunday added to its downfall. Well, I made sure I caught this last ever episode – the various clips throughout the years have been nostalgic, I remembered those Kylie and Jason days, who could forget Bros,?! Goodbye, farewell
TOTP!
Helen
"Offside Rule" Explained for Women!
What is it with candyfloss, which makes you feel like a child again? I know it is nothing but spun sugar but I just love watching it melt when it comes into contact with liquid! The tingle on the tongue when it melts is like no other…! Hahaha
Ok, I know this is a bit late with the World Cup long over, but I found this and it was too amusing to not share with you guys…
"offside rule" explained for women:You're in a shoe shop, second in the queue for the till. Behind the shop assistant on the till is a pair of shoes which you have seen and which you must have.The female shopper in front of you has seen them also and is eyeing them with desire. Both of you have forgotten your purses.It would be rude to push in front of the first woman if you had no money to pay for the shoes.The shop assistant remains at the till waiting.Your friend is trying on another pair of shoes at the back of the shop and sees your dilemma.
She prepares to throw her purse to you. If she does so, you can catch the purse, then walk round the other shopper and buy the shoes!At a pinch she could throw the purse ahead of the other shopper and "whilst it is in flight" you could nip around the other shopper, catch the purse and buy the shoes!BUT, you must always remember that until the purse has "actually been thrown", it would be plain wrong for you to be in front of the other shopper and you would be OFFSIDE!
I hope this is all clear for all you ladies out there ;-)
Helen
Bam!
You know sometimes you think you are going to have an ordinary, boring day when
bam! You witness an accident – not to worry, it wasn’t anything serious, and no one got hurt. I was on the bus minding my own business, with only about another 5 stops until I get off to continue my journey when all of a sudden, the bus runs into a small hatchback and everyone have to evacuate the bus and catch another one.
Helen
All that way for curry!
Sunday 23rd - I was up in Leicester attending my cousin, Lin’s early birthday dinner. We had a great authentic Indian, which didn’t break the bank, which is all-good for the unemployed (me!).
Got home after 1a.m. and was again too tired to do anything else besides from crash into bed and sleep the sleep of the dead… of course that didn’t happen! I got home and realised I had to run a few morning errands, so last night I only had about 3 hours sleep… mixed with the heat I was a grumpy bunny all day :-(
Donations update: All these lovely people have all donated a
£1 –
Lin (and her man,
Tony not pictured),
Ping,
Terresa (Trees my sister) and
Kim. An extra
£5 so the
latest total is £23! 
Helen
Capital Radio's 'Help a London Child'
Friday 21st - I went to pick up my charity bucket and t-shirt from the ‘
Capital Radio’ studio in Leicester Square, and got to meet Chris Brooks the DJ and here are the evidence:
http://www.capitalradio.com/photoWallPhoto.asp?title=Help+A+London+Child+Weekend+2006&WallID=23389&photoID=1543863 I also did some free plugging whilst I was there and even managed to take a photo of just the 2 of us!
Bucket rattling is a fine art, which I will never sniff at again! My throat was quite sore from shouting non-stop for over 2 hours – I thought I was going to lose my voice the next day! Well, I used that as an excuse for indulging in a well deserve ice cream sundae ;-)
As for today, I was planning to go to Greenwich Park for the open air cinema experience organised by '
Studio Artois', but I was too lazy and quite thankful that I didn’t go as the long awaited thunder storm hit London at long last!
I am going to have a little bit of a moan now: I had 2 phones and wanted to cancel one of them. Well, last month I made sure they cancelled the right one, as I upgraded the other one which I use normally… well the second phone was to be disconnected today… yes you guessed correctly – they went and cancelled the one I wanted to keep instead! They very quickly rectified it and offered a year free line rental for the second phone if I wanted to keep that line open. My point of cancelling that second phone is because I don’t want it anymore, somehow it doesn’t seem to get through to them! Ok, you can come back out now, my rant is over… for now! LOL
Helen
PS. I got my new charger (yippee!) so here are some of the photos from the '
Acoustic Magic Band Night'.
Waltzing Matilda
My dear friend, Caf is flying off to Oz for a month tomorrow – what will I do without her?! She is my walking, talking encyclopaedia/Agony Aunt! Have a fantastic trip and I will be looking forward in reading your ‘Travel Blog’!
Bon voyage!Helen
Melting roads?!
Sorry for not writing yesterday (
Tuesday 18th)
– will get to it after a short (ish) message first... I got my new wheelchair yesterday! The wheelchair have travelled more than I have in the last few months – it was made to order (back in March) in the States and they dispatched it to Holland (please insert your own jokes about the States and their competency!) before delivering it correctly to me, in good old London town!
It’s a shame I don’t have any races to try out my new chair :-(
Anyway, my 'excuse' for not writing yesterday was because I took the chair to Canada Square for the free ‘
Acoustic Magic Band Night’. Great entertainment showcasing of the ‘next big thing’ and did I mention it was absolutely free?!
Had an interesting night of varied talents out there –
David Sneddon (‘
Fame Academy’ winner) was one of the acts. Other acts included
Tony Moore,
Lee Rogers,
Riccardi,
Beth Rowley and
John Allen. I particularly liked
Riccardi and for those who wish to check them out:
http://www.riccardirock.co.uk/All the other acts have their own website if you just typed their names in
Google or whatever search engine you prefer.
The concert went on past 10p.m., and then I had to make an hours journey to get home so by the time I got in, I was too tired to even turn on the PC (laptop is still out of action)... zzz
Now for today... record breaking temperature! Woohoo!!! I think there maybe something wrong with me (slightly more than usual anyway), I didn’t find it that hot and I absolutely love this weather – the only down side is, I keep getting funny tan marks! I never knew I was so pale... well compared to my tan now anyway! Hehehe
Got an email to confirm my ‘
Help a London Child’ bucket rattling time slot today... will be stationed at Canary Wharf Station this coming Friday between 4-7. I have never done any bucket rattling before... I guess it will be good practice for when Shirin and I have to do it for the
British Heart Foundation!
Helen
PS. I did take a few photos of the concert, but as my laptop is '
out of service' and Lee isn't in to let me use his PC I can't upload the photos... will upload them as soon as I can!
Hot hot hot!
Great excuse for indulging in all the new ice coffees/smoothies :-)
For anyone who knows me, they know that I am quite a klutz... well, I sort of ran over my laptop charger plug and broke it this morning whilst rushing to get out of my flat! LOL So I am using my old, slow PC to write today’s blog entry – hopefully I will get a new charger plug tomorrow...!
More donations update: Thank you to
Ben Kennor and
Kerris Deko who both work with Lee, donated a
£1 each -
new total is £18! 
Helen
G’Day Mate ;-)
Toast Festival food fair day... I am so stuffed! The day was gorgeous and the food was fantastic.
Sally there with a giant kangaroo and koala bear – those poor guys in those suits!
Plenty of BBQ and alcohol stands – exactly what you would expect from the Aussies!
Kantan: ‘8 assorted pieces of the fish pack sushi’ (go to an Oz food fair and the first thing I go for is Sushi... hehehe) & the ‘Wild berry with green tea and ginseng extract’ (sorry forgot to take the photo but you all know what smoothies looks like) was gorgeously refreshing
Suze in Mayfair: ‘Pacific oysters in the ½ shell with lemon wedges’
Blistering Barbecues: ‘Spit roast lamb in fresh white bread’
‘Smiths’ of Smithfield: ‘Hokey Okey ice cream in a sugar cone’
Truc Vert: ‘Pavlova roulade with strawberries’ & 'Hog spit roast in bread with condiments’
The Modern Pantry: ‘BBQ’d sweet corn rolled in mayonnaise and cheddar, with shichimi and a wedge of lime’
Would have loved to try out more food... maybe next year ;-)
Helen
The day of the BIG run! Hahaha
The day started out quite cold but that soon changed… As soon as the saxon went off Sally left me behinds and raced off ahead! Some sister! Anyway, the most noticeable costumes that I would like to mention are a pair of young kids dressed as the ‘118 118’ guys – they had the wig, moustache, headband, vest, shorts and the badminton racket! They kept pointing at people with their racket and saying, ‘
Got your number’. There were a family of pirates, parrots and all! Of course a few
Superman’s, a
Gladiator,
Ghostbuster and a
very hairy gorilla!
I told myself to finish the ‘race’ (the term is used very loosely here!) in under
20 minutes… I did it in
19 mins! Hahaha
My hands were filthy afterwards – have blisters on top of blisters!
More donations update:
My mum donated a
£1, along with two fabulous guys (Deputy Manager,
Andy Walker and Senior Sales,
Robert Jopp) who work with my brother, Lee who donated a
£1 each.
Latest 
total is £16!
I am so tired – only had 2 hours sleep last night and I need to get up early (ish) tomorrow for the
Toast thing so a few more hours of
BBC’s Sports Relief and I’ll be off to bed… I can’t wait for tomorrows food fair! Woohoo!
Helen
I took my 11-year-old sister, Sally to watch ‘Superman Returns’ with my friend Caf today. I won’t ruin it for anyone, but just words of advice… go to the toilet beforehand, as it’s a long movie!
Sally and I are doing the ‘Sports Relief – Run a Mile’ in Central London tomorrow morning (10:45 start time), come along, cheer for everyone and donate ;-)
http://www.sportrelief.com/
Two more donations today: Duong (my sister, Terresa’s fiancé - he was playing the DS Lite so he wasn't really paying any attention when I snapped him) and Sally both gave me a £1 each. I guess my family are a bunch of posers – they will not allow me to take their photos until they are happy with the way they look that day… will have a long time to wait for them to look good! LOL 
This takes us up to £13!!!
Helen
Ouch!!
Boy oh boy oh boy.. what a night. No sushi, lots of stars and lots of yap yap yap at the College of Law. Totally knackered.
hows does one get rid of a migraine?????????? blasted head of mine - shoot me please! FiVe days in a row with a throbbin head, thats not right, is it????Ah well all is not lost, as Helen mentioned, we raised £11 in donations already whooo hooo hooo ANNNNNNNND I was so close to Kevin Spacey. I swear I saw him having a drink or two in the upstairs foyer: i just couldnt remember his name Kevin Bacon, Michael Spacey.... arggggh AND trust Helen to look at me and say "wish Hiro was here"!!! cheers doll! [I did have a continual migraine from Monday after rowing a boat on the Thames and star spotting is not my forte]
Anyhooo, gonna head off to work and catch up on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays and todays work - blasted migraine and blasted course days - i know, someone, please sponsor me to do some work???
WOOOOO WOOOOO OWWOWOWOWO £11Shirin
p.s for British Sign Language for sushi is erm difficult for a novice like me, think you'd have to either finger spell sushi (i dont have the technical wizardry like Helen, so im gonna describe how one ought to finger spell "SUSHI") - trying me head to remember how we did this in british sign language class!!!!
Right, Ready boys and girls???....
S - get your little finger from your right hand and your little finger from your left hand. place all your other fingers down s that the two little fingers are prominent. then create two hook with them (each little finger) - and lock them together as if you were creating a chain...erm... tis so easier to show you rather than describe
U - take your right index finger and touch your left little finger
S - see above "S"
H - make your left hand flat - palm face up. Take your right hand and stoke the whole of the left hand once from wrist to finger tips
I - take you right index finger and touch your left middle finger
Now that you have finger spelt sushi, you'd have to say whether you are having Sushi for lunch or dinner.
Lunch is a simple gesture in BSL - image you are having a sandwich or burger and taking a bite out of it.
Dinner is also simple - take your index finger and middle finger of both hands (the rest of your fingers are down) - this leaves you with something that a child would do if he wanted to use his fingers as guns. Right, now you would alternately take your right hand up to your mouth (finger tips pointing to your mouth) then down again. you then take your left hand up to your mouth (finger tips pointin to your mouth) then down again. you would do this gesture a few times and speedin up the motion
arghht 0837 and im not in the office - better dash, hope you enjoyed the sign lesson.
bye bye bye
Shirin
'Superman Returns' Premiere!
Today was suppose to be a relaxing, none exciting day… that was until I got into Leicester Square and got lost in the middle of the ‘
Superman Returns’ premiere! Initially I just planned to meet up Shirin to talk about how we will sort out the finer details about our campaign.
The sun was out, loads of nutters surrounded us so we entered into the spirit of things and cheekily asked one of the Police Officers (
Graham) whether there is a place reserved for wheelchair users.
Graham took a leisurely strolled along the barriers towards his Sergeant… ok, we weren’t expecting anything, in fact we thought we might be told to get on our bikes, but what happened was, we were escorted through the barriers and onto the red carpet!!! We stood outside the entrance of the Odeon between the paparazzi and the big stars themselves! Shirin and I were laughing that the paparazzi must have been cursing us, standing there blocking their view.
Must say, Shirin and I was a bit overwhelmed as we only came out for sushi (yes we can’t get enough of the stuff!) and was not ready for all the stars walking by… saying that after the whole ordeal we bumped into a very lovely lady,
Rhoda who has promised to email the photos she took of the stars. I will post them up as soon as she emails them to me – so fingers cross everyone ;-)
We managed to get 2 posters (one was about A1 size and the other was over 5 foot!) from the premiere, and was given permission to sell the posters on eBay to raise funds for our jump… however, the posters were so big and heavy we thought we will try to sell them right there outside Leicester Square! Our first buyer was a really friendly guy called
Danny, and this is him with his friend,
Abby. Our big poster was then sold to a bunch of guys (
Stephen, Garry, Lily, Owen, Perry, Tak, Stephanie and Annie) from Birmingham… not sure how they will take it all the way back home – good luck guys and get in touch to tell us about it! Oh yes, the posters went for
£5 each!
Have to mention
Sarah who is also a fellow BHF member who donated a
£1.
Thank you everyone for taking the heavy posters off our hand and donating to a worthy cause!
Helen
PS. miss maco this is just for you: ‘ice cream’, ‘cake’ and ‘fish’ (because there was no sign for ‘sushi’ or ‘raw’ in my book)
Food for thought...
I attended the '
Taste of London 2006' food fair held at Regents Park a few weeks ago for the first time, and came across a very good cause - '
Restaurants Against Hunger', check out their website:
http://www.restaurantsagainsthunger.org/ for details... basically, during October at participating restaurants you can enjoy your meal whilst knowing that you are helping in a campaign to help feed hungry children in some of the poorest countries.
As I attended the '
TOL 2006' they have offered me a discount for this coming weekends Australian/New Zealand Food Fair (
Toast Festivals:
http://www.toastfestivals.co.uk/) which of course I will be attending - all in the name or research ;-)
Come along and seek me out to donate!
Helen 
PS. Coincidently, I am trying (the operative word here!) to teach myself sign language – brought the book… had to sit in the aisle of a busy WH Smith trying out all these sign language to myself! Any way, this is the sign for toast…
Donations
Our sponsorship pages on the
www.bhf.org.uk will soon be up and running!
Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the
most efficient way to donate: the
British Heart Foundation will receive your money electronically and if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28p for every £1 donated in Gift Aid will be added to your donation at no cost to you.
N.B donations made on this site will go straight to the BHF
Shirin
is it a bird? Is it a plane? it's SuperShirinandHelen
well hello there!!
Sorry it's taken me a while to get me arse on this page - bloody restrictions in bloody work and no bloody internet at home....bloody, bloody, bloody...
Talking about blood, Helen and I have decided to JUMP FROM A PLANE for fun... and for a bit of money
£800. Know it sounds like a hellava lot of coppers, but a one-off
£1 donation from you could help the
British Heart Foundation. Tell me about it - i'm palpitating at the thought of it!!!!!!!!!!!
Do I know eight hundred peeps?? ARRRGH
I was actually inspired to jump outta a plane by Paul (men cant have all the fun, can they?!) and Helen mentioning the
BHF was organising a sky dive event while dining at
Ten Ten Tei (by the way - Tekka Don - absolutely delicious, cant beat some cold raw tuna in ya mouth!!!).
So why am I doing this you ask....? Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, I found out when I was 20 years old that I had a heart murmur and largish shaped heart. Nowt to worry about just have a noisy heart... just likes ta sing like Aretha Frankin, Nina Simone..Shirely Bassey.
And I'm doing the sky dive becausue I feel i'm one of the lucky ones.. AF, NS and SB sing your heart out!
Now this is where you lovely people come in - please spread the word about Helen's and my plight to raise money for the
British Heart Foundation and get your face/pic plastered on our blog - just post a picture of you and your donation and we'll put it up (just as long as its not toooooo explicit!)
see ya later alligator!!!
Shirin x
National Transplant Week 9th - 15th July 2006
This week is the
National Transplant Week, a week to raise awareness of NHS need for people to join the Organ Donor Register. Visit:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/awareness_campaigns/jul_transplant.shtml for more details.
Law related news: The removal of secrecy over family court system. I did not study Family Law whilst at University, but it amazes me that there is so much secrecy surrounding the Family Courts system. The legal system should be understood and accountable to the public – justice should be done as well as
seen to be done.
Helen
More sushi!
After creating the initial intro with all the talk about sushi... I had to satisfy my craving, so I made the hour-long journey into Central just for my Chirashi (rice with a selection of raw fish) and Kaki Age (fried oysters)! I have a funny feeling that this blog is going to be half about raising funds for the jump as well as my food diary!
Helen
Brain-storming over sushi...
Hello everyone and welcome to our (there’s me,
Helen and my dear friend,
Shirin) blog. We have created this blog to help raise funds for our charity parachute jump for the
British Heart Foundation. We need to raise at least
£800… all we ask is
£1 from you and nothing more… well, you can help us on our pledge and spread the word loud and wide!
The whole idea of creating a blog to record our progress was over a fabulous sushi dinner up in Brewer Street (shameless plugging of 'Ten Ten Tei'). I mentioned that I read that a guy created a blog to raise funds asking people to donate 50p towards his iPod… well, the idea was a success for him and as this is for charity, we hope that you good people out there will be more generous and donate a mere
£1 for a very good cause!
We haven’t got all the mechanics sorted yet on how you can donate, so please check back on us in a few days time when we have sorted out all the technical stuff… in the mean time you can help by doing some advertising on our behalf ;-)
Thank you in advance and hope to see you all again soon,
Helen & Shirin
