Lots to see and do in the magical mind of Martin

Oh dear! I appear to have not blogged in nearly 12 months! A real shame as the old Benignintervention Blog seemed to draw quite a sizeable blog-ogling crowd. Of course to encourage readership, writers usually have to write and then readers will read. A fairly straight forward symbiotic relationship, I'm sure you'll agree? So what on earth have I been doing to entertain myself since then? Well let's see now.......

Shortly after writing the only post above this one, I became a Town Councillor for Wesham. and then got swiftly roped into other various committees such as Wesham Community Pride Trust, Wesham Community Centre Committee, etc. I stood for a seat on the Council because I seriously do care about the town I live in and was brought up in. For those of you unfamiliar, Wesham (Pronounced 'Wessam'..... certainly not 'Weshum') is a small semi-rural town, nestled in the idyll of Fylde on the northwest coast of England. If you want to know more then have a looksy here. One project I have taken on is to improve the facilities on one of Wesham's recreation grounds. More about that in a later post.

Next on the agenda was to climb Mount Snowdon in aid of Prostate Cancer Research. That was a whole load of fun! It was 25deg C at half past eight in the morning. We hadn't even started the trek and must have already lost half a pint of fluid!. Myself and Rob Bamber climbed the highest mountain in Wales on what turned out to be one of the hottest days of 2010. Which was nice! To say it was tough is an understatement. Of course, Bambi and I did some training prior to the event (admittedly not enough!) but to climb a mountain on the only day in history that it didn't rain in Wales, made it a bit of a hard slog. Descending down the other side of Snowdon I tentatively raised the subject of what Rob and I were going do for entertainment in May 2011. We decided 12 months was long enough to let our blisters heal and we should maybe do some more walking........ How about walking from one coast of Britain to the other? Sounds like a plan, a plan that is going to be carried out all too soon!

.............. and so the juggernaut of frenzied activity continued through 2010. Now we are in 2011, February already and I've done things I promised I would give up (Smoking etc), not done things I want to do more of (Blogging and Hillwalking to name but a few). So this year is shaping up to be even busier than the last. Feel free to join me via this blog, on what should turn out to be an eventful, entertaining journey.

Taking up the challenge

I had an unexpected, early morning visitor last Sunday. My old School pal Rob Bamber sent me a text at 08:30 in the morning that read "Have you got the kettle on? Are you out of bed?" As it happens I was wide awake due to fielding work calls from early that morning. Shortly after he turned up in my back garden with a certain amount of mud on his person, looking like he seriously needed the brew I had just prepared.

It transpired that he had entered an event called Snowdon 500 which raises money for the Prostate Cancer Research Centre. Basically 500 people walk/scramble up one side of Snowdon and probably limp down the other side. During the course of brew supping and usual trash talking (I swear our sense of humour has not progressed from the age of 5!) Rob was trying to persuade me to join him in his mission.

I was too busy, I had things going on, too much on my plate already...... etc. Over the next few days Rob's quest (and new found love of the great outdoors) featured in my thoughts a fair bit. Why was he doing it? Why was he doing it for prostate cancer? Why climb Snowdon?.........................
Then I remembered what Rob said on that Sunday morning "Because I Can." My answer to that was, well, I suppose I can too.

Snowdon, crickey! Really doing it! Ermmmm, just a minute.... I've not entered into any kind of outdoor adventure or physical activity since leaving the Army in 2000 and Rob has never proved to be any kind of Action Man (Rock Star - Yes.... See Here [Shiver] Action Man? Hmmm)

So here we are, 3 months away from straying way out of our comfort zones. Training is needed, the first of such sessions has occured this very morning (Far too early for both our likings, alas, it is Valentines Day after all and we needed to get back to our long suffering other halves.)

We will do the hard bit, getting our lethargic bodies into some kind of shape by doing the miles and then climb a mountain.........................

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CLICK THE 'JUST GIVING BOX' AT THE TOP OF THIS PAGE

THANK YOU, MARTIN & ROB