Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Time to craft
Monday, 1 December 2008
On the first day of Christmas...
Friday, 4 April 2008
Surprising the girls in Sydney...
Finally! I have just taught myself how to compress videos to put onto my blog so... here is the video from when I surprised the girls (Stacey, Katie, Debbie and then Julie) in Sydney. If it stops and starts the first time you watch it while it is loading, play it through a second time and it should run smoothly. If they say buffering, let them do that for a while before you click play again, though it should start again itself.
**If you are at work, you might want to make your volume low for this**
I think this is by far the best secret I've ever kept and surprising them was so much fun, though I was shaking before I even got to them. I had text them all during my 1.5hour changeover in Singapore asking them where they were and what they were doing as I was missing them, my cunning plan to work out where to find them. But not one of them replied!
So after I got out of my shuttle bus, I decided to go and check in at reception, then find my camera to video it and go up to our room, hoping they would be there. This was a long shot as it was 8pm, and I knew Julie had flown in a few hours earlier so I figured they may well be out having a good few drinks and rolling in drunk in the early hours. Luckily for me, it was perfect timing as I walked into the hostel to find this... (you will see in the video in a second)
I jumped back behind a post, didn't bother with reception but dumped my bag to find my camera. I then walked towards them...
It was just the best moment as none of them had any idea I was really joining them. If you can understand a word we say in this video (strong accents and screaming excitement aren't a good mix!) then you can see Stacey had an inkling but didn't really believe I would be flying out. It makes me all emotional every time I watch it!
Then surprising Julie...
So, the girls had met Julie earlier, been out for dinner and were back already. Julie was upstairs supposedly in bed as her jet lag was kicking in, but as we went up to our floor (I'd secretly re-booked my bed in their dorm without them knowing) we found her on the phone to James so I had to jump back and hide. Poor James, needed to see an ear specialist after this...
It was actually even more fun having two surprises instead of the one and they are both so different. The girls sat there stunned and not saying much, Julie did the complete opposite.
Fun times.
When can I do it again next?
Sunday, 9 December 2007
Honey I'm home!
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
Wet through
For fundraising info on Dad, click here
We have left Pauline and Neil's and arrived safely. It was really sad to leave them and I got a bit emotional!
We are staying in the most random place, it looks like a high rise council block from outside, yet the top floor, floor 25, is renovated into about five apartment rooms and it is really nice. Very strange!
Singapore Sling!
The newspaper story is here
Seems a bit more trivial now, but our update for our last night or two in Singapore...
We were soaking up the luxury and later were introduced to Brett and his boss George, who are regulars at the Raffles hotel when they are in town on business, oh er. And actually, you would expect them to be very cheesy but they were very nice guys from Papua New Guinea. We were also presented with a bowl of strawberries to go with our lovely champagne, who could refuse. The pianist had been playing happy birthday earlier so we decided it would be fun to pretend it was Debbie's birthday today! So that got her a cheeseboard too as she managed to slip into the conversation that she would choose cheese over a birthday cake any day haha.
We will see you all at the weekend!
What a wonderful world...
So we are off ready for our 14 hour flight from Singapore home - see you all soon and thanks for all your comments along the way!
Jenny x
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
Fundraising for a good cause
As many of you will know, my dad is currently having treatment for bowel cancer, and he is coping very well with it so far. There is another drug which he can have to go alongside his chemotherapy which the doctors think will be of benefit, called Avastin, but it will not be funded on the NHS so we are going to raise the money ourselves. The total we need to raise for a full course of the drug is 18,000 pounds.
We have formed a fund to start collecting already although we have not got facilities to donate online just yet (we are trying to set it up now), and we will be doing fundraising over the next few months.
The first event is a sponsored walk that the four grandchildren are doing - this is to be held at Eastbrook End Country Park Millennium Centre in Dagenham, at 2.30pm on Sunday 16th Dec.
If anybody would like to either sponsor the children or donate in general, we would really appreciate any help, large or small, that you can give. For family/close friends who are local to us, you can pledge a sponsor to the children and we can collect it later following the event. Alternatively the fund is being held by our church to make the accountancy side of it simple so you can send a cheque through to us at home made out to "St. Erkenwalds PCC" marked on the back as "Jeff Cocks". Please include a cover note saying if you are a tax payer stating so, along with your full name and address so they the fund can claim back an extra 28% as Gift Aid.
Please email me on jennyscreations@hotmail.com for information and my home address.
If you want to know anything else please feel free to ask away and I realise not everyone will be able to support in terms of donations, but we appreciate your support in all ways. I will be home on Saturday from travelling to get stuck in with all of this alongside my two sisters.
Thanks to everyone for all your support so far with the family too
Jenny x
