Busy Busy...

Hey Guys,

Sorry i've been so bad with keeping this up to date, been really busy finishing my degree and sorting out this trip. Anyway, a lot has happened since the last real blog so here goes (I will try to keep it brief and to the point!).

Firstly, we have a confirmed team. As mentioned before there is myself (Hugh) and Burt, who will be going as far as Kiev. However I can now proudly announce that there are 3 more members to the team (though if you are following us on facebook or twitter you already knew this). My cousin Joe will be joining me for the entire time, Charlie will be replacing Burt from Kiev onwards and finally we will pick up Jeremy on route somewhere in Kyrgyzstan (hopefully). All of us, with the exception of Joe, went to the same school together so hopefully this means the group dynamic will work!

Secondly, we have been busy fundraising, both to raise money for the charities and to pay for the ambulance. A big thank you goes out to our old school, Malvern College. Their 6th Form Council has donated £1,000 from their Charity Fund towards the ambulance and its upkeep and the music department kindly agreed for the collections from 2 of their summer concerts to go to our charites. The first of these raised £490 and the second is being held tomorrow night, hopefully this will go as well. This combined with some very generous private donations and other smaller events etc means we are well on the way to our goal - but, due to the likelihood of breakdowns with such a large vehicle, we are always on the look out for that little bit extra. 

Whilst representing at the first of the Malvern College concerts I had the fortune to meet Nigel Morgan, Managing Director of LuK, who, along with some of their other suppliers, have donated tonnes and tonnes of spare parts (not literally!) and are servicing the vehicle for us as well. This was one of those chance meetings that has made our life so much easier and I cant thank them enough for their help.

Currently though our main focus is on arranging a Charity Auction which is being held at The Nags Head in Malvern on the evening of 13th of July. We have loads of exciting lots on offer, from hampers and spa days to holidays in Cornwall! Please check out our website for a full and up-to-date list of lots. I will post again specifically about this nearer the time. It's sure to be a really fun evening so, if you can, we would love it if you could attend. If not, we'll have a system in place so you can place a bid beforehand - I'm sure you won't be disappointed. 

We have also been hard at work on the ambulance inside and out ready for our press photo shoot on Monday. We are looking good with all our stickers etc

  Our lovely looking ambulance with new stickers
(minus the sponsor's logos - haven't got round to that yet!)

We are having the photos taken outside the Nags Head and then these will feature along with our press release (being written as i type by Burt) in the local papers and radio. We will also be advertising the auction specifically as the time approaches.

We recently received our lovely team jackets courtesy of Lookfly Clothing and I will post a picture soon - maybe I will get one of Burt & myself on Monday. I am also in negotiations with some roof rack companies to supply use with a rack/box for the van, so fingers crossed on that one. If you know of anybody that can provide us with something useful (or you can do so yourself) then please don't hesitate to contact us and we will be forever grateful (getbataar@gmail.com).

In other more mundane news, I am currently the proud owner of all my vaccinations and of all but 1 of the required visas (only Kazakhstan currently eludes me) and it is a similar story for the other team members. We are also sorting out the other documentation and the like but i won't bore you with the details.

I'm sure that there are hundreds of other things I have to tell you but can't for the life of me remember what they are. However, now I am a 'free' man I will endeavour to keep the blog up to date with details of all our preparations so there will be plenty of opportunities for me or one of the others to remember.

Thanks for reading
Hugh