Thank you

I'm sneaking this post in as we have a window during which the broadband link is working, albeit at speeds of just 5kb per second which means things take ages to upload and download.  Hopefully it will be sorted out tomorrow.

Here's where we think the problem lies -

See the 2 poles?  The shorter one on the right originally had the electricity cables and the telephone lines attached but was damaged in high winds a few years ago.  It was an arrangement known as a 'shared utility'.

The electricity pole was replaced because the pole was leaning at a jaunty angle, which was quite dangerous, and new cables attached. However, the phone line wasn't moved onto the new pole due to issues with red tape! So, last year when the winds were strong our broadband and telephone line went down and a nice man came and repaired the damage but couldn't move the lines to the new post because of the red tape (?!) so he came up with the idea of tying the old post to the new one and told us that if it happened again that we should insist that the lines be moved to the new pole. 

We managed to get through last winter OK but the recent storms put the final nail in the coffin and so we will be insisting that the lines be moved. I can't wait for that discussion tomorrow!

Thank you

First of all I must thank Nate Taylor for writing such a wonderful article in The New York Times on the 2nd November.  Only one correction - my first knitting stunt was in 2007 not 2008 but that's a minor detail. It was lovely chatting with you Nate; let's see if we can make the New York marathon 2014 a date!

My next thank you goes to the lovely people at PageGroup in Weybridge who welcomed Marcus Barber (Corporate partner Officer from ARUK) and me to their offices yesterday. 

This was part of a roadshow that Marcus had put together to give people the opportunity to learn more about dementia and to get some ideas about fund-raising. My role was to talk about my mum and some of my fund-raising antics.

PageGroup have become corporate partners with ARUK and have pledged to raise £200,000 to support 2 specific research projects.  They have already raised a massive £60,000 which is brilliant. I was very impressed that so many people gave up their lunch breaks to listen to us talk about ARUK and dementia.

I felt a bit wobbly in my own presentation yesterday, probably because I've been writing so much about dementia of late but I hope I gave people some insight into what it's like to live with dementia.

Thank you to Caroline who took such good care of us, to Fiona for setting up the computer and projector and to everyone who attended. Your support and enthusiasm was wonderful and good luck with your fund-raising.