Well really a bunch of planning is already well underway. Danielle and Steve came up with an awesome idea to have a Casino Royale night and use it as a fundraiser rather than just a bit of fun. They have been awesome - Steve downloaded a special font to do the invites up MI6/Bond style, Danielle has been madly searching for boxes to put the poker chips in for each guest (no mean feat - she's been to a bunch of places that sell them and with no one able to give us enough she's found us an oragami instruction so we can sit and make them). Their idea is that guests will pay for entry for which they will get some poker chips and a Vesper Martini (the martini Bond describes in Casino Royale which was the only book that this martini featured in and was named after the lead female character).
After one of our Sunday runs, we came up with a bunch of developments including having a "how to host a murder" plot running through the night. After breakfast we started shopping for green felt, poker/roulette sets and boxes for the chips. By this time another friend Derek had joined us and a couple of hours later and stretching the patience of my friends we had a shopping list and some of the goodies.
The following day I started getting perplexed about how much to charge, how best to cater and what drinks should be provided and what should people buy. Thankfully another good friend Paul works nearby so I ducked down to his work for a coffee and lots of advice.
Can I just note, I am very lucky to have so many beautiful friends - I'd be a very sad person without all of their support and counsel and love.
So the drink decision was the Vesper Martinis, champagne and mid-strength beer. The food - ask a couple of good friends to make a finger food style dish each. The cost for the alcohol is $15pp so the cost of the night is $35 ($20 going to the cause). 6 Staff who will be asked to only pay the contribution to the cause and I will cover their drinks, and a limit of potential murderers of 20. The problem being that one of the ingredients for the Vesper Martini is Kina Litte - doesn't seem to be available in Australia....hmmm....Paul suggested trying Dan Murphys in Belconnen because they have helped him find specialty alcohol before.
Taking Paul's advice and not wanting to lose momentumn I set off to Dan Murphy's after work where I met the lovely and super dooper helpful Angela. We found a substitute for the Kina Litte and Angela gave me a form to fill in asking for a donation from them (hoping they'll come to the party with a gift voucher for the winner of the Casino Royale night). Another initiative for fundraising and making if fun is for murder suspects being able to buy clues for $5 and all murder suspects will need to nominate a character (all James Bond characters) and will need to try and at least dress in the theme of their charater or pay a $10 fine (at least trying adds to the theme of the evening and thus also the enjoyment as people get more into it all).
So that is about where the planning is at just now. Oh I forgot to say, continuing in their immense wonderfulness, Steve and Danielle are hosting the event at their house. Told you I had amazing friends!
Tomorrow morning starts the trekking training - just an easy start to more measure where I am at than anything else. 9am at the back of the War Memorial for a walk up Mt Ainslie. The longest and hardest day of the race involves 12hours of trekking 27km from 2400m asl to 3000m asl and back down to 2800m asl with 5 of 5 difficulty.... BIG DAY! The summit is Fansipan Peak if you want to google it.
In the morning, Steve and Danielle are going to join me for my walk and it's up on my facebook page as an open invite. I'm happy to go on my own and really given how out of breath I get just walking 1/3 of the way up to get to the run track, I probably don't need people to see how unfit I am! Note to self - Cancer is a disease that leaves you very helpless and humiliated at times. Walking with friends no matter how out of breath I get just doesn't compare to how that feels.
Goal for the walk: to mater the following tongue twister.
A skunk sat on a stump. The stump thought the skunk stunk, the skunk thought that the stump stunk. So which one stunk the stump or the skunk?
Every single day 300 Australians are given the news that they have cancer. I was one of those people who was lucky to catch it in time. My mum wasn't. My challenge is to raise funds and awareness through embarking on a physically demanding trip through Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam so that Cure Cancer Australia can provide funding for doctors researching a cure. This blog is an honest unbarred online account of my journey to prepare and complete the challenge.
No comments:
Post a Comment