good times gonna come

What a week it has been. Our fundraising has really picked up pace over the last 7 days, and our running total currently stands at a truly stunning £1,325.37. That's almost half way to our target.

I have already told the story of how I came to be ginger, and today the Chief Exec handed me a cheque for £500, as agreed. I always knew that she would keep her word, but there was a certain relief in having that money in my hands and knowing that the loss of my blondeness wasn't all for nothing.

Most of you will know by now that I am always up for being a bit of an idiot. A colleague and I have been trying to out-do each other with progressively more and more ridiculous 'office dares' for 6 months now and so it was probably no surprise to anyone when Roger and I showed up to a work event last Friday night with more ridiculousness up our sleeves.

Roger completely screwed me over at Christmas when I ended up wearing an elf costume, so I decided that I would attempt revenge this time around by not keeping to our agreement of showing up to the party dressed in the onesie he had bought me. He was wearing some 'ridiculous' trousers, but of course they were nothing compared to the bloody pink onesie and he actually suited the stupid things and pulled the look off well.

After a few vodkas I was finally convinced to put the onesie on. Another colleague had promised to sponsor me £10 if I put it on and went onto the dance floor. I'd barely got the flippin' thing on before the DJ announced that I was doing this trek and summoned me to the dance floor, the eyes of the room upon me. It was humiliating and all I could do was stand there, awkwardly, cursing and telling them all how much I sodding hated them for putting me through this. I have issues with social anxiety, so you can imagine that this was actually my worst nightmare. People may be shocked to know that I have social anxiety, but after 10+ years I have learned to deal with it by overcompensating, acting the fool and pretending to be far more confident that I actually am. On the outside I played along, while on the inside I was dying.

I may be a little biased, but my colleagues are a pretty special bunch and they took pity on my embarrassment and soon a bucket had been filled with change, another £113 to add to our tally.

I can't quite believe I'm about the share this with you, but here is a photo of me and Roger from the night:

I know, I know, I look twelve.

I have decided that I should give the 'making a twat of myself for money' thing a rest for a little while and instead I have handed over to Katie to do some sensible event organising. We are holding a Champagne and Sparkling Wine tasting evening in Cheltenham on Saturday April 20th, so if you would like to attend let us know. I can't remember how much tickets are, but I'm planning to make Ms Motivator write a blog post about it herself anyway.

My focus is once again going back to training. I can't seem to focus on both at the same time and during the last couple of weeks I have pretty much done zero with regards to exercise. On Sunday Katie and I went for a walk, which admittedly involved a lot of chatting and not always a huge amount of walking, but we covered some decent slopes and called the day a 'team bonding' exercise.

Picture of the pretty:

After getting the cheque from Jan today I was feeling excited and hugely motivated, and making myself go to the gym after work was pretty easy. I pushed myself pretty hard and expect to be feeling the pain tomorrow, but I'm feeling good for it.

Things are looking up, people. We are totally doing this and totally kicking ass at it. But we couldn't do it without you, so thank you so, so much to those of you who have sponsored us so far. It means a lot to both of us.

Next time on lettersfromavoyage: Ms Motivator speaks and I tell the story of another offer on £500 sponsorship which might be a step too far, even for me... 

i check my look in the mirror

I type to you this evening as a ginger.

The deed was done after work on Tuesday, with my flatmate Fi-Fi in control of the hair dye and my partner in crime Katie in charge of documenting the event with photos. Most of you will have seen it by now, but this is how it's looking:

It has been approved by my generous sponsor, who I don't think actually believed I would go through with it. All I can say is never underestimate me, I don't back down from a challenge.

I've been dealing with a bit of ribbing; carrot, Ginny, Ron, Garfield, to name some of the more polite teasing I have had to put up with. But of course it is all done without malice and I am happy to put up with it.

It has been a weird couple of days. People stare, you see. The problem is that I keep forgetting that I'm a ginger now so I get very confused by the expression on people's faces as they stare at me. Hilariously, I got off pretty lightly because it turns out I suit the ginger look. This means that I have been highly amused by the fact that people are at first unsure as to whether I have done this to myself out of choice, or if perhaps it could be another of mine and Rogers 'office dares' or something. They are scared of saying the wrong thing or offending me by asking (well, those with any tact anyway) and so choose to say nothing, while still giving me a wary look. This is the point at which I jump in and explain and they then look relieved.

Nothing can be so amusing though as when I shock myself as I catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror, expecting to see my normal blonde self and being confronted with a fairly bright orange.

It won't be long before I have to carry out my next challenge, as we are getting pretty close to the £1000 mark. It has been agreed that Ms Motivator (aka Katie) is the ideas woman, full of charm and organisational skills. I serve as the comic relief, someone willing to do outrageous things and be laughed at.

Having said that, Katie has let it be known that if someone is willing to sponsor her a substantial amount of money, she would be prepared to go ginger too - so if anyone is willing to contribute to that fund, please let us know. I know I'd like to see Katie do something utterly ridiculous.

Our next fundraising endeavour will be announced in the next few days, so stay tuned for that. In the mean time I will leave you with our first 'team photo' and yet another link to our sponsorship page.

Sponsor Soph & Katie here for trekking/hair dying/any other silly ideas you may have. 

we may need to change the title of this blog...

For once I find myself somewhat lost for words and unsure of what to say. Since my post the other day in which I shared my plans to dye my hair blonde/pink/blue, there has been a development.

It is my birthday today and I'm about to head to London to see one of my favourite bands (Sigur Ros), so I will keep this short and explain more soon.

I have been offered an incredibly generous donation for dying my hair a colour that doesn't appear on the original list. It is such a generous amount of money that there is absolutely no way I cannot do it. Even my father is on board here people.

It will happen in the next week or so, there will be no time wasted. I'm not going to lie, I'm nervous. I don't really consider myself to be a vain person, but this is a pretty big ask and so I am asking, please, please, please, if you would consider donating some pennies to sponsor me for dying my hair...

I'm going ginger, baby!

all the colours of the rainbow

It is time to step things up a notch people. Let's get serious.

I am pretty much willing to do whatever I have to in order to raise as much money as possible for the James Hopkins Trust. In my eyes, obviously, there is no better or more deserving cause.

So. With that in mind, this is my plan.

When we reach certain milestones, I will do something ridiculous in 'celebration'. The first milestone is £500. When we reach that point, I have agreed that I will dye my hair. There is currently some discussion (read: argument) about what colour this should be, so I thought what better than to leave the choice entirely up to you.

These are your options:

• 'Debbie Harry in the Atomic days' blonde
• Pink
• Blue
• I'll pay you lots of money NOT to dye your hair (that one's for my father)

If you want to have your say, all you have to do is sponsor us. If you do that through our bmycharity page, then when it asks if you want to comment, include your colour choice. I will also get some jars (or something) together to keep on my desk at work. Put the money in the appropriate pot and I'll get someone neutral (i.e. not you) to keep track of which option is winning and voila! The one with the most money when we reach the £500.00 mark wins.

I promise I will absolutely go through with this (and get it done by a pro - don't panic kids).

And before some of you cry/have heart attacks/freak out/shout at me... just remember it isn't permanent. It's hair dye. It's temporary. My hair will grow. And it's all for a good cause.

It's still to be decided what the other milestone celebrations should be and I will take all suggestions on board, but bear in mind that reaching £2000 will result in me wearing a dress to work every day for a week (and not complaining about it). And I just know you want me to have to go through that traumatic experience.

If you want to see all this ridiculousness happen, get sponsoring us people. Spread the word.

You all know you want to see me looking silly.