Handing over the sixtyat60 baton

Christmas is just round the corner. 2016 is spluttering to an end. And it's time for me to wave a final fond farewell to my sixtyat60 challenge. But as I do this, I'm beyond happy to say that the sixtyat60 baton has been passed onto a new holder. This trusty volunteer is a friend of mine called Caroline Britton, who celebrated her 60th birthday last Saturday, and is already getting stuck into her list of 60 tasks. She's fund-raising for Beating Bowel Cancer and Arthritis Research UK, and will be writing a blog after each task just as I did. 

If you'd be interested in reading about Caroline's sixtyat60 challenge, do please visit her blog, where she'll be regaling readers over the next year with stories of travel, games & magic (can't wait to see her video clip of performing a trick.....), getting on with IT, culture, helping hand, creative crafts, food & drink, nature and mind & body - not to mention that scariest of sections, facing fears (she's certainly chosen to confront a few of those, brave girl).

http://60at60challenges.blogspot.co.uk/

Now before I sign off for good, I must just give you one important update arising from my own challenge. Cast your mind back 12 months, when my oldest friends Louise and Annabel accompanied me to Somerset House for a session of ice-skating (Task 6). 

You may perhaps remember that events took an unexpected turn that afternoon and poor Annabel landed up in St Thomas's A&E Department with a Colles fracture? After skilled surgical intervention, lots of physio and epic determination on Annabel's part, her wrist is almost back to full strength and dexterity (albeit with metal plates in place). So to acknowledge and celebrate the progress that she's made, the three of us returned to Somerset House last week, along with Amelia (another friend from those halcyon days of our youth), who joined forces with us in A&E a year ago to support Annie in her hour of need.

Somerset House looked as fetching and festive as we remembered it from our previous visit.  I don't suppose you'll be surprised to hear that we decided to give the ice-rink a miss this time. But Annabel treated us to the round of hot chocolate that we were unable to stay for last year. And thus the Task 6 circle was finally completed, which we all agreed was a very nice feeling indeed.  

There's just one last piece of unfinished business. 'What about the book Vivien?' I hear a few of you murmur. Well, I'll be straight with you, I think that's going to be a tougher than tough nut to crack. A couple of weeks ago I completed a draft proposal with a view to submitting it to a literary agent. I ran it past two, ahem, blood relations of mine. Their feedback gave me no cause for optimism. But as Andrew says, I must see it through. So an amended document will duly be submitted to Watson Little, Literary Agents extraordinaire, by Christmas Eve. And then my job will be done, whatever the outcome (and I'm not holding my breath!)

My sincere thanks again for being a very special group of readers. In addition to your hugely generous donations to my two charities, you've supported me in countless different ways throughout the sixtyat60 challenge, and have helped me to prove to myself that retirement is both fun and fulfilling.  And who knows, I may just start another blog to keep myself out of mischief - watch this space.

   

A special day at Shooting Stars House

I know, I know, it's almost six months since I completed the sixtyat60 challenge and yes, it's high time I let go and moved on with my life. But before I do that, I thought you might just be interested to hear about a very special visit that I made to Shooting Star House last week?  

So how did this visit come about? A few weeks ago Katie Wallman from the fund-raising office at Shooting Star Chase contacted me. 'You've raised such an incredible amount of money for us' she said, 'and we're wondering if you'd like to have a tour of our hospice in Hampton, so that you can see for yourself how your fund-raising has helped.'  I was very touched by the invitation, and I accepted on the spot of course. Even better, my friend Carol, grandmother of little Thea in whose memory I was raising money for Shooting Star Chase, agreed to come with me (see below one of my favourite photos of Thea with Bam-Bam Carol). Visiting Shooting Star House was to be a first-time experience for both of us, as Thea's fantastic Shooting Star care worker Sam used to visit her at home.

The fab diagram below gives you some key facts about Shooting Star Chase and its' two hospices (Shooting Star House in Hampton and St Christopher's in Guildford). The hospices provide support to 700 families who have a baby, child or young person with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition. About 80% of the children have a genetic condition like Thea and 20% have a form of cancer.  

Last Tuesday Carol and I rendezvoused at a cafe near Hampton Station and sat for an hour or so catching up and sharing memories of little Thea. Then we made our way down the road to Shooting Star House, a bright white building nestling in the heart of Hampton, with big windows and art deco-like curved walls.

We were lucky enough to be given an individual tour of Shooting Star House by Rachel Bowen, the lovely senior team leader. As Rachel showed us round the facilities, we were bowled over by the sensitivity and specialist skill with which the hospice has been designed. As importantly, we were struck by the atmosphere of joy, love, warmth and humour permeating throughout the building. We saw so many smiley welcoming faces during our visit.

So what are my standout memories from our afternoon at Shooting Star House?  Well for starters, Carol and I both loved the beautifully equipped Sparkle Day Care room for pre-school children, who can attend once a week, giving them and their families a sense of normality and the chance to have the everyday experiences of other children. The sensory room was also amazing (see photo below) - my favourite piece of equipment was a panel built into the wall with a series of buttons that emit a range of different aromas and smells when pressed (my fingers were itching to give it a go).

Shooting Star Chase's core philosophy of caring for the whole family was evident throughout our tour. We heard about the great range of therapy services on offer to parents and siblings whilst children are under the hospices' care. And on the upper floor of the building we saw spacious bedrooms for family members of children who are staying over downstairs, with a communal sitting room and tea/coffee-making facilities, where parents can chat informally together.   

Other special memories? Definitely the hydrotherapy pool (apparently it has a music and light show that's second to none). And the Chill Zone geared towards teenagers. And the super well-stocked arts and crafts room. And the bright and airy dining room area where everyone eats together. And the state of the art equipment enabling children to achieve optimal independence. And the attractive gardens that all the ground floor rooms open out onto (see photo below).  Truly, I could go on and on.......

In addition to offering day care, domiciliary care and short respite breaks for families (up to 12 days a year), Shooting Star House also specialises in end of life care. The last set of rooms we visited on our tour was the Tranquil Suite, where a bereaved family can stay with their child for up to 7 days after their life has ended, giving them the time and space to grieve in the way they need to. In the small and peaceful courtyard garden of the suite stands a Memory Tree, with silver stars dangling from its branches, each twinkling star engraved with the name of a child who has journeyed through Shooting Star's care. Of the many images I've retained from my afternoon at Shooting Star House, that's an especially powerful and poignant one.    
    
And the most special memory of all during our visit? As we were walking round the building, Carol talked very eloquently and movingly about Thea's life and about Shooting Star House's valuable role in caring for her - and for the whole afternoon, it felt as if Thea was there with us, listening to every word. This blog has been written in memory of Thea Redford, little pickle, big sister, treasured child, wonderfully determined daughter and gorgeous granddaughter, with loads of love and hugs from me.

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Thanks to the fantastic generosity of my sixtyat60 supporters, I succeeded in raising £1500 for Shooting Star Chase in the second half of my challenge. That's the cost of one night's emergency stay at one of the hospices!  It costs £27,000 a day to run Shooting Star Chase - which amounts to £10 million a year.  Only 10% of their income comes from government funding, so the hospices are reliant upon fund-raising to keep the service running. I do hope that in this blog I've managed to convey something of the outstanding and inspirational work carried out by Shooting Star Chase for children with life-limiting conditions and their families.  If you'd like to find out more, do please pay a visit to their website at  https://www.shootingstarchase.org.uk 

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Intrepid trekkers take a trip up Kilimanjaro

For over forty years I've competed with Mount Kilimanjaro to be the object of Andrew's desire. Kilimanjaro.....the tallest mountain in Africa, a travel icon, its ascent immortalised in the classic Monty Python Kilimanjaro Expedition sketch - frankly I was fighting a losing battle from the word go. 

So what ignited Andrew's relationship with Kilimanjaro?  It dates back to a time forty two years ago when Andrew was sent to work in Arusha, Tanzania. Kilimanjaro provided a majestic backdrop to Arusha's dusty streets, and it was considered a rite of passage for all young male ex-pats to ascend its slopes. Twice Andrew had the opportunity to join a Kili trek - and twice he had to pull out due to work commitments or illness. His failure to conquer Kili has been a niggling bugbear ever since. When we visited Tanzania 2 years ago for a safari trip, I would often see him gazing longingly at Kili. 'Have I left it too late?' he pondered out loud one day. My answer? To give him a book written by Richard Wolfe,  who had reached the summit at the age of 70....

The following Christmas, over a few festive bevvies at our local, the Hunot family came up with a masterplan to take on Kili.  Later on, minus the disinhibiting influence of alcohol, some of us, ahem, reconsidered our options. But Andrew and Michael remained admirably committed to the cause and duly booked places to join an organised group trek that was taking place in August 2016.  And so Andrew's quest to conquer Kili finally began.  

Two weeks ago I dropped Andrew off at Heathrow after an arduous 4 hour journey on the M25. I watched him limp across the concourse, still suffering from an acute bout of Achilles tendonitis.  Could he get to the summit? Would his 42 year romance with Kili become all-consuming? Would Michael manage to coax him home to me? If you click on the link below, you'll be taken to Andrew's newly created website, where you can read the full story written with love by Kili's very (if I may say so) courageous 67 year old suitor..... 

http://hunot.co.uk/

In the meantime, here are just a trio of photos from Andrew's ginormous collection to whet your appetite (NB Andrew celebrated his 67th birthday during the trek, and the first pic shows the birthday cake that was baked in his honour).

I'm delighted to report that Andrew did indeed return home to me (I think it was the promise of a home baked treacle tart that did it).  And my final thoughts on Andrew and Michael's enterprise?  

Well, they've certainly done that - well done boys, I'm immensely proud of you both.

Blogging with pride for Alzheimer's Research UK

In truth I wasn't intending to inflict another update upon you all, well certainly not this soon anyway. However......I wanted to let you know about a blog that I've just written for Alzheimer's Research UK. ARUK is keen to re-promote the sixtyat60 challenge now that I've passed the finishing post, and I was asked by their press officer to contribute a 500 word piece for the ARUK website.  My goodness, how I struggled to stick to that word count. So much material! But it was lovely to spend some time dipping into my memories of Andrew's mother before she became affected by Alzheimer's. And it also gave me the opportunity to reflect on my sixtyat60 experiences in entirety. Here's the link to the recently published ARUK blog.

http://www.dementiablog.org/sixtyat60/

Since I seem to find myself hanging out on Blogspot again, perhaps you'll forgive me for regaling you with a few more post-sixtyat60 nuggets of news?

1. Welsh walking
In my previous blog, I described how a small coterie of Hunots, led by Bobby the Italian greyhound, were planning to take on Mount Snowdon, as part of Andrew and Michael's preparation for their Kilimanjaro adventure. Our expedition took place 2 weeks ago. So how did we fare.......? 

The weather was damp and murky as we set off (classic conditions for the onset of seriously frizzy hair as far as I was concerned) and the ascent was pretty tough going in places. Jonathan surged ahead as predicted. Michael increased his pace and disappeared into the mist after Jonathan. Liz was sure-footed and swift all the way up, despite having to deal with endless inquiries about the Bobster by fellow walkers. Andrew built up confidence and momentum as the walk progressed. And I just kept plodding on, my hair getting wetter and wilder by the minute. 

 

Here we are at the summit. Can you spot us through the swirling mist? I'm chief photographer so you won't see me at all (no bad thing - my hair had taken on a life of its own by this point). 

 

The descent was as challenging as the ascent, what with tiring legs, uneven/steep terrain, a greyhound expecting to be carried down by his team of Hunot sherpas, an incident involving said greyhound that resulted in a leg injury of uncertain severity, and a rather splendid tumble by your writer (Liz kindly said it looked 'very professional'). But the mist finally evaporated, the scenery was spectacular, we arrived back at our starting point in a highly respectable time and thankfully neither Bobby nor I required orthopaedic attention. Ben Nevis anyone?

 

Andrew and Michael head out to Tanzania this Friday and will be starting their ascent of Kilimanjaro on Sunday.  Whether they make it to the top or not (altitude sickness can hit the most well-prepared of people), I'm very proud of them both, and I'll be waiting at home on tenderhooks for 6 long days until I know they've completed the descent safely.

2.  Jigsaw jiggery-pokery
That accursed nemesis of a jigsaw Starry Night has been framed and is now hanging in Michael's bedroom (NB Michael left home 12 years ago, but in my mind it's still his room - does this make me a helicopter mother?) And very fine it looks too. 

I've now started the 1000-piece Selhurst Park jigsaw that Jonathan gave me for Christmas. It's another tough one, with lots of grass and many rows of tense and despairing faces. Will I have completed it by the time Palace have their first win of the season? More than likely if Palace don't get a move on with signing a striker. I mean, just look at their performance against West Brom on Saturday. There I go slipping into football chat again. Sorry girls. 

3.  Caterham capers
It's almost a year since I took a spin around the Sussex countryside in our friend Peter's splendid Caterham car, with Andrew by my side uttering Mr Toad-like noises. Perhaps you'll remember that in my blog I made an unkind (if affectionate) little dig at Michael's 9-year 'journey' to build his own Caterham.  But it looks like my underhand tactic worked. Michael has sent me an up to date photo. Just look at the 'before and after' photos below. How impressive is that!!

4.  Ringing the chimes 
Forgive me for puffing out my chest a little, but I've finally reached the pinnacle of fame - an article I've written on my bell-ringing task has been published in our local parish magazine. My hope is that new recruits will come forward to bolster that magnificent but sparse team at St Bartholomew's as a result of my carefully crafted piece. And will Andrew and I be leading by example? At this stage I don't think it's going to happen, mainly because we'd disappoint and frustrate the team with our unreliable attendance at weekends. But who knows, the sound of the bells drifting along the valley may still draw me there. 

5.  Lindy hopping
On Saturday evening Andrew and I went to a really lovely party, where there was a great band, which meant there was.......dancing!! We attempted a quiet lindy hop move or two when we thought no one was looking. And even when Andrew was just bopping, it was clear (to me anyway) that his style has definitely loosened up. That's all thanks to Matt Blacklock, our cheerful and charming lindy hop instructor. I'm still hoping I may be able to entice Andrew into joining one of Matt's group dancing classes - only please don't tell Andrew I said that (stealth tactics at work.....)

 Finally, and most importantly, I can give you a final-ish tally on the money raised for my two special charities (I say final-ish because it's possible I may still receive a few donations via the ARUK website):

£1505 for Shooting Star Chase
£1950 for Alzheimer's Research UK

That's a grand total of £ 3455,  which is waaaaay beyond my expectations for the year (you may remember that I originally set a target of £600 for each charity). Needless to say both charities are delighted and very grateful. Once again, my sincere thanks to all who made contributions - I'm so touched by your amazing support.

As I wind up this blog, I have to confess I feel another one coming on once Andrew and Michael return from Kili - so be warned guys!

High time for an update

Wow, it's a whole six weeks since I completed the last of my sixty tasks. High time for me to provide you with that promised follow-up...... 

Not withstanding the recent seismic referendum result, life here post-challenge is gradually settling into a nice rhythm, punctuated by whizzy weekend trips to Paris and Valencia, Italian greyhound puppy-minding duties (go Bobby), a nail-biting mens' quarter-finals day at Wimbledon and a 10-day episode of acute lower back pain. Am I missing the buzz and excitement of the sixtyat60 challenge?  Do you know what, I'm really not!  In truth I'm relishing the peace, space and freedom from juggling multiple tasks. But it was a wonderful experience, and I already have a fantastic album (thank you Lucy) crammed full with memories of my various escapades.

And now the million dollar question - which of those sixty tasks am I continuing to embrace?  In no particular order, here are my top five current 'retainers'.

1. I've stuck to my guns and am continuing to learn the saxophone. I've put Year of the Cat firmly to one side now and have started focusing attention on my Grade 1 pieces (yay!)  Although I have to confess I'm finding the improvising sections quite a challenge. Added to which I've been very remiss about practicing between lessons over the past few weeks (in my defence, back pain and the sax aren't ideal companions) and I've started behaving a bit like a stroppy teenager when I show up at my teacher Sarah's house - 'the dog ate my sheet music Miss' and so on. Talking of dogs, Alfie still howls manically whenever he hears me play.  If only I could get video clips to work in this blog....you can't really tell he's in full flow in the photo below, but trust me, he's loud!

2. Since tracking down my grandparents' house in Aberystwyth in April, I've become a committed Cymru-ophile. I was hugely excited when Wales reached the semi-final of the Euros, and as you can see from the photo below, the charming Wales manager Chris Colman and I are now firm friends (well OK, it was just a chance meeting on East Croydon Station last October after a Palace match....)

3. I'm really pleased to say that our memorable Wales Coast Path adventure in April has inspired me to do further Big Walks. Andrew and I are taking on Snowdon at the end of this month as part of Andrew's training programme for tackling Kilimanjaro in August. We're going to be accompanied on the Snowdon trek by Michael (who's going to be climbing Kilimanjaro with Andrew), together with Liz, Jonathan and Bobby the Italian greyhound.  Jonathan intends to power-walk his way to the summit, Bobby is planning to hitch a lift in someone's backpack and I shall probably be bringing up the rear. But I'm really looking forward to it - beautiful mountains, time with my family and those historic Welsh breakfasts.....

4. Running has been off the agenda whilst my back has been misbehaving, but I tried out a very gentle 5k yesterday morning, and was extremely chuffed to discover that I was able to complete my usual circuit without collapsing in a heap. However I can see that it's going to require real discipline on my part to keep up the running, so I've decided to sign up for another 5k or 10k Fun Run in October to help maintain my motivation. And in the meantime I'm going to continue with Pilates classes to keep my back on the straight and narrow.

5. Our mini vineyard is keeping us busy with pruning, spraying, weeding, canopy management and the like. After the incident with those pesky pheasants last September, we're ready to wage war with them this year, newly sourced protective netting at the ready. Although we hadn't reckoned on further unwanted visitors.....three weeks ago a couple of greedy deer managed to find a way of circumnavigating our 'deerproof' fencing and proceeded to feast on the yummy new shoots. Fortunately they didn't munch their way through the entire crop but it looks likely that the harvest will be a modest one again. We will not be beaten - next year we're determined to keep pheasants and deer at bay!!

That's my top five for now. Of course there are many other retainer tasks waiting patiently in the wings.....for instance the Valencia trip I alluded to in the second paragraph was booked with a view to me putting my newly learnt Spanish to use. We had a memorable weekend (it's such a beautiful city), but sadly I lost count of the times I failed to find the right word to use, prompting Andrew to say in a bewildered fashion 'But I thought you could speak Spanish now.....?'  That said, when I pronounced a paella dish as 'riquissimo' in one restaurant, the waiter's face lit up like a Christmas tree. 'Muchas gracias senora, y muy bien!' he responded joyfully.  My six lessons were worth every penny for that moment alone. Will I sign up for Spanish lessons at my local Adult Education Centre in September? Watch this space guys. 

And now the most important question of all - how much money have I raised for my two chosen charities? To date the grand totals are:

1. Alzheimer's Research UK - £1867
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Vivien-Hunot

2. Shooting Star Chase Children's Hospice Care - £1415  https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sixtyat60challenge

I'm so grateful to everyone for their kindness and generosity - I really can't thank you all enough.  I'm going to keep both of my JustGiving pages open until Sunday 24th July and would dearly love to reach a final total of £2000 for ARUK  and £1500 for Shooting Star Chase. So if you know of anyone who might be interested in reading about my completed challenge and/or making a donation to either charity, do please feel free to forward on the link to my blog  http://sixtyat60challenge.blogspot.co.uk/ 

One final observation.  From time to time over the last year, I've had some lovely people say to me, 'So when are you going to write a book about your challenge Vivien?'  Reader, I am considering my options. It would certainly be a nice way to  try and raise more money for the two charities. I shall keep you posted....

Task 38:Write a 36-line poem describing my sixtyat60 experiences

I only have myself to blame for this penultimate task in my sixtyat60 challenge. I got a bit carried away. In fact in the first instance I specified that I had to write a 60-line poem. But then it occurred to me that a poem of that length might be extremely tedious for the poor reader to wade through, let alone a bit of a marathon to compose.  So days before the challenge began, I made a last minute decision to reduce the number of lines to 36. Super wise move Hunot.

Of course I wasn't in a position to make a start on the poem until the end of the sixtyat60 challenge was in sight.  With the end finally looming, I slipped into full-on panic mode. Where to start? What angle to take? What sort of scansion? I was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed. Then as I was listening to Year of the Cat for the umpteenth time whilst rehearsing for my Saxophone Riff Moment, a cunning plan emerged from the outer reaches of my brain. The Year of the Cat is organised into 7 verses containing 33 lines. That's almost 36 lines. And the title contains the word 'year'. Hmm......

And so it was that I came to shamelessly steal and adapt the lyrics of Al Stewart's great song. In my version of the song I can only describe a small number of the tasks - and I've had to slap on another verse at the end to ensure that I meet the 36-line criterion. But that's poetic licence for you. One word of warning - the scanning of the lines is quite quirky, in line with the original song lyrics...... 


Year of the Tasks
(with sincere apologies to Al Stewart & Peter Wood)

On an evening at the Globe Theatre
In the audience there's not a peep
Actors stroll onto the stage in As You Like It
And Michael falls asleep

She comes past Worthing Pier in her lycra running
And sees Jonathan is waiting there
He drags her by the hand to the finish
With only seconds to spare.

In the year of the tasks  

She doesn't take no for an answer
A lindy hop class is a must
Though they dance without a sense of which direction
It's a YouTube clip or bust 


By the muddy walls in the dairy stalls
With Iris, cows and Moo Man too
Today, she says, I'll squeeze some teats
And watch the milk come running through

The year of the tasks 


She looks at the wall so coolly
Whilst a small heart is tattooed on her hip
Liz comes in and says 'Tell me truly
Will it hurt me, to have a boat on my foot?'

The year of the tasks 



Well morning comes and still no passport
Lucy can't get on the Stockholm flight
She's thrown away the chance to meet Anna Ternheim
It's a really sad plight 



The painful strains of the sax remain
And the dogs still howl loud every day
You know those notes she's bound to mess up
But for now she's going to play
The year of the cat


She's sixty one today and shattered
She's done glamping in the cold night air   
One last blog and she can finally nail the challenge
If she can stay awake to share

In the year of the tasks

 

And that's it guys - with this final blog, Task 38 is also completed and my job is done. Time to put away my laptop and get on with everyday life. But not before saying a huge, sincere and warmer than warm thank you to everyone who's been involved in my sixtyat60 challenge through support, companionship and/or donations over the last year as I've worked my way through my crazy list of tasks.  People have been wonderfully willing, kind, generous, helpful, fun and thoughtful in a myriad of different ways and I'm so so grateful to you all.  My special thanks, love and hugs go to Andrew who not only has been by my side for many of the tasks, but has also proof-read nearly every blog before I publish it. Hope you approve of this one H!

My plan is to send you an update in about 4 weeks' time, when I hope to be able to answer the question that has been on many people's lips recently - 'So what are you going to do with yourself once the challenge is finished.....?!' 

Until then I'll leave you all in peace, with one last gentle reminder that I've been doing the second half of this challenge in memory of a very special little girl, Thea Redford, and that if you had it in mind to make a donation to Shooting Star Chase, the charity that supported Thea's parents Annabel and Rob through many wonderful but challenging times, there's still time to do so at: 

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sixtyat60challenge