4 weeks to go!

Well it has been a while since I updated this blog and A LOT has happened since my last post so here goes:


It became obvious with a few weeks to go until the travel component of our total was due ($5K) that we would not be able to fundraise the $5K to cover that part of our target.  Ideally we would have liked to have fundraised $10K each to cover both the travel component AND the Amnesty component but it was just not going to happen.  So we bit the bullet and paid for the travel part ourselves.  


Since then we have managed to reach the $5K target for Amnesty so that is the main thing.  This was helped along with a very successful ASCENT silent art auction held at Conduit Arts: http://conduitarts.org/ on Thursday 31 May.  My good friend Teleesh (2nd in charge of the Real Hot Bitches) sourced around 30 incredible contemporary artworks from her friends in Melbourne's art world and I sourced a few from NZ.  We hung all the work on Wednesday and Thursday with the help of Felicity, Cindy and also the gallery owners Leo and Marie.  The night was fuelled by mulled red wine and beer (with Cindy and Anton manning the bar) and we had a great turn out.  Here are some pics:

Cindy and Felicity using the spirit level app on Felicity's phone

Teleesh striking a pose

First attendees

And it's happening!

So all in all it was a great success, raising over $2K!  

We also did 2 weekends straight of sausage sizzling at Smith Street Woolworths.  Being a vegetarian, I was put on onion chopping duty which I thought would entail me standing around with stinging eyes and tears running down my face.  Not so, turns out after the first couple of onions it's plain sailing.  Two weekends in a row was more than enough for us, but we did raise about $1.5K all up!  A good result.  Here's Anton nerding out at the sausage stand:

We also held our final quiz night last week and drew the Monster Raffle!  So apart from one final 'Bitching for a Cause' tomorrow night, all of our fundraising is done and dusted which is a mighty relief!  We plan to throw a party for all of our mates that have helped us out and supported us over the past few months when we return from Kilimanjaro.

Radiothon began at my work last week so I have been working longer hours than normal.  Despite not having had a drink since May (Anton and I are doing a 'No Goon June - Dry July combo') I still managed to get sick after day 6 at work.  Total bummer, especially after being so good taking zinc, iron, and vitamin C, exercising daily, and not drinking.  But there's not a lot you can do when your body has other ideas.  I wonder how many other people on our trip have been laid up sick with 4 weeks to go.  Hoping to be better by Saturday so as we can get some training in the Dandenongs in!!

We shall see.  Have had Sunday and today (Monday) off work so back into it tomorrow and drugged up with some antibiotics and Sudafed.  

Have been stocking up on some essential gear now that the Winter sales for Mountain Designs and Kathmandu have kicked in.  We now own down sleeping bags with thermal liners.  Hopefully they will be warm enough for freezing conditions near the top, but not too warm for Summer camping fun at festies and the like post Kilimanjaro.

That's all for now folks!

Helen

ASCENT and QUIZ Round II

Another trip out to the Dandenongs last Saturday and this time we were pretty determined to get to Sassafras via a different route.  We managed this time to not get lost too badly (some backtracking but not as bad as last time!)  However about 30 mins after stopping for lunch the clouds came rolling in and it started to get a lot colder and started to drizzle.  Given we don't have proper waterproof gear yet, we got out our 'hiking umbrellas' but after a bit of umming and ahhing we decided to turn back.  All up a 4 hour hike (similar to last time)  We have decided we really need to do some hard out 2 day trips up Feathertop or Bogong as we are about than 10 weeks away from the BIG trip (which is pretty scary to think about!!)
Here are some pics from the Dandenong trip anyhoo and the trees are very pretty and Autumny at this time of year.  The pics really don't do the colours justice:

We have quiz night number two coming up this Wednesday at the Fitzroy Bowling Club.  We are hoping to get more people along this time.  We have some great prizes including a $50 voucher from JB Hi Fi, a $50 voucher from Myer, 2 x Grilled vouchers of 2 x burgers and chips and some movie vouchers from Nova Cinema.  It's $15 on the door and there is a pretty good bistro menu available including a lentil burger for those vegos like me!  Old Mout has kindly donated some delicious 750ml bottles of cider to add to our winning team prize this time around, and Huxtable restaurant on Smith St has donated a $100 voucher which will be up for grabs at Quiz III on June 13th.  Thanks Huxtable!

Here's Anton's ace flier:

I am also organising and curating (with an awful lot of help from my friend and fellow Real Hot Bitch Teleesh) a silent art auction at Conduit Arts on Brunswick Street on Thursday 31 May.  We have had some incredible artworks donated by some very talented and very generous artists from both NZ and Melbourne.  Here is the flier designed by yours truly (I am very proud of the scrambled mountains which was actually just a freak Photoshop thing that happened when I flattened the image but I kinda like it cos it makes me look more creative and talented than I actually am):

We have over 25 works donated including work from Tai Snaith, Vexta and Stephen Templer and I am now trying to suss a beer sponsor (easier said than done!!)  Worst comes to worst there will be white wine, mulled red wine and sparkling water.

I really need to make over $1500 from this to reach my target so fingers crossed!  I have been promoting it hard out so we shall see.

Anton got his vaccinations for Africa the other day, $285 and a sore arm later and he is immune from all sorts of diseases including Thypoid and Yellow Fever.  It's my turn next with my appointment booked for Monday.  I am more worried about the hurt to my credit card than the hurt to my arm!!  haha

We have also lined up some sausage sizzling at Smith St Safeway for 3 weekends.  The manager promises we'll make at least $500 a day so we shall see.  It will prob be the first BBQ of it's type which will include vege sausages and I think Anton is secretly keen to get his BBQ on, especially as it's mid May and the next op to BBQ will prob only rear it's head again in another 6 months or more!

Oh yes, and if you have some coinage / cash to spare that you would like to give to a good cause, please do help me reach my $5000.00 target for Amnesty.  Not only will you get a tax deductible receipt, but you will be helping Amnesty International work their magic around the world fighting for people's human rights.

Here's the link, (every cent counts):

http://amnestykilimanjaro2012.gofundraise.com.au/page/helenohoward

That's all folks!
XXX
Helen

4 hours getting lost in the Dandenongs!

After a productive Saturday morning last weekend spent shopping at the sales at both Mountain Designs and Kathmandu (and giving the credit cards a thrashing) and much needed bicycle maintenance in the afternoon, we decided Sunday was the day for a long walk out the Dandenongs.

The original plan was to walk up Mt Dandenong, so we paid a visit to the info centre at Upper Ferntree Gully for some map action.  The lady in there suggested we take a bus to Sassafras or Olinda.  So as you know where I'm talking about, here's a link to a map of the area:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Dandenong+Ranges+National+Park,+Monbulk+Rd,+Belgrave+Victoria+3160,+Australia&hl=en&ll=-37.861438,145.352554&spn=0.069796,0.154324&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.821085,79.013672&geocode=FWWivv0dGGuqCA&hnear=Dandenong+Ranges+National+Park,+Monbulk+Rd,+Belgrave+Victoria+3160,+Australia&t=m&z=13

We decided taking a bus was for pussies, so we'd just walk it instead!  Up the Lyrebird track we went, to the One Tree Hill Picnic ground.  From there, we took off in a NE direction down another track.  The problem was that the maps were very basic and many of the tracks weren't marked on them at all, so there was a lot more backtracking than we would have liked!  We decided we'd walk to Sassafras, but ended up at a dead end on a road with no continuing track on the other side and we weren't too keen on walk up the highway as there were cars zooming past and not much walking room on either side.  At that point, we had no choice but to turn around and head back which was a wee bit frustrating.  However it's good to know there are a huge amount of tracks beyond the 1000 steps area, and another good thing is that my boots didn't give me any blisters whatsoever!  20 kms of uphills and downhills later and our legs weren't even aching that much the next day which is a good sign I reckon.  It was also a super nice day, 27 degrees ad sunny.

Here are some pics of the walk including a sign for Helen Track.  Cheesy?  Yes, but it had to be done.  We also found a really creepy car graveyard with loads of random junk strewn everywhere which looked like it could have easily been a scene from a thriller / horror film so if anyone needs a creepy location for a film, lemme know.  I took the old drier pic there and there's one of Anton checking out an abandoned Range Rover.  Half expected to find a dead body.  Thankfully we didn't discover one!!

A few of my amazing friends put in for a $100 Kathmandu voucher for my birthday a couple of weeks ago so that definitely took the edge off the credit card thrashing.  I now have:  a down jacket with a hood, a merino hat, merino gloves, walking poles, liner socks, and a mean head lamp.

Next purchase to save up for is a sleeping bag.

Our quiz night at Fitzroy Bowling Club went pretty well last night.  Anton's workmates and my workmates formed 2 tables, and then we had 2 more tables of our friends.  Team 'Gone Fishing' came out in first place, taking away a stack of Monteiths and Little Creatures beer and 2 bottles of wine.  We also gave away Gr'lled vouchers, Holgate Brewhouse voucher, Taco Truck voucher, Aesop gift pack, and a double pass to Nova Cinemas.

Huge thanks to the above businesses for their donations!  Next quiz night is on 16th May, but before that, I have Let's Dance on Saturday 28th April at The Evelyn Hotel!!

Tix $15 on the door, this is going to be one fun night!

FB event is here:   https://www.facebook.com/events/115504321910607/

I have also attempted to suss a raffle ticket stall for us at both Barkly Square and Northcote Plaza this week but they have both fallen through which is pretty disappointing.  It looks like Piedmontes are the friendliest supermarket in Melbourne, so we may well end up outside there again this Saturday morning.

Until next time..

Helen

Rain, hail and shine

So, after selling our tickets to Boogie Festival we decided we should def seize the Easter weekend with both hands and wrestle it into submission.

Good Friday we were up at the crack of dawn and off to Upper Ferntree Gully for some more 1000 steps action.  This was a good chance for Anton to break in his new boots.  After a trip up the Bellview track and down the Lyrebird, his heels were bleeding and blistered.  That called for an end to that trip, and we were back on the train after only about an hour.  There really is no other way to break in boots but to walk in them though!

Saturday was rest day, then we were up at the crack of dawn again on Sunday to pick up our 'Rent a Bomb'  And what a bomb it was (the sky blue colour of it making up for a missing inner door-handle on the passenger side, and a few goes before starting up after it's been dormant for a while)  At $35 a day you really can't complain.  So off we drove to Kinglake to claim our pre-booked number 9 campsite at The Gums Camping area.  Each campsite has a BBQ table and fire pit, so after driving around trying to find firewood for a while, we settled on some fire-lighters and charcoal instead.  Pitched the tent, and then took off on a '4 hour circuit' according to the park ranger which ended up being about 2.25hrs.  Probably a good thing because even with mega bandages Anton's blistered heels were bleeding again.  OUCHY!

Here are some fun pics of the campsite and fire.  This first one is Anton putting on his new boots, Rent-a-Bomb 'Barry' in the background:

This next one is on the 2.25hr walk.  As you can see the trees are all charred from the Black Saturday fires in 2009.  It it rather sad and confronting with the trees being a constant reminder of the tragedy, sort of like a living memorial I guess.  95% of the Kinglake National park was burnt and the Gums Camping area and some of these tracks have only just been re-opened after restoration:

Anton just about to eat a flaming marshmallow!

After quite a good night's sleep, we decided a longer walk was in order.  We packed up the tent in the morning, and after grabbing a welcome coffee and croissant in Kinglake, set out on a 5 hour tramp.  We really didn't have a clear idea how long it would take, but figured judging by the map, that it would take between 4 and 6 hours.  Anton wore his sneakers as his heels were still too sore to endure a long tramp in his boots.  The scenery on this tramp was much more interesting than the previous day.  We headed along ridges and down dales, the weather varying between, rain (we had umbrellas) hail (thank god for those umbrellas) and shine!  Because we are not yet fully equipped with gore-tex wet weather gear, I was hugely thankful Anton bought the umbrellas along.  As luck would have it, we found a concrete pipe to eat our lunch in about a minute before the first hail storm swept in:

The second hail storm on the way back was brutal and all we could do for about 5 mins was crouch down and brace ourselves against a low bank with our umbrellas aimed against the storm!  It was so loud it sounded like a huge plane flying low overhead.  Nothing like a good storm in the wilderness!

Here's a pic of some fluro orange fungi on a burnt out tree.  There were also incredible grass trees which were beautiful and strange and prehistoric looking.

A sunny spell after the rain:

We were glad to finally turn the corner after 5.5hrs and see Barry the Rent-a-Bomb waiting patiently where we had left him, but felt pretty proud of ourselves to have done such a challenging walk (with both terrain and weather!)

One thing it has revealed is that my boots are not up to the challenge!  After 5 hrs walking on reasonably rocky ground, the soles were ripped to shreds!  Not cool.  So I have had to bite the bullet and buy some new ones from Mountain Designs today.  Oh well, better to find out now than 2 months down the track. Blisters will also become my constant companions over the next few weeks, the only difference being that I will probably complain more than Anton about mine rather than his admirable suffering in silence.  Here is a pic of the soles of my old boots, next to my new ones:

That's all for now!  Oh we set up camp outside Piedmonte's supermarket on March 31 (my birthday incidentally) and sold 13 raffle tickets in 3 hours, so that was a good effort!  

Next week is quiz night on Wednesday so between now and then we will need to plan some cool games and of course great quiz questions!

Wish us luck!

XXX

Raffle is GO!

Yes!  We have launched our MONSTER RAFFLE!  After 2 months of ringing around and emailing the hell out of various businesses, we have compiled some pretty awesome prizes worth almost $1300.00!

Check out the back and front of our flyer:

So the tickets are $10 each or 3 for $25, and given that there are only 500 tickets, I think it's good value. We are going to set up a wee table outside Piedmontes IGA in Fitzroy North on Saturday between 9am and 12pm (incidentally Saturday is also my birthday!)  Hopefully we sell a few there, as this will be our main way of selling them.  After all, there's only so many you can sell to friends and workmates!

We have decided to flag going to Boogie festival at Easter this year with our mates which was a really hard decision to make, because who doesn't want 4 days partying with their mates at a great festy?  But we have decided we need to get serious with our training and fundraising given we have less than 3 months to reach our $10K target!  Eeek!!

Our Wednesday night quiz nights at Fitzroy Bowls Club kick off on April 18th with the second two being May 16th and June 13th.  More deets about those will be forthcoming!

I have 'Let's Dance', my 80s dance party on at The Evelyn Hotel on the 28th of April, tickets and deets here: http://www.moshtix.com.au/event.aspx?id=54876

I have also secured Odessa Creative Space for an art auction I'm going to hold on Friday 11th May.   So I am hoping some of my talented artist friends are generous enough to donate some of their work!  Here is Odessa's website: http://odessacreativespace.com.au/

That's all for now, but put frankly we are busy busy and will be until July when we have hopefully raised enough cashola to make it to Tanzania!!  

If you would like to donate to my challenge, please do so here, every little bit counts:

http://www.gofundraise.com.au/page/helenohoward

XXX

Helen

Dandenong mission, aching legs!

So Anton and I went on the most 'long-ish' and 'serious-ish' walk we have been on in a bit on Labour Day Monday.  After a weekend of excess alcohol consumption, we decided to redeem ourselves by taking a trip out to Upper Ferntree Gully to do the 1000 steps again (and sweat out our toxins!)  Only this time, we walked up the 1000 steps, down the Lyrebird track, up the Lyrebird track and then down the Bellview Terrace track.

This took us all in all 2 hrs, which might not seem like a lot, but 1 hour of that was either steps or a steep uphill track.  Also, we knocked 30 mins off the 'recommended times' for each of these walks (which actually isn't that hard as I am sure they judge it on the pace of an octagenarian with a walking frame)  It felt a lot better going up the 1000 steps this time than it did last time, when I felt like my heart was about the explode and had to stop at least 3 times for a breather (this time I only had one stop)  To give you some idea of what I'm blabbing on about, here is a link to enlighten you somewhat:

http://www.bushwalkingblog.com.au/1000-steps-kokoda-track-return-via-lyrebird-track-dandenong-ranges-national-park-upper-ferntree-gully-victoria-2/

Here's a pic of me BEFORE intense exercise (ie no red sweaty face)  I don't have an AFTER shot for your enjoyment / ridicule because I am too vain:

The public transport mish for us is 2 hrs each way, so we were up at 8.30am and back by around 12.30pm in time to do some intense lawn mowing and weeding as a sort of warm down.

The next trip we take out here we'd like to climb Mt Dandenong which is 633m high.  Not sure how long it will take us.  We will need to do a little more investigation I think as I believe it may also involve some bus travel.

Here's a pic from the One Tree Hill picnic area where we had lunch (top of 1000 steps)  The weather was amaze BTW!

Our legs were SORE on Tuesday afternoon, and that soreness kicked back in again this morning when I did my normie 2 hour walk to work.  It was about 25 degrees and very humid so I was soaked in sweat when I got to work.  I do smell like roses all the time though so so no probs!  haha

We have finally sorted our raffle prizes with the donation of an old school barber's shop cut to complete the 'His n Hers' prize pack for 2nd prize so we will get them printed tomorrow in time for me to sell some at my stall at Fitzroy Markets on Saturday (all proceeds to my Kilimanjaro Challenge)

We are also sorting quiz nights for April, May and June so stay tuned for those deets!!

Taco Truck and Grill'd have promised me taco and burger vouchers as quiz night giveaways, so we're on a roll, and my day off on Monday will give me a chance to get some more ace prizes to lure people along.

Also, (just as a side note mind you) if you would like to donate to my challenge, please do!  Any amount from $2 to $2000 would be hugely appreciated.  Every little bit counts!  Thanks generous people!  Here's the link if you feel like throwing some coinage my way:

http://www.gofundraise.com.au/page/helenohoward

That's all for now
XXX
Helen

More donations and fundraising ideas

Fundraising update:

My lovely amazingly talented friend Claire is the owner / manager / maker of beautiful jewels at her store Madame Fancy Pants in Wellington.  She has kindly donated a stunning antique gold feather bracelet and a charm necklace of her own making for our raffle.  Thanks Claire!  Check out the link to her online store on the Wall of FAME! page.  Healesville Hotel also came through with a 2 course lunch for 2, which I am very happy about because they are listed in the Good Food Guide so their food is likely to be incredible!  And we have also been offered 2 nights weekend accommodation at Healesville Apartments which is ace because we couldn't give a weekend away in the Yarra Valley without accommodation!  Thanks Tony!  We have stayed the treetops apartment before and it was clean, modern, comfortable and private.   Here's a picture of the bedroom (the picture is tiny but if you blow it up it becomes pixelated):

So we're almost there with the raffle prizes, just waiting on a bicycle shop who promised to get back to me this week, and might try to get a barber shop cut to give away with the Buckley's beer for the 'His n Hers' second prize.  Once all prizes are sorted, they will be posted on here and the printing of the tickets and SELLING will commence.  We have over $1000 worth of prizes and will attempt to sell 500 tickets at $10 each.

Oh and the link to buy presale tickets to my mega awesome 80s dance party with Kinshasa Express, Danceteria DJs and The Real Hot Bitches at The Evelyn Hotel in April is HERE:

http://admin.moshtix.com.au/event.aspx?id=54876

I have also decided (perhaps stupidly with all I have currently going on) to put on a charity art auction with art donated from some of my talented friends.  Just need to suss a keen gallery and some beer / wine sponsorship!!  Hopefully that will bring in $2K - $3K.  It's not something I've done before but if the art is quality enough I think it will be a success.

Anton has been to a quiz night at the East Brunswick Club to do some 'research' on how to conduct one,  this so called 'research' also involved drinking beer, but perhaps that was 'research' for his beer brewing (which is going so well the first batch is due to be bottled tomorrow)  Mountain Brew ahoy!

This coming Monday is Labour Day, so we're keen to get some training in.  We're going to 'Rent-a-Bomb' and drive out to Kinglake National Park to do a 'serious' 4 hour walk which has been described as 'hard'  So I'm looking forward to a challenging walk finally!

That's all for now folks!