Fitting a sail to a canoeControversially I bought a sail for my canoe. Thankfully I do now have the income that justifies the purchase. This was so I could paddle the Great Glen Canoe Trail - coast to coast across Scotland, and get back home quicker. And of course, Canoe sailing is fun. Doing so, in order to reconnoitre (one of my Dad's favourite words) the trail - no small feat - and return to complete it ideally in 5 days as a charity paddle - for mental health. The problem - I'm now in Glasgow with the sail and inadequate tools to complete the job. HPurpose of this blog is to say thank you to some great people I met in Glasgow whilst visiting for some fringe COP26 talks and prior to heading up to my planning / research trip of the highlands canoe trail.
Allan and Peter in Jewsons Thank you Allan. You helped me find a place where my canoe could spend a night in a warm factory at CAPVOND (another blog and vlog on this - should have been featured inside COP26), in order that the mast base G Flex adhesive could set properly, by introducing me to your colleague Peter. Also, generously letting me have some rubber gloves for glueing and a mask, as I dropped my outside in puddle. Thanks buddies. Great ambassodor for Jewsons and CAPVOND. Stephanie - Stephanie's Cafe outside Jewson After explaining my predicament, Stephenie, you helped me by asking your customers, trades people, if they had a cordless drill I could borrow. You also do a great sarnie, I can recommend Stephanie's Scottish Potato Scones. Yum. You are a queen. Gary Quinn - roofer Gary, you came to my request via Stephanie and leant your drill to me. I would not have been able to fit the mast thwart on the canoe and definitely would not have been able to use the sail. Cheers pal. Gary and Derek of Unit4 Trades - Property Improvements I would not have been able to drill the holes in my thwart without the 5 mm drill you lent me. Thanks! Ian at CAPVOND Allowing me to use space inside your unit and store my canoe overnight indoors whilst the GFLEX adhesive bonded and access your internet with my data running out. And sharing what you do at CAPVOND - great use cases of reused/ purposed plastic recycled in to new value as building materials, roofs, fencing - circular economy in action. Look forward to sharing our video conversation with others. I might have an idea for your product for the rear door on my modular ecopod. Paul - McDonalds Darnley My data ran out and I was trying to plan how I was going to get from where I was camping in my van to an important COP fringe talk - Healthy Minds, Healthy Planet. Without your kind deed of providing me access to the internet via your personal hotspot, I was pretty lost. Wow - it was sobering how dependent we become on access to the internet. I was able to activate a new SIM and get online. Catch 22. Buy sim because you have no internet and you need the internet to activate it. For some reason the public free wifi wasn't having it. Your kind act with the personal hotspot was a lifesaver. Here is why I am planning a sponsored canoe trail - 95 km, wild camping, highlands canoe expedition - www.gofundme.com/f/help-me-build-a-modular-ecopod
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A few years ago, inspired by both Matt Callanan and my eldest daughter Lily, motivated about injustices and inequality, and 100% supported with ideas from my two younger daughter Rosie and Holly, we set about trying to help with homelessness in our home city Birmingham.
This culminated in the 5 of us buying (with kindly donated cash from my mother Kate) home made crackers (with emergency blankets inside), gifts including socks, toothpaste, brushes, and also underwear and gloves, and Christmas cards that the girls wrote out with personalised names as we met people on the street. The subsequent year we did this again with our friends the Maidens, Curry's and Archenhold's - some of whom you can meet in the ITV video on My CV page. Then 2020 COVID struck and many homeless people were housed in hotels - shows when there is willing, things can happen. Regrettably and depressingly as COVID eased, or the frog was boiled depending on your perspective, people were back out on the street. Reflecting back on this experience, our family was again inspired with this gofundme campaign. Read on here. |
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