Gwen

Poor poor Gwen. You remember she has arranged for people to donate to TKOE instead of give her presents for her 10th birthday? And she and her friends are doing Race for Life in Cardiff on 15th July? Well, she fell in a rabbit hole and has cracked her ankle and is all plastered up.

Is she daunted?No she isn’t. She’s already organised loan of wheelchair so she can still do it! A huge YAY for Gwen and her friends, is in order, I think.

And the Running for Rosie team hit the streets tomorrow for the 10k run. Sylv and I are volunteering so we’ll try to take action shots there.

And Rachel and Rebecca did their Race for Debbie and Rosie last week and went way over their target.

So what with all that and the comments we’ve had, we think we should count RfL fundraising towards the £20k challenge. So the totaliser will appear shortly, cos I need to add up what’s there so far.

It’s the big TKOE show in Scotland tomorrow – good luck everyone. My mum and dad are representing TKOE and Team Kilburn for all of us, and I’m sure they’ll do us proud.

And just to add to the midsummer madness, I see 9 puppies have joined Team Kilburn. Photo please, Jonquil.

Jo xx

How

do you lose two kittens in a house?

can we thank people enough for all the fundraising?

likely is it that the Snowdon venture will raise £750 – go here to help http://www.justgiving.com/lucy-geo-jane

would it be if we included the Race for Life fundraising as part of the £20k challenge – Cancer Research isn’t one of the four charities, but does a lot and Rosie did run for it and set off the race in Gloucester one year, and people are running it for her?

long will it be before it rains again?

much better does everyone feel when it’s sunny and warm?

Jo xx

PS..kittens reappeared 4 hours later, after Chris, Sylv and I had turned the house upside down. No idea where they went. Vampire kitten has stopped spitting at us now. I am scarred for life, on the same hand as the rabbit scar. Good job I don’t model gloves or nail varnish. Although gloves would actually be alright, wouldn’t they. What a silly thing to write.

Zak and Bryan

When feeling in need of love and support and nice cuddly things to think about, what do you do? You get a kitten. Or two. Not a beagle or a terrier. Nice one Sylv These are Sylv’s cats.

One on the left is Zak and one on the right is Bryan. Bryan is a vampire cat. He sank his tiny sharp incisors into my finger when I caught him. He then turned into a hissing, spitting, shape-shifting fluffball in my hand, whilst I persuaded myself not to faint in the kitchen of the house we got them from. It wasn’t the blood, it was the pain what did it. We now have a wary relationship whilst I ponder how quickly the blood poisoning will spread.

They are both urban boyz, yet to meet our country cats.

Internal rain storm - sorted. External rain - started again.

Jo xx

Washed Out 2

Gah! Today is Chris’s birthday – so happy birthday to him.

We were going to have a takeaway and Cal was going to make him a cake. But, because it actually wasn’t raining, we decided we’d go and sit in a pub garden. So we did. And we had a very nice time.

Then we came home.

Sight number one, in the exact same place as the bloodstain, is a pile of long grass leaves, laid out like a runic symbol. No sign of animal entrails, but the cats are clearly behind this.

Sound number one – dripping noise.

Sound number two – loud shouting from Chris

Sight number two – highly shiny bathroom floor. Close inspection reveals shine is caused by floodwater.

Sight number three – large amounts of water coming through living room ceiling caused by sight number two and source of sound number one.

Culprit – cats? Nope. Sylv? Nope. It’s the birthday boy himself, who cleaned the bathroom earlier today (on his birthday, indeed), and accidentally left the tap slightly on. So now it’s raining indoors.

Keep the Roman facts coming – the vomitarium and mouse brain toothpaste are most likely to end up in the project so far. Although I didn’t know about the greek/latin thing. If it’s true.

Jo xx

Washed out

. . . . is how Chris and I are feeling – got very stupid colds. Which is annoying after a lovely party last night, with roaring outside fires, so fierce that they split the thing the fire was burning in, guitar playing, singing, Thai food, cocktails and a grand plan for next June.

. . . is what the weather continues to do to everything. It is raining AGAIN as I write this. I don’t understand why the trees and the grass aren’t gradually fading to white as surely the colour must be leeching from them with every raindrop.  .  . oh I know that’s not how it all works. It’s okay, you don’t need to tell me. But there’s something counter-intuitive that the greens get more strident the wetter it is.

. . . is what the blood on the carpet isn’t doing. Yes, the blood on the carpet. From the rabbit which the cats brought in and disembowelled. And danced around. Then ate. The stain just glowers at us, resistant to any approach to persuade it to disappear.

Will the Olympics just happen with or without this rain?

What do you know about terriers?

And what’s the most interesting fact you know about the Romans? Wet days call for strange family entertainment.

Jo xx

 

Warm feelings

Thanks for all of your comments and emails and texts and tweets and phone calls yesterday. You always cheer us up. And Rosie always pops up in the strangest of places we find, just when we need her to.

Got a few bits of news to share – we’ve had to postpone Music of the Night on 29th June. Several reasons behind it but we’re regrouping and will be letting you know what’s what soon. TKOE will be in contact over the weekend with those who’ve already bought tickets. Sorry, but that’s how it goes sometimes. And Annabelle and co have been working sooooo hard on it.

And . . . the bloodometer surged over night and is now at 27 units. 27 units!!! That means we are only 3 off our target and it’s not even half way through the year yet. Thank you so much everyone who is willingly leaking blood into plastic bags in community halls, pubs, workplaces or wherever you are going.

And, thank you Karen and your Christmas Card donation – we now only have to raise another £13110.94. Actually, make that £13110 because that 94p is annoying me, so Sylv can donate that. I’ll tell her.

And, the cutest news of all, is that in Jan 2013 there’s going to be another baby cousin joining Team Kilburn. Surprise but very welcome news from the Southampton part of the team.

Does anyone know anything about beagles? That’s beagles. Not bagels.

Jo xx

9 months

She died 9 months ago today. So long and yet such a short time. We’re all out of sorts. I found all the hat patterns we had for knitting hats when Rosie’s hair fell out at the weekend – I mean I found them at the weekend, not her hair fell out at the weekend. Although it did fall out over a couple of days, I suppose. I’ve put them somewhere safe.

Deep breath and let’s consider some good things – Post Office John is romping ahead with our bloodometer  – he has brought it to 23 units now. He’s going to get a special TKOE award at this rate for the highest number of donations. Only 7 units to go to repay what Rosie used.

We now only have to raise another £13310.94. Huge thanks to Rocks for Rosie and Three Bags Full Short Story Competition.

Last night’s gig went really well so big thanks to everyone and especially Kim for organising it.

And because today is a sad anniversary, I’m going to share some particularly heart warming news – lovely Gwen, who read out a very special piece at Rosie’s funeral, is 10 in July. And for her birthday, she has asked for donations to TKOE instead of presents and she and a group of friends are Race for Lifeing as well. What a lovely, lovely, lovely thing to do.

Going to have a nice cup of tea now.

Jo xx

Team Kilburn

You really are all brilliant. In the space of a few minutes yesterday, we went from angry despair to amazement at another round of fundraising happening.

First off, check out this http://www.thrashion.com/page_laxthrashion.html Big thanks to Leo and Kirsty for this one.

Then big thanks to Ruth for the sponsored domino run which her group of tinies are doing – the medals are in the post.

Then we loved the money stealing which Rocks for Rosie has been doing – yay to Celia and everyone who’s been buying.

And you generous souls have already set off the fundraising for Running for Rosie.

And loads of people entered the Short Story Competition, so there’s some serious reading happening at the moment.

And last of all, a big shout out for tomorrow night at Fosters in Gloucester Docks – from 6.00pm onwards. Thanks to everyone for sending us Rosie’s favourite tracks. They’ve been passed on.

Yay!

 

Jo xx

Running for Rosie

Just stroll on over to http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/running-for-rosie and see what you can do to help this little lot. We’re a bit blurry eyed over here at the moment having read that.

Team Kilburn’s got another fight on its hands too, this time with the Scottish side of things. Found out this week that this cancer thing has decided to  repay us all a visit via one of my cousins in Scotland. Team Kilburn is with you Ramsay, and with the rest of the family. Makes all the TKOE fundraising even more important.

I hate the way cancer sneaks around. I hate the way it doesn’t follow any kind of natural rule about age or lifestyle. I hate its randomness and pointlessness. This time last year, Rosie was having a brilliant time in Spain. I remember though picking her up from the airport, and seeing her white pinched face and remember her refusing to take morphine until we got home because she didn’t want to be sick in the car. And it all makes me really angry. Guess I’d better go and channel that into something useful.

Jo xx

Vikings and gravediggers

What a time we had in fair Dublin town. Would definitely recommend for a visit – we were shamelessly touristy so have all the culture and the rest of the history to return to, if we so choose. And as the flights were fine, it’s not even that far to go.

We dressed up as Vikings and roared at passing Celts; we learned all about making Guinness and Jameson whiskey and tried some. Even Calum, who grabbed a whiskey and cranberry juice and downed it, in the time it took us to find a seat to sit down in and so were temporarily inattentive.

We had some fab food and walked and walked and  walked. We probably know more about the plague years than is good for us; we share the outrage at the City Council offices being built ontop of the largest Viking settlement outside Scandinavia; and we still can’t decide if the seagull permanently perching on top of Daniel O’Connell’s head gives him a certain dignity.

The worst thing on my birthday was the Formula One racing which was happening round the streets outside our hotel, which meant Sylv couldn’t have a siesta (see more below . . ) and which ended the minute after Chris and I had walked over the road to watch it.

Our best thing  on my birthday was when we went on the Gravediggers Ghost Tour by bus. Sounds unlikely, but it was brilliant. Chris was selected to demonstrate being hung, drawn and quartered in the middle of the street. He failed to resemble a starved prisoner, but the rest of the act was impressive. And having a group of ghouls sing happy birthday on the top deck of a dry-iced, blacked out bus is not something I’d ever imagined. Also learned that you can indeed have the living daylights scared out of you, just by someone saying ‘boo’ as you get on a bus.

Sylv put up with it all, including the 3 am night club her room was above. It played cheesy hits from the 80s and 90s so not her style. She’s sleeping it all off now. As we’d forced her to participate in the Viking thing, she paid us back with the Leprechaun Museum. But that was good too, although only Cal and I entered the monster drawing competition.

Off to enjoy the rest of the Bank Holiday now

Jo xx