My training in Portugal

Hello everyone,

Antonio here. Less than three days to go now and I must admit the apprehension is growing a little bit. Today, 26 January, I made the last training, and I took the photographic camera to share with everyone my little Algarve gym !!

In Portugal on the Algarve coast there are very many beautiful cliffs and I have been training by walking up and down them (and up and down .....and up and down......and up and down!). I have even been out at night walking up the cliff with a head torch on just to see what it is like.

In theses photos above you can see a large cliff in the distance. Well that is my Portuguese Kilimanjaro and I have been using it for my training. On the rocks at the bottom my boots would slide everywhere: maybe they are feminine as they just would not obey where I wanted them to go :)

Most of the time things have been fine - though not if you put your foot in the wrong place!!!

Because then ..well things would not be so good.

From the highest point the view of Luz is very good.

Well I think overall I am ready.  And though I am like probably everyone else, travelling with a little nerves, I am really excited about this adventure!! See you all Wednesday.

Go Waratahs Football Club !!!!!

Hi Shannon here ...........and I'm over the moon that we've just raised AUS$12,000 from our Australia Day Fund Raiser !!!

My football club's name is Waratahs Football Club and we have just held a game on Australia Day in aid of Breast Cancer.  I did not play as I did not want to risk getting injured due to the climb and how close it is - however I was the runner for that game so I am in the bright yellow shirt in the photos.  


It was a great day and the team and my football club really embraced the day.  The girls won the game 100 to nil which was even better!! What a score eh ?


After the game we auctioned off the jumpers. On average each football jumper sold for about AUS$300.00 and the most someone paid for a jumper was the signed one by all the girls that played and they paid AUS$950.00 for it.  It was an awesome day. In fact it was sooooooooooo successful that my football club are hoping to continue this and do this as an annual event for breast cancer which is even better :)

After the game we then went round all the local pubs which topped up the fund raiser even more. Everyone was just fantastic.

Well only a few days left now. The nerves are kicking in a bit but I'm so excited I can't tell you. For all those in Australia who have helped me and embraced this challenge - so many thanks and I'll be doing my best!


Cheers. See everyone in Kilimanjaro Wednesday night!
 

Getting your visa for entry into Tanzania has never been simpler.  You post your passport, a couple of photos, your application form and some cash to the Tanzanian Embassy in London and a few days later they post your passport back, visa approved. 

Or so Ally thought when she sent her passport off in early January.  The embassy confirmed receipt on January 12th and everything seemed to be on track.  Days passed but the arrival of a visa stamped passport never came.  Then earlier this week Ally contacted the Embassy who confirmed they had posted it back earlier in the month.  After a frantic day tracking her passport through Royal Mail it seems that whilst it had reached Dublin (where Ally lives) it then got re-routed to ...

PORTUGAL!!!

Well done Royal Mail!

After endless phone calls (thank goodness to Antonio in the Sportingbet Portuguese Customer Service team) the passport was located and placed on a KLM flight back to Dublin via Amsterdam last night.  Phew!

So I email Ally this morning to ask if she's got it ... the answer "I'm waiting in Dublin mail centre now as I type for the last half hour waiting for them to find it ... Yeah they just can't find it, flight it was supposed on landed last night alright"!!!!!!

Finally at 10am this morning, after a very stressful few hours, the passport was found and handed back to Ally. 

Five days to go and counting ... there's nothing like a lastminute drama to keep things interesting!

Now all we have to hope is that my camera is delivered today after being destroyed by water damage after the insane breacon beacons training day!  Keep those fingers crossed please :)

Portugal in style

Antonio held a fund raising party in Portugal on Saturday. And after the late night at the Mad Men Party, (preceded by the way by root canal work on my tooth....) Paula and I flew over to Portugal on Saturday afternoon to join in with all the fun for a mad few hours!!

In typical "Claudia" fashion - that's Antonio's wife - the food was plentiful and quite fantastic, the entertainment just brilliant (god forbid even me on a karaoke machine....) and a truly memorable time was had by all.

And a great deal of money was raised too. All in all a very successful evening to cap off a quite mad but brilliant weekend.

The Mad Men Stunning Success

On Friday 21st January, Liam and Andrew (with a huge amount of help from the Starlight charity and Liam's wife Alex) organised a Mad Men Party held at Cannizaro House on Wimbledon Common. The Party was held to raise money for the climb, with 50% going to Breast Cancer and 50% going to Starlight (a charity close to Liam).

Amongst the capacity 140 guests, 99% of which were in appropriate Mad Men costume, many climbers were in attendance including Mike, Nigel, Dan, Grant - and of course Liam and Andrew.

Having known Liam and Andrew now for several years - I know full well that they are just far too modest to write a blog posting such as this. So I'm going to do it. It was a fantastic event. No, it was better than that - it was absolutely phenomenal. The food (which was excellent); the ambience (which worked from the start); the organisation (everything but everything was spot on); the music (one of the best bands I've heard in a long time); the raffle and the auction (great prizes such as four Wimbledon Final tickets donated by Andrew) , were all first class as was the attendance of the charming actress Emma Samms who founded Starlight.

Everyone had a truly great night. What marked this Party out however in addition to all of the above was the sheer attention to detail: the wall posters, the quotations, the fake cigarettes, the Mad Men plasma screens, the Mad Men table decorations, the 60's cocktails....well I could go on. This was an event that you just know took ages and ages to plan and organise and had been done by people who knew what they were doing.

And to top it all this superbly organised and executed event raised a staggering £18,000 for charity. Whilst at this stage this is a provisional figure, it won't be far off. That brings the overall total now raised to well over £65,000 smashing through our £50,000 target.

Everyone on this climbing team has worked wonders in terms of the effort they have put in for charity. But this night belonged to Liam and Andrew. Guys, well done. Really well done. Be proud.

Pink jerseyed australian football player here....

Hi All,

Well the day's fast approaching now and I must confess I'm excited in a nervous kind of way. 

In today's paper here in Aus they have a write up about my trip and the Fundraiser that Me and my Football club are doing.  Anyway I have attached the article below so everyone can have a read if they wish. 

Please try not to laugh TOO hard at the photo, (I'm in the middle) not the best one but it is a good article and Sportingbet get a good mention too.

So if you are in Darwin (ha ha....) and want to come down to Gardens Oval on Aussie Day to support my football team it would be great to see you there for a beer.

So far I have raised just over $4k and with this Aussie Day fund raiser hope to raise a lot more before I leave.  As a whole group I hear from Lisa and Nigel that we have raised over $85k AUD now, which is AWESOME!!!

I just want to thank everyone here at Sportingbet Australia for their support especially Haylie for putting together the video which led to me being on this trip.  It is going to be a great experience but very nervous.  

Really looking forward to meeting everyone!

PS I think if you double-click on the article then you should be able to read it.

 See you soon - Shannon

My Fundraiser in Dublin :)

With the help of family and friends I will be arranging a funfilled fundraising night on January 28th 2011 in McGowan’s of Phibsboro, Dublin 7 (http://www.mcgowans.ie/) and hope to see as many of you there as possible :) For those of you not in Ireland, feel free to invite friends and family over here to the evening. Upstairs from 7.30pm until 11.30pm – Disco afterwards J Drop me a line for more info at allyson.gormley@sportingbet.com

So why is it different from a regular Race night?? I’ve been to one before and it really is such a great night of fun - LIVE ACTION RACING - NO VIDEO OR FILMS YOUR CHANCE TO BE A JOCKEY - ‘Trojan Horses Racing’ is a novelty fundraising event. It does not use the traditional video or film formats to run a race-night. A set off small metal horses are employed on a racetrack and spindles which operate the horses are used by the race-goers who act as ‘Jockeys’.

Also, I have a raffle arranged throughout the evening with some fantastic donated prizes from SPA breaks to a Nintendo Wii J So hopefully I’ll raise lots of money with that.

My Story: After making a 60 second video on "Why I want to climb Kilimanjaro", see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWOmE3O7rdU&feature=player_embedd...ed

 , I was chosen as 1 of the 3 Sportingbet worldwide employees to climb Kilimanjaro along with 13 others. I'm from a family of 5 girls and I cannot wait to get to the top of Kilimanjaro! A big thank you to my sisters, Daddy / Orla, colleagues and brilliant friends for supporting me and believing I can do it! I’ve been working as a PA at Sportingbet Dublin for 10 months now, have a real lust for life, relish a challenge and am looking forward to being part of a great group of people whilst raising money for charity. So with all the hard work done, “ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no river wide enough” Don't worry... I'll leave the karaoke machine at home after my video :) Kilimanjaro, here I come!

14 days and counting…. J

All donations are greatly appreciated :) http://www.justgiving.com/Ally-Gormley