Month: June 2006

As you’ll all know I hate:

• running
• sponsored events.

However, I have been brought out of “retirement” and ‘de-grumped’ to do a sponsored 5-mile run in – erk – a fortnight. That’s exactly less than no time to reverse the ravages of Tubby Time and run for the first time since 1997.

The run is to raise money for John (our “back door neighbour”) who was diagnosed with leukaemia four years ago, just before the birth of his daughter, Dolly. He has been fighting the condition since then with a rigorous health regime, all while being a deputy head at a school in Tower Hamlets (hardly opting for the easy life there!). Our girls sit on the back wall and pester Barney (their boy) and distract Dolly from her bath/supper/whatever, and Vicky climbs over the wall for coffees and chats with Carolyn. Having them as neighbours is a major part of the enjoyment we derive from living in our ‘hood.

John’s treatment is massively expensive and a family friend of theirs, Lorraine, came up with the idea to hold a sponsored run to raise money to help with the medical bills. I’ve copied the bulk of her note after the jump and it puts the position well. 

Running is a no-brainer and sponsoring me is of course also a necessity!

You can donate/sponsor by paypal. Click the link and give more than 50p (to cover the costs etc). There’s clearly no maximum. In return I’ll post some photos of me in my running kit (eek – may not be appropriate to view in the workplace or with young children) as well as a list of donors.

Don’t delay, make payment today – the run’s on 15 July.

International readers may like to know that 5miles is approximately 8km, or the equivalent of a full marathon distance (when I tell the tale in the bar later 😉 ). 

Two things came together: hearing Peter Ahl (MD and founder of SerenataFlowers.com) speak at ‘What’s New in Online Marketing‘ and really enjoying hearing about their pragmatic ajaxing (as well as their having grown to 5% market share of the floral business in the UK) and my mum staying with us for a week as we got to grips with our newborn.

The time was ripe to ‘say it with flowers’, as the phrase goes, so I gave SerenataFlowers  a quick whirl. Sadly, I was a little too quich and while wibbling between a white thingy and a pink thingy I accidentally added both, then checked out with rapidity not noticing I’d bought both. Doh. While I was a bit miffed at the checkout not having really, really checked that I didn’t want both (!) I wrote this off to experience and consoled myself with the thought of a happy mum.

I was surprised therefore to get a call from the delightfully-helpful “Jeff” in their call centre today, ringing to check that I’d really meant to order two. I admitted that I’d made a mistake, but also that I was happy to live with it. He said it was no problem, that these things happen, that it was their practice to ring and check in cases of double quantities and as I spoke he refunded my card and cancelled the extra plant.

Now, I just don’t see how things get better than this. Slick web interface; good service; good standard operating procedures; humanoids who call you and can make decisions; and a focus on treating the customer well. While I hadn’t held my mistake against Serenata you can be sure that I’ll remember this customer service and will use the service again. Bravo.

So, here we have the result of Project Tertius, or “Tershey” as he’s been known for months in utero…

Quick facts (more later for doting family etc):

Born: 3 June 2006, 10.30pm by caesarean after 18 hours of labour.

He was a doughty 10lbs 11oz and he and Vicky are both doing well – back from hospital late on Tuesday.

We’ve called him Aneirin Michael Alexander.

Aneirin‘s work is the oldest poetry in the British Isles – a Welshman before there was a Wales; Michael was Vicky’s father and Alexander my grandfather.

Aneirin (pronounced “an-AY-rin”, not “an-EYE-rin”) seems very good natured but that’s based upon a short acquaintance, during which time he (or I) have been sleeping or eating. Sometimes both.

Manon and Alice have been in turns very sweet and then bored with him: he doesn’t have a very high ‘play factor’ for them at present!