A Guest Post from Linda Edge - HELPING SOMEONE

In December 2013 I had an idea, a dream to produce a Charity Single to try and raise some funding for Isle of Wight charities. I am a Support Worker for the charity YMCA Young Carers and up until last year my husband and I were foster carers, so we see the real need for services for vulnerable people, young and old.

 

my mum

After telling my brilliant and talented Mum my idea at Christmas 2013, the next day she had written some lyrics! Additional lyrics were written by my husband Martin Edge, Jamie Griffin, the local Reverend Helen O’Sullivan and myself. Thumbs up to all The single and everything alongside it, has all snowballed from there and I have been blessed to have some amazing support behind me. I don't have a musical bone in my body but I have some fantastic local solo singers and groups who have given up their time to sing on the single. Thumbs up   I also contacted a local man who owns his own recording studio, Jamie Griffin from Flyte Creative Media and he also jumped on board. Thumbs up   Jamie wrote the music alongside my Mums lyrics, has recorded all the singers and we’ve been going around filming the charities for a video to accompany the download.  

Jamie Griffin

Our last bit of filming is on the 14th June on Compton Cliffs with all the singers and charities involved, so we’re praying for good weather.

Compton Cliffs

Local groups, The Brighstone Barnacles, The Brighstone Belles, Lanesend School Choir Club and soloists Emily Scotcher, Jamie Griffin, Dave Cooper and my big sister Julie Stonestreet have all made the single sound amazing! Thumbs up

Julie Stonestreet

This is my gorgeous sister, Julie Stonestreet, being recorded in Jamie’s studio. Julie was the most difficult one to record as she lives in Kuwait, so we had to wait for her to visit to do her bit.

Helping Someone will premiere at the Helping Someone Release 

Concert that is being held in St Mary’s Church, Brighstone on the 5th July at 7pm. Entry is free and there will be a raffle and refreshments available.  {Concert Details}  The artists involved in the project will be performing individually at the event. I have been tremendously touched at the support from local businesses that have responded to my requests for raffle prizes and have given away very generous donations. Friends have also been very generous with gift donations and I feel especially honoured as times are tough in this current climate. So thank you to everyone who has donated.  Thumbs up

The CD will be available to purchase at the concert and afterwards at selected charity shops and online as a download. 

The charities that will benefit from the proceeds of the sale of the single are YMCA Young Carers, www.ymca-fg.org/ who are dedicated to supporting young people who have a caring responsibility; John’s Club, /www.johnsclubiow.org who are actively supporting disability; Open Arms, /www.theopenarms.org.uk who provide vital support for the homeless; KissyPuppy – the Sophie Rolf Fund,http://kissypuppy.co.uk/ the well-known charity who are providing support to children suffering from life-shortening conditions and Age UK IOW, /www.ageuk.org.uk/who are concerned with the well-being of individuals aged 50 and above.

My heartfelt thanks (and thumbs up ) go out to everyone who has kindly given up their time and willingly contributed to this charity single as without them, my dream would not have become this reality. As a Support Worker for Young Carers, I see first-hand how desperately services are needed and I had this dream to produce a charity single to hopefully raise funds for some of our Islands amazing charities. This dream has come to fruition and I have many people to thank for making this happen.

The Brighstone Barnacles

John Phillips

Mostly, I would like to thank everybody for believing in me and helping my vision to fundraise much needed money for 5 very worthwhile charities.  Thumbs up

There are too many people to thank individually, but, but I would like to thank ALL the fantastic singers for getting involved and making this single so amazing! The Brighstone Barnacles, Brighstone Belles, Julie Stonestreet, Emily Scotcher, Jamie Griffin, Dave Cooper and Lanesend School Choir Club. I’d love to thank my Mum, Barbara Stonestreet, for believing in me and writing some fantastic lyrics and my husband Martin, Helen O’Sullivan and Jamie Griffin for help with additional wording.   Thumbs up

Emily Scotcher

I would also like to thank my fantastic husband Martin and our amazing friends for listening to me burble on endlessly about every detail of this project and our sons, Che and Max for being so enthusiastic and for being so interested every step of the way. Your support means the world to me; thumbs up ,

baby Lucas

Producer, Singer & Lyricist

Thank you to baby Lucas Sanders and Grandma Valerie Archer for their hands which feature on the cover of this CD and to Dad James Sanders for taking the photo. I would like to thank everyone behind the scenes for all their support and Helen O’Sullivan and the church for their very generous donation to fund the CD. Finally, my hugest thanks must go to Jamie Griffin from Flyte Creative Media who has given all his time for free, (more thumbs up. ), creating the music, shooting the video and for his endless wealth of skill and knowledge. I can’t thank him enough for everything he has done.

From my original vision, everyone has given their all and created a song beyond my wildest dreams. 

I have been truly blessed with amazing support from everybody and I would like to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for making my dream become a reality. My ultimate goal is that this single becomes a global number one and we can help similar charities further afield.

In advance, I would like to thank everyone who may buy a copy of the CD or purchase a download. By buying this single, you are helping to make the lives better for so many vulnerable people and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.  To you all, thumbs up .

Love Linda Edge

Linda Edge
Producer of Helping Someone, Isle of Wight

www.facebook.com/helpingsomeonesingle

a mixed bag - London & Peru (sort of)

I had the pleasure of introducing the lovely Alice from Bologna to the Daunt's bookshop in Marylebone High Street, a shop not only beautiful for it's architecture but also for it's unique (well probably not) way of arranging it's books by country, not just non fiction but it's fiction too.

Now Daunt's is becoming almost as famous around town for its ubiquitous bags as it is for it's shops.  Alice and I were in Daunt's for a book signing and during the evening, Alice bought a book and was given an ordinary plastic bag to take it home in.  Later in the evening I was kindly given a signed copy of the book being launched and Peter, behind the till kindly asked if I would like a bag for it and handed me one of their lovely linen ones.  

At this Alice started to pout for the unfairness on the bag stakes and Peter reached down below the counter to get her a linen bag saying as he did so, "would you like one?".  However, as Peter had been bending, Alice had been turning so what she heard was "come back another time".  By the time Peter emerged from the counter Alice was about to launch into "Why, that's not fair??!?!"  However, luckily I had guessed what she thought she had heard and pointed to the fact that Peter was holding out a bag to her, (she was still partially turned), and was offering it to her.

So a big thumbs up to Peter for not only giving Alice a bag but for giving us a really good laugh for the evening (and cementing my reputation with Alice for knowing what she is thinking).

By the way, Peter's not crazy about photos and since I adore his hair I include a backward shot as well. 

Meanwhile, and unfortunatlely I haven't got a picture of any of the people involved in this, but I want to give a big thumbs up to the gentleman on the 82 bus, going northbound around 10:30pm at Dorset Sqaure on the evening of Wednesday, 30th April.  It was during the tube strike and the bus was full and everyone wanted just to get home.

I was on the top deck and could hear a confrontation between the driver and a passenger getting on.  The driver turned off the engine and wouldn't go anywhere until the passenger got off again.  Everyone around me was either just grumbling, calling the driver names and the passenger names in equal measure or getting off the bus.  This one person, (I could only hear partly what was going on), offered to pay the new passenger's fare, the driver started the engine and we all got home.  He was only person on the bus who didn't think just of himself but of the solution.  Thank you.

One of the great things about London is it doesn't matter how long you live here, (from birth for me), there are always new things to discover.  My friends introduced me to my first Peruvian restaurant, Tito's, new London Bridge www.titosperuvianrestaurant.com

We were greated by Carlos and Juan who both made us all feel so welcome.
Carlos went on to not only explain the dishes to us but also, we then had a really interesting chat about the economy in Peru and the changes going on then.  We also had a really good laugh about introducing Guinea Pig on to a menu in the UK and how he could imagine that going down with patrons; "bring us your pets, we'll cook them for you!".  That may not sound so funny here in writing, but it really was very funny and light hearted.

So to Carlos and Juan a big thumbs up and thank you for a lovely evening and for teaching us so much.

As always, if you would like to send in a post to tell us something nice that happened or to say thank you to someone, just get in touch and we would have great pleasure in putting up your stories here.  Thanks.

I borrowed a couple of pictures off the web this week so,  copyright acknowledgements: 

thanks to Kake for the picture of Tito's www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/  reproduced here under a Creative Commons licence://creativecommons.org/licenses/
and to Urban75 for their lovely picture of inside Daunt's  www.urban75.org/blog/

A guest post by Sarah Stewart - 40 BEFORE 40

The inspiring work of Deb Gascoyne

Deb Gascoyne is looking for 40 people to sign up to the Myeloma UK Retail Therapy Walk on Saturday,11th May (2014) in London, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

http://www.myeloma.org.uk/get-involved/retail-therapy-walk/

Myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow. There is no cure, but many effective treatments exist to slow down its progress and improve quality of life. I work for Myeloma UK, the only organisation in the UK working exclusively for myeloma patients. Our broad and innovative range of services cover every aspect of myeloma from providing information and support, to improving standards of treatment and care through research, education, campaigning and raising awareness. We receive no government funding and rely almost entirely on voluntary donations and fundraising activities.  Our fundraisers mainly consist of patients, family members and their friends.  I think they are amazing people who go above and beyond to ensure that we can continue our vital work (thumbs up to every one of those incredible people). They say it’s to give something back, but, in my opinion, the privilege is all ours.

One such fundraiser to whom I would like to give a resounding thumbs up is Deb Gascoyne, from West Wycombe, Buckinhamshire. Hard-working mum of two, Deb was diagnosed with myeloma at 34. Since then, she has become one of our most successful and devoted fundraisers. By the end of last year, she, along with husband Nick and friends, had already raised over a staggering £70,000 for Myeloma UK (a huge thumbs up for such a tremendous effort).  

I am continually impressed by Debs’ perseverance and positivity. You often hear people bemoan the big four-0, but, five years on from her diagnosis, Deb can’t wait to turn 40 - an age she didn’t know if she would ever reach. True to form, Deb is celebrating by taking on 40 challenges before 40 to raise awareness and funds for Myeloma UK. //debsjourneywithmyeloma.wordpress.com/40-challenges-b4-40

Her list of challenges is ambitious, but one of the things that I really admire about Deb is that she motivates people to get involved, including many she has never even met before. She managed to get over 40 people to donate to Myeloma UK rather than sending Christmas cards last year (thumbs up to all ); and a big thumbs up  to the over 40 fundraisers from Team #40challengesb440 who have just finished a Lent challenge, their fundraising collectively totalling over £4,500 //debsjourneywithmyeloma/challange-no-8-achieved. As well as Deb, I am amazed and humbled at the generosity of all the people and businesses that continue to donate and fundraise with her (thumbs up to all who continue to contribute).

If you’d like to help Deb with any of her challenges, you have plenty to choose from. A great one that is coming up in May is the Myeloma UK Retail Therapy Walk, a sponsored walk through London’s iconic fashion streets in aid of myeloma research. While Deb can’t make it to the walk herself, she is recruiting – you guessed it! – 40 people to participate. You can sign up here www.myeloma.org.uk/retail-therapy-walk-2014/ and remember to let Deb know; you can find her on Twitter (@debgascoyne) and Facebook facebook.com/40challengesb440 , or email fundraising@myeloma.org.uk and we’ll pass on the message.

Sarah Stewart is the Digital and Social Media Officer for Myeloma UK 

- @MyelomaUK ; facebook.com/myelomauk;  www.myelomauk.org.uk -

She is an Edinburgh-based kiwi who loves difficult books and large dogs.

From us, we'd like to give both Deb and Sarah a thumbs up each for their work on behalf of others.   If you want do donate, (and we really hope you do!!), another easy way is via our own justgiving page for the Myeloma UK Retail Therapy Walk http://www.justgiving.com/BrieForMultipleMyeloma #RetailTherapyWalk 

Don't forget, if you want to say thank you to anyone, just send us your post and we'll get it up in the future.

p.s. If you're trying to follow the blog, apologies, Google is having an issue with all blogger sites and the follow button.  We hope they'll resolve the issue shortly but if you want to complain, write to Google,  thanks.

 

London in glorious spring sunshine

Well I said it when I started and I said it when winter arrived, I suspected there would be more smiles, thank yous and posts in the spring and summer with the sunshine than there are in the gloom of winter and I was right.

Spring arrived in London in glorious fashion; the blossoms seem more abundant and perfect that ever.

Now you may or may not have heard of the London Book Fair, and if you haven't it's a trade fair for people in publishing which for the last few years has been at Earls Court in West London, (it's moving next year to Olympia), anyway, all you need to know is it's an enormous trade fair that descends on Earls Court in April.  

If you can find half an hour or an hour to get out of the Fair at lunchtime, everywhere in the Earls Court Road is packed and used to dealing with one time customers; either people attending an event at Earls Court or tourists passing through so it's not known for it's service.  That is until I discovered Gusto this Fair.

Gusto on the Earls Court Road, (corner of Kenway Road), was such a pleasant surprise.  It looks like any other sandwich bar from the outside but when you step in, you're greeted with smiles and excellent service.

We were in a serious rush and Milo and Sonni got us in, served, and out again in the time we had while not only not feeling rushed, but feeling cared for and looked after.

Milo didn't want a picture so here's two lovely smiling ones of Sonni.  Thanks and thumbs up to you both

(p.s. we liked it so much we went back the next day too!)

Day two of the Fair and my route to Earls Court on day one was a disaster so I decided to get the Overground from West Hampstead to West Brompton.  Good decision.  Not least for the journey time and comfort but because I started my day with a lovely smile from Alan at West Hampstead station and a nice chat.

One of the downsides of people wearing headphones is that they can't hear you when you say "excuse me".  I could hear my train pulling in so I went to run down the stairs at the station but the woman in front of me wasn't catching that train and because of her headset was totally oblivious to us behind trying to get past her to catch it.

Fair to say unfortunately, due to her obliviousness, I missed the first train but Alan, who was on the platform and who saw what happened came to chat.  

The sun was shining, picked up lots of good gossip about rumoured tunnels to link the three stations at West Hampstead, (currently the tube, the Thameslink and the Overground all go from separate West Hampstead stations which can be very confusing if you don't know where you want to be), and I was still an forty minutes earlier arriving than the day before so all in all, a great start to the day.  

Thank you Alan and a thumbs up to you too.

Don't forget, if you want to say thank you to anyone, just send us your post and we'll get it up in the future.

p.s. If you're trying to follow the blog, apologies, Google is having an issue with all blogger sites and the follow button.  We hope they'll resolve the issue shortly but if you want to complain, write to Google,  thanks.

Winter Smiles

As I suspected when I started this blog back in the summer, the quantity of smiles one gets during one's day greatly reduces as does the light and temperature.

With the grey, wet weather we've had this winter, I can't say I'm coming across as many smiles as I was back in July and August however, that does however mean the ones I am seeing, are all the more lovely for the sparsity.

Tuesday, 21st, (January), all too quick to get a photograph or a name, I'd like to give a nice thumbs up to the female bus driver of the number 13 who stopped and waited on the Llanvanor Road stop on Finchley Road for the lady running to catch it in the morning .

The other Tuesday thumbs up goes to Richard, a waiter in Carluccio's in St. John's Wood.  Although there were some problems with our order; our wine wasn't available, we didn't order the lemon Pelegrino or the tomato pasta, Richard made us laugh and feel like important patrons.  Thank you Richard, and a thumbs up .

In light of this blog, I am also taking the 100 Happy Days Challenge - if you don't know about this, check out http://100happydays.com  and the hashtag #100HappyDays on twitter, instagram and other social media sites.  The challenge is to yourself - no one else - to try and find something that makes you happy in your day for 100 consecutive days.  It can be a puppy wagging it's tail, a good coffee, a smile at a bus stop, whatever it is, big or small, try and remember it and "log" it.  Take the challenge!

So move forward a week, the weather is even worse with miserable cold rain everywhere, (although I shouldn't complain thinking about all the flooding in Somerset and surrounding areas, those poor people www.bbc.co.uk/news/), and a friend, the lovely Lauren from St. John & St. Elizabeth Hospital, and I are on the top deck - best seat in the house at the front - of a 139 bus in the West End on our way to see The Book of Mormon.  We're stuck in traffic on Oxford Street and on the bus in front we can see two inspectors really checking an empty top deck; under and behind the seats.

Lauren and I are chatting away, looking at the Christmas decorations, (still up), when suddenly right beside us are the inspectors from the bus in front.

Now this guy, who wasn't allowed to give us his name, couldn't have been more fun or nicer on a dark, wet, Monday night in January.  Regent Street seemed to just whizz by.  So Mr. Inspector, a thumbs up from us for the banter, thanks.

Another bus thumbs up ; this time to the driver of a 460 (unnamed/unphotographed - to protect the innocent) who allowed me to travel two stops without my pass and without paying as I was accompanying my mother.  Thank you, that was a lovely gesture.  

But it isn't all thumbs up to bus personnel this post: two thumbs down: Monday, 20th January, the bus driver who was at the stop outside Holland & Barrett in Swiss Cottage and knew I was there, that I knocked on the doors and said excuse me but still decided not to reopen the doors and drove off and also to a restaurant manager that when I told him we had a reservation, didn't look at us or smile, but instead answered a phone, walked off at the same time to adjust a pastry plate, carried on talking on the 'phone and the most we got was a raised finger .  You guys know who are you.

Now, you must be getting a bit bored of my voice by now so why don't you send us your guest post, (details on how below), and use this blog as your opportunity to say thank you to someone who made you smile, or something else?