A weekend to remember

This weekend I took part in the "Relay for Life".
For those who don't know it is a fundraiser for the Cancer Society. 

I've been wanting to take part in it for several years

 and when a visiting minister announced that his wife 

was putting together a team I decided now was my opportunity.
The idea is that the team walks for 24 hours in relays.
We did it in half hour slots, quite manageable.

Some slept, some walked overnight.

This was a school group next to us

who reckoned that they would be up well after

 all of us old ones were counting the zzzz's. Ha!

Anyway our team decided we would have a theme

 and it would be Noah's ark.

We would all come in animal onesies.

ONESIES? PARDON?

I don't do onesies!

Famous last words. 

I did onesies!

My granddaughter loaned me one of hers, bright red,

and I sewed black dots on the back and turned into a lady bird.

We had a good turnout of critters. 

A dog, a couple of dragons, a tiger and a giraffe and some more lady birds.

An owl. A rabbit. And one or two others I can't think of at the moment.

The event was quite emotional at times,

 particularly I thought at the beginning 

when the 'cancer survivors' did the first lap, led out by the bagpipes. 

We're in Dunedin after all, the Edinburgh of the south, 

we always have bagpipes.

There was entertainment as well, 

a Chinese Lion Dance done by 6 and 7 year olds,
it was quite something to watch.

Zumba to take part in,

at 7:30 in the morning - I watched.

Non stop music throughout.

And friends to catch up with...

...in the early hours of the morning.

We had a corner spot and the wind was blowing through
but we hadn't seen each other since I finished work
so we had a good old catchup.
Then we went to find hot tea and coffee to warm up again.

My youngest daughter and my grand daughter came to pick me up at 10:30am.
I was ready for the off by then and left the morning shift to carry on.
But did I get to go home ? Oh no.
Grand daughter had to be dropped at her boyfriends house,
then it was back across the city to pick up eldest daughter
so she could come out to our place to pick up the truffles
 she had bought as part of our fund raiser.
I didn't mind really, but I was ready for a proper cup of tea and my bed.
We had the cuppa and just as I was about to head to bed
youngest daughter says
" Mum, I don't know how much sleep you're going to get,
Dom's just arrived to do the hedge".

I went to bed anyway.
Dom did the hedge.
Then the neighbours did their hedge.
Eventually I got out of bed again and was surprised
 to see I'd actually managed 4 hours.
At least I'd rested and probably dozed though it didn't feel like it.

As a team we managed to raise $3400,
not too bad an effort really.

joining in with:

roses of inspiration

If you are still reading after that marathon, 

good on you.

Take care 'til next time,

Diana