Thursday 23 April 2015

Big Tone And The Birds

Big Tone's Goldfinch

There I was, walking along minding my own business, when the phone pinged in my pocket. The message said "Someone has donated on your JustGiving page".

Of course I followed this up to find that there was a £30 donation, out of the blue, from Big Tone, the Birdman of Congleton. Big Tone knows all there is to know about birds. A mere glimpse of a rose-coloured mandible will have him waxing about first year juveniles and all sorts of technicalities.

Of course you know that my current fundraising for Pancreatic Cancer UK majors on giving talks about my Big Walk from SW France to NW England, and selling autographed copies of my books, including the book of the walk.

But Big Tone's donation reminds me to remind you that straightforward donations will not be spurned. Indeed, I crave them. So don't be shy about putting me out of my misery by making a donation yourself. No sum is too small or too large. Just click HERE and follow the obvious instructions. Or go to the page by clicking this link:

https://www.justgiving.com/Vic-Heaney2/

Thanks, Big Tone, for the donation, the reminder, and the stolen photograph.

Here is the link to Big Tone's Bird Blog.

http://congletonbirds.blogspot.co.uk/

He asks me to point out that the photograph was actually taken by his old mate Brian Steel.

Tuesday 14 April 2015

Dogged By Ups And Downs

Donor Dog Bobby



Interesting day yesterday, with some ups and downs, mainly ups.

I had two donations out of the blue. One was from an old friend. The other was from a dog. Bobby - that's him pictured above. Bobby lives in Switzerland. He kindly included his pets in the accreditation - that's Karen and Kenny. Karen is my first-born and Laird Kenny Grant MacMillan is her husband. They are all due a visit from us, which will take place in June.

There should have been another donation, but that one somehow went astray. There had been some discussion about my antics and my books on a Facebook page called Purple Hope, which supports sufferers from pancreatic cancer. Some people on there immediately downloaded digital copies of Vic's Big Walk. One lady said she would like paperback copies of both my books. I told her that if she made a donation I would send autographed copies of the books to her. She later told me that she had made a donation and could I send the books. She may have made a donation but not on my JustGiving page, as I requested. Nevertheless, in the interests of goodwill, I said I would send her the books but I still await her address. I think she is in USA.

Another down was that Peter at JPs cafe in Lytham told me that they may have to cancel the talk I am due to give on Thursday evening. I gave a talk there in January and two local walking groups bewailed the fact that they did not get tickets before they were sold out. This week's extra talk is purely for their benefit but they are not answering their email. This is more than a bit annoying because JPs and I could have made more effort in marketing if we had not believed the tickets were spoken for. I could guarantee to go out and take enough bookings, within a week, to fill the place, but it's a bit late now..

But to counter that with an up, I received a phone call, while I was walking from St Annes to Lytham, asking me to do a talk to 30-40 people at yet another Probus Club, this time in Upholland, near Wigan. They wanted me for May but on the date they gave, I hope to be in Rhodes, so the talk is now fixed for July.

Did I mention that I now have two enquiries about talks in which I will be expected to address 200 or more people at a time? The more the merrier, says I.