MPA Sydney Dinner Album

Click on the image to see images from our recent MPA Sydney Fundraising Dinner Dance.

MPA Sydney Dinner Dance

What an enormous amount of work it is to put on something like this.
The ladies who were responsible for the evening are affectionately referred to as "Team Barry"; Lou Storie from Red Rocket, Jan Dennis from Marketing & More and Chrissy Moore my wife. Between them they worked solidly for 8 weeks to turn the concept into a reality. MC Kieran Revell also donated his time, which was very generous.
It was the inaugural Sydney based fundraising dinner dance for MPA (Melanoma Patients Australia) so everything had to be done from scratch.
Chrissy mailed out to about a 1000 companies and individuals trying to get a show of interest in either attending or donating a gift to be used in the live or silent auction. Lucky dip fund raising balloons were also organised. We had a very generous amount of goodies donated; everything from a night at the Observatory Hotel in Sydney, a BridgeClimb and restaurant vouchers to Rosehill Racecourse tickets, limousine rides and a trip to the zoo!

Dr Darren Lee spoke from the heart about what it’s like to live with melanoma and how much the support of MPA has meant to him - images of his family on the big screen were just fabulous.
A very big thank you to everybody who volunteered their time or donated items - without you it would not have been possible. Thanks also to our friends from near (ie. our neighbours) and far (like Tony Wouters all the way from Melbourne) who supported us by coming along on the night.
We were hoping for about 150 attendees but finished up at 124. I had done some Rotary presentations in the last few months - they supported us with 2 tables.  Corporates like Turner Freeman Lawyers, Rance Blamey Real Estate, Konica Minolta and World of Tiles also bought tables, plus the Hills Shire Council.
The venue was Castle Hill RSL and the lighting, table settings, acoustics and band were all first class. All the live auction items were snapped up with all the other raffles, lucky balloons & silent auctions going too.
Everyone said they had a good time dancing and participating in the various games or auctions. Thanks again to all particularly all the volunteers on the evening.
Once we know the amount raised I will post it to the blog.

Getting My House in Order

I must admit that from the crew announcement day on 30/4/11 I came away feeling quite flat. Don't get me wrong, it had nothing to do with all the great people that I met who are going to be my family/crew for the round the world challenge, it was more that I had just come from Level  2&3 training and only one of those crewmates is going to be on the Aussie yacht.
We are all having to start from square one as it were, making new friends of my Aussie yacht crew mates.
Level 4 training will involve working with the appointed crew, finding out our strengths & weaknesses and racing against the other clipper yachts.
Since my return from Level 3 training I have been flat out in Oz making sure that all is in order for my departure back to the UK on July 7. I have now obtained my USA & Brazilian visa and confirmed that the other visas I need on route can be obtained either on the spot at the country we are about to enter or can only be obtained closer to the arrival date (eg Chinese visa application goes in through Singapore).
I have been back to the doctors and had the necessary Yellow Fever vaccination and all the other jabs for Hep A&B, Typhoid, Tetanus, Whooping Cough etc etc and the dentist loves me as I had to have work done.
But a priority for me was getting checked out from head to toe at the skin cancer clinic - they removed a small mole and it was reported to be benign, so all is well.
I've been to the optometrist and have ordered 2 new pairs of glasses - one normal and a set of sunnies.
12 months is a good while to leave your yard and lawn without attention, so I have hired on recommendation, a gardener. He is already attending to his duties and leaves me piece of mind that Chrissy won't have that to worry about it.