Mud, Glorious Mud March 24th

This was the day when I had arranged to hold a charity walk at Staunton Country Park.

Almost ready to go.

Unfortunately, with the weather being bitterly cold, few hardy souls turned up, so I would like to give heartfelt thanks to those who did come along. Special thanks go to the RAF Cadets from 2327 Squadron in Havant and to the Naval and Marine Cadets from TS Active, Maritime Cadet Corps.

Some of the cadets.

As was to be expected following the recent rainy weather, there was a great deal of both water and mud and, due to some of the route being flooded, we had to make a long detour.

However, everyone said that they had enjoyed the experience.

Special thanks go to ASDA for supplying bottles of water, and to Fyffes for letting us have bananas to hand out.

That’s Life March 23rd

The final event of the day proved to be an excellent way of spending an evening.

Introducing the show.

This was a concert, devised by Jay Jupe and performed by members of the Dynamo Youth Theatre, in aid of my charity appeal.

The large audience gathered in the Plaza’s Hurstwood Room were treated to a wide range of songs from Cole Porter to Schoenberg & Boubil and from The Beatles to Bizet, with time in between for two songs from Dynamo’s own musical One Pride…One People (to be performed by invitation at the King’s Theatre on April 10th).

Part of the audience.

One of the highlights for me was Dynamo’s take on the famous ‘class sketch’ from 1960’s satirical comedy series The Frost Report, featuring John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett.

With more than 40 in the cast aged between 11 and 18 the concert met with warm approval from the audience, and was obviously enjoyed be the performers.

This was possibly Jay Jupe’s swan song with Dynamo, as he is shortly to go to The Royal Northern College of Music to study as an opera singer.