Nats Horror........

I think that Nat is horrified.. I went to see Priscilla The Musical at the weekend in Auckland and told Nat that I want one of the cupcake costumes that they wore above but in Pink..I really hope that she didn't believe me because she'll be emotionally scarred! I'd look like a cross between an umpaloompa and a pink elephant! Wow the costumes were amazing - speaking of which - Mrs White is doing a fantastic job of our waitress' tee shirts - thank you Anne!! And watch out Phil McKinnon at United Video Putaruru/Matamata, she's heading your way!!LOL

So Who Won....

Well - the basketball game saw Nat and I sat together for the match of the century...I must admit that I offered mine $20 to win and yes, I'm all for competitive reward (bribery for short!). Screaming from the sidelines only stopped for a very important text from Anne White - Tanner Industries are paying for our waitresses footwear ( if you're passing through Putaruru after September 1st, you will see them in their window as they're right on the roundabout) - HUGE thanks to Tanner Industries for the sponsorship..And then - my sons team won - YAY - HOWEVER, I must say that it was a fantastic game and well played by both sides BUT - I enjoyed every minute of shouting obscenities at Natalie - all in the name of camaraderie spirit - WHATEVER, WE'RE JUST POOR LOSERS.

So long Since Our Contact Details....

Today, we had an email to let us know that our contact details weren't on the site - a big thanks to Forsee for that, we'd never thought that although they were on there, they had trailed off into never never land and so I've added the link to the relevant blog entry. Today we had the big meeting with the local Council and Police representatives, and thankfully all went well. 1 more permit to apply for regarding the marquee and we're legal!! Thank you to Anne White (NOT) who suggested that it may be a good idea to lock me up for the weekend prior to the event to prevent any trouble..... We have a major D-Day tomorrow, you see; of the three, there always has to be an odd one out. 2 have been really sick for a few years, one hasn't, two seem to have 1 million kids each and 1 doesn't (can you guess that's me!) we have 2 Catholics and 1 Church Of England (mmmmoooiiieeee again) and our kids are playing each other tomorrow night for the final of basketball at the Putaruru Sports Stadium. Nat and Annes children - Georgia and Therese are playing my son Tom's team. Usually, we sit through the game together talking Think Pink - HOWEVER - tomorrow, I shall have to be sat amongst my own little rural school camp shouting them on - watch this space. For 9 year olds, the pressure amongst the parents is unbearable!!

Many thanks to our saviour DEAN GITTINGS of Arapuni who once again has saved the day with painting sssoooo many PSP Coreflute boards with our Google Think Pink slogans - YOU ROCK DEAN........

A huge thank you for Bed, Bath & Beyond and Shanton for sending vouchers for our raffle.

Thank you in a massive way to Fiona Tunnicliffe of Fire Works who has made a funky clay cow for the auction. Fiona sells her work in the Heritage Gallery in Cambridge and The Blue Orange in Tuakau - watch out for the image to be uploaded online this week and you can view her horses on the Blue Orange site above...

More to follow up on later this week - after the game!!!!!!

So What's Happening??

We're constantly being asked - what do you get for the $50 entry fee, so I thought that I'd put on a brief of the itinery, and believe me - there's way more - but if we told you, we'd have to kill you - so here's what we can pass on! All food and soft drinks are included in the ticket price - we will have a cash bar - and it will be bloody awesome! And most impotrantly - THE ENTIRE TICKET MONEY WILL BE GOING TO THE TRUST.....

1.    6.30pm - Arrival.
2.    Canapés & cocktails will be served as the entrance of the Plaza is turned into a piano bar, with baby grand & Paul Bowers-Mason playing the piano.
3.    Guests are then taken trough to the main body of the theatre where they are shown a short film (no more than 5 minutes) that we are currently making with local girl Annette (in her 30's) in the later stages of secondary bone cancer as a result of breast cancer. 
4.    Following the film, Clinical Oncologist Michael Jameson will briefly address the audience.
5.    The auction will follow.  We have the following pieces donated for auction
An amazing photography package by Louise Butler of Okoroire.
A commissioned clay sculpture by Kiln Works.
A commissioned sculpture by stone artist Jocelyn Pratt.
A commissioned painting by The Naked Gallery - Tirau.
A commissioned painting by Fiona Barrett - breast cancer survivor.
A commissioned Think Pink quilt by top artist - Anne Berben.
A large painted canvas by Annie Waterworth - yep ME, and yes, I have started!!.
An Australian package donated by Kay Humphries - Travel Managers Putaruru—to include show tickets too.
Keeping the heart in the home - an auction of the most amazing kitchen worth tens of thousands.
6.    Raffle - 3 massive prizes to be won with tickets available nationally.
7.    The Partaay starts and music is provided by Affirmation - a massive 9 piece band who never cease to have everyone rocking on the Club side.  In addition to the piano bar & Club dance floor, within the Plaza complex accessible via the marquee, we shall have lower tempo dancing, including Annah Hawkins of Morrinsville.
8.    More food is to be provided by way of hot basted carved meats, salads & rolls.
9.    Spectacular desserts are to be provided.
10.    Depart at 2am.

There will be a cash bar, however, ALL soft drinks will be provided FREE OF CHARGE on the night as we PROMOTE NO DRINKING & DRIVING, and Anne White is currently organising the sponsorship to provide FREE BUSES from the Waikato centres and home again. For those of you within the Putaruru region, we have organised for the Club van to be running at 10pm, 11pm, 12midnight, 12.30am, 1am, 1.30am and 2am. Watch out for our accommodation write up - we'll be brutally honest and we'll include photos too!

More Thanks To.......

Once again we have more thanks to give.

Firstly PSP of Hamilton have donated corflute boarding for our advertising - this came as a huge surprise and is very much appreciated PSP, so a massive thank you to you. The next Thank You goes to Petes Bins / Enviro Waste for the waste disposal skip for the evening, thank you guys...Tirau Garden Centre are loaning us plants for the evening so thank you for those. And Cadillac Cafe are loaning us the use of their pink mini and are currently trying to obtain us a pink cadillac for the evening, so thank you very much to you all.

OOPPSSS...AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATALIE!!!!!

Blonde or Brain Misfunction?????

Ok - today is time to slate Nat.....Yesterday, we went over to Waikato Hospital to have a meeting with the fabulous Jenni Scarlet from the Trust. Half way over, we stopped off at BP Cambridge for petrol and one of their fantastic coffees. Anne & I left to get into my car (like the top one - a sage green Avalon), then turned round to see Nat stood next to some random white Subaruru station wagon that was parked about 50m away from mine. Anne & I looked at each other in sheer amazement - WOW Nat, don't you just look professional. Now the reason could be one of many things - 1. She is blonde - really blonde - not from a bottle like me, 2. She has a few brain tumors and jokingly blames them for everything, or 3. The fact that she will turn 35 tomorrow - or maybe she's just dumb but we are not going to let her live it down for a very very very long time. Thank you Nat for your constant amusement. Although, we also found out that Anne Whites lost voice was not down to a bad cold (which is what we had presumed) but a 40th birthday weekend up in Auckland to which she spent the time singing!!!! Oh well, another great week so far for meetings - Jenni Scarlet, Spotlight, Hopkins Joinery and Neil Sinclair - the South Waikato Mayor who very kindly pointed out that we had a breakdown on the link of our sponsors page on the site (which has since been sorted - but a big thank you there), we were more impressed that he had read the blog from start to finish. We'll have lots mre news before the end of the weekend. There's so much that we want to put onto the blog, but as it isn't all finished & completely signed up, I'll probably get to fill you in next week. A huge thanks to Kay at Tuscany Road here in Putaruru who came on board today and is more than enthusiastic which is fantastic, so Thank You Kay.... Until next time...........

Google Putaruru Think Pink....

Look out for the signs everyone - be prepared for the invasion.....Dean Gittings is painting again for us on our new Google Putaruru Think Pink signs... We'll also have 2 not 1 billboard around town saying - you guessed it - Google Putaruru Think Pink - but seeing that you're here, HELLO!!

Jealousy In The Ranks....

Could there be jealousy in the ranks? Only joking - last week saw me admitted to hospital in the small hours of Wednesday morning, so whilst stuck up at Waikato for a few days, the opportunity arose to meet up with Jenni Scarlet from the Waikato Breast Cancer Trust - of course Natalie then with her wicked mind presumed that it was all a rouse and I wasn't ill at all - I just wanted to meet Jenni first - then Anne decided that if I was going to be there any longer than 2 days, then she would bring up my laptop and phone charger and I could do something useful - can you just feel the love happening - NOT, anyway, the girls get their day, and we all meet Jenni next Monday for morning tea, so they can now get off my case. Monday meeting this week was a biggie, as we're at the stage of lots of meetings.

Actually, I was laughing to myself the other week when I'd just done this humungous sponsorship deal whilst pegging out the washing...Thank the lord that we don't have a video phone, I looked none too pretty and the person on the other end of the phone would have had no idea what I was doing as they had my FULL attention - but hey, this is real life!!

Today we met up with Annette for our mini movie. She is an inspiration if ever there was one.. She had breast cancer, mastectomy, chemo, radiotherapy and a year later was diagnosed as having bone cancer, last year she had a hip replacement, and has 4 children ranging from 4 to 15. I told her the plans for the movie and she started to cry, then I started to cry, then Nat started to cry - we were a temporary mess. Filming will start in the next school holidays - so wish us luck.

After Annette, we had a meeting at the Plaza for an hour and a half, then at the Club for an hour, then I remembered we needed tea bags at home - as I said this is real life....

Friday morning sees us meeting with John Anderson the Environmental Officer for the South Waikato District Council & the Police over our late night license. At this stage {if we are not locked up for being criminally insane} we need to get ready for a busy weekend - the All Blacks playing England (yes I know that I'm a POM - but support the AB's) birthday party at Rainbows End on Sunday (for my 39 year old Peter Pan husband) Hamilton with Jenni Scarlet on Monday, meeting with a potential huge sponsor Tuesday morning, the Mayor on Tuesday afternoon, hospital appointments for myself and Natalie on Wednesday and quite possibly REHAB on Thursday if I can drag myself out of bed to get the kids on the bus - lol...

On top of this, we're in discussions with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand due to the changes with the split from Movember - and yes, we're loving every minute!!! At least we haven't started calving yet - now to book a holiday before it does start I think!

No Monday Meeting....Yeah Right!

Well, thanks to the Queens Birthday, our usual Monday meeting went out the door yesterday, and we decided to wait until next week for a meeting - WHATEVER, it's like we had withdrawal symptoms! Last night and today we had to go flat stick organising, confirming, phoning, and confirming some more. Texts, calls and emails are flying and Telecom is benefiting greatly! We're loving every minute but have to get so much in place now before calving comes around. Sometimes it seems so surreal that you're doing a huge deal with someone on the phone whilst pegging out the washing - or today I was up a ladder arranging more sponsorship whilst painting the family room...This beats being in an office hands down anyday - thankfully we don't have video phones....lol

Today Jenni emailed from the Waikato Breast Cancer Research Trust - Linda Fell has made a doll for the auction named "Ruby" ...she currently sits on the reception area of the Hockin building at the hospital. My friend Ali has one of her dolls and I used to look and think that it would be me when I'm old - eccentric and quirky (although my kids would say as mad as a meat axe!). So if you're over that way - don't forget to look out for Ruby! And a big THANK YOU goes to Linda. Also last Friday, Leon from Odeon Computers here in Putaruru offered to build our website for free. This will go live from 1st September so a huge THANK YOU leon...