This Be a Darned Fine View of an Oasis (of sorts!)

Stress-a-rama right now, but a brief self imposed lull allowed me to nip into town to see Dundee’s finest The View launching their new album “Seven Year Setlist”.  After spending 90 minutes plonked on the street outside HMV working hard on my assessments, I had the pleasure of a three song acoustic set before the lads signed some items for auction.  I have a copy of the new album signed and ready for auction, as well as some Christmas Cards which will be an awesome addition to the auctions later in the year.  From there, it was back home, via a bus journey spent scribbling more notes, and back to this lovely laptop.

I also managed to source a rather special item for Oasis and Beady Eye fans, which you will find if you visit this awesome page on my website >>>>  HERE

In the meantime, it’s nearly midnight and I still have a LOT of work to get through.

Lions and Swearing in the Wet Wet Wet!

Current Live Auctions – CLICK HERE!!!

A busy hour or two as I took a wee break from finishing up my coursework to destress a bit last night and I managed to get several awesome items to add into the pot.  First up is the rarest of the living Lisbon Lions, the Celtic team who lifted the European Cup in 1967.  Willie Wallace lives abroad now, so it’s not often you see him back in Scotland and I was delighted to get some items signed by him.  Willie was kind enough to sign a couple of photos I am working on, some Christmas Cards, Celtic history books and his own book which he was there to sign.  An absolute gent in every way, he also posed for this ace photo with the signed book.

To make it extra special, beneath his signature in the book is the date of release, which was the anniversary of the win in Lisbon.

From there, I wandered over to the Kings to catch Marti Pellow arriving for Evita, and managed to time it to perfection.  Marti was awesome enough to sign several items including an xmas card, some cd covers and pose for a photo.  Delighted with this, as a long term Wets fan.

Final stop of the day was a prebooked event I was attending, to see authors Mark Billingham and Chris Brookmyre speak about their work, ridicule life and generally swear a lot.   It was a tremendously enjoyable evening, with a lot of swearing, brilliant stories, and some disturbing stalkers.  I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Chris and Mark for putting on a great show, they complement each other perfectly and it was one of the best author events I have ever been to.  Anyways, they were both kind enough to sign christmas cards for auction, both double signed, making this a crime fan dream of an Xmas Card, while both also signed one of the promo boards for the event, a totally unique item. 

There’s Chris and Mark posing with the signed promo board after the event, and here’s me with them both as well.

All in all a pretty good day, and a welcome break from staring at facts and figures.

Sponsoring a Day – DONATION!!

Current Live Auctions can be found HERE

I popped over to Maggie’s Gartnavel today and while I was there, I was delighted to make a donation as part of TheLucky13Challenge!   In the pot went £3000, of which £2400 was part of the campaign to Sponsor a Day, and means that on 11 September 2013 I will be paying for the centre to be open, providing those amazing levels of service to everyone who needs it.   The centre was so busy today as I arrived, and it was amazing to see every corner in use, providing support and care to each and every person.  And lots of cups of tea.

I’ve chosen 11 September as my date, as it was the date in 2006 which saw me set off for my first charity event, making that trek across to Peru.  It seemed apt.  In other news, I’ve now signed up for the 2014 BUPA London 10000 … I couldn’t miss out on it could I?

And in other other news … 100 items up for grabs HERE now

Awesome New Christmas Cards!

I’d like to go on record once again to thank two of my awesome helpers in the Christmas Card auctions, James and Josh who have been adding some brilliant items to the Xmas Auction pot in recent times.  First up is an awesome addition from Sinead O’Connor who really is a tough one to get.   Normally a “one per person” or a not at all when it comes to fan interaction, I was chuffed to bits with this addition to the fundraiser.

Josh also added into the pot a surprise (on all fronts) addition from one of the best selling albums of ALL TIME when he bumped into Brian Johnson of AC/DC who was more than happy to sign a card as well as dancing along to “Gangnam Style”.  Honestly, I have no idea, but here’s Brian in action.  Both will be amazing additions to the auctions, and I can’t thank the Joshman enough.  Please note these images are watermarked for a reason.

Here’s Brian’s Xmas Card, stunningly signed with “AC/DC” added afterwards.

Meanwhile, down in the Land of Londinium, James has stepped up to the plate and has added some awesome items including this awesome one from Shane Meadows (Director of Made in Stone) which has a doodle added to the signature making it really unique.  James also added some other ace items including Danny Baker and Harry Potter star Alfie Enoch.   Seriously good stuff from James, and massive thanks

I’m always excited about adding Xmas Cards to the pot, and as always the only frustrating thing is that it is another six months until these items can go to auction.

James & Josh – AWESOME GUYS!

Some New Auction Items….

I’ve added a few goodies to the auction stock this morning, and will be making that long awaited donation to Maggie’s next week when I have a wee meeting at the centre.  I’m very much looking forward to it, as it’s a major positive step for both myself and the fundraising this year.

Added in today, is this awesome item – the gloves Celtic goalie Fraser Forster wore as he won the Scottish Cup last weekend, winning 3-0 against Hibernian to complete the double.  Both gloves are signed in black marker and have his name printed on the wrist straps.  A must have for any Celtic fan!

Also adding today are a pair of boots from striker Andy Barrowman, who spent last season at Dundee and Dunfermline.   Andy was kind enough to meet up with me in town and hand over a pair of boots for auctioning, which I am more than delighted with.

Final pic of the day is with a man who, for me, is a comedy legend.  Neil Pearson, aka Dave Charnley in Drop the Dead Donkey is awesome.  He’d already signed a card for me down in Newcastle via Josh, but I couldn’t miss out on the chance to meet him, and ask him to sign a few more items for me.  I did miss out on Chris Larkin for my DW collection as he’s unwell, but delighted to have met Neil. 

The auctions online right now are doing well, though only a few are taking bids just now, so I am hoping more bids pick up over the weekend, with the auctions ending bang in time for the donation to be made to Maggie’s

BUPA 10000, London, Cup Finals & All That Jazz!

CURRENT LIVE AUCTIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE – 100 ITEMS AND COUNTING!!

Another year, another BUPA London 10000, another blazing hot day, another medal in the bag.  73.32 isn’t my finest time, but with my bus pulling into London at 9.30am, and a 10am race start, I am pretty content.  Here’s good old me in front of some palace or something with my medal.  Apparently someone important hangs out there every now and again.

While in London I took the chance to do some cool stuff, including meeting up with the PeruCrew, or at least five of them (and Dave) for a catch up.  It’s now been seven years since Peru, and we’re still in touch, it was awesome to see the guys that could make it.  To those who couldn’t shame on you   Look at the awesome sun in the park that you missed out on!  Next year …. right??

Later in the evening I took in some of the London Symphony Orchestra free performance in Trafalgar Square before doing some West End autograph hunting to get items for auction.  Though I was gutted to miss John Simm, I did pick up some ace items and met some awesome folk including the brilliantly funny Zoe Wanamaker.  I’ll have to apologise to her, as I can’t get the two dots above the “e” here, and as she told us that would make her name “Zo”.   She literally had us in stitches.  Keeping the Harry Potter theme going, I also got to meet Dudley Dursley himself, actor Harry Melling.  There’s an awesome photo of Dudley stuck behind the glass in the zoo from The Philosopher’s Stone coming up for auction shortly.  Switching from Potterland to Dr Who (using Zoe as the link) and the like, I made up for missing The Master by snapping pics with and getting items signed by  Indira Varma (Torchwood), Clive Rowe (DW) and Samantha Bond (Sarah Jane Adventures).

The previous day at the Scottish Cup Final I snagged another Dr Who star, of Hollywood proportions, in Dougray Scott who signed items for the auctions and did this awesome pic with me.  Cup Final day is always diverse in terms of who attends, and I also managed to get Susan “Subo” Boyle on board with the Xmas Card auction as you can see in this quality promo snap. 

There’s a final snap of me with the awesome Clive Rowe who portrayed Morvin van Hoff in Voyage of the Damned.  I met him years ago in London and he was just as awesome this time as he was then.

My final thanks to the Children with Cancer Running Team for their warm welcome, both at the start and the finish, and a massive well done to Emily for making it round her first 10k!  See you in September guys!

Craig Beattie & Gemma Fay!

You’ll have noticed me collecting match worn kit in recent weeks as the season draws to a close and today I added some new items to the pot which will go online this evening as part of the latest free listing weekend.  Pictured right is former Celtic, Hearts and Scotland striker Craig Beattie who very kindly donated a pair of his match worn boots which he signed for me in Costa this morning.   Joining us was Scotland and Celtic Ladies goalie Gemma Fay, who currently has 150 caps to her name for the national team.  Gemma was awesome enough to donate a pair of boots and gloves for the auction, but was gone before I remembered I had my camera with me.

Craig was also kind enough to sign several photos showing him celebrating scoring the the Scottish Cup semi last year, his last minute penalty securing victory over Celtic.

I’ve got loads of items coming up for auction this weekend, before I head to London for the BUPA 10000 on Monday.   Please do check back tonight and tomorrow for updates, and in the meantime massive thanks to both Craig and Gemma for taking the time to meet up and have a chat as well as donating items.