Friday 25 May 2012

27 days to #PDP1200: My new best friends...

I would like to introduce you to my new best friends. They are a pair of Salomon Quest 4D GTX. I bought them today at Kountry Kit here in Tavistock who were wonderfully helpful as always. They were also kind enough to give me a great discount as sponsorship towards the walk, so THANK YOU James.

I took my new friends for a five mile breaking in walk with my mum's dog Harley. The sun was blazing hot so they were soon off for a swim just up river from Double Waters. They are lightweight but sturdy enough to cope with the Pennine Way and overall I am very pleased with them.

I'm not really a big "kit man" although I was always called a "happy camper" whilst on my Duke of Edinburgh awards. But I am very excited about these boots. On a long distance walk, boots are so important and these will be perfect.

More anon. Peacex


Tuesday 22 May 2012

Bob's 9GAG social media marketing..

My good friend Bob designed the following post for his 9GAG account to help spread the word. 68 likes in 30 mins...I better have a look at this site....



Monday 21 May 2012

Thursday 17 May 2012

Photos from kindness

A small package arrived today in the post. I opened it with eager anticipation. Inside I found a little red Canon camera. What a beauty. I am stunned, on a daily basis, by what the kindness of strangers is leading to. THANK YOU Chris Braniff! You are a gentleman and I salute you. Also, thanks to Jez McDermott, from Buckland Abbey (National Trust), for making the link. I would load a picture of the camera onto this journal update but, as you can appreciate, I would then need another camera to take a picture of the new camera blah blah...you get what I mean (I can hear you all going why don't you take a picture in the mirror).

Also, have just got off the telephone with a friend who lives in Belfast who is putting me in contact with lots of organisations and people across N.Ireland. Very exciting...I can't wait to get started now. Looking forward to seeing the new Peace Bridge in Derry/Londonderry and hopefully meeting the Corrymeela community and Peace People.

Inspired by students from Tavistock College

Enjoyed an inspiring first session with a group of around 35 volunteer students at Tavistock College today. I was very impressed with their ideas of how they would like to mark Peace Day on 21 September. Their ideas ranged from writing a piece of peace music with the jazz club through to writing to the Queen to ask her to hang a Peace Day banner on Buckingham Palace. Love it.

It reminded me that as we become adults we often become a little stuck in our ways. They reminded me to DREAM BIG and AIM HIGH. I very much look forward to what they put into action - watch this space...

'Reducing Domestic Violence' Coalition Launch

Monday 14 May 2012

The MasterPeace Journey: Alchemist Alive

I have just had a wonderful Skype talk with Raghda El-Halawany from MasterPeace in Cairo. We talked at length about the marvelous work that MasterPeace are doing to link grassroot peace movements all around the world. We agreed that everyone of us matters. We must all rise up to demand peace from the powers that be. We must demand peace throughout the world. We must demand that our leaders uphold the UN Resolution to mark the International Day of Peace. We must demand that violence should be left on the pages of our history books and not in our futures. United we can realise that dream.

I was also honored to be invited to be the next Alchemist Alive for the MasterPeace Journey project. This is truly exciting as I have long adored Paulo Coelho's famous book. The project is blessed by the author himself and aims to bring the story alive:

"In every country of the world, MasterPeace wants to inspire individuals to become the shepherd boy of this story and start traveling towards the pyramids in Egypt as green and visible as possible. Due to the involvement of sport clubs, travel websites, libraries and others, we expect at least 10,000 participants, all of them earning their ticket for the MasterPeace concert on the International Day of Peace in 2014, thanks to their “pilgrimage for peace”. We expect this creates 10,000 inspiring stories of guts and personal leadership. In Egypt, all travelers will be connected to new friends living in the Middle East. “On The Road To MasterPeace: The Alchemist Alive” creates thousands of new intercultural and interfaith friendships and brings positive stories through media, weblogs and documentaries to millions of people."

One of the MasterPeace projects led to this short film being made which brings together musicians from either side of a conflict divide. Have a watch and I am sure you will agree it is very powerful...

Thursday 10 May 2012

PDP Update: Pasty power!

I just wanted to say a quick thanks to Nigel Eadie from The Original Pasty House for his kind contribution to the walk. Helps out massively with kit for the road.


Also, a quick reminder about the launch event:

Saturday 26th May 2012, at 7pm, The Wharf, Tavistock.