So, 'Timber the Guide', a very Welsh expression. Even although 'volunteering for guide dogs' wasn't actually an item on my list, it could have been. Before I started on this 50 before 50 malarkey I read through a ton of other folks birthday challenge lists, and one very popular item is to sponsor a guide dog. A very worthwhile thing to do of course and I'm in no way knocking that. But as a challenge? Try making the life changing decision to truly get involved. Even though our first tenure as volunteer boarders came to an end this week I believe it has been life changing. We SOOOO want to do it again. And hopefully we will. It was hard, and on Monday when he left us, it was heartbreaking. But would we want to do it again - in an absolute heartbeat.
So why, in a blog covering things I'm doing directly related to my birthday list have I all of a sudden included a post about a dog - albeit an exceedingly special dog, called Timber, the Guide. Well, when I said goodbye to him on Monday I pretty much realised that he has been such an integral and important part of this task list. He has been helping me almost as much as Stewart has so this to acknowledge his efforts and to say thanks. By the way, I'm completely aware that some of these efforts are tenuous to say the least. But, they still count. So in no particular order I would like to acknowledge Timber's unwavering contribution to my 50 Before 50.
No.7: 50k/miles of walking
Timber came with us on the first of my walks which will make up the 50 miles. I'm calling them the Weatherman Walking walks cos of a Welsh legend Derek Brockway (an iconic (?) weatherman who wrote about a series of hikes he did in Wales and I'll be following them). This walk was in Newport and followed the 14 Locks Trail.
No.8: Climb Pen Y Fan (highest point in south Wales)
Stewart and Timber pretty much walked up mountains for a laugh. Every weekend. Before I was even up out of bed. However, Stewart and Timber encouraged me to get this task completed fairly early on, so one early Saturday morning, in April, mission accomplished. Timber - on top of the wooorld.
No.9; Compete in 50 Pub Quizzes
One of our regular quizzes is the Sunday night Wetherspoons quiz. Basically since he came to stay with us Timber has been a regular competitor. Our team name is the Richard Dawkins Appreciation Society but it's only just struck me that perhaps we should have been the Richard Dawgins Appreciation Society. Crap joke I know....By the way, Timber, as a member of a quiz team was pretty useless. His knowledge of Greek mythology, US geography and phobias was really crap to be honest. But, all the other teams seriously loved him and know they'll miss him.
No.11: Take part in a dog walk with at least 50 other dogs
This was actually the first thing I got to completely cross of my list. It was a huge charity dog walk in aid of Hearing Dogs for the Deaf. We'd only had him for a couple of weeks by then so it was early days of getting to know him. My main memory from this was realising the sense of fun and madness in him and how much he relished rolling in sh*t and jumping in ditch water!
No.15: Volunteer at the Welsh Velothon
Don't have much evidence of how he helped me when I volunteered to be part of the Velothon Wales so you'll just have to trust me. He was instrumental in me completing this task. When I volunteered, I read all the notes and guidance and followed them to a T. One of the things they asked was, due to the road closures, and due to lack of parking up Caerphilly Mountain, please could all volunteers walk up. So I did. And it nearly killed me. If it hadn't been for the encouragement of Stewart and Timber, I'd have given up and gone home. As it was, I think I was the only velonteer who walked up - the rest all went bugger this and got lifts up. Still this was an achievement for me and Stewart and Timber even came to meet me at the end of the day to escort me back down the mountain. Ta very muchly!
No.30: Grow Strawberries, a sunflower....anything
Oh yes, this is my gardening task. One which is still ongoing. To be honest, as far as Timber's intention of helping me goes - it was pretty questionable.
He tried to help by digging. If he'd dug anywhere else, I wouldn't have been best pleased!
No.49: Get 50 Selfies with people met along the way with these challenges
Think he's earned his right to be part of the selfies challenge. If you've read this far you'll understand what a support and star he has been. I'll miss him :(
No comments:
Post a Comment