Sarah's Search for Success

That's that then

It was my bike club's motorcycle rally last weekend: Ridgeway Motorcycle Club's 11th George to the Dragon Rally.  The weather stayed mostly fine, the tickets were sold out back in February, we managed to negotiate the new licensing laws so we were allowed to sell alcohol, and so sell alcohol we did.  We started setting the site up first thing on Friday morning, and by lunchtime the first punters started rolling up, bikes laden down with tents and other camping paraphernalia.  The first barrels of beer were tapped, the bar opened, and we were off!

Bike insurance Hell

A good friend of mine arrived this morning all the way from sunny Australia.  He's here for three weeks holiday, so I'd offered to lend him one of my motorcycles to tour around Europe.  Only fair when he lent me his when I was in Sydney last month!  It's another biker thing - we tend to lend bikes out far more often than people do cars in my experience, but then that might be because a lot of us have more than one.  Or maybe it's because we're all so lovely *grin*

After Dinner Subtitles

I've just had a few friends over for dinner.  Well, I was in the supermarket yesterday, and they had duck half price, so I just had to buy one.  And there's no point cooking roast duck for one, so then I had to invite a couple of friends over, and then another couple of friends rang to say hi, so I invited them too. 

Bike rally bands

My motorcycle club is hosting it's yearly bike rally next weekend.  Oh my, next weekend!!!  Actually, we've got a great group of people now, so most of the organising just happens after a few year's practise, but there's still the odd little thing that slips through the net.  This year one of them is the bands, which is usually my baby.  Well, I booked the main bands for Friday and Saturday nights, but then I made the fatal mistake of bogging off to the other side of the world for a few weeks.

Games night

Wednesday night is Games Night, when couple of good friends and I get together and play games.  No, not those sort of games! I mean card games, board games, dice games, traditional games: games where we sit around a table or on the floor, drink lots of very nice wine, and laugh a lot.  We came to a mutual agreement some time ago that we were all spending far too much time vegging in front of the telly, and not enough socialising, and this was the answer we came up with.

Spring joy!

Spring is springing and the garden's a-growing.  Now, I've had great plans for my garden since I first moved in, oh, a mere 9 years ago.  Since then, the wisteria has matured enough to pull down the back fence in a fit of petulance over not having the lovely big pergola to drape its flowers gracefully from that I envisioned.  The water feature is still a picture in my head, as is the herb garden other than a few pot-bound specimens.  And the patio is still almost but not quite big enough to fit a table and chairs comfortably.  As for the outdoor spa... well, a girl's got to dream!

Early mornings

Yesterday morning I was up at the unearthly time of 5:30am, and on a Sunday, too!  This may not seem strange to some, but for me, a dedicated night owl, the only time I usually see this time of day is if I'm still up from the night before.  It wasn't just some strange whim or residual jet-lag - I had to drag myself out of bed in order to get into London for yet another seminar - I think I've become a seminar junky!

The compensation for such an early start was the sheer beauty of the morning, enhanced by the distinct lack of traffic.  OK, so it took me 10 minutes to scrape the overly persistant ice from my car, but once I'd set off the scenery was breathtaking (or maybe that was just the cold!): the sky was eggshell blue, with an orange sun creeping up from behind the clouds, everything was touched with a crisp white frost, and there was a hint of low-lying mist to add an edge of unearthliness - wow.

It's not often that I'm tempted to call the scenery from the A34 breathtaking, but if I ever fail to see the beauty in such a moment just shoot me, as I'll already be dead.

What is Success?

I've recently been asked to expand on what my search for success is, and found it surprisingly difficult to do!  So, being a lover of the great multi-media encyclopedia that is the internet, and of not re-inventing the wheel, I set forth from Google in search of a definition for the success that I'm searching for.  I immediately found several references to a poem called, appropriately and rather succinctly, "Success".  It seems that there has been some debate about the true author of the poem or its many variations, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, but on reading further it is attributed to Bessie A. Stanley in 1905.  It sums things up rather nicely for me:

He has achieved success
    who has lived well,
    laughed often, and loved much;
who has enjoyed the trust of pure women,
    the respect of intelligent men
    and the love of little children;
who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
who has left the world better than he found it
    whether by an improved poppy,
    a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
who has never lacked appreciation of Earth's beauty
    or failed to express it;
who has always looked for the best in others
    and given them the best he had;
whose life was an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.

Certainly something to aspire to, methinks.

80s Disco Fever

Last night I went to an 80s disco at the local golf club.  Great stuff, I thought, as I rummaged around in the bottom of my wardrobe for my old pixie boots and pulled various sparkly scarves out of the back of drawers (hoarder? me? never!).  I set to work with the scissors to hack the bottom and sleeve ends off an old t-shirt along with the collar, prior to turning it inside out (yes, I remember the old tricks, too!), as unfortunately my old 80s t-shirts seemed to have shrunk over the years...  Out came the sparkly make-up, and I even sat and painted my nails with glitter nail-varnish, which believe me is a lot more effort than I usually go to - I'm just a tad too much on the lazy side to be particularly high maintenance!

Luckily the boots were old and stretched enough to fit over my bruised and bumpy ankle.  Earlier in the week I had managed to fall over my own feet and twist my ankle whilst walking cold stone sober along a flat and even piece of pavement on the way home from the dentist - quite an achievement, I felt, having managed to return unscathed after trekking around various parts of Australia and New Zealand over the last month!  Although changing colour rather interestingly on a daily basis, it was fine to walk on, probably not great for a boogie, but I was willing to give it a go.

And now it's my turn...

Inspired by Pam's hair-raising charity efforts, I have committed to some fund-raising of my own.  I could not quite bring myself to match Pam's efforts and loose my own crowning glory, so have opted for the somewhat less traumatic but still-in-a-good-cause option of joining this years Race for Life, in aid of Cancer Research UK.  A very good friend of mine has taken part for the last few years, and I am proud to join her in walking around the Oxford University Parks on Sunday 4th June.  Yes, we will be walking rather than running, as my friend, though fit, is in her 60s (well, that's my excuse, anyway!).

I am very much looking forward to this as it is something that I have been meaning to take part in for some time, but have just never quite gotten around to.  In the past I have been inclined to prevaricate about things like this until the decision is taken out of my hands by there being no space left for me to join in, or some other such reason.  In keeping with my commitment to taking action from now on instead of just talking the talk, I shall be proud to be, quite literally, "walking the walk"!  Cancer Research is a topic close to my heart - I have both friends and family who have been touched by cancer, and in fact imagine that pretty much everyone I know will have had experience of it in one way or another.

And now the call to you to take action: would you do me the honour of sponsoring me please?  All you need to do is go to my sponsorship page: http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/sgreen and click on "Sponsor Me Now".  I have set myself a fundraising target of £500 - all help to exceed this will be gratefully received!