It's been QUITE A WEEK!

I'm starting this post with the ending! Julie and I are writing this in Shenley Park, sitting on a blanket, with a bottle of wine, grapes and peaches, wearing t-shirts, just as the sky turns grey and it starts to rain, who says an author and co-author's life's is mundane?

 It all started a week ago when Julie and I, together with my eldest son, Stephen, set off into Central London to The Park Lane Hilton to help out at the CRUK East Herts committee charity masquerade ball.

 

 We had the privilege of helping to raise around £70k for an amazing charity, for which Julie and I are Cancer Campaigns Ambassadors, but we also got to hear the stories of a cancer survivor who has battled the illness on and off since the age of 7 and since funded he's own charity - 101 things to do when you survive.

We also heard from the most amazing woman who in fact has only a very short time left to live. She is only 40 years old. Her story was so emotional and stirred the room to a standing ovation, in fact they both did.

 One of the many highlights of the evening was meeting Jake Wood, also know as Max Branning from Eastenders. I had to tell him about how I met my now girlfriend Julie, when we took part in a charity Strictly Come Dancing competition in aid of North London Hospice.  

 We also met two dancers, Steven and Krystal who provided some of the evenings entertainment. We showed them one of our signature moves, I think they were impressed! 

 Another highlight was the live auction with celebrity auctioneer, none other than Hollywood legend and one of our own, Mr Ray Winston! I just had to have a photo with the him at the end of the evening.

 

A great night and a great cause.

 Sunday was mostly spent dealing with the final edits on MY WAY 5 about LIFE, with an early evening interlude to celebrate my nephews 21st with the family. Late into the evening and early morning, my editor and I were uploading my latest book to Amazon so it was ready to publish on Monday 16th May to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week.

 

So Monday appeared and what a busy start to the day it was with full marketing of MY WAY 5 about LIFE on social media, especially to my 32k followers on Twitter. The book features 21 amazing authors and bloggers who were brave enough to write about some very emotional events that have happened in their lives.

 I am delighted to mention that the charity SANE wrote a foreword in the book and a percentage of the proceeds will be donated to this special charity. 

 On Tuesday I was on TV, well let me explain. I had a ticket to see the ITV lunchtime show Loose Women and I was captured on camera being in the audience, how did I know this, well my daughter who was watching posted a photo on Facebook, my sister texted me to say that she had seen me and my son Stephen, tweeted me asking, "Dad, why are you on TV?" The best bit was that even before the show went live, I was chosen to act as a guest coming onto the show to warm the studio audience up. Now I know what it feels like to be a celebrity and to be applauded and cheered when making a TV appearance. I just hope it won’t be the first and last time!

 

 So now I will move onto Saturday morning, which saw my editor, co-author and girlfriend Julie and I up bright and early to take up an invitation to be on the Northwick Park Hospital’s radio station, Radio Harrow, to chat about MY WAY 5 about LIFE. We had a blast with host Gary Walker and the hour flew by. Again, I hope this won’t be the last radio show we do. You can listen to us having a good chit chat here! Radio Harrow

 

 Now I move on to today, Sunday 22nd May and a very special day because it’s my mum’s 81^st birthday and apart from one brother, who is away in Malta, the day was spent in a lovely little country pub with the birthday girl, and my other siblings, oh and not forgetting Julie of course! 

 So all in all, a very busy week and one that was certainly quite different from the previous week. I can't wait to see what the week ahead brings, I do have some quite exciting things in the pipeline so watch this space and I will let you all know about it next week.

Until then, peace and love to one and all!