The Marathon Is Done!

     At last the 12 hours are over and I've had some time to recover!   

     I'm glad it's over now, despite how much I enjoyed it (in parts at least). My arms/shoulders/neck ache but surprisingly my fingers are in perfecting working order. Still the transition from the piano's keyboard to the computer's is tiring, so I'll be concise. Thanks so much to everyone who has been involved, through the many different media and the large time span since February.

     Now I suppose I'll have to start work for my next fundraising event! I don't think I could gain as much experience as this event: publicising, finding donors, organising technology, and preparing for the 12 hour endurance; it's pushed me outside my comfort zone at times but overall this has been incredibly rewarding and enjoyable. 

     Though for my next event I'm still up for a challenge, it may be some time. I'll keep you posted...

Piano Marathon Tomorrow!

     Today sadly we were forced to abandon the camcorder kindly lent to us by Trudi, due to a lack of money, time and will to take apart the desktop, read the motherboard and install a fire-wire card! I hope you still can appreciate the live stream at the bottom of the page, even with the lower quality webcam!

      Don't forget to tune in to BBC Coventry and Warwickshire at about 8.45AM tomorrow! I really appreciate the all the support from the community, with cables being donated, kind messages being left and a general positive attitude towards the whole thing. It really has helped. Now all that's left is to do the marathon, the preparation has been almost as challenging and rewarding as the real thing.

     Thanks once again to everyone who's helped so far.

More Publicity!

     As you may already know there has been interest by three newspapers in the upcoming piano marathon: The Leamington Courier, The Rugby Advertiser and The Rugby Observer. Well today I was called up by BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Radio 94.8 FM | 103.7 FM. I will have an interview at about 8:45, before the start of the piano marathon. So do tune in.

     In other news we now have an excellent camera kindly lent to us by a friend so the sound and picture quality should be much better than my web cam. However there seem to be technical problems relating to fire wire cables not being able to be plugged into PCs. I hope a trip to town to buy a different cable tomorrow will solve this. I'll keep you posted. 

     P.S: I did get the double ended mini fire wire DV cable, it works, but now we have issues with audio. We hope putting a memory card in it may work since we've tried everything else! 

The Regency 10k is Done!

     After so much training for the endurance event of my piano marathon, I somewhat neglected training for the 10k, completely. However I was still quite pleased with myself for completing the run in 55.57 minutes despite the high temperatures. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. 
    
     Thanks to everyone who sponsored and supported me for this event. Maybe next year, with better experience and conditions, I will be able to run it quicker and get more sponsorship.

     I hope you're all still looking forward to the Piano Marathon this Saturday, I certainly am. Once again I am very appreciative of all the support from so many people in these last few months. I just hope I'll manage to pull it off, there's lots of practice still to do in four days!

It's All About Cameras!

This week is all about cameras! 
     
     Firstly, today a photographer from the Leamington Courier came round and took a picture of me at the piano. After that I had a telephone interview with one of their journalists. Hopefully it will be published in the paper this week, but it's not too great a shame if it is in next week's edition.
     
     Secondly, as you probably will have noticed, there is a YouTube upload below (removed temporarily due to marathon), as I said last Wednesday. I decided to use an old video from December (hence the fleece), but I still think it's all right. Anyway I don't have too much time to try and record another at the moment, but I'll see what I can do.

   
     Lastly, my camera was used to take a photo for the Rugby Advertiser today as well. I'm not sure when they will be publishing the article, but I'll keep you posted.  

Recent Fundraising and Future Plans

     The piano marathon preparation so far has been going well, and with exams out of the way next week I will be able to concentrate on keeping you informed as well as other preparation such as for the 10K, which I am running with members from my scout unit. 

     Hopefully I will be able to upload a video to YouTube and also posted into this blog, with you as my witness I will have the determination to do this soon.
    
     Plans are moving along for T-Shirts sponsorship and further cake sales at school. A big thank you also to all the neighbours so far who have given so generously to the piano marathon.
      

Piano Marathon Date is Decided

      The piano marathon is now taking place at my house on 16th April from 9am until 9pm. Remember, you can see it live on this blog. 
     
     So, what will I be playing? The majority of my pieces are going to be classical/romantic works composed by: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann and Rachmainoff. Among my favourites: Rachaminoff's Prelude in C sharp Minor, Chopin's Nocturne in E flat Major, and Schumann's Träumerei.

     Thanks to those who donated for the 10k Regency Run at the Scout bingo night on Friday, I managed to raise over twenty-five pounds!   

Piano Marathon Update

     A few days ago, as you may have noticed, a donate button and a live stream web cam and chat widget were set up on the blog. The donate button is an easy way for you to safely donate money via any card payment method (you do not need a Pay Pal account). The web cam and chat widget will become live during the Piano Marathon itself, streaming the action live to this blog (technology withstanding). 

    

     The prospect for my Piano Marathon being held at the school isn't looking so good any more. Consequently I will most likely be holding The Marathon at home sometime around Easter. Hopefully by then I will have had time to practice some pieces as my piano exam is out of the way this Friday; which incidentally is the same day as a cake sale at my school! Despite the hectic schedule this week I hope I'll manage to sell enough of my 'millionaires' shortbread' and raise more funds.

     

     I hope to be able to give you more definitive information about The Marathon in my next post.

     
    

The blog is launched!

     Today is the start of this blog which will document my progress towards my trip to Tanzania in August 2012. 

     When my school announced that this trip was going to take place, I was immediately interested. I jumped at the opportunity to travel to Africa and take part in projects involving wildlife conservation, community projects such as building schools, and to learn about the people of Tanzania and their unique culture.

     This evening I went to a fantastic gig at the Stretton-under-Fosse village hall. There I spoke with Ken Nicol (who was playing with Ashley Hutchings - both of whom are British folk rock legends) who was interested in my plans and made an announcement during the performance about my fundraising event. Event, do you ask? Yes! In the near future I will be playing the piano for 12 hours straight, which will be streamed live to this very blog.

     The event is being developed now and I'll be posting updates. So thank you for visiting my blog and a special thank you to the generous people at the Ken and Ashley gig tonight who are already sponsoring my piano marathon. If you would like to help too, please contact me. A payment facility will be in place soon.