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!   

Cake Sale Results

     The cake sale yesterday went well with almost a hundred pounds being raised between our group at school. Thanks to everyone who bought and hopefully enjoyed a cake. Also on the same day there was a more low key cake sale at my step-mother's University. There she managed to sell several pieces of her coffee and walnut cake contributing more money, thanks to all the donors there also. Still even more money was raised on the same day with four leftover cakes being sold at my Explorer-Scout group. 
     
     The cake sales were good fun and I hope to be doing more in the future. I'll inform you as to when these will take place, as well as my finalised date for my Piano Marathon at home.

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.