How many people reading this enter competitions online and think that they actually have a chance of winning? I certainly don’t yet I still enter them. It’s a bit like playing the lottery. I have played the same numbers every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday without fail for years but as yet I haven’t matched all of the numbers which leaves me in a worse financial state than Greece!
So you can imagine my surprise when I received a tweet from Daytona CEO, Charles Graham informing me that I had indeed won a competition that I had entered earlier that morning. I had seen the following tweet posted by Charles which had been re-tweeted by Daytona:
“I have two tickets to @RickParfittJnr ‘s rockball tomorrow night value £400 most original reply joins our table #rockball”.
So I got my thinking cap on and came up with: “@Daytonaceo @rickparfittjnr I’ll be the designated driver #Taxi‘sAren’tCheapInLondon :)”.
Now either the other posts were rubbish or I was the only person to enter, either way I had actually entered the competition and won! The only issue now was that I had to some how negotiate the afternoon off work as the Rock Ball was that night!!!
Rick has suffered with Crohn’s since the age of 9 but for those who are unaware of what Crohn’s Disease is, it’s a debilitating disease that roughly affects 1 in 1000 people in the UK. Crohn’s disease is a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It usually affects the intestines, but may occur anywhere from the mouth to the end of the rectum, normally leaving the sufferer in intense pain. The exact cause of Crohn’s disease is unknown. It is an autoimmune disorder. An autoimmune disorder is a condition that occurs when your body’s immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy body tissue.
After begging the boss for some short notice time off, I then headed off to Moss Bros to hire a tux as there was no way on earth mine would still fit, followed by a slight detour to Kettering to pick up a new pair of Black shoes (Mum is a manager in a men’s designer shoe factory so it was worth the additional mileage….) and I was ready to go.
I was due to meet Charles and my date for the evening, Jordan Hill (Donna couldn’t get the time off work) at 7pm and since I was less than 6 miles away from The Hurlingham Club at 6pm I thought that this shouldn’t be an issue, alas this was London and I’d managed to forget that the traffic does have a tendency to bite you in the arse…1 mile in 25 minutes when you are desperately trying to get somewhere is beyond frustrating but when you don’t know where you are going it’s even worse. At that point I reverted to the ‘Senna’ technique which involves putting your car in a gap and letting the other person choose if you have an accident or not! This technique is clearly the best way to drive in London as I arrived at the Hurlingham Club just after 7pm and in time for the Laurent Perrier Champagne Reception.
Our table really couldn’t have been better placed as it was right next to the fashion show runway. Normally I wouldn’t be overly interested in a fashion show but since this would be a bikini fashion show, I thought it only fair to make an exception and give these ladies my undivided attention. J
The compere for the evening was none other than Dave Vitty aka Comedy Dave from the Radio 1 breakfast show. He was in superb form throughout the night but I don’t think he’d mind me saying that the star of the night was a gentleman named Jonny Gould.
Jonny was the charity auctioneer and I have never seen anyone work an auction room like it. He would describe the lot to the room then do what can only be described as insult any potential bidders into outbidding the previous bidder. It was absolutely hilarious and I now want to do that instead of my current job as it’s the only job I can think of where you get paid for calling a table of men a bunch of raving homosexuals and not get punched in the face! It clearly works too as he managed to raise over £35,000. £4000 of the total was generated by Daytona’s lot which will see 10 drivers race against Rick Parfitt Jnr and Ben Collins (some of you might know him as The Stig) at one of Daytona’s race circuits.
After the auction came the fashion show, which was arranged by none other than Sophie Anderton. In fact. Jordan and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sophie and her models for producing such a wonderful show…
Once all of the formalities of the auction and the fashion show were taken care of, the party then really got started, with performances from The Feeling, The RPJ band including duets with Melanie C (of Spice Girls fame), Sophie Ellis Bextor and Rick Parfitt Snr. In fact, one great thing to see was Rick senior looking on from backstage with what can only be described as a look of pride as his son performed in front of over 400 people who had all paid to support the RPJ Crohn’s foundation.
A massive congratulation’s must go out to Rick, the RPJ Crohn’s Foundation and The Hurlingham Club for producing a superb event. I must also say a massive thanks to Charles and Daytona for supplying the tickets and the great company throughout the evening. It was a spectacular night and I look forward to tagging along next year, I’ll even pay this time!
Stuart McKay
Guest Blogger