BT Raffle

On friday, we held a raffle at the North-East's BT call centre, to raise some money for our equipment. We got there at 11 o'clock and left at 3! 4 hours of hard sell! During the day, we met loads of really helpful people. Some got all their friends to come and support us. The day before, Mary also went there to do a live radio interview to promote us! She must have done a good job as we raised about £240! Woo! We also found out that Amanda seems to draw people into buying tickets, without them even knowing it - it must be those big blue eyes! Overall, a really fun day - we are especially grateful to June, Maria, Dean and Ricky! Thanks guys!

Stephen Byers

Well, now I have a bit more time, I'll tell you all a bit more about Stephen Byers' visit. Stephen Byers is an MP for our area, and also part of an environmental team that work at parliament. We met him in the CLC. We had our display boards and our prototype with us. There was also a photographer and our science teacher, Mr Willis. We explained about our idea and the competition to Mr Byers and he seemed very interested. He asked us lots of questions about our and other's ideas. He was also keen to help us with taking our idea forward to the next stage of development. As he said "It's so simple, I'm surprised no one has come up with it before!" This was the general view of a lot of people. We showed him our programme of activities and explained about the firearms training. Before Mr Byers left, we had to have our photos taken. We gathered round our prototype and got some 'natural' shots (ha!) He then wished us good luck with the trip and went on his way. It was a really good experience to meet someone who actually influences the government on topics like the environment. He was really pleased that we had the chance to get involved with our project. We were also really grateful that he could/wanted to come!

3 weeks to go!

This is a really big milestone for all of us! Three small weeks to go! We have quite a bit of our stuff together now - gloves, hats, socks (mucho excitamondo)Just think. This time in 3 weeks we will be in the Arctic!!!!!!!!!!! Tomorrow we are going to BT to have a raffle! Should be fun!

22 days to go!!!!

This is Amanda and Becky doing that infamous jump that people who have just won always do at the end of movies! They insisted on it! The pic was very skillfully taken by Mr Willis (woo!). Me and Mary decieded to just watch this one... walk away from the mad people...

23 days to go!!!!

Hi everyone,
As you can see we have made some changes to our blog. It would be lovely to hear your opinions on it and maybe suggest some improvements, we might not make them but would love to know what you think. (Maybe you don't think amanda entertains?, I might change that bit). Leave us a comment.

Lots of love
Amanda x

Hello Amanda here.

It is so hard to think about anything other than the trip at the moment!!!! I managed to get my walking boots, they are really nice (for walking boots).I also managed to get some of the other things on my list. The man in the shop knew loads about Svalbard and told me about this website that I should go on. You can get DVDs from this website that show Svalbard in the different seasons. I will see if i can get it because i think it would look quite good on this blog. Then we can give you a little insight into what Svalbard is going to be like.

We hope you will benefit from our blog. Are main aim is to keep you updated with our progress. We promise to post any pictures we take asap. Please leave any comments as we will all miss you so much and it would be great to hear from you. Its a long way away (well not to bad).

24 days!!!! And previously...

Right, I know this is another thing for you to read, but we do like to keep you all up to date! Since we actually won, things have been... slightly chaotic!

On the actual finals day, we did a bit of light shopping, just to take our minds off the stress! Harrods, here we come! Then, it was back to the lecture theatre - we were the first ones there which made us even more nervous! Then, we had a video diary moment! Our reigon was the fifth (I think)to be announced. Mary can squeeze a hand very tightly! Then, they read our name out. We were in shock, it was actually our teacher who reacted first - Yesssssss! Then, we came out of our stupor and ran down the steps!

Before we even got out of the lecture theatre to go home, we had all rung our mams! Then the news person came to film us, so Amanda had to ring again (and fake being excited!) Then we rang Jess and Amy, they were in town, but they screamed anyway! Bless. Then at the train station we rang the rest of our friends and Mr Haines (Head of Science). He was dead chuffed! The first week back, every single teacher came up to us and congratulated us (oh to be famous!) and all our friends mobbed us! They were more excited than us! Our headteacher saw us and was sooo proud! Then, Amanda had an interview with the Journal (our local newspaper). This was then circulated to the Chronicle and the Herald and Post! We had our photos taken. Urgh! Loads of people have seen our articles. Former teachers, music teachers, everyone seems to know!

Oh to be famous...