WALK FOR LIFE 2000
On Sunday 18th June, as you all know, Andrew Müller, Tony Brady and Andy Barrett took part in the Walk For Life in aid of Crusaid - the National Fundraiser for HIV and AIDS.
We were amongst an incredible 4,500 (or so) Walkers who raised more than £250,000 - which is very creditable. Between us myself, Tony and Andy raised around £350.00 which we think is not bad either!
The Walk took us around some very nice parts of London. We began at the South Bank with a "pep talk" by Chris Smith and a slightly patronising speech by Anna Raeburn who decided to follow the line that because we were on the Walk we were obviously gay (making some kind of spurious connection between caring about AIDS and an assumption of being gay which we all agreed was the against the whole purpose of events of this kind).
From there we walked along towards the Lambeth Embankment. In the earlier stages of the Walk we were in a slow moving, shuffling procession of people.
This even caused something of a traffic jam as we tried to cross Westminster Bridge. The shuffle didn’t really start to turn into a stroll until we reached St. James’ Park where a number of Walkers broke for a picnic.
Little known London fact for you:- The paintwork on Westminster Bridge is green and the paintwork on Lambeth Bridge is red. There is a reason for this - Westminster Bridge is near the House of Commons and Lambeth Bridge near the House of Lords, the paintwork reflecting the colours of the seats in the two Houses!
By the time we reached The Mall the crowds had thinned considerably (as can be seen from the photo of Andy above!). It was a gloriously hot day and a large number of our fellow Walkers made the most of the weather and had long picnics in the park. We, however, had no picnic with us and settled for an ice-cream to keep us sustained as we walked up to Trafalgar Square and then down Northumberland Avenue - arriving back at The Thames near Charing Cross Station.
We crossed Blackfriars Bridge back to the South Bank and continued to move towards our destination.
We were originally supposed to have crossed the Thames on the new Millennium Bridge (or to use its more popular name ‘The Wobbling Wonder’).
Of course, it was shut - so we had to make do with looking at it from outside the Tate Modern Gallery.
From here it was only a short distance past The Globe and through the back streets of Southwark to the finish at the Hays Galleria. After arriving we had a cooling drink at a nearby pub and a celebratory meal (ironically at Captain Tony’s Pizza and Pasta Emporium!)
In all a splendid time was had by us all. We would just like to give a BIG THANK YOU to all those who sponsored us once again - and particularly to those kind enough to sponsor more than one of us. Without your money our Walk would have been nothing but an indulgent wander around some superbly attractive parts of London - with your money we made £350 difference to a cause which (despite the current lack of headlines) is still killing millions of people in all walks of life across the world.
THANK YOU
ANDREW
TONY
ANDY
© Text copyright - Raving Loony Productions and Andrew J. Müller
© Photos and Artwork - Andrew J. Müller, Anthony Brady and Andrew
Barrett
© Web Design and Layout - Andrew J. Müller
2000
