SallyKettle

There's a chicken in the road ...

My head’s in total gridlock!

The tick-o-meter is telling me that there are only 20 sleeps left till I fly to Jamaica and I’m starting to feel a little bit scared.

The Clipper final leg is looming and the reality of the exploit is starting to sink in. Thing is I managed to get through my ocean rows relatively unscathed. So far the Clipper crews have succumbed to:

2 broken legs

Several head injuries

1 knock down

1 hulling & eventual sinking

A dismasting

AND

A man over board!

All I had to contend with was a few nasty boils on my arse! I’m also not reassured by the fact that my crew on Uniquely Singapore has blogged about the amount of Spam they have on board.

Lets just say I’m making the very most of my last few days on land – eating ice cream, sleeping in and hugging trees.

Still raising money for the fabulous Children’s Trust.

Wanna sponsor? I'm trying the raise £20k!

Please go to: 

My Justgiving Site

 

Square Tomatoes

Totally random but I’ve just launched a blog called Square ☐ Tomatoes. It’s a ‘how-to’ for kids aged 7-12yrs.

I’ve been updating it with weird and wonderful things I’ve found on the web as well as doing Blue Peter style projects (think sticky backed plastic and squeezy bottles!) I’ll also be hosting some video tutorials for kids to follow.

Our first project – grow a Square Tomato!

So this week it’s been a crazy at STHQ, I’ve been filming as many ‘How Tos’ as possible before I go away. With Top Testers growing their tomato seeds the whole project is starting to take shape.

I squealed when the kids starting sending their pictures in. It’s enormously rewarding to see the results of your hard work, especially knowing that children ‘out there’ are anxiously willing their tomatoes to be square.

It’s going to take some time to build a community but if we gather enough followers there may be an opportunity to publish a book. So if you have any 7-12yr olds who like to get creative do send them to the free blog and lets start a Square Tomatoes revolution!

 

Read the BLOG

Follow Square Tomatoes on Twitter

The Great Escape

The Children’s Trust and a good friend of mine, Major Phil Packer introduced me to ex-Olympic gymnast Suzanne Dando. Suzanne has organized an expedition across the Pyrenees to raise funds for the Royal British Legion and Phil recommended me as an ‘Exceptional Woman in my Field’, a humbling compliment. I’ll be one of a team of 11 women. Our message - to highlight women in war & women in conflict.

The idea came from a remarkable escape across the mountains by a woman called Nancy Wake. At the top of the Gestapo’s ‘Most Wanted’ list, Nancy was a spy for the Allies in WW11. Her story is remarkable and to my surprise Suzanne has told me Nancy is now a resident at the Star & Garter Home in Richmond, just up the road from me.

All’s going well in the preparations for our great escape in September. I’m now lugging my rucksack along to the gym, packing it with weights and trudging uphill on the treadmill. Jeremy Kyle screened on TV at the Esporta Kingston is quite frankly no substitute for the scenic vista of the mountains, but for now it will have to do!

Will have more on this when I’m back from sailing.

Finally…

Rowgirls The Movie

Soon after writing Sally's Odd at Sea I decided the Rowgirls adventure would make a fabulous movie. I've been working towards it's production for two years now, but recently crazy things have been happening. My co-producer Joe Kennard and I have been interviewing scriptwriters, meeting with bods at Screen South and the Film Council and incredibly it’s all moving forward. We’ve even been advised to schmooze at the Cannes Film Festival.

Well, as ‘Schmooze’ is my middle name how can I possibly resist the offer to go hang out in the south of France?

Joe and I are thinking of hitting the Festival just a couple of days before I fly off to Jamaica.

As yet we have nowhere to stay so a sleeping bag on the beach may be the best way to go. Lets face it it’s going to be luxury in comparison to the boat bunks.

So, here’s to finding more development funds. Oh and we’re thinking of putting together an ‘all-female’ production crew.

If you happen to own a villa in Cannes do let me know asap. Also, any contacts with female filmers also drop me a line. 

Until I'm back from the Clipper adventure, 

Sally 'Schmooze' Kettle x

www.sallykettle.com

 

I’ve had the call 

 

stripped in a phone box

 

and now I’m ready to rock and roll.

 

Shelterbox needs a hand and I have two, which means I’m fully qualified to head out to Sumatra on Saturday and do some good.  (Actually, it’s not quite as easy as that. I did have to pass a 9-day ‘ard as nails’ training course)

 

But by the end of October I’ll be able to pitch a tent, in the dark, with my hands tied behind my back, coated from top to toe in anti-mozzy cream. If it goes really well I’ll have taught about a hundred people to do it too.

 

You see SRT’s have a really important job to do, because if we don’t do it the chaps who sponsor the money to pay for the equipment that goes in the box, the hard working bods who pack the boxes ready to stack and the super organised team who get them delivered to where they need to go, will have wasted valuable time and money.

 

For Shelterbox to be successful they’ve got to make sense of a huge logistical nightmare! Imagine what would happen if all the boxes just turned up at the site of an earthquake, unannounced? Most of the local people will have lost family, friends, and probably their home. They ‘d have difficulty knowing how to set up the wood-burning stove; they’d also be pretty stuck translating the English instructions for the 10-man tents. But that’s where we step in…. the Shelterbox Response Team (SRT)

 

Simply put, this is what we do:

 

We get the boxes out of Customs.

We talk to local Rotary representatives to find out the lay of the land and who has been affected.

We reccie potential sites, so we can set up tent villages for those most in need.

We teach local people to pitch the tents and use the equipment

We tell Shelterbox HQ if more boxes are needed

And finally…

We get home safe and sound because job’s a goodun’.

 

Smoke me a kipper I’ll be back for breakfast!

 

And that’s it in a nutshell. On Saturday I’m off to do this incredible job, and no doubt I’ll be a very different person when I get back. I won’t lie to you; I am feeling more than just a little bit nervous right now.  It’s a huge responsibility and a great privilege; I just hope I don’t let my team down. And anyway I need to get home in one piece or my Mother will kill me!

 

So until I see you on the other side…

 

Sal x

 

Please support Shelterbox and go to www.shelterbox.org