Saturday, January 10, 2009

The Travails of Robin Hood

I seem to be one of the last people in Nottingham to find out that The Tales of Robin Hood, the city's commercial Robin Hood attraction (which I used to work for a lot a fair few years ago) seems to be in considerable trouble - in fact it's entirely likely it'll close very soon (if it hasn't already). That'd be a great shame, because Nottingham doesn't make enough of Robin Hood as it is.

Because of this, the lovely Sarah Julian from BBC Radio Nottingham invited me onto her Breakfast Show this morning to talk about being Robin and what the city can do with the legend. You can hear (or right-click to download) the whole interview here, although be warned, it's an 18Mb file (but at least it includes a nice Bob Marley tune too)!

In the interview I mention having a photo taken on the steps of the New York Public Library a while ago, so that's the one here - imagine just behind the camera a huge semi-circle of New Yorkers also taking pictures and wondering what's going on!

You can read more about the problems faced by the Tales here, here and here.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

(More) Horsing About!

So as it's now December and I'm about to be plunged into festive shedloads of Digital Paparazzi gigs I thought I should post something jolly and Robin Hood-ey, so here's the start of my version of an occasional advent calendar, some of my favourite pictures from the last year or so!

This one is from a publicity shoot I did in November last year with wooden bowl maker Robin Wood (yes, really) for The People's Millions £50m Lottery Bid for Sherwood Forest - sadly it lost out in the final but it was great fun and reminded me how much I enjoy riding!

You can see another pic and the two very silly YouTube videos we made here!   

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Many hands make light work...

It's been fire and ice for me recently - from walking on hot coals at Nottingham Castle to walking on ice last night at the brand new rink in Nottingham's Old Market Square. I was there to help turn on the city's Christmas lights and launch the Salvation Army's Christmas Toy Appeal.

I was in esteemed company too - not only was the real Sheriff of Nottingham there (the splendid Cllr. Brian Grocock who's doing great things for the post of Sheriff) but the Lord Mayor, Will Sherriff from Nottingham Rugby Club and Olympic Gold medallist and Notts canoeist Dr Tim Brabants (pictured above) . Oh, and Santa, of course!

The city always puts on a good show for Christmas and we were live on both radio and TV as well as having thousands of people there in person to enjoy the show, the skating and the annual festive German Christmas market which hopefully means lots of toys for the kids and a good start to Christmas for all!

There's a Nottingham Evening Post article online here and they have a selection of pictures from the event here (which is where the photo of me and Dr Tim Brabants comes from) and the ITV Central News live TV report here for a few days at least - their report starts at 25m 35s in.    

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Toasty Feat!

 Now that was utterly fantastic - yesterday I and eighty-eight other slightly bonkers people (including Maid Marian) walked along two lines of red hot coals at Nottingham Castle to support the Nottingham Royal Society for the Blind. I was deeply touched a privileged to be sponsored by some very kind and generous folks to whom I extend my deepest and most genuine thanks.

As you can see I was pretty elated to be doing it (and I was lucky enough to be the first across) but one of the best things about the whole event was the two-hour 'psych' session that we all had beforehand, which wasn't (as I'm sure we'd all imagined) some form of new-agey cod waffle but a very invigorating and uplifting lesson in changing attitudes and being more positive which hopefully we'll all be able to apply elsewhere in life too!

And as for the actual walking - it was great - the heat coming off the line of glowing coals was intense but I couldn't wait to get started and like most of the good things in life it was over far too quickly!  We all got a commemorative medal from the Sheriff of Nottingham too, and then it was all over... I would have quite happily done it again right there though, and really can't recommend the experience highly enough - big congratulations to everyone who took part, and once again real thanks to my (and everyone else's) sponsors, you've all made a real difference.  

UPDATE:

I was very pleased to receive a card from the good people at the Nottingham Royal Society for the Blind telling me that the November 5th charity firewalk that I and 88 other brave but bonkers folks did has now raised over £20,000, so as well as having been an excellent experience it was in a very real sense extremely worthwhile!

Many thanks indeed to the NSRB, Nottingham Castle and especially everyone who sponsored me!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Fire Walk with Me!

The very nice people at Nottingham Castle and the Nottinghamshire Royal Society for the Blind have somehow convinced me that they really need me (dressed as Robin Hood) to walk across burning hot coals to raise money for charity at Nottingham Castle on the evening of November 5th - and I've foolishly agreed to do it so please make it worth my while by pledging any amount!

Please visit my sponsorship page here: http://www.justgiving.com/timpollard

Luckily it's not just me on the barbeque as I've got my lovely Maid Marian with me too (her sponsorship site is here) but YOU could always come and join in too - details are available here!

Alternatively, if you're not mad enough to do it yourself, then please consider supporting the event by sponsoring me! All donations are welcome, no matter how small.

There will also be a firework display, music and food, so come along to support us all if you can!

Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Nottinghamshire Royal Society for the Blind gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

So please sponsor me now - many thanks indeed!