First refusal

Sadly, I must now announce that the exciting looking envelope turned out to be our first ever written refusal:

Dear Mr and Mrs Main

SPONSORSHIP PROPOSAL

Thank you for your recent proposal to sponsor your walk from York to Edinburgh. We have considered your proposal carefully but unfortunately our sponsorship programme for this year has been decidde with budgets and resources already allocated.

I am sorry that we can't help you on this occasion. Can I wish you every success with your holiday.

Now, this raises two issues. Firstly, we didn't want them to sponsor us! We don't want anyone to! We hate people doing sponsored things as much as, if not more than, the next person! You see, sponsorship involves saying to all your friends and colleagues "We're going on holiday. Please therefore give us some money, a large proportion of which we will use to pay for our holiday." An entirely different proposition from "We're holding an enormous contest. Would you be interested in donating a prize and/or entering it?"

And the other issue: surely if the resources etc had already been allocated, there would have been no need to consider our proposal carefully? Ha - try and escape from that one!

But there's no need to go further with this churlishness. It was genuinely nice of them at least to take the trouble to write back.

Oh well.

MacAulay and Co

Our cause has now been broadcast across Scotland.

At about 9:45 this morning I spent five minutes talking to Fred MacAulay and his co-presenter on BBC Radio Scotland. Sadly I never found out who the co-presenter was, but she seemed very nice.

It was an unusual kind of conversation, really - not so much because it was being broadcast live to literally hundreds of people, but more because they kept making bow and arrow sound effects at me. I suppose it's quite gratifying that somebody went to the effort of finding a sound effect especially for our segment. They seemed quite interested in the whole thing, and quite entertained, although the conversation did end up with Mr. MacAulay describing his throwing crisp packets full of water at York Ghost Trail guides. And that was without his even knowing that I am one of such guides.

All in all, quite fun, really. Sadly I never managed to mention the website, so I doubt if we'll get any more competition entrants from it - but it's nice to think that a few Radio Scotland listeners might be supporting us as we march steadfastly across the border.