Well, I’ve got roped in to some silly things to support good causes or charities during my 18 years at TLH Leisure Resort in Torquay - I’ve swam a mile, swam in fancy dress, entered It’s a Knockout 3 times, dressed up in Flamenco costume and sang until I was paid to stop, been in a barber shop quarter… and many others.
But I think the most recent event has to have been my stupidest idea yet.
Devon County Council were promoting ‘Devon Car Free Day’, a day when everyone should leave their car at home and consider a greener method of transport. They had incentives on offer - £1000 for one business and 4 prizes of £50 for individuals. TLH Leisure Resort wanted to support the event, we have a travel plan, we are in the Green Tourism Business Scheme, we have recently installed a cycle rack and we tried to promote ideas like car sharing by telling staff about www.carsharedevon.com.
After discussion at lunchtime with my colleagues we ruled out simple alternative methods of transport such as walking or cycling and thought that roller skating or roller blading would be a good idea. How hard could it be, I was a pretty nifty roller skater back in 1980’s.
I managed to borrow a pair of roller blades from a colleague and took them home with me. I’d contacted the council to tell them what I was doing, they had contacted the Herald Express and one of their photographers was going to meet me when I arrived at work - there was no getting out of it now!
The day before ‘No Car Day’ I went out to practice on the roller blades. Oh dear, was this such a good idea after all? I started to panic, how could I contact the Herald on a Sunday afternoon to tell them not to send their photographer down? I practised for abour half an hour, and managed to stay on my feet throughout, but the major flaw was that I wasn’t very good at stopping and as I lived at the top of a very big hill this could be a bit of a problem. I decided that I would rollerblade to work, but the safest option would be to avoid the big hill by walking down it and putting the blades on at the bottom - a sensible compromise.
So that’s what I did. At 8am, dressed in a tracksuit, with knee protection on, I walked down the hill and then put the blades on, together with my cycle helmet. Then off I went, but it wasn’t pretty to watch, I didn’t exactly glide along majestically, I just shuffled along, slowly increasing speed. Considering it was ‘No Car day’ there did seem to be alot of cars on the road, and all of them driving past me, and they all seemed to be laughing - but I’ve no idea why!
I eventually made it to Belgrave Road where I saw the photographer at the bottom of the hill, I rolled down, grabbing lamposts on the way to slow me down and managed to pose for a photograph before finally using the Derwent Hotel sign to bring me to a halt. A few more photographs later and my ordeal was over. I returned the rollerblades to my colleague - I couldn’t do the return journey on wheels (although I did run home, which is green too).
Next day I got a call from Torbay Council to say I had won one of the £50 vouchers for ‘the most creative way of getting to work’, so it was all worth it in the end - now, where can I buy some self-esteem!
name but a few. Apart from our regular 6 monthly meetings, we keep in regular contact via email, and the networking means we can discuss common issues and pick each other’s brains from time to time.