The Tour de Grom

Those of you reading our blip regularly will know that currently I (Annie) am obsessed about the Gromits in Bristol. 80 large, painted sculptures of Gromit (as in Wallace & Gromit) all around Bristol - they're just so beautiful.

There is also a good reason for the Gromits to be around - they are helping raise money for the wonderful Bristol Children's Hospital as part of "The Grand Appeal". One of the ways they are doing this is by auctioning off the Gromits. At work, in Bristol, there is a huge buzz amongst my colleagues, as we are working hard to raise money to try to buy a Gromit with fetes, auctions, quizzes and sponsored events. An indulgence? Of course - having your own Gromit for the office would be amazing! But the most important bit is that whether or not we're successful in bidding for a Gromit, the money raised goes to the children's hospital appeal. So far, we've raised over £6,500 - so we feel pretty proud (not bad for what started as a silly idea in the pub!).

So meet the very wonderful Rhys, James and Mark. Today (for sponsorship) they cycled between, and had their picture taken with, 79 of the Gromits - a distance of 91 miles. This is them at the Gromit by our office. Why not all 80 Gromits? One is in London Paddington - a bit far for one day's cycling...

They raised a lot of money towards the appeal, and we were so proud of them, my friend Christine and I went down to Cheddar Gorge to meet them at the finish and buy them a pint each. It hadn't been my original plan, as I then had to commute 100 miles home - so I finally got home at 1:20am (hence the back blip)! Ah well - they deserved their pint.

Sorry this is just a hurried snap - the Gromits are all ankle-deep in small children, and we needed to get a move on. I promise our journal will stop being quite so Gromit-centric shortly...