032 - Emma Rowley

The last of my facebook friends at the dinner. Emma is marrying the brother of 031. I've met Emma a few times and she seems a really nice girl. Had a chat with her about MND because she has worked with patience on her ward who have the disease. Hammers home exactly why I am doing this quest

031 - Jonty Williams

So this is the guy who is going out with 030. I know what you are all thinking, 030 could do better.

Jonty has been a friend of mine every since he started working at Keele Hall when he was 16 years old. We have both since left Keele Hall but remain good friends.

Good lad, although his estimation of facebook friends present was a little off the mark ;) and it looks like we have taken this picture in hawaii

030 - Emma Louise

So the exact situation I was looking for had arrived. I had been invited to join a dinner that potentially could have up to 8 facebook friends attending. This could be immense. Turns out it was only half immense as there was only 3 at the dinner who were facebook friends. The others were either not there or refused to have a pic because they were in their work uniform - named and shamed Tasha Grocott. The day did get more immense when I was offered some homemade apple pie that was incredible.

Anyway, one person who was there was Emma Louise, another Keele Hall employee, although didn't work there when I did, she has ended up going out with a good friend of mine, so I know her from that really. Nice girl and really grateful for the pic :)

 

029 - Gary Strang

So the night started by meeting up with 002 and her other half to go out for a meal. I grabbed my bag, and 001 asks 'Why are you taking you bag?' to which I replied 'It has my facebook friend t-shirt and board in, because you never know who you may bump into'

How right I was. After a lovely meal, we then went to my old local pub where, to my amazement, sat in the lounge area (the posh bit) was another local poker legend. Gary Strang.

A few things I should mention about this picture. Firstly, I was a little bit drunk, and secondly the photographer (001) was a little bit drunk, and this led to the flash not being put on the camera, and me saying the pic looked ok. It was only when I sobered up the next day when I reaslied the picture was a little bit dark.

Really good sport to have some drunk guy in a facebook friends t-shirt harrassing him on his quiet night out with the missus , and let me have a picture with him.

 

028 - Julie Holloway

Long term partner of Mr Millennium Driveways himself 028 http://www.millenniumdriveways.co.uk/

Again, as with 027, I class her as a great friend, such great company on a night out and some would say better poker player than 027 ;)

Happy to call 028 a true friend, it's just a shame about the top

027 - Kev Bloor

This blog comes with a disclaimer. I can only apologise for the shamless plugging in this blog.

First of all I have to mention how good Millennium Driveways is. Me and 001 had our driveway done by Millennium Driveways, as did Lisa Wade and 005, and I have to say it is perfect, and I can't speak for Lisa Wade and 005, but they were very happy with it too (not ours, theirs).

So for all your driveway needs, please visit http://www.millenniumdriveways.co.uk/ and tell them the nutter that's trying to meet 730 people sent you :)

On to Kev 'Millennium Driveways' Bloor. I started playing live poker many many years ago, and their was a small group of local poker players that used to meet every so often and play poker against eachother. Hopefully over the course of this quest I will meet up with most of those players again. Kev Bloor and his good lady, Julie Holloway (who you may see in a moment or two) were two of those poker players, that are no longer just poker players to me, they are good friends. We have shared trips to Dublin, blackpool, nottingham, meals out, meals in (yes I do still owe you one).
If I take something out of playing poker (and it isn't usually money) I will take their friendship. Absolute legend, and, mark my words, Kev will win big at some point. He is that good.
But in the meantime, go buy a drive off him http://www.millenniumdriveways.co.uk/

026 - Ruby Rainey

The 2nd Keele Hall Facebook Friend is Ruby. A friend of 001, as they both went to college together. Really nice girl and I'm glad to add her as a facebook friend :)

025 - Rob Stacey

So our trip to Keele Hall was disasterous, not only was there only 5 staff on, 2 weren't my facebook friends and 1 was friend number 008, no good to me meeting up with people I've already met with (sorry Gav)
I did find 2 facebook friends though, the first one being Rob Stacey. I've worked with Rob for a number of years at Keele Hall, and he's also played the odd poker game with me

 

024 - James Tudor

Well, this is exactly what you you are looking for when you are doing a quest like this. Having just left 023, we wandered over to Keele Hall to see who was about to have a pic with, and there, walking accross the road was James Tudor, a chef who I had worked with for many years at Keele Hall. He was walking away from the hall and going home, so we stopped him and had a quick pic

023 - Natalie Soleiman

On to Keele to meet Keele's longest serving student.
Had a lovely time catching up on old times and, coming away from seeing 023 made me realise that it's not just about meeting people, it's about keeping in touch with people. I am as guilty as anyone. I look at facebook and pick up what people are up to, where they have been on holiday, who they are going out with, who they aren't going out with, and in my head, I'm still interacting with these people, even though I aren't.
Time becomes less and less when you get older and have other commitments, but these people, no matter how much of a small influence of your life they had, still have had an influence, and still have shaped you as the person you are today. You should at least make time to see people, because when I think back, I had some great times with these people, and for one resson or another, you lose contact, but these are still the same people that you had so much fun with, and I feel it is important not to forget that.
Thanks Natalie bringing back all the good memories of Keele Hall

022 - Chloe Malkin

As I've already mention, 022, and 021 used to work with me at Keele. I'm hoping that more Keele Hall ex colleagues will be contacting me to get them involved

 

Thanks Chloe and Selina

021 - Selina Lu

So, it was time to meet someone who had been promising to meet me since the start, Chloe Malkin (the future number 022), but before that Chloe mentioned that she worked with another person I knew from my days at Keele Hall, and that was Selina Lu. Turns out that both still work together but not at Keele Hall anymore, at a local internet betting company (I'm sure you can guess which) .

020 - Adele Higginbottom

Adele gave me the greatest gift I could ask for, she gave me 018 and 019. Such a nice time catching up, and thnks again Jack for holding the sign

Don't forget to donate, its for a really good cause that means so much to us. Thanks xx
http://www.justgiving.com/meet730

019 - Steph Baldwin

.....yes, that's right Adele's daughter was there too. So nice of her to agree to have her picture taken with me as she had only given birth less than a week ago. Although, she did have some help with holding my sign (thanks Jack)

A stroke of Luck

I'm hope that what happened next will happen a little more often during my task. We drove away from Barbara and straight onto 'Silverton' to meet Adele Higginbottom, but guess what happened when we knocked on the door. That's right, another facebook friends answered.

Look how happy I was to see 018 - Ken Ash, although I do look like I am wearing a rubber mask. Ken is Adele's daughters partner, so you know what that means........

017 - Barbara Davies

My journey for the day was not done, it was of out of newcastle on onto wolstanton to meet Barbara Davies. 001 has known Barbara for many years, I have not known her for as long but do qualify as a friend both through Emma and going out for a meal with Barbara and the scouting group, and Barbara did come to our wedding. What a lovely person Barbara is :)

016 - Win Downs

The second friend done during the covert operation. Win is the mother of 002, and when we were growing up she had a soda stream and a chest freezer full of icepops. As a kid growing up this was all anyone needed and they will always be remembered as the 'posh' family for having those two items.
Known Win most of my life, and I am very happy to be able to say that

015 - Katie Brayford

For my next 2 friends I visited 'The home of family value with great savings & FREE Delivery to store on an even larger range of home, garden, leisure, baby care, toys, pet & more' (other stores are available).  The whole thing was done like a covert operation. Two more friends completed in super quick time :)

014 - Wendy Dale

This meeting was exactly how I planned the meetings would work in the future. Wendy spoke to me through Facebook chat and through this we arranged to meet, bearing in mind, i hadn't seen Wendy for nearly 6 years, not so much as a hello in that time. The meet up went great, it was so nice to catch up in that short space of time and find out what whe was up to and chatting about old work colleagues (most of which I also hope to meet through this process). I hope that most of my meet ups are like that. Thanks Wendy :)

013 - Sam Brownsword

Numbers really don't hold any meaning to me. I have a wierd affiliation to the number 7 and multiples of 7, like 14, 28, not so much 21, and I have my own roulette numbers obviously, 8, 10, 11, 3, 15, 0, 28, 29, 32 and how could i possibly forget 23 (Scott Pike wouldn't be impressed forgetting 23), but the number 13 has never been an unlucky number for me. It wouldn't bother me moving into a number 13 house, owning 13 pairs of shoes anything like that, its just not unlucky for me. Until now.

Venue: Longton Rugby Club
Date: 09/09/13
Time: 19:45

I am 'popping' accross to Emma's metafit class she attends, which is run by Sam, a girl I met when she taught our wedding party a dance that, due to an inept DJ, never took place.

It was apparent after a few words with Sam that 'popping' really meant 'taking part'.

I can only describe the next 30 minutes as life threatening. That's why I look so bad on the picture and fitness instructor Sam looks like she's just got ready

012 - Liam Budd

As I said in my previous post, this is the friend of 011. Only facebook friended him about 3 days before I met him, but had a chat with him online before and, despite getting no luck at the poker table (I know that feeling) played well and took the game in the spirit it was intended. Also have to point out that his arms are wider than my thighs. Always good to have a friend who is hard

011 - James 'Pikey' Ellams

Still continuing on the theme of coming to viit me, James 'Pikey' Ellams came over, I've know James for a few years now, mainly through playing poker (badly on my part), he's always cheerful, and takes defeat in poker far better than I do, and as an added bonus, he bought round 012.

010 - Alex Bowers

I met Alex through 008, and he was also my neighbour at Lock 38, when I used to live. Lock 38 was kind of like Ibiza, if Ibiza was full of kids who like to rummage through bins. Good Lad, although he does look confused on this picture

009 - Tom Fleming

009 was also round my house. He had made the impressive trip up from Wolverhampton, just to have his picture taken. I know Tom through another mutual friend, and four of us used to go out to various parts of the country watching bands. The forth member of our little quartet passed away a few months ago, but Rich Williams will never be forgotten, and mine and Tom's friendship has grown stronger as a result

Humbled

Very much humbled tonight seeing that I have already got £85 on my justgiving page, such amazing facebook friends :)
More blog to follow tomorrow...

008 - Gav'lar' Nixon

Always a good way to get a few people round all in one go is to invite them, so that's what I did. The first person I managed to get was Gav Nixon. I used to work with Gav for many years at Keele Hall, there we became good friends and have enjoyed many a drunken night out. Plus he's the first Facebook friend with a beard (hopefully the first of many)

007 - Mark Ecclestone

He even got the James Bond blu ray box set into the picture.

006 - Sabrina Ecclestone

....the phonecall was a success, they were both in. This mean that Ecky could be 007 and Sabrina kindly 'offered' to be 006.

 

My Just Giving Page

Here is my Just Giving page, any donations no matter how big or small is greatly appreciated :)

http://www.justgiving.com/meet730

About motor neurone disease (MND)

* Motor neurone disease (MND) is a fatal, neurological disease for which there is no effective treatment and no cure.

* MND kills five people in the UK every day.

* Today there are 5,000 people living with MND in the UK.

* Life expectancy from diagnosis is two to five years, and around half of those die within 14 months.

* It can affect any adult at any age.

* There is no cure and we do not know the cause of MND in 95% of cases.

* Imagine being trapped inside a body that can’t move. That’s the devastating reality of MND.

* MND attacks the nerves that control movement; people with MND can still think and feel, but their muscles refuse to work. As these nerves die the muscles weaken and waste, leaving people locked in a failing body, unable to move, walk or talk.

* MND is a complex disease and the symptoms of MND are unique to each person.

* Its often rapid progression and wide range of symptoms requires a proactive and multi-disciplinary approach to care. People with MND may require up to 18 different health specialists to help manage their condition.


About the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association

* The MND Association is the only national charity in England, Wales and Northern Ireland dedicated to people affected by MND.

* The MND Association funds and promotes research to bring about an end to MND. Until then we will strive to enable everyone with MND to receive the best care, achieve the highest quality of life possible and die with dignity. We will also do all that we can to support the families and carers of people with MND.

* The MND Association is a leader in the funding of cutting-edge MND research both within the UK and across the world. We only fund research of the highest scientific excellence and greatest relevance to MND and help to kick-start exciting new areas of scientific investigation into MND.

* Our leading reputation means that for every £1 we commit to collaborative MND research, we attract another £2 to £3 from other major funding bodies.
=
* We currently fund ground-breaking projects in a number of various world-class research institutes in Edinburgh, London, Oxford, Sheffield and New York, among others. This flexible approach allows us to fund the best and most promising research regardless of the geographical location.

* The MND Association was founded in 1979 by a group of volunteers determined to provide support for people affected by MND and fund research into effective treatments.

Bullet Point Facts

Motor Neurone Disease:
* Leaves people unable to walk, talk or feed themselves
* Kills 5 people every day
* Is fatal with no known cure and kills around half of those diagnosed within 14 months
The MND Association:
* Ensures that people affected by MND can secure the care and support they need
* Funds vital research into causes, treatments and a cure for MND
* Relies mainly on voluntary donations

This affected someone in our family who we ultimately lost to this illness. Tommorrow will be the 2nd year anniversary of his death. He was loved by everyone who ever met him, and was taken much too soon from us. RIP Kerry Seadon, hope you are watching from somewhere laughing at the task i've set myself

Numbers mean something

It was only after visiting Pat that I realised that some people may want to choose their numbers. When I told Pat he was 005, he sighed and asked if he could be 007 instead. I wasn't in any position to back out of this meet. Pat was helping me out of a huge hole. I needed to get my numbers up, and leaving without a picture so he could be 007 wasn't an option. We did the picture, but it was only on the journey home that I started to think about 007, and why it was so special. James Bond of course. Now I'm not a James Bond fan in the slightest, in fact I'm very anti Bond, but my oldest and dearest friend, Mark Ecclestone was a huge Bond fan, so much so that he had me stalking sellers on ebay who were selling james bond blu ray boxsets (say that after a beer). He was perfect to be 007, the role was fit for him, and his wife would make a perfect 006, so I send a text in hope.......

005 - Patrick Wade

It had a become a little slow for my liking, so on Saturday 001 made an impromptu call to Lisa Wade (a mutual friend) to see if she was in to have her photo done. She wasn't....which really was the last straw, I had been going 6 days and only had 4 friends. It wasn't good enough, at this rate I would only get 243.3 friends, and that was well short. I needed to up my game but how could I do this. Lisa wasn't in, another spike in my wheel, but then after the harsh words 'I'm not in,' she finished the sentence with 4 magical words 'but my husband is'. Brilliant, Pat, Lisa's husband was in, and he was also a friend of mine, so off we popped to get 005

004 - Ian Baddeley

Its catch up time for the blog.
I haven't just been sitting around waiting for people to come to me. No. I've been busy e-mailing people through facebook, and a lot of people have been busy not replying......
This hasn't done my confidence any good when it comes to competing this task. This task is mamouth. The meet up with 14 people a week is hard in itself, but when I will be meeting up with people who I haven't seen since I left school, or even meeting up with people I have never met (ok, I may have a few Daniel Shaw's as friends who I don't really know.)
004, found me having to travel for the first time, only 30ft, but travel is travel.
I went to see my very good neighbours Ian and Angela. Unfortunetly, Angela isn't on Facebook so I just had to settle for Ian and a lovely glass of wine :)

003 - Bethany Simpson

My third 'Facebook Friend' is Bethany Simpson. I'm sure she is sending me subliminal messages

None Facebook Friend

I'm not sure you will believe this but 002's husband doesn't have facebook. Yes, you heard it right. What is the point of coming round when he hasn't got a facebook profile? I ask myself. Well, he did do the t-shirts. Comes the answer. I've still exposed him as a facebook 'loser', If anyone sees this man walking around Stoke-on-Trent shout 'get on facebook' to him, in your meanest voice

002 - Michelle Sumnall

Finally got my 2nd 'facebook friend' tonight, it's Michelle Sumnall. To be fair, she wasn't really happy to be third and wanted to meet in a more random place that my house but when you come to my house then you have to expect to become one of my facebook friends there and then. Anyway Michelle and her (very short) husband did ok out of it, I get a picture and they walk away with a coffee machine, some cake and a pizza. Sorry, but I can't promise this to everyone :)

002 Scuppered

So my plan was to meet my neighbour as my second friend but unfortunately he's got food poisoning so looks like there may be a wait until I get to 002 :(

001 - Emma Shaw

Emma Shaw - wife