We must be ‘potty’ at NRAS HQ!: Bbbrrrrrrrrr! That’s... - NRAS

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We must be ‘potty’ at NRAS HQ!

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Bbbrrrrrrrrr! That’s all I have to say!

Well I will say a bit more, but hasn’t it got cold already? And I’m ashamed to say the word ‘Christmas’ has been floating around the NRAS office a bit too much already for my liking, with our cards for sale and the concert to organise. I refuse to buy any presents before December, partly because I’m disorganised and because I like to save the excitement for one month, as opposed to three!

My last blog was in July and a lot has been going on here, including, bizarrely, pantomime rehearsals. ‘Panto? In October?’ I hear you cry! 'That's another Christmas event, surely?'

Well yes. But it was all for NRAS as usual. Clare, our Director of External affairs had decided to write and direct a 25 minute pantomime for a local competition called ‘3 Potty Pantomimes for Charity . Three pantos would be performed, the audience would vote and the winning group would receive £250 for their charity. Ours being NRAS of course!

Now Clare loves acting and performing (you may remember she won a prize earlier this year for a Strictly Come Dancing type competition!) and so this was going to be easy! Emma, our Membership Supervisor, Lorraine, our Helpline Manager and Wendy, one of our Trustees also dabble in the arts. I, however, was last seen on the stage in my school’s performance of Grease, jiving around in the background of the chorus. Clare seemed to have me in mind to play Buttons in her version of Cinderella, and without really thinking about it, I agreed to be a member of the cast...

Rehearsals went ok, we were only allowed 8 hours beforehand but before I knew it the fateful night was upon us last Saturday! Everyone else seemed excited but I was hit by a wall of fear. As we were to be on last out of the three pantos, we crept into the back of the audience to see the first performance. This didn’t make me feel any better as the kids in this panto were practically professionals. Will definitely be seeing some of them on TV before long! Anyway, the time had come and we were backstage....Clare says I had gone a nice shade of green and this point, which I’m sure, is true and I felt like sitting with my head between my knees. 3,2,1 and we were on!

Now would you believe it? We only went and won!!! ‘Oh yes we did!’ - Sorry still in cheesy panto mode..£250 in the bank for NRAS felt good but I have already announced my retirement from treading the boards. Not for me I think! The applause was nice though...and we got a snazzy trophy :) (I’ve attached a photo of us getting a bit into the dance routine at the end).

The other thing taking up a lot of my time at the moment is *cue dramatic-ITV-intro-man-style-voice* ‘THE KNIT FACTOR!’

This fundraising idea was actually inspired by you and all of our other supporters! We wanted to put on something that everyone could be involved in, especially those with RA. So as you may have seen on here, we are asking everyone to try and knit something, get a picture of you and your creation, send it in to us at NRAS, and we’ll auction it on eBay to raise funds to help more people with RA!

You can find out more at nras.org.uk/KnitFactor where you can download the pack about the challenge, as well as a ‘How to Knit’ guide and a pattern for baby booties.

I hope many of you will get involved; we’ve had so many items sent in already, including a huge box of children’s hats today from a lovely lady and her granddaughter. Another knitter with RA said that it’s ‘great therapy for fingers and soul’ but please remember to take it steady, pace yourself and to rest during any flare ups. There’s a great article which advises knitting with arthritis and painful conditions which might be of interest to some of you - stitchlinks.com/pdfsNewSite...

So happy knitting and please get in contact with me on here or at ruth@nras.org.uk if you have any questions or need anything. Stay warm and have a lovely weekend!

Ruth

Online & Social Media Coordinator

NRAS

1 Reply
sylvi profile image
sylvi

I will make you sick then as i have got nearly all my xmas presents and i have written 22 cards as well My son is coming home on the 2nd dec. and i would love to spend time with him as he is only home for 6 weeks and i hope to have the deccies up before he comes home.

Well done on the panto win. You all did very well. Sylvi.xx

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