The phone call

I've never actually had the desire to jump out of an airplane (with or without a parachute), but then this happened:-

On Tuesday 18th March, I was in a shoe shop in Carmarthen and my phone rang. The display said 'Unknown Caller' so I very nearly pressed the reject button, but decided instead to answer it.

The voice at the other end said that he was called Glen and was calling from The News of The World. 'That's odd..', thought, 'what can they be wanting to sell me?', so it was quite a surprise when he said that I'd won a competition to go to Las Vegas for 4 days. My next two thoughts were: 'what a great photo opportunity' and 'I'm not doing any gambling, that's a mug's game'. I didn't think much more about it till I got home and read the confirmation email.

From: glenn.hatch@newsint.co.uk Subject: Bucket List - YOU ARE A WINNER Date: 18 March 2008 15:31:05 GMT To: bluehook@madasafish.com

Congratulations Rachel! As discussed, you are the winner of the above competition. The sponsor will be writing to you with more details but here is a quick snapshot of your superb prize First Prize: 4-nights Las Vegas A taste of Caviar Casino Chips Tandem Skydiving Shelby Factory Tour and Go-Kart event Also includes travel insurance (based on 2 people sharing) Once again, congratulations on winning, I hope you have equal success in future NOTW competitions. Regards, | Glenn Hatch | Competitions Department | Tel: 020 7782 6370 | Fax: 020 7680 9479 | Mobile: 07983 434 821| News International Customer Liaison | 1 Virginia Street | London | E98 1RL glenn.hatch@newsint.co.uk| glenn.hatch@the-sun.co.uk| News International are the publishers of: The Times | The Sunday Times | The Sun | News of the World | thelondonpaper | Love-it! Magazine | P please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email? "Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail" The Newspaper Marketing Agency: Opening Up Newspapers: www.nmauk.co.uk This e-mail and all attachments are confidential and may be privileged. If you have received this e-mail in error, notify the sender immediately. Do not use, disseminate, store or copy it in any way. Statements or opinions in this e-mail or any attachment are those of the author and are not necessarily agreed or authorised by News International (NI). NI Group may monitor emails sent or received for operational or business reasons as permitted by law. NI Group accepts no liability for viruses introduced by this e-mail or attachments. You should employ virus checking software. News International Limited, 1 Virginia St, London E98 1XY, is the holding company for the News International group and is registered in England No 81701

Ok, so let's take this one step at a time.

1. 4 Night in Las Vegas. Well, that's quite something in itself. It's not the sort of destination I'd ever have chosen, as an Aspie, it's just the sort of location that threatens to over stimulate me completely. Fortunately the ticket is for 2 people so I knew I could bring a P.A. with me, and I know just the woman for the job.
2. Caviar. Is fish eggs. I'm a dedicated vegetarian but I did try caviar before I went veggie, and I know what it tastes like and that it is just fish eggs really. So maybe I'll skip that one.
3. Casino Chips. Yes, I said I wasn't going to gamble. But when I thought that, I was thinking about not gambling with my own money. Gambling with someone else's money. Now that's different, eh?
4. Tandem skydiving. Like I said, I've never had the urge to do do any kind of extreme sport, I've had quite enough injuries doing relatively safe things. But then again, if the universe is telling me to do so, then I should. Maybe. No, definitely. I work for a charity and in the last year several people (young, fit people that is) have done sponsored parachute jumps for us. I've always said that I wouldn't ever like to be in a position where I'm asking someone else, be it a volunteer or an employee, to do something that I could not be prepared to do myself. So my bluff has been called and I have to jump. Though if I'm going to jump, I'm going to raise some sponsorship for it. I'll set up a paypal button soon.
5. Shelby factory tour. I had no idea what the Shelby Factory is, so I googled it and came up with this on youtube.



So, now I know it is a big museum full of cars. Well, that's not something I'd have ever though of doing either, but what the heck.

6. Travel insurance is included. Just as well, is what I thought to that. I wonder if it covers the whole jumping out of airplanes thing?

And that was that. Now I just had to wait for the sponsor to get in touch.