Halfway there!

Absolute madness. There are no words. I still don't think it has properly sunk in that I have finished half of my fundraising, and that I now have only £2,340 to go. Sounds like a lot, but when you have to raise a total of £5,400, it's pretty amazing.

However, I would not have raised so much if I had not had my brilliant ceilidh, which raised an astonishing £1,200!! I have lived and breathed this ceilidh for weeks now, and I think this quote sums it up quite nicely.

"Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success." - Swami Vivekananda

That is what I have been like. And it paid off. It was totally worth the sleepless nights full of not being sure whether there will be enough people for the ceilidh to go ahead and stressing about sandwich fillings. So, to be honest, I am glad it's over. It was a huge stress and I'm not going to lie, it took a whole lot more effort than I thought it would. To anyone else who is currently fundraising, who maybe hasn't yet raised as much as they need to - just keep going. Keep trying. If you're running a big event like my ceilidh was, DEFINITELY keep going! Because it is SO worth the effort. Halfway through my ceilidh I sat down and was like "Oh my goodness, I have been talking about this for months and...it's finally here." It was madness. It just hit me that all my hard work was finally coming together and it was all totally worth it.

Anyway, about my next event (my life consists of schoolwork, fundraising, very little free time, schoolwork, fundraising and more fundraising), I am hoping to have a concert with my parents' singing group. Which will be a smaller event (thank goodness) but will still take more organising! Gaah. I also have a quiz I'm hoping to give out pretty soon, just need to sort out the prize for that though!

And finally, for some light relief I'll leave you all with some pictures of the ceilidh! Enjoy.

The car full of all the drinks!

Filled to the brim with boxes of food, table cloths and raffle prizes!

The hall when we were setting up

The ceilidh in full swing

Us dancing  - this is one of the dances I actually managed to do (I'm in the pale blue skirt) - the first half was spent running around!

Others dancing

The band

Lorna (my sister) and Andrew showcasing the lovely painting for the raffle, which was very kindly donated by Donald Chadwick

More dancing!

And I also found some pictures from my bagpack in January which weren't uploaded onto the computer by the time I posted about it!

Our collecting buckets and leaflets!

The cringey photo my Mum took of me when I was packing bags - everyone else stopped and smiled while I just kept on going

Heather <3