Following Omar’s visit to several schools in the Thurrock area Pippa, Ian, Omar and myself drove up to Edison’s office in Colchester to meet with my Mum and other interested parties from Edison. Dave was due to meet us mid meeting, arriving in the Beast itself, however, as with all the best laid plans the M25 scuppered it well and truly rendering Dave unable to get anywhere near Colchester in time.

I was getting myself ready to have quite chat with 3 or 4 people until it began to dawn on me that the whole office was going to be involved including staff from the schools Omar had already visited. ibrakeforecake.com served as a useful talking point while I ran through why Dave and myself are doing the rally, how we got in contact with Pageant and what we could do for Edison. Pippa spoke for a short while about Pageants role in Gambia and then handed over to Omar who spoke for about 40mins about his school and community, from what I could tell the whole room was fascinated by what he had to say and he spent some time after speaking fielding questions.

We broke for tea and something to eat and a more informal chat with some of the Edison staff including Kevin Crossley who used to be the head of the 6th Form I attended and a couple of people who’d previously worked with Dave’s Dad, small world!!

Generally speaking the meeting was a success with everyone feeling like they’d gained. Me and Dave are both pretty busy until IBFC trip to the alps in a fortnight after which tying up loose ends with Edison and rally prep in general will get under way with a vengeance.

Chris