This section covers all the Ws: who, where, why, what, when, and, erm, how. 
A daily record of the plans made and the decisions taken. 
Click on the articles below for the latest news.

Yesterday was a big day for us. Not only did Lisa and I get the 'glamour' shots with our little car, but we also managed to race past £1,000 in donations for New Start. A THOUSAND POUNDS! Amazing. It is no exaggeration to say that we are all blown away by the generosity shown already by friends, family and colleagues. We only really set up the JustGiving page to link back to this website and to show New Start that we were serious about raising money for them. It wasn't

We received an email this morning from Bust Rallies HQ confirming that they are sending out our welcome packs, including the documentation we need to complete before we register in Namur. I put the details in our Rally Ravers WhatsApp group for Richie, since he didn't book and wouldn't receive the email, and he started going through the links. He casually said, "This is quite interesting. I wasn't aware of all the permits and stickers," which triggered something in me. I me

With the graphics test fitted and cut to shape, we were in a position to take the 'glamour' shots of the car. A colleague at work had a contact at Aintree Racecourse who agreed we could get some pictures at the home of the most famous horse race in the world. The plan was to go out on the winners' line with the stands in the background and take some pictures, but we saw a grassy hill near the parade ring and decided to do some test shots under the trees first. It turns out,

Today was a big day in our trip preparation as we took the plunge and fitted the magnetic stickers to the car. This involved a lot more measuring, template-making, and cutting than I was expecting. Still, I'm giddy to report that the results are brilliant! The smaller, individual stickers didn't need any work; they are just thrown on the bonnet, boot and sides, so they didn't need any fettling, just a bit of positioning, standing back to see how they looked and then minor t

After its service, we popped out for a blast in the Abarth, which ended up with us having a most agreeable lunch in the Saracen's Head pub up in Halsall - think good pub grub, glorious weather, a beer garden on the side of the canal where we watched the boats inch by - we can highly recommend it. On the way back home, we decided to stop at the Racecourse Retail Park in Aintree to pick up a few bits, which gave me a chance to go to Halfords to get new wiper blades and look at

We are inching closer to being done. The car has just had £860 worth of work, including a fresh MOT, a full service, and new pads and discs all round. Just need to get the air con regassed, and we are there. While at the garage, I also got them to swap the lovely silver alloys for the moody black ones, which better fit the colour scheme. I also had confirmation that we can take the car to Aintree Racecourse for some photos! Our Communications Manager has a contact who has

After the excitement of receiving our magnet pack yesterday, today was filled with 'going to the dentist' levels of dread as the car was going into the garage for its shakedown. Carl did this recently, and it cost him £1,100! To be fair, that did include a service and MOT. I also asked them for a price to change the brake callipers from the standard ones to the red Competitionoze ones I bought when I was drunk. I asked if they could check that they were working and would a

After weeks of firing messages back and forth, pinging over vector files, tweaking designs, and generally harassing the guys over at Colour Create, I received the email I was waiting for: the magnets were printed, cut, and ready to be collected! I hotfooted over to their workshop and was greeted by Kevin with a deceptively small roll of something. Inside were tucked some smaller items that I couldn't make out until he started laying them out on the table. There, in front of

I'm getting increasingly twitchy as time goes on, worried that I have missed something. I knew we needed to fill out an immigration form before boarding the ferry at Bilbao. I also knew that I had to organise one of those 'free A&E cards' for abroad, but wasn't sure what either was or how to do it. A quick online search and we are sorted. For travel to or from the UK, it’s now compulsory to provide Advance Passenger Information (API). This information is required by the U

So the JustGiving page is live so it was time to share it with all our friends and family. The easiest way to do it was to post a message on Facebook with a link to our page. We put it on and let the power of social media do its thing. I also sent the updated JustGiving link to the rest of Team Ellis, and they promptly spammed their friends - good work, guys! Below is the message I put on: [...] Me and Lisa, along with four friends (Richie, Rachel, Carl and Matt), are emba

Today has been a big day for us all as the JustGiving page officially went live. Lisa's mum and dad gave us some cash to sponsor us, and she put it on the system in their name. The first contribution was on the board. Not long after, there were two, then three. Within an hour, we had over £200 in the coffers! I'd spoken to brother-in-law Tommy, who was trying to create a link that would auto-fill our suggested amounts when people clicked the donate link, but alas, he coul

We are getting to the sharp end now, as there are around 30 days left before we head off into Europe in our glorified shopping trolleys and our mini-SUV. It is time to complete some of the outstanding tasks before we leave, one of which is properly setting up the fundraising page. Speaking to Steve Fowler, he suggested setting up our own JustGiving page linked to the New Start charity, so we can see how much we have raised for their campaign. We can all send out the same li

I couldn't put it off any longer; the car is booked into the garage for its shake-down. I explained to the mechanic over the phone that we were driving to the South of France in it. He interrupted me to say, "In a Fiat 500?" with a surprised tone. "Yes," I said. "Right," he replied in the same surprised tone... I explained that the car is running well. The only real issue it has is a squeaky clutch, which, according to the internet, 'often results from a dry, worn throw-out b

Oooh, an update that has got me all excited! There is news on our design from the guys over at Colour Create, we could have lift off in just a few days. Let me go back to the beginning. I've been emailing Kevin at the company roughly once a week to request updates and make design changes. I don't want to pester them, but I need to nudge them to keep us on track, for my own sanity more than anything else. In my last email, I requested a raft of changes, plus additional sticker

I completed the most boring upgrade to the car today by replacing the cover on my key with a new one. I know, I know, but content is content, as all those insufferable influencers would say. In my defence, the old case was cracked and had been manhandled by god knows who with their unknown hygiene regime - Kim and Aggie would have a field day, I would suggest. I also wanted to change the buttons themselves as they were well-fingered and were shinier than Duncan Goodhew's he

It was a good news/bad news kind of day today. The bad news was that Lisa's little car, 'Ava', wouldn't start. The good news is that it gave me a chance to try out some of the tech bought for the rally, namely the Ring Ultraboost Battery Jump Starter Power Pack. As well as being snappily titled, it also packs quite a punch. It is a rechargeable unit designed to jumpstart engines without the need for another car - nifty. This baby is designed to safely revive flat batterie

I received a phone call yesterday from a lovely gentleman called Steve Fowler at New Start, the charity we will be raising money for on the trip. He apologised for no one ringing back after I left a message recently. It turns out that the Fundraising Manager has left, and their replacement doesn't start until early May. Not a problem, really, as we haven't started our push for donations, but it was good to know they are still operating and want us to back them. I explained

The organisers of the rally finally came through with a vector graphic of the official rally log, which means I can get on with the final requests for the livery. Speaking to Lisa, we agreed that another '27' on the back would look good next to the Martini stripes. We can put the Bust Rallies logo on the other side too, so it looks nice and symmetrical. We will do exactly the same on the front too. I've also asked the guys if they can make us two smaller stickers with QR cod

Time to get some charity admin done, which started, ironically, with a non-charity-related task. I spoke with Sarah about New Start. While we were on the call, I asked her to send the picture of Ellis she used for his Snugzy so we could order one for the trip. She sent over a picture, and I had a crack at creating the pillow with his face on a shirtless body covered in tattoos. I came up with something and showed it to the group; they all gave me the thumbs-up, so I sent i

I mentioned the idea of getting a 'tour' t-shirt for us all to wear during the rally in an earlier post. Rachel read it and thought it was a great shout, as did Carl, because I think it was his idea in the first place! I'm not a designer, but I don't need to be now that A.I. is with us and doing all the donkey work for us, so I fired up Claude and entered the following prompt: "Please create a design that can be printed on the back of a t-shirt detailing a road trip we are d