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.

260 I mentioned in an earlier post that Colour Create not only printed the stripes for our car and the JPS logos for Carl's, but they also created the desktop cut-out and the comic book of our trip. What I didn't mention was that they did this extra work for free again; honestly, I'm amazed they are still in business!!! I emailed Barry and Kevin to say thank you again for everything they have done for us to help make our trip so memorable. As always, they were really humble

I mentioned in my last post that I also snagged a few more donations for the pot, which pushed the total up even further. We raised yet more funds as Kristen, our Communications Manager in the office, organised a Great British Bake Off competition in which staff were asked to bake a cake, and everyone else was encouraged to donate money to buy a slice. The theme was to celebrate the NHS's birthday, and they also added our trip to the brief, which was lovely. As I did the jo

The rally has finished; it is now back to reality and back to work. It hasn't been so bad going back to work, as our Communications Manager was covering our trip and promoting it heavily via our intranet and our digital magazine - thank you, Kristen! I also sent my 'Dear Diary' messages to my colleague Alan, who brought them up at each morning's huddle (a quick meeting where a member of each team gave an update of any work that the rest of the organisation needed to be made

I contacted Lisa at New Start to confirm that we had successfully completed the rally and to provide an update on the money raised. I sent over a few pictures too of us at the start, the New Start logo on the car, us with 'Travelling Ellis' on top of the Alps, and us hooning about on the Monaco Grand Prix track. She replied with the following: Morning Robbie, Wow – what an incredible achievement! Congratulations to you and the whole team on completing 2,241 miles across 8 c

We're running out of ways to thank all the lovely people for their donations. We know times are tough at the moment, so to see so many people contribute so much is truly heartwarming. Our original target was £1,000, and, to be honest, we felt nervous asking for that. So when we cruised past that total, we were blown away. Over the last couple of days, people have kept giving, so we have decided to take a big leap and up our target. We are covering 2,200 miles, so it felt

In an effort to keep the cash rolling in, I've tried to get a bit creative. I have written the usual fundraising messages and created a cartoon of Lisa and me next to our little car. But the latest tool to try to entertain in the hope of raising a few quid was the most difficult. You know the text crawl at the beginning of Star Wars films which acts as a bit of a recap and sets the scene for the next part of the story? I decided to do one of them for our trip. A Daft Idea

I posted the little animation I created showing our route on Facebook, and it is fair to say our donations exploded. If they say a picture paints a thousand words, then a daft little cartoon of a 'bread van', as someone in work called it, wiggling its way around Europe generated over £500 for New Start. I met Ellis at work years ago, so I've also sent some of the 'glamour shots' to our Communications Manager. We'll get them on the company website and raise a few more quid f

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

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 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

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

Can you believe this is the 200th blog post on our pokey little corner of the internet? If that isn't a good enough reason to write a post taking stock of where we are, our achievements and what is still to do, I don't know what is. So where are we? We have registered three cars for the event and have five of the six drivers sorted. Carl is still looking for his co-driver, but Lisa and I are completely invested in driving Team: Dirty Martin around Europe, as are Richie an

So Ellis might be joining us on the trip. Well, an effigy of Ellis might be, anyway! While speaking with Sarah about the fundraising we were considering in Ellis' name, she said we should take him with us, which freaked me out. I was thinking there would be a tub of ashes or something, then she produced a little cuddle pillow thing with his face on it. Sarah had created a pillow with Ellis' face on it - something he would have hated, apparently, as his head looks massive!

With hotels booked for the official rally, the extended route locked in, and everyone committed to the trip (barring disasters), it felt like an appropriate time to let Sarah know that we were thinking of using the trip to raise money for New Start, the charity that looked after her husband, and our friend, Ellis. I'll be honest, I was nervous telling Sarah in case I was bringing back sad memories, or she had fallen out with the charity or thought we were being ghouls. I men

The original reason for attempting this trip was to make some memories. No one knows what is around the corner; why wait to do...