Update 2^nd April 2008-04-02 

Firstly let me apologise for there not being much going on here lately. There is a lot going on behind the scene though. Both Mike and myself have been working hard on what I would call PR stuff for helping the elderly. Mike in ways to push forward the Silver Surfer Advocate project and myself with media stuff. I will leave Mike to tell you about the ideas that he has for the SSA project as that is really his baby and has been doing a tremendous amount of work there. Many of you know of the death of his father recently and the medical problems that he suffers as a result of his disabilities so he has my admiration for the efforts and work that he is putting in. 

The media things sound glamorous, and I admit that they are mostly interesting, but by doing them I am able to hopefully always dodge some of the questions and put my own answers in a way that will give publicity to our project. There is no way that I would have any control of the editing, hours of filming cut down to the usual required three minutes, but I am always hopeful. Magazine articles are a little better as the copy is presented to me for approval. Perhaps some of you may be questioning whether we get money for these events, the answer is no. In fact we bear the costs ourselves. TV companies assume that you will like the “fame” of appearing on the screen and contracts are signed allowing them to use the material (including our own copyrighted videos) in perpetuity. Hey  Ho, it is not important. 

The latest event for “grandad” was doing a live charity performance with a famous group of Chinese pensioners and the Zimmers at the Queens Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue London last Sunday. It was an event organised by the Chinese Community Centre London ( there are 80,000 Chinese in London) and supported by both the Conservative and Labour leaders as well as the Mayor of London. The Chinese pensioners have been formed for five years and are very talented in their dance routines and wonderful presentation in their traditional and colourful costumes. They come from all walks of life and have performed all over the world. I will try to find some photos and ask Mike to put them in the photo section of the site. 

They had been sent the “MyGeneration” song many weeks earlier to learn so we all sang it together. From there on it seemed to be quite an impromptu rock and roll….or perhaps I was not listening to instructions earlier. We performed the song in the usual way and then we all mingled and rocked and rolled for what seemed a very long time which was great fun and received very well by the audience. It was a great thrill to be treading the boards of a theatre where all the famous had trod before. The current show there is Les Miserables. Working with the Zimmers is of course great fun but we must not lose sight of the reasons that we were formed, namely to raise awareness about the elderly in our communities, which of course is the same incentive for the Chinese Elderly Art Group. The following day we attended an official reception at the London City Hall at the invitation of the Mayor of London. Here there were many more people. We performed our song and dance again and photo shoots etc. This was a chance to get to know the Chinese ladies much better and autographs, phone numbers etc were swapped.…..did I mention the very nice lunch too. So it was a wonderful if tiring weekend.  

I did hear rumours that we, or at least some of the Zimmers, might have the chance to visit China on a reciprocal visit. That of course would be terrific and if it should happen I sincerely hope that I would be asked to go. Many of you know of my interest in Chinese culture and the friends that I have made there. 

I am pleased to report that we have heard back from the school children that we met in Zurich. They as you might remember awarded the Zimmers the honour of choosing us to be remembered by the fixing a tile on the walkway of the Bridge of Hearts in Berlin. As well as a very lovely letter from the organisers and each child attached an A4 sheet of their own design with their own message. I will put some photos of some of them in the photo gallery. The tile is to be placed on the bridge sometime in June, forgot the exact date but it is very much hoped that someone will attend the ceremony. Again I hope that “grandad” can be one of them but who knows! 

Peter