Wednesday, April 25, 2012

General Gormand's retreat from Kingstown (UPDATED)










General Gormand sets out in good heart and with suitable attire

Update:  Ladies and Gentlemen, the correct link to donate is here. My apologies for not seeing to it earlier, rest assurred I will not allow thes blog to descund to the leval of The Grauniad. 


For those of you who are unaware, last year Mrs Kinch's cousin, my friend and his wife, lost a child. Her name was Kathryn Casey and she died on the 27th of May last year. She was extremely well cared for at Temple Street Children's Hospital and was permanently attached to a Patient Monitor. This device costs €20,000. In order to raise money for this device,  General Gourmand and I will be walking to the Boyne Battle site on the 12th of July.  This is a distance of some 30 miles and we will be play a scenario based on the Battle of the Boyne at the end of it.

Neither of us are small men nor have we done such a distance before, so a certain amount of training is required. At present we have approximately €3,500 raised in pledges, mostly through the good offices of the Irish Games Association and Gaelcon.

Should you wish to wish to assist us, you may make a donation here.

This was our first relatively long distance training walk and we covered about 20 miles.






General Gorman crossing the Liffey
(apologies to William Gotlieb Leutze)








We forged ahead, allowing absolutely no distractions...








We considered this a good omen - there followed a long, but fruitful conversation about how we'd use Command & Colours: Napoleonics to refight the Alma.








The spires of Kingtown are in sight








It's important to get your fluids.

And thus fortified, General Gorman began his retreat from Kingstown.







Sadly, the weather did not hold









Much like Marshall Ney, General Gormand was the last over the Liffey







 And home again, home jiggedy jig.

This was a useful exercise and one that pushed me rather harder than I expected, as I am flat footed (dirisive laughter from the company, confusion reigns, order, order!).  Proper footwear is key. 

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

15 comments:

  1. Kinch, old man, the link for donations/sponsorship doesn't appear to be working. The photos & commentary made me chuckle - sound men, boh of you!

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    Replies
    1. That's fixed now - we were considerably sounded before we started.

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  2. Replies
    1. Thank you! Just putting the finishing touches to the Boyne scenario that we have to play when we get there.

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  3. Conrad Kinch,

    May I wish both of you good luck with your enterprise ... and to say how sensible you were to do some training before the event.

    I hope that you manage to raise the sponsorship for this very worthwhile project.

    All the best,

    Bob

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    Replies
    1. Fingers crossed. Du Gormand was determined to do a spot of training, though he maintains that if he has a coronary on the way, we are to bury him where he falls.

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  4. Morning!
    Tried to donate but the link didn't work.I thought you chaps should know...
    Splendid scheme I look forward to contributing and hearing more about it.

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  5. CK - you appear to be having way too much fun.. stop it... this is a serious endeavour! :o)

    PS. Donation link knackered....

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  6. General du Gormande assures the Emperor that ground was taken and that he accomplished his mission. No retreat, no surrender!
    (Well done though)

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  7. Great stuff - I hope you've got your breath back! Oh, and the link still doesn't work.

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  8. Good to see the General G looking so slim and fit, must be due to all those heavy beer glasses,, I'll be there on the day in the support car/pub to give you both morale support and to drag you over the finish line!!!

    Painting for the game going well
    Cheers and Well Done
    Old John

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  9. Intrepid fellows both. Will echo the link is still not working, but commend you on your slippers.

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  10. Chaps, you may want to try this link instead:

    http://www.mycharity.ie/event/kathryncasey/%20

    I sort of reverse engineered it and was able to make a donation to the Kathryn Casey Memorial Fund. I didn't see any mention of Brother Kinch on the website and so wasn't sure if I was sponsoring you directly, Conrad, but I think the money got to the right place because I got an email from Aoife and Temple Street thanking me.
    Now, if only I knew what a € was in Canadian dollars???

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  11. Thats not true under no circumstances is my body to be left in Meath

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