Jungle City
On Tuesday 19th April 2011 The Boudoir was privileged to attend the launch party for Jungle City, the Edinburgh exhibition at which The Boudoir orangutan will be shown. As well as an example Scottish orangutan already decorated, tigers, hornbills, crocodiles and of course elephants stalked the halls of One Royal Circus - frightening the locals and drumming up much needed support for the Elephant Family’s noble cause to save the Asian elephant and other endangered species from extinction.
Rachel Vickers attended as her prize for donating the largest sum to The Boudoir’s Orangutan sponsorship appeal, Jodie Lynn and Tessa Stevenson accompanied our chosen artist Sarah Harvey, and as Rachel Green happened to be doing some shopping in Edinburgh she was able to bring her own inimitable style to the proceedings!!
Elephant Family is about fun, and we were welcomed by all at the party, chatting away with charity founder Mark Shand (the future King of England's brother-in-law, don't 'cha know), other guests and Elephant Family workers alike - explaining our ideas for The Boudoir Orangutan and helping to spread the word of the transgendered community to the masses!! In traditional Boudoir fashion we were the last to leave, waving off the cream of Edinburgh society as if we owned the place!! At the party champagne flowed, speeches were made, more champagne flowed, and as attendees became more tipsy, wallets were opened to sponsor the production and exhibition of animal sculptures throughout Edinburgh.
So now Jungle City is official, and we need your money to reach our target and get a tranny orangutan on show in the Athens of the North, saving endangered species from extinction and showing the generosity and spirit of the transgendered community. To those that have donated, thank you (but don’t let that stop you donating again) and to those that haven’t got round to it yet, go to www.justgiving.com/boudoir and dig deep!!
Elephant Parade 2010
It’s not all about frocks and frolics you know!! As many will be aware, The Boudoir has a soft spot for animals, so when the Elephant Parade came to town we wanted to join the circus!! In May and June 2010 central London and beyond was made more beautiful by the appearance of 258 life-sized adolescent Asian elephant models. Some of the 'ellies' appeared in what were dubbed Happy Herds, some in pairs, some singly, and all beautifully decorated by famous artists and celebrities such as Lulu Guinness, Tommy Hilfiger, Jonathan Yeo, Mark Quinn, Paul Smith, Jack Vettriano and Graeme Le Saux (who knew!!)
Their purpose was to cheer up London, and more importantly to raise awareness of the plight of, and to raise money to help save the Asian elephant - an endangered species with less than 25,000 surviving worldwide. The Boudoir was alerted to the existence of and reason for the ellies by one of our oldest (in the associative, not the ageist, sense, ha ha) friends, Tessa Stevenson, who was fixated on seeing all 258 of the little darlings in situ (and yes, she did it).
She suggested that The Boudoir might want to support this cause and achieve some publicity by adopting an ellie (basically paying for advertising). We felt it was a wonderful cause and readily agreed. The Boudoir decided to adopt Frank - a cheeky, plump bottomed chap located in Market Square (off Oxford Street, scene of many a Boudoir shopping trip), who is decorated as a brown paper ellie-shaped parcel.
The Elephant Parade charity was extremely pleased to be associated with The Boudoir and our logo was duly applied to Frank’s plinth, with our donation (including generous contributions from Tessa, Rachel Green and Emma Banin – thank you gurls!!) going to a very worthy cause. As a double bonus, Tessa got to do a photoshoot with Frank in situ, and we were both invited to the celebrity auction to hob nob with the likes of Goldie Hawn, Liz Hurley, Rula Lenska, Jack Vettriano, Terrence Conran, several Rothschilds and minor royals, and of course Frank and all his 257 elephant friends!! We would have loved to buy Frank outright, but he’s a bit big for The Boudoir, and who knows what Spike would make of him!!
The parade raised over £4 million and The Boudoir is proud to have done our bit - but more is as always needed. To see why, and to support this worthwhile charity please go to http://www.elephantparadelondon.org/about_us.html. You can sign the petition, read about the charity or donate - also perhaps buy a Frank T shirt or a miniature ellie at http://www.elephantparadewebshop.com.
The Royal Parks Half Marathon 2010
What’s the logical next step in support of the Asian Elephant after touring London to see all 258 mini-ellies, sponsoring Frank, and attending the Gala Auction? Why, heffalumping round London and being sponsored for it in the Royal Parks Half Marathon of course!! 13.1 miles running through parks, past Liz’s gaff and along London’s scenic streets.
Jodie and Tessa cannot now agree on who talked who into doing it, but suffice to say that in late August they both mailed off to the Elephant Family saying they’d love to be involved further in raising money for the cause. On hearing of this, Jill Kaylee, who actually does a fair amount of running anyway (unlike Jodie and Tessa who were complete novices) also bravely stepped up to the plate.
The Royal Parks people are very organised, and their website has a host of useful nutritional and training advice for would-be runners. Tessa, being the efficient one, researched training schedules, and discovered a slight hitch. The ‘beginners’ schedule requires 16 weeks of running, 4 times a week. Race day was 10th October and the schedule was downloaded on 21st August. Hmmm... 7 weeks, blimus!! Even worse, as well as turning boys into beautiful gurls on a regular basis, Jodie was in the throes of moving the entire Boudoir to its fab new premises so was kinda busy!!
Somehow they managed it, with Jodie and Tessa training together round Downhill and then Victoria Parks, missing only 2 training runs over the whole time, while Jill bravely battled colds and a manky toe to get in shape for the big day. The three were united for only one session, and the novices benefited greatly from Jill’s experience and enthusiasm. Exhortations to ‘sprint to the next lamppost’ were however politely declined!! By the end of training, all were confident of at least finishing, with Jodie and Tessa hoping for a time of maybe 3 hours 15 minutes with luck, and Jill going for around 2 hours.
Race day dawned slightly overcast but forecast for sun and light breeze, and the intrepid trio, plus welcome support, met in Hyde Park at the ungodly hour of 8.30am - on a Sunday!! Due to long queues at the relief stations (i.e. loos) they didn’t have time to meet up with the rest of the Elephant Family, but nervously assembled in their chosen start areas. As a proper runner, Jill was in a middle section, with Jodie and Tessa starting from the rear. 13.1 miles of running lay ahead, and there was no backing out now!!
The gun went at 9.30am, Jodie and Tessa got to the start line at 9.46am, and so began their mini marathon: along South Carriage Drive in Hyde Park, down Constitution Hill and Birdcage Walk, past the Houses of Parliament, onto Westminster Bridge and back, up Embankment to beyond Temple Station, back down Embankment, across to Admiralty Arch, down The Mall, back up Constitution Hill and into Hyde Park again for a 7 mile meander round the park and back to the start. It’s exhausting just to write it, let alone run it!!
The first couple of miles were pretty painless, but miles 3 to 6 became progressively more troublesome. Still, re-entering Hyde Park at just short of 6 miles and up to halfway, Jodie and Tessa were averaging 6 mph!!, with Jill out of sight ahead somewhere. Then it got harder. Possibly because there were no land marks to aim for, and possibly because they’d been running for bloomin’ miles!! Short walks between running were required (never stopping, mind) but the brave pair made a point of at least running past every mile marker, and wherever there were assemblages of people cheering - ‘our public’ dahling ;-) !!
Miles 9 to 12 were a bit of a blank section – Tessa vaguely recalls eating some Percy Pigs at some point, and Jodie put some snakes down her bra (or was that an hallucination?) - and then someone said “only half a mile to go” so the pair decided to make the effort to run all the way home from there. The so-and-so had lied, as was apparent when the Albert Memorial hove into view, but they were committed now so that was it. The finish arch appeared to be on rollers, as it receded every time one looked down and up again, but eventually the blondies crossed the line together and it was over.
Elation and exhaustion in about equal measure, coupled with satisfaction that they’d not let their sponsors down. Plus amazement at the time – 2 hrs 46 mins 9 secs!!. Pretty brilliant for novices. On meeting up with The Boudoir supporters club and eventually with Jill (a respectable 2 hrs 1 min 39 secs), it was quickly decided to adjourn (slowly and with some stiffness) to a nearby pub for celebrations!!
Will they do it again? Possibly, after the roseate glow of hindsight has dulled the memory of what a massive slog it truly was, and when a good cause again presents itself... Moonwalk, anybody?
For a couple of pictures of the actual event you can visit the runners’ justgiving.com pages (for Tessa it's http://www.justgiving.com/tim-stevenson, for Jodie click towards http://www.justgiving.com/jodie-lynn and for Jill it's http://www.justgiving.com/graham-evison) which of course are still accepting donations. Sorry, no elephant impersonations – Mark Shand banned them!!
The Boudoir would like to thank all their sponsors who helped raise an amazing £2,091 between the three runners. It was you that kept us going in the latter stages. Until the next one...