Tarzans Bananathon

Viva Englandia

2010-06-11T19:52:00.002+01:00

Whatever happened to Tarzan ?

2010-04-04T12:02:00.002+01:00

Has anyone seen Tarzan recently ?

Burger King (and Queen)

2008-12-04T16:41:00.001Z

Some more pictures...

2008-11-25T16:58:00.003Z

It had been a long long day....

No one had noticed that Tom had shrunk during the course of the day...

Stockport Market revisited

2008-11-16T22:56:00.002Z

Well when they said they had a big cheque for LRF they certainly meant it, the traders down at Stockport Market had continued the fundraising after the Bananathon and proudly handed over a cheque for £932 to Tarzan and Jane on Friday afternoon.

This ceremony was swiftly followed by a shopping spree at the veg stall and in the fishmongers, where local shoppers where aghast to see Tarzan being given special treatment with a 'special' lettuce being found under the counter - I wouldn't have wished to be a guest in either Tarzan's or Jane's household this weekend as the shopping list included duck eggs, sword fish, pears, grapes, onions and other well known bowel looseners !

Look out for the pics in this weeks Stockport Express !

Here comes the Bride...

2008-10-29T08:47:00.003Z

A bizarre moment from Tarzans Bananathon came shortly after leaving Coop Travel in Denton and headed down the A57 towards our next stop at Gala bingo.

Perfect timing meant we passed a church just as everyone was assembling outside for pictures - with no time to stop for autographs or posing Tarzan, Jane and The Banana headed off into the distance.

However, quick fingered Lisa Trenell (sister in law of the bride) managed to take this excellent action snap of Tarzan and The Banana - where is Jane you might ask ? Probably too quick for the camera !.

Beware of the snake

2008-10-10T22:59:00.000+01:00

Some pics of some lovely chicks !

2008-10-06T09:43:00.005+01:00

Not a patch on the lovely Jane.

Chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken... lay a little egg for me.

Tarzan, Jane and The Banana coming down the coast road to the finish.

Tarzan, Jane & The Bananana go to Toon - (05/10)

2008-10-05T21:59:00.003+01:00

As if taking the streets of Manchester three weeks ago wasn't enough the LRF boys (debatable I know) too to the streets of Newcastle this weekend in the world famous Great North Run.

Posting a time of 97 minutes (sounds quicker than 1hr 37 minutes) the team shouted waved and high fived their way from the centre of Newcastle to the brisk shores of the North Sea at South Shields.

The weather was perfect as was the response from the thousands who lined the route to cheer us on (well they were cheering others as well, but we all know why they were really there).

I'm not sure which got the loudest cheer; Tarzan with his snake, The Banana sneaking off to water some nearby vegetation or Jane flashing her 42DD's - either way it was a great experience.

The race was rounded off perfectly with Sue Barker interviewing the boys at the end to discuss amongst other things how Jane's make-up hadn't run. This was followed by an interview with Setanta TV from Ireland who were most impressed with Tarzan's Frank Carson impersonation.

Great support form everyone at Team LRF throughout the weekend especially that legend we all know as Ken Lomas who once again had arranged perfect weather and a flying disply form teh Red Arrows !

Watch out for some great pictures of the day later on in the week !

You are my Sunshine.... Studios !

2008-10-03T00:33:00.009+01:00

With most of the venues we pretty much knew what we would have to be doing to 'earn' our donations, not so at Sunshine studios - as we raced upstairs with the clock ticking followed by hoards of fab teenage dance students we had no idea what fate lay ahead.

Pole dancing - never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed - we gave it our best shot and after 8 hours of running I think the result was brilliant - as were the pics of Tarzans cheeky pants !

Check out those cheeky pants

Defying gravity - with a helping hand from Fay

Fay came to the rescue in Piccadilly Gardens leading our impromptu gym class with team LRF and Team emo seeing who could work those abs !

Sunshine studios what a great bunch !

Fancy that!

2008-10-02T14:35:00.007+01:00

American Graffitti offered to dress us for the red carpet and what a great job they made of it, with Tracey spending many a long hour getting her head around how to make a bow tie for a banana.

The Hilton Street shop is an Aladdin's cave of camp fashion and kitsch and after posing for a few shots we headed on to Oldham Street to hand out flyers for the store. After a couple of minutes we realised that the pitch that worked best was something on the lines of "Good afternoon sir, do you like fancy dress?"........."We do"

A lady who does amateur dramatics tries to find out where tarzan keeps his monkey nuts

What a genuine surprise it was to have this photo taken

We've saved the best till last, just like Vanessa Williams did in her sultry 1991 ballad with this picture of the trio with the fantastic support runners from Stockport Harriers. They took over a grand between them on the day and carried the buckets throughout the run which ended up being about thirty miles. Top job. For that reason I will not take the mickey out of them in the caption below the picture.

From left to right: Brian (to wear anymore fancy dress would have been ridiculous), Jane (when you are stood next to a gorilla/bear in a flourescent t-shirt you have to make an effort and not only is there a pirate hat and ra-ra skirt combination in evidence but a very saucy facial expression and a 'subtle' cupping of the right breast, superb), Lee (smiling because he thought the cubicle had a toilet in it), the Banana (what's that smuggled in the bottom half of the costume?), Andy (Penelope Keith), Steve ("If I pretend I'm posing for a football team shot, maybe they won't notice"), Tarzan (another dignified pose) , Sharon (just before she turned into a butterfly)

Photo request

2008-10-02T14:27:00.003+01:00

We are still short of any photos for Dan's House, Chisholm Hunter, Manto, The Midland Hotel and Moon Under Water. I know we posed for some so if anyone has any or knows anybody who might please send them to bananathon@hotmail.com and we will post them up.

Naomi Makeman sent us this lovely shot from Tiger Tiger, commenting on how nice it was that Sean's eyeshadow matched his shirt. The more party pics, the better.

Double D

2008-10-02T08:16:00.011+01:00

And we're not talking about the size of Jane's falsies, even though they were as firm as a pair of coconuts dipped in vinegar, no this Double D refers to Dimitri's and Debenhams who both donated fantastic raffle prizes for Tarzan's Bananathon.

Harley Street

We arrived at Dimitris on a real high having just won £1000 at Manch235ter and were invited by Nuno (back right on the photo) to go and chat to his customers. We met a group who were on a works do from Leeds and serenaded some friends celebrating a birthday before posing for photographs with a few Emmerdale fans. One chap in the bar donated £20 in exchange for me posing on his Harley Davidson, it was just like being Marlon Brando....er dressed as Tarzan..... with a banana drinking lucozade sport in the background.

1st Floor- Perfume, 2nd Floor-Ladies Wear, 3rd Floor - Idiots

When we arrived at Debenhams we made our way straight up to the Childrens department where we were going to be signing flyers; unfortunately the staff were waiting to meet us on the ground floor and didn't spot a half naked man, a transvestite and a six foot banana working our way towards the escalators (security saw us but assumed we were Manchester City's midfield on a shopping spree). My wife, Ruth, took some pictures and presented us with some buffet pork pies which had been the one food I wanted to eat en route. It didn't seem right to eat pork pies in Debenhams so we decided to save them till later in the run when we would really appreciate them. Once we arrived at Tiger Tiger, the first thing I wanted was one of those succulent pies, alas they had been scoffed by Ruth and her mates who aren't even that keen on pies. Once the staff joined us we signed a few photos and then made our way back to the ground floor where Jane was in her element.

That's why Ladies cross their legs.

With Tarzan and The Banana utilising the store's inner sanctum, Jane was given a full makeover and the opportunity to compare having make up applied by a professional artist whilst sat in a softly padded chair in a well lit room with her previous method of slapping it on whilst jiggling along in a moving car.

My, what big lips you have, Mr Wolf

The former won hands down and for the stretch along Market Street to Chisholm Hunter, Jane was beating testosterone fuelled Mancs off with a gnarled stick.

Moneybags

2008-10-01T20:22:00.005+01:00

With the total at just under £11,000 it's time to revisit Manch235ter and Morrisons for some more pictures from the bananathon.

Money

Bags

Knocked Out!

2008-10-01T14:38:00.015+01:00

I have been knocked out by the fantastic photos Dave and Darren Nelson have taken of the event, which I will put up over the next few days.

Totals from some of the venues are still to be totted up so rather than wait to show the photos, we will post that information as it comes up. Brian and Sue Holland filled in the gaps of Morrisons and Wickes for us, Tim from Sunshine Studios has contributed some beauties too and there was some cracking coverage in the local papers over the last couple of weeks.

Here are some more shots from Sweatshop .

They think its all over... (25/09)

2008-09-25T21:10:00.005+01:00

Well almost a week has passed and your wondering where have the fabulous trio disappeared to.... well surely someone out there is wondering ?? well at least my Mum asked me !

Theres been plenty of admin stuff going on in the background - raffle prizes and auction prizes now with their rightful owners - American Graffiti outfits washed and ready to be returned - my muscles no longer ache.

What happens next ...

Well very shortly a plethora, lovely word not used often enough, of photographs will start to appear on this blog to round off what has been an amazing success, we will try and add suitably witty captions to delight you as well !

Would we do it all again ?

Wait and see......

Pics and Totals (Friday September 19th)

2008-09-19T17:14:00.014+01:00

We will keep adding the money as it comes in, can you believe that it already stands at over £10,000. Fantastic.

It will take a while to get all the results up as there are rules and regs regarding collecting the money and physically counting all the buckets of coinage is a huge job in itself. It took me and my daughter over half an hour to count a portion of the half bananathon money so I can't imagine how long this is going to take.

Loads of pictures were taken on the way from various parts of the route by Dave and Darren Nelson, but we won't have them for a few days as Dave is off in Germany taking pictures of Metallica. To say these two gave up their Saturday free gratis is just amazing. Thanks gents.

Piccadilly Gardens Lucozade Stop

2008-09-19T17:14:00.010+01:00

Rod Hull and Emo

The Lucozade Sport support van was a vital part of the bananathon, carrying fuel to keep us going throughout the arduous event. I for one drank five or six bottles during the day and it really helped the team of support runners to keep hydrated. Tom the banana would have flaked out had he not kept drinking as temperatures soared into the seventies ripening his yellow skin.

Foxy pays homage to Primark

The idea of a fitness class in the middle of Piccadilly Gardens had been a great one, but with complexities of gaining a licence, not being able to advertise in the immediate vicinity and unavoidably losing our fitness instructor with two days to go it didn't turn out quite as originally planned.

Fay wonders if she has slipped into a parallel universe

Sunshine studios came to the rescue in the shape of Fay, who hours earlier had taught us how to pole dance. She grabbed the megaphone and barked out orders to the crew whilst a crowd of over-excited Emos grabbed the only parts of me which were left covered as I attempted to work muscles that had been on the go for over seven hours. Fay did a brilliant job leading us through a routine comprising star jumps, lunges and, most evilly, situps.

We collected some money at this point also as we chanced upon Stockport Harriers Coaches Beav and Tooley who were on their way to watch Manchester's footballing version of the Harlem Globe Trotters.

Big thanks to Lucozade Sport and Sunshine Studios.

Tarzan

Morrisons (£650)

2008-09-19T17:14:00.005+01:00

Reddish Vale on the recce

The route from The Fir Tree to Morrisons gave us our only glimpse of proper greenery as we worked our way through Reddish Vale. Stockport has a wonderful network of pathways alongside canals, rivers and lakes that are a haven for runners, If you know your way around you can run in the countryside for miles whilst always being close to a Greggs.

Last one through the arch gets walloped

Through the magic banana archway was the haven of Morrisons Bredbury where our task was to pack shopping into customers bags. The chap who bought a sliced white loaf, a bottle of vodka and two cans of Relentless was happy to make a donation as I realised that cashiers must be akin to doctors or hairdressers in their knowledge of their customers lifestyles. The checkout operators were decked in Leukaemia Research t shirts and one worker came in on his day off and dressed as a banana to join in. Whilst Jane and the banana continued judging the eating habits of Stopfordians I was lured outside and squeezed into a shopping trolley for the sake of art.

Rear right. Support driver Talib holds up a supermarket

A combined effort of staff fundraising and a tillside collection brought in a staggering £650. Thanks and well done to Morrisons Bredbury

Off my trolley

Tarzan

Sweatshop (£298)

2008-09-18T09:58:00.007+01:00

Attacked by a pack of hungry Puma.

(Tarzan had asked for a pair of size 10 PUMA Complete EUTOPIA to cover up his modesty - however we found a size 3 was sufficient)

By the time we reached Sweatshop in Hyde at just after 1pm we had already covered around fifteen miles and passed the highest point of the course at Smith Knight Fay in Gee Cross. We were running a minute late at this point as we had stopped for a loo break at Woodley precinct (both traps were occupied much to the Banana's disappointment) and popped in to say hello at Bowlacre Home where bizarrely Emmerdale was on in the day room.

The Sweatshop team had done us proud with a table laid out at one end of the store with drinks and that well known runners fuel Jam Doughnuts. Des Gibbons, whose lookalike we had seen earlier at the entrance to Stockport Merseyway Centre entertained us with a rap:

"After over three hours on your feet

This Homer food will be a treat

Hey pretty lady, take a seat

Do you shave your legs or do you use Veet?"

You will go to the ball - only PUMA Complete INFINITUS would fit !

We pulled a raffle for three fantastic prizes (if you haven't heard then I am afraid you didn't win), there was much hilarity when East Cheshire Harriers legend Harry Kelly won second prize as he had coached 'Jane' when he/she was in his teens.

The Nelson brothers took a load of great photographs, including the two shown here and we went on our merry way with Leukaemia Research having an extra £298 to spend.

PS I made it up about the rap.

Tarzan

The Fir Tree - £1050

2008-09-17T14:03:00.005+01:00

On the recce the week before

Well the legs are well on the road to recovery and Tarzan, Jane and the Banana have already been out running again (Jane stupidly doing a recovery run at 10pm on Sunday night).

One of the noisiest parts of our epic journey was through the busy street of Reddish - a combination of a bear on a motorbike, Tarzan, Jane and the Banana and a plethora of volunteers following brought the centre of Reddish to a standstill - this called for a dual strategy of collectors on both sides of the road getting the cars as they stopped at the traffic lights - it worked a treat - with people shouting, car horns beeping we saw our next stop The Fir Tree and were greeted by the amazing Bananathon Cheerleaders.

Inside the the pub the place was hotting up as preparations for the two big football matches of the day got underway, we even found time to share a quick pint of lager !

A fantastic amount of money was raised over Friday and Saturday night (£1050) as the pub donated the door takings for both nights.

Lots of photo opportunities with Tarzan sprawled across the bar, one lucky punter positioned herself stage left to have a good gawp at his chimp-pants (was it Stotty in disguise?) , 10 minutes later we were on our way again....

Lets hear it for the The Fir Tree Reddish !!

Manchester Casino - £1000

2008-09-16T17:02:00.007+01:00

Well the money has now started to roll in good style - over £5,000 with only a couple of the venues included so far.

One of my favourite stops on Saturday has to be Manch235ter Casino - real James Bond stuff (not like any of us were dressed like or looked like James Bond).

In through the smoked glass door, with what looked like an excellent restaurant to our left, and then upstairs to find out what our task would be - remember by this time we had run approximately 30 miles so we were hoping for something not too hard and difficult.

We were led by Miss Moneypenny (I cant remember the ladies real name, but Miss Moneypenny fits...) - she led us to a roulette table and asked the croupier to hand each of the three of us £250 in chips (A big of fish and chips would have been welcome at this stage of the day also).

So with £750 in chips we were told we had one spin of the wheel and could bet on evens bets (red or black, odd or even numbers) - after much deliberation we opted for Tom putting his on black and me and Tony on red (Tom Holloway suggested Red because it was LRF's colour)... the wheel was spun, the ball expertly thrown in and with the magic clunking noise the roulette wheel makes as the ball jumps around it landed on........ red !!!

One thousand pounds in the bank !!! Ooohh yes !!! Result

It was counted out for us in crisp new fifty pound notes.

Thank you Manch235ter Casino.

Ebay auctions (15/09)

2008-09-16T09:13:00.005+01:00

We have two ebay auctions on the go for two fantastic donated items. Both are boxed and new.

Verity Rushworth aka Emmerdale's Donna Windsor Dingle Modelling The Watch

Auction One is for a Versace Fabourg Watch donated by Chisholm Hunter. This retails at around £750 and is currently without a bid at a reserve of £400, an absolute bargain for such a beautiful timepiece. There are a number of pictures and a full description on the ebay page.

Auction Two is for a Farida Bass Guitar donated by Dawsons Music in Manchester. This item currently has one bid at £100 but bought from Dawsons would go for £160. Another bargain. Again, details on the ebay page.

If you are interested or know anyone who might be, please bid.

Tarzan x

Silence is golden... (16/09)

2008-09-16T00:08:00.005+01:00

Tarzan head over heels at the auction results

Well the first results are starting to roll in so lets start with the silent auction at Tiger Tiger, some excellent prizes donated by some wonderful people. Initial bidding was slow but as the evening wore on and the drink started to flow so did the bids.......

Laptop - £150 - John Hulse
Man U vs Bolton Wanderers - £70 - 'Jane'
Blackburn Rovers vs Man City - £300 - Mike Jackson
Gold Guitar - £120 - John Hulse
Emmerdale script - £151 - J Abbott (Blue Rainbow)
Fine Dining at the Midland - £105 - Tom Holloway
Lucky Voice Pod at Tiger Tiger - £30 - Andy Murphy
Coronation Street Tour - £151 - Will Hannah (Blue Rainbow)
Blue Rainbow - £60
Signed picture of Joe Jordan - £5 - Andy Murphy
Signed picture of Bryan Robson £20 - Chris (Badger) Craig

An amazing total of £1162 - outstanding !

Send us your pics and thoughts

2008-09-15T11:11:00.002+01:00

If you have any photos, videos or thoughts about the day, that you would like to share on the blog then please send them to us at bananathon@hotmail.com. Whether you were involved in the event as a volunteer, venue, partner or just enjoyed party at Tiger Tiger your input will help us find out what you thought of it and maximise the effect of the event.

Keep watching

Tarzan

Bananatastic! Saturday September 13th 2008

2008-09-14T21:36:00.005+01:00

Wahaaaaaay! We did it! What a day! What a night!

During the week we will fill you in on all the stories and events from the day and let me tell you, there are many ( one of my favourite moments was talking to Dominic as he DJ'd, he suddenly shifted his gaze to outside the window and shouted "look at that guy" as a man dressed as a gorilla/monkey/creature off Doctor Who passed by on a motorbike, "Oh, that's Brian, he's with us" I replied).

We don't have a total yet, but will have by the end of the week, so keep reading.

So for now it's just a list of Thank You's. If I miss anyone off, I'm sorry, there are so many people to remember.

Thanks to everybody from the half bananathon and all the support we have had from the Media in the build up to the day.

Thanks to everybody from all the venues, we will name people individually in the reports during the week, you were all fantastic, thanks so much for embracing the event as you did (I know two venues who have raised £1,000 so far, amazing!).

Thanks to Suzy Dee and all at Tiger Tiger for a great party. To White Van Man, Lee, DJ Grimesy, Drase (the Manchester Beatbox Champion), FTAV Sound of Harrogate, Charlie & Dom.

Thanks to Puma for the sports wear, Lucozade sport for the support van and product, to Dave and Darren Nelson for photographing the whole event and Channel M for covering the early stages. Blue Rainbow for the beautiful apartments.

Thanks to Talib and Brian for the support vehicles and all the fantastic support runners from Stockport Harriers who carried buckets and collected on the day, some of them running the whole distance; Steve, Gerry, Simon, Andy, John, Sharon, Tony and Lee who also designed and printed the tickets and drank the most Cider at Tiger Tiger.

Massive thanks to the Leukaemia Research Team and all the volunteers who collected, especially Gill, Tom, Serena, Sally, Kate and Alex who took the brunt of the many jobs that needed doing in the build up and on the day.

Thanks to Sean and Tom who have worked so hard for this event over the last few months and to our partners and families who have had to put up with obsessed strangers for the bulk of it.

Thanks to everyone who donated to LRF. You did yourselves and Manchester proud and your money will be well spent.

Now, time for more sleep

Tarzan x

Blue Rainbow the morning after, In Steve Jones' pants.

The night before the big day - (12/09)

2008-09-13T00:04:00.004+01:00

What a ridiculously long day - and the marathon due to start in less than 10 hours !

6:00am start to be at Channel M studios, dash across Manchester to the BBC studios, Tony off to Granada, me and Tom some last minute checks at the venues Manto, Sunshine Studios, American Graffiti and to pick up some evening wear from American Graffiti.

Back home for a quick change, back down Manchester for a team meeting/briefing session, quick bite to eat into Virgin Active to meet a nice chap called Martin - dash down the A6 and A57 putting up posters - bring it on Manchester, bring it on !!!

The last post

2008-09-12T23:53:00.002+01:00

what a day

Channel M Breakfast first thing, then on to Becky Want's Coffee Club on BBC Radio Manchester. Lots of last minute phone calls and emails, a couple of wind ups thrown in for good measure. Another auction prize, donated by Blue Rainbow Apartments, an auction prize changed (if you fancied bouncing on the trampolene, it is now a dining set with chairs courtesy of B&M)

Sunshine studios have organised dancers in The Printworks with DJ Grimesy presenting the bananathon's finale. So be sure to get there for about 7.10 to enjoy the spectacle.

Fingers crossed we will have some extra entertainment in the evening in the shape of Manchester's finest beatbox Drase.

We will be signing autographs at Debenhams Children's department, learning to pole dance at Sunshine Studios and playing roulette for charity money at Manch235ter.

After midnight, really must get to bed....see you tomorrow

Thanks to all who have made this event possible x

Time for bed

2008-09-11T23:40:00.004+01:00

We also have an eBay auction for three items up and running, but in the morning the three of us are on Channel M's breakfast show and have to be there at 6.45am, then on to Heather Stott's Coffee Club on BBC Radio Manchester at 9am.

Tomorrow will be a long day with our first get together of the entire team in the evening (perhaps we have left it a bit late), so it's time to catch some sleep because on Saturday we have a marathon to run....with a difference.

PS. Just had a great email asking for 30 tickets for Tiger Tiger

And don't forget, scroll down and you can get a great offer at Blue Rainbow Apartments in Manchester. All the One Bedroomed apartments have now gone, but you can still bag a 5 star luxury apartment for only £95 including VAT for the night of the Bananathon. Go on, treat yourself.

Tarzan

Auction Two

2008-09-11T22:53:00.010+01:00

At Tiger Tiger on Saturday September 13th throughout the night there will be a host of items to bid on in a silent auction. What's a silent auction? It's an auction where you write your name and bid on a piece of paper and hope that your bid is the biggest. Here are a few of the tempting treats up for auction. For best results get absolutely leathered before you bid.

Framed photographs of Manchester United Legends Bryan Robson and Joe Jordan with signatures.

Matchday Package for 2 people to watch Manchester United v Bolton Wanderers on Saturday 27th September 2008. Package includes Official match ticket, Match Programme, Megastore Discount Voucher and Meal Voucher for Harry Ramsdens. Donated by Co-op Travel, Denton

Matchday Package for Blackburn Rovers versus Manchester City on Sunday 28th December 2008, with a host of extras supplied by Blackburn Rovers FC

A gold Farida electric guitar donated by Dawsons Music. This guitar will be played by White Van Man's very own guitar legend The Twad for one song during the Tiger Tiger

Fine Dining Package at The Midland Hotel. Overnight accommodation in a deluxe Twin or Double RoomFour Course Dinner For Two in the French Restaurant (from the Gastronomique menu)Wine & Chocolates in your room on arrival and a pre-dinner glass of champagne in the Octagon Lounge or Wyvern BarFull English Breakfast in The Colony Restaurant the following morning.This prize is valid until 13th March 2009 and subject to availability.Donated by The Midland Hotel
Signed Emmerdale script of the Tom King Murder episode screened on Christmas Day 2006. Signed by Patrick Mower (Rodney), Sian Reece Williams (Gennie) , Steve Halliwell (Zak), Tony Audenshaw (Bob), Andy Devine (Shadrack), Alex Carter (Jamie), Paula Tilbrook (Betty), Billy Hartman (Terry), Duncan Preston (Douglas), Nick Miles (Jimmy King), Steve Farebrother (McNally) and seven more artistes.

Brand new Intel Celeron notebook with Windows XP Home and MS Works plus full one year warranty selling for under £200 (Inc VAT) • Intel Celeron M 350 (1.3GHz) processor, 256MB DDR RAM • 40GB hard disk and combo CD-RW/DVD ROM • 14.1" TFT colour display (1024 x 768 resolution) • Touchpad pointing device, integrated sound and speaker • 4 x USB 2.0 ports, parallel, serial, VGA and PS/2 ports • Internet and e-mail hot keys, Kensington lock security slotSupplied with MS Windows XP Home, Microsoft Works 8.0, NTI CD/DVDMaker and Bullguard Anti-Virus (trial version)

With bonus USB Wifi attachment.

ECS Elitegroup are a large Taiwanese OEM manufacturer of motherboards and notebooks - supplying many household names in the computer trade.
Brand new One year warranty
Further details on the ECS website

Donated by Morgan Computers

Auction One

2008-09-11T22:49:00.003+01:00

Ape and Apple, John Dalton Street, Saturday 13th September 2008. 6.20pm

Three items in a ten minute auction as part of Tarzan's Bananathon

Lot One: An Emmerdale script signed by 16 cast members

Lot Two: A framed photograph of Manchester United Legend Norman Whiteside with signature.

Lot Three: A gallon of beer, provided by the Ape and Apple.

Shopping spree... (11/09)

2008-09-11T17:47:00.004+01:00

My last two runs in full costume had proved difficult from a make-up point of view with most of it running down my face - so today I have treated myself to some Rimmel 8 hour colour mouse for my eyes and some Rimmel alarm red lipstick.

I've even tried it on and I look great !!!

What was slightly worrying was how easy I found it to put it on.

Jane

Great Yorkshire Run - (11/09)

2008-09-11T00:15:00.005+01:00

The Tarzans Bananathon team took to the streets of Sheffield in style last Sunday and here's a few pictures of them during the day - what a great LRF team effort on the day and what a great welcome from the people of Sheffield !

Bad hair day !

We also finsihed first 'costumed' athletes as well - whoop whoop !

Ticket sales - (10/09)

2008-09-10T23:52:00.004+01:00

Blimey (as they say in Dick Van Dyke films) - all I seem to have done all day is deliver tickets sell tickets, collect tickets, lose tickets, find the tickets I though I'd lost, then write raffle tickets out for people, explain what the raffle prizes are, explain what they are again - great fun though !

Raffle tickets for the draw at Sweatshop Hyde are going down a treat but Party tickets for Tiger Tiger are going even better - don't forget give Tony, Sean a Tom a shout for your tickets for Saturdays Party or you can pay on the door, but get there early to avoid disappointment and perhaps having to watch through a steamed up window !

Did anyone see the fabulous trio (Tarzan, Jane and The Banana) on Channel 5 last night ?

Music. The Third Instalment.

2008-09-09T16:53:00.003+01:00

The Tiger Tiger After Bananathon Party will be a feast of musical delights with Dominic Brunt playing an early evening set at 8pm, followed by Charlie Hardwick playing Motown and Soul at 8.30pm.

Once White Van Man have finished strutting our stuff at around 10pm, Dominic will get to work on the decks in the VIP Lounge with Charlie on a busman's holiday from her character's Woolpack role serving drinks to customers. Who knows who else will be tempted to spin their favourite tracks?

Music (The Second Instalment)

2008-09-09T16:32:00.004+01:00

White Van Man rehearsed our Tiger Tiger set last night and I have to say we sounded pretty darn good. We will be playing for an hour at 9pm prompt at Tiger Tiger .

At 5pm we will be playing the three song gig in the window of Dawsons Music on Portland Street.

You can vote for the song you would most like us to play by visiting a special page from Dawson's website here. You can also vote in the shop by ticking the box next to the song you would prefer to hear.

Later in the week you will be able to bid on a fantastic Farida bass and electric guitar.

Music. The First Instalment

2008-09-09T08:35:00.002+01:00

If you want to start supporting Tarzan's Bananathon on Friday 12th September then get down to the Fir Tree where Paul Hand is playing a set and the proceeds of the door are going to Leukaemia Research Fund. The same goes for Saturday night where, if you are not at the party of the year at Tiger Tiger, Gizell is in residence.

Tarzan's Bananathon get to The Fir at 11.35am on Saturday for 10 minutes, so be sure to be there to have a pint pulled by the team and stay around to watch Man Utd play Liverpool.

Who wants to be Number 1 - (08/09)

2008-09-08T12:58:00.002+01:00

Ever wanted to have that number 1 race number on your vest or t-shirt in a race ?

Well now is your chance !!

As part of their fund raising for Tarzan's Bananathon Sweatshop in Hyde are running a raffle with a runners dream of a prize list :-

Running shoes of your choice

25% discount off Sweatshop for 12 months

Free entry for 5 years into The Stockport 10, Offerton 10K and Trafford 10K races

.... and

Number 1 race number for all these races also - awesome !

Excellent runner up prize list also with shoes from Puma and Mizuno and free race entries.

If anyone wants to buy a raffle ticket pop into the Sweatshop store on Market Street, Hyde or also available from Stockport Harriers.

Prize winners will be drawn lunchtime Saturday 13 September

GOOD LUCK !

Spooky

2008-09-08T00:48:00.001+01:00

For some reason, Mistaken Identity has posted after Rainbow's End. Make sure you scroll down and have a look at our wonderful accommodation partner. Blue Rainbow Apartments.

Tarzan

Mistaken Identity (Saturday September 6th)

2008-09-07T23:53:00.003+01:00

Teresa and Alice with their special guest.

Now, I have been mistaken for a few people in my time.

Ronnie O'Sullivan, Kevin Rowland from Dexy's, Figo, Shane Ritchie, Nigel off Eastenders (when I carried a bit of weight and had curly hair) and Steve Strange to name but a few. But the ladies at Gala Bingo in Belle Vue set their sights a little higher when they saw me chatting to Gala's Joanne Parfitt and LRF's Gill Edwards this week.

"Ooh look who it is"

"What's he doing here"

"Why is he at Gala?"

"I never thought I'd see Prince Charles in here"

Prince Charles! I think studying those bingo cards must have affected their eyesight. The lovely ladies above were not so easily fooled. I am "Him whose missus is inside".

There will be a lot more snippets from Jane and The Banana over the next few days, well from all of us really, from Monday on expect multiple posts every day.

Tarzan x

Rainbow's End (Sunday September 7th)

2008-09-06T19:53:00.007+01:00

Lounge

If you fancy stopping in five star luxury accommodation after the Bananathon Party at Tiger Tiger at an amazingly low price then you will be pleased to hear that those lovely people at Blue Rainbow Apartments, (Winner of the best serviced apartments in Manchester award from hotelsofmanchester.com 2007), are offering a special low rate for supporters of the event.

When I say special, I mean really special, Five Star apartments at one star prices.

Bedroom

If you go to www.bluerainbowapartments.com and quote 'Banana' you will be eligible to pay :

just £75 (inc VAT) for a one bedroomed apartment that sleeps two

and just £95 (inc VAT) for a two bedroomed apartment that sleeps four.

The offer goes live on the internet on Monday morning, but if you can't wait until then phone in your booking (again quoting 'Banana') on 0161 236 6439.

Kitchen (Attractive woman with tea towel not included)

Not only that but Blue Rainbow are the official accommodation partner of Tarzan's Bananathon and as if they weren't already doing enough, for every room booked at this special rate they will donate £5 to Leukaemia Research.

These apartments are absolutely fantastic, have a look here to see what you get in the rooms. The two bedroomed apartments have two bathrooms, so only the kitchen and lounge is shared. Four people for £95. That's less than £24 each. It's amazing.

Book early to get the most out of this wonderful offer.

Big, big thanks to Jane at Blue Rainbow and to Suzy at Tiger Tiger for the introduction.

Tarzan

The Final Venue (Friday September 5th)

2008-09-06T19:51:00.007+01:00

Here we are with a week to go, announcing the final venue.

It's a house in Reddish where Tarzan, Jane and The Banana will be serving a barbecue to guests in the front garden. (Unless the marvellous Manchester weather decides otherwise)

We started naming venues way back in June with Manchester Royal Infirmary where research programmes are funded by the charity and we finish with the house of someone whose life has been changed by the work of Leukaemia Research.

Let's leave it to Dan Makin to explain why he is involved with Tarzan's Bananathon.

"I feel very privileged to be contributing to the Bananathon, it will be an incredible accomplishment for Tony, Sean and Tom. They really should be congratulated on all the hard work they have put in.

I was diagnosed with ‘Hairy Cell Leukaemia’ last year. It is quite a rare form of leukaemia and usually affects people much older than me (I’m 30)

Unfortunately, at this stage there is no cure, but the chemotherapy I received last year is keeping the levels of cancer cells in my blood at a low level and as a consequence allowing me to live as normal a life as possible.

Hopefully this will last for a few years at which time I will have some more chemo which should have the same effect. That is unless a drug is developed which can cure this type of leukaemia once and for all.

It is through the Leukaemia Research Fund that future developments in treatment and cure of leukaemia are discovered. It is therefore a charity which is very important to me and my family.

We are so proud to be taking part in this charity event which no doubt will raise a fantastic amount of money to help the thousands of children and adults affected by leukaemia.

Good luck Tony, Sean and Tom!"

And good luck to you Dan, thanks so much for being involved.

Right, that's it 26 venues in place. Over the next week there will be multiple posts covering all facets of the bananathon. We have some great pictures and lots of exciting news to reveal so keep reading

Tarzan x

Tickety Boo (Thursday September 4th)

2008-09-04T23:55:00.004+01:00

With all but one of the 26 venues revealed, ticket sales for the after Bananathon Party at Tiger Tiger have become our priority. Posters are popping up in all sorts of places advertising the event (above is one from the front door of Sunshine Studios), by the middle of next week Manchester will be awash with them. About 500 tickets are already spoken for, which isn't bad for a Saturday night early evening, but we want to sell many more. Tiger Tiger doesn't usually charge on the door until 10pm, so every penny of the £5 entry fee goes directly to Leukaemia Research. It's no good paying at the door at five past ten to get in, get there nice and early to enjoy the fun.

What's on offer?

The usual Tiger Tiger hospitality and great choice of rooms and food.

A few surprise celebrity DJs (fans of a Yorkshire based ITV serial drama may be familiar with them), names to be revealed next week. (I am particularly looking forward to the soul and Motown set)

A raffle and silent auction (ie not one of those boring ones that go on forever) with prizes and items including two guitars, a laptop computer, a £500 Debenhams clothing voucher, a fine dining package at the Midland Hotel, a matchday package at Manchester's richest.....er second richest football club where Cristiano Ronaldo should be playing his comeback game and an 8ft trampolene with enclosure!

The chance to see how much smaller some people off the telly look in real life.

A gig from the band that Simon Cowell gave 0 out of ten 10 to, yet played to 3,500 people earlier this year at Blackpool Empress Ballroom and were so well received were asked back to play next year. Yes, John Underberg, Alan Varnish, Dave Thunderchild, Elvis Whitevan and THE TWAD aka White Van Man will be blistering their way through a set of tunes including songs originally done by the likes of The Killers, Pigeon Detectives, Kaiser Chiefs and Dolly Parton. As seen on Stars In Their Eyes, Emmerdale and at The Royal Albert Hall. For one night only. White Van Man play Tiger Tiger.

If all that is not enough for you, why not splash out £25 for a VIP ticket where you get all of the above plus:

A fancy wristband

A seat in The Lounge

Use of the VIP loos (ideal for those with a weak bladder and a penchant for wanting to feel important)

A delicious meal (served between 7.30pm and 8.30pm)

The chance to be served by someone off the telly

The satisfaction of knowing that the bulk of your ticket money is going to Leukaemia Research.

Click here to see how to upgrade to a VIP package.

Please spread the word about the party, it's a simple equation, the more people we get in Tiger Tiger, the more money we raise. If we fill the place we will take £7,000 in tickets alone and LRF can really make use of that money, so please tell your mates. If you would like a poster advertising the event for your works common room or canteen, whatever, just contact me, Sean or Tom and we will get one to you post haste.

Personally, I have felt really tired and demoralised this week. I didn't really recover from the half bananathon on Saturday and was a bit like a zombie at work on Tuesday resulting in me getting more and more stressed about the event as the week has gone on. I have just felt like I have been getting on people's nerves in badgering them to do stuff and not achieving anything myself. Everytime I cleared one job another two seemed to surface and I couldn't see the wood for the trees

I had a meeting tonight with my wife Ruth and Tom the Banana. Two hours later we have a list of jobs and things that we need doing that we have split between the team up here and LRF head office. It's like a massive weight off my mind and I feel re-energised and hungry for the challenge again.

My on screen character Bob is going through the mill on screen at the moment and if you don't watch Emmerdale you can get a pretty good idea of what is going on by watching the ITV interview here. Nothing about the Bananathon, but plenty of stress and a good deal of nostril flaring.

Tarzan x

235 is 25 (Wednesday September 3rd)

2008-09-04T23:09:00.003+01:00

Venue 25 to be named is Manchester 235 Casino. They are keeping their donation under wraps, even the activity is a mystery although we can exclusively reveal it will be roulette related.

Those who remember casinos as smoky holes where desperados head for an after hours pint will be amazed at the style and luxury of Manch235ter. It is in all in one contemporary venue with two restaurants, bars, a live music and comedy room and of course a host of gaming. Tucked between Peter Street and Deansgate in The Great Northern, it is a veritable Tardis and well worth a visit for a great night out.

The 'no fancy dress' policy may be an obstacle to overcome or an added incentive to visit at about 5.50pm on Saturday 13th September as Tarzan, Jane and The Banana may end up appearing there in the buff.

Big thanks to Manch235ter. One more venue to go.

"After six and a bit hours of sheer hell, you're going to get thirsty..." (Tuesday September 2nd)

2008-09-03T07:19:00.005+01:00

....isotonic Lucozade Sport" as John Barnes used to say before he kicked his can into the bin. Well he's not the only one who'll be drinking the sports fuel that 'gets to your thirst fast' as Lucozade Sport are really getting behind Tarzan's Bananathon in a big way. Not only are they supplying product to keep us going throughout the ten hours on our feet, they are providing a branded support vehicle to transport our gear through the streets of Manchester.

But that is not all, because at about 4.40pm on Saturday September 13th they will be laying claim to a corner of Piccadilly Gardens and holding a fitness class with Tarzan Jane and The Banana. This is an ideal opportunity to come along and join in with the Bananathon and get some exercise at the same time.

The Lucozade Sport website is really flash and well worth a visit, I've been using their gels for years in marathons and have a strategy of taking them with water at mile 8, 13, 18 and 22. For the bananathon we have been advised to use Lucozade product and little pots of savoury food little and often en route. Tom the Banana particularly is going to have to watch his hydration wearing that hot costume, so we reckon he will slurp the most.

Eleven days to go, two venues to reveal....................it's nearly Bananathon time.

Tarzan

Thank You (Monday September 1st)

2008-09-01T19:01:00.002+01:00

Just a big thank you today to everybody involved in Saturday's Half Bananathon. You helped to raise £714.83 for Leukaemia Research. Which means our total so far as shown on www.justgiving.com/bananathon is £1,212.03.

I'll 'ave 'alf (Saturday August 30th)

2008-08-31T21:31:00.008+01:00

Mission accomplished, a cracking night, plenty of money raised and a fair few glitches discovered that we can learn from for the full bananathon.

Chafing. I don't know about Jane and the banana, but I have six patches of broken skin, mainly where my Ivy rubbed.

Make up. Jane's make up came off pretty early in the run and his/her eyes smarted throughout.

Numbers. The numbers smudged and ran. The tip of the banana's head rubbed nearly all the ink off Tom's number leaving just 'ARZ' visible on his back. Laminating will fix this.

Bananas Head. The top of the banana drooped down, it needs a cardboard cone inside and a visor to keep it off Tom's face. The mass of yellow also needs branding with charity details.

Text to Number. I don't think one person texted the number all night. We need a strategy to fully utilise this, particularly at places like the Moon Under Water where there will be a lot of people who can't physically reach a bucket.

Hand out cards. We really need something on paper to give people to tell them what it is all about. As soon as we mentioned that we were collecting for Leukaemia Research and that Tom was in remission having had Lymphoma people reached in their pockets

Bucket carriers. We need a couple of runners in LRF t shirts following the trio with buckets to collect after we have passed. We found that people wanted to give even when driving past in cars or barges (on the canal). If us three stop to collect it will slowus down and make us late for the visits.

Drinks. It was really thirsty work. Tom had never drunk so much on a run. We need a support vehicle just for fuel.

Timekeeping. It was nigh on impossible to keep an eye on the time even when only chatting to people in a pub. We need a timekeeper and a minutes warning after nine minutes at the venue to ensure we leave on time.

A massive thank you to all the venues who took part, particularly The Railway for providing us with a start, finish tape and mountain of butties after the run. Louise Makin really did us proud.

Along with Tarzan, Jane and the Banana running the 13 mile plus course were Stockport Harriers Andy, Brian, Lee and Simon and Railway regulars Carl and Mike. Thanks to them all for their support. Brian was a particularly good 'Enforcer' when it came to collecting, I am going to hire him for my son when he goes to collect his paper round Christmas tips.

We left bang on six o'clock and within minutes had our first donation with a cyclist on the Middlewood Way riding a good half a mile just to give us some money. I soon realised that in the exitement I hadn't pressed start on my stopwatch, but knew that we had to be at The Dandy Cock by 6.40pm. The response on the A6 was amazing with every other car beeping their horn in support. If we could just turn those beeps into donations.

At the Dandy Cock in Disley we met a real character in the shape of Ingrid. She took a shine to Jane and also to the ghost, quipping 'This is the first time I've had the Willies put up me in ages', along with a whole host of other racy gags. We were made very welcome there and at the White Lion in Disley where a few of us had a stab at the real ale, gorgeous.

On to New Mills and the Beehive where Ruth had brought some pasta to help us practice eating on the move. Several friendly faces turned up here and later made their way to the Railway at the end. The Hare and Hounds gave us a typical Ruuffell family welcome, Mike had never been in the pub before but was totally taken with the Elvis Room. Lee became a fan for llife when the DJ played Superchannel by The Alarm for him and I served behind the bar for a spell and gave a poor renditon of 500 miles. James had encouraged a regular, Shaun, to dress in just undies, collar and cuffs a few weeks before and they generously gave the nearly £150 they collected to LRF. Fantastic.

Five minutes behind then and a long run to the Crown at Hawk Green along the Peak Forset Canal. We picked the pace up along here in the failing light but still arrived at the newly refurbished pub after our target time. After a drink and a chat we moved on to Marple Conservative Club where I sang King Of The Swingers and was joined in a slightly better version of 500 Miles by Jane and the banana whose 'dance' steps wowed the packed room. The chairman of the club presented a cheque for £50 and a collection yeilded in excess of a hundred pounds more.

Onwards then, back to The Railway where we were met by a big crowd of supporters, some much needed food and drink and an aerial display from some UFO's.

Thanks again to everybody involved. I will put a total of the money collected up on the blog on Monday and then add that to the money on the justgiving site.

Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we all enjoyed the night.

with Ingrid at the Dandy Cock, spot the ghost

Tom does his best Mavis Reilly at The White Lion

The gang 'Beehiving' themselves

The wonderful Ruffell family at The Hare and Hounds

Five bananas at the Crown

Top class arm movements at the Con Club

Back at the Railway, even the banana is excited

Tarzan x

Co-op Travel Denton (Friday August 29th)

2008-08-30T00:03:00.003+01:00

Now this venue is very special to me as it is only about 400yards from where I was born on Acre Street. I was brought up in Denton and spent many happy days there with my extended family.

Clare and the team at Co-op travel have really got behind the Bananathon and if there wasn't enough reason to pop into the Crown Point store, seeing the staff dressed in hula skirts is an extra incentive. The shop was really busy when I popped in there with folk booking holidays in places as diverse as Greece, Spain and Butlins. I also bumped into an old mate, Pete Bolger, from Hyde Little Theatre who has recently been working as a supporting artist at Emmerdale. He was saying what a great deal he had got on a break in Portugal.

Co-op Travel have donated a fantastic prize which I know will raise a mint when auctioned at Tiger Tiger on the 13th,; a match day package for 2 people for Saturday 27th September, Man Utd v Bolton Wanderers which includes tickets for 2, match programmes, mega store discount vouchers and meal vouchers for Harry Ramsdens.

I'll bob in again over the next week or so and get a decent picture of the store and staff as the logo doesn't really do them justice. I have the feeling they will have a few surprises up their sleeve when we arrive on the day of the event.

23 down, 3 to go.

Tarzan

Dimitris (Thursday August 28th)

2008-08-28T23:57:00.005+01:00

I love Dimitris. The food is gorgeous, the atmosphere is brilliant. It's the closest thing you can get to being on your holidays whilst still in Manchester. I remember one cracking meal 'Jane' and I had there with our families after having taken our lads to go and see England play football at Old Trafford. They didn't know where we were going until we queued up to pick up the tickets. The meal finished off a magical day.

The Meze and tapas are just fantastic and you have to be careful you don't order too much food as the portions are really generous.

What you may not know is that Dimitri is not only a great restraunteur, but a talented actor to boot. He played Bob's solicitor during the 'Who Killed Tom King' storyline with great aplomb.

Thanks to Nuno and all at Dimitris for the voucher for a meal for two. This will be one of the raffle prizes, along with the £500 Debenhams clothing voucher.

Tarzan

Behind the scenes - (28/08)

2008-08-28T21:42:00.004+01:00

With just a couple more venues to be announced we will take a quick look behind the scenes to see how the boys are shaping up with their pre marathon training and preparations and get an insight into their outfits :

Tarzan : looking suitably tanned after a couple of relaxing weeks in the South of France has stepped up his training with some longer runs in the past two weeks - today Jane borrowed his outfit to use as a template in her redesigned outfit - hopefully the itching powder now inside Tarzan's briefs wont be too much of a nuisance on the day.

Jane : (s)he has just returned from a pre Bananathon rest in the South of France and is hoping the pounds that he has put on whilst resting will disappear before September 13th - Jane is redesigning her outfit for the big day and hoping to add a bit more sparkle to it !

The Banana : Tom has been running twice a day and is looking forward to this weekends training run around New Mills and Marple where he will be togged out in his full banana outfit - will chaffing be a problem... watch this space and you'll be the first to know !

The rest of the team back LRF Towers have been working frantically arranging TV interviews, press releases, posters, ticket sales for the Tiger Tiger Party and generally doing really good stuff to make the whole day an unbelievable success.

Debenhams (Tuesday August 26th)

2008-08-26T21:30:00.002+01:00

Now think what you could do with a £500 clothing voucher at Debenhams. Personally,I could kit myself out with gear for a good couple of years. Some of you could buy a coat or a pair of shoes. That is the beauty of one of Manchester's biggest department stores, there is something for everyone, right through the price range.

And a £500 Debenhams clothing voucher is exactly what the winner of Tarzan's Bananathon raffle will have courtesy of store manager Craig Beddow. Tickets will go on sale over the next week or so and will be available from Tarzan, Jane and the banana and anyone else we can convince into selling them. They will also be available on the night of the event when the raffle will be drawn.

We are not sure exactly what we will be doing at Debenhams yet sometime between 4.10 and 4.30pm, but we will keep you posted here on the blog.

Big Thanks to Debenhams. Only five more venues to announce till all 26 are in the open.

Tarzan

Moon Under Water (Monday August 25th)

2008-08-25T23:13:00.005+01:00

Make no bones about it, this place will be absolutely heaving at about 7pm on Saturday 13th September and that's saying something as the Moon Under Water holds 1,500 people at capacity. I was told it was the biggest pub in Europe at one stage and I can believe it. Dave the manager told us that people often order their drinks from their mates by mobile phone it is so big. Certainly I can remember using the pub's size to my advantage when a strange character had latched on to a group of us. We gave him a tenner to go to the bar and never saw him again, he might still be in there for all I know.

The pub is part of the Wetherspoons group and as such you know you will get great value beer and food in a friendly atmosphere.

This is the place en route where you can have your photo taken with Tarzan's Bananathon in a themed booth in exchange for a donation to Leukaemia Research Fund. Dave and Jenny have also kindly offered a collection and with 1,5000 thirsty revellers in the building, it should be a good one.

Tarzan

Twenty Flight Rock (Sunday August 24th)

2008-08-25T11:11:00.007+01:00

I ran twenty miles this morning, the bulk of it with Tom the banana and the wonderfully named Gingerbreadman (designer and producer of Tiger Tiger Tickets), Eric Seagull and Funk. I lagged behind for much of the run and found it pretty hard going. To emulate the bananathon we put a few short stops along the route and after I had run 16 miles I stopped off at home for ten minutes, had a bite to eat, then went off and did another three miles, then came back and ran a mile on the treadmill.

It was tough to get going again after the stop but what I didn't anticipate was that I would feel sick and have a stitch. To be on our feet for ten hours on bananathon day we are going to have to refuel as we go along and that means taking on food as well as sports drink(more will be revealed in a later blog). This is something I am not used to doing and need to practice more over the next three weeks. I have been known to run 20 miles without even water in the past but I'll be flaked out come Gorton if I try that on September 13th. Next week's half bananathon will be a real chance to practice a food strategy. I intend to run from my home to The Railway which will give me an extra 5 miles, making the run about 18.5miles in total.

During today's run Tom mentioned how we might get cold at the ten minute stops in the bananathon. I thought he was being a bit of a wuss but he was absolutely spot on. When I had my ten minute break back at home I was close to shivering. If the weather isn't so kind on the day (remember this is Manchester) and we don't fuel correctly and keep warm we may risk Hypothermia. Not the best state to be in when you are reading a childrens book or collecting glasses outside a bar. Tom suggested space blankets and that's what we will be wearing at the venues if needs be in the form of lining under themed leopard skin print ponchos.

All this running chat has inspired me to have a proper stab at a late autumn marathon and the random calculator has taken in details and spewed out Milan, flat and cool and at the end of November. I may well be joined by two other runners. Must book those flights.

If you can draw your eyes away from the poncho, LRF visor and shapely legs in the picture above you may have noticed I am holding something. What is it?

It's a list of ten songs customers of Dawsons Music shop can choose from, to decide which three songs White Van Man will play at the ten minute gig at 5pm in the shop window on the day of the bananathon. People either pop a donation in the tin or text 'Tarzan' to 82540 and then tick a box by the song they want the band to play. The choices are 500 Miles, Baby I Love You, Cinnamon Girl, Common People, Ever Fallen In Love, I Found Out, I'm A Believer, Miss You, Suspicious Minds and SWords Of A Thousand Men. Let's get ready to Rock.

Tarzan's Half Bananathon (Saturday August 23rd)

2008-08-23T15:02:00.011+01:00

Practice makes perfect, as they say. Well I can't claim that Tarzan's Bananathon will be perfect, but make sure the concept runs smoothly, next Saturday August 30th we are having a dummy run in the shape of Tarzan's Half Bananathon. A half marathon distance run around Marple, Disley and New Mills calling at some of the area's finest hostalries en route to raise funds for Leukaemia Research.

You can see a map of the route here. I have pictures of all the venues here on the blog, including a beauty of Bananaman Faz and Simon outside The Crown.

It starts at 6pm and finishes at 9pm at The Railway in Rose Hill, Marple where my lovely sister-in-law Louise Makin is at the helm for the week. The run is half and half trail and road with sections along The Middlewood Way and Peak Forest Canal.

We will be running at 9 minute mile pace with ten minutes a throw at each of the venues and then stuff going on when we arrive back at the Railway.

Railway, Stockport Road, Rose Hill 6pm

Dandy Cock, Market St, Disley 6.40pm

White Lion, Buxton Road, Disley 6.50pm. Singer 'Tony Dee' appears here at 9pm.

Beehive, Albion Road, New Mills 7.15pm

Hare & Hounds, Low Leighton Road, New Mills 7.30pm. Karaoke and Disco on tonight.

Crown, Hawk Green Road, Marple 8.25pm

Marple Conservative Club, Church Lane, Marple 8.45pm Free and Easy with singers.

Then back to The Railway, Rose Hill 9pm. Fun and Frolics.

See you there

Tarzan x

Bingo-o-o-o (Friday August 22nd)

2008-08-23T14:54:00.002+01:00

I left a couple of clues in yesterday's blog about thodays' venue and what a stonker it is.

We are hoping for a 'full house' at 2.30pm on Saturday September 13th at the one and only Gala Bingo in Belle Vue where Tarzan, Jane and The Banana will be drawing the national game. That's right. All 187 Gala Bingo Clubs throughout the country will be linked in a giant fundraising bonanza with a multitude of table collections.

So wherever you are in the country, you can be a part of Tarzan's Bananathon by getting along to your local Gala Club at 2.30pm. Visit their website, pop your postcode into the store locator and away you go.

Eyes down....whoops did that yesterday

Tarzan
x

Two Little Ducks (Thursday August 21st)

2008-08-21T23:40:00.004+01:00

Quack quack, just 22 days to go till the bananathon and if you haven't had a good look at the interactive map yet, now is the time to get stuck in.

Click where it says 'view larger map' just under the map to right of the blog and then click the white box that says 'Satellite' to get an actual image of the 26 mile course. The route is marked out in banana yellow and eighteen of the venues now have their place on the map with a clickable icon that reveals what we are doing at each place, where it is, what time we are getting there and a gateway to their own websites. Zoom in using the bar on th eleft side of the map to exactly where we will be running on the day. Just 8 more venues left to name and we have some absolute belters. Eyes down.

It's been a bit of a frustration to me that I haven't had time to make more films about the race. Once all the venues are in place I will make one of the whole course, but that will probably have to be it. I showed the original film to one of the celebrity DJs today and I was amazed to see how much the idea has changed sinced we launched back in June.

We originally planned to have top bananas (lrf fundraisers) running with us all the way round, but decided that there was more than enough going on without that aspect. The time has also changed, originally it was 10am till 8pm, now it starts and finishes half an hour earlier to maximise the use of Tiger Tiger.

I haven't a clue what the next few weeks will bring, but am really looking forward to getting together with the Tom the banana and running a long way on Sunday with him. We will purposefully work stops into the run as specific training for the event. We have both individually done this on runs and noted how difficult it is to get going again after a few minutes rest. Cramping may well be a problem and if that kicks in we may have trouble reaching all the destinations at the right time. What have we let ourselves in for?

Tarzan

Chisholm Hunter (Thursday August 21st)

2008-08-21T22:14:00.003+01:00

When I recently went out for a birthday meal at the Dolce Vita in Marple with friends, little did one of the number realise by the end of the night that they would be enticed into the world of Tarzan's Bananathon. Brian certainly turned out to be a Diamond geezer when he suggested we pop into Chisholm Hunter in the Arndale Centre to meet up and have a chat about the event.

Although the pic above isn't of the Manchester store you can get a sense of the sort of classy establishment Chisholm Hunter is. To prove the point they have really shown their pedigree by donating a quite fantastic auction item; a Versace watch worth £900. We will be handing out vouchers for ten minutes between 4.25 and 4.45pm on the day and making people aware of the host of services the 150 year old Diamond Merchants have to offer.

Thanks Brian, you are the nicest City fan I know.

Tarzan

Crabs! (Wednesday August 20th)

2008-08-20T23:48:00.003+01:00

Had a blast on ITV daytime's This Morning.....er this morning, you can watch the item here and I was given a very generous slot about the Bananathon which features the one and only Magic Clipboard. The 'no expense spared' hand drawn map was featured in close up.

After a hair raising cab journey (The Eastern European driver pulled out of a junction and missed an oncoming car by inches, his explanation..."London!") I met up with Alex, Sally, Serena and Tom at Leukaemia Research Fund headquarters and had a really productive meeting. With just over three weeks to go to the big day, it's all hands on decks, splice the mainbrace and a host of other sailing metaphors.

A special mention today to my two wives. Viv, my on screen missus who today started a prison sentence and Ruth, my real partner who has been a tremendous support over the last few months whilst I have been busy with the Bananathon and celebrated her birthday today. (I won't say how old she is, but the runners among you may be interested to know she has 'moved up a category'.) Hats off to the ladies.

Tarzan

Rumble In The Jungle (Tuesday August 19th)

2008-08-20T23:28:00.004+01:00

Long before George Foreman made his millions endorsing fat free grilling gadgets and liking every invention submitted to America's Got Talent he had a famous fight with Muhammad Ali in Zaire........oh sorry, not that Rumble In The Jungle. This one is a fabulous children's book by Giles Andrae (aka Purple Ronnie) with illustrations by David Wojtowycz that Tarzan Jane and the Banana will be bringing to life as part of the Bananathon on September 13th at Waterstones on Deansgate somewhere between 6.35 and 6.55pm.

Events organiser Nick Lewis has secured the children's section for the reading and I for one am really looking forward to it, if only to enjoy the 'acting' skills of Sean and Tom (The last time they performed they were mercilessly left on the cutting room floor) and after nine hours on my feet to get a bit of a sit down.

Hmmm one thing I hadn't thought of when me and Sean went to meet Nick. Stairs! All very well on a Saturday afternoon trip out, but after 25 miles pounding the pavements that walk through the shop back to Deansgate will be a real quad burner.

So, beg steal or borrow a child and bring them along for a ten minutes never to be repeated.

Tarzan

Gavel And Stacey (Monday August 18th)

2008-08-18T20:29:00.006+01:00

When I first ventured into the City Centre in search of venues I had a specific pub in mind to call at. Somewhere themed around Tarzan and fruit.....ah yes.... The Ape And Apple on John Dalton Street.

Stacey Saunders played the perfect host and if you are in Manchester between 6.20pm and 6.40pm on Saturday September 13th you too can taste some proper beer and marvel at the warm welcome whilst bidding in a ten minute speed auction.

We have three items to auction in the ten minutes. An Emmerdale script of the 'Tom King's Murder' one hour special signed by sixteen current cast members, a framed signed photograph of Manchester United Legend Norman Whiteside and a gallon of beer supplied by the pub.

So, even if you don't want to get your wallet or purse out, get along to The Ape And Apple to boost the crowds as Tarzan's Bananathon nears it's end.

Tarzan

Lost In France (Monday August 18th)

2008-08-18T17:25:00.003+01:00

Twelve days without a blog.

I managed to see a few emails on my mobile but couldn't open them, not even a telly in our caravan (sorry, deluxe mobile home), which meant the break was really a break. Not that great for getting anything done, but ace for recharging the batteries.

Back last night, leaving Jane and his family to enjoy the sunshine to be greeted by eight scripts with a million lines and just the call you want on a Monday morning, 8am at the Emmerdale village.

Less than four weeks to go to the big day and hundreds of things still need doing, but on the whole they will have to wait till Wednesday when I will have a few hours with my laptop travelling to and from London to appear on ITV daytime's This Morning. I will be on at 10.30am ish talking about this weeks storyline and Tarzan's Bananathon. I also had the pleasure of chatting with Natalie Anglesey today and she will be writing a piece for the Manchester Evening News over the next week or so.

I'll keep it brief because I have a lot of lines to learn for the morning and hope to get in bed by 9pm. I will be up at just after 5 in the morning so I can drive over to Leeds and run before my 8 o'clock call. For the time being I am back in Training, I weighed 11 stone 13 last night and need to drop some girth before the bananathon and I also have one eye on a marathon at the end of November and giving it a proper go for a sub 3 hour time.

Anyway, shut up Tarzan and get on with naming the venues........

Stockport Market - (Wednesday 6 August)

2008-08-06T22:19:00.008+01:00

What a team - Tarzan and Jane meet Stockport Markets finest

Well we made it to the meeting with John Grainger (The King of Stockport Market I think was his job title) - he is a cross between Brian Blessed and Peter Ustinov and every bit as charismatic).

He quickly gathered some of the key members of his team together including Paul Downes who is Operations Manager (remember that this is all happening outside in the middle of Stockport Market amid the fruit and veg and womens underwear!) - a quick brain storming session later and we have one more amazing bunch of people on board - with collections, fancy dress judged by the Tarzans Bananathon team and a cheerleaders troupe for the day and it will be amazing.

Stockports amazing Market Hall

Stockport market is an amazing place - film buffs amongst you will recognise it as being one of the locations used in the second world war love story 'Yanks'

The 15th century Market Place is home to more than 200 stalls selling just about anything.
Stalls are housed in a Victorian Covered Market Hall, a Speciality Produce Hall and on street, in one of the only remaining traditional street markets in the North West.

It boasts the freshest dairy produce, meat and fish, fruit and vegetables at well below supermarket prices and everything you could need to give your home a makeover, from pictures to curtains and crockery to lamps.

John Grainger lookalike Peter Ustinov

No visit to Stockport would be complete without experiencing the hustle and bustle of market day and listen out for the cry "Three for a pound...." !

How to be nearly late for a meeting... (05/08)

2008-08-04T23:05:00.003+01:00

Three for a pound love !

You know how it is you have a really important business meeting to attend, you've even washed your hair and put on your favourite undies ! - and you definitely don't want to be late, especially if the meeting is with the boss of Stockport Market (more of the market later in the week).

Well I was in just that position on Friday, sat in Tarzan's car we left in good time (or so we thought) and then it just turned into a scene from Beadles About.

The drive from New Mills into Stockport normally takes 15-20 mins outside rush hour, not so if you have some flat capped octogenarian at the wheel of a Saab Turbo driving in front of you for 10 miles (why he was driving at all let alone a 'Turbo' is beyond me) - anyway with an average speed only slightly quicker than a Shopmobility electric wheel chair we screeched into the car park next to Stockport Market - ran at break neck speed to the car park machine, fed it the right money and it ate it, then laughed at us and went 'out of order' - next stop another car park machine and at last success and we were on our way again. Just 200 metres to go and a clear path - or so we thought - until every 'lovely old lady' in Stockport, linking arms with other old ladies step into our way, we dodged left, we dodged right, we jumped over them and around them eventually arriving at the Market Hall just about on time !

Phew - I wonder how we will get on in our meeting !!

Morgan Computers - (Monday August 4)

2008-08-03T15:05:00.004+01:00

After a long day of walking the streets of Manchester looking for the final couple of venues we decided to also chance our arm (well arms actually as we have two each - so total of four) on trying to go hi tech and get a laptop to be used for both the evenings auctions at Tiger Tiger and also to be auctioned off as well.

Off we marched, nor proper arm swinging marching (that would look really silly), more cool 'we are on a roll' kind of marching towards Piccadilly Station we went and into Morgan Computers - with row after row and shelf after shelf of amazing laptops, palm tops, PC's and every make and model of amazing computer hardware.

We met Harry Cain and his team and asked the question - 'any chance of a free laptop please, I am Tarzan, this is Jane...' etc - blank faces, puzzled looks and a reply of 'we will have to speak with head office...' which we have learned is often company speak for 'no chance, now buzz off!'

So off we went, a little saddened, wondering where to next - within two minutes Tarzan's Bananaphone range and on the phone was Harry Cain saying he's sorted it all out and could we come back - Yeeesssss, result !

Let me tell you a little bit about Morgan...

Morgan Computers started life as a secondhand camera shop in Tottenham Court Road over 30 years ago; since 1983 they have also traded in surplus and end-of-line computer equipment. The ageing Leicas and Nikons have now made way for Toshibas, HPs, IBMs and the like - though they haven't totally lost sight of our roots as we now do a thriving trade in digital cameras.The move to computers accelerated over the years with large showrooms opening in Central London (New Oxford Street), Birmingham (Five Ways Island) and Manchester (Piccadilly) plus a nationwide Mail Order department and warehouse/distribution centre in West London.

Morgan are now one of the UK's leading dealers in surplus, overstock and closeout computer stocks. Equipment is typically sourced direct from manufacturers and large distributors and sold direct to the end user - from individuals, the SOHO market, education and corporates. Morgan are one of the largest and longest established operators in this field in the UK.

Lets hear it for Harry !

Six weeks and counting... (Saturday 2 August)

2008-08-03T13:56:00.006+01:00

Less than six weeks till the big day, and what a long long day it will be.

All the venues are now in place - more to be announced next week - the route has been decided and we are now in the process of arranging the Tarzans Bananathon entourage (I like that word) to help out with the day itself... bring it on !

I've also just heard that Tarzan was spotted earlier today in the South of France - hopefully arranging some venues of a different type where they serve fine wines and food !

Full House (Friday August 1st)

2008-08-01T23:32:00.004+01:00

Wahaay, what an amazing day.

Today, me and Sean and Gill from LRF have met some brilliant people.

We now have all 26 venues in place.

We have a route which is 26.2 miles long including one full mile on the treadmills at The Printworks.

We have tickets ready to sell for the party at Tiger Tiger.

We have celebrity DJs and a celebrity bar person for that party at Tiger Tiger.

We have a load of great auction lots and raffle prizes.

We have a laptop computer to help with the eBay auction.

We have a fantastic sports marketing company of a major brand behind us.

We have .....a two week holiday. Well I do anyway; so Jane, The Banana and the LRF team will be updating the blog for the next fortnight, whilst I snooze in the sun with my wonderful family.

Thanks so much to everyone for your fantastic help and support

See you in a fortnight when I will return with a tan and record breaking love handles.

Oooooorrrrreooooorrrreooooorrrreoooooooeeeoooorrrrhhhhh!

Tarzan

Tickets Please ! - (Friday 1 August)

2008-08-01T00:19:00.003+01:00

Does anyone out there still say ' a pinch and a punch for the first of the month, no returns' ? - or is it just my family that want locking up !

Welcome to August - the month of summer sunshine, wine drinking and lazing about in the South of France - but not just yet as there's unfinished Bananathon business to take care of.

As the venues continue to be announced (cant wait to get dressed up by American Graffiti !) I'm pleased to announce that we now have in our hands the ticket for the years finest party at Tiger Tiger - priced at only £5 each (or £10 for two) they guarantee you a night to remember at one of Manchester's finest venues - with live music, celebrity DJ's and many surprises throughout the evening its sure to be a night to remember.

... whats that we've sold the first two already... !

Jane

Graffitti Artist (Thursday July 31st)

2008-07-31T10:02:00.002+01:00

I have always been a fan of vintage clothes and the more enlightened of you may have twigged that I have a penchant for dress of the fancy variety. A few years ago I spent a whole month in seventies gear raising money for LRF, an idea which seemed good at the time but in retrospect was not one of my best. Sick of explaining what I was doing by the first week, visiting the co-op for a pack of bog rolls in flares, platform shoes and a shirt with penny round collars was a became a bit of a chore.

American Graffitti on Hilton Street is an Aladdin's cave of extravagant fashion. Heaving with fabulous clothing, accessories and memorabilia it is a haven for folk like me and store manager Tracey Collin, despite having never seen an episode of the nation's favourite Yorkshire based soap, turned out to be keen supporter of the bananathon.

An event like the bananathon is made up of many facets and promotion and awareness is one of them. September 13th kicks off Leukaemia Awareness week, where LRF has to compete with all the other week's news and issues to find space in the media. Every hit in a newspaper, on the radio or televison adds to people's knowledge of the condition and the fund's work. Editors and producers have a myriad of images to chose from and the celebrity driven aspect of the media is one of the most competitive. What am I going on about......?

American Graffitti will be styling Tarzan, Jane and The Banana for the evening at Tiger Tiger.

I won't say any more than that, other than making a banana look dignified on the red carpet and taking Sean's shoulder measurements are two of the quandaries in Tracey's capable hands.

Prepare to be impressed!

Tarzan

Banana Skins (The last week)

2008-07-31T08:49:00.004+01:00

Nothing's gone wrong as such, I just haven't been able to blog over the last week. I have three days until the family holiday and I'm goosed.

It's often either feast or famine at work, with quiet periods where you get days off from filming and you don't have many scripts to prepare or lines to learn, offset by barmy times when the days are long and the planning and memorising have to take priority. This last week has been a feast of roman proportions with the added 'complication' (yes, I know I could have stayed in and felt fresher) of four corking nights out.

Last thursday night we finished early at quarter past six, so by 7.45 I had run, showered and was out for a meal with mates at 8pm. Pizza Express Etna Pizza consumed (which I discovered the next morning was just as hot coming out as it was going in) I agreed to the offer of 'just one drink' in Headingley, safe in the knowledge I would be tucked up in my digs by ten. Then 'just one more' became 'just one more' until Doctor Who's tardis took us to being turfed out of 'The Box' at one in the morning. 'Luckily' Subway was still open and their Reggae Reggae sauce special tempted us to a spicy end to the quiet evening out.

Alright, I'll come clean I have this week become obsessed by Levi Roots' Reggae Reggae sauce song and particularly the bit at the end where he says "Chipssss" and just wanted a reason to write about it.

The other nights out were great too and my non blogging time has been used very constructively in that we now have a route in place, just two venues to find and timings for all the venues. Some of the city centre ones may tweak by twenty minutes, but the event is really taking shape.

Sean has been ace throughout all this, updating the blog and liasing with venues and LRF to boot, none of which he is obliged to do, so I just wanted to say thanks mate, you are a star.

Sweatshop - (Tuesday 29 July)

2008-07-30T22:08:00.002+01:00

The marathon is the ultimate Olympic running challenge, whether you run it for a personal best (London 2008 for Jane) or better still run it to raise money for your favourite charity (Leukaemia research).

Linking in nicely with our next venue is arguably Britain's finest Olympic marathon runner

Ron Hill - Tokyo 1964, Mexico 1968, Munich 1972 and an Olympic PB of 2:09:28. Ron was the founder of Ronhill and Hilly Clothing Company, makers of performance apparel whose old shop on Market Street Hyde is now home to one of the market leaders in all things running 'Sweatshop'.

The team at Sweatshop not only have a store full of everything you could ever want to either run competitively or run as a gentle stress relieving pastime - between them they have a wealth of knowledge and experience to make anyone feel welcome.

Over the next few weeks Sweatshop will be raising money in their Hyde store culminating in an awesome raffle with excellent running related prizes being donated by their key suppliers

After leaving Sweatshop we even get to run past Dr Harold Shipmans old surgery just down the road !

One thousand and counting... (Saturday 26 July)

2008-07-27T23:42:00.005+01:00

Well it didn't take long to happen but I've just noticed the blog has had just over 1000 hits since we first opened it a few weeks back on 21 June, we have viewers (or is it readers) from all over the UK and have even had visits from mainland Europe and across in the United States.

It seems the more venues we are adding on to our map the more interest it is arousing - wait till we have the full list up.

So for now lets see how long it takes us to get to our next 1000 !!

PS whilst Jane has been busy this weekend running to the top of Mount Snowdon and back Tarzan has been doing something far more important by scouring the depths of Manchester and filling in the last few bits of the Bananathon jigsaw which we will tease you with for a few more days before announcing them...

Enjoy the sunshine - blink and you will miss it...

Jane

Wickes Van Man (Thursday July 24th)

2008-07-25T13:26:00.003+01:00

When we started looking for venues for the bananathon, we already had two in the bank. Manchester Royal Infirmary and Wickes at Stockport.

Wickes chose LRF to be their official charity a couple of years ago and since then have raised a massive amount of money, which in turn is spent on research programmes at hospitals including MRI. Rather than me cut and paste a load of info, you can read about the relationship between Wickes and LRF here.

Being the singer of White Van Man (have I mentioned we are playing in Dawsons window and later at a big party at Tiger Tiger as part of the bananathon?) I was delighted to read that Wickes' relationship with LRF has yielded an incredible gadget. The Wickes White Van LRF Torch. If there are any left, expect to see them shining on the night of September 13th.

Bring Me Sunshine (Wednesday July 23rd)

2008-07-23T16:05:00.004+01:00

With just a handful of the 26 venues left to find I sat in the treehouse with Jane and we contemplated what we had on our list and whether we had a theme for the event.

Somewhere to do with Leukaemia Research (MRI) 'tick', something connected with running (Virgin Active treadmills in the Printworks) 'tick' (in fact we have another running one too, but you'll just have to wait), something involving bananas 'tick' (ooh another one we haven't announced yet).

What didn't we have? Well, besides needing a computer to help sell the auction items on eBay on the night and wanting to visit a care home we decided we are short on something to do with beauty (for the glamorous Shane...er Jane) and something to do with acting.

We had a thought about approaching the theatres and doing a collection but figured we would just get in the way and that it was a bit dull, so what about somewhere involved with the development of performers?

Sunshine Studios opened a year ago and in that time has become a thriving centre for dance and the arts, giving people of all ages, but mostly the young, a chance to express themselves in a creative environment. Taking a look at the city centre studio's timetable will give you an idea of the wealth and variety of classes on offer. But if that's a bit dry for you, check out this video, a really tight streetdance routine that just happens to feature quite a famous young chap as part of the group. Just like Wimbledon encourages people to play tennis every year, there is nothing like the media spotlight shining on an activity to to inspire others to want to take it up. The tv show Britain's Got Talent featuring three great dance acts in their final ten has really opened peoples' eyes to the dedication and skill offered by performing arts students and teachers throughout the country.

Sunshine Studios have been really generous with their fundraising offer and will be holding a special 'open dance day' on September 13th to tie in with and help promote the bananathon. Not only will they be hosting collection tins for a week before the event, they well be donating the proceeds from the day passes sold on the day and will give the money taken from refreshment sales for a ten minute period too. Tarzan Jane and the banana will be selling those refreshments at breakneck speed and have been given permission to disturb classes to do it. What have they let themselves in for? Thanks so much to Jacqui and Jerry for getting behind the bananathon with such great gusto, it is destined to be a fun ten minutes.

B&M - (Tuesday 22 July)

2008-07-22T13:53:00.004+01:00

Tarzan says a big thumbs up to B&M

Ever driven past a store or shop and wondered 'what do they sell' - well I did exactly the same until last week when as part of our Banathon mission we decided to call in at B&M on Hyde Road heading towards Manchester.

We met up with Damian Jackson who is really up for it, allowing us into his busy store on September 13 to help promote his wares - in return he will arrange collections in the weeks leading up to The Bananathon and has also donated an 8ft trampoline and enclosure for our charity auction - think I'll be bidding on that one myself !

What a feast of amazing products B&M have and so cheap as well - even more so with their 'spend £20 and get a free mug' promotion that is currently on.

B&M was formed in 1976 and is the North West's premier discount retailer, selling everything from Baked Beans or Shampoo through to Barbie Dolls and Cushions, all at hugely discounted prices - they even sell a special Emmerdale beer - Mmmm !

One thing about B&M is certain, the customer is always a winner.

With hundreds of new products appearing daily, you'd be MAD to pass by - I'm glad that we didn't!

Lithaprint - (Monday 21 July)

2008-07-22T12:51:00.005+01:00

Lithaprint I hear you ask, who are Lithaprint ?

Well, although they are not down on our list of venues to visit on September 13 (hope this date is now starting to stick in memories and make its way into diaries...) they are a key partner in making the evening party a success Lee 'fat back' Barratt and his trusty team of err.. Lithaprinters (?!) down in Hazel Grove have been busying themselves designing and printing the Tiger Tiger Bananathon tickets which will go on sale later this week - and do you know how much this has cost us - nowt, nothing, zilch - cos they are really nice people.

The tickets themselves will soon become collectors items !

So lets hear it for the boys and girls at Lithaprint - thanks !

Just who is Tarzan ? - (Sunday 20 July)

2008-07-20T22:54:00.004+01:00

Johnny Weismuller - some would say the best Tarzan

Just a short interlude between announcing the amazing venues for Tarzans Bananathon !

Just who is Tarzan, where did he come from, when did he arrive ?

Tarzan, as we all know, is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the wild African jungle by apes, who later returns to civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer.

He was created by Edgar Rice Burroughs and first appeared in the novel Tarzan of the Apes (magazine publication 1912, book publication 1914), and then in twenty-three sequels and innumerable works in other media.

In many ways, Tarzan's jungle upbringing gave him abilities above and beyond those of ordinary humans.

These abilities include climbing, clinging, and leaping as well as any great ape, as well as walking on all fours exceptionally well, despite his human frame. His senses are enhanced; he is able to smell food or poachers at least two thirds of a mile away (in comparison Tony can smell a pork pie at over 400 yards if that’s anything to go by), and hear approaching stampedes from two miles. He can read body language exceptionally well. He is an excellent judge of character.

His strength, speed, agility, reflexes, balance, flexibility, reaction time, and swimming abilities are much better than normal – just like our own modern day LRF Tarzan. He has wrestled full grown bull apes and gorillas, rhinos, crocodiles, anacondas, sharks, big cats and even dinosaurs – perhaps an idea for the party at Tiger Tiger.

He has bent iron bars with his bare hands and easily lifted large treasure chests one-handed that four burly sailors had trouble with – perhaps this can be re-enacted in the Manto bar.

He is capable of communicating with every species of animal in the jungle. He can recover from wounds that would kill normal men, such as gunshot wounds to the head. He was trained as a soldier in World War I and possesses advanced learning skills which enabled him to teach himself how to read with nothing but a few books. He is attacked by a sorcerer who is using a magic rock for mind control, only to discover Tarzan is immune to mental probing. Eventually, Tarzan becomes immortal due to a witch doctor's potion.

Some interesting and mudane Tarzan Trivia : Tarzana, California, where Burroughs made his home, was renamed in honor of Tarzan in 1927.

Michael Heseltine, a former British MP and senior government minister, is nicknamed Tarzan in honour of his having once seized the ceremonial mace in the House of Commons and swung it about his head in the middle of a debate. This action, together with Heseltine's flowing golden hair, was said to be distinctly in the style of Tarzan. The nickname has also been combined with his name into the portmanteau nickname Hezza.

The March 1959 issue of Man's Adventure published a story titled “The Man Who Really Was… Tarzan” by Thomas Llewellan Jones. This article claims that Tarzan was based on William Charles Mildin, 14th Earl of Streatham, who supposedly lived among the apes from 1868 (age 11) to 1883, before returning to England. None of the news stories claimed in the article exist in the archives of the London papers, and there is no record of such an Earl in the British peerage. Nonetheless, the story sometimes resurfaces as “fact.”

Tarzan has even starred in a condom advert on TV - see picture below

I Feel Fine Dining (Saturday July 19th)

2008-07-19T20:12:00.006+01:00

The Beatles may have been turned away from the Midland Hotel for not wearing a tie, but our LRF tee-shirts didn't exclude us from one of Manchester's great landmarks . Shane, sorry Jane, has already told the tale of visiting the marble-floored masterpiece and now is the time to announce it as one of our venues on September 13th.

We don't know quite what we will be doing during out ten minutes yet, perhaps some luggage carrying or cleaning, who knows, but we do know that the hotel has donated a fantastic Fine Dining package which we can auction on the night. This is worth £220 without even giving a donation to the charity, so we are hoping it reaches a lot more. Thanks very much to Claire Woods at qhotels who has got right behind the Bananathon.

Let's face it, auctions at events can sometimes be pretty tiresome, I've been auction master myself a couple of times and been sick of the sound of my own voice after about ten minutes, so I can't imagine how dull it was for the punters. At Tiger Tiger we are taking a different approach. One week before the Bananathon I will be placing our many auction prizes on eBay. From 11pm to 12pm on the night the auctions will finish so people can bid for the items whether they are there or not. We will have someone on hand with an ebay account should bidders at the party not have an account of their own and of course a computer to bid on. We don't have a computer as yet, but by Monday evening I am sure that our persuasive powers will have worked on a kind company in Manchester and they will have donated one.

On a personal note, this weekend has been bonkers so far. I had a gig with White Van Man last night which was reasonably quiet for a change, mainly because I forgot to put posters up to advertise it. The second half of the gig was a lot busier and we played really well and enjoyed it to the max. It was a first airing for the Killers song Mr Brightside for us. I have had so many lines at work over the last few weeks that I have reached overload on learning words, so I cheated and had them on a sheet of paper on the floor. No one seemed to notice and it went down great . The song is a Young Farmers anthem and I am sure will become a stalwart of our set.

My daughter and her mates came for the first set and danced their little socks off to songs that they had mostly never heard of. They have all worked very hard over the last year and have been rewarded with great SATS results. They have three days left at primary school and are a credit to us all. Well done girls. I spent much of today setting a treasure hunt for their school and feel guilty yet helpless that I have one non-speaking scene on the day it is happening and so can't be there to see the project through.

I went to see a cracking American band called The Hold Steady last week in Leeds. I have never seen the Irish Centre so packed. The band's lead singer is a cross between Lloyd Grossman and Lee who has designed the tickets for the Tiger Tiger Party. Their song Massive Nights is lodged in my head at the moment and would be a corker for White Van Man to cover. Whilst I was typing up the treasure hunt I text The Rev 96.2 and Lee Off Hollyoaks kindly played the track for me. What a marvellous DJ he is.

Tarzan x

Treemendous Venue (Friday July 18th)

2008-07-18T16:56:00.003+01:00

On the first day of looking for places for the bananathon I had a drive around Reddish, just to see what I could see. I was keen on getting venues involved that had some sort of connection with Tarzan, Jane or bananas. As I drove along Gorton Road, I noticed a massive, really well kept pub and lo and behold it had 'Tree' in it's name.

The Fir Tree is a proper community pub, which doesn't just brim with locals, as people come from miles around to see the wealth of entertainment on offer. Just have a look at the website to see the pictures of people enjoying themselves, the place is packed.

By focussing on what people want; entertainment, good food at a reasonable price, great coverage of the footy and a top range of drinks all in a safe and friendly environment, manager Tony Cooper has made the place into the thriving hub of Reddish.

When I called in, just after opening on a wet Wednesday a few weeks ago, Tony was more than generous with what he had to offer. He promised the fund not one, but two nights of fundraising with popular singers on Friday September 12th and the night of the bananathon.

Being a big footy pub, we had to wait until the TV fixtures were announced before picking a time for our visit, where we will be pulling pints and doing general bar work (Jane can clean the Ladies loo). On the day of the bananathon United are away to Liverpool and City are at home to Chelsea. As it has transpired, both have been picked up by TV, with United on Sky at 12.45 and City on Setanta at 5.15. It's imperative that our visit doesn't coincide with one of the games as we could be stark naked riding unicycles and no-one would take much notice.

So, we will be arriving between the two games, probably between 2.45pm and 3.30pm hoping that United have given the scousers a good beating. Tom, the Banana, is a season ticket holder at Old Trafford and so will miss the match. The consolation is that about 500 people will be in The Fir and Tony has said we can do a whip round whilst we are in there.

Two fundraising nights and a collection. I have a feeling that this venue may be the one which raises the most money in the day. Thanks a million Tony and The Fir Tree.

I have read the article in the MEN and it is excellent, especially as the editor chose a picture not featuring those hangers on Jane and the Banana. Best of all, Mike chose to combine the names of Sean and Jane and came up with the moniker 'Shane'. In about a year's time when Sean has leathered me for being sick to death of me calling him 'Shane' I may stop to see the funny side.

visit time TBC (between 2.45 and 4pm)

Morrisons (Thursday July 17th)

2008-07-17T22:56:00.004+01:00

Now the picture above may not look that spectacular to you, but to me it depicts an oasis of delights. Working in Yorkshire and living in the High Peak dictates a lot of travelling and a fair amount of time away from home and the view you see here is a reflection that I am about fifteen minutes from seeing my family. I often stop in this car park and ring home to see if I need to buy any essentials, pop in, do a shop and then get back with groceries and Brownie points for going. Petrol is cheap there too. There have been times, I admit ,when I have bought pork pies and secretly eaten them before arriving at my destination. For some reason creme eggs always catch my eye at the sweet counter too. I am a creature of habit.

For this reason Morrisons Bredbury was my first port of call when I went out looking for venues for the Bananathon and how I was rewarded.

I asked at the customer services desk if there was anyone I could talk to about a charity event I was helping to organise in the area. In no uncertain terms I was informed that nobody would come to see me on the shop floor. Crestfallen, I pulled out my "Not even if it's Bob Off Emmerdale?" card. I drew an ace and whilst I was waiting for someone to come was told how customer services had just been visited by a particularly rude customer. Imagine dealing with that all day when you are trying to do your job. Don't shoot the messenger.

Laura O'Neill came to see me and seemed enamoured with the idea, immediately suggesting a week long store collection and the possibility of the staff being sponsored to wear fancy dress for the day. Whilst we chatted two staff members passed by and gave the fancy dress idea the thumbs up, they looked well up for it. What great people.

What would we be doing in return?

Packing shopping for customers. Fantastic! Visual and useful.

This is the first venue to be named where the whole staff have offered to get involved and fundraise and I can't say how impressed we have been with this inituative.

Big Thanks to Morrisons.

Elsewhere today, thank you to Mike Keegan at the Manchester Evening News. Not only did he write a piece about the bananathon (which I am yet to see, as I am stuck in Leeds), but he took the time to contact me to tell me it was in today's edition. The MEN is by far the biggest paper in Manchester and within two hours of it hitting the streets I had a couple of messages from elsewhere in the media asking for more information.

Jane has worked out how to put the interactive map on the blog page, just to the right the clever swine and it looks great. He/she has also put a list of each venue just above today's blog....yes up there. Nice one Jane; now get back in that jungle kitchen and make me a banana split.

Tarzan.

Dawsons - (Wednesday July 16)

2008-07-16T17:18:00.000+01:00

Well if Mantos made us feel welcome then Dawsons carried on that fine Mancunian trend.

The lovely Trina from Dawsons on Portland Street welcomed us with open arms - not physically you understand - but in a way that makes you feel that what you are doing is totally worthwhile and has the backing of many many people who themselves make that difference... and did I nearly forget to mention how good a cyclist Trina is as well ?

What can we say about Dawsons Music that hasn't been said - Dawsons Music is one of the longest serving music retailers in the U.K.

Dawsons has one unique advantage, they sell all things musical, to all type of musicians and to further prove that point when we asked Trina could we invade their giant shop front window for a ten minute White Van Man concert she immediately agreed and better still Dawsons are providing some amazing goodies for our charity auction at Tiger Tiger - just how good is that !!!

Now all the band has to do is think of three suitable tunes to fill that ten minute slot

Tarzan's Bananathon Interactive Map

Tarzan's Bananathon Venue List (One More Revealed Each Day)

Manchester Royal Infirmary 9.30am

Manto Time TBC between 4.45 and 7pm

Dawsons Time TBC between 5 and 5.30pm

Virgin Active/The Printworks 7.20pm to 7.30pm

Tiger Tiger Party 7.30pm

Putting Manto On The Map (Tuesday July 15th)

2008-07-15T22:23:00.000+01:00

When I say putting Manto on the map, I don't mean in a 'nobody has heard of it' kind of way (this legendary Manchester bar was laying the foundations of the Gay Village eighteen years ago), I mean in a 'today we are launching Tarzan's Bananathon Interactive map and I have spent the last half hour putting Manto on it' kind of way.

Where's the Manto website? Click on where it says 'Tarzan's Bananathon Interactive map' in grey above, then on the icon on the map, or where it says 'Manto' on the index to the left. Go on, it's good, I promise.

This is the first of the venues (other than the start, finish and party) to be revealed and the reason I chose it first is that the bar's manager Alan Townend completely embraced the idea of the Bananathon in about a minute. Some of the venues have had a bit of a quandary over, either what we should do in our ten minutes, or what they can do for LRF, or in some cases both.

No such problem at Manto.

I told Alan what it was about and he said "How about you collect glasses for ten minutes and I give you all the bar takings for that ten minutes?" Perfect.

Manto is on three floors and opens out for alfresco drinking and dining on to the thriving metropolis that is Canal Street. The three of us will be really visible moving between tables and Alan has even said we can encourage customers to go and buy drinks in the period to boost the take. Big thanks to him and the Manto staff.

So tell the world, get down to Manto on Saturday September 13th.

I have also proof read the tickets for the Tiger Tiger Party tonight and I think they are fantastic. Once everyone is happy with the design Lee Barrett at Lithoprint in Stockport will get a special thank you. Oh, he just did.

Tarzan x

Tarzan's Bananathon Venue List (one more revealed each day)

Manchester Royal Infirmary (9.30am)

Manto (Time TBC, between 4.45pm and 7.00pm)

Virgin Active/The Printworks (7.20pm to 7.30pm)

Tiger Tiger (7.30pm onwards)

The Midland Hotel - (Monday 14 July)

2008-07-15T09:23:00.000+01:00

Dressed like two disowned twins in black bomber jackets, LRF t-shirts, jeans and trainers Tarzan and Jane hit the road this morning for more ‘Apprentice’ style cold calling to finish off the twenty six stopovers for the Bananathon.

Rather than build up the suspense of which were the good places we visited, which were the not so good, I’ll start by telling you that I’m not going to tell you as there will be more of that later in the week.

Instead I thought I’d try and relay what was at the time a very funny episode this afternoon.
After a couple of truly amazing ‘cold calls’ (more of them later in the week!) we headed off towards the majestic Midland Hotel.

Situated on Peter Street in the city centre, the Midland was built by Charles Trubshaw in 1898-1903 for the Midland Railway Company. It is situated next to the G-Mex Centre, Bridgewater Hall and Manchester Central Library. Its distinctive style is made of red brick and brown terracotta, with the exterior clad in several varieties of polished granite and Burmantofts (a type of terracotta). The building is grade II listed.

The hotel was regularly used by American cotton traders whilst they were on business selling their raw cotton to Manchester's cotton cloth manufacturers; the businessmen collectively referred to themselves as the Old Colony Club. One of the hotel's restaurants has been renamed The Colony in recognition of this fact.

....and did you know that the The Midland Hotel was also allegedly coveted by Hitler as a possible Nazi headquarters in Britain.

It has recently been upgraded extensively to become yet again the place to stay when in ‘town’ and was full of totty (urban slang for beautiful Asian air hostesses) – anyway less of the travel agency blurb and on with the story…

We had planned to meet Claire Woods from The Midland Hotel in reception to tell her about the Bananathon and ask if she could help us in anyway.

The really helpful concierge tracked Claire down and we had a very productive meeting and discussed what we could do for each other (have you ever seen a Banana carry cases to waiting taxis after running 24 miles… you may well do on September 13th…). We said our goodbyes and then headed off to our next port of call which would be a Casino – we had planned to put all the money raised so far on black 27 but decided against it at the last minute – on the way there I noticed that we no longer looked like twins as Tarzan no longer had a jacket – Aggh ! it contained the car keys.

A quick check of Tarzans ‘man bag’ told us that it must be at the hotel still. I ran back to the hotel, mainly because I’m quicker than Tarzan at the moment and he was chatting to passers-by in the street by now.

I found our helpful concierge once again and explained that Tarzan had left his coat on a chair in the foyer – little did I realise that concierges these days, despite looking like they are still out of Upstairs Downstairs have gone all high tec. Within seconds he had radioed through to security, scrolled back the CCTV footage to reveal that.. yes, you’ve guessed Tarzan had his jacket on still when he left the foyer – I apologised for my friends stupidity found him again and this time we looked properly in his bag to find one missing jacket !!

Well its been an exhausting day with Tarzan and Jane out running in the beautiful Derbyshire hills just after 8:00am this morning so I will bid you good night and tomorrow will start to reveal a treasure trove of surprises.

Jane

Icons (Sunday July 13th)

2008-07-14T18:15:00.000+01:00

Icons. And I'm not talking about the likes of Elvis Presley, Big Ben or Bet Lynch. I mean those things you click on the internet. I have been fiddling with the truly astounding Google Maps and discovered that you can upload your own placemark icon. The only thing is, it has to be on a webpage.

Using Paint Shop Pro, I made the above image into a square, then resized it to 64X64 pixels then uploaded it to this blog. Next step is to try and upload it to the route map, which will come available to public eyes once all 26 venues are confirmed.

The wonders of the modern age.

Tarzan

Virgin On The Sublime (Saturday July 12th)

2008-07-13T18:58:00.000+01:00

Sorry for not updating much, it's been bonkers busy at work. Plans are going great for the big day. We are about half way there with venues and the route and Sean, Tom and I have met today to catch up with how it is all going.

The big news is that the actual end of the race, before we move on to Tiger Tiger for the big bash, is now going to be slap bang in the middle of The Printworks (www.theprintworks.com/). Virgin Active (www.virginactive.co.uk/VA/ClubInfo/Default.aspx?ClubID=498) have kindly supplied three treadmills for the last mile and we will sweat it out in full view of a static crowd.

Tiger Tiger Tickets will be out very soon. They will be priced at £5 per person. There will be packages available too, should you wish to be posh, but these won't be announced for another three weeks. The three of us will be selling tickets, as will the venue. If you would like any, do get in touch. We have two celebrity DJ's on board so far, more to come, rock on.

Personally, I have been upping my miles a bit after the hamstring pull. I ran 16 miles this morning, but by 'eck it was hard work, 20 miles next Sunday, I hope it will be as glorious as today in The High Peak. I am going to focus on getting aerobiacally fit for the big day and try and drop a few pounds to boot. With only two months to go and a fortnight of that on holiday I think I may be the fattest Tarzan since Johnny Weismuller ate all the pies.

We have had a few offers of venues that are a bit too far out for the big day and are looking at doing a half bananathon on Saturday August 30th around the Marple area to take them in. Watch This Space.

Jane and I are following up leads and looking for some more venues on Monday and I promise we will name more venues next Tuesday.

Tarzan x

Wanted ! - (Monday 7 July)

2008-07-08T23:29:00.000+01:00

Beware - the authorities are looking for three suspect looking Northerners - one dressed as Tarzan, one in blonde wig and make up and one disguised as a banana.

They were last seen heading towards Manchester airport and may already have left the country - Interpol have been alerted !

If you do see any of these characters, you should approach them carefully with wad fulls of cash to sponsor their epic adventures or better still you can do it on-line by clicking here, or here or even here !

Jig saws - (Thursday 3 July)

2008-07-04T10:40:00.000+01:00

Does anyone still 'do' jigsaws ? You know the ones with a 1000 pieces that you take weeks to put together but at the end of it you have a great inner satisfaction at having achieved something and the picture you have created looks really good and your proud to show it off to anyone who is unfortunate enough to know you !

Or is everything these days computer graphics, shoot 'em up knock em down, MSN messenger, texting where you don't have to talk to anyone or actually physically do anything (is this starting to get a bit philosophical or what ?)

Putting together the Bananathon is a bit like doing a jig saw - in fact its harder than doing a jig saw - we all know what the picture we want to create looks like in our heads, we know when its got to be completed by - but you cant really describe it to everyone else who is helping you look for the right pieces.

Do you get the corner pieces first, or the bits with a straight edge, do you put the ones with a certain colour together, how do you know you wont end up with a missing piece ! (lets not go there)

Jumping forward to September 13th one of the liveliest pieces (can a piece be lively ?) of our jig saw is that well known five piece combo (so in fact that is five pieces of our 1000 piece jig saw all in one go !) known as White Van Man (www.myspace.com/whitevanmanrock) who will be providing some of the evenings entertainment - those that have already seen the band will already know what a great evening lies ahead - those that haven't seen them already - where have you been hiding for the last eight years !!

The Midas touch - (Monday 30 June)

2008-06-30T12:22:00.000+01:00

Don't forget this afternoon on Radio 3 starting at 2.40pm there is a concert by Gosta Nystroem: Sinfonia del mare with Ailish Tynan (soprano) and the BBC Symphony Orchestra with John Storgards (conductor) Tartini, arr Kreisler: Devil's Trill SonataIlya Gringolts (violin) Ashley Wass (piano) - unfortunately this clashes with Tarzans Celebrity Cook's Challenge at 3.00pm on ITV1 - decisions, decisions !

Well what a week last week was, at times it felt like we had the Midas touch - everything we could have hoped for and more besides - venues that potentially included Bingo, Football, Curry, Supermarkets, Clothes shopping and with Tiger Tiger a finishing venue to end all finishing venues !!

So what next ? sit back, relax and smoke cigars and wait for the big day ?

Far from it... this is where the hard work really starts with agreeing the route, times for Tarzan, Jane and the Banana to make their appearances, arranging support teams and volunteers to help with collections on the day, more PR work for the team with planned radio interviews, magazine articles to be written and published all this and much much more (... not forgetting some training to ensure we are physically ready for 13th September) - for a start I've not run anything longer than a few hundred metres with full make up on - will it run ? will my bra rub or do I need to buy a sports bra !!?

Jane x

Burning Bright (Saturday 28th June)

2008-06-29T17:37:00.000+01:00

Oh, go on then.

Tarzan, Jane and the banana are delighted to announce that the finishing venue and monster party will be at Manchester's top venue Tiger Tiger .

www.tigertiger-manch.co.uk/

We couldn't have asked for a better place to celebrate. So clear your diaries for the evening of Saturday September 13th. More to be revealed during the week.

A massive thanks to the marvellous Suzy Dee for offering so much in support of Leukaemia Research.

Tarzan

ps, if anyone is interested I am on the first of a new series of Celebrity Cook's Challenge at 3.00pm this Monday on ITV1. It was filmed a while ago so no mention of the bananathon I am afraid.

The Start (Friday June 27th)

2008-06-29T13:17:00.000+01:00

After the excitement of yesterday, today was a day of reflection.

Yes, I know I haven’t revealed what happened at the meeting, sometimes just like on the telly, you get a cliff-hanger and then you have to wait a few days for the denouement.

I gathered all my bits of paper with venues details and ideas on and made a proper file to put them in and then had a good luck at the venues on Google Maps. What a great facility this is. You can mark landmarks on the map and measure the distance between them. You can also then switch to satellite mode and view the landscape photographically from above. This is particularly useful when looking for footpaths and cut-throughs for a route.

Although we had it in our minds to start the event at Manchester Royal Infirmary, I was reticent to confirm it as the start in case a glut of time specific visits and the final venue ended up somewhere way out of town. LRF were very keen on the start being at MRI and after I had spoken to Tom Holloway at the fund it was clear that it made total sense to do that.

Money from the event will fund research programmes at hospitals throughout the country and bringing the focus of the media to Manchester Royal Infirmary and tying that in with Leukaemia Research Fund raises the realisation of this at the start of Leukaemia Awareness Week.

At the press launch a couple of weeks ago I suggested to Guy Lucas, Consultant Haematologist at MRI, that the fund might be able to ring fence the money raised to go directly to the hospital. He told me that the best way to help the people of Manchester who had Leukaemia was to spend the money at the hospital which was doing the best research and that this was a moveable feast.

To illustrate this; in the news over the last few weeks have been the new £3 million Paul O’Gorman Leukaemia Research Centre at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow (www.lrf.org.uk/en/1/res20jun08.html) and the groundbreaking work done in Newcastle (www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/111954.php).

A couple of the daytime venues had time specific visits. We need to be in Belle Vue at 2.30pm and in Reddish either before 12.45pm or after 2.40pm, but probably before 5.15pm. It will all become clear why when we start naming venues over the next week.

With a start at MRI at 10.00am and a journey taking in the time-specific venues, the other venues and the….(did I mention we have a fantastic) finishing venue, a route map is beginning to form……

Tarzan

I Saw That One (Thursday June 26th)

2008-06-27T17:38:00.000+01:00

After the success of just turning up at places that we liked the look of yesterday, we decided to tweak the plan and 'just turn up' at places that we had previously earmarked as great possible venues.

In the wake of Ascot and discussion of the Queen's attire, I chose to wear a pair of dark jeans with an LRF banana army tee shirt, whereas Sean opted for khaki shorts and an LRF running vest. We really know how to dress to impress.

First stop was a huge curry house on the A6, an impressively ornate building, buzzing with workmen (if only Sean had been dressed as Jane). We gave our pitch to the attentive duty manager and he told us to email the boss with the details. We got the feeling he had not heard of ITV1's long running serial drama set in the Yorkshire Dales. A lead, but no visit.

We then went to one of Manchester's top sporting venues and were lucky to get a meeting with their charity co-ordinator who said she would do her best to accomodate us, but that it was really out of her hands. The fact that this lady had a preference for early evening rural soaps was a deciding factor in her meeting us. Great to get a meeting with such a busy person, but no visit.

We then concentrated on finding a final venue. We had received a great offer from a pub in Marple, but geographically it was looking very difficult to fit in. With a number of venues in place twenty six miles suddenly didn't seem long enough with all the twists and turns.

I had tried to get in touch with the right person at both The Academy and Jabezz Clegg. Venues which were close to MRI, held a lot of people and would be full of students in September, giving pretty much a guaranteed crowd for the evening do.

The Academy is an amazing music venue and I knew White Van Man would be cock a hoop to play there. I had to call in to pick some tickets up for a My Morning Jacket gig so thought it would be a good chance to see if the chap who booked the bands was in. When we got to the ticket booth the lady immediately remembered she had spoken to me last week and offered to track down the man in charge or someone from that department.

Louise, who I had exchanged emails with , then showed us around the Club Academy Room, a 550 capacity venue. It looked pretty much perfect for what we had in mind. A proper stage for the band, big dancefloor, bar on one side and seating area at the back. Most importantly it was within half a mile of MRI. We would have had to pay a fee for the room, but the price covered a soundman, PA and ticketing and publicity for the event and would have allowed free entry for the army of volunteers and people offering their services on the day. We worked out that at £10 a head we would only need to force....er encourage 55 people to pay for entry and then anything on top was the charity's money. I came away buzzing.

We then walked up and down Oxford Road looking for Jabez Clegg. We called into a flower shop to ask directions and spoke to a lovely woman who was an experienced marathon runner and interested in what we were doing. On seeing the picture of Tarzan, Jane and the banana she said "I saw that one!" pointing at the gorgeous image of Jane, "Last week, running up and down". She had seen us at the MRI press launch, but just like the builders only had eyes for Jane. When I pointed out that Sean, who was stood right next to her, was Jane she did a strange half laugh, half gurgle of terror and gave us possibly the most inaccurate directions to a place in human history. We walked for what seemed like a marathon distance before jacking it in and moving on. The fickle finger of fate.

The previous night I had a call from a mate, Gav. We chatted, swapped a few tales and I told him about the Bananathon. He said that his partner Suzy had recently changed jobs and was working at a venue and might be able to help us. We knew we would be in town on Thursday so arranged to meet at the venue for lunch. We had all four met before, so it seemed a good excuse for a catch up, if nothing else.

Little did we know what was in store.....

Fantastic Four (Wednesday June 25th)

2008-06-25T22:01:00.000+01:00

What an amazing day. Sir Alan would have been proud. I can see why the contestants get so excited.

We have met some brilliant people today who really embraced what this event is about and the result is four visit venues for the bananathon and absolute crackers at that. The magic clipboard mesmerised the good people of Denton, Reddish, Bredbury and Gorton. So, all being well, that is nine venues in place.

We will name one venue a day as from Monday, tell you a bit about each one and what they plan to do for the event.

Had this really been the Apprentice today I would have been sacked by lunchtime as I realised that the phone number I have been giving for people to contact LRF was in fact a fax number. What an idiot. No wonder the fund haven’t had many calls. At least it gave me and Sean an idea for our next ‘film’. Watch this space.

Tarzan

Just Like Ronaldo (Tuesday 24th June)

2008-06-24T20:36:00.000+01:00

Yes, just like old twinkle toes, we are on the brink of announcing something. Only for us, it's the next batch of the, hopefully, 26 venues we will be visiting on the bananathon, made up of a start, twenty four visits and a finishing venue for the party.

Going back to my birthtown tomorrow, I'm obviously not famous enough to make Jane's list, but I am looking forward to nursing my broken nose, from having so many doors closed on it.

Sean, with his highbrow business experience will no doubt have closed more deals than 'The Badger' come twelve o'clock, but he has not counted on my secret weapon. A specially adapted clipboard with hypnotic properties complete with a pen holder with mystical powers designed to tantalise the tradesfolk of Tameside. Spooky.

Tarzan

Smooth or hairy ? - (Monday 23 June)

2008-06-23T21:48:00.000+01:00

Well I had to quickly post something on the blog, just anything to get those half naked pictures of Tony and Chitters off the front page - I ask you, who wants to see near naked pictures of beer bellied middle aged celebrities when you could be looking at a picture of an athletic looking hairy arsed man dressed as a woman - no wonder the speed of donations over the last 24 hours has slowed down, I'm sure this picture will change all that !

I'm quite enjoying my new found fame of being classed as either 'a man in drag' (The Sun 19 June) or 'Dad your a freak' (My son 23 June) - the pictures taken some weeks ago by Helen Turton seem to have found their way onto many weird and wonderful web sites and many publications - the best quote I've seen describes our friend Tom McNally as 'a poor soul dressed as a banana !'.

Later in the week we will be out pounding the streets of that North West shopping Mecca known as Denton to hopefully link it in nicely to Tarzans bananathon - there's a lot that's been said about Denton, most of which can be ignored, but its gone through a revival over the last couple of years and we are looking forward to meeting some of the great characters who live and work there.

Talking of great Denton characters I bet you didn't know that these good folks started off in Denton :

Jimmy Armfield OBE, England footballer and mumbling radio commentator and also now Freeman of the Borough of Blackpool.

Thomas Bowler and his uncle William who were both hat makers were born in Denton and moved to Southwark in London around 1840, where they became involved in the development of the hat which now bears their name.

That great looking ginger crooner Mick Hucknall, who became the lead singer of Simply Red lived in Denton and attended Audenshaw Grammar School and my mum used to work with his sister in law making shirts !

Sir Geoff Hurst the West Ham United and England 1966 World Cup footballer lived in Denton until he was 8-years old. His proud grandfather lived on Cemetery Road until his death.

Brian Statham, regarded as one of the greatest Lancashire and England bowlers ever. As you can see the list is endless so you can understand why we want to go there !

Anyway back to the question in the title - come the big day (September 13th) should I run with smooth ladylike legs or keep them hairy and manly, and if they were to become smooth should they be shaved, waxed (ouch!) or use one of those girly creams - I'm trying hard not to sound like an expert in body hair removal so perhaps I'll keep deliberating that question till nearer the time.

Keep up the great work everybody and look out Denton here we come !

Jane x

Here Comes The Sun (Sunday June 22nd)

2008-06-22T20:17:00.000+01:00

The Sun is usually known for having his hat on, but this time, it's hats and pretty much everything else off to the nation's favourite tabloid for finding a spurious headline from ITV.com's coverage of Tarzan's Bananathon.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/soaps/article1314188.ece

My only surprise is that they didn't use the photograph above to accompany the copy.

Taken about five years ago, I had forgotten about it's existance until I attended an LRF fundraising ball in Leeds last year and 'enjoyed' it's repeated showing in a slide show on two huge screens throughout the evening. Thank goodness I have since been assured that this is the only copy and it will not be viewed by man or beast again.

Tarzan

The Birth Of The Bananathon (Saturday 21st June)

2008-06-21T11:22:00.000+01:00

I can’t say how exciting the last week has been, to see the seed of an idea grow into a seedling of an event, a plant of publicity and soon to be a towering tree of something beginning with ‘T’. Pulling a hamstring a fortnight ago has given me too much time in the garden and not enough time running, although striding along the hills of the High Peak in February is where I first had the idea of what has turned into Tarzan’s Bananathon.

Doing so many races makes it really difficult to go around the same people asking for sponsorship. Being on the telly, people assume all your mates are minted, but the reality is they are as tight as a monkey’s fist and those big cars slurp a hell of a lot of diesel. Not really, folk at work have always been incredibly generous but a lot of them are constantly raising money for their own charities, so it isn’t the goldmine you might think. I wanted to come up with an idea that was a bit different to physically pull some money in so that I wasn’t just a ‘face at a race’. Some sort of an urban marathon.

I plotted out a route on Google maps from Oldham to Manchester City Centre, stopping at places I knew along the way; Audenshaw, Denton, Bredbury, Stockport and the distance magically came out at 26.2 miles, exactly the same as a full marathon distance. Seeing this as fate, I told my wife Ruth that I had come up with a vague idea of doing a marathon on my own with stops along the way at some shops to try and get donations for the Banana Army. Ruth gave it the all important seal of approval and offered to help, although neither of us had a clue what would need doing.

The next three people I told were pivotal. I separately had a word with fellow Stockport Harriers Sean Whewell and Tom McNally and they both thought the idea was great, not only offered to help, but offered to run the event with me. Suddenly faced with the prospect that everybody I let in on the plan would want to join me on the streets of Manchester, all very nice but hugely impractical, I decided to keep it under wraps apart from one inspirational figure and gave LRF’s celebrity running guru Ken Lomas a call with the words he loves to hear “Ken, I’ve got an idea”

Ken gave the usual response “Oh, Bloody Hell” and set the wheels in motion at Leukaemia Research Head Office.

With the cogs working overtime and a hugely enjoyable 2007 Flora London Marathon under my belt dressed as Elvis , thanks to another pesky injury (Presley, not Costello. Too hard to keep the pork pie hat on when you are running). I decided to run the 2008 in fancy dress again and as I was relatively fit, wanted to run in a light costume that would have some connection with the Banana Army. When Fran from the London Marathon press office gave me the green light not to wear a vest there was only one choice. Tarzan.

The crowd at London gave a great response to the costume and wonder of wonders, no chafing! Three hours, one minute and fifty five seconds later and there was no doubt the event later in the year should be Tarzan themed.

A few weeks after the marathon Kate White from LRF came up North for a meeting with me and Tom. We sat and discussed various aspects of the event; how it would work, should we open it to all sorts of venues, should start with a 5k race, a party at the end, should it take in famous landmarks, how long would it take to run it. Then we came to the sticky issue of what Tom and Sean should wear if I was Tarzan. It was decided one of them would be a banana and the other one would be a gorilla. “I’m not being the Gorilla” said Tom, “I’ll be the banana” (isn’t it great when dressing up as a banana is suddenly the better option).

We then had to discuss with Sean, who had his eye on wearing a normal LRF vest and shorts, (but had made the fatal mistake of going away for the weekend when he should have been at a meeting), that he may have to be dressed as a gorilla for twenty six miles.

So we did the decent thing, let him come back from his break and then debated at length the possibility of him wearing a full skin costume for the event. Actually, we text him with the message “Looks like you are a gorilla. Unlucky”. He gave a one word reply that would be inappropriate to use on this blog. Although I can reveal it began with a ‘B’ and rhymed with ‘plastereds’.

After having a good laugh at his misfortune we sent him another text which said “Or you could be Jane” Would you believe it, he fell for it hook line and sinker…..I mean, he contemplated the suggestion and agreed with the reply “If it means raising money for LRF I will dress up as anything”. (He obviously left the ‘apart from a gorilla’ bit off the end of his text).

So we had our Trio. Tarzan, Jane and the banana.

Lesson of the day. If you really want somebody to do something, first ask them to dress up as a gorilla.

More boring anecdotes to follow.

Tarzan x

A slice of news from Banana HQ - (Friday 20/06)

2008-06-20T00:07:00.000+01:00

“He’s doing what?”,

may have been the first reaction to Tony’s Tarzan idea here at Banana HQ, but since then we’ve worked around the clock in our Banana HQ uniforms (see left) to make Tarzan’s fundraising dream a reality.

Cracking the knuckles and unleashing the banana-based puns we weaved words for the press release, tapped away at the website and spent many a happy minute ‘researching’ Facebook pages.

After battling to hold charity banners up in the breeze, we officially launched Tarzan’s Bananathon on a sunny Monday morning at the Manchester Royal Infirmary.

As camera bulbs flashed and our stars grinned, we watched a worryingly large group of builders gather at the Hospital gates. “What’s all this?” the onlookers said, as we handed out autographed press releases and explained that our run will have a route chosen by the Great British Public.

Waving to passing cars on Oxford Road, a chorus of beeps and honks rang out as the Bananathon bunch lapped the Hospital grounds.

Back in plain clothes and sipping a brew, we chatted to Tony, Sean and Tom about what would happen next, chatting about blogs, flyers and Facebook.

Whizzing back to HQ on the tilting train, the interview requests started flooding in for our bunch of intrepid Bananathon runners.

Logging onto Facebook, we added links, videos, pictures and details to the charity’s official page and passed the message onto our online ‘friends’. Since then, interviews on Channel M, the Manchester Evening News, Radio Manchester and Pure FM have set the phones ringing with requests for visits for the most interactive fundraising event we’ve ever organised…

Over the coming weeks, we’ll grapple with massive maps of Manchester, Stockport, Gorton, Denton and Hyde as we build a route for Tarzan and his friends and try to find a post-race party venue.

At the heart of all the manic activity, we keep our eyes fixed on raising much-needed funds to beat blood cancers. Around 110,000 people are currently affected by blood cancer, the most common cause of cancer deaths in the under 35s.

So please cheer on Tarzan, Jane and the Banana as we aim to save lives in our lifetime

Banana HQ, Leukaemia Research

Something to watch... - (Thursday 19 June)

2008-06-19T09:18:00.001+01:00

I really must get into the habit of taking my make up off before I go to bed - this morning I look like a cross between Letitia Dean and Billy Idol !

Hopefully this post will link in directly with Channel M's footage from Monday - we will see...

Next on the list of things to do is to create a map showing Tarzans bananathon confirmed stopping off points - but for now here's a nice video to watch

Jane x

Back To Training - (Thursday June 19)

2008-06-18T22:48:00.000+01:00

After missing training over the weekend due to a cold (can bananas get colds?) and missing Monday due to my TV filming commitments - finally back training on Tuesday 4 X 6 minuets splits in Woodbank Park Stockport. Cant believe this but I actually missed the Banana suit, though Jane rubbing me down naked is Vaseline in an NHS toilet I did not.... If your reading Doctor it was not what you think! Need to get some practice of running in the banana so planning a 10k race soon in full banana kit. 7 miles this morning at 6:45am round the streets of Salford so training back on track.

Just got the GMR interview on BBCi thing -- what cracking radio -- Tony semi naked on the radio & our promo video on radio !!!! Think Tony must have revisited Oxfam on Oxford Rd for the "Chimp Pants"

After the launch this is all going down a storm.... my boss who is a big Emmerdale fan asked could she have one of the promo photos.... no problem one supplied ... with me looking fantastic with the boys... however she returned it and said .... " Have you got any of just Bob" !!!!!!

The Banana

New Nickname (Wednesday June 18th)

2008-06-18T18:34:00.000+01:00

I have a new nickname, courtesy of BBC Radio Manchester's Heather Stott. "Chimp Pants!". She copped a flash of my 'Bill Grundys' when I popped into the studios dressed in a loincloth for a chat this morning. Patient confidentiality had stopped her other half, Ian, from telling her that he had been giving me root canal treatment for the past two years. Minutes earlier Heather had been a tad less descreet telling the whole of manchester a great story about noisy lovemaking, a cat, a budgie and her mother-in-law. What a job trying to follow that.

My wife, Ruth, often takes the Mickey out of me for not having heard any songs that are in the charts. I always tell her that I won't know it unless they play it on GMR. ( I know the name is different now, but I have a natural resistance to change, I still live in a land of Lady Di, Deidre Langton, Marathon Bars and New Mills Lo-Cost.) Driving over the M62 to Leeds the station goes Kapput at Rishworth Moor, but I've been a genuine long time fan of Heather Stott, along with Beswick, Dianne Oxberry, Jimmy Wagg and Eamonn (Don't call him Holmes) O'Neill. It's great when you meet someone you like on the radio or the telly and they come over just as warm in reality and that was the case with Heather today. Nice one.

You can listen to the interview for a week from today at http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/local_radio/ We are on after about an hour, but it's well worth listening to the 'noisy lovemaking' section early on in the show.

Elsewhere in Bananaman News. We have three more possible venues that we hope to have confirmed by the end of the week. A radio station, a sports store and a place where you can shop, both outside and in. Watch this space.

I did an interview with self confessed 'Rock Chick' Rachel Clegg today for Manchester Evening News which should see the light of the day either tomorrow or Friday tied in with pictures taken at MRI on Friday. We are having bets as to whether they use a shot of the three of us or just Tarzan.

The Sun once did a piece on the band I sing with 'White Van Man' www.myspace.com/whitevanmanrock and went to the trouble of sending a photographer to a car park in Hazel Grove where the band had gathered, taking time off work, and hiring a white van for the occasion. Multiple shots were taken of the whole band, in the van, on top of the van, around the van, every which way and we all waited with baited breath for the article. They published it with a cropped shot only showing my face.

White Van Man will be playing at the final venue of Tarzan's Bananathon, so if you know of a decent sized pub or social club or community centre that doesn't mind a bit of noise and would love to host a banging great party then get in touch via the website. We are playing an hour's set at The One World Festival, High Lea Park this Saturday June 21st between 5pm and 6pm if you fancy checking us out. http://www.oneworldfestival.org/ The One World is a great event, kid friendly and environmentally friendly too.

All for now

Tarzan

Channel M - (Tuesday 17 June)

2008-06-17T16:48:00.000+01:00

Well what fantastic coverage from our friends over on Channel M (Sky channel 203), not only did they send a crew out to the MRI to film Tarzans bananathon team, they ran with us out onto the streets of Manchester then invited the boys (Jane was having her legs waxed) on to the evening news program for an interview with the one and only Andy Crane... and if that wasn't good enough we had the web site being ticker tapped across the bottom of the screen and a great repeat on the 9:30pm show with Tarzan, Jane and The Banana actually included in the opening news headline title shots.

Already sponsorship has started to come in to the Justgiving web site, last time I looked the overall total was already over a hundred quid - awesome !

This fetching picture is of The Banana aka Tom McNally - Tom hosts the most amazing parties, but makes an even better Banana.

26.2 miles inside a banana skin on the 13th September is going to be hard work - did you all know that Tom actually runs naked underneath that banana skin outfit ? He coats himself liberally with Vaseline to avoid chaffing and runs in the buff to avoid getting too sweaty - nice one Tom !