Secondly, unbeknown to myself at the time of our Tandem 50 miler back in May, the money we hoped to raise from it was to be used for a further event of 'Wing Walking' the participant of which was yours truly!!!!

Let me explain, it has always been a wish, whim, ambition, call it what you like but I have always fancied being the 'girl' on the Crunchie/Utterly Butterly planes seen at big air shows like Southend and Farnborough. So, as my big 40 is fast approaching, my other half, Steve was determined to arrange something extra special as a birthday treat!

On Sun 25th July I was awakened at 7am on the pretext that our good friend Pete, who is a cameraman was going to be filming a world famous celebrity (who's identity he could not reveal) at a secret location and convinced me he was able to get us backstage passes, signed photos and to meet this megastar in person!

Sounds pretty gullible thinking about it now but Pete has travelled the world filming and meeting many famous people. After breakfast the plan was to meet by the car where Pete needed to check his equipment and we would help him with a sound check. He then announces that it's time we were told what the big surprise as and he hands over to Steve who declares that the famous person is 'Rachel' who will be Wing Walking in one hour's time in the airfield 10mins up the road!!!!!!!

Well, shocked and stunned and not quite believing my ears I was led to the waiting car not feeling much like a daredevil so early on a Sunday morning. I had 2 options, bottle out or go with it - there was a 50/50 chance of it being cancelled due to weather conditions so not feeling so brave, I was praying for rain one minute and pleading for the sun to come out the next.

On arrival at the airfield, I was greeted by several members of my family holding up balloons and banners who had got up at the crack of dawn to come and witness my surprise and I was absolutely speechless, my legs turned to jelly and I started to plead for the rain again! No luck, the rain ceased instantly and the organiser announced 'Game on'!

There were four in my group and I was on 2nd, good I thought, I'll wait for the first one to get back and judge their reaction and then decide if I am cowardly custard!! Well the first up was Patti, she was approx 50 years old, had already done a tandem skydive 1 month before and was well up for this! Oh dear, I thought she's obviously mad! Oh god now it's my turn. As it'd been raining, my trainers were slippery and it seems like an age before I can actually climb safely up to my harness on the front of the plane. When I was secured, I'm told that if I start to feel sick or want the pilot to 'calm' his manoeuvres, I have to hold my arms out with thumbs down so the pilot will know to go easy.

The more you wave your hands in the air, the more acrobatic moves the pilot makes in the sky. I thought yeah right, practice that thumb movement! On take-off I managed a meagre one handed wave (mainly for the video) and then thought right, I'm holding on to this harness for dear life but, on the way up I suddenly decided this was actually good fun, not too scary, I felt secure and that I wasn't going to fall off and it couldn't be any worse than the big rides at Universal Studios so I started waving my arms in the air and screaming like a banshee, which was actually quite difficult, because as soon as you open your mouth it fills up with air and your cheeks puff up like a hamsters with the G-force (very attractive!)

When I wasn't waving, the pilot gave the plane a 'wiggle' which was my reminder to get waving again and working on my 'Superman' impressions which I did until my arms felt like lead and then, just as I was warming up, it was all over and we landed! My first thought when I was down was

"When can I have another go?"

Best regards,

Utterly Butterly Babe!