Out Of Office

I was lucky enough to be asked to take part in an absolutely fabulous fund raising event for charity!
I thought I had missed out on the chance of being involved in the venture and I was really disappointed and I told the organisers Lisa Cherry and Sue Carlisle of my disappointment – these lovely ladies run alongside their individual businesses, ‘Networking Women’ which is based in Oxfordshire.
Then luckily for me, I just happened to be on Twitter when a post was put out asking for new subbies for the event as two people had to cancel, thereby meaning the stand-ins had already been called. Excellent news for me, I jumped at the chance to get my name in the mix – I was so enthusiastic about the whole project.
I can hear you asking “but what is this amazing project?”
No I’ll tell you in a bit…

I had the amazing good fortune of being asked to be a stand-in for a charity calendar, in case anyone had to drop out or got cold-feet! Though I have to say, ‘feet being cold’ was hardly going to be the issue here – the calendar was to be of ‘naked’ women that take part in business networking….Yes ok I said naked!
After agreeing to be a stand-in the day before the shoot was to take place was great, never thought at that stage that anyone else would dropout so I was excited and agreed to go along for the day to join in the fun…
I drove to the venue for the photo shoot; Heythrop Park in Oxfordshire is beautiful, first time I have ever been there (mind you if the sat-nav had its way…Well you probably know what I mean) So I arrived with a suitcase (a small one, you understand) but I had to take shoes (half a dozen pairs) hats, scarves, pashmina’s, jewellery, make-up…You girls will understand, ignore the silly comments from the men
I wasn’t the only one, when I found the rest of the girls in a bedroom that had been set aside for us for changing; I found both beds and a lot of the floor covered in an assortment of paraphernalia, from guitars (yes at least two) hats, cuddly toys, colourful wraps, shoes; it was an Aladdin’s cave of girly bits and bobs…And then there were the girls, most had already arrived and been glammed up/ hair done and were in dressing gowns, eating chocolates and having an absolute ball…The atmosphere in the room was palpable everyone was so excited, nervous, hyped, giggly…You didn’t need alcohol in this room, pure energy crackled and enveloped me as I entered.
All of us were treated to wonderful make-up and hairstyles by Jean (our absolute star) she worked tirelessly throughout the day with the help of her assistant (her secretary actually) and we were transformed in no time – stunned, wowed we could not believe the magic that Jean had brought about in such a short time, such a transformation and such a variety of hair do’s and the appropriate make-up to match – wow!
As each girl was transformed she was taken off for her individual photo shoot with Belinda McCarthy a fellow 4N’er and such a lovely girl – she had such patience (we were all a bit over excited). Belinda used her own artistic flair to place us in the position she had envisaged and took great pains to ensure all the girls taking part felt totally relaxed and comfortable.
Heythrop Park provided us with a lovely buffet lunch, bubbly (yes we had bubbly, not that we needed it but it made the day even more special).
After a day of socialising, chatting, giggling and being pampered we had the last shot of the day – the group shot!
We were taken to a large room that looked like a very large library/ study/ conference room and we all removed our gowns ready to get into position. This was a different experience again, posing individually with just Belinda in the room…now we had to all pose together, but after a wonderful day the initial cautiousness evaporated and we all went into the pose with more than a little excitement.
There was a lot of concern about different bits not being on display (what are we like)…pose, then Belinda was asked to say a ‘rude’ word to make us laugh. Well, the ‘rude’ word was a lot ruder than we expected and more than you would expect from this lovely little girl photographer….hahaha!
Oh dear we roared, it was hilarious, though this in itself caused a few disturbances to our poses requiring a few alterations (you understand). A couple of group shots later we were done…Or so we thought. The location had been very concerned about members of the public perhaps being exposed (excuse the pun) to our ‘bodies’ our ‘nudity’?! But just as we were about to go and dress we were told we could take one shot outside on the steps of Heythrop Hall – excellent we had hankered for this all day; we all whispered about doing a ‘flash’ as the photo was taken (this was strictly forbidden). Once we found out that our escort for the day Jo would get into serious trouble if we did break this condition, we conceded ?
We finished our photo shoot with our shot on the steps of Heythrop Hall by only exposing our shoulders, and a bit of cleavage and legs…Still lovely shots…And what a fantastic day!!
We are now having a cocktail party at Heythrop Park to launch our charity calendar – it would be lovely to sell all available tickets (the price includes a copy of the calendar) and to see as many of you as possible at the launch – so please help raise vital funds for this charity and take the opportunity to socialise, network and meet the lovely girls that took part.

Follow our Tweets on Twitter under #thenwcalendar for running updates/ conversation between the calendar girls

OR

Visit the website dedicated to The Networking Women Breast Cancer Haven Charity Calendar to see the profiles of some of the women involved and to order either your copy of the calendar or your tickets to the celebration launch party!