I headed to London on Wednesday for the Virgin Social Marathon with a whopping 20 #FirstTimes still to complete in order to get the big 50 for Virgin Unite.

Thanks to the help of the brilliant Virgin Balloon Flights team, our fantastic colleagues from other Virgin businesses, wonderful customers and a large slice of luck, I did it!

I worked on a train (juice trolley duty with Virgin Trains), did a Sudoku (eventually!), went busking, roller bladed (like Bambi on ice), visited the Tate Modern, went on a motorbike ride (with Rhys from Virgin Limobikes), learned to make tasty Hollandaise and fed flamingos (not Hollandaise!) at the Roof Gardens, swam in a lake, had my hair coloured and eyebrows plucked, played poker (responsibly online with Virgin Games), ate dragon fruit, ate jellied eels (not recommended). Facebooked @ Facebook HQ and tweeted ‘a poem’.

Hollandaise lesson at the Roof Gardens

Feed a Flamingo at the Roof Gardens

‘Selling’ newspapers on Regents Street

Virgin Limobike
Busking
eyebrow pluck
Lembit
Tate Modern
Virgin Games Poker
Hair colouring
Lake swim
Dragon fruit
Roller blading
Sudoku
Virgin Trains

A rickshaw ride and frogs legs eluded me, but were replaced with winkles and pickled herring and being an impromptu newspaper street seller. We also threw in a celebrity encounter by meeting former MP Lembit Opik of ‘I’m a Celebrity Fame’.

I finished off by telling Sir Richard Branson a joke (via Twitter) ‘What do you call a nun on a treadmill?’ A Virgin Active. He replied ‘Haha! Great effort & well done for your 50 #FirstTimes‘

What a day!

Thanks to everyone who helped with this weird and wonderful charity challenge including Facebook and Virgin.com plus all those who have sponsored me. Hopefully, we’ll creep to the £1,000 including gift aid (sponsor me here) and then it’s over to you Virgin Unite!