Now it was a case of pitching it to the Chief Moose to be judged, scrutinised and torn apart. To be honest I was terrified of what might be said, I really believed it could work. I wanted to do it for Brainfog as it had given so much to me but I knew that I couldn’t set myself up for disappointment. The result of the deliberations is more obvious than the ending of Titanic but the Chief said, “You cracked it babe”

Shiny, happy Bognor people

I had been given the all clear and was allowed to head the project, oooh the power rush!
Now I had to assemble a team. Within days we had the wonderful Neal Petty (Brother of the Moose) on board as our artist/designer and Dom Spencer (some of y’all will know that name ) as our talented engineer. All we had to do was find a jumper. Easier said than done. Who would have thought it so hard to find someone willing to jump off a platform ten meters high into the English Channel dressed as a moose?

It was a long, anxious time as the weeks slipped by without a confirmed jumper. Each distant hopeful too busy to commit; and I was secretly holding out, hoping that someone with a real connection to Brainfog would emerge. He did. We had Antony Jordan, the healthy other half of one of our members and a huge part of the Brainfog community. He is ready and willing to make a fool of himself in front of thousands, possibly millions, of people in hope of raising lots of money for Brainfog. I admire him greatly.

Brain(fog)storm

Neal had been busy with his pencils and sketchbook and drawn out some preliminary drawings. They were brilliant and it inspired me to make our entry the best those judges at the Birdman had ever seen. I’d enlisted some extra clever engineer-y types to join the team in our first Brainstorming session. The chat started with talk of levitating hamsters (bet you guys who were there don’t remember that ) but soon moved on to efficient debate and mutual sharing of ideas. Ok, we drifted off a few times but genius allows for that

We discussed everything we could possibly discuss in these meetings. Every aspect of the costume was thrown under the microscope and analysed. After leaving the boffins alone for five minutes they began talking about impact speeds, gravity and air resistance and its effects on a man-moose falling off a pier. Yes, seriously. That is how committed my team were to making our moose spectacular.

We had three brainstorming sessions in all with many, many, many phone calls, one-on-one msn chats and emails in between when it came to the point that we had to choose. Neal had gone away, locked himself in a quiet place, surviving on food that has more sugar and additives stuffed in them than the average six year old, to create our moose within the specifications we had discussed and in lots of different styles.

"I need a hero"

So we joined again in the Chatroom to mull over the various sketches and the feasibility of each design. The choices included a Biggles-moose, a boxer moose, a Tom-moose Jones look-a-like and a superhero moose…

The Supermoose was the all-out winner. I can’t imagine going forward with anything else. It was the embodiment of Brainfog. We feel we have gotten this feeling across in the pre-jump routine, it might not mean much symbolically to the majority of people on the beach but I hope that if you are a part of Brainfog you’ll see what I mean.

Scene: A very large cardboard box sits on the stage with ‘Brainfog’ stamped all over.

Enter Antony without antlers: He bounds energetically on to the stage and strikes a superhero pose. Chest puffed out, one hand on hip and one pointed triumphantly in the air ready for flight, while typical Superman music plays in the background.

The music scratches and cuts as he realises he is missing his antlers while feeling his head with a confused look

He then spots the huge box (he points so the crowd can see what he has noticed) and bounds over superhero styleee and tears it open (it'll be set up to collapse easily or else he could be there a while!) Inside he finds a friendly Fogger holding his antlers!!

The music starts up again with “Hallelujah!” He bends down on one knee as the antlers are placed on his head and with a friendly pat from the Fogger he bounds off to jump!!!

End Scene

The symbolism comes in when you look at the Supermoose freeing the fogger. Every ME sufferer has felt isolated by this d*mn illness, shut away from the world until you no longer feel a part of it but we found freedom. When Ally created Brainfog it liberated us from our boxes and reopened the world. The Supermoose is Brainfog.

So we had all the information together, now we had to mould it into a presentable folder, which would be sent to the judges in Bognor. At this point we knew that there were only ten spaces available and hundreds of applicants We had to win them over with our charm and style. We were so committed to making the best folder that on the day it was due to be sent I sealed it with an abundance of sellotape only to decide that the last page needed to be altered. I duly undid it and reprinted the page. So many people had put in such hard work; I hoped that posting the folder didn’t mean the end.

A few weeks later… or A watched phone never rings or Our fate is sealed

Tuesday 13th April 7:00am (20 days since we posted the folder). I was trying not to stir as I knew it was early, the people at Birdman probably wouldn’t starting calling until 9am. I also knew I couldn’t lie in bed either; my mind was running through various scenarios of what could happen. If we got in, if we didn’t, if they said that they used our entry folder to start a fire for all the rubbish entries then danced round it shouting how we were worse than the Cheeky Girls album. That’s pretty bad

I was thinking how to break the news to all the people on the team, whether it was good or bad. I was kept going by the letters, texts and calls that buoyed up my spirits and took my mind off the phone. I knew Dom (who if we got in, was going to build the antlers and moose muscles) was just as nervous, talking to him helped me stop looking at the phone and willing the plastic thing to ring!!!!

Taking matters in to my own hands

Several hours later and no phone call. It was time to chase them; we couldn’t take this torture any more. My friends and my parents had persuaded me to call them. As soon as I picked up the phone my mouth went dry but I calmed myself to dial. I remember very little of the conversation but this part stands out:

Lovely man at Bognor: “What is the name of your applicant?”

Katie: “Antony Jordan”

Lovely man at Bognor: “Oh right, yes. Yes you’ve been accepted, there will be an email
waiting for him and an official letter will be sent soon”

I know I spoke to him for over a minute afterwards but I just don’t remember, it was all a blur.

The next thing I do remember was hanging up the phone, turning to my folks and jumping and screaming very loud saying.................

“We’ve done it!!!
       We’re in the Birdman baby!!!”

Spreading the news

Once I calmed down I was on the phone to everyone involved which is quite a feat considering that I was floating up near the ceiling most of the time!

We had all done so well and worked so hard; letting everyone know was a thrill in itself. It was the best-case scenario that I had dared dream about; we were taking the moose to the Birdman.

Now the real work begins

Every single person I had called said the same thing to me “Now the real work begins”. They couldn’t have been more right. The work from this point on you can follow on this site. The build, the Saturday beforehand and absolutely everything else you could possibly need to know has been crammed in for your delight.

We are going to make you proud

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