To my surprise, not a single card from any balloon has been returned by the deadline. I can only guess that the whole lot got taken out by some storm in the North Sea. The upside is that all the contributions can be put towards the Antarctic fund. On the other hand it's something of a downer for all the children who stumped up some money for the excitement of seeing a winner.

In spite of having sold the balloons fairly recently, the children at school seem even more enthusiastic about the sponsored walk around the Isle of Wight and virtually every member of staff has sponsored me really generously as well. If all the promised money is paid then I should raise about £500.