#tweetathon 2009 the best 2 days ever.

The last tweet midnight 13th October 2009:

'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-flz3dZUQrE Goodnight twitter it has been a wonderful 2 days xxx'

Where do I even start? There are so many of you that I want to thank and here seems like the best place to do that properly. Some times 140 characters can't do justice to how grateful one man can be.

Lets start with the important bit though. We did it! We raised £1230 for BASIC's. That is amazing. I am so proud that my friends on twitter came together in such a genuinely spectacular way to achieve so much. There is so much cynicism in the world about what it is to be a human being in 2009 but a group of people, most of whom have never met, came together and did something really wonderful through the medium of twitter.

It started with a swathe of tweets to Celebs from my friends and we got a few Re-tweets (when someone resends a message) from various celebs. My twitter account went crazy with replies, my tweetdeck reply column was getting so many messages, it was crazy.

And then at 35 minutes in I couldn't tweet. Ok I thought, stay calm. Tweet from i-Pod Touch and reset router and PC.

But the PC would not re-boot it had, as I later discovered, had an operating system failure.

So I carried on from the i-Pod, I even tweeted from the PS3 at one point, but not having a computer was a pain. At 3am in the morning I lugged my old PC down from upstairs, where it had lain dormant for a year and a half, and got that up and running.

It was a crazy start. The old PC would just about let me tweet, although at times I was using the facebook fan page to force tweets through (there was a link put up last week that allows you to do that) and that worked for me for about an hour. In the end though it was Steve Job's wonderful i-Pod that got me through the night and most of the first day.

So first thank you is for Steve Jobs (bit odd but there you go). Cheers Steve.

The guys that tweeted me in those early hours of Monday morning, wow, thank you so much. Sarah (@KyeLani) you were a star on both late night shifts, I could not have got through them without your help. Thank you so much.

The first day was hard. My body was craving sleep, I hadn't got as much shut eye on Sunday really as I'd planned, I was a bit excited, and it had started to take it's toll. But people kept me going with their messages of support.

And then we had the first break through moment. Not for the grand total, but the moment where I knew I would finish it.

Tyler Massey (@tylermassey) brought my PC back to life with some tweets and a phone call. Dude it made such a massive difference on that second night and on day two, thank you so much mate you are a star. Tyler is a musician go listen to him on his My Space page. It's lovely stuff.

So I was back on tweetdeck and life got easier, well for a bit anyway.

That first night was also made considerably easier by the presence of AT (@maverick99sback) who stayed over and up until about 00.30. It was a massive help mate, thank you so much.

At about 2.30 in the morning I hit my second hurdle. Twitter told me that I had reached my limit rate and that I could no longer tweet. Disaster, potentially. But wait. I remembered something thanks to Fiona (@fionaflaherty) who had noticed that at some point on Monday evening I tweeted from my old twitter account by accident. That's right I had to resurrect @gray333. Luckily @KyeLani was around when I was using it and let the guys from America know what was happening. Fortunately I was able to switch back and forth between the two accounts for the rest of tweetathon.

I nagged @jackfalukner into a Slug cartoon inspired by tweetathon. Thanks Jack. You are a very funny guy but one tweet late on Tuesday had me welling up big time.

Night two was amazing and so much fun. I won't go into too much detail but this was where we ended up thanks to @KyeLani and her photo shop skills. I know for a fact that @nessalouise, @theboycheese and @boogaloo1 thought that Sarah had actually come to the house, shaved off AT's eyebrows and written on his forehead. How I didn't wake AT up laughing I will never know.

By midnight we had raised £500 for BASIC's and that's where it sat over night. But this did mean that we would get a couple of raunchy pics from two lovely tweeters as they had promised that they would if we got half way.

@teawithlemon and @specialdelia. Thank you both so much, later pics inspired several large donations. Girls getting raunchy for charity, high five yeah?

Day 2 was an absolutely brilliant day. We let twitter know about the two accounts and we twittered on. I had my first lump in throat moment. I knew it was going to happen as LJ (@butterflygrrrl) had to check when would be the best time for it to arrive, but at 12.30pm I had a Pizza and assorted other treats arrive from Domino's. What can I say LJ? It was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. Thank you so much.

When I got past £600 Rich (@WH1SKS) bared his arse for twitter. I'm not sure he'd want the pic up on the blog so I'll give you the link instead. There you go ladies. High five yeah?

@JoCOOper got me a mention on the local papers website. Thank you Jo for all your efforts.

@jaydee_97 got me a mention on Planet Rock radio. Thank you Jan it was utterly surreal hearing tweetathon get a shout out live on air.

Which brings us round to about 18.30 on day two. I think I had the best and proudest two hours of my life. My friends on twitter were amazing. I can not get over the sudden surge of tweets that you put out on my behalf. Thank you for giving up your time I will never forget what you did for me and for BASIC's.

The turning point came at about 19.00. Jonathan Ross (@wossy) tweeted and we jumped on him. And not only did he mention tweetathon he donated £50 and it opened us up to even more people and we shot up past our target of £1000. I sat there for most of that two hours or so in a right state. It was overwhelming to be honest but in the best of ways. When I raised that target from the original £150 I never thought it would be possible and I never dreamed that my twitter friends would be so generous with their support. I make no bones about this. I haven't met many of you and some you I probably never will but you are all my friends. Such decent, good, genuine people. Thank you so much.

So in no particular order:

• Shelly (@twosoups) you were my hero. So many tweets to celebs and so much support. What on earth would I have done without you. Love you mate.
• Fiona (@fionaflaherty) thanks hon, for so many reasons.
• Sarah (@KyeLani) my late night partner in crime.
• Sean (@Sean_Boon) a new baby and you gave up three hours to tweet every celeb on twitter on day one and those incredible two hours. Amazing mate. Thank you.
• Colin (@ColinYounger) your donation made me burst into tears.
• Lisa (@Butterflygrrrl) for the Pizza and for being one of my best friends. Lots of love to you hon.
• AT (@maverick99sback) for staying over for two nights and for that hug when I fell to bits.
• Dom (@domcoke) cheers buddy as big a donation as the 'big gun'.
• Sarah (@tiredgirl1971) so glad I got you on twitter and for the talking nipple.
• Kendall (@KJCollard) you're a star hon, thank you for every tweet.
• Nessa (@NessaLouise) thank you sweets.
• Michele (@michbek) for all the # tag tweets, you kept me giggling.
• Tammy (@modernartrocks) for tweeting from twitpic for two days when twitter froze you out, bless you hon, thank you.
• Katy (@KatyHarwood01) for all that DM advice. Cheers hon.
• Rick (@RickHarwood) you made me laugh like a fool. Guess what the last pic is on this post?
• Lisa and Jezz (@lmlc and @jezzalc) on holiday and still tweeting. Cheers guys.
• Andrew (@comedyfish) great to have met you, thanks for all the tweets.
• Paul (@formulaic666) beer soon buddy yeah?
• Paul (@fatmanslimming) FIFA soon yeah, and a beer?
• Jon (flashmcglash81) thanks for popping over dude.
• Mike (@theboycheese) you too buddy.
• Debs (@debsa) thanks for keeping me smiling.
• Tyler(@tylermassey) for the PC help alone and the Tuesday Quiz. (I did rubbish, 'The Wall?' ffs.)
• Tara (@loopy_lala) for moving Ty to England and loads of supportive tweets.
• Jo (@JoCOOper) for the Echo and the Southampton crew.
• Rich (@iamhewhoisiam) the # tag King to @michbeks Queen.
• Will (@willbobbins) for finally getting twitter and joining in the fun.
• Gary (@Jeemie1970) for hitting up all those celebs. Great job mate.
• Graham (Themonkey1976) cheers mate.
• Jack (@JackFaulkner) for slug.
• Jen (@jeninher30s) for coming back to twitter and being an ace mate over two social networks.
• Ian (@ianmcshane) beer next time I'm working in Southsea?
• Delia (@specialdelia) great pics, but so much support to.
• Laura (@teawithlemon) for getting involved and sharing your pics ;)
• Sassy (@girl_in_a_box) buggered knee and in recovery, still tweeted me loads.
• Rich (@WH1SKS) for getting your arse out, for the funniest tweet of the day (golf academy twitpic) and for getting me into twitter in the first place.

For everyone who tweeted me or mentioned the tweetathon I have no words. You were all amazing. The guys above are the guys I either know out in the real world, the friends I've had on twitter for ages or who really made a massive effort over the two days. But every single one of you played your part. If I missed an @ reply I'm sorry I didn't reply, things got pretty hectic for a bit. Say hi the next time I'm on and we'll have a natter. (Some of you looked really pretty!!)

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to every one that donated to BASIC's. If you haven't yet but would like to, you can here.

I am the proudest I've ever been. We did an amazing thing.

Same time next year yeah?