Time to Go!

OK, so I am packed... mostly! I completed the fastest shopping trip known to man today*. Perhaps I should have called the Guinness Book of Records. I am sure that there must be an entry waiting for my name!

So remember how I was planning on trying to convince Paul he should come along and help me... well he spent the afternoon at the dentist having a tooth reconstructed. It broke in half at dinner last night. So given that the dentist visit involved a large number of needles, I think we need no further proof as to just how much he hates to shop!

Lucky I am an expert!

But really, I have a credit card, well actually more than one, so I can easily pick up any items on the list which I have missed. The only reason I am so relaxed tonight is that I have not cross referenced my packing with the list. Ignorance is indeed bliss! That and maybe the wine I enjoyed with my dinner!

So now I am just waiting for Josie to head over. Josie who finished her packing this morning and is completely organized for our adventure. As I told her, it is lucky I like her so much because sometimes she is a complete teacher's pet!

Actually, I hate to be a complete princess, but I discovered at my going away dinner with my wonderful boys that not only am I flying cattle, but I have to take a cab. I know right! Paul has not arranged me a car service as I was so confident that he would. What is the world coming to?

Let's add that to the list...

1. Economy class airfares
2. Flight leaving at 2.30am - gosh I love airports with a curfew - no uncivilized flights
3. A cab to the airport... and I don't even want to consider what will be picking us up at the other end!
4. 3 Star accommodation which I never knew existed

I wonder how long my list will be by the time I finish this amazing journey.

Thanks to all of my wonderful friends and family who have wished me luck on this journey. Your support has been totally amazing!. 

One friend even suggested that I had to take good care of Josie. Hello! Shouldn't that be the other way around?

In fact a family member of mine asked Josie to keep me in line, but then acknowledge that this was an unrealistic request since it had never been achieved in the past! Who are these people??

And by the way... now I am excited!

Let the amazing journey begin!!

W xx

* Helpful Paul has just pointed out that this was the fastest shopping trip known to WOMAN. He claims a man would have done it faster BUT I wonder if it would have been with such style, good humor and effectiveness!

Am I Excited?

So everyone is asking me if I am excited about my big adventure. I would LOVE to say yes, absolutely I am... but that would not be quite the truth.

I have a big list of work to get through before I go. Don't want unhappy clients!

The thing is, I just read the list of what to pack. With about 30 hours until I leave of which at least 10 will be spent on the phone... I may have underestimated the number of things on the packing list which I don't currently have. I was just planning a quick trip to the pharmacy to get some first aid items. Oopsy daisy!!

Now I could just ignore the list... but maybe that would be bad! Maybe the sensible thing would be to leverage the experience and expertise of people who have actually done this before! As you know, I am very obedient, so I guess I will just need to find a way to squeeze a quick shopping trip in before I go. I wonder if Paul will come with me? See he get's that look on his face (you all know the one) which encourages very quick decision making and completely avoids the possibility of entering multiple shopping establishments to ensure that what I am purchasing is perfect.

Hmmm, I wonder how best to position that with him??

I would expect my probability of success in convincing him to be approaching zero... but I can be very persuasive when I need to be!!

In exciting news, I just signed up to Whatsapp so I can text my wonderful friends while on my adventure! Please all write me!

Reasons why I may not respond to you immediately:

1. No Internet
2. Cycling
3. Having a bex and a lie down after said cycling
4. Having a massage (hopefully!)

Later Gators!!


W xx

5 Days to Go

Gosh, is that a clock ticking? It seems to be getting louder!! I can't believe there are only 5 days to go.

Had a great training ride this morning with Josie. We did the round the river thing again. No stops... well one quick one to raise my seat... but other than that, no stops... actually another quick stop which we will discuss later... but other than that, no stops. It was another beautiful day, but starting to get hot by the end of our ride.

I wore shiny new cycling gear from Team Estrogen. Very funky. While I completely acknowledge it is not necessary to have shiny new cycling gear, it makes me happy and really surely that is the most important thing. On the ride I might get hot and tired and sore, but I can still look fabulous!

In other exciting news, our photo book to give to the girls arrived on Friday. It is completely fabulous! It was so exciting when it arrived. Just like Christmas! So if you are looking to make a photo book, I completely recommend Mix Books.

So back to our cycle... in very Wendy news... there was a tree down across our path this morning. Not just a little one. Quite a big one really. Anyhoo, Josie just lifts up her bike and climbs over it all. Conveniently for me, there was a couple walking who arrived at said tree at the same time as us. He says to me "Would you like me to carry your bike over the tree?" Of course, I said that would be lovely. I just wish I had taken a photo of it, because it was very me... and it made me happy. Did I mention that is the most important thing?

Tomorrow I am going to have a training ride with my little training buddy Hugh. Then I think I am done with training. Let's just hope I have done enough!

Gotto go now, the guitar is back! And it is LOUD!!

Until next time.

W xx

Oops, Wendy forgot her bike!

So do you think me forgetting my bike is a bad thing? Perhaps a sign?

I met Josie yesterday morning for a nice big ride around the river. We met nice and early... 7.30am. Gosh are we turning into those cycle people?? You know the ones that you see out and about just after sun up?

Now you are probably wondering what sort of a goose goes to meet her friend to cycle and forgets her bike! A very big one... but actually, I did not forget my bike for the ride. That would have been much worse that what actually happened.

So we get all organized and off we go. There were some roadworks which had closed some of the waterfront cycle paths so we got a bit lost.. but then found ourselves and all was good. Such a gorgeous day. After 15km we stopped for a quick drink and a chat and some texts to our friend who went to Melbourne rather than cycling with us! I don't imagine that decision took much time!!

On tippy toes to look taller... but let's just keep that one to ourselves!

See, proof I remembered my bike!!

So we had a fabulous ride. We did an easy 50km (with a little bit of rounding!). Who is this person... an easy 50! Our average speed including stops was 20kmph. Gosh we have much such great progress!

After our ride we stopped for a drink and some of those mandatory stretches which Josie always makes me do! We sat and had a nice chat and then off we go back to our cars to leave... and then it happened... cheeky Josie goes to me "Wendy, are you going to take your bike? I know you don't much care for it but strange to leave it here!" Oh dear! OK, so I am a goose! I am thinking this one might take a little while to live down...

So with 12 days to go, I have done an amazing 1,244 training km. I can totally do this!!

Until next time.

W xx

A Wish from our Kids

I have just completed publishing a book of wishes for the girls at the school we are visiting in Cambodia. It is from the Year 3 kids at our wonderful school (plus one from Poppy and Hugh).

Hope you enjoy!!

Our Book of Wishes

W xx

A Series of Unrelated Events

So it has been two weeks since my last post. I really have nothing much to report with regard to training, so I thought I would share some events from the last two weeks with you.

Now of course, some would say that many of my posts bear little relationship to my journey... so they might not notice any difference!

I have 19 days to go! Gulp.

We had a preparatory call with our guides a week ago. They said we should stop training now. WOW, OK then! As you all know, I am very obedient and carry out all instructions diligently, so my training has fallen off significantly. Of course I must do some...

Last weekend I cycled with Josie. 51km! On the road!! We did two big laps. On the first lap I may have had to keep stopping. I had to wait for Josie to catch up with me. I can hear you gasp! I know right!? Wendy was faster that Josie.... surely that is not possible.

Now a less honest person might just leave it there... unfortunately I am not that person, so I probably need to point out that Josie normally rides Mark's mountain bike rather than her racing bike when we ride together. Unfortunately, Mark had been out mountain biking with Neil the previous weekend. There may have been an incident which resulted in his bike getting a bit bent... so Josie could not ride it. Instead she rode Poppy's bike. You may remember this is the bike I rode on our first outing... more about that later.

Now Josie is quite tall, so Poppy's bike may have been way to small for her. This may have impacted her performance slightly, and this may be the main contributing factor as to why I had to keep stopping!!

On our second lap, Josie switched to her racing bike. Goodness it is fast!! On the second lap, we may have had to stop a couple of times because Wendy was getting all tuckered out! Personally, I choose to call these re-hydration stops which I believe are very important to ensure our well being!

Still it was a great ride! I felt awesome afterwards. I can totally do this!!

Now on our last re-hydration stop we were discussing my improvement in cycling, and I was saying how I hoped I had improved enough to get through this ride and be sure to finish each time in time for a refreshing beverage... preferably beside a pool. And Josie said... are you ready for this... it is a HUGE bombshell...OK... here it is... That on our first outing, we only managed 7km and (now for the worst bit) barely got above walking pace. OUCH! That hurt. Could it possibly have been that bad?? Probably, but again OUCH!!

Thank goodness she didn't share that observation with me at the time. I would have had to have a bex and a little lie down!!

It is also a good thing Josie wasn't with me on my first ride on the trainer. That might have been REALLY embarrassing!!

Gosh, I am doing really well. Lot's of journey related observations. So far so good!

In unrelated news... I get home on Friday night and Paul says he needs to tell me something and I need to remember that it is funny. Now is it just me, or does that sort of introduction usually get followed by something which is totally not funny? Generally, something not funny at all!!

Anyhoo, he was upgrading some flights on points. The airline's web site wasn't working so he had to call up. The lovely helpful airline representative was more that happy to upgrade him... but he was short of points. Oh dear, will Paul have to fly up the back!! Good grief! Surely not!! So he asks her to wait a minute... he logs into the airline website as me, and transfers points from my account to his so that he has enough to upgrade!! You gotta be kidding me!! The airline representative goes, oh OK, I can see the points now... Tell me Mr Cameron, did you just steal these points from your wife?? Now rather than giving him a stern talking to about theft etc, she spends the rest of the call laughing at his audacity!!

So, I have to admit, it really was kind of funny... but next time Paulie, why don't you steal from your kids instead of me!!

In other moderately journey related news... I have been having needles for all kinds of nasties ready for the trip. Last week was Typhoid and Hep-B. Knocked my on my patootie! According to the inter-web tyhpoid can give you a feeling of general malaise. I can totally confirm this. Missed a day of training while lying on the couch!

Then this week it was time for Hep-B and Tetanus. I have head that tetanus can make your arm quite sore. Initially I was thinking, perhaps I should not have this done on the weekend, as it might mean that I can't train. Then I thought woo-hoo, if I get my shots on the weekend, then I can't train!! I really wish they had not said we should stop training!! Well, maybe not so much, but I feel there is still work to be done...

Now I have to share a blog related story... I have a wonderful staff member (let's call her Olivia) for whom English is a second language. I wrote her an email to let her know that I had not received something from her. I asked her to send it through. She apologized and sent through the details and signed the email BAD Olivia!! Now I was not sure if she had been reading my blog, in which case it was hugely funny... or if I had made her feel bad, which is less funny. Turns out she had read the blog and wondered why I had not laughed!! Ooops!

Anyway, better go and finish compiling the book of pictures from our third graders which we are giving as a gift to the girls in Cambodia we will be visiting on our trip. I still have time! But let's be honest, not very much!!

Until next time

W xx