Cue Comedy Hobble!

Ouch, I 'm feeling very stiff right now after a four hour walk this afternoon.

It's just about ten weeks to go until the trek, the invoice for the flights and taxes is in and ready to be paid. So, you may ask, how is my training going?

Funny you should ask that as I was thinking about that very thing this morning. Receiving the invoices set me into a little bit of panic mode, as my training has been slipping lately! It's that old trap I tend to fall into quite easily, you know the one, known as "oh, you've got plenty of time yet!"

So anyway, I checked out the 14 week training programme sent by Global Adventure Travel and found that 10 weeks before the trek is when the pace steps up. I guess they might time the sending of the invoice to remind us more laid back trekers that time is a marching on.

I've been doing really well with week's 10 - 14 schedule, I've just about managed to fit in the two hour walk and the two half hour walks per week. So now it's time to step it up a bit! Hence today's effort. It was with great reluctance I pushed myself out of the door at 2.15 this afternoon. The sun wasn't shining and the sky was grey, plus there were lots of other things I could have been doing instead!

I've struggled to fit in the two half hour walks this week and so I thought I'd make up for it with this four hour walk and start week 10 with a bang! Ouch! Great idea!

It's all good though. I've been going a bit soft on myself due to having a bit of a problem with my neck and shoulders, plus being totally exhausted from travelling the extra distance now to my new job. Going easy on myself stops here! If I continue in this way I'll end up in China on the second or third day of walking unable to put one foot in front of the other! That's what I have learned on today's four hour walk.

After enjoying the beach and walking barefoot for much of the way, it was about the two hour mark when I started to feel the pain and began to hobble the rest of the way. I stopped for a drink for about a half hour at a relative's house. He was baking home made crumpets and so I had to be polite and taste one with my coffee. Then I was on my way again and boy did I regret that crumpet and coffee. None of that next time!

Anyway, here I am at home, having done my stretches and feeling a bit more motivated. I enjoyed the journey and feel more motivated again. I know I can do this!

So the schedule for the next two weeks goes like this:

Saturday or Sunday:        4 hour walk and stretch(check)
Monday :                         rest
Tuesday:                         1 hour walk and any personal exercise
Wednesday:                    rest
Thursday:                       1 hour walk and any personal exercise
Friday:                            rest

Just can't wait! Hobble, hobble, ouch!

Versatile Blogger

Kat at I saw you dancing, gave me this lovely green versatile blogger award and as a result I've been reading lots of new blogs! I have also been enjoying basking in the glow of someone being lovely enough to think of my blog as one worth adding to a list!

The other good thing about getting such an award is that it is a chance to enjoy blogging with little effort on my part! I started this post last Sunday, after having been out walking and whilst suffering with all sorts of ailments, including a toothache. I am finishing it today after a "crazy" week, and wishing that I really was a versatile blogger who could rattle off a blog post or three in between the rest of life! I marvel that people can blog from a mobile device in a car and still turn out amazing writing! Unlike many bloggers however, my blogging effort isn't in any way a part of my work and doesn't have any other function but to create a pleasant space in which I can express myself if I feel like it!

Ok then the rules are as follows:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.

2. Share seven things about yourself.

3. Give the award to 15 bloggers you've recently discovered.

Kat's blog, "I saw you dancing" is fast becoming one of my all time favourite places to visit and so thank you Kat for including me and giving me this award. This is so funny! I feel I am giving an acceptance speech now! Thank you to my family for all your support....sniff....sniff....I can't go on.....ramble, ramble.......where are the tissues?

I always laugh at those award acceptance speeches that go on rather too long, and joke about the hook coming on to yank the speech-giver off the stage.

So seven things about me:

• My favourite foods are couscous, chick peas(and anything chick pea related), bananas, corriander, breads and veggies. Oh yes and can I just add in macademia nuts and sticky toffee pudding with cream.
• When asked to make a list of seven things or give an answer, I will cheat by cramming in as much as possible to each point - in other words I find it hard to pin myself down to just one thing!
• I was technically the youngest sibling in the family, however at different times in my childhood I was an only child and an oldest sibling. Confusing.
• As a child, I used to think that my ribs moved each birthday - up one year, down the next. Yes I know that was very strange!
• I could watch films with Barbara Streisand, Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp, in them all day long. I'm sure there are more but that's enough - if I think of anyone else I'll tell all later. I wouldn't want to miss anything out.
• As a teenager I spent weeks/months/days/hours researching and writing two novels. They were both complete and probably extremely badly written, but I must have put in an awful lot of work! So I sort of groan at my younger self, when I recall ripping them all up and throwing them away. I never showed them to anyone (probably for the best).
• I love playing with clay - so I'm promising myself an "Artist's Date" with some squidgy clay very soon.

Now for the best bit! As I am new to blogging and because I am me, it was difficult to just choose 15 but I managed it!

There are so many wonderful people out there blogging aren't there? Enjoy these 15 treasures for now:

1. Penny Red makes me think and gets me all fired up about issues that matter. The comments on her blog are sometimes a little bit aggressive but then I like a good debate and she is often playing devil's advocate.
2. Jo at Shapeshifting has me hooked or rather hooped with her videos just lately - she just gets under my skin and right into what is real.
3. I found this blog just yesterday and just know that Bridget's blog and website are going to be places to explore some more.
4. Rachel at Go Placidly has been so welcoming in my first weeks as a blogger. I love the joy in her blog, it is jammed packed full of LIFE!
5.  The Painted Path - is becoming another of my favourite places - full of love and wisdom.
6. I'm following this Single Parent Dad- please go and look at the Hardian's wall sponsored walk he and others are doing right now! What an awesome Daddy!
7. Rachel is another parent-blogger who I read regularly. An awesome Mummy!
8. Jill at Willingness is the partner of life has also been very encouraging of my baby blogging steps and her blog always has something delightful to look at or something to make me think.
9. Wendy from "Unravelling" and her Snakeskin Journey.
10. Another Unraveller’s blog that I love to visit A Rosy Outlook is just that!
11. 37 days has been a favourite for a while now but I still want to read Patti’s book “Life is a verb” and still have so much to learn!
12. Something drew me here recently and I stayed to read a little. Another Wendy, her writing and images at "Daring to Write" make me feel quite cosy.
13. Hiro so wise. A must read!
14. I am quietly watching and thinking about the summer of loving kindess here.
15. Helen Heath’s writing is a joy and it was her post about her mother’s death which helped me to write about my own experience. Thank you Helen.

Reasons to be Cheerful!

1. Thoughtful Friends:
A friend of mine gave me this laughing Buddha the last time she visited. She is a person for whom a laugh is never far away, despite the challenges that her life has brought.

She is the carer for her long term partner who was diagnosed with schizophrenia some years ago and who often self medicates with alcohol. She also has her own physical health issues which now cause her some pain on a daily basis. Her mobility is also starting to be severely impaired as she ages.

I am so often quite awed by her zest for life, her compassion, her tendency to laugh easily and to crack wacky jokes. Many people meeting her would call her an eccentric and I'm sure that a few would cross the street if they saw her coming! She is one of the "square pegs" of society who doesn't even pretend to conform. There is understandably some anger and bitterness there about the circumstances of her adult life. As for many people, life hasn't been and isn't "easy".

She has however an easiness about her and I would love to catch some of her zest and humour!

I think that's why she bought me this Buddha. She noticed how seriously I take life and how little I have allowed myself to have fun, to lighten up and enjoy the moment. She reminds me to laugh more often.

2. Love and Laughter

Last night we watched a film about the life of Ian Dury, "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll". I've been wanting to see it since I missed the one showing of it at our local cimena. I was a big fan of Ian Dury and The Blockheads back when I was a teenager.

The film is fast paced at the beginning and has a chaotic feel at first, that I think is intended to mirror the events of that time in Ian's life, and the anger he had which was always so quick to surface. It then takes us through most of his life, showing flashbacks to his childhood, when he contracted Polio and was left with impaired mobility.

Some of the best scenes are about his relationship with his son, and my favourite line is when he says to the small boy who is complaining that he is bored, "Only boring people get bored." That strikes a chord with me because I have never understood boredom! I always say that I never get bored. Life is too interesting! I sometimes get restless, or overwhelmed or lack motivation for a task but I don't think I ever get bored.

What shines through in the film, is Ian Dury's passion, talent and humour. Someone who was in love with life but struggling with it's challenges. In 1981 he wrote the lyrics to "Spasticus Autisticus" in a challenge to the slow pace of change for people with disabilities. It was the International Year of the Disabled and the song was banned by the BBC for causing offence.

It is a film that is brilliantly written, produced and acted, however I felt it missed so much of Ian's later very diverse work and did not really show his full talents as an actor and writer. His work for UNICEF around AIDS awareness was also not mentioned. I hope that people will see the film and then go and find out more about him. Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in The Lord of The Rings, was so convincing as Ian. I was totally hooked!

I was reminded of this song of his - the lyrics are a list of reasons to be cheerful.

When I write my own list of reasons to be cheerful, Ian Dury and my friend will be on the list. The BBC have a page here, which explains Ian's lyrics in a suitably humourous way!

As the title says these are "Reason's to be Cheerful(Part 3)".

The "Part 3" reminds me of how much there is to celebrate, that they won't all fit on one list, and most crucially for me of the joy of "being rather silly".