Stepping out of the Loop

This is probably my last post for a little while, as on Friday I am flying off to South Africa for a few weeks to be best man at my best mate Tristan's wedding before heading off on safari with some serious legends, can't wait.

So try to cope without my chat, I know it'll be tough. Those of you who see me on a regular basis will also have to do without seeing how my mo develops. Last year I grew a handle bar moustache that rivalled Merv himself, and this year I'm going again - although purely for my own amusement this year!

The picture on the left is the mo as it looked this morning, after hitting the Trim Trail, in the rain, for an hour and a half. Fabulous, I am sure you'll agree.

It was a good session, following on from Wednesday when Kiwi put me through my paces after I arrived a little late. I can see Tom is slowly pushing us harder as time goes on - it frightens me to think what we'll be doing come March!

I said in a post a little while back I was trying to exercise five times a week, well, I almost managed it in week one, but with the Trim Trail taking off it's harder to get to the gym - and I'd rather exercise with the guys. I'm still doing Tuesday mornings before work, and with the Trail happening Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, there's not a lot of time to get to the gym!

This week we had another Team Hillary curry at Kathmandu Valley which was once again brilliant, and there's a few things coming up in Movember that I will hope to hear about when I'm back from SA.

The expedition itself is going from strength to strength, Kirt & Wes had a good meeting with Nokia recently and it looks as though they will be helping us in some capacity as well, which is great news. We're also actively hunting for a title sponsor now, let's see how that comes along.

In other news I finally booked my flights to Kathmandu at Christmas. I'll be going out with Kirt, and rather randomly discovered that Charlie BN will be out there for a couple of days at the same time, which is a real bonus.

We've got some good meetings set up and hopefully will have everything in place for when we return in April, we'll meeting guys from the Government, Cricket Association, Tourist Board and Emergency Rescue so it should be a busy week - but I have little doubt we'll find a few hours to get lashed!

We've also had a few people pull out of the expedition recently, which is a great shame. There are various reasons behind all of them but hopefully we'll find replacements of equal stature to step in - keep your eyes on the main blog for info on that.

The biggest loss from my point of view was that of Charlie Brewer, purely because he's a good mate and a top bloke. If you read this Boozer, you'll be sorely missed(for those who don't know him - he's the idiot in the pirates outfit below).

So for now folks, have a good month and I'll most likely see you in December. Until then, sleep tight.

Loving Every Minute

Busy days these I must say. It seems that every time someone asks me what I'm up to or where I am going, my answer is pretty much always Everest related. For example, tonight I am writing this, tomorrow I am meeting the Hillary boys, Wednesday Trim Trail, Thursday Hillary again. I could go on to next week as well, but I think you get the picture.

It may sound like I'm moaning, but actually the truth is far from it. I'm loving every minute of it, and what makes it so enjoyable is that so many others are as well, and people are really buying into the whole thing.

For example, I generally am a pretty lucky chap who comes from a good family and has, fortunately, never come across real hardship. I read a blog this morning that really brought home how lucky I am, firstly because of what I just said, but secondly to get a chance to know someone like Zooby, who seems to be having a slightly different experience to me.

As a group we've been gradually getting to know this bloke, but when I read his blog this morning I suddenly realised that I didn't know him at all apart from the odd email and boozey conversation. Yet this guy clearly has a story to tell. You can read it by clicking here. For what it's worth fella, I'm really glad you're on board and going to be sticking around.

Meeting people is one of the things I live for. I've got a great group of friends who I wouldn't swap for anything, but knowing there are so many brilliant people out there makes it worth getting up in the morning. Already through this adventure I have discovered a whole load of cool people, guys I hope I'll stay in touch with long after April next year. And that's what it's all about.

At the same time there is a bit of self discovery that's gone on too. Learning a bit about myself and finding out who I am and what I'm capable of. I didn't think I could get round a marathon - part of me still thinks it was a dream...I mean nightmare....but I did. If I can do that I wonder what else is possible? Getting to Everest is the next goal, but what after that?

One thing I'm certain of is that if I attack every future challenge with the same drive and enthusiasm that I, and everyone else, is attacking this one, the some seriously cool things can be achieved.

I've fired this blog entry off at rapid speed - my pasta is still on the hob, so it's a tad wishy washy and for that I apologise, I'll actually update on a few things that are happening next time - and as I said at the start - there's a lot!

Right, pastas is almost ruined, until next time.