A Curry on Everest

It's Done

2009-04-28T05:34:00.000-07:00

Well bugger me that was hard.

If you signed up to the newsletters, have followed our progress on the website, or indeed seen any of the news clips about us in the last week, then you will know by now that our expedition was a success. Feels rather good to say that.

There were some hairy moments along the way, but then it would not have been much of an adventure if there weren't would it?

From my point of view it is great to breathe easy again (literally and metaphorically) in that nothing can go wrong now, it's done. Hopefully we will get the accreditation we need from Guinness, I can see no reason why we wouldn't especially given all the coverage we've received. Even if we don't, the fact is we know what we've achieved, and according to our PR guys, Captive Minds, so do 30 million other people, so I'll take that!

I have spent this morning looking over the photos I took, and all I can really say is that I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the ones George and Will took, as they will be considerably better! A few of mine are scattered around this post, to give you an idea of what we did if you've not already checked them out on the website or Flickr - there will of course be a few more to come now that we have equipment that works without peddling Yaks to supply the power!
I have to mention a few people who I would not have made it through the last three weeks without. Of course Kirt, for everything. No need to say more there. My sister Helen, who played Mum for pretty much the whole time which I was mostly greatful for! Hillsy, who saved my bacon in Lobuche when I hit my lowest point and thought I may have to turn around. G-Man was always around, Jules amused me no end and Glen was the perfect captain. There are others of course, medics Ian and Isla who were phenomenal, and Joe Williams, who's own struggles helped put mine into perspective, but yet he was almost always able to muster a smile.

You'll notice that Helen and I have now hit our £3000 fundraising target, which again eases a little pressure. However I would love to be able to push that a bit higher, so if you have the time or inclination please do log on and donate, it's for a wonderful cause and having now seen the part of the world we're trying to help, I can tell you that a little money will go a long way.

What next, well, I've been asked that multiple times already and I've barely been back 15 hours. Some decisions are already made, some are still to come, but I can assure my avid reader(s) that I shall continue blogging, although it may be at a different address to this.

So for now I shall sign off. There will be a book about this whole trip, from inception to completion and everything inbetween. If this is something you might be even remotely interested in then do comment and let me know.

The story includes front page news, corrupt government officials, massive highs and devastating lows. Throw in some humour, illness and a bunch of people from wildly different backgrounds who all have something different to offer and hopefully you'll have something that may be worth struggling through on a beach somewhere when you have nothing better to do!

Until next time.

The world's highest Umpire.

ps - for anyone wondering, I did not take a boil in the bag curry to eat on Everest, but plenty of rice and veg were eaten, so I reckon some of it must've been curried!

Stash, Cash and Lash

2009-04-05T13:31:00.000-07:00

Today we picked up our kit, and it is quite simply AWESOME. So much so in fact, that I have even decided to put a picture up to show all you poor souls who don't have any. I'll skip over the collossal ball-ache that was sorting and dishing it all out, because it was worth it. God I love stash.

I should put that last statement into context. Last weekend Dave Kirtley stayed at my place and very kindly gave me an England training shirt that had previously belonged to his brother James.

I love it. In the nets last weekend I stuck it on and made a point of telling everyone it was a genuine England training shirt. The fact that not a single person gave a damn did little to deter me.

But now I have my own stash, and I have little doubt that after this trip I will have people coming up to me asking for shirts that I may have once worn, and I shall be only too happy to oblige, provided that is, it is not the shirt I'm wearing at the time.

The stash list does not stop there however. One of the phenomenal prizes we managed to source for the raffle at our send off party was a signed Ramprakash 100 hundreds bat. Only 100 of these were done and one lucky person would get to walk away with that little piece of history. That person, sadly was not me.

However, I wanted this thing bad, more than the tickets to the Ashes that were also going. My attempts to cheat in the raffle had been foiled (damn those honest people), as had my attempts to snatch it from the rightful winner before she got her mits on it.

Despite these setbacks I was not deterred, and I decided to hunt down said female winner and offer her cash, and finally my persistence paid off. Today I received the voucher for this little piece of kit, and I intend to get my hands on it sooner rather than later. It only cost me £100 too, bargain.

This leads me nicely onto my next topic. Cash. I appreciate that the above paragraph may make it sound like I have money to burn, and when I tell you shortly about my shopping trip to North Face, Ellis Brigham and Boots on Saturday, that theory well be backed up.

The truth is I actually am burning money, although not in the KLF who needs a million pounds way, more the, holy crap I'm really unprepared, perhaps if I buy stuff I can hide it way.

Unfortunately, for me anyway, my bank balance is throwing something of a hissy fit. In fact, I cannot remember the last time I was this skint. However, this is not something I want to dwell on, but if anyone has a spare couple of grand please feel free to send it my way!

So, the shopping episode. I met Hillary skipper Glen in Covent Garden and he then proceeded to do a serious sales job on me. As a man who has spent his entire professional life as a salesman (and may I add what a depressing sentance that is) you would think I'd be able to resist phrases like: "you'll really need two packets of rehydration tablets," and "I think you'd be crazy not to get that anti-bug sheet."

Why I didn't think of saying: "how about I just drink lots so I don't dehydrate and I'll stamp on the damn bugs" I have no idea. These things always seem so obvious after the event.

However, I do now feel very equipped for this whole thing now, and I can at least take solace in the fact that if all this stuff I've bought is a total waste of space, at least Glen bought it all too - and I've also told Hillsy he absolutely must buy the same things. Bonus.

Talking of Hillsy, I've not mentioned in much detail the fact that he failed the Umpires exam in February. This, I can only say, was a bit of a disaster. Just two days before we took the exam he had emailed me saying how happy he was about Umpiring and that he held no regrets about giving up a playing spot. Those who know the man will appreciate that he really loves his cricket, well, sport in general. On top of that, he's pretty good at it too, which is where the two of us differ.

Once he failed the exam he was left seriously redundant. No team and no role. Despite the fact that he took the general piss-taking that came his way with a gamely smile, I knew he was absolutely raging so I was incredibly relieved when he called me this morning to say he'd passed.

I did feel a twinge of guilt that Helen is now down to third choice, but then it's where she started and she always knew the deal. I think actually she's quite pleased that she will no longer, provided we both get there of course, have to face the wrath of an angry player whom she triggers. She will of course, be learning how to score on the way up - if she thought the umpires course was dull...

Finally, to lash. Back in September I gave up booze for a full four weeks in the lead up to the marathon and I fully intended to do something similar in the lead up to departure. With that just four sleeps away I can assure you all that this has not happened. However, we'll not be doing much drinking between now and the game on April 21st, so that is just something I'll have to come to terms with!

In other news, we have announced Nokia as our title sponsor, as you may have noticed from the picture above. It's great to get a known brand behind us and the announcement gave everyone a boost at our last meeting, which is splendid. It was also a bit of a relief being able to talk to people about it having been lucky enough to know a few days earlier.

Another great bit of news was that there is now a computer game of us. Yep, you read that correctly, someone has actually made a computer game based on our trip. Crazy. Even if you're not a cricket fan I strongly suggest you click here and have a look at this thing, it'll give you a small idea of what the event itself will look like. A huge thanks to Paul Collins at Stick Cricket for that.

So, we fly on Thursday. I'll try to post again before we leave, but you can follow our trip in some detail on the main website, which you should all know by now is http://www.theeveresttest.com/. Spread the word!

You may also have noticed a random selection of photos down the left hand side of this blog. These are some of my favourite photos from the trip so far that I have taken or have easy access to. I just thought I'd stick them in for a bit of a laugh. Until next time, whenever that may be!!

Getting emotional

2009-03-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

OK, so since my last sense of humour failure the Everest juggernaut has continued to roll, and picked up a few folks on the way, on Saturday in our final meeting at Lord's we were very pleased to unveil Nokia as our title sponsor - at last!

As much as anything this means that Kirt can now chill out and focus on the expedition itself, on top of that I today received an email from Nir with the signed permission attached for the game - cue big sigh of relief.

However, it's not all that rosy I'm afraid to say. It's easy in these blogs to be very wishy washy and say how wonderful everything is, but actually the last couple of weeks have seen several people come under immense stress, and sadly that proved the undoing of one man.

My only contribution to the meeting on Saturday was to tell everyone what most people already knew, that Charlie Bathurst-Norman has pulled out with just two weeks to go to departure. I honestly cannot put into words how devastating this is.

I had worried about Charlie since he told me his stomach issues, which have bothered him since 2002, were as bad as they had ever been. He dutifully turned up at the door of 24: London for our send off party and did his bit ticking off names, but he wasn't drinking and left pretty early.

That was Thursday 19th, and when he called me on the following Tuesday and told me he was: "a non-starter" I really couldn't think of anything to say to him. We swiftly arranged to meet that night for a chat and on putting the phone down I just sat and stared at my screen for about 30 minutes. I genuinely felt like someone had died.

This may sound like an over-reaction, but Charlie was such a huge supporter of the expedition, and had given so much to it, that it just seemed so cruel and unfair that he, of all people, should be denied the opporunity to go to the place that he had become so obsessed with in the last year.

To give you an idea, he was a key part of the events committee and played a huge role in organising all the phenomenal parties we've had. He is the reason Surrey CCC have allowed us to use their nets every Tuesday, given us a suite for our return party and gave us some amazing raffle prizes. He came to Kathmandu with Kirt and I at Christmas and has helped us with some wonderful contacts over there. He organised a night out at City Golf for Team Hillary and came to Dartmoor for the absurdities that went on down there. Even that list does not do him justice.

It was because of these qualities that we seriously considered him for the captaincy of Team Hillary, but we felt he had enough on his plate already. How right we were. Vice captaincy simply would not have done justice to the man.

I could continue, but won't, I think you get the message. The email he sent out to the Hillary boys was quite something and I hope we have found a suitable way to honour him, which we also announced on Saturday but he is yet to find out about. I want to tell him to his face when I see him on Tuesday.

Now, after that rather morose bit of chat I should go back to all the good things that have happened. Another team weekend in Cornwall came right on the back of the Bath Half, which were both brilliant weekends and both involved a surprising amount of red wine and beer for a group of people who are supposed to be in training!

Mixed in with those we also had the comedy night on my birthday, and the send off bash, which were both extremely entertaining and proved once again how good our events guys are. I also went to The Oval to see one of the Lord's Taverners projects being carried out, table cricket for disabled kids. Quite humbling really.

We leave in just ten days time, everything is virtually in place. I tool delivery of 80 bright pink cricket balls on Friday, which we practised with on Saturday (they swing all over the place!) as well as all the medical kit that we dished out at the meeting, so my office was looking more like a delivery store room than a travel agents.

On that note, why is it that when people see a sealed cardboard box they feel they have to kick it? I shit you not, 6 different people walked passed the medical kit and said: "what's in here?" while putting the boot into the box. It's not like when they bring their mum into the office I would go and stamp on her foot while asking who she was would I??

Anyway, the excitement is starting to build, I for one, just cannot wait to get on the damn plane and be out there. Until next time.

Rage

2009-03-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

I just spent an hour typing a very thorough blog post, lots of pictures etc, and as I was reading through it my computer crashed. Despite saving it several times it appears the Drafts function is non-existent. I honestly cannot tell you how irritated I am right now and I shall not be re-typing it.

In short - I passed the Umpires exam, so did my sister. I went speed-dating, it was average but Kiwi raised £1000, well done him. I am not running the Bath Half because I am worried about my knee. Oh, and we got permission to play cricket on Everest.

Goodbye.

Putting The Finger Up

2009-02-17T16:04:00.000-08:00

So on Saturday last seven hardy souls from The Everest Test took part in one of the less fun parts of the trip to date…the Umpiring course.

I perhaps did not prepare for this in the way most would, ie by going out for several beers in central London the night before and fitting in five hours of booze-fuelled sleep, which we all know if not real sleep at all.

The alarm went off at 6:30am, and I was indeed alarmed. I shortly received a text of rage from sister Helen who had already hit her first stumbling block when she discovered there were no trains to Wimbledon and had to get a bus. The plan was to meet Charlie BN at Fulham Broadway and then drive to Caterham for a 9:15 start where we would also meet Mark Waters, Hillsy and Hillsy’s dad.

I first realised that everyone’s preparation was along similar lines to my own when Charlie said he would pick us up from the station once he had collected Kirt, who he as currently waiting for. Worrying this, since Kirt was not on the course and had swapped his place with Paola. Equally disconcerting was that at this stage Charlie must have been thinking that myself, Kirt, Helen and Paola would have all fitted into his car. Having spent much of the weekend inside this vehicle, I can assure all readers that we would not have done.

Anyway, the journey began and Charlie said we needed to pick up Paola from Battersea. As our journey began I began to become suspicious, and my fears were proved correct as the journey continued and we in fact drove literally passed my house at 8:30, and not far from Helen’s 10 minutes later. After much chastising, Charlie agreed he would collect us from more suitable locations the following day.

At this stage I must take my hat off to BN, he in fact got us to our destination despite three differing sets of directions, and got us there early. I am always hugely grateful when I get lifts as I am one of the few people in this country with no drivers license, something Charlie was decidedly upset about later in the weekend!

So, we arrived and our journey was topped by that of the Ginger Rocky who, predicting a journey from hell, had arrived at 8am and sat in the car park for more than an hour. This lightened my mood no end, as did finally seeing Hill Junior and Senior, the latter of which I hadn’t seen since Reading days and the former may as well have been as long since he is now the invisible man.

After much hugging high-fiving in a way that all real men do, we went into our separate classrooms and began what was to be the biggest snooze-fest since Kinsey last told a story. Fortunately, we were in the speedier of the groups, thanks to not having slightly less super geeks than the other one – although we did have someone asking what would happen if a bowler was to choose to bowl from directly behind the Umpire, thus throwing the ball over his head. What a tool.

Anyway, I think the less I talk about the days events the better, we went and saw England play Wales in a pub before dashing off to Putney for more alcohol. So much for giving up that stuff. The excuse this time was a combination of an Everest singles Valentines evening and Toovey’s birthday.

Dave Kirtley kindly pointed out that if ever there was a weekend to hold an umpiring course then the Valentines weekend would be it – I would have liked to stand up for my soon-to-be colleagues of the umpiring world, but the fact that our particular course had a record number of people on it did little to back up any argument I might have come up with.

A rather civilised evening was had where I think we only offended some of the couples dotted around the bar and off we headed at last orders.

Sunday was a far easier journey in and the course passed without too many hitches, we all passed the mock exam at the end with at least a 90% score and can now eagerly look forward to Tuesday 24th when we have the real thing. Of course, if I were to fail the actual exam my entire purpose of this trip becomes slightly irrelevant, which is actual a bit of a worry. Still, best not to think about that eh?

Tonight I have to go to Wandsworth to take part in something I never thought I would do. No, not a tap dance class or an hour long lecture on the skills of knitting, but close. I am speed dating. I can’t believe I am actually making this public to the world. In my defence, I am helping out a mate – Kiwi has (I hope) put much effort to this event and is in need of some blokes after several ladies signed up very quickly. I’m not entirely sure what to make of that, but let’s see how the evening pans out shall we?

For those of you hanging out for a Stick Cricket update I can inform you that I have moved away from the World Domination part of the game and am now just taking part in the 10-over slog-fest. This was prompted by a discovery that Hills had a high score of 195/3 from 10 over’s which I knew to be higher than my own (189/7). After about an hour I managed to finally surpass his total and post 203/5, and sent a suitably gloating text message which I am sure brought Hills to his knees in despair. Judging by the enormous gash in his hand, Stick Cricket has caused him rage in the past….

Walking the Walk

2009-02-09T12:33:00.000-08:00

Where to start eh? The Everest Expedition continues to go from strength to strength, as does my Stick Cricket ability having last night seen off both Zimbabwe and Ireland, and I have recently discovered I have an audience in Japan – marvellous!

I suppose I should start with the expedition. The last three weekends have involved people going up, down and across the country in search of hills to climb and heavy objects to move.

January 24th was the Weekend at Kinsey’s farm in Hereford(above left)) which I sadly missed due to having to work on the Sunday. Honestly, my work really does get in the way sometimes! Everything I’ve heard and read suggests this was a thoroughly entertaining weekend, although perhaps not one where I would have excelled – so I can take some solace in that!

Having missed out on that I decided to get some walking time in so Jules and I hopped on a train to Guildford and wandered around for about 16 miles(right). It was a decent outing and served as good preparation for what was going to take place the following two weekends. Most pleasingly my boots caused me no problems and came through some rather stern tests in the shapes of melted ice puddles and suspect piles of mud that could quite easily have been some animals dinner the night before.

On January 30th I jumped in the car with Woodsy and Blade and headed down to Dartmoor for a Team Hillary weekend organised by Jamo. This weekend was actually organised a ridiculously long time ago and it was good to meet the previously invisible man that is Russell De Beer, who it turns out is quite a good lad and exceptionally good at carrying heavy objects up tall hills!

Saturday was an early start and again we covered somewhere between 16-18 miles, but this time it took considerably longer and there were several proper hills, not the little bumps that get called hills in London. I was pretty knackered by the end of it and felt fully justified as I, along with all 13 others, supped pints of Badger in the local boozer while Jamo fell asleep mid-story. This is the man who once fell asleep while on a date…in a restaurant. Brilliant.

The next day Sir Sleepsalot had organised four contests – Earth, Wind, Fire and Water which were, well, pretty odd. Earth involved carrying fertiliser to the top of a Tor in teams of five (I had Russell, Glen, Woodsy and Charlie) and back again, an event we dominated thanks to the afore-mentioned carrying skills of the South African sounding Englishman.

Wind was another jog up a tour to fly a kite, with one member in a Gorilla suit – we had a proper shocker here going across some private land and getting screamed at by some angry people. We also failed to get a bonus point for this as the photographical evidence required did not have all of us in the picture…due to yours truly lagging somewhat.

Fire involved cooking two fried eggs at the top of another Tor. Yep, stove, chair, tables and apron were all packed and while Russell again picked up all the heavy stuff I got off pretty lightly with just two eggs – and even managed to keep them safe. Well done me. I think we came second in this one.

Water was the real killer and due to our team being a man up after Kiwi was sitting the day out I decided to take the magnanimous step and sit out of carrying two massive buckets or water up another absurdly steep hill. Due to my brave sacrifice my team came in first by some distance, thus grabbing a share of the spoils as all three teams finished level on points. Well done us and thanks for the weekend Jamo, one that’ll live long in the memory for a special brand of chat and plenty of rambling and walking. I won’t lower the tone by discussing the amount of methane that lesser beings may not have survived.

And so to the weekend just gone. Severe weather warnings and falling shards of ice may have put off less hardy souls, but even the closure of the Severn Bridge could not stop 12 hardy Everesters heading to Cardiff and on to the Brecon Beacons for a weekend of snow, waterfalls, curry and a cricket pavilion…with no electricity.

Saturday once again had an early start and after sharing a floor with two Kirtley’s and a Butler I think all four of us were ready to get out of there! A rather twisty drive later and we’d found Kinsey, just the 90 minutes after we were supposed to, and after planting a few snowballs on each other we began our walk up Fanny Big(I don’t know if we actually were on Fanny Big, which is I am sure spelt more like Pen-Y-Bigg, but it caused many an immature chuckle so I've thrown it in). As the pictures show we were often waist-deep in snow and while one part of the walk was absurdly steep, it was also great fun and we all made it up and down without too many problems and again the boots held out and stayed dry over the ten miles or so. Definitely one of my best UK experiences.

Saturday night arrived and after an unconvincing win in the rugby and a shocking defeat in the cricket my misery kicked in, especially when Chelsea drew with Hull and I decided the best course of action was to sink God only knows how many pints of Brains, bottles of Magners and Tiger and Cobra, eat a curry and then make Kirt do some Jaeger Bombs with me. I must add that I’d been told that the walk on Sunday was going to be a: “nice scenic walk around some waterfalls” and was not expecting the six hour hike that actually took place!

I did feel like I’d dodged a bit of a hangover and only cringed slightly at showing off my Lightsaber feature on my I-Phone while everyone was in bed (I should point out that I don’t even like Star Wars). So off we went - again picking up Kinsey more than an hour late -with Dave and BJ manning the maps and a very pleasant walk began. We started to become a bit unstuck when faced with a river to cross. After 45 minutes of getting nowhere we decided the best option was just to run through it.

Two and a half hours and very wet feet later we got back to the start, and nobody died – which is perhaps our biggest achievement, although being the perceptive man I am I could sense that Mr Butler was beginning to lose his sense of humour. This suspicion was aroused by his response to being asked why he wasn’t wearing his hat being: “Because the fury building up inside me is about to explode through my head, so I don’t need one.”

So all in all the expedition is going very well, although I could use some more sponsorship – the link is above right...you know you want to. Throw in the launch that we had two weeks ago and a few other bits and pieces that are brewing and we’re looking rosy.

So to my addiction. Despite being barely able to see straight last night as I was so tired from Wales I still decided I could get a quick game in. When I nearly beat Zimbabwe with my first effort I decided to persevere and it was all worthwhile. Dave K registered his first hundred and Blade got another a few games later, although neither were in the winning causes. Instead it was skipper Glen with a fine 98 to vanquish the Africans while BJ, recalled to the side, struck a marvellous 50 from number 10 to beat the Irish after splendid 70s from Charlie BN and yours truly. Bangladesh are next – real Test oppo, I reckon I’ll dispatch them in no time.

So I also had an interesting text exchange this morning with my mate In Japan Right. He tells me The Everest Test has quite a following over there, which is marvellous news. I was particularly impressed with Robert Swan and Anthony Willoughby. The former being a bit of a legend and the first man to have walked to the North and South poles, while the latter is a founding member of The Cock Up Club, although I’m sure he has done several more newsworthy things as well!

So thanks Darrell for spreading the word, please continue to do so, and if you’re reading this from some far flung place do let me know!

Until next time, good evening.

Still Hooked

2009-02-03T10:59:00.000-08:00

A little while ago I did a piece on being addicted to things, and here I am still struggling with the same issues.

Now, it's not like I'm addicted to crack or anything, but it would be nice to be addicted to something that is good for me rather than computer games or TV shows. I never became addicted to running or exercising, as many people told me I would when training for the marathon, and my latest fad is a slightly random by product of The Everest Test.

Yep, Stick Cricket ladies and gents. It is ruining my evenings and I can only say that it is a huge benefit to my professional life that it doesn't run very well on my system at work.

So I have set up Team Hillary and begun my quest for World Domination. After many efforts I finally chased down the 200-odd set by Bermuda, and once getting that first win under my belt I swiftly saw off the challenges of Holland, Canda, Scotland and Kenya, big wins all. Zimbabwe are currently posing a tougher opposition, but I am confident with hard work and single-mindedness I can beat them and move on to the big boys. Don't worry, I'll let you know how I get on.

Of course I have created all the members of Hillary and an interesting battle has been who would score the first hundred. This happened last night and I can imagine that everyone reading this blog will be disappointed. I came close myself, smashing 89* batting at six, then Kiwi hit 94 and Glen 91, but it was a man coming in at number 10 in a completely lost cause who struck a quite brilliant 111. I can tell you that Blade has now been promoted up the order.

So, other than that life is still pretty busy. Tonight I need to read everyone's blogs and decide on Blog of the Month, something I seem to have gotten myself into and really need to get on with - but it doesn't half take ages. Still, I need to find a good reason not to give it to Tooves, just to amuse myself. There's been a lot of good entries this month too.

I am also looking ahead to going down to the Brecon Beacons this weekend, as a follow up from Dartmoor. The latter trip was Hillary only and provided the kind of banter you can imagine when 14 lads get together and it was absolutely brilliant. I imagine with a slightly different selection of people we may tone down the chat slightly, but not by much.

Loads of stuff has happened since I last wrote here, the launch being the biggest thing as well as Kimbo's weekend, which I missed. Safe to say all things Everest continue to snowball and I also just finished reading "Into Thin Air". I strongly suggest you either buy the book or click on the link and read the short version - it's amazing and forced me to go and buy four more Everest-related books immediately afterwards.

The story itself is gripping and I can tell you now that when I lay my eyes on that mountain for the first time I will respect it even more now that I know and appreciate the true power it can wield.

GRUMP

2009-01-20T12:21:00.000-08:00

That's right, I've bought a one way ticket to Grumpsville, and I'm bloody well staying there. Why? I'll tell you bloody why.

So, last night I decided that today I would run home from work. My training has dropped off significantly in recent months due to holidays, Christmas and illness, so I need to get back on it. I managed a couple of runs last week but they need to become more regular.

Inspired by Zooby running home, Vicks running the world, and Dave making himself sick through physical training, this was my chance to get back on the wagon - yet I failed...miserably.

How did I achieve this you may muse, well, through a combination of incompetancy and crap technology that's how.

My bag was packed and my stretches done and as I left my office on the North End Road I had hopes of getting home by 7:45pm, 5.5 miles in 45 minutes was not beyond me I thought, and yet I ended up boarding a train at Parsons Green at 7:50pm.

Those of you who know this part of London will know that Parsons Green is not particularly far from my work. I got lost.

After about 15 minutes of running I realised I had missed the turning for Wandsworth Bridge Road and was heading full steam down the New Kings Road. The reason for this is that the mapping system on my I-Phone was telling lies.

At this point I had my first sense of humour failure, but figured I could get round the problem and, rather than turning back, tried to work my way through the back streets to join up with where I needed to be.

Now, there's a reason I have not run home before, I have the worst sense of direction in the world. After another 15 minutes or so my sense of humour collapsed altogether and I tried to re-trace my steps to Parsons Green, which took about another 15 minutes.

I have now decided to stick to the Trim Trail, Richmond Park and the treadmill, as even I can't get lost when running on the spot.

Yours Furiously,

Cuzzer.

Hanging With The Chef

2009-01-18T13:20:00.000-08:00

It has certainly been a busy couple of weeks.

Last week alone I had five meetings in five days about this trip and, if it hadn't already hit home, I now really know just how big a deal this whole event is. Since I have taken on more and more and begun really working alongside Kirt and Wes it has really hit home how time consuming it all is and I am in awe of the amount of time those boys have put in and how much work is involved, so it's great when all that work starts proving worthwhile.

As was announced at the meeting on Sunday, we now have Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook and honourary captains of Team Tenzing and Team Hillary respectively. For that we can thank the Lord's Taverners, who are quite simply awesome and are so behind our project that sitting in a room with them can only boost your confidence.

On that note, as you can see, Kirt, Wes and I got to meet Alastair Cook(aka The Chef) on Thursday and signed him up for Team Hillary. I'm told that it's often a massive disappointment when you meet people you look up to, but in this case I can safely say that he was a really nice bloke and totally humble, which was awesome.

On top of that, we now have Stick Cricket making teams of us on their website. Seriously, check this link and you'll realise how goddamn cool this is: http://www.stickcricket.com/

They are also donating a trophy for the man who hits the most sixes on the mountain and will help drive traffic to our site. I am meeting their man Paul Collins(not Phil) some time next week and he, like everyone it seems, totally loves our project.

Along with that we've got our press launch to look forward to, thanks to Alex Rayner at Captive Minds on Tuesday 27 January which will hopefully get us the kind of media attention we need to find a title sponsor, so fingers crossed.

Kathmandu Christmas

2009-01-09T20:11:00.000-08:00

Tom: "No can do I'm afraid"
Nick: "No can do, what's that, place near Kathmandu? Meet me halfway mate."

So goes the line from Lock, Stock and two Smokin' Barrels. Needless to say when I told people I would be spending Christmas and New Year in Kathmandu they immediately repeated the name of Nepal's capital back to me, to which I replied: "yeah, place near no can do".

Perhaps understandably, nobody got it - hence I am taking this opportunity to explain my gag - you will be pleased to know however that I persevered with it throughout the festive season, perhaps to the detriment of several friendships.

You may ask how it was, and those of you who have read Kirt's blog will know two things, it was busy and we got ill. To put into perspective quite how ill we seem to have got, I am still suffering now, and Kirt only went back to work yesterday - so the lesson to be learned here is avoid the burritos. We also met up with Charlie BN who was out there, which was an added bonus as it meant we could visit the Yak & Yeti.

I do have a couple of fairly amusing stories however. First of all, for those who don't know, Kathmandu is mental. Honestly, the place is full of motorbikes(which incidentally, drive where they please - so be careful on the pavements), you can't go two seconds without someone beeping their horn or someone offering you some form of smokeable product.

That is on a normal day, on Christmas Day at about 7pm when we arrived in Thamel, the craziness was increased ten-fold. We had to stop our cab a "five minute walk" from the guest house as the roads were closed off due to all the people partying. What ensued was quite an experience. I had no money in my wallet after some chancer persuaded me to pay him for doing nothing at the airport, so was very much in the hands of our guide Nir, and his mate Billy - who at this stage appeared to speak no English.

I soon found myself battling through what can only be described as the central line in rush hour - except in the middle of the street. I was also at the back of our team of four, which I decided to rectify as quickly as possible - particularly as Kirt and the guides actually knew where they were going and I had no idea, and no money to pay anyone to show me.

This proved a very wise move as Kirt and Nir soon vanished into the abyss and I was left with Billy, who simply uttered the word: "gone" after we had waited about 10 minutes. Fortunately we found the others swiftly enough and had a great night in a few bars with some wild boar curry and Everest Beer...obviously. After a few drinks it became evident that Billy spoke considerably more English that I thought, funny he chose to demonstrate this several hours after my moment of sheer panic, I have no doubt he was chuckling to himself the whole time.

My other rather amusing episode took place the following day. As some of you will know, I was fairly bearded by the time I left these shores, and as we discovered we would be meeting some fairly important people I decided to sort my face out with a beard trim – but got a little more than I bargained for.

There’s a barbers in the hotel – which is rather convenient, so in I went. There were about five people crammed into a tiny room and after rubbing my face several times the chap got the point. So he went to work and did a generally decent job – apart from the fact that he kept pulling the scissors away before closing them fully, thus pulling out a few hairs and making my neck bleed – but I guess you just accept these things.

Anyway, it was all going rather well and just as I thought he was done I went to stand up and he pushed me back down in my seat while saying something I didn’t understand. He then began rubbing some stuff into my red-raw neck which, let’s just say, burned. He then started giving me what was, I think, supposed to be an impromptu face massage. Without wanting to go into too many details – it was hell on earth. This burn-juice was rubbed into my neck three more times and he kept pressing his hands onto my temples and squeezing. Why I am not quite sure and I fail to see why anyone would enjoy such an experience. Still, he did succeed in waking me up before the meeting, so that was good.

As for the rest of the trip, you can see from the main blog and Yak Yak Yak that we were busy. Lots of meetings, all jolly good stuff but I won’t bore you with the admin side of things. The important stuff is that we managed to check out several bars and restaurants, hang out with several of the chaps who will accompany us up the mountain and learn a few new card games. I strongly suggest everyone gets well equipped with these games, the Nepali people love cards.

The illness that got us on New Years Eve made for an interesting start to 2009, and I genuinely hope that it’s not a sign of things to come. However, since coming back things have really gone into overdrive. There’s loads of really good stuff going on, most of which is courtesy of the Lord’s Taverners, but I cannot go into too much detail here. There’s actually a whole load of other things I could blog about but am aware this is getting a bit long so will tie it off now and save my other topics for a future date…by when I would have almost certainly forgotten them.

Thank you and come again.

3-2-1 Back In The Game

2008-12-10T14:02:00.000-08:00

Well, where to start?? Since my last post so much has happened it’s going to be impossible to put it all down here in a way that anyone who wasn’t a part of it will enjoy, so I’ll keep it brief.

Firstly, my holiday. Africa is still amazing. Cape Town has changed considerably from when I was last there eight years ago with The Hog, the Waterfront is now a brilliant place to hang out and there’s so much going on it’s pretty tough to pack it all in to a week. Still, we gave it a good go!

Needless to say the first couple of days were booze fuelled events that involved numerous amusing stories, but I’ll save those. The Wednesday was Tristan’s stag do(I was there for a wedding for those of you who didn’t know) which as best man I had organised. I was a bit nervous about the whole thing – firstly because everyone had paid me and if it went wrong then I would have taken a serious beating.

The day began by throwing a pillow case over Tris’s head and dragging him through the Waterfront before boarding a Huey Helicopter and embarking on a combat mission along the coast. I seriously recommend this to anyone who goes over there – it is unbelievably cool. Perhaps the most amusing part was before the ride when Tristan’s Dad suggested that the two of them should not go on the same one as it would leave Tris’s Mum as the sole survivor in the family if the chopper went down – way to get morale up that!

After that we got on a boat for four hours before hitting the town – while this was my first stag do, I am pretty confident the evening adhered to the usual stag do model and judging by the absurd amount of money that was spent by some people I am pretty confident everyone enjoyed it!

The wedding itself was amazing, I think one person laughed at my speech so that was good, even if I did have to get the bouncers to remove with force the man lobbing rotten fruit and knives at me. It also lead to the creation of my new favourite game, Big Face/Little Face which I am determined to make an international phenomenon.

After that it was off to Botswana and Vic Falls where The Big Five came into action and I had the pleasure of sharing a tent with G-Man for the next 10 days. Having already spent most of the past seven nights sharing a bed with the guy we were in danger of becoming a little too close…things were only to get worse on that front.

I shall repeat now to all those going to Everest, the words that the Tenzing Vice Captain said to me at the end of the trip. His exact words were: “Mate, I really thought I’d drawn the short straw sharing a tent with you because of your snoring reputation…but it seems it was actually you who got it, so I’m sorry about that.”

Out of 10 nights I think there was just one where G did not disturb me in the night, but I may save the stories for a later date…oh sod it…he tried to arrest people, give directions, point out where the bus was and sexually assault me all on separate evenings – and those are just the ones that spring readily to mind. Good luck if you get him up the mountain!

I should say however, that despite such antics it was great to get away with a bloke I’ve known for the best part of 15 years, and when he was actually awake he was a brilliant travelling partner. As were the other three of the big five; Shorty, Simcard and Kinsey(the latter two also being Everesters, as you should know by now) each made superb companions and brought their own unique brand of comedy to the jungle.

On the trip itself we went white water rafting and bungy jumped in Victoria Falls, not to mention drank a ton of booze, then cruised through Botswana in Mokoro’s in 40-degree heat, which was awesome. All the while we were seeing animals, consuming the odd beer and talking nonsense, while even having the odd afternoon to chill out and swim in a swamp with some hippos – pretty cool.
Coming back to the UK was a serious culture shock after three weeks in Africa. I got off the train at Earls Court and walked to work in Fulham at 8:30am, in the rain wearing shorts, t-shirt and flip flops along with my safari hat(nicely sweated through now after Botswana!) while people pointed at me and laughed. Worse was to come of course, I’d lost my keys while away so couldn’t get in the office and nobody was due for half an hour, so I took refuge in Maccy Dees and began to wish I was dead.

Solace was not far away however. Upon getting into work and reading my 400+ emails I quickly began to catch up on all things Everest Cricket related and felt a distinct tingling in my loins. How can you get the post-holiday blues when you’re going to Lords in two days and flying to Nepal two weeks later?

So wish fresh enthusiasm I jumped back into the mix like I have never been away…although it’s hard to hide that I’ve been away due to my rather impressive jungle beard. I may not have managed any fitness training while in Africa, but at least I have proved that after 18 days of not shaving I will look like a real man…

Saturday opened up with the freeze mobs in London which were such good fun I really can’t wait to do some more, the middle order consisted of a meeting at Lords, of which I spent the entirety sat outside like a naughty schoolboy who hadn’t done his homework, frantically typing up the details for Cricinfo, who were all too happy to put the story up on their front page for 24-hours.

Huge thanks to Will Luke for that one, considering the situation involving England in India at the moment it was brilliant to get that kind of exposure, and the story seems to have caught on and is popping up on random sites all over the place! We even managed to get Kirt on Talk Sport today as a result of the article while The London Paper ran a small clip on the freezes last night as well, so it looks like we have some momentum and I really hope we can capitalise on it.

With all this in mind I have to turn my attention now to Christmas and the forthcoming trip to Kathmandu. Between us Kirt and I have managed to set up meetings with the Nepali Government, Tourist Board, Cricket Association and Himalayan Rescue, so it looks like it’s going to be a busy few days, although I have no doubt whatsoever that we’ll find time to do what we do best, and enjoy a few beers with the locals! Can’t wait.

Stepping out of the Loop

2008-11-08T07:49:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

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.

Chatting with Graham Napier

2008-10-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

When my mobile rang last Friday afternoon I was at work feeling truly hideous after another night out with the Hillary boys and a few Trektators, so it was perhaps not the ideal time to have a chat with the man who took this years Twenty20 Cup by storm.

At the start of the summer Graham Napier was a promising allrounder at Essex and had toured with England A in 2004, alongside Kevin Pieteren and Matt Prior, but after an astonishing 152* against Sussex in June his career is taking off.

Details of the innings itself can be found all over the place, but that is not what I wanted to talk to him about, I wanted to discuss his trek to Everest Base Camp last winter, and it seems I was not the first.

"It's safe to say the Everest trip has proved a popular topic of conversation, and I enjoy telling everyone about it," he said.

"There were times on the trip when I wondered what the hell I had gotten myself into, it was seriously cold up there, but the altitude was by far the toughest aspect.

"I was OK,but one of our guys, Cameron, had to be helicoptered off the mountain on the penultimate day, which brought home just how difficult it was."

From my point of view perhaps the best line he came out with was to do with fitness: "it seemed to be the fitter guys who struggled more, because they went off too quickly. Nick Compton is one example, he took on a hill pretty fast one morning and paid for it for about two days!"

When the conversation moved on to the cricket match they played at Gorak Shep Graham gave a small chuckle.

"It was no more than beach cricket really, and a useful distraction because we were all feeling pretty terrible by that stage. For us the cricket was a small aside, it was all about reaching Base Camp."

When I told him what we're planning he was supportive in the extreme, and had plenty of advice to give.

"When I played the game I think I was wearing thermals, base layers, a jumper, fleece and a coat, and it was still pretty cold.

"Night was the worst though. One night I couldn't be arsed to get up and go to the toilet so just peed in my water bottle, which then proved to be a great source of warmth! After that I took boiled water to bed with me every night.

Another tip was to wrap up all your batteries to keep them warm: "you'll want a good camera because around every corner there's another amazing view, and the cold sucks all the life out of your electrical gear, so I wrapped my batteries in socks each night."

I coud easily tell how excited Graham was when he began talking, and the fact that we are taking up around 50 people was something he saw as a plus for us, because the camaradarie is so important in getting through the tough times.

I almost began to wonder if he was serious when he said: "if this season hadn't gone so well I would probably be trying to get on the trip with you!" Well Graham, I can tell you now, there's a spot on Team Hillary for you - we need all the help we can get!

I owe a massive thanks to Graham for taking the time out to talk to me, he was incredibly pleasant to speak with, as was his agent Greg Lansdowne - who I hassled for some time.

Despite the season being over he is still a busy man. On Wednesday he was at an awards dinner at Lords to pick up the Walter Lawrence Trophy in recognition of his innings against Sussex, and he will shortly be heading out to Hong Kong to represent England in the Sixes competition, a tournament he won in 2004, before once again playing for Wellington in New Zealand.

Despite all this he was kind enough to offer to write something for us and lend his full support to The Everest Test, hopefully next time he calls I will be slightly less hungover and able to ask some decent questions!

Gotta get going....

2008-10-12T10:45:00.000-07:00

Right, that's it. Honeymoon over.

It has now been two weeks since the marathon and I have to stop living off it or I will be in serious danger of falling back into the old routine of sitting in front of the TV all day and doing absolutely nothing with my life!

Wednesday was the launch of the Everest Test at the Collection on Brompton Road and a wicked night was had by all.

Fortunately I managed to avoid getting too hammered, which is more than can be said for some of those involved - and damn right too I say! Everyone is working so hard for this thing and deserved to let their hair down, plus it was great to get together again, especially after missing the meeting two weeks ago.

Today I have woken up after my first visit to the new Wembley followed by a hideous smash up which took in various bars around London and my mate Kingers 30th, so I feel truly awful and have failed to get to the gym all weekend. It was great going to the home of football for a game and I was pretty pleased that mankinis were banned!

One of the things I said after doing my run was that now it was over I don't have to feel guilty about missing the odd gym session now and again, but it has become again and again over the last two weeks and the guilt has returned.

So from tomorrow morning I am setting myself a new target, go every day. I'll go in the morning before work, do a shorter session, but reckon that lots of shorter sessions is probably better than the occasional longer one which takes days to recover from!

So wish me luck with that, I feel I might need it.

One particularly cool thing that happened at the party was young Zooby put together a video slideshow that was projected on the big screen throughout the night, which finished with the below shot - which I am a big fan of! I am also having serious concentration issues today, so am going to bed...

Back in the saddle

2008-10-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

I fell off the wagon last week, which was highly expected. After a month of not drinking there were invites aplenty and so I decided to accept every single one, and thus discovered on Sunday morning that I may have undone four months training in a single week. Oh dear.

Still, I did manage to fit in my first run since Berlin, although that was purely thanks to G Man who basically forced me out on Saturday morning, and after an hour all the old aches and pains had returned(who am I kidding, they returned after about five minutes and I did all I could not to complain about them until we were nearly done).

By lunchtime my legs and knees had stiffened up so badly that the only option was to drink until I could feel the pain no more. Sadly, this did not stop the pain returning on Sunday, along with several new aches and bruises that generally accompany a Drovers Cricket do.

So, away from the past and back to the present. The Trektator party is on Wednesday and should be a good night. Hopefully we've got enough people to make it a good night out, although I am going to be careful not to get too leathered and embarrass myself!

Tickets can still be bought for £30 at www.wegottickets.com search using the word Sagarmatha.

After that I am contemplating heading down to Battersea Park for the Trim Trail with the Everest boys on Saturday morning, although I may put that off until Wednesday and have a session in the gym to try and work out just how much long-term damage I have done to myself by running 26 miles before letting the brothers Sharland go to work on me - I hear they are slightly deranged.

Some of the things that people are talking about signing up to are quite insane. The Toughguy being one of them, have a read through the suggested training routines because they made me laugh a lot....perhaps only because there's no chance in hell of me going down that road!

Done and Dusted

2008-09-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

So, on Sunday I ran the Real Berlin Marathon. You may have seen on the news that Haile Gebrselassie broke the world record, so while I was technically competing in the same race, I'm not sure it was the thought of me chasing that pushed young Haile over the line!

I went round in 5.43.27, I could talk you through the race, but instead I'll keep it simple. I began nervous as hell, was feeling good at the halfway point, then my right knee started giving me all sorts of trouble and the rest of the race became a real struggle.

The second half was a mix of highs and lows, the highs perhaps being the cheerleaders around mile 17, and the lows being pretty much everything else!

At this point I should really say thanks to a few people. First of all the guys who texted and called to wish me luck, there's too many to mention but thanks to each of you, it meant a lot. Same to those who have sponsored me, knowing so many people had given money to the cause kept me going at some serious low points!

Special mention to my boys Kirt, Hog and G-Man for believing I could do it, probably more than I did! A massive thanks has to also go to Jules, my running partner. What a compadre, couldn't have done it without your constant jabbering and shouts of "I am the Yeti!"

The biggest thanks must however go to my sister Helen. What a performance. Firstly I wouldn't have entered without her, then I wouldn't have got to the startline, and I almost certainly wouldn't have made it if I hadn't been able to take comfort in the fact that she was suffering just as much!

We were a sorry sight at the end, as the picture shows, but the 24 hours afterwards has amused me no end as we grunted our way back from Germany!

I also cracked open a beer for the first time in a month on Sunday night, and I can tell you now it was enjoyable! Whether or not I'll sign up for another of these I don't know, but at least now I know it's not an impossibility.

As far as Everest goes, there's been loads of news recently. I sat down on Thursday with Kirt and Charlie to debate the Team Hillary captain and eventually all decided that Glen Lowis was the man for the job. Congrats to him, I have no doubt he'll rise to the task.

The website has also gone live, check out http://www.theeveresttest.com/ for all the best bits there.

I'm pretty knackered now, and my mind and body is shutting down, so farewell. I'm now going to have to come up with something else to write about on this blog!

The time is nigh

2008-09-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

This is likely to be my last post before the marathon. How do I feel? Nervous as hell that's how.

Last weekend I went to Dubai on a work jolly, which was great but hardly ideal preparation! I didn't manage to get a run in which was disappointing, but not crucial I don't think. I ran for an hour last night and will go again tomorrow morning, then it's sit back, eat pasta and wait for Sunday.

Helen and I started up our fundraising page last week and seem to be going along quite well so far, as I write we are barely £2 away from the £600 mark, a decent start.

I also recently finished reading 'Every Second Counts' by Lance Armstrong. Now, this guy needs no introduction, he's a proper legend. I can't remember if I said, but I was lucky enough to have him as a guest speaker at a recent company do in Hawaii and he was really inspiring. More than that though, he has given me my slogan - "Pain is temporary, quitting is permanent." There shall be no quitting on my watch!

Work for Everest is coming along well, although I'm gutted to be missing the big meeting this weekend where the captains will be named. Fortunately I'm in the loop with that and will be speaking with Kirt and Charlie on Thursday about who will lead Team Hillary. There's so many decent candidates that it won't be an easy choice, but I guess the good thing about this is that no choice will be the wrong one.

One negative was that I had to send out a nasty email today chasing people for payment, that sucked but needed to be done. Did kind of make me feel like an asshole though.

Anyway, wish me luck and I'll let you know how I got on...if I survive!

Knackered

2008-09-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

My oh my, it has certainly been quite a week. I am sitting on my sofa with my feet up watching the football knowing that the last eight days has brought a number of firsts for me.

On Saturday last I got up at 8 am, ran 9 miles then went and played cricket. Admittedly, I hardly lasted very long with the bat, but I did get through a three over spell, comfortably my longest since school!

I then sat in the pub with the boys and did not sink a single beer, then went home to a dinner party, where I also avoided booze. It has now been two weeks since my last beer, and that certainly seems a long time ago. I won't lie, I'm hanging for one, but fortunately I have the Carling I-pint to amuse myself(ask me if you've not seen it - comfortably my favourite toy!).

On the Sunday I had another early start, running the Gyro 10k, in full cricket gear. Have a look at Glens blog to the right for a write up of that.

A fairly uneventful week followed, and then today arrived, and I was up at seven and proceeded to run 16 miles, which, as it turns out, is a bloody long way. I am aching all over, and it took me a pretty long time, but the good news that I finished and my knees and feet are not completely shredded.

It does have to be said however, that the thought of adding another 10 miles onto what I just ran, scares the bejesus out of me. Sadly, that is what I am going to have to do in just two weeks. I had my first meeting with "The Wall" today and I fear it is something I will become fairly well acquainted with in two weeks time.

So, next weekend I have to go to Dubai and again avoid the booze in tricky circumstances as well as trying to get a run in. It's 40 degrees out there at the moment, so that could be fun!!

Until next time!

Addicted to....

2008-08-29T08:31:00.000-07:00

A little while ago, I forget when exactly, somebody made the mistake of emailing the old classic Tetris to me at work. I was addicted to this thing at school, and it seems the years have not diminished my enthusiasm for a game that is basic to the point of making me wonder if my IQ is gradually sliding downwards with every passing moment I play it.

All this made me wish I was able to get addicted to things that might be good for me, such as running, cycling, cooking healthy food etc. When I started training for this marathon lots of people said how I would get addicted to running and find it taking priority over everything else. Well, what a load of rubbish that was.

Seriously, all I have got addicted to from this training is buying plasters. I'm not kidding, all I concentrate on these days is finding ways to protect my feet and so far Compeed plasters have proved the way forward. I even bought some surgical spirit yesterday in an attempt to make my feet harder.

It reminds me of that scene in Forrest Gump where Lieutenant Dan tells Bubba and Gump to look after their feet and I know where he's coming from. Am I going to make it round this 26.2 mile course in Berlin in less than a month? I am starting to doubt it. What I am going to do is give it my best, and if I come up short, well, so be it.

Back to the Everest line, I've noticed how proud Glen is about getting himself in the South London Press and how he has been boasting about being the first to get some publicity(we also had a mention on Cricinfo recently) thus I am forced to burst his bubble.

The Wimbledon Guardian carried a story on me back on the second of August, so it's safe to say I am hugely famuos in my local area and spend my days walking around in disguise to avoid being mobbed by the local hero-worshippers....maybe not. Still, read all about me(even more) right here.

Until next time folks.

Maybe I can become an Olympian?

2008-08-19T14:32:00.000-07:00

But then again, maybe I can't. I'm sat here watching the highlights of this slightly absurd Olympics and thinking that these guys are the nuts. Why did I stop riding bikes when I was nine? I am sure I would have something to offer by now.

It has been an interesting few days to say the least. After a nice relaxing holiday I came back and tried to pick up where I left off with the running. This was perhaps not my smartest move. Barely 45 minutes in to my run my right knee went and I could barely get round Richmond Park....and my sense of humour failed.

On Monday I had some orthotics made for my shoes by the London Orthotic Consultancy and this evening I was beaten to a pulp by a psysio. All this leaves me, hopefully, better equipped for September 28th...and considerably poorer I might also add!

I am just realising now how hard all this actually is, which was kind of the point. Must keep going, quitting is for the weak - just ask Tim Don

Since my last confession.....

2008-07-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

Since I last posted on this here blog quite a lot seems to have happened, well, happened to me anyway.

On Thursday I teamed up with Jules and did my first serious run, eight miles round Richmond Park and amazingly I awoke the next day still able to walk, so that was encouraging.

I have stepped out of the loop since then after going on a work do to Hawaii, which was quite simply one of the best weekends ever. I am not one to make people jealous, but if you can imagine the best party you have ever been to, then put in one of the best locations you can imagine, add almost 3000 people, and a whole load of awards, of which you win one, and you'll be somewhere close. Oh, and did I mention it was all free? For three days. Flights, hotels, food and booze(although I still managed to spend £250, but so be it).

I have little doubt that this jaunt has probably set me back somewhat in my training, and as I sit at my desk at 5:15pm the day after returning, I am wondering if I can actually face hitting the gym tonight. The answer is most certainly no, but I fear I may have to give it a go anyway. Wish me luck.

Of course, it goes without saying that I spent much of the time out there telling everyone who would listen about the Everest Test, and as always the response was hugely encouraging. People love this stuff and hopefully we can capitalise on that and really start taking this up a level.

Padding up and getting the runs

2008-07-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

During the last few weeks the Everest Test has become increasingly intense, which quite frankly, is bloody marvellous.

On Sunday 6th July eight of us ran the London 5K at some absolutely horrible hour; we met at 7:30am and having sunk multiple beers and eaten copious amounts of barbecued meat the night before I was actively encouraging everyone to "maximise our exposure" by going as slowly as possible. The race had to be completed in an hour so why waste coverage time by finishing any quicker??

My words clearly fell on deaf ears however, as we ran round in about 33 minutes which I was pretty surprised about - although I was more surprised by the fact that I thought I was going to die coming into the home straight and only have Ben Jarman to thank for his constant pep talks to get me over the line!

Now, as you may have read below I am planning to run a marathon at the end of September, so it is probably not such a good sign that I am struggling to get round a three-mile course. Well, hopefully come Berlin I will not be padded up and have a serious case of the meat sweats before I even start.

However, do not be surprised if that is the case on September 7th when myself and another load of Everest cricketers go round the Gyro 10K(http://www.gyro-events.com/) in full cricket gear once again, although I will do my utmost to avoid Kirt, Miles and Jules the night before this time!

Some of the boys are also doing the Nike 10k the week before but by the sounds of it full cricket gear is not acceptable dress for that one...tossers.

So, exercise aside I am spending my time desperately trying to avoid massive booze ups, which is really quite tough. Last weekend was my work summer ball - free alcohol all night - and this weekend is another company do, but this one is in Hawaii. Three days of non-stop alcohol consumption is likely to put my training back about two months, which is hardly ideal as I've only been doing it for six weeks, so at this rate I may not even make the start line!

My major concerns currently are my knees and constant blisters, I saw a physio yesterday who absolutely beat the crap out of me and left me bruised this morning, but it's all about no pain no gain eh?

So on that note I'm off to trap my hand in a door, as that's bound to hurt so I am sure make me gain in the long run....see what I did there?

Until next time....

Bleeping test

2008-06-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I had the bleep test this evening, and what a bucket of chuckles that wasn't.

Evidently, I am somewhat short of match fitness and registered a rather lame 8.9. Admittedly, I had no idea what I was aiming for, but when someone said that Blade reached level ten a few days ago when he was half-cut, I thought I would do a tad better!

Still, I think my post-test salad laid down a marker for things to come, I will gloss over the four pints....it was Miles' birthday after all!

The physical side of this event is actually quite frightening, personally, I can't think of anything worse than not making it because I'm not fit enough. It's nine months away now, which means I'll have nobody to blame but myself if I'm not in shape...and I hate blaming myself, I'd far rather blame someone else!

I've been going to the gym about three times a week for around a month now, but I think it's time to up that, running is one thing, but I need to start doing some sport - squash anyone???

A Curry above the rest

2008-06-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

Hello all, and firstly welcome to my blog. Here you will find details of my preparation for The Everest Test 2009, how I am raising money, organising myself and generally getting along.

My name is Alan Curr(aka Curry) and while I do intend to eat a curry at Everest Base Camp, this is not my sole reason for going there, merely a bonus.

"So what on earth are you doing," I hear you ask. Now that is a good question. I am going to Mount Everest for a cricket match. Unusual, yes. Record breaking, yes, life changing....I hope so. I could go on about the event itself but all that info can be found at www.atestabovetherest.com - where I also contribute.

So who am I? Well, I am currently an out of shape 27-year-old who quite fancies an adventure, and perhaps needs one to provide the long missing kick up the arse to get into shape and do something meaningful.

A minimum requirement for this event is to raise £1500 on my own for two charities, Comic Relief and The Himalayan Trust - more on those in future posts, and more on how I intend to do so as well.

Quite frankly it's about time I actually gave something to those less fortunate than myself and I would rather give to something I believe in than be guilt-tripped into it by one of those people on the street who try to tempt you in with lines like: "What's one less pint a month to you eh?"

Right, I intend to keep these things short, partly because I doubt anyone will read them and partly because I'm pretty sure there must be some sport on TV for me to watch.

So farewell for now, do come back soon and see how I'm getting on. Once we have a system set up for donating money I shall put that somewhere on here in big glowing letters so you can all give away some of your hard earned cash to a great cause.