ITEX... we survived!

Well. I've just got home from the 'ITEX weekend' in Jersey. 11 mad friends, two chaotic houses, one very very long walk, a lot of Love Bars, peanut butter sandwiches and packets of crisps, and a few bottles of beer and cider thrown in - makes for a mad, tiring, but rewarding weekend. A good time was had by all, I think (as the organiser, it's always a bit difficult to get a perspective on how things have actually gone, but I think it was all ok!).

Massive thanks go to my parents, Kelly, and Amy for putting up with the chaos and being excellent hosts. I hope tranquility has returned to your houses tonight and that we've not left anything behind or forgotten to do anything!

The walk was certainly a challenge, but we all did amazingly. Richelle and Naomi were an excellent support crew, picking us up when we dropped and getting to the later check points ahead of us to encourage us and point us in the right direction. With varying degrees of pain and injury, we managed the following:

Sally - 17 miles
Tania - 20 miles
Me and Steve D - 26.2 miles
Marty - 30 miles
Steve B and Rich - 32 miles
Helen - 35 miles
Pete - 48.1 miles

Yes, Pete did the full distance! Massive congratulations to him, and to everyone else - I think we all went further than we thought we could, and it amounts to fantastic personal achievements all round.

There are some photos in the usual place, but Rich has more (and better) which will probably appear here at some point over the next few days.

The walk also sees me having completed one of my New Years resolutions - so that's one down, and 8 to go. I had a number of fantastic birthday presents last week, but by far the most inspired and thoughtful was a collection of gifts from Na, Steve, Helen and Pete, themed on my resolutions (a Love Bar for the walk, The Godfather to read, An Affair to Remember to watch, a sleep mask, an Italian DVD, a wooden bracelet for luck on not falling over, a toy saxophone, a map of Bali, and the London by London book). Fantastic!

I am however left with some general aches, and a slightly more concerning pain in my right knee... having already damaged the ligaments in my left knee (now mostly healed) and torn the cartiledge in the now infamous frisbee incident last year, I was a bit worried about how that knee would fare on the walk - very well it seems, because that knee feels fine now. The right knee however, not so - it hurts, it much the same way as the ligament pain did in the other knee. I'm really hoping that there won't be any lasting damage and that the pain will ease off.

So, Pete, Helen, Steve, Sally, Naomi, Steve, Tania, Rich, Marty and Richelle: Same place, same time, next year...?!? ;-)

New

So, as predicted, a slow blogging week, again. My impetus for this has dwindled a bit. That's partly because I've been really busy, and this has not been a good week at work. It's also because I'm being distracted by a rather nice new influence in my life. I'm not ready to reveal all yet, but it's sure having an impact on me, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

In the meantime, for a week which includes my birthday, the forthcoming week is looking all a bit stressful!! Too much going on at work, which is adding to the stress, and then the Walk of Doom, as Steve has finally dawned on us... oh dear. I have blisters from wearing nice but painful shoes to the UHSU Ball on Friday (pictures in the usual place) - and having blisters at the beginning of a walk which is blatantly going to give me blisters is not a happy state of affairs!

Still, when I've had a go at it, at least I'll have done one of my New Years Resolutions!

Blurgh

Another sparse blogging week... and this post is not going to be a long one. Words fail me - I just can't anything down! It's been a mad and intense week, and I'm just not sure that I know how I feel about all sorts of things that have happened.

One think I do know though is that the Bon Jovi gig tonight was totally fab, so that's all good.

More later, when I have a bit more ability to work out which letters should go in front of others to form words for constructive sentences - and then I'll be making a bit more sense!

The big one

Well, it's been an unusually long time since my last post... probably because I've really not spent a great deal of time in front of the computer for various reasons (well, not this one anyway, the work one, yes) including this.

I said in my last post that life is a rollercoaster.... well, it sure is. At the moment I feel like I'm on this one currently the record holder for the faster coaster in the world. Things are constantly changing all around me, and I'm finding it a little hard to keep up. On the whole, things are exciting, stimulating and... uh, interesting. I'm feeling slightly dazed and confused, but I just need to get stuck in and get on with it.

This week has been what is supposed to be a rest week at work - a time to catch up on all the things we never have time to do usually. The only problem is, I've not really done that, because the quiet time bought out my rebellious streak, and I spent a lot of time enjoying short days and reasonable lunches... which is why I now find myself at the end of a three hour stint of work on a Sunday, with more to go before I'm ready for tomorrow. I am at least very much enjoying sitting in the garden in the sun working, rather than being stuck inside - thank god for wireless internet, again! - although the laptop is getting sunstroke...!

The show was fantastic - and very funny. It is a credit to all involved in Act2 that such a show can be pulled together without too much stress, and with a hefty dose of fun and humour along the way. I very much enjoyed mucking in with the crew and being 'one of the boys' on the production side of this one. I'm also going to take this opportunity to say that I think Marty did a fantastic job on his directorial debut - your influence on the play, and the actors, really shone through, and it is a great credit to you - so shut your noise and take the complements!

Also since my last post, I went to the England vs Barbarians rugby match at Twickenham - it was a fab match and a great day out - and then on Bank Holiday Monday I did some things I really enjoy and haven't done for ages - wandering around London, having a Harrods picnic in Hyde Park, going to a pub quiz (albeit that we weren't very good), and did some other stuff. Great. Exactly the kind of stuff I should do more often.