Our Journey

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Last night at home
2007-04-26 00:13:00
and I have done everything I was able to think of. The rest will just have to sort itself out.Gary already mentioned my pretty laid back attitude to packing. So it comes quite as a surprise to me that I am packed and ready to go. No more last minute panic tomorrow - how will I cope?? But I must say that I am not the master in leaving the packing to the last minute. That honour goes to an old friend of mine. She took that endorphin producing last minute rush to new heights when she realised around midnight, whilst packing, that she could not find her passport. She was booked on a morning flight to Japan and amazingly she did go on that flight - with an emergency passport that was issued by the mayor of her town in the middle of the night. The mayor was called out of bed by her very resourceful and persuasive husband. He opened the office and issued her with the desired travel documents. Do not try this in any large city or anywhere in the UK!I am still in awe - anybody can pack la...
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Our lives for the next two months...more or less...or is that more?
2007-04-24 22:14:00
We will be departing the day after tomorrow and today Doris, true to her usual relaxed approach to travel, bought her rucksack and most of her clothes for the trip. I, true to my usual uptight approach, purchased everything a couple of months ago. The completion of our “kit out” provided a great opportunity, so I thought, to line up all of our stuff, give or take a few items, in front of our respective rucksacks, thus demonstrating the meagre possessions that will be our lives for the next two months. The blue rucksack is mine and the red one belongs to Doris. As you may be able to see, and much to Doris's amusement, the pile of stuff in front of the blue rucksack is a little (sic) larger than that in front of the red one. This is made a smidgen more embarrassing by the fact that I berated Doris for buying a smaller rucksack than she advised me to buy because she preferred the colour of the smaller one. Now I know that I usually take too much when we go away, “just in ca...
More About: Lives , More , That , Less , Months

Medication Time
2007-04-23 13:07:00
Jo send us this card which totally cracks us up: every morning and evening I form an orderly cue and Gary counts out the pills. We just collated all the pills we need to take on the trip and it is quite a pile. Gary takes a cocktail of drugs for his fibrillation ‘troubles’ (he never fails to mention that Tony Blair was a fellow sufferer) and I for a hyperactive thyroid and associated symptoms. I am really resenting the fact that within months we went from nothing to both of us having to take medication every day and especially that we have to drag them along on our trip. Luckily it is likely that both our symptoms will disappear and we will be able to discontinue the drugs in a year or so.
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Major Donation
2007-04-23 01:40:00
On Thursday I met back up with a group of lovely people I used to get up for at 6 am every Thursday morning for about three years. We were a networking group and for some reason this group had good karma from the very beginning. I made some great connections and feel all warm and fuzzy about all of them. Hi guys, I had a lovely evening and I understand Warren is going to host the next get together in his beautiful garden.Over the years we also managed to accumulate quite a bit of surplus in the group's bank account. Of that a (surprisingly) modest amount went on our dinner and the rest is going to be shared between two charities. One is Medicines sans Frontiers and we are proud to add about £ 1200 to our sponsorship - that is £ 1 for every kilometer we are going to walk. Gary and I are very grateful!!Elaine, please hit the 'donate now' button just up and to the right, follow the instructions (I know that is a challenge, but do try) and make us look really impressive please...
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Our preparation
2007-04-20 12:07:00
In my last blog entry, I said I had realised that I had prepared for walking but that I had not prepared for not walking. Doing versus being. As a consequence, a lot of people have asked me what we have done to prepare. My confident answer is that I have bought a rucksack, over-priced walking clothing, two heavy books to read and a relatively lightweight notebook PC. Doris is slightly less well prepared, having purchased maps for the German part of our journey and publicised our journey to her network of friends and contacts but not yet having purchased a rucksack or walking gear. And, oh yes, we did three walks of about seven and one half miles where we shared the load of a single weighted rucksack. If you know me rather than Doris, you probably think I am being flippant and have omitted the rigorous training regime and day by day plan, with accommodation all pre-booked. Unfortunately, that is not the case and we may be setting out on the most ill-prepared expedition since Capt...
More About: Para , Preparation , Prep

Closed for business
2007-04-19 10:49:00
I wrote my last invoice last week and now have nothing ahead of me for the next two months other than our journey. None of my famous projects on the go in their various stages of 'incompleteness', nobody to talk to about future collaboration, no networking meetings, I said good bye to my Master mind group, no long ‘To Do’ lists actually they are supposed to be ‘Next Action’ lists (if I ever reach the for me seemingly unobtainable heights of GTD - Get Things Done heaven), no more telephone conferences booked………. When the phone rings it is either somebody persistent from an Indian call centre (there has been a plethora of those lately – what is going on??) or it is a friend or family members making helpful statements like: ‘Not long now’ ‘Do you now wish you had organise a luxurious beach holiday for Gary’s 50th birthday’ ‘Wow, that is quite a distance’ ‘How is the training going?’ So like Gary said in his previous blog and my go...
More About: Business , Close , Ness , Sine , Closed

The relativity of time
2007-04-13 00:51:00
Our journey has been months in the future for so long that it came as shock to realise that we fly to Germany in just two weeks today. It feels as if there is still so much more preparation to do but I am just not quite sure what it is! A couple of days after we leave, we will start our walk and life will be very different. We will be forever accompanied by our rucksacks, blisters and sore joints. We will have minimal changes of clothes and have no home comforts, such as a comfy chair in front of the television, a familiar bed with clean sheets and on-tap broadband. Food choices will be limited to meals in restaurants, bars, cafes and hotels, or to meals that we can assemble from cold ingredients such as bread, cheese and cold cuts of meat. An exception will be those occasions when someone offers us hospitality – no many so far. This will be our lives for two months. Apart from the food choices, it is a liberating thought. All that we will need will be on our backs. Our liv...
More About: Time , Relativity

Arty farty
2007-04-10 13:21:00
Since I turned 40 I started exploring my artistic side. In the beginning I proceeded very tenderly because I was ‘unkind art teacher damaged’ but I am gaining confidence and started an arty business. The business has yet to gain the right momentum. One day I am going to truly believe that I can make it. But in the mean time I have horded quite a stack of toys and papers ‘and stuff’. I have got a beautifully light studio space which I AM GOING TO MISS. I just love messing around with new techniques and ideas and my latest love is something called Artist Trading Cards (ATC’s) Here you can find more details about it: http://www.artist-trading-cards.ch/ Here are examples of my efforts: I will take some empty cards along and a pen and maybe I find a talent for drawing something others will be able to recognise.
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Grateful
2007-04-01 22:26:00
I was talking to my mother yesterday and she said she has to practise walking because she is going on a sight seeing tour in May. We joked about us both having to practise walking.My mother has two knee replacements and 20 months ago she stumbled, fell and broke her leg badly which knocked her confidence. Since then she has fallen several times, thankfully not breaking anything but due to the artificial knee joints it is difficult for her to get up again on her own (which really bugs her). Her pride will not allow her to use a walking stick but neither will she ever give up. I admire her tenacity and grit greatly. She has always had it. Whether it was combining five children with a pristine house and garden or never staying down for long when she struggled with excruciatingly painful kidney infections and eventually losing one kidney. She turned 70 last year and has done an amazing job creating a new life for herself since my father died eight years ago. My father died from a lung...
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Blister 101
2007-03-31 11:12:00
Having worked from home for nearly 10 years I have developed rather tender feet which are more used to comfy slippers than outdoor shoes. Any court shoe will sooner or later rip open the skin on the back of my heel/ankle. Any high heeled shoe makes the soles of my feet burn. It all sounds rather dainty but I wear a size 8 so they are not exactly what one would call cute. Regrettably my 15 year old beloved walking boots are falling to pieces. So I am dutifully walking in my new walking boots and blisters are on my mind! Here is the science bit:A blister or bulla is a defence mechanism of the human body. When the outer (epidermis) layer of the skin separates from the fibre layer (dermis), a pool of lymph and other bodily fluids collect between these layers while the skin re-grows from underneath. Blister s can be caused by heat, frostbite, or friction. What you can do to reduce the chance of ending up with blisters (who are they trying to kid): - Good fitting...
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A new obsession
2007-03-27 22:08:00
Some people might have noticed my slight obsession with the exact number of kilometres we are going to walk (I like measurable goals). But now I have a new one – WEIGHT. Not my weight, that is an old obsession and a different blog……………… the weight of our rucksacks. Naively or wisely we have never walked anywhere with a big hiking rucksack on our backs – EVER. I am sticking with ‘wisely’ because having experienced our first outing with a slightly weighted rucksack makes it insignificant if we walk 100 kilometres less or more. Even though our first outing went well, our journey has just gotten a whole lot more challenging in my head. Luckily Gary and I can be very determined and we have also told way too many people about our plans so we can’t chicken out anymore. However, I still have a slight niggling worry in the back of my head that I will end up with egg on my face because I can not last the distance. So I have to remind myself that for me this walk is...
More About: Obsession , Sion

Uebernachtungs update
2007-03-23 00:32:00
Wir suchen Uebernachtungen hier (in pink haben wir schon) 29.04 in der Naehe von Kuernach / Rimpar Danke!! 30.04 in der Gegend von Helmstadt Danke!!! 01.05 in der Gegend von Wertheim Die Jugendherberge schaut dort ganz gut aus 02.05 in der Gegend von Buergstadt 03.05 in der Gegend von Vielbrunn 04.05 in der Gegend von OberosternBis wir wissen wie schnell wir voran kommen wird es schwierig sein genaue Daten durchzugeben wann wir wo sein werden. Aber legt ganz einfach eine 'bookmark' fuer diese Seite an (wie heisst das denn in Deutsch?) und kommt regelmaessig um zu hoeren wie es uns denn so geht. Ueber Kommentare freuen wir uns natuerlich immer.Und dann gibt es da noch die Moeglichkeit uns eine Aufgabe zu stellen die wir waehrend unserer Wanderung gegen grosszuegige Spenden erledigen koennen. Wir sind einer guten Herausforderung immer offen - Gary liebt nichts besser als zu gewinnen.
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Lily's Opium Den
2007-03-22 13:20:00
My mum has been prescribed morphine to help her get over the effects of her radiotherapy. Unfortunately, for reasons that I don't need to go into, it didn't arrive until a few days after the treatment and is taken in a manner that my mum pronounced “ridiculous”. And, having visited her last night, I have to agree. Suffice to say it involves a hard to fit stopper, an inverted bottle of liquid, a syringe with tiny measurements and a manoeuvre to the inside of the cheek. It was a challenge for the visiting district nurse, let alone a woman of close to eighty. Rational, scientific, out-of-the box-thinking person that I am, I came up with a radical alternative. Pour the appropriate dose into a spoon and slurp it down. So last night we gave it a go. Mum was delighted with the new method, as it was so much easier and she would actually take it, rather than, as I suspect, simply not take it because it was all way too difficult. The only slight problem was that mum filled the spoon ...
More About: Lily

Wise words
2007-03-19 10:08:00
'There is more to life than making it go faster' Ghandi I am still thinking about what will be challenging for me during the walk - apart from my feet and the rest of my body taking turns in hurting. I like my own space for example and great ingredients cooked simply. But one of the things that will require the biggest adjustment is our inability to get anywhere fast when we have to walk every step of the way. I am one of the fast brigade; when I have decided on something, it has to happen there and then and I will not stop until it has. I will search for the fastest connection of trains, research at length (!) the shortest routes, drive speedily, get wound up when others slow me down and lately even lament the fact that my broadband connection is a little sluggish.Anyway, I will have to adjust on the walk and slooooooooooooooooooooooow dooooooown. I am looking forward (in a gently dreading kin...
More About: Words , Wise

The Slob
2007-03-16 11:17:00
“Why have you become a slob?”, asked my mum, who was spending the weekend with us. I tried to stutter a response but no words came out, as there were so many implications in that one short, loaded, sentence. It had been preceded by, “I have been thinking about something and it's been bothering me.” This is the sort of sentence that, when I was a teenager, used to precede the discovery of pornographic magazines, condoms or other things far too embarrassing to reveal here. It is said with a particular tone of inquisitiveness that makes my stomach flip. On this occasion, I had expected it to be about our journey. The previous day, I had finally gathered the courage to tell her about it. But no, it was about me being a slob – and the reasons for it! Pressed on the subject of my new found status, she responded that I had been designated a slob because I, “go around in my pajamas all day”. Interestingly, after many years of somnolent nakedness and t-shirts, I was no...

Fuer unsere Deutschen Freunde..........
2007-03-07 17:20:00
mal was auf Deutsch!Gestern haben wir Garys 50. Geburtstag in Stil gefeiert. Garys Geschenk ist unsere Wanderung aber er hat natuerlich auch ein paar andere Sachen bekommen. Vielen Dank an meine Geschwister und Anhang die sich so viel Muehe gemacht haben. Je naeher der Tag rueckt, desto animierter sprechen wir ueber unsere Reise und was dort passieren wird. Wir haben schon ein paar Leute die einen Teil des Weges mit uns laufen werden und freuen uns sehr darauf Zeit fuer lange Gespraeche zu haben. So eine lange Strecke zu Fuss zu gehen ist fast unvorstellbar, vor drei Wochen sind wir von Deutschland nach London geflogen und haben die Strecke zwischen Grafenrheinfeld und unserem Haus kurz ausserhalb von London in 7 Stunden abgedeckt. Wir werden um die zwei Monate brauchen, die selbe Strecke zu laufen und Zeit wird ein anderes Mass annehmen. Ich bin ganz gespannt darauf ob es mir auf die Nerven geht das alles so langsam voran geht oder ob sich unsere Koerper darauf einstellen und wir ...
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Only 8 weeks to go
2007-03-02 17:46:00
That IS a scary thought. We are both amazingly laid back in our preparations but something little is happening all the time. The route is done, we have got house sitters, we have a list of all the stuff we want to bring (and need to purchase). A couple of days ago I even found a 20 week training plan for people who want to complete a walking marathon............. spot the problem??I just ignore the fact that we are planning to walk a half marathon every day for 60 days and hope the tips on how to avoid and later deal with the inevitable blisters are good. We will report back.Here is Gary during one of his finely tuned workouts: Gary and I have a ‘thing’ for stationary. We both LOVE nice stationary shops and my best present this Christmas was a beautiful ink pen and lots of ink in the most beautiful colours. Anyway – he thinks he found the walkers equivalent. A Northface shop in town! My intuition tells me that we will be spending lots of money there. Wellllllll it is his...
More About: Week , Only , Weeks

Mum
2007-02-28 11:47:00
My comments, in my last entry, saying that I had no fears about my mum's physical well-being, may have been premature. She has just returned home, having spent the last three days in hospital. She was admitted after I became concerned that her breathing was more laboured than usual. I feared that it might get worse and her GP, who came out an emergency call, concurred. This was on top of the dryness of her scalp turning into something very nasty and leading to her having to stop taking the anti-cancer drug, at least for the time being. Antibiotics seem to have improved things a little but the next few weeks will determine whether the breathing difficulty was due to a treatable infection or a permanent change in her condition. There is also, obviously, a concern that the cancer could start to spread further, now that she is no longer taking the drug. We are currently exploring additional care, to allow her to remain in her home, which is what she wants to do. Hopefully, this wil...

My biggest concern
2007-02-12 12:12:00
One of our challenges, both before and during our journey, will be managing my mum. She will be seventy-nine this year, lives on her own, and I am the only person really close to her. I visit once per week, staying overnight, and telephone every day. When I am away, I still telephone every day but it is usual for her to tell me that she has missed me when I return. I guess there must be something about knowing that loving support is only thirty minutes away. Telling her that we will be away for two months is made more difficult, at the moment, because her morale is under attack from the side-effects of the drug she is taking to fight lung cancer. The beneficial effect of drug has been such that I no fears about her physical well-being while we are away and luckily her mind is still as sharp as a tack. I am, however, concerned whether I will, from a distance, be able to help her to maintain the positive frame of mind which she has had for so long but that has lapsed more frequently ...
More About: Once

Challenges
2007-02-08 11:19:00
Yes, we would like to raise a lot of money for Medecins Sans Frontiers because we think they are a really worthwhile charity. We would be thrilled if lots of people would donate a penny or cent for every kilometre we have walked or maybe 10p per kilometre if you are feeling flush!Gary and I will donate 50 Euros every time we are given a free bed to stay overnight on our walk. You can help by having a look at our route. If you know anybody who lives close, perhaps you could contact them and put them in touch with us.For an extra donation we invite you to be creative and set us challenges to complete on our walk - we will consider anything as long as Gary keeps his clothes on!! The larger the donation, the more we will consider.Another way to raise money could be through a company who wants to promote their product across Europe. If you can think of any, let us know. We are open to having our clothes and rucksack merchandised, road test a new product or any other reasonable scheme so...
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