Well that was the week that was .... although technically it still is given it's only Friday night.
Regular readers may recall it had started with a draining tiring pathetic attempt by me at a PT session at Iveridge Hall (get there if you live around Leeds and are looking for a great place to train; tell them you want a trial and you know of them because of me)
Thankfully the week improved massively, starting with me finally printing out the confirmation of flights for the Trek which created one of those momentary freeze-frame realisations where something sinks in. Dates, times and destinations in black and red ink; gulp. The duration of time I'm away also hit home as although I knew the dates I think seeing them in print and then working my way through the "Okay so it's an 8-day trek which means ..." calculation confirms how many days prep we have before we head out.
Regular readers may recall it had started with a draining tiring pathetic attempt by me at a PT session at Iveridge Hall (get there if you live around Leeds and are looking for a great place to train; tell them you want a trial and you know of them because of me)
Thankfully the week improved massively, starting with me finally printing out the confirmation of flights for the Trek which created one of those momentary freeze-frame realisations where something sinks in. Dates, times and destinations in black and red ink; gulp. The duration of time I'm away also hit home as although I knew the dates I think seeing them in print and then working my way through the "Okay so it's an 8-day trek which means ..." calculation confirms how many days prep we have before we head out.
After the disastrous PT session last Saturday I decided to take Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off to try and get rid of this blessed throat infection and associated lethargy. Instead of exercise I chilled out a little bit but was also busy confirming meetings coming up on the 30th September: -
- Sue Beckingham from Hallam University who may have a social media student willing to use me as a guinea pig for their year assignment, as well as a meeting with a senior lecturer in their Sports Science faculty; rumour had it they were considering me as a case study for their Masters students. Thoughtfully they'd not passed my details onto the biology department for autopsy interest!
- Might drop in to see Marc Rocca (http://www.roccacreative.co.uk/) after that, just because he's such a great mate and total professional ..... except when it comes to the Friday joke they send out every week. For example todays' was "What do you find beneath a Mexican's carpet? Underlay underlay". Hey don't say you weren't warned!!
- Then to Leeds to meet Suzie Vickers over a bite to eat at 'Create', a social venture restaurant in Leeds, to see if she wants to help out do 'stuff' around organising and fundraising etc.
- I'll be at 'Create' all afternoon as I have a meeting with Jo Boardman (http://www.joboardman.org/) to pick her brains about fundraising for my Trek, and finally Clare Young the 2008 Apprentice finalist who is starting a great new business called Teen Biz UK. She has brains and personality and I have a cheeky smile and a cheque for £500 (to sponsor a teenage entrepreneur). Should be fun.
Wednesday started with me dropping Lauren part-way to college so she could meet a friend and then, driving home listening to her favourite radio station (Capital FM) I heard they were asking for people to send in examples of when they got funny looks from others; cue a text about my tyre-pulling exploits.
After it was read out I also responded to another 'request' for people to text in about the first ever text message you'd received. My entry (true) was "First ever text received was in 1993 from a business contact but it remained unread for 4 months as I had no idea why the image of envelope had appeared on my Panasonic mobile ".
Finally it was time for the training regime to re-start so I did an hour (varying my resistance on the cross-trainer between 8 and 16; 2 songs on my iPod shuffle on 8 and then 5 songs on 16) and, once the 'rust' had been brushed off, I felt pretty darn good after the hour. Then it was into Leeds to Bibi's restaurant to meet Mandy Barwick; a lovely lady with the energy of a spring chicken despite her new found challenge of breast cancer.
Not only did Mandy offer some VERY valuable advice, she promised to support me by helping out on my stand for some of the Yorkshire Mafia Conference (http://theyorkshiremafia.com/pages/conference) and presented me with a beautiful 1.75 litre bottle of Belvedere Vodka (although she had to ask Mario to be in the photo as well because she was nervous).
 |
| Mandy said she expected Mario to have smiled; Mario said he WAS smiling. |
After that it was home to start putting e-mails together to warn people the Trekker was back from holiday before it was time to depart for the theatre to listen to Sir Ranulph Fiennes presenting his whacky adventures over the last 40+ years. WHAT A BL**DY LEGEND THAT MAN IS.
I wrote in my column for http://www.troymedia.com/ : -
"There is always a risk in being alive, and if you are more alive, there is more risk”.
I read that for the first time last night after listening to the greatest living explorer (as stated in the Guinness Book of Records), Sir Ranulph Fiennes, give a presentation on his 40 years of . . . well . . . madness really.
He has circumnavigated the world, reaching the North Pole and South Poles, crossed Antarctica unsupported on foot, found the lost city of Ubar in Oman, ran seven marathons on seven continents in seven days at the age of 57 just four weeks after recovering from a heart attack and by-pass surgery, reached the summit of Everest at 65 AND reached the last six in the selection process to be the new James Bond (Roger Moore ultimately got the part). And all this after serving in the SAS.
‘Boys own adventure’ stuff and a film script that would be thrown out as too preposterous for sure if Hollywood ever caught sight of one, but a valuable insight for me"
Listening to Sir Ranulph was one thing and I know Martin, Jonathan, Stephen, Andrew and Denise also found it hugely entertaining but Denise (of Heart Research UK) had also arranged for me to meet him. Well after listening to that presentation I suddenly felt lost for words and maybe that's why the following photo looks like 'legend meets Homer Simpson'.
 |
| The 'legend' is on the left as you look at the photo ... just to avoid ANY possible confusion. |
(INFO-BULLETIN - you are now about halfway through this blog entry so feel free to pause, make yourself a cuppa, take a walk round the block and then come back to read the rest).
Hey, how do you feel; better after that drink of tea and some fresh air? Good, then I'll continue ......
Thursday was by far the most amazing day since I'd got back from holiday. After a wee lay-in I was going to go to the gym but it was SUCH a beautiful day I decided to take one of the tyres to the Park and drag it for 3 miles. Two friendly toots and a shout of "Go on lad, gooo-onnnnn you can do it for Hirsty" - a reference to the Capital FM DJ who'd mentioned me the day before so happy days; celebrity status at last!
I also came across a few ladies happy to joke about their own spare tyres and one woman who, to all intents and purposes, probably pulled a series of muscles straining so hard NOT to look in my general direction. I couldn't take photos of her but here are the 6 expressions I noticed in under 20 seconds (just call me an actor of Joey Tribiani calibre)
 |
| Happy and relaxed look while power-dawdling in a track suit |
 |
| Oh hang on a minute, what's that man doing?? |
 |
| Oh my Davinia, he glanced at you. Don't panic, just remember what Mummy said to do when faced with a depraved lunatic who probably has a knife and wants to lock you in his coal shed and feed you to his pigeons. |
 |
| Just look straight ahead !! He might not notice you. Act and look NATURAL ... yes that's it. |
 |
| I ..... I think .... yes, he's gone by. |
 |
| Another catastrophe avoided. Almost as frightful as the time you couldn't get the petrol cap off at the service station before filling the brum-brum with petrol. Remember that awful man who offered to help? Oh he did smell dreadfully cheap; one needed therapy for a month. |
After that it was a trip to see Clara White at MacMillan Cancer Support and she has now offered me the chance of 8 (yes eight) days fundraising at supermarkets in Leeds; my Trek and MacMillan hopefully raising £5-6k. YES!!
Heart Research UK also confirmed the Yorkshire Evening Post would be carrying a third article about my Trek with reference to meeting Sir Ranulph, The Mirror confirmed that this Saturday they'd have a small fun feature on it and Rosie from SmileS SMS (who have provided Rosie, an outbound telemarketing agent, for an hour a week for free) confirmed there were now 60 companies and sporting organisations who would gladly promote my Trek come March and April. Given Mandy from Bibi's said most of her experience proved that fundraising tended to be pretty much 'lastsecond.com' then I felt so much better even though actual and promised funds are only at £10 000 currently.
Later that night I made my youngest happier than she's been for a while when we went to see a car she was interested in; her first ever. Yes yes she asked nicely so she was literally skipping as she went back into her Mum's house and, in the rear view mirror as I drove away, all I could see was her literally bouncing with excitement as she told her Mum I'd said yes. Just need to get my eldest sorted as well now but that can wait until she's home from back-packing around Europe.
Of course the sooner they get cars the sooner I can start to look at something other than the Freelander ....
Then it was back to the gym for some free weights, cross-trainer and a quickly abandoned attempt at doing some dips. Well an abandoned attempt after two half dips actually; the down 'half' not the 'up' half. Glad to say though could see my pecs tense every time I squatted the 2 x 16kg weights while stood on a balance board. Call me smug.
And so we reach today. A meeting with Craig and Su at Zinc in Manchester and we're on for another couple of fundraisers. They are a truly supportive and amazing team, all of them. Thank you SO much for your enthusiasm. Hmm must get a photo of you on here!!
Tomorrow is training again; Thai Boxing first followed by a half hour PT session but I'm pleased to say that I'm ready for you Paul ... bring it on!!!!
And finally, Sunday is Mark Van Spall taking some more excellent photos of me training for the three charities who have provided t-shirts and want some PR photos. Oh and of course a weekend with Lucia before the week starts all over again.
Fingers are blistered from typing now and it's 11pm so I'm off. Night night (but if you feel the urge, click on the link or links below to donate; no amount too small and certainly no amount too big)
Or send a cheque payable to 'Geoff Major Polar Trek' (mailing address on request) which Bartfields the accountants will deposit in one of their client accounts with Barclays for total transparency. That way you can nominate which charity or charities you want your money to go to
No comments:
Post a Comment