This One's for Tim

With the trek just eight days away, I've got a full-on schedule. Long walks have been off the menu for a couple of weeks since I strained a thigh muscle. I'm glad to say that's healed now but there are still final bits to get for my first aid kit and the final attempt at packing to make sure I can get everything in. The first attempt was dire and resulted in a few 'unnecessary' things getting the chop, like the newly-bought travel pillow. As it turns out, lots of us in the group are ditching them and someone suggested just taking a pillowcase and stuffing it with clothes. Genius! Another genius idea is to take binoculars so you can pretend to be looking at the view when actually you're just stopping to catch a breath when we're climbing up the mountain. I'm loving this group of ladies. We'll pull each other through with humour, I'm sure of that. Which leaves me a bit phased as to why today I'm a bit tearful and reluctant to get out of bed and

It's been a challenging week: mud, mud, and more mud. But I can honestly say that Suffolk mud is not a patch on Essex mud (which is really clay - well, they make bricks out of it). But instead of squelching deeply into brown, sticky stuff, I've slipped and slided my way across fields - and even landed on my bottom. Oh, what larks! Today the mud's drying out - I even ventured out this morning in hiking shoes rather than hiking boots or wellies. But I did manage to trip on a bramble branch and projectile launched landing on my knees and hands. I haven't done that for a while - Tim used to huff at me as it used to happen so often. So I had to walk home with muddy knees feeling like a complete fool. I think the people around here are getting to know me...... This morning I've got a Nordic Walking class which I'm really looking forward to. I've sponged the mud off my walking trousers so hopefully no-one will know about the earlier incident! And now we have just t