Six Go Potty in the Peaks

Take six women who have never met before, stick them in a youth hostel in the middle of nowhere for a weekend and make them walk up hills in storms, hailstones and gale force winds. A great idea for a new reality TV show perhaps? Six Go Potty in the Peaks? No - it’s what I did last weekend.

The Peru charity challenge I’m going on is actually a whole series of challenges – everything from the fundraising to the physical. One challenge is going away with a group of people I don’t know from Adam (or Eve). So when one extremely organised member of our Peru posse asked if anyone fancied a weekend practice in the Peak District I jumped at the chance. The organised one sorted out cheap accommodation and a walking guide and all we had to do was turn up.

Getting there was an adventure in itself, involving a hairy drive along unknown country roads in the dark, with torrential rain and fog, and frequent squabbles with my sat nav. I stopped lost at a lonely farmhouse when it occurred to me that if this was a horror film the door would slowly open with a creak to reveal a man with no teeth and a beard down to his ankles giving an evil laugh. Thankfully it wasn’t, instead a lovely lady answered and gave me directions. I resisted the temptation to ask if I could just come into her welcoming Aga heated kitchen for a steaming bowl of broth and stay the night.

I finally found the right pot holed track that led to the youth hostel we were booked into – another first as I’ve never stayed in one before. Not being acquainted with hostel etiquette I was a bit surprised when the very young looking boy on reception directed me to our room with a warning there was a lot of steep steps up to our block but offered no help to carry my bags.

After lugging one huge rucksack, a smaller rucksack and bags full of provisions up to the room I was breathless and a tad bad tempered and very aware this may not make a good first impression. But the door was flung open and I was welcomed with a big hug by Rose, the only other one who’d arrived. One by one the others got there and we exchanged horror stories of the drive we’d had and the exasperation of the steep steps we then had to climb.

Get a gaggle of women together and one thing is guaranteed – they will talk! Conversation flowed and after a good meal in a nearby pub we had covered a variety of topics including family, fears about the trek, guilty pleasures and Shewees (toilets continued to be a hot topic of the weekend!).

I can’t recall the last time - if ever – I’ve slept in a bunk bed in a room shared with five other females. Certainly not in recent times. But I love that usually responsible, busy wives, mothers, and businesswomen of a certain age can quickly and seamlessly transform into a bunch of giggly teenage girls having a sleep over.

Our organised one had organised a wonderful walking guide, Cath, who became one of the gang for the two days. I’ve never been to the Peak District before so it was great to have someone really knowledgeable and passionate about the area. She knew we were here to help prepare for Peru and had a way of gently pushing us to make sure our walks were strenuous and stretching rather than a stroll and she just smiled sweetly whenever we asked if we were at the last hill of the day (we never were).

The weekend was also an opportunity to test out a lot of the gear we’ve all been buying for the trip. And thanks to the weather we really did get to experience everything. On the first walk we had four seasons in one day – we set off in pouring rain and the waterproofs I swore I wouldn’t wear as they look and sound like you’re clothed in plastic bags became my best friend. Cath actually felt so sorry for us we were allowed a break in a tea room at one point just so we could dry out. Then the sun came out, we had our lunch break in a sheltered spot and set off with renewed enthusiasm – until we hit hailstones, or rather they hit us. Not just any old hailstones but giant gusty ones that felt like someone throwing grit into your face. After that gale force winds almost blew us off a path we were climbing to the top of one particularly huge hill. But throughout the day we stayed smiling, laughing, determined, (occasionally sweary) and supporting each other all the way.

When we got back to the hostel around tea time we couldn’t face or do the long trip up the steps to the room to get changed and come back down again, so ate early in our hiking gear and hat hair – not giving a damn what we looked like. The incentive of wine and chocolate in our room helped us get up there eventually, we sat round in our PJs chatting from our bunk beds until falling asleep at a shockingly early hour for a Saturday night.

Amazingly the next day we managed to get up early, sorted our things for the day, packed cars up ready to be off when we got back and ate a breakfast of sorts all by 9am. Our second day hike was over different terrain, on Kinder Scout the highest in the Peak District – steep, rocky, and both icy and boggy. The weather was also very different – freezing cold but sunny, and as there were no handy toilets or tea rooms, we all got used to outdoor peeing and one lucky lady gave her Shewee deluxe its debut!

It was a terrific, tiring weekend full of making new friends, having fun and of course physical challenges. At the end of it saying goodbye to the group felt both a bit sad and scary, as the next time we all meet will be at Heathrow – as we set off to Peru… Yikes!

A tasty treat

I love writing and I love food... And thanks to my favourite foodie magazine Appetite North East I got to combine the two!

Write on track

Farewell then January you grey, grumpy, lumpy kind of month - and hello February, bringer of longer days, first flowers and the slightest hint of spring.

Always my least favourite month, I would quite happily forget about January completely, hide away, hibernate and start my new year on the 1st February. This year though there was something exciting about it - starting (and sticking with) Sally's Quilford's challenge to write 100K words in 100 days.   The result so far is that in 31 days I have written a total of 30,126 words. Not bad for one who could win awards in procrastination and suffers from chronic distractionitis. 

I still wonder why it is so hard to do something I really enjoy when I am actually getting on with it but learning lots about what works for me along the way, such as:

• The best thing I can do is have an hour very first thing to write undisturbed. I can usually write around 1,000 words and not panic if I don't get any more written that day. So I'm now setting my alarm a bit earlier on a regular basis (apart from odd days when the desire for a bit more sleep wins!)
• I aimed to set aside more than just an hour to two here and there - planning to have half days and even the odd full day doing nothing but writing. This hasn't quite worked out and I now know that I need to get out of the house and loiter in the library or sit in a cafe if I'm going to achieve this.
• Most of my writing so far has been non-fiction but some of Sally's prompts have inspired me to scribble some short scraps of fiction. This has led me to now actually taking notice of the seed of an idea that's been blowing around me for a while and I'm starting to give it some attention and develop it properly.
• I am happy to some degree going with the flow but do need to have a plan, some targets set and goals of how many words I want to get done each week and when I want to finish drafts.
• I am working with several different things on the go. I thought was just me being my usual 'flibbertigibbet' self (as my mother would say) But actually it's quite helpful. If I'm a bit stuck or not ‘in the zone' for one particular piece of writing, instead of struggling and getting nowhere I can choose another one which at that moment in time just flows a bit easier.
• Most importantly - I feel that I can do it! I know that it is quantity over quality at the moment (I’m getting over my desire to edit as I go along) but just getting a lot of words written and, more importantly, making the time to write regularly has done wonders for my confidence.

Here’s to the next 30,000 words!

Eeeeh I've bought a book!

I have done it. I have purchased my first e-book. I realise I'm not being any sort of trail blazer with this announcement - e-books and readers have been around a while now. But up until today I've just not got round to joining this particular reading revolution. I'm not even sure why not, being a fan of books, reading and technology (with a particular penchant for gadgets that begin with 'i').

Perhaps it's because I have a pile (actually more than one) of books that I haven't yet read, I have ones that I look at and determine to re-read because I loved them first time round, I have a never ending list of 'books to read' and regularly add more to my creaking shelves despite promises to myself not to until I have read every single one I already own. Do I really need another way to lead me into temptation?

Then, when I was browsing for other apps I came across the Kindle one - and could not resist. I tend to binge buy, and there is something all too easy about online purchasing, so I limited myself to getting just two (for now) - uncharacteristically restrained of me. I bought Ben Hatch's 'Are We Nearly There Yet?' and Nicola Morgan's 'Write a Great Synopsis' - choices influenced by hearing about both of these on Twitter.

So here I am, iPad in hand reading my first e-book. It is a different experience of course. I love the feel and smell of books, the turn of the pages, but it's no less pleasurable (the choice of books obviously helps!). As with all things online, the accessibility and ease with which you can you can buy e-books, and the prices, make them an attractive option. And to me that's just what they are - another option.

This definitely does not mean the end of books as I know and love them. Like so many other things I now do, I believe this new electronic option will sit comfortably with the more traditional and I can pick and choose which I use according to circumstance, day or mood. I now, for example, tend to read newspapers online during the week, but my weekends aren't complete without a trip to the paper shop for the Guardian and the Observer, I have a growing iTunes collection but still buy and play CDs, I shop online but still regularly visit local shops.

Despite some gloomy previous predictions of damage the internet and all things online could cause, newspapers are still in business, shops are still open, and the world hasn't ended. Changed, yes - but isn't that just what happens? The world changes, progresses, evolves, it will always happen. I think e-books are actually more of an evolution rather than a revolution  - and if it gets more people reading, surely that's got to be a good thing.

Now, I must get back to that e-book!

A touch of frost

Today it's back to fields like mud baths and blowing a hooley on the beach but our past few days of perma-frost at least made things look pretty.  I'm not a huge fan of cold weather but the sprinkling of glittery white made our usual daily walks look clean, crisp and fresh.

Climb every mountain

This time in just three short months I'll be somewhere in Peru wondering what I'm doing spending the next ten days with a bunch of strangers up a very high mountain.

I signed up to a charity trek to Machu Picchu to raise money for Breast Cancer Care last year, when it seemed a long time in the future, when the scariest thing was having to ask people for money and when I didn't know a single other person doing it.

Since then, thanks to kind donations, cake sales, comedy night, clothes swishing, sponsored running and tin rattling, I’ve raised just short of my £3,000 target. I have met, through email and Face Book at least, a dozen of my fellow trekkers, all women, most of who have also signed up solo. Now it's time to start seriously thinking about the trek itself – and I have many mixed feelings flying about!

Nervous? Absolutely! I'm spending 24 hours a day for ten days in some extreme conditions with people I don't know. I will be camping and doing without proper showers or toilets (not my idea of a good time). Although I am on a fitness regime I’ve heard lots of stories about how altitude sickness affects even the fittest of people.  I’ve finally read the information pack properly and realised that I need thermals and a sleeping bag that can withstand minus 15 degrees (I hate being cold!) as well as t-shirts and sun protection.

Excited? Definitely! This is going to be one hell of an experience. Having spoken to others who've done it recently, their tales and unanimous enthusiasm that they'd do it again (despite the lack of toilets and how ill they may have been) reinforces that this really is an incredible once in a lifetime opportunity.

I am also a little bit proud of myself. The reason I'm doing this is to raise funds for Breast Cancer Care. Not a natural fundraiser, though happy to regularly donate to charities, it's the first time I've ever got so involved in this sort of thing. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, I know how increasingly vital the work of organisations like BCC is. I know first hand that while the NHS is largely good at doing what it does, there is such a lot of other help, information and support you only get from other places.  The fund raising has been hard but worth it - and maybe I'll give it a go again in the future.

I'm sure I'll also be proud of completing the challenge of the trek. In the almost four years since I was diagnosed I've set up my own business, learned to scuba dive, been on holiday by myself for the first time, rediscovered a love of horse riding, ran my first half marathon, been backpacking for the first time. I don't know if I've been driven to do so much over the past few years because I now have an absolute appreciation of how short life is and there's lots I want to do and try, or because I'm trying to convince myself that I can still do absolutely anything and everything, or maybe it's just some kind of normal mid-life crisis and fortysomething madness! Who knows? But after this next big challenge I may have a bit of a rest. Or not. We'll see…

If you want to find out more about my charity trek see Mission Machu Picchu

My new BFs

We had a difficult introduction and tense first few weeks.  I didn't really like them that much. They didn't know me that well. I missed my old buddies who'd seen me through good times and bad times. But finally today we've clicked. My new trainers and I are now firmly best of friends. 

I didn't think I'd get quite as attached to my old ones but they'd seen me through my first year of doing 'proper' regular running including the exhilarating experience of the Great North Run.  It was actually that run that finished them off though I clung onto them for another couple of months, making excuses for them and realising how ridiculously fond I'd become of a pair of now tatty, battered old running shoes. It was when they started to smell even worse than they looked that I finally had to admit it was time to say goodbye. Even then it took a few weeks for them to make the final exit from cupboard to bin.

I'd already bought this new pair and started wearing them in December when most of my running was in the gym on the treadmill. They’ve stayed shiny and clean and, well, not really me. This week, finally over the festivities, I've pulled them on, braced myself and been out running outside again. And, through the mud, the puddles, and those difficult first few runs we've finally bonded.  Maybe it's because they are now a bit more worn in, feel more familiar, and are looking more like they belong to me. I'm glad we're friends at last, we've got some tough times ahead - including this year's Great North Run!