Time To Plan a Fundraiser!

Hello People,

It's frightening the pace at which this blog has taken off, as it stands, one week in, I have ....ah.....one follower! Goodonya Pato! Let's hope week 2 showers me in fame!

Anyway, onward and upward!

My intention over the last few months was to have had a fundraiser by the end of December and have my beautiful cart built so that I could start training with it from the beginning of the new year. Well, that didn't happen. Ignorantly I expected that all I would need to do is mention it to a few people, it would magically happen and I would be dodging big rolls of $50s falling from the sky! Aaah, not quite!

So, after much dialogue with several people (with plenty more to come), it looks like my fundraiser will be held at the beginning of March, exact date to follow! If I'm going to do this thing, I'm going to give myself enough time to get it right and raise some really good dollars for Camp Quality, as well as help Seb Terry hit $100k.

As my training plan has already changed, I will now concentrate on walking with a loaded backpack and doing some hard yards on my brother's rowing machine. Once I get my cart in March, at least I will have some of the foot, knee, back, shoulder, neck etc pains out of the way and will be able to condition myself pretty quickly! It also means that I wont look like a complete numpty walking around the Northern Beaches with a cart loaded with sandbags for 8 months...just 3 or 4!! To be honest though, when you get to 37, have ample back and general body hair, grey receding hairline and nowhere on the body that would look good with a tattoo, it's really time to quit with the vanity thing and just get moving!

By the way, I completed my Padi Open Water Dive certificate last weekend. I know that has very little to do with my trek, but the course involved some underwater navigation skills with a compass! Since I will need to master navigation for my trek, it would have been nice to breeze through that skill without complication. On first attempt I got me out and back no problem, but on the second attempt, whilst in water so merky that I only had 2m of visibility, I got pretty lost. Lost I was, unable to tell if I was ascending or not until I had the presence of mind to read my dive computer. Up was over my shoulder rather than straight up from my head which was a surprise! Anyway, after searching for my buddy for a minute, I raised my purge valve (don't get smutty) and was about to start for the surface when I caught a glimmer of fluro orange in the distance and was saved!

Point is, my navigation skills need a lot of work and I need to spend some time with a few army mates, just so I don't have to press that very embarrassing emergency beacon button at any point on the trek! (shiver!)

Thanks so much for reading Pato, you are a champion!

Dale

p.s. Since I began writing this blog 2 hours ago (duties with a 3 month old interrupted me) several more of my mates have signed up to this blog! Thanks lads, now pass it on and lets get this loco in motion!