Tom's Birthday

I went to softball training on Sunday and ofcourse it was the hottest day of the year 28 degrees. We lounged around for a bit but after we celebrity spotted Ewan McGregor walk past us I made everyone get up and throw the ball around. Even got a bit of batting practice in too. Once we were done the food came out on the picnic blankets. I decided to head off as I had my bike with me and I was going to cycle home, first time back in the saddle since LtoB. Luckily I followed the canal towpaths and they took me to Victoria Park where I took then wrong path and had to double back a bit. Still it was a lovely ride home, lots of people walking around (bit annoying) but that just gave me the excuse to use my bell.

So once home I started on Tom's cake. The thought process was to make a little model of Dobby the House Elf from the Harry Potter series to put ontop of the cake. I spent a few hours desiging him but he ended up looking more like an elephant, and when I walked away from the table he fell face first and squash his nose, and then his ear fell off. In the end I decided not to put him on. So in the end Tom ended up with a four tiered chocolate cake with layers of chocolate icing and fresh raspberries. I forgot to take my camera so none of him with the candles......oh well theres always next year. We are off to dinner tonight to a Thai restaurant in Holborn, can't wait love my prawn pad thai.

Summer Ball

Last night we attended the CLM Summer Ball at Old Billingsgate on the Thames. Unfortunately it was raining when we got there so we couldn't stand on the Thames sipping champagne, we had to do it indoors! It's a hard life.

A delicious dinner was served, a couple of raffles & auctions as well (reminences of our own Chrissy Ball but smaller). They were running a bit late but it was a lovely evening. The band came on and I must have showed my age as I went into the outside area because the music was so loud you couldn't talk to the person next to you! ha ha ha

Eventually though it was time to go home, I was quite tired at this stage. Luckily Pip and i grabbed and cab and I was home in bed by 1am. A wonderful evening.

Birthday's galore

So after the ride on Sunday I thought I might not be able to walk properly but besides tight thigh's I was ok! Brilliant....as some people said I was going hard enough.

Monday night went to the cinema with Tom, Mark & Charlene to see X-Men First Class. Excellent. Very entertaining movie and it's cool to see how the older characters started. Then it was home to finish Emma's birthday cake. Took a little bit longer than anticipated due to incorrect colour. The box was yellow, so I assumed the marizpan would be too....NO! oh well

Tuesday was spent baking Suzy's cake and relaxing a bit.

Wednesday night I finished Suzy's cake - Floozy the Turtle. The Tom drove me to Nat's to pick up her old tv. We now have a widescreen telly! AMAZING

Thursday (last night) played softball and we won 8-7, a very tight game but satisfying win. Then home to bed.

Friday - Today - going to a Summer Ball at Old Billingsgate with work so excited about that.

This weekend - Clare is back from hols on Saturday (have to clean the house) but other than that I will be doing NOTHING!

Just before the Beacon

Just past halfway to Brighton

1st stop on the way to Brighton

London to Brighton - DONE!

4am - the buzzer goes off to wake me. Unfortunately the music lulls me back into sleep. Luckily I had set a second alarm to play the Baywatch theme tune at 4.30am to ensure I was up.

5am - Tom's knocking on the door, ready to take me to Clapham. Still running around getting ready. Hope in the car and we are off....whoops forgot my water bottle so back home to pick it up (we were only 5 mins away). Am now Tom's slave for the next couple weeks.

5.50am - Arrive at Krista's house to pick up my bike, ring her and wake her up. Luckily she had only been to bed for 3 hours so was still semi awake (ha ha ha ha). Cycle off to Clapham South to meet up with the team.

6.10am - Arrive at the meeting point and the team starts turning up. We all look amazing in our shirts. Nat calls, her brother overslept and was late picking her up! Luckily he wasn't too far away and she gets to us by 6.35am. We then head over to the VIP tent at the start line - free food & drinks. I had some hashbrowns, mushrooms & bacon with a lovely cuppa tea in the sun waiting for our start time. Finally we have our team photo and head off about 7.30am.

Time? Who knows, it has now become irrelevant. So between 7.30am and 2pm :

Obviously Nat & I went off at our own pace (last of the Lend Lease bunch) but we were doing good. Chatting away cycling it was brilliant, then we sped down the first hill outside London. If this is what the ride was going to be like, I was excited. NO. We got to the first hill and whilst we were going to ride up it (not really) there were so many people we had to walk up it. We paused here for the first video diary. Hard work but getting there.

Next stop was past the half way mark. I think we were doing ok, and the sun was out but not too sunny. At this stop we refueled, ate (again) and then got back on the bikes to cycle on.

3 - 4 hills, flat countryside and a drink stop later we finally arrived just before the bottom of THE BEACON.

2pm onwards: This hill was reminiscent of Mount Killimanjro back home it was that massive. People were actually cycling up but Nat & I were pushing our bikes up. Even the act of pushing was exhausting. Princess is not light bike. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other with the mantra "It's for charity" running through my head. Finally get to the top and what a relief. I vaugely remember the views (lovely) and after a brief drink and mars bar (tasty) we cycled on along the top of the Beacon, when suddenly we have black clouds over us!

Kaboom - the heavens opened up and as the wind was coming in at a 90 degree angle. It felt like someone was throwing gravel in my face. We pulled over for a pic, everything was saturated. And then we had to go down the Beacon in the pour raining. Very scary actually. It was extremely steep and people were hammering it down. I kept the brakes on lightly the whole way down and didn't breathe easy till we hit the bottom outskirts of Brighton. It was still another 4 miles into town to the seafront.

3.10pm - Nat & I cross the finish line to loads of cheers for the Lend Lease team, who were sitting in the marquee eating & drinking, waiting for us to finish. A brilliant ending to and extremely physical & mental endeavour.

After we stuffed a hamburger & salad i was ready to go. Had brought my thongs so was able to take of my saturated shoes & socks. We then cycled along the boardwalk to the coaches and managed to get our bikes & bodies on the 4.30pm coach home. I must have dozed off because next thing you know we are in Clapham.

6.30pm - After waving the others off (Mark, Neil, Nat, Steve, James, Andy, Jamie) I cycled to Clapham Junction station for the train trip home. Don't think Tom was too keen to come back and pick me up after the 4am start! Luckily the train took me all the way to Wanstead Park and I only had to cycle a further 5 mins to get home.

8.30pm - Walked in my front door. Washed (brilliant REALLY needed to do that), started to watch telly but fell asleep so went to bed.

As i was obviously soooo tired and out of it last night it's no surprise what happened this morning:

Alarm goes off, automatically I know I have 1 hour to get up dressed and out the door. So I do it and get to the bus stop but no one is there. Strange as there are usually the same people waiting. I get my phone out of my bag and look at the time, 7.05am. Yes you won't believe it but I set the alarm for 6am instead of 7am. I was now an hour early for work!!! What to do???

Macca's breakfast - delicious. What an end to an amazing adventure.

Priscilla and pre-cycle preparations

Priscilla Queen of the Desert......AMAZING!! I think everyone should go and see it, the music was fantastic and the atmosphere electric. We had the best time and I would probably see it again.

Last night was spent at home relaxing getting ready for the big cycle! Today I went and dropped my bike off at Krista & Julie's house so it's near to Clapham so I don't have to worry about getting the bike halfway across London at 5am. Tom's going to give me a lift in the morning so I don't have to get 2/3 buses at 4am, thank goodness!

Supplies for tomorrow are sorted for me & Nat!!

Quizzing & Softball

So we had softball game on Clapham South Common and we played the London Raiders Green. We had a full team which was fantastic and managed to get ahead 16-3. Credit to the Raiders though they clawed their way back but we managed to hold them off to 23-19. The great news was we were all in our t-shirts and managed to get a great team shot. There are more members so will have to have another shot later in the season.

I also subbed for another team in the division about us, The Cheetahs. Was a bit nervous as The Cheetah's are top of their division. Never fear, they were lovely and I must have brought them luck as we won 25 - 2 and the Umpire ended up calling the mercy rule into effect in only the 4 inning! We didn't make it to 7 innings so a resounding win.

Last night we had our work quiz night and fun was had by all. My team, Tequilla Mockingbird, came in tied 5th place on 68 points. The questions were quite hard but international themed. Might get the quiz master to do a round on Australia and see how the English go! The winning team Mudge Packers killed it on 87 points!! Then there was karaoke afterwards. I wanted to sing (badly) but no one would sing with me, maybe next time.

Off to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert tonight, really looking forward to it for the past 2 months! We are hitting Chipolte before hand for a bit of a Mexican feast.

Softball & Sleeping

We had a softball game on Thursday, unfortunately we lost. We were dow one girl so had to play with an automatic out.

This weekend was spent at home relaxing, lots of sleeping and reading books. I did manage to leave the house once to meet up with Mila & Helen for cocktails. It was Helen's birthday on Friday so it was nice to catch up with her on Saturday.

Sunday spent the day in bed reading and today is Netty's birthday! Happy birthday, wish I was there to help celebrate. Maybe next year.

Next week I've got 2 games of softball, pub quiz, theatre tickets and girls drinks! Big week coming up.

BBQ at my house

What a nice evening for a BBQ at our house. We had our first BBQ of the Summer, the food was tasty, cooked on my new barbie! I've only managed to put half the barbie together so that is a job for the future. It did get pretty cold later in the evening, so Mark got into Clare's snuggle blanket. A great time had by all.

More strawberries & cycling

So our drains were blocked and every shower or dish wash it exploded out onto the cement! Luckily Tom came round and sorted them out and got a free dinner out of it. Thank goodness for Tom cause the smell coming up from the water was horrendous. We did get to try the new home grown strawberries, delicious.

Today we went for a cycle round east London. Started heading up to Hackney marshes following the canal path. It was lovely, so scenic. Then we headed down to Limehouse, then onto the cycle super highway through West Ham onto Canning Town then back home. 26 miles in total today! Reckon I could have gone further but was glad to get home. Then it started to rain so good idea in the end. Only 12 days to go till the big day. Notice my amazing gloves & water bottle!!