Instructions from the general

Instructions from the general
I'm the confused one scratching my chin

The Channel Swim "WHY?"

The 1st reason

Last year in September my brother must have been bored at work and got hold of me at the office and asked,
“Hey Graeme, how about doing something interesting next year?”
I said
“okay what is it”
Spencer
“How about we swim the channel!!”
Me
“Are you nuts, what drugs have you been on?”

That was the beginning of a conversation that was to change the way my summer for 2008 panned out, much to the disgust of a few friends and much to the detriment of my socialising but hey looking at the summer so far, I suppose it is not a bad thing.

After this conversation, I started to think about where I was in life and that I was a bit overweight: clinically obese according to my doctors. At that time I was training about 10 km a week and the nurse didn’t quite know how to break the news to me about the above fact.

I was also suffering from lower back trouble and it was really annoying me, thanks to the desk job!!!!!

I am the sort of person who cannot just go to the gym so I figured that if I wanted to tone up a bit and strengthen my body in general, this might be a good plan.

The 2nd reason

The other reason I am doing this is the fact that I will be able to raise some money for the desperate people of a country that has been torn apart by a dictator. With unemployment at about 90% and life expectancy in the mid-thirties, the country has gone from being one of the fastest growing economies in Africa in the 1990s, to having the highest inflation of any country in the world, currently sitting at 1 400 000%.

From breadbasket to basket case all in the space of 10 short years.

This country is Zimbabwe, some of you might know it, some might have even had the privilege to have been there on holiday. For me it is the most amazing country in the world. A country that afforded me so much whilst I was growing up, a country I still call home and a country my heart bleeds for. It is a privilege for me to be able to try and make a difference, in any small way possible to the people, especially the old age pensioners whose pension probably equates to no more than a few pence a month, and that is for the few who actually have or had a pension.

Even for the extremely wealthy, the everyday things like going to the shop to buy milk, bread, meat, eggs, butter, vegetables, fuel. Being able to have a romantic dinner with electric lights as opposed to candles, or just have electricity for more than about 2 hours a day is only a distant memory



Butterfly training

Monday, 23 June 2008

Another weekend down

Hi again

Went down to Dover this last weekend and it was interesting to say the least, not discounting the 30minutes sitting in traffic a mere 5 miles outside Dover thanks to a lorry fire. Thus I arrived late, got to the beach and was issued my mission for the day, hould I choose to accept it!!! and no Freda did not self distruct 5 seconds thereafter.

Being away for three weeks - my how things have changed, I was issued 5, I thought, that's not too bad, Freda must be feeling generous today!!! The thing that had changed since I was last down there is they no longer get given their tasks in laps of the harbour, IT IS NOW HOURS!!!!!!! So 5 hours it was.

I subsequently applied vaseline to the usual places, sparingly as, I hadn't suffered from chaffing in the last couple of times. I then ventured into the lovely cold water of the harbour. After two and a half hours I came in for my first feed, at this point I was fine, physically, after about another 15 inutes I discovered How this game is 80% mental and 20% physical because the boredom started setting in and from then on I was counting the minutes to the next feed at about 3 hours 30min where I got a choclate as well as turbo juice. I have never had a choclate that tasted so good in my life! AND I DON'T EVEN LIKE THE STUFF. I managed to finish but I need to figure out what to do with my Mind or else I will go mad. Sorry - I already am for doing this.

After this my shoulders were on fire, I now dicovered the reason for a good shave before as my one shoulder was nearly raw from my stubble and breathing. The back of my neck was also slightly chaffed.

Sunday


Arrived early on Sunday and the weather was not great but we swam anyway, I was given another 5 hours stint and as the weather was overcast and a bit drizzly, I applied vaseline and the suncream, sadly not on my face and very sparingly everywhere else. This was a bad mistake!! The clouds went and the sun came out and the wind picked up.
Fancy tan hey!!
Anyway due to this and also the boredom setting in again, I only managed to do about 3 and a half hours and then decided to call it a day as if I had satyed in much longer you wouldn't be able to see my face as it would have blended in with my shirt too well.

All in all it was a good weekend, I learnt a huge amount and yes I haven't pulled out of this yet. I have however been asked to do an Ironman Triathlon next year and I think I may have to give it a pass. Until the next time
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