This weekend the training was put on hold on Sunday to recover from Saturdays Garden Party that was hosted in my honour. I did 2 hours on Saturday morning I woke at 5 am packed a few things, went by my brothers place to pick him up then off to Heron lake, 2 hours chewing up the triathletes and spitting them out in my wake. I averaged a good time, as I was not doing a long swim, I decided to sprint for two hours. I felt great afterwards and my shoulders were not too bad. I find that cold water numbs the pain but it was only two hours so I didn't expect much problems as it is usually only after about 4 - 5 hours that my shoulders start to show signs of damage.
After that I headed for The Jacaranda and goat, - a pub in a mates house to help with preparations for the aforementioned garden party (www.thejacarandaandgoat.com) We spent a fair time wrestling with a 14m x 9m tarpaulin to keep the rain off before we tore that and moved to plan B- lots of Gazebos. the party started to kick off at about 2 pm,watching the Boks get their butts kicked by New Zealand.
The theme was English garden party, the dress code was, for men, Smart with a tie and jacket above the waist, anything you want below the waist. For Ladies it was smart dress and a hat.
After the rugby The jazz pianist and soloist kicked the party off, they were brilliant. The guests entertained themselves with croquet, boules and general chit chat , accompanied by loads of pimms cocktail.
The fundraising was in the form of a raffle where you got my skills as a labourer for the day, the bidding went off very well and the person who won me, a good friend, was not convinced that I would make a great labourer so offered me up for raffle again. it all went off very well and we raised a fair sum of money. After the raffle the afrodizzyaxe band kicked off for the night. I finally stumbled home at about 2 o'clock in the morning feeling a bit weary.
All in all a great day was had by all and the Lovely british weather held off for us, no costs were incurred as, the venue, the band, the jazz pianist and soloist were all offered up by close friends of mine or friends of friends. all food and drinks were donated and brought by the guests. I am so privileged to have such great mates.
Well this week I need to get back into training as I am still on standby but I hear the Weather in the Channel is not playing nicely for us and there were a few swimmers pulled out last week as they started in very fine weather but it turned very ugly after a couple of hours. Well done to all who attempted their swims last week, my admiration for you is immense.
Till Next time Zimhippo signing off
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
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
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