What to say?

Well I never thought this would happen, but my muse seems to have deserted me. Can't think of anything to say.

I've also ground to a bit of a halt on the dual fund-raising and exercise fronts. Money is still trickling in, for which I am very grateful, but I haven't actually done anything to earn it lately. A bit of research on car boot and vintage clothes sales, but no actual activity. And just riding the bike - which I now love, and can't even remember how I used to travel to work.

Might swim on Sunday morning and hope the hiatus ends (I'm not talking hernia here, just a little pause in energy).

I guess it happens - 12 months is a bit of a long run up.

See you soon with more energy I hope.

I can't believe it's been almost a month since the last post - apologies to anyone out there who's still listening. Still under a bit of deadline pressure here at work, so will take the liberty of using another guest blog (one I prepared earlier!)

I borrowed it from Aminatta Forna, from an interview in the Bristol Review of Books, Spring 2011. I hope they don't mind. It just resonated with me!

‘An essential difference between poverty and wealth is choice. Here we choose what we want to eat. In Sierra Leone there is no choice. In our village, people eat once, not three times, a day. Some days, not at all. On my last visit we had guests – NGO workers come to visit our projects – we wanted to feed them knowing there would be no food available elsewhere. But a python had slipped into the henhouse and devoured all but three of the adult birds. We tried to buy a chicken from someone  in the village, but nobody had one to sell. I am the wealthiest person in the village by far, but it makes no difference. I could not simply step out to the supermarket.

In the end we found a chicken, I can’t remember how, and cooked it with rice – one large dish shared by everyone. The visitors arrived and we were pleased. One was from the UK. When the food was served he said he didn’t eat meat and requested a vegetarian meal. It was his first time in the country and he wasn’t a bad person, he simply took choice for granted.

In one half of the world food is about life. In the other half, food is about lifestyle. In Britain, people are gluten or lactose intolerant, require a vegetarian, vegan or macrobiotic diet. We want coriander in December . Food is about choice. I love those choices as much as the next person, but I am increasingly aware of the costs and the contrast in the way the two worlds live. I wonder  how future generations will think when they look back at us, for such excesses surely cannot continue.’

Aminatta Forna is a broadcaster and novelist, born in Glasgow, and raised between Sierra Leone, her father’s country, and the UK. She is active in the Rogbonko Project, bringing education, agriculture and health to her family’s village. Her latest book, The Memory of Love, has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize 2011.


Thank you Aminatta, and good luck with the Rogbonko Project.

To wick or not to wick ...

...is the question at the moment.

Whether to suffer the slings and arrows of the adventure shops and clean up on all the end of summer bargains in the travelwear department - or just to make do with what I have.

Like everything else, the technology involved in travelling clothes is mind-boggling. I can buy a shirt that is no-crease, lightweight, designed to wick the sweat discretely away from the body (where to? Do I walk around dripping?), deflects the deadly UV rays, and has a collar specially designed not to flop so as to give maximum protection to the back of my neck.

Oh, and is easy to wash and quick-drying.

If I can afford it.

Or I could just buy a few cheap cotton summer tops with long sleeves, which I could presumably wear on subsequent occasions that don't involve extremes of heat and sand.

It's hard isn't it?

It feels important not to build  any unnecessary suffering into a trip that already has quite a potential in that direction, but on the other hand, I don't plan to make a habit of this sort of thing, so it's not that I'm going to need all of these special features in the future.

And I don't have loads of cash to spare.

At the moment my decision is to go with what the locals wear - long-sleeves, loose and cotton as far as I can tell from the pictures.

I did splash out a bit on a new pair of boots, because the feet are important, and I'm not even going to stint on the technological socks (much wicking, cushioning and lack of seams involved) even though they are eye-wateringly expensive. Except for the pair that I got at Aldi, which have all the techno stuff, and are also deodorised. Charmingly they come complete with instructions for use. I didn't keep the label but I do remember the warning  that even though they are deodorised, you do still need to wash them. I'm guessing they're popular with teenage boys - or is that a cruel stereotype?

Oh, and a quick update on training as I haven't been around for a while.

1. Still cycling daily to work - and actually miss it when I don't do as much. (Who'd have thought it?)
2. Did 2 seven and a half mile walks 2 weeks ago with Jonno (Hallo Jonno). Lovely. One in the Cotswolds, and one in the Wye valley.
3. Did my own little miini-triathlon on Holiday Monday: swim in the lovely Portishead outdoor pool (more than 1/4 mile), a walk along the beach, then back home for an hour's serious digging in the allotment.
4. Another walk coming up on Monday - hooray!

Hooray!!

Dates are the answer.

Fresh dates.

I have been pratcising and they do seem to do the trick.

They can only be lovelier when picked fresh in the desert.

Thanks to Fatema and Youssouff for extolling the virtues of fresh dates from home - Iran and Chad respectively.

You've got a friend.

Emergency Rations

O.  M. G!

I've just realised that there is no chocloate in  the desert.

Well, I haven't thoroughly researched it, but I'm guessing that any choclolate consumption at that heat would have to be through a straw. Not really a goer - even for me.

So what's a girl (I know!) to do when the going gets tough?

Help! Advice!

Someone?

A quick fundraising update

Wow - a couple of people have said they are thinking about doing the trek. I could have TREE AID company!

Just in case you're thinking about it and worrying about raising the cash (as I was), I thought I'd bring you up to date.

I sent out about 100 begging emails and letters to family, friends and people who have crossed my path (see blog entry number 1 - I really have been shameless).

So far, 37 peope have donated a staggering total of £2,483.43 (including Gift Aid). Some via Just Giving, and some with cheques. Thank you everyone. And thanks also for your messages of support which have been really lovely to read. I have thanked each one personally, mostly with a phone call - which has also been great fun. 6 more have promised to donate in the future, and others, I'm sure are just getting round to it.

I have also emptied out my piggy bank (VW camper van savings fund, actually) which produced £32.23 in 1p, 2p and 5p coins.

And sold off unwanted stuff in one car boot sale and to a vintage clothes shop (I know it was only a matter of time before they came back into fashion) to the tune of £70.44 and counting.

And made soups and salads for donations at work, raising £208.74 so far. I've had to pause on that for a while, because of time constraints (the garden calls in the summer months, and I have just received the key to my half an allotment - though haven't done anything there yet.) I will take it up again, because I really enjoyed doing it.

Grand total to date: £2,794.83
Plans for the future include more selling stuff (others have offered to donate for another car boot), running a quiz (thanks Helen for the questions), a 'pop up restaurant', and the film show.

And anything else that I or anyone else can think of that is legal and fun.

And I have a corporate sponsor . I know. It's so grown up! Thank you so much Rachel Demuth and friends at the Vegetarian Cookery School. We haven't worked out the details yet, but they have offered to make TREE AID their Charity of the Year. Hooray! And most of my recipes for soups and salads were theirs (not the abortive pea one I hasten to add. And they were tasty. Very tasty - ask anyone at work. (Cookery books and restaurant also fab - and I'm not just saying that - honest.)

I really want to get up to £4,000 now if I can.

By planting and protecting trees at the edge of the desert, we can hope to prevent the awful conditions that we can now see so clearly in Somalia.

So be bold - why not join me. You don't have to be a Grumpy, young people also accepted.

More desert ...

So when Bryony said that she was going to promote the trek as a fundraiser, my first thought was: 'wow, I'd really like to do that'.

My second thought was: 'But I'll never be able to do it'

and my third to 34th thoughts ran something along the lines of:
'I'll never raise that amount of money'
'It'll be killingly hot!'
'I might have done it a few years back, but I'm too old now'
'I can't do it on my own'
and so on.

Luckily, my 35th thought was: 'I've always wanted to go to the desert. I'm 57 ( I was then). If I don't do it now, just when, precisely, do I think I'm going to do it?'

So, now it is then.