It is now 14th August and I leave Australia in eight days. My god that's like a week really!
What happened to July and most of August?
Well everything slowly slipped into a pear shape. You know the story, first one small thing, that leads to another small thing and so on and so on and before you know it you've lost a month or 6 weeks and starting to panic :)
Townsville has had one of its coldest and most windy winters that I can ever remember. Now, to be fair to those of you who live in the "colder" climates, you would think this is a joke...but really it was 7C when I went for my walk last Sunday.....yes, very cold for us, and don't laugh!
Anyway, the slow slide started with a few weeks of rain... yes rain in Townsville in winter, most unusual and annoying! So, at first I thought what a nice change and lets not bother with training in the rain....like who does? But the rain seemed to keep arriving on the weekends - my most active training time, damn it!
When it stopped raining, off I went up Castle Hill on Saturday followed by Mt Stuart on Sunday, followed by severely damaged toes! What happened there? Who knows! Boots were broken in, or so I thought and now my little toes - both of them - decided they don't like these boots and the big toes are not convinced either. It's a mutiny of toes!
The boots are fine on the flat and uphill but going downhill my toes are bashed into the front of the toe section and the pain is unbearable after about 30 minutes or so.
So a week of no boots while my toes settled down and back to wearing trainers.
Then the flu virus hit me. Now I really do object to this because I paid good money for a flu injection only a few weeks ago.... wonder if I can get a refund on that, not likely!
So in bed all weekend and two days off work followed by a week of still not feeling good - and no training and no time to gets boots and/or toes back into shape..... time is slipping by :(
Back to work after my sick leave and work has turned to shit! I won't go into details, but suffice to say it was not a pleasant experience, that continued for eight days and shattered me. Physically and emotionally I was wrung out. Glad to say it is now sorted and we are moving on in a more positive fashion.
However, a month ago I was full of confidence and ego and knew I could do this climb. In the past two weeks, I have lost my MoJo and have started to doubt my ability to reach the summit.
Now that work is back on track, my focus is back on preparation for my climb and my two most important issues are - my toes, still having problems with the little shits - and getting that positive confidence back on track. Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro is not just a physical challenge but is also a mental challenge and I have to get the determined focus back on track quickly!
I had a gym session with Christina last week and she put me through the hoops. She told me I passed and I am still strong and have the endurance....so the only thing I have to work on is getting back the positive mindset and getting those damned toes sorted out! .
Then I went up the hill again, now back in the boots and the toes packed it in again....aaaah, not happy!
I was so worried about it that I decided a last minute change of boots might be required, so off I go to Kathmandu and try on heaps of them and they all feel worse or the same as the ones I have.
Louise suggested she retrieve my old boots that I gave her sister (who is currently in Bali on holiday) as these boots did me well in Rwanda when we climbed to see the Gorillas. What a great idea, I thought. So Lou, sends text to Di and finds out where the boots are, retrieves them for me and I find they are tighter on my toes than the new ones. So no good.
I am currently wearing the new boots every minute I can ... clumping around the house in them and of course getting in as many hill walks that I can this week.
And now, more illness. Now I have an ear infection that is effecting my balance and causing me lots of discomfort, not to mention the havoc it is playing with the ringing and roaring sounds I always have in my ears caused by the Meniere's Disease. Can anything else go wrong .... NO!
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