Thrilla in Sevilla!!

So, to summarise: it's windy! However, the sun is shining, and it's not freezing cold, so really, there's not much to moan about! I have been made to feel very welcome by the Mortlake girls and coaches, and appreciate hugely the invitation to join them - it makes such a huge difference having people to train with and chat about training and where we're all heading!! A week's worth of decent training in a nice group will do me the world of good, and it's also outing number 7 (three of those completed today) in the shiny yellow floaty boaty.....I'd better get used to it by the first race on 1st May (Wallingford Regatta) as then it's only four weeks to the first World Cup in Munich!! Eek!

I'm feeling a little bad being away though, as poor Jules is laid up at home after suffering a catalogue of disasters and NHS cock-ups. Having been unceremoniously ejected off a recalcitrant nag, she was taken to the Royal Berks in Reading, where she was told she had soft tissue damage and should go home. When she asked how that would work exactly, she was offered crutches and packed off with the words, "We hope you live in a bungalow". After about three weeks of pain, and hobbling about, enough was enough and she went elsewhere (thank F for private health insurance)....to find that she has broken her pelvis and shattered her sacrum. Nice.

The wonderful boy and I had her to stay in our little bungalow where she was looked after by Fidel (who I think more than fell in love with her because she stayed in one place for more than ten minutes and gave him a nice warm place to cuddle up in), and then Herman the German bowled into town like a knight in shining Lederhosen (OK, not quite) to take over for a couple of weeks. Her Dad is great value, and I was a little worried that I offended him when I first met him, because I gave him such a big hug as it felt like I'd always known him although I'd never met him before...so not the done thing to an elder person in German society!! Still, as Valerie pointed out, most blokes wouldn't mind a blonde launching herself at them.... Anyway, long story short, there is one seriously narked German in Henley who can't wait to get her hands on the Chief Exec of the Berkshire PCT!

I'm off to bed now, as I didn't sleep a wink last night. It would appear we are bang smack in the middle of spaghetti junction here and the noise is incredible!! Going from our lovely quiet little bungalow in Henley to this is a living hell....so earplugs and Nytol are the order of the day (night). I miss Richard terribly....this will be the first time we've been apart for more than a night or two in over eighteen months and it's very odd. I think I must have it bad, because I fell apart when he dropped me off at the station...I'm a big girl, I've travelled on my own an awful lot, and I'm used to being away....Christ, I was in boarding at age seven, so I really don't know what is happening....could it be love??? ;o)

No blisters to report...yet. Watch this space!

I know where I'm going......

Hurrah! At long last we have an answer and an endpoint. FISA have finally decided where and when the African Olympic Qualification regatta will be this year. It's been really strange having only a vague idea that some time this year I will race off for one of three African slots in the Women's Single Scull, possibly in July, then September, first in Zambia, then Mozambique.....and with no real idea of whether any of it will be made public in time for all the arrangements to be made.

However the FISA circular on various matters was published late last week and we are off to.....Alexandria in Egypt!! It's very exciting, bearing in mind that my grandmother has very dear friends in Egypt who have been in my consciousness all my life but whom I have never met, and also that only last summer was I reunited with an Egyptian friend from Zambia who left when we were 8 years old and we hadn't seen each other since then!! Thank God for Facebook! Sally (below) only lives in Slough, and her mother lives in Alexandria itself, so it will be wonderful to have some local support! So, the dates in the diary are 10th - 19th October for the pre-qualifying training camp, with the regatta taking place 20th - 23rd October 2011. Wish me luck!!

Things have been going pretty well on balance, although there have been a few ups and downs which have prevented me from updating my blog. I think the last one I put up we were just heading off to Lanzarote to cycle in the warm weather. We had a great time, mostly, apart from the last couple of days where Richard became very unwell, and I got a little bit of it as well (my Ugg boots became acquainted with the day's breakfast at one point, which was very attractive).

The terrain was extremely interesting, in particular the Fire Route through the lava fields and the beautiful coastal routes. It's very, very windy, that much is for certain!! I don't think we'd stay in the same resort area again, as it felt a little industrial where we were in the Costa Teguise, but the hotel had everything we needed, and it was great just being able to eat, sleep, cycle and chill...we discovered some crappy American legal dramas which had us hooked every evening as there was no energy for partying in the local clubs!! Apparently however there is no heating on the island, so even though it's very hot in peak season, it being winter we froze our nubs off in the evenings with no means of warming the room up whatsoever. Horrid! Whichever was I look at it though, it is going to be worth looking into renting a cottage somewhere like Lanzarote or Fuerteventura for a few weeks next year to get some decent air and weather...I have cabin fever from a largely indoor winter!!

So, with the year's exploits mapped out for me, it remains only for me to crack on with the training in earnest. In spite of having had the best winter I have ever had, I am abed with a slight throat infection which I have not been able to kick. The doc has given me some antibiotics which I hope will do the trick but I am, as they say, fed up to the back teeth with it as I have been trying to get rid of it for over a week now and it's just seemed to have got worse!! Never mind. I console myself with the fact that I've done a lot of good work since August and whilst I might not be moving forward exactly, I'm not going backwards as I might do if I try to push on through. I have the Mortlake camp to Seville to look forward to, which also heralds the first decent amount of time I will get to spend in the new boat which I have been keeping under wraps over the winter. I can't wait to get out in it and test her speed.....she just needs a name, which I am still working on!!

The Upper Thames men's squad has had a great result with a win in the Trent Head....Captain Justin said that they broke the course record "....but conditions were fast", to which I replied, "Take it, a win's a win and a record's a record!" Well done them and hopefully they'll pull out the result they want and need at the Head of the River in a few weeks' time. The Women's Head takes place on 19th March, and I am for the second year running not racing - out of choice. I'm not sure I want to risk my back in a sweep boat for the sake of one race, when I ended up spending an entire summer on the static bike having done it in two years ago. It would take something pretty special for me to risk that again....I seem to remember my first outing since the Birds' Head in 2009 was the Sunday night of Henley Royal Regatta, longer than my layoff in 2010 (although I was able to train, to be fair). Good luck to all crews racing though!!

Lanzarote piccies and so on to follow.......