A week to go!

My turn to post... though Anya seems to have said it all!

The first photo Anya put up here made my dad's picture look professional! Anya looked quite normal... sadly, I did not. Her excuse is that she was getting revenge - I had sent her a text after our pre-trek briefing (which she wasn't able to attend) telling her that the rest of the group were assorted lunatics. Unfortunately, I forgot to press 'send' on the subsequent text telling her I was joking and didn't realise until the following morning. I suppose some sort of retaliation was inevitable! However, more worryingly, if we can't capture a decent picture when we're at home and doing 'normal' things, what are the chances of us taking any decent pictures when we're sweaty and exhausted?

I do indeed have my ear plugs, but have been looking at them and wondering if they are up to the job. Industrial ear defenders are on my list of things to investigate this week!

We'd looked into a trek like this a while ago, but the dates never matched up with school holidays. In hindsight, however, this seems an appropriate year to be doing it - Tom turned 18 a little while ago, and Iwan starts high school in September - milestones we both worried we'd never see.

Here's to a good trip (and still being able to walk when we return!) :)

10 days to China!

Well I have tried - really tried to get a nice photo of Lisa and myself to put on this blog so my friends know what Lisa looks like and so Lisa's friends know what I like - there's just one problem -neither Lisa or I are known for taking a decent photo - and the likelihood of us both looking nice in a photo at the same time is almost a mathematical impossibility. Lisa's dad rather proudly believed he had captured the first such one this morning but on inspection back at home Lisa had her eyes closed and I was grinning in a weird kind of way that made me look a good contender for a gurning competition. So you get this one of us all on holiday last year - in what was possibly the only moment of sun we saw all week (possibly a bad omen for China?)

so we're off to China - that's not going to come as a surprise really is it? it's been a long time in the planning... I am sure most of the people I know have heard me talking about it errrrrr maybe once of twice this year!

Lisa and I met about 10 years ago - in an internet chat room ! We tried meeting up in London regularly but after a series of mishaps, including chopped off fingers (Rhian), the death of a much loved dog and a burglary it seemed much safer to meet on neutral territory or in Cardiff. Despite the initial calamities we seem to have remained friends (although she may go off me after sharing 10 nights with my snoring - have you bought your ear plugs yet Lisa?).

Lisa and I met because Thomas and Iwan were both born with congenital heart disease - and to get to today they have both had a huge amount of surgery, expertise, dedication and support from the hospitals that they attend. While we'd both chop off our right arms for them not to have had to go through this, I know at least that meeting Lisa and the rest of the 'Tidy Clan' has been one of the best things to come out of being acquainted with this horrible disease. Lisa is much braver than me and is doing the trip to help raise funds for the Noah's Ark Appeal at University Hospital of Wales - to thank them for the amazing support they gave to Iwan when he was born... here is her link http://www.justgiving.com/noahsarkappeal.

We'll try and update this blog as we travel along the Great Wall and around Beijing as we'll be pretty much incommunicado on the other side of the world... wish us luck!!!